remember my Father moved by your counsel and won by your perswasions brake the Treaties in these perswasions I was your instrument towards him and I was glad to be instrumental in any thing which might please the whole body of the Realm nor was there any then in greater favour with you then this man whom you now so traduce And now whâ—n you finde me so sure intangled in war as I have no honourable and safe retreat you make my necessity your priviledge and set what rate you please upon your supplies a practise not very obliging towards Kings Mr. Coke told you it was better to dye by a foreign enemy then to be destroyed at home Indeed I think it is more honourable for a King to be invaded and almost destroyed by a foreign enemy then to be despised at home This was sharp and sowre yet the Câ—mmons kept close to their custom and reply with a Remonstrance That with extream joy and comfort they acknowledge the favour of his Majesties most gracious expressions of affection to his people and this present Parliament That concerning Mr. Coke true it is he let fall some few words which might admit an ill construction and that the House was displeased therewith as they declared by a general check and though Mr. Coke's explanation of his minde more cleerly did somewhat abate the offence of the House yet were they resolved to take it into further consideration and so have done the effect whereof had appeared ere this had they not been interrupted by this his Majesties message and the like interruption â—efel them also in the businesse of Doctor Turner As concerning the examination of the Letters of his Secretary of State as also of his Majesties own and searching the Signet Office and other Records they had done nothing therein not warranted by the precedents of former Parliaments upon the like occasions That concerning the Duke they did humbly beseech his Majesty to be informed that it hath been the constant and undoubted usage of Parliaments to question and complain of any person of what degree soever and what they should do in relation to him they little doubted but it should redound to the honour of the Crown and safety of the Kingdom Lastly As to the matter of supply That if addition may be made of other things importing his service then in consultation amâ—ngst them they were resolved so to supply him as might evidence the truth of their intentions might make him safe at home and formidable abroad The King tired with pro and con Petitions Answers Speeches Remonstrances was resolved to reply to them in brief That he would have them in the first place to consult matters of the greatest moment and that they should have time enough for other things hereafter But their designes were otherwise and the Important business to them was an Inquisition against the Duke and Incourâ—gement to the Parliament to any Informations The Earl of Bristow being excluded the House petitions them to prefer his Accusation which was soon admitted whom the Duke necessarily incounters and begins the charge against him But it is some Scandal to vertue to say that many good men were passing jocund at the contest Indeed the Lower Members might make it their mirth to finde the Upper Ones so malitious and imprudent to persecute each other being a presage of ruine by degrees and time to them all when as the policy of the Commons would not suffer one of theirs to be questioned till themselves considered of their Crimes which kept them close together Imboldned thus to preserve themselves to the last But the Duke ptocures the King by his Attorny Generall to summon Bristow to the Lords Bar as a grand Delinquent and to his face accuses him of High-Treason To which he Answers That he was a fâ—ee man and a Peer unattainted and had somewhat to say of high consequence Being bid to proceed Then saith he I accuse that man the Duke of Buckingham of High Treason and will prove it And forthwith produceth twelve Articles of his Charge May the second 1 That the Duke did secretly conspire with the Conde of Gondamâ—r Ambassador of Spain before the said Ambassadors last return into Spain 1622. to carry his Majesty then Prince into Spain to the end he might be enforced and instanced in the Romish Religion and thereby have perverted the Prince and subverted the true Religion established in England 2. That Mr. Porter was made acquainted therewith and sent into Spain and such message framed at his return as might serve for a ground to set on foot the conspiracy which was done accordingly and thereby both King and Prince highly abused 3. The Duke at his arrival in Spain nourished the Spanish Ministers not onely in the beleef of his own being Popishly given by absenting himself from all exercises of our Religion then constantly used in the Earl of Bristows house and conforming himself to please the Spainard by kneeling to and adoring their Sacraments but gave them hope also of the Princes conversion which caused them to propound worse conditions for Religion then had been formerly setled and signed by the Earl of Bristow and Sr. Walter Aston 4. That the Duke did many times in the presence of the Earl of Bristow move his Majesty at the instance of the Conde of Gondamar to write a letter to the Pope which the Earl utterly disswaded and that although during the Earls abode in England he hindred the writing any such letter yet the Duke after the Earls return procured it wrot 5. That the Pope being informed of the Dukes inclination in point of Religion sent him a particular Bull in parchment therein perswading him to pervert his Majesty 6. That the Duke in Spain did abuse the King of Spain and his Ministers so as they would not admit of a Reconciliation with him whereupon seeing the match would be to his disadvantage he endeavoured to break it not for any service to this Kingdom nor dislike of it in it sâ—lf nor for that he found as since he hath pretended thâ—t the Spaniard did not really intend it but out of his particular end and indignation 7. That he intending to cross the match made use of Letters of his Majesty then private to his own ends and not to what they were intended as also concealed many things of great importance from his late Majesty thereby overthrowing his Majesties purposes and advancing his own ends 8. That for the foresaid ends he hath abused both Houses of Parliament by a sinister relation of the carriage of affairs as shall be made appear in every particular of that relation 9 That he imployed his power with the King of Spain for the procurement of favours and offices which he bestowed upon unworthy persons for the recompence and hire of his lust which is a great infamy and dishonour to our Nation that a Duke a privy Counsellor and Ambassador eminent in his Majesties favour and
importation of Bullion he the said Earl told them that the City of London dealt undutifully and unthankfully with his Majesty and that they were more ready to help the Rebel than to help his Majesty and that if any hurt came to them they might thank themselves and that it was the course of other Princes to make use of such monies to serve their occasions And when in the same month of July the Officers of his Majesties Mint came to him and gave him divers reasons against the imbasing of the said money he told them that the French King did use to send Commissaries of Horse with Commission to search into mens estates and to peruse their accompts that so they may know what to levy of them by force which they did accordingly levy and turning to the Lord Cottington then present said That this was a point worthy his Lordships consideration The Earls Reply That he expected some Proofs to evidence the two first Particulars but hears of none For the following words he confessed probably they might escape the Door of his Lips Nor did he think it much amiss considering their present posture to call that Faction Rebells As for the last words objected against him in that Article he said that being in conference with some of the Londoners there came to his hands at that instant a Letter from the Earl of Leicester then at Paris wherein were the Gazets inclosed relating that the Cardinal had given order to levy Money by Souldiers This he onely told the Lord Cottington standing by but made not the least Application thereof to the English Affairs 27. That in or about the Moneth of Aug. last he was made Lieutenant General of all his Majesties Forces in the Northern parts against the Scots being at York did in the Moneth of September by his own authority and without any lawfull warrant impose a Tax on his Majesties Subjects in the County of York of 8. d. per diem for maintenance of every Souldier of the Trained Bands of that County which Sums of Money he caused to be levied by force And to the end to compell his Majesties Subjects out of fear and terrour to yield to the payment of the same He did declare that he would commit them that refused the payment thereof and the Souldiers should be satisfied out of their Estates and they that refused it were in very little better condition than of high Treason The Earls Reply That his Majesty coming to York it was thought necessary in regard the Enemy was upon the Borders to keep the Trained Bands on foot for defence of the County and therefore the King directed him to write to the Free-holders in Yorkshire to declare what they would do for their own defence that they freely offered a Moneths pay nor did any man grudg against it Again it was twice propounded to the great Council of Peers at York that the King approved it as a just and necessary act and none of the Council contradicted it which he conceived seemed a tacit allowance of it That though his Majesty had not given him special order therein nor the Gentry had desired it yet he conceived he had power enough to impose that Tax by virtue of his Commission But he never said that the Refusers should be guilty of little less than high Treason which being proved by Sir William Ingram he was but a single Testimony and one who had formerly mistaken himself in what he had deposed 28. That in the moneths of September and October last he the said Earl of Strafford being certified of the Scotish Army coming into the Kingdom and he the said Earl of Strafford being Lieutenant General of his Majesties Army did not provide for the defence of the Town of Newcastle as he ought to have done but suffered the same to be lost that so he might the more incense the English against the Scots And for the same wicked purpose and out of a malicious desire to ingage the Kingdoms of England and Scotland in a National and bloudy war he did write to the Lord Conway the General of the horse and under the said Earls command that he should fight with the Scotish Army at the passage over the Tyne whatsoever should follow notwithstanding that the said Lord Conway had formerly by Letters informed him the said Earl that his Majesties Army then under his command was not of force sufficient to incounter the Scots by which advice of his he did contrary to the duty of his place betray his Majesties Army then under his command to apparent danger and loss The Earls Reply That he admired how in the third Article he being charged as an Incendiary against the Scots is now in the Article made their Confederate by betraying New-castle into their hands But to answer more particularly he said that there was at New-castle the 24. of August ten or twelve thousand Foot and two thousand Horse under the Command of the Lord Conway and Sir Iacob Astley and that Sir Iacob had written to him concerning the Town of New-castle that it was fortified which also was never under his particular care and for the passage over the River of Tine his Majesty sent special Directions to the Lord Conway to secure it and therefore that Lord is more as he conceives responsible for that Miscarriage than himself When he had done the House of Commons urged that if he had any further Defence he should perform it presently but had time set next Day when the Court met but the Earl being taken with a terrible Fit of the Stone and in danger of his Life if he stirred abroad which Message though assured by the Lieutenant of the Tower for more satisfaction to the violency of the Commons the Lords agreed to proceed the next Day if he did not appear and sent some of the Upper House thither who found him in some hopes of better health against the next Day Not that any one could imagine that his Cause needed the help of dissembling having satisfied all indifferent persons with his Justification as to Treason and no other Crimes could daunt him But as in such Cases his Adversaries the Commons had reserved their Evidence most pernicious which the next Day they desired to produce The Earl also pressed the like on his own behalf which as yet had not been offered a reasonable Request for the Defendant as well as the Plaintiff or to wave them on both sides And because the Lords were absolute of this opinion the Commons in apparant discontenâ— took no leave but departed without ordering any certain Day for their next Meeting But on Monday two Days after the Parliament sate in their several Houses when Master Pym produced to the Commons a Copy of some Notes taken by Secretary Vane of several opinions upon Debates at the Council-table the fifth of May 1640. being the Day of the last Parliaments Dissolution and the Discovery is thus made our The Father delivers
against the Earl of Strafford but mercie being as inherent and inseparable to a King as justice I desire in some measure to shew that likewise by suffering that unfortunate man to fulfill the natural course of his life in close imprisonment yet so that if he ever make the least offer to escape or offer directly or indirectly to meddle in any sort of publick business especially with me either by Message or Letter it shall cost him his life without further process This if it may be done without the discontentment of my people will be an unspeakable contentment unto me To which end as in the first place I by this Letter do earnestly desire your approbation and to endear it the more have chosen him to carry it who is of all your House most dear unto me So I desire that by conference you will endeavour to give the House of Commons contentment likewise Assuring you that the exercise of mercie is no more pleasing to me than to see both Houses of Parliament consent for my sake that I should moderate the severitie of the Law in so important a case I will not say that your complying with me in this my intended mercie shall make me more willing but certainly it will make me more chearfull in granting your just grievances But if no less than his life will satisfie my people I must say Fiat justitia Thus again recommending the consideration of my intentions to you I rest Your unalterable and affectionate Friend CHARLS R. If he must die it were charitie to reprieve him till Saturday To this Letter the Lords conceived this Order the same day May 11. 1641. This Letter all written with the Kings own hand we the Peers this day received in Parliament delivered by the hands of the Prince It was twice read in the House and after serious but sad consideration the House resolved presently to send twelve of the Peers Messengers to the King humbly to signifie that neither of the two intentions exprest in the Letter could with dutie in us or without danger to his Consort the Queen and all the young Princes their Children be possibly admitted Which being accomplished and more expressions offered his Majestie suffered no more words to come from us but out of the fulness of his heart to the observance of justice and for the contentment of his people told us that what he intended by his Letter was with an If If it may be done without discontentment to his people If it cannot be I say again the same that I wrote Fiat justitia My other intention proceeding out of charitie for a few days respite was upon certain information that his estate was distracted that it necessarily required some few daies respite for setlement thereof Whereunto the Lords answered Their purpose was to be suiters to his Majestie for favour to his innocent Children and that their Fathers provision for them might be confirmed Which pleased the King who thereupon departed from the Lords At his Majesties departure the Lords offered up to the King the original Letter which he had sent but he was pleased to say What I have written to you I shall be content it be registred by you in your House in which you see my minde I hope you will use it to mine honour Upon the return of the Lords thus much was reported to the House by the Lord Privie Seal Upon the fatal day Wednesday the twelfth of May the Earl was summoned to his period being conveyed from his Chamber in the Tower with these Ceremonies before him went the Marshal's men next them the Sheriff's Officers with Halberts then the Warders of the Tower being of the King's Guard and after the Earl's Gentleman Usher bare and then himself accompanied with the Primate of Ireland and others in his way passing by the Lodging of the Arch-bishop of Canterburie a Prisoner and casting up his eye to his Window where he looked out desired his Prayers and his Blessing who after some collection of his sadness resolved into comfort and doubted not when his own turn came that he should taste that bitter Cup with a most Christian courage The Earl being come to the Scaffold upon the Hill he addrest his Speech to the Lord Primate My Lord Primate of Ireland It is my very great comfort that I have your Lordship by me this day and I do thank God and your Lordship for it in regard that I have been known to you these many years I should be very glad to obtain so much silence as to be heard a few words but I doubt I shall not the noise is so great I come hither by the good will and pleasure of Almightie God to pay the last debt which I ow to sin which is death and by the blessing of that God to rise again through the merits of Jesus Christ to righteousness and life eternal I am come hither to submit to that Iudgment which hath passed against me I do it with a very quiet and contented minde I do freely forgive all the world a forgiveness that is not spoken from the teeth outwards as they say but from the very heart I can very well say in the presence of Almightie God before whom I stand that there is not a displeased thought arising in me towards any creature I thank God I can say and that truly too and my conscience bears me witness that in all the imploiments since I had the honour to serve his Majestie I never had any thing in the purpose of my heart but what tended to the joint and individual prosperitie of the King and people If it hath been my fortune to be mis-understood surely I am not the first that hath been so it is the common portion of us all whilest we are in this life to err but righteous judgment we must wait for in another place for here we are very subject to be mis-judged one of another There is one thing I desire to free my self of and I am confident speaking it now with so much chearfulness that it cannot be but that I shall obtain your Christian charitie in the belief of it I did alwaies think the Parliaments of England the happiest Constitutions that any Kingdom or Nation lived under and next under God the best means to make the King and his people happie so far have I been from being against Parliaments For my death I here acquit all the world and beseech the God of Heaven heartily to forgive them though in the intentions and purposes of my heart I am innocent of what I die for And my Lord Primate it is a very great comfort unto me that his Majestie conceives me not meriting so severe and heavie a punishment as is the uttermost execution of this Sentence I do insinitely rejoice in this mercie of his and I beseech God to return it upon him that he may findâ— mercie when he stands most in need of it I wish this
party not bound to observe the Articles but to assist the Parliament in defence of the common cause Octob. 16. And by this President they afterwards would not endure any new triall Upon this score of the common cause Mr. Iohn Fountain a Lawyer at London was desired whâ—t he would please to lend who answered That it was against the Petition of Right to answer Yea or No. Whereupon the House of Commons for that contempt in not giving his Answer at all committed him to the Gate-house declaring further the imbecillity of his judgment or positive refraction to draw on others to the like Errour And such as refuse their Contribution of money or plate are disarmed and if in the least measure active in words or perswasion against the Parliament have the brand of Malignancie their persons secured and within a little time after made Delinquents and forfeâ—t all And because the Earl of Essex gave a deep yellow for his colours every Citizens Dame to the Draggle-tail of her Kitchin had got up that colour of the cause untill the Earl of Pembroke and Mountgomerie in a fume with a Parliament Captain swore That his Turdcolour'â— Skarf should not excuse him from Commitment But some not affecting that color set up others in disdain to the Generals which increasing to a Faction some urging of a Design to be distinguished by these Ribands the Parl. declare That such persons as shall be seen to wear them for distinction shall be forthwith committed and further proceeded against as Malignants endeavouring to set Divisions among the people In the Generals Commission the fourth Article is printed and published That whosoever shall return from the King to the Parliaments Armie within ten Days after Publication shall have reception and pardon excepting persons impeached of Delinquencie or Treason or have been eminent Actors against the Parliament and except the Earls of Bristol Cumberland New-castle Rivers and Carnarvan Secretarie Nicholas Endimion Porter Mr. Edward Hide the Duke of Richmond Viscount Newark Viscount Falkland now principal Secretarie of State to the King And thus marshalled in this order The King having sent over the Queen out of the danger of these Distractions into Holland and remaining at the Hague she made application to the Prince of Orange to whose Son the Princess Maria was maried by whose interest she had the fairer means to promote the Kings affairs with the States of the United Provinces for Arms and Ammunition which had been procured by the Lord Digby there and some Officers sent over to the Kings Army The Parliament having knowledg hereof send over Mr. Walter Strickland a Member of the House of Commons their Residenciary with Credential Letters to the States thus To the High and Mighty Lords the States of the United Provinces High and Mighty Lords We are commanded by the Lords and Commons assembled in the Parliament of England to signifie unto your Lordships that they have chosen and appointed the Bearer hereof Walter Strickland Esq to repair to your Lordships and to present to you in their Names and in the Name of the whole Kingdom a Declaration and some Propositions and Desires very much importing the maintenance of the Protestant Religion which is the surest Foundation of the safetie and prosperitie of this Kingdom and your State and the ancient amitie between us to the advantage of both desiring your Lordships to give ear to what shall be delivered or propounded to you by him And to expedite your Answer thereunto in such manner as shall stand with your Wisdoms and the due respect of the common good of the State and of your selves which is the earnest desire of Your affectionate Friends and Servants Mandevil Speaker pro tempore for the Lords House William Lenthal Speaker of the House of Commons A Declaration of the Lords and Commons of the Parliament of England to the High and Mighty Lords the States of the United Provinces We the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled taking into serious consideration the meanes of composing the great distempers and combustions begun in this Kingdom which threaten the destruction and ruine of it and of all other Protestant Princes and States have thought good to make this Declaration to the High and Mightie Lords the States of the United Provinces That we under stand by a Letter of the Lord Digby a person fled out of this Kingdom for high Treason That as he often endeavoured by his wicked and malicious counsels to make division between his Majestie and the Parliament and hath been in great part the cause of that miserable and unnatural War which is made against us by his Majestie so he hath laboured by all means in the United Provinces to provide Arms Powder and Ammunition for the fomenting of that War and making it more dangerous to this Kingdom and for this purpose did address himself to the Prince of Orange by whose countenance and help as we are informed by the Lord Digby's own Letters he hath made provision of great quantities of Ordnance Powder Arms and divers other sorts of warlike provision And we are further informed by credible advertisement that the Prince of Orange in favour of the Lord Digby and those other wicked Counsellours and Incendiaries who being joyned together in these mischievous practises against the peace of this Kingdom hath not onely licensed but the better to encourage divers Commanders experienced Officers and Souldiers to resort into this Kingdom in aid of them against the Parliament hath promised to reserve their places for them in their absence and doth cause other provision of the same kinde to be made and prepared to be sent over for their supplie to the great hurt of this Kingdom and the danger of interrupting the most necessarie profitable and long continued amitie between the two States We further desire to let them know that we cannot believe that this is done by any authoritie or direction from their Lordships considering the great help that they have received from this Kingdom when heretofore they lay under the heavie oppression of their Princes and how conducible the friendship of this Nation concurring with the wisdom valour and industrie of their own people hath been to the greatness and power which they now enjoy Neither can we think that they will be forward to help to make us slaves who have been usefull and assistant in making them free-men Or that they will forget that our Troubles and Dangers issue from the same Fountain with their own and that those who are set a work to undermine Religion and Libertie in the Kingdome are the same which by open force did seek to bereave them of both It cannot be unknown to that wise State that it is the Iesuitical Faction here that hath corrupted the counsels of our King the consciences of a greaâ— part of our Clergie which hath plotted so many mischievous Designs to destroy the Parliament and still endeavoureth to divide Ireland from
goodness of Almighty God Accusing that Malignant party to poison the hearts and corrupt the Allegeance of his Subjects by a false Imputation of his favouring Papists imploying them in his Army when he saith that numbers of Popish Commanders and others serve in the Army of the Earl of Essex being privately promised that if they would assist against the King all the Laws made in their prejudice should be repealed Another Scandal he mentioneth to be very senseless that the King should raise an Army against the Parliament to take away their priviledges when in truth it is raised to have some particular Members of this Parliament to be delivered up to Iustice. He being as tender of their priviledges and conform thereto which his Army never intends to violate That the Parliaments Army is raised to Murther and depose the King to alter the frame of Government and the established Laws of the Land That the greatest part of the Parliaments Members are driven away from their Houses by violence That the Book of Common Prayer is rejected and no countenance given but to Anabaptists Brownists and such Schismaticks That the contrivers hereof endeavour to raise an Implacable malice between the Gentry and the Commonalty of the Kingdome A common charge upon the King it had been and so continued to the end of his publique Actings That he favoured Papists and entertained them in his Army and so they were and might be in both subtilly and cunningly by practice on both sides conveyed thither under the masque and profession of Protestants which is a truth of no great wonder and yet in general those of Lancashire Recusants petition the King That being disarmed and so not able either to defend his Royal Person according to their duties nor to secure themselves and families they may be received into his gracious protection from violence being menaced by all kindes of people to whose malice they are subject and must submit And indeed great and heavy pressures were put upon them by both Armies notwithstanding Orders and Declarations to the contrary had been published by either Army And hereupon the King had given Warrant to Sir William Gerard Baronet Sir Cicil Trafford Knight Thomas Clifton Charls Townby Christopher Anderton and Io. Clumsfield c. Recusants in the County of Lancaster That although by Statutes all Recusants convict are to be disarmed to prevent danger in time of peace but now Armies being raised against the King and his Subjects are by them plundered and robbed and their Arms taken and used offensive against his Person His will and command therefore is and they are charged upon their Allegeance and as they tender the safetie of his Person and the peace of the Kingdom with all possible speed to provide Arms for themselves servants and Tenants during the time of open War raised against him and no longer to keep and use for his defence Yet the Parliament prepare Heads of an humble Address unto his Majesty for composing difference and â—â—â—ling a Peace but withall to prevent mis-constructions whereby their just defence may be hindered they do declare That their preparations of Forces for their defence shall be prosecuted with all violence And accordingly Letters are directed from the Lords To the Right Honourable the Lord Viscount Faulkland principal Secretarie to his Majestie or in his absence for Mr. Secretarie Nicholas or any of the Lords or Peers attending the King Grey of Wark My Lord I am commanded by the Lords the Peers and Commons assembled in Parliament to address by you their humble desires to his Majestie that he would â—e pleased to grant his safe Conduct to the Commiâ—tee of Lords and Commons to pass and repass to his Majestie that are directed to attend him with an humble Petition from his Parliament This being all I have in Commission I rest Your assured Friend and Servant Grey of Wark Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore Westminster Nov. 3. 1642. Which is granted so as the said Committee consist not of persons either by name declared Traitors or otherwise in some of his Declarations or Proclamations excepted against by name as Traitors and so as they come not with more than thirty persons and give notice before hand upon signification they shall have safe conduct Your Lordships most humble Servant Edward Nicholas Reading Nov. 4. Hereupon these Names are sent Algernon Earl of Northumberland Philip Earl of Pembroke and Montgomerie and four Members of the Commons Mr. Perpoint the Lord Wainman Sir Iohn Evelin of Wilts and Sir Io. Hippislie being the Committee of both Houses and desire his Majesties Pass and Repass under his Royal Hand and Signet Nov. 5. The safe Conduct is inclosed for all but Sir Io Evelin who is excepted being proclamed Traitor at Oxford and that if the Houses will send any other person not so excepted in his place His Majesty commands all his Officers to suffer him to pass as if his Name had been particularly comprised herein Reading Nov. 6. To recruit the Parliaments Army it is declared That all Apprentices that will list themselves in their service for the publick cause shall be secured from indemnitie of their Masters during their service and their time included to go on towards their Freedom and all their respective Masters are to receive them again when they shall return This Liberty made Holy-day with the Prentices and they were listed thick and threefold and now spoiled for being Trades-men ever after But it is time to consider what out dear Brethren of Scotland intended to do in this Distraction and therefore they are put in minde by a fresh Declaration of the Parliament How and with what wisdom and publick affection our Brethren of Scotland did concur with the desires of this Kingdom in establishing a peace between both Nations and how lovingly they have since invited the Parliament into a nearer degree of union concerning Religion and Church-government wherefore as the Parliament did for them a year since in their Troubles so now the same obligation lies upon our Brethren by force of their Kingdom to assist us Telling them that Commissions are given by the King to divers Papists to compose an Armie in the North which is to joyn with foreign Forces to be transported hither for the destruction of this Parliament and of Religion and Liberties of the people That the Prelatical partie have raised another Armie which his Majestie doth conduct against the Parliament and Citie of London And hereupon this Parliament desire their Brethren of Scotland to raise Forces for securing their own Borders and to assist here against the Popish and Foreign Forces according to that Act agreed upon in the Parliaments of both Kingdoms for the comfort and relief not onely of our selves but of all the Reformed Churches beyond Seas Nov. 7. 1642. The King as quick sends his Message to the Lords of his Privy Council in Scotland stating the condition between him and the
their affairs and was resolved to be relieved the recruit of the Parliaments Army was too slow for the service the London trained bands must do the deed and shop-windows must be shut up and trading suspended the expedition cried up out of every Pulpit and an Army was raised in an instant and upon their March Against whom Prince Rupert is sent from the siege at Glocester to retard their speed untill the King might rise and be gon which was upon the fifth of September and the Rear guard had fired their huts The Earl of Essex came to the brow of the Hills seven miles from the City and gave his warning piece but the Town had no minde to hinder the King being glad of his departing when all his indeavours were now prepared ready for a storm the besieged in want their Amunition consumed to three Barrels of powder but the Towns loss of men were not many not one hundred say they and two or three Officers Captain Harcus and his Ensign the King lost many more and especialy his precious time to no purpose had he waved Glocester and Marched to London directly whilst the Parliament had no Army in the Field London full of discontent and disorder and their actions of Council unresolved The Kings Northern Army under the Earl of Newcastle there also prevailing but it was his fate to be overtaken with this idle siege Sir Nicholas Crisp One of the Farmers of the Kings Customs of England had a high command also both in the Army by Land and afterwards in the Navy by Sea He being Colonel of a Regiment of Horse and his first service took the charge of Convoy of the train of Artillery sent from Oxford to the siege of Glocester and brought it in safety to the Kings Camp and there very much esteemed He was quartered in Rouslidge near Glocester at a Knights house where finding Sir Iames Enyon and other Gentlemen of no Command in the Army and had taken up so much of the house as was Incommode to the Colonel yet he continued then there with much civility Not long it was that the Guests had some horses missing out of the Pastures and so charged upon default the Colonels Souldiers and indeed very ruffly demanding the accompt from the Colonel himself who promised indeavours to finde them out buâ— refused to draw out his Regiment for that purpose onely to satisfie Sir Iames who urged it for his friend himself no otherwise concerned But being a person of eminency and of a Spirit answerable impatient of any delay or orderly proceedings departs and sends a Gentleman with this summon to Sir Nicholas Crisp to meet him with his sword in a field near the Quarters and with this express addition That if he did refuse upon any pretence he would pistoll him against the wall Upon which sharp and suddain summons of an hours warning the Colonel accompanied with a Gentleman findes Sir Iames at the place with him that brought the challenge and as it became a Christian desired to understand the true reason of the meeting professing that his Duty to the King in the charge he had there of present service might justifie his refusal to fight Yet he told him he was come to give him all satisfaction first as a Christian if he had done him Injury of which he professed ignorance Sir Iames shortly replied He came thither to receive no other satisfaction but by the sword which instantly he drew out and as soon so don by the other whose fortune was at an encounter to give a pass that pierced Sir Iames about the rim of the belly of which he was caried off to the same house in eminent danger But whilst he had life and memory the Colonel gave him a visit beseeching him to put by all passions and receive him infinitely afflicted at this misfortune unwillingly provoked to this mischief and so with Christian reconciliation they parted and he died two daies after Hereupon a legal trial was offered for any complainant to prosecute the matter And after some time on Munday the second of October a Council of war being set thereupon gave their opinion and sentence thus In the cause depending against Sir Nicholas Crisp Knight concerning the death of Sir James Enyon Knight slain by him in a Duel in September last The Court being informed that an Affixer was duly set up upon the Court house door according to their Order of the eight and tewentieth of September last and the affixer afterwards taken down and brought into the Court and Proclamation being made and no man appearing against him according to the Affixer yet upon examination of all the matter and difference between them and that the friends of the slain taking notice thereof The Court proceeded to sentence That although the Court doth condemn all manner of Duels and utterly disallow them yet in this particular case of Sir Nicholas Crisp in consideration of the great injury he received in his own Quarter and how much he was provoked and challenged the Court hath thought fit to acquit him from any punishment in this Court and doth leave and recommend him to his Majesties mercy for his gracious pardon the second of October 1643. Forth Lord Lieutenant general and President Dorset Bristol Northampton Andover Dunsmore Jacob Astley Arthur Aston William Brumchard John Byron Who all reported to the King the whole matter and brought him to kiss his hand and received a Pardon under the great feal of England and to confirm him in the Kings affection He had a Commission to be Admiral of a Fleet at Sea set out by himself and was undon for his Masters service The solemn League by Oath and Covenant being ordered to be sworn unto by all and divers consciencious persons excepting against the same and refusing were therefore committed and sequestred to their utter undoing Amongst many Doctor Featly that excellent and learned Divine and Minister at Lambeth had given by Letter to the Lord Arch-Bishop of Armagh Primate of all Ireland an accompt of his demeanour in this business of the Scotish Covenant and was therefore committed to the prison in the Lord Peters house in Aldersgate Street as many other noble houses turned into Jayles both his livings given away and his books bestowed upon White of Dorchester It was the Doctors reasons that raised all this stir He first excepted against these words We will indeavour the true reformedâ— Protestant Religion in the Church of Scotland in Doctrine Discipline worship and Government according to the word of God These words said the Doctor imply that the Worship Discipline and Government of the Church of Scotland is according to the word of God which said he is more than I dare subscribe unto much less confirm by an Oath for first I am not perswaded that any Plat form of Government in each particular circumstance is Jure Divino Secondly admit some were yet I doubt whether the Scots Presbytery be
confined by the Parliament at VVestminster Earl of Chesterfield and the Lord Mountague of Boughton These Members then disabled by Accidents have appeared since Peter Venebles Sir Io. Pawler Edward Bagshaw Sir Io. Burlacie Fr. Newport Anthony Hungerford Io. Russel Thomas Chichely Earl of Cork Sir Iervase Cliâ—ton Sir Guy Palmes Ro. Sutton Iervase Hollis Sir Patrick Curwin Sir Henry Bellingham Sir George Dalston Sir Thomas Stanford Sir VVilliam Dalston Mich. VVharton Sir Ro. Hutton Iames Sindamore Sir Io. Brich Sir Io. Stepny Imployed in his Majesties Service Sir Io. Finch Hugh Porter VValter Kurle VVilliam Stanhop Sir VVilliam Carnaby Sir Thomas Danby Io. Fennich Ralph Sneade Sir VVilliam Ogle Sir Thomas Iermin Sir Iohn Stowell Sir Robert Strickland Sir Ph. Musgrave Io. Coucher Io. Coventry Sir Henry Slingsby Sir Io. Malory Io. Bellasis Sir Thomas Ingram Lord Mansfelt Thomas Hebelthaite Sir Hugh Cholmly Sir George VVentworth Sir VValter Lloyd Iohn Vaughan Richard Ferrers George Hartnoll Sir VVilliam Udall Robert Hunt Thomas May. Sir Thomas Bourcher Sir Thomas Roe These Members taking into consideration the distressed estate of this Kingdom did the seven and twentieth day of this instant Ianuary send a Letter to the Earl of Essex for a Treaty of peace signed by all the Members with order to be published to this effect My Lord His Majesty having by his Proclamation of the two and twentieth of December last upon occasion of this Invasion by some of his Subjects of Scotland summoned all of the Members of both Houses of Parliament to attend him here at Oxford inviting us in the said Proclamation by these gracious Expressions That his Subjects should see how willing he was to receive advice for preservation of the Religion Laws and Safety of the Kingdom and as far as in him lay to restore it its former peace and security his chief and onely end from these whom they had trusted though he could not receive it in the place where he appointed VVhich hath been made good to us and seconded by such unquestionable Demonstrations of his deep and princely sense of the miseries and calamities of his poor Subjects in this unnatural VVar and his passionate affection to redeem them from that deplorable condition by all ways consistent with his Honour or with the future safety of the Kingdom c. We being most intirely satisfied of this truth and sensible of the Desolations of our Countrey and further Dangers threatned from Scotland c. And we being desirous to believe your Lordship however ingaged a person likely to be sensibly touched with these considerations do invite you to that part in this blessed work wich is onely capable to repair all our miseries and buoy up the Kingdom from ruine VVe therefore conjure you by all obligations that have power upon honour conscience or publick piety you will co-operate with us to its preservation by truly representing to and promoving with those by whom you are trusted this our Desire That they joyning with us in a right season some persons be appointed on either part to treat of such a Peace as may redeem it from the brink of desolation This Address we make being assured by his Proclamation of Pardon that his mercy and clemency can transcend all former provocations God Almighty direct your Lordship and those whom you shall present with these our real Desires as may produce a happy peace c. Your affectionate Friends c. Oxford Jan. 27. 1645. To these he returns no Answer to them but sends this Letter to the Parliament at Westminster where it wrought upon the Members according to their several affections The haste which the Scots Covenanters made rushed in their Army into England the sixteenth of Ianuary consisting of eighteen thousand Foot and two thousand Horse marching forwards till they came to the warm Sea-coal fires at Newcastle they knew the way hither having fared so well the time before in their first Expedition their then General and they being well rewarded here and at home by the Kings indulgent graces he following them into Scotland confirming unto them in full Parliament all the Privileges of Kirk and Kingdom and conferred many Honours and Offices He having done all this as before in particulars and ere he took leave to return wishing them to continue in allegeance and live in peace and if any difference should happen in England which he hoped God would divert he desired them to continue Neuters though he might expect Aid yet he would not disturb the Peace of his native Countrey To which they all obliged themselves by revival of their own Act to that purpose and at the publishing one of their chief that had been their General in the said Expedition fell on his knees and lifting up his arms and hands to Heaven wished they might rot to his body before he died if ever he would heave them up hereafter or draw his Sword against his gude King yet this Wretch Sir Alexander Lesly whom the King had made Lord Leven comes General of this Army also But their Harbinger came before them a Declaration spread abroad for satisfaction to their Brethren of England intentionally to answer three Questions The justness of their Cause The lawfulness of their calling thereunto And the faithfulness of their carriage therein For the first they appeal to the great Searcher of all hearts who knows that had not the love of Christ requiring to bear one anothers burthen and the Law of Nature challenging our endeavour to prevent our own Danger inveloped with our Neighbours and our Duty and Desire of rescuing the King from his pernicious Council we could with far more content have enjoyed our dry Morsel than entered into your Houses full of Sacrifices with strife c. And we profess before God and the world our hearts are clean and free from any other intentions than those expressed in our Solemn League and Covenant confederate with England viz. Reformation of Religion Honour of the King Peace of the Kingdoms Secondly and because a good necessarily requires a good Calling c. Providence hath so provided that the Parliament of England have a particular obligation upon this our Nation for refusing to countenance a VVar against us in 1640. and now desire our assistance to them and so with the sense of Piety Religion Honour and Duty to their Sovereign we may not resist our Call to this Expedition Thirdly then for our carriage herein we shall order our Army from Insolencies Rapines Plunderings and other calamities incident to War And we do freely give the Publick Faith of the Kingdom of Scotland unto the Kingdom of England that neither our entrance into nor continuance in England shall be made use of to other ends than is expressed in that Covenant which we shall keep inviolable And call God to witness their onely intent of VVar is to confirm all in Peace and so to return home again How they have performed these let the world judge I
returns sundry Pieces of strength were delivered up to his Mercy as Ilfercombe September 12. Barstable six daies after Saltash storm'd and taken and returns homewards to Banbury and raises that siege and in November his Army Rendezvouse on Burlington Green raiseth Dennington siege and advanceth to Hungerford where the Parliaments Forces leaves the field and rise from Basing siege the King regains Monmouth and returns to Oxford 23. of November And notwithstanding these Martial exploits to them that he was therein defensive and a sufferer also in his good successe he woes his Adversaries for peace all the way he marches out and returning home for after the defeat of Waller at Copredy Bridge he writes himself from Evesham 4. Iuly to the Lords and Commons of Parliament assembled at Westminster C. R. We being deeply sensible of the Miseries and Calamities of this our Kingdom and of the grievous sufferings of our poor Subjects doe most earnestly desire that some expedient way be found out which by the blessing of God may prevent the further effusion of blood and restore the Nation to peace from the earnest and constant endeavouring of which as no discouragement given us on the contrary part shall make us cease so no success on ours shall ever divert us For the effecting thereof we are most ready and willing to condescend to all that shall be for the good of us and our people whether by the way of conformity which we have already granted or such further concessives as shall be requisite to the giving of a full assurance of all the performance of all our most real professions concerning the maintenance of the true reformed Protestant Religion established in this Kingdom with due regard to the ease of tender consciences the just priviledges of Parliament and the liberty and property of the people according to the Laws of the Land As also by granting a general pardon without or with exceptions as shall be thought fit In order to which blessed peace we doe desire and propound to the Lords and Commons of Parliament assembled at Westminster That they aâ—pâ—int such and so many persons as they shall think fit sufficiently authorized by them to attend us at our Army upon safe conduct to come and return which we do hereby grant and conclude â—iâ—h us how the premisses and all other things in question betwixt us and them may be fully setled whereby all unhappy mistaking between us and our people being removed there may be a present cessation of Arms and as soon as may be a total disbanding of all Armies the Subject have his due and we be restored to our rights Wherein if this our offer shall be accepted there shall be nothing wanting on our part which may make our people secure and happy Given at our Court at Evesham 4. of Iuly 1644. And to shew his gracious inclination to Peace and that he seeks all fair ways and means thereto see how he descends to seek it from a Subject and his deepest Enemy the Earl of Essex at Lestithiel and the King at Liskard Essex I have been very willing to believe that when ever there should be such a Conjuncture as to put it in your power to effect that happy Setlement of this miserable Kingdom which all good men desire you would lay hold of it that season is now before you you having it at this time in your power to redeem your Countrey and the Crown and to oblige your King in the highest degree an action certainly of the greatest piety prudence and honour such an opportunity as perhaps no Subject before you hath ever had or after you shall ever have to which there is no more required but that you join with me heartily and really in the setling of those things which we have both professed constantly to be our onely aims Let us do this and if any shall be so foolishly unnatural as to oppose their Kings their Countries and their own good we will make them happy by Gods blessing even against their wills the onely Impediment can be want of mutual confidence I promise it you on my part as I have endeavoured to prepare it on yours by me Letter to Hertford from Evesham I hope this will perfect it when as I here do I shall have engaged to you the word of a King that you joining with me in that blessed work I shall give both to you and your Armie such eminent marks of my confidence and value as shall not leave a room for the least Distrust amongst you either in relation to the publick or your self unto whom I shall then be Liskaâ—d Aug. 6. 1644. Your faithfull Friend C. R. If you like of this hearken to this Bearer whom I have fully intrusted in particulars but this will admit of no delay To confirm the Kings Intentions and to assure the Armies Ingagement also the great Officers and Commanders subscribe to another Letter to the Earl of Essex My Lord VVe having obtained his Majesties leave to send this to your Lordship shall not repeal the many gracious Messages Endeavours and Declarations which his Majestie hath made and have been so solemnly protested in the presenâ—e of God and Man that we wonder how the most scrupulous can make any doubt of the real and royal performance of them But we must before this apprâ—aching occasion tell your Lordship that we bear Arms for this end onely to defend his Majesties known Rights the Laws of the Kingdom the Libertie of the Subject the Privilege of the Parliament and the true Protestant Religion against Poperie and popish Innovations and this being the professed cause of your Lordships taking Arms we are confident that concurring in the same opinions and pretences we shall not by an unnatural VVar weaken the main strength of this Kingdom and advance the Design of our common Enemies who long since have devoured us in their hopes My Lord the exigent of the time will not suffer us to make any laboured Declarations of our Intentions but onely this That on the Faith of Subjects the Honour and Reputation of Gentlemen and Souldiers we will with our Lives maintain that which his Majestie shall publickly promise in order to a bloudless Peace nor shall it be in the power of any private persons to divert this Resolution of ours and the same we expect from you And now we must take lâ—ave to protest that if this our Proffer be neglected which we make neither in fear of your power nor distrust of our own but onely touched with the approaching miseries of our Nation that what calamities shall oppress posteritie will lie heavie upon the souls and consciences of those that shall decline this Overture which we can not hope so seasonably to make again if this Conjuncture be let go and therefore it is desired that your Lordship and six other persons may meet our General to morrow at such an indifferent place as you shall think fit attended with
Father and Son Vaughan Windebank Greenvile Hide Morley Cole Riddell Ware Strongways Culpeper Floyd Esquires Endimion Porter Henry Jermin Jo. Bodevile David Jenkins Sir George Strode Sir Alexander Carew With twice so many Earls Lords Bishops Knights and Gentlemen of Scotland All Papists that have are or shall be in Arms against either Parliaments or of the Rebellion in Ireland Then are excepted all those of the then Parliament of Oxford and all such of Scotland that have assisted the King there All such as have deserted either Parliaments of both Kingdoms The Estates of such unpardonable to pay publick Debts The tenth part of all other Delinquents within the joint Declaration Then follows other Acts which the Parliaments shall mannage For arming the Kingdoms setling the Admiralties to name Commissioners That all Honours and Titles given since the great Seal went to the King viz. May 21. 1642. or hereafter to be made shall be null Not to vote in Parliaments and so for Scotland since June 4. 1644. The Governours of Ireland and the great Officers of both Kingdoms be nominated by the Parliaments of both Kingdoms The like for Scotland The Kings Children to be governed and married The Prince Elector to be restored Peace and War 〈◊〉 of Oblivion Armies disbanded All these as the Parliaments of both Kingdoms shall order Thus much in general Now for the City of London Acts for them Their Charters Customs Liberties to be confirmed notwithstanding any Non-user Mis-user or Abuser The Militia of London and the Liberties The Tower of London to be in the Mayor and Common-Council The Citizens not to be drawn out of London to any service The Acts of the Mayor and Common Council heretofore and hereafter to confirm as if by Act of Parliaments And these being granted they will endeavour that the King shall live in splendour c. 'T is true that all the Kings party were impatient for Peace which obliged the King to shew his real Intentions being assured that if he could come to a fair Treaty the chief of the Parliaments party could not hinder the Peace first because themselves are weary of the War and next because of their Distractions Presbyterians against Independents in Religion and General against General in point of Command Upon these grounds the most probable means for the King to procure a Treaty was to be used and the noise was therefore published of the Kings return to London the best Rhetorick to please the Popular that thereupon a Treaty would be procured or if refused it would bring most prejudice to the Parliament and advantage to the King for although he offered fair Propositions yet they were mixed with such Conditions as might not easily be admitted and so the Kings offer did but amaze the people into a milder opinion of his proceedings These Propositions for the present were neglected as unlimited yet the King imagined that in a Treaty Commissioners might Argue them into Reason and so returns the Messengers that he will send to the Houses which he did forthwith by this Letter CHARLES REX The Propositions presented to his Majesty being very long which contain matters in themselves of gâ—â—at weight and importance as being in great part in alteration of the frame of Government both in Church and State And the Messengers who presented them declaring that they have no power to treat or consent to any alteration it cannot be expected that his Majesty shall return a Present Particular and Positive Answer But as he hath from his soul alwaies desired the setling of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 peace in this distracted Kingdom for that purpose hath from time to time tendred all possible Overtures in hope that all will work upon the hearts of all persons concerned That even this apprehension such as it is upon further thought and consideration may produce some good effect towards it to which his Majestie calls God to witness therein shall nothing be wanting on his part which is agreeable to Iustice Honour and Conscience and there shall all possible expedition be used in preparing his Majesties Answer yet â—e intends speedily to send by Messengers of his own and to that purpose that there may be no losse of time He desires safe conduct be speedily for the Duke of Richmond and the Earl of Southampton with their attendance to bring up his Majesties said Answer And his Majesty doth heartily wish that God may so deal with him and his as he endeavours all just and lawful waies to restore this poor Kingdom to a lasting and happy peace G. Digby Secretary Oxford 27. Novem. 1644. The Parliament excepts against this Letter as directed to No body the Parliament not so much as named therein And it was remembred that the Lord Digby by his Letters told them long since That the Foundation upon which the King did build all his designs was never to acknowledge this a Parliament and that if he receded from that Maxim the King would undoe himself and all those that have appeared for him Yet after long debate it was resolved that their General Essex do forthwith return a Letter to Prince Rupert who in the absence of the Lord Brainford appears the Kings Lieutenant General That if his Majesty shall send to the Parliament of England Assembled at Westmin and to the Commissioners of the Parliament of the Kingdom of Scotland they will with all readiness grant a safe conduct for the Duke of Richmond and the Earl of Southampton and treat with them according to his Majesties desire Which was so acknowledged by Prince Rupert in his Majesties Name and directed to the Earl of Essex and so they were received into Somerset House with this Order That no Member visit or speak or send any Message to either of them during their stay here And had audience of a Committee of twenty four Lords and twenty eight Commons and the Scotish Comissioners in the Painted Chamber which was in effect only That the King designed a Treaty and time speedily to be fixed and to be certified by those Messengers but they had Answer of both Houses that they would hasten and so required them to return back Upon the rumour of this intended Treaty and hereafter of a peace the King was assured that the Parliaments chief Articles would be to continue the Irish Wars Indeed this Article of Ireland was a tender point and the King resolved not only not to break the Cessation but to make peace with the Rebels to which end he had promised the Queen in France of some favours to the Catholicks of Ireland And expressely a little before the Treaty he writes to the Marquesse of Ormond That he is sorry to finde the sad condition of his particular fortune for which saies he I cannot finde so good and speedy remedy as the peace of Ireland and to redresse most necessary affairs here Wherefore I command you to dispatch it out of hand with this Addition to my former dispatch And for Poinings Act I
wishes me not to grieve and torment my self for him for that would be a glorious death that he should dye it being for the Laws and Liberties of this Land and for maintaining the true Protestant Religion He bid me read Bishop Andrew's Sermons Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity and Bishop Laud's Book against Fisher which would ground me against Popery He told me he had forgiven all his Enemies and hoped God would forgive them also and commanded us and all the rest of my Brothers and sisters to forgive them He bid me tell my Mother that his thoughts had neâ—er strayed from her and that his love should be the same to the last Withall he commanded me and my brother to be obedient to her and bid me send his blessing to the rest of my brothers and sisters with commendation to all his friends So after he had given me his blessing I took my leave Further he commanded vs all to forgive those people but never to trust them for they had been most false to him and to those that gave them power and he feared also to their own souls and desired me not to grieve for him for he should dye a Martyr and that he doubted not but the Lord would settle his Throne upon his Son and that we should be all happier that we could have expected to have been if he had lived with many other things which at present I cannot remember Elizabeth 7. Another Relation from the Lady Elizabeth The King said to the Duke of Gloucester that he would say nothing to him but what was for the good of his Soul he told him That he heard the Army intended to make him King but it was a thing not for him to take upon him if he regarded the welfare of his soul for he had two brothers before him and therefore commanded him upon his blessing never to accept of it unless it redounded lawfully upon him And commanded him to fear the Lord and he would provide for him 8. A Copy of a Letter from the PRINCE to the KING dated from the HAGUE Ianuary 23. 1648. For the King SIR Having no means to come to the knowledge of your Majesties present condition but such as I receive from the Prints or which is as uncertain Report I have sent this Bearer Seamour to wait upon your Majesty and to bring me an account of it that I may withall assure your Majesty I doe not only pray for your Majesty according to my duty but shall alwaies be ready to do all which shall be in my power to deserve that blessing which I now humbly beg of your Majesty upon Sir Your Majesties most humble and most obedient Son and servant CHARES Hague 23. Ian. 1648. The fatall day appeared Tuesday 30. of Ian. when he praies and receives the Sacrament just at ten a clock before noon he is called upon to come forth from St. Iames's Palace now his prison to go on foot over the Park to White-hall guarded with a Regiment of Foot Souldiers part before and the rest behinde him with Colours flying and Drums beating his private Guard of Partizans about him and Dr. Iuxon Bishop of London next to him on one side and Colonel Tomlinson on the other He bids them go faster That he now went before them to strive for an Heavenly Crown with less sollicitude then he had oftentimes bid his Souldiers to fight for an earthly Diadem Ascending the Stairs up to the Park Gallery into his Cabbinâ—â— Chamber he continued there at his devotion and refused to dine only about twelve a clock he eat a bit of bread and drank a glass of Claret Wine From thence he was conveyed into the Banquetting House and the great Window enlarged out of which he ascends the Scaffold the Rails hung round and the Floor covered with Black the more dreadful because of the Block and Axe with the Executioners disguized with Vizards encountring him yet not affrighted he shewed more care of the people living than fear of his dying for looking round about upon the people whom the thick set Guards and Troops of Horse kept a great distance off and seeing he could not be heard by them omitting probable which he purposed to have spoken to them therefore turning to the Officers and Actors but rather to Colonel Tomlinson he said I would now speak nothing unto you in this place were it not that some men would interpret my silence as an Argument of guilt think that I took on me the Crimes objected with the same conscience as I submit to the punishment with patience I call God to witness of my innocency before whose Tribunal I must shortly appear it never entred into my thoughts to retrench the just priviledges of Parliament and that I raised not any Army before such-time as they had raised Hostile Forces against me which from the Order of proceedings on both sides and Dates of Commissions and Proclamations will be clearly manifested to the inquirer Mean while I acknowledge and submissly own Gods Justice which this day by an unjust Sentence of mine he hath inflicted a just judgment on me for as much as heretofore I would not acquit an innocent man meaning the Deputy of Ireland when oppressed by a most unjust Decree With what charity I embrace my enraged Enemies this good man is my witness pointing to the Bishop of London I pardon them all from my very heart and I earnestly beseech the God of all mercies that he would vouchsafe to grant them serious repentance and remit this great sin Yet I cannot to my last gasp but be sollicitous of the peace of my Kingdom which I am not able at present better to consult for than by chalking out the way from which you of the Souldery have exceedingly deviated and by which you must return to sobriety and peace Herein I perceive you are most miserably out of the way in that by the title of the Sword without all even a shadow of Right you think good to wrest the Government to your selves and endeavour to establish the Kingdom not by the Authority of the Laws but upon the score of Conquest which can never have any accruit of Right unless ushered in by a just Cause and triumph of War namely either for the repulsing of wrongs or recovering of Rights unjustly detained But if more prosperous success shall advance the Victour beyond the modest bounds of just and lawful nought hinders but that the Kingdoms that are erected both be and be accounted great Robberies which we read heretofore a Pyrat objected to Alexander But being out of the way as you are can you by no other expedient return into the right path of peace By no other Council believe me can you hope to divert Gods wrath than by restoreing to God the King the people respectively such things as are their dues you shall give God his due by restoring his pure Worship and Church rightly regulated
with the Original in the Signet Office and so these proceedings lay in the Deck of other complaints which the King understood and took time to number them up to the Parliament as Indignities to his Person and Honour to be so inquisitive after his actions But for the present he went on with his own more important affairs and sends Sir Richard Weston Chancelour of the Exchequer with this message to them That his Fleet is returned and their victuals spent the men must of necessity be discharged and their wages paid them or else mutiny will follow which may be of dangerous consequence That he hath in readiness about 40. Ships to be set forth upon a second service which want a present supply of moneys That the Armies quartered on the Coasts want victuals and clothes and they will disband if not furnished The Companies of Ireland lately sent must speedily be provided for else they may be subject to rebel Lastly the season for providing healthful victual will be past if this moneth of March be suffered negligently to elapse And therefore he desired to know without more ado what present supply be must depend upon from them that accordingly he might shape his course This necessary message produced no other Supply than this insolency from a Member Mr. Clement Cook Son to Sir Edward Cook now in Malignancie to the affairs of State It is better saies he to dy by a Foreign Enemy than to be destroyed at home And to make him the more One Turner a mean mad Doctor of Physick who got a room in the House for such like rants and he re-assaults with 6. Queries teaching to the Duke 1. Whether the King hath not lost the Regality of the Narrow Seas since the Duke became Admiral 2. Whether he not going as Admiral in this last Fleet was not the cause of the ill success 3. Whether the Kings Revenues hath not been impaired through his immense liberality 4. Whether the Duke hath not ingrossed all Offices and preferred his kindred to unfit places 5. Whether he hath not made sale of places of Iudicature 6. Whether Recusants have not dependance upon his Mother and Father-in-law Alas poor Doctor He did but gape saies one and had this clamour put into his Mouth by such as had enough rudeness and Raâ—cour in their hearts but not the courage to let the world see it in them Thereupon the King sends to them all for satisfaction from the whole House intent upon severe punishment against â—â—ose men but finding them earnest to aggravate the more he summons both Houses together and conveys his displeasure to them by the Lord Keeper Coventry My Lords and you the Knights Citizens and Burgessâ—s of the House of Commons His Majesties command hath summoned you hither and the same Command hath put me upon the service of signifying his Will to you His Will was that both Houses should be called together you my Lords as witnesses of the Justice of his Resolutions and of this Address to the House of Commons His Majesty would have you know there never was King who better loved his peoplâ— or was more sincerely affected towards the right use of Parliaments or more ready tâ— redress what shall be represented unto him in the quality of Grievance provided it be in a regular and decent way than Himself but he would also have you know that as he loves his People so he regards His Honouâ— and if he be sensible of his Subjects Grievances of his own he is much more especially when they flow from offences of such a nature as not onely blast his Reputation but impede the Progresse of his Weighty Affaires To come to Particulars His Majesty saith That whereas Mr. Coke spake very seditious words in your House he was so far from being questioned or censured for them by you as Doctor Turner animated with the same spirit made them his introduction to certain articles of Inquiry of as unsavory a condition pretended against the Duke but in truth libelling his Majesties Government And though his Majesty did not only by Sir Richard Weston but in his own Person declare his just displeasure and demanded Justice against those exorbitants yet have you not only halted in your obedience to him but have followed the very steps of Dr. Turner and upon false bottom'd suggestions endeavored to distain his Own and Fathers Honour He also complaineth That you have taken upon you to search his Signet-Office and to examine the Letters of his Secretary of State leaving him nothing free from their discovery a thing not formerly practised As concerning the Duke whom you seem to persecute with such asperity of disgust I am also commanded to tell you that his Majesty knows none better he acted nothing of Publique Employment without his Special Warrant that he hath discharged his Trust with abundant both Care and Fidelity that he merited that Trust both from his now Majesty and his late Father by his Personall hazard both at home and abroad And that since his Return from Spain he hath been sedulous in promoving the Service and Contentment of your House It is therefore his Express Command that you absolutely desist from such unparliamentary disquisitions and resign the Reformation of what is amiss to his Majesties Care Wisdome and Justice I am also to speak about the business of supply you have been made acquainted with the posture of his Majesties affairs both foreign and domestique and with his necessatous condition the charge of all martial preparations both by sea and land hath been calculated to you you promised a supply both speedy and sutable to his occasions but his Majesty complaineth that as yet you have performed neither failing both in the measure and in the manner In the measure by granting onely three subsidies and three fifteens a proportion vastly short of what is requisite In the manner being both dilatory and dishonourable to the King as arguing a distrust of him for you have ordered the Bill not to be brought into the House until your grievances be both heard and answered which is such a tacite condition as his Majesty will not admit of Therefor his Majesty commands you to take it into your speedy consideration and to return your final answer by Saturday next what further addition you will make and if your supplies commensurate and equal the demands of the cause he promiseth to continue this Session to your just content else he must and will entertain thoughts of your dismission Lastly I am commanded to tell you that his Majesâ—y doth not charge these distempers upon the whole body and the assembly of the House but as he is confident the greater number are persons of a more quiet dispose so he hopeth their influence and this his Majesties admonition will prevent the like for the time to come When he had done the King went on I Must withall put you in minde of times past you may
solely intrusted with the person of the prince should leave behind him in a foreign Court so much scandal by his ill behaviour 10. That he hath been a great part the cause of the ruine of the Prince Palatine and his estate in so much as those affairs concern this kingdom 11. That he hath in his relation to both Houses of Parliament wronged the Earl of Bristow in his honour by many sinister aspersions 12. Lastly that the Earl of Bristow did reveal to his late Majesty both by word and letter in what sort the Duke had misdemeaned himself and abused his trust and the King by several wayes sent him word he should rest assured that he would hear the said Earl in due time and that four dayes before his sicknesse he signified to the Earl that he would hear him against the Duke as well as he had heard the Duke against him And not long after the King died having been much vexed and pressed with the said Duke Here is no High Treason herein mentioned if the charge were proved then no Traytor at all neither most nor least for indeed had this done it the Commons needed not their new Impeachment which followes and never amounted to more than Misdemeanors Misprisions Offences and Crimes Nothing rare with favourites and therefore never such pursued upon any before this person and these times Which might occasion an antient Baron the Lord Spencer To start up that was no upstart Lord and to demand Is this all you have to say against the Duke The Earl replyed Yes my Lord and I am sorry it is so much then quoth the Lord Spencer If this be all Ridiculus Mus and so sat down again Upon this a Crotchet took the Lord Cromwel in the Crown and out he goes to Mr. Richard Spencer a younger Son of that Lord and a great Zelot in the Lower house against the Duke Dick said he What is done in your House to day against the Duke My Lord said he he is charged with high Treason Tush Dick quoth the Lord High Treason If this be all Ridiculus Mus. The Charge I say might occasion this story of the Lords complements which out of doubt was told to the Historian for truth though couched in this wanton stile not usuâ—l with his gravity I confess And indeed if Mr. Richard Spencer have not forsaken his Memory he professes there was never any such confabulation with any Crotchet of Cromwells Crown and desires the Author to expunge it out of his next impression and me to excuse him in this But such a Charge as it was It served the turn for that time but not to prevent the Attornies Charge against the Eaâ—l which to my knowledge was framed long before and therefore needed no speeding as to prevention Yet being ready It was put in the next day abating one of the Earls number against the Duke for these were but Eleven Articles First That the said Earl being imployed by the late King Iames as his Ambassadour unto Ferdinando Emperour of Germany and unto Philip the fourth King of Spain in the years 1621 1622 and 1623. with Commission to treat with them for the plenary restitution of the Palatinate to the Count Palatine who maried the Lady Elizabeth the onely Daughter of his late Majesty and also to treat with the King of Spain for a Mariage to be had between his now Majesty then Prince of Wales and the Lady Donna Maria the Infanta of Spain did falsly trayterously and confidently inform the late King by sundry Letters That the said Emperour and King of Spain would really make restitution of the Dominions and Electoral dignity of the said Count Palatine and that the said King of Spain did really intend the Mariage aforesaid Whereas in truth the said Emperour and King or either of them never really intended such restitution and the King of Spain never intended the said Mariage whereof the Earl could not be ignorant whereby the the Dominions and Electorall Dignity aforesaid were utterly lost Secondly That the said Earl having received from his late Majesty particular directions to put the King of Spain to a speedy and punctual answer touching the Treaties aforesaid did nevertheless continue those Treaties upon Generalities without effectuall pressing the King of Spain to particular Conclusions sutable to his Instructions Thirdly that the said Earl to the intent to discourage the late King from taking up of Arms or entring into Hostility with the said King of Spain did many times both by word and letters to him and his Ministers extoll the greatnesse and power of the King of Spain and did cunningly strive to retard the late Kings Resolutions of declaring himself an Enemy to the King of Spain Fourthly That the said Earl being told upon his dispatch out of this Realm that there was little probability that these Treaties would have any good successe he then replyed He cared not what the successe thereof would be for he would take care to have his instructions perfect and to pursue them punctually and howsoever the businesse went he would make his fortunes thereby Fifthly that the said Earl on purpose to advance the Romish Religion did during the time aforesaid often by Letters and otherwise counsell and perswade his late Majesty to set at liberty Iesuits and Priests of the Romish Religion which were imprisoned according to the laws of the Land and to grant the Papists a Toleration of their Religion Sixthly That by the said Earls false Informations and Intelligences given to the late King and now his Majesty then Prince they were put into hopes and by long delayes they were put into jealousies concerning the said Treaties that there was not that sincerity in them which they expected Whereupon the said Prince his now Majesty was enforced to undertake in his own person a long and dangerous Journey into Spain intending either speedily to conclude the said Treaties or to discover the feigned Intentions of the Emperoâ—r and King of Spain and thereupon to dissolve them By which Journey the Person of the said Prince and in Him the peace and safety of this Kingdom was brought into apparent danger Seventhly That at the Prince his first coming to the said Earl in Spain he asked the Prince For what he came thither The Prince at first not conceiving the Earls meaning answered You know as well as I. The Earl replyed Sir Give me leave to tell you they say here in Madrid that you mean to change your Religion and added further Sir I do not speak this that I will perswade you to it or that I will promise to follow your example though you do it but as your faithful servant if you will trust me with so great a secret I will endeavour to carry it in the secretest way I can At which the Prince being moved said unto him I wonder what yoâ— have ever found in me that you should conceive I would be so base as for a wife to change
my Religion The Earl replying desired the Prince to pardon him if he had offended him saying It was but out of his desire to serve him Whereas it had been the duty of a faithful servant to God and his Master to have disswaded the Prince from it had he found him staggering in his Religion Eighthly That he afterward having Conference with the Prince about the Romish Religion trayterously endeavoured to perswade him to turn Romish Catholique using an Argument to that end That the State of England never did nor could possibly do any great thing but when obedient to the Pope of Rome Ninthly That during the time aforesaid the Prince advising with the Earl about a new Offer by the King of Spain That the Prince Palatine should marry the Emperours Daughter â—e brought up in his Court and so should be restored to the Palatinate The Earl said It was a reasonable Proposition And when the danger of changing his Religion was objected the Earl replyed That without some such great Act the peace of Christendom could never be procured Tenthly That the Prince departing from Spain and leaving the Powers of Disposorios with the said Earl to be delivered upon the return of his Dispensation from Rome the Prince fearing lest after the Dispensation the Infanta might be put into a Monastery wrote a Letter back to the Earl commanding him not to make use of those Powers untill he could give him assurance that a Monastery should not rob him of his Wife which Letter the Earl receiving returned an answer disswading that Direction Shortly after which the Prince sent another Letter discharging him of his former Command But his late Majesty by the same Messenger sent him a more express Direction Not to deliver the Disposorios until a full conclusion had concerning the Palatinate adding this expression That he would never joy to marry his Son and to leave his onely Daughter weeping In which Dispatch though there was some mistake yet in the next following it was corrected and the Earl tied to his former Restrictions which he promised punctually to observe Neverthelesse contrary to his Duty and Allegiance he after set a day for the Disposorios without any assurance or so much as treating of those things to which he was restrained and that so short a day that if extraordinary diligence with good successe in the Journey had not concurred the Princes hands might have been bound up and yet he never sure of a Wife nor the Prince Palatine of Restitution Lastly That in an high an contemptuous manner he hath preferred a scandalous Petition to this Honourable House to the dishonour of the late King and his now Majesty especially one Article of that Petition wherein he gives his now Majesty the Lye by denying and offering to falsifie what his Majesty had affirmed There needs no strain of partiality to implead the difference of these charges assuredly if the Earls charge against the Duke could have served the turn It might have spared the Commons Impeachment the other comming far short of the designe which was to do it to the purpose And therefore This weighty Cause was managed by six Members Mr. Glanvil Mr. Herbert Ma. Selden Mr. Pim Mr. Wans ford Mr. Sherland to them was added Sr. Dudly Diggs as Prolocutor and Sr. Iohn Elliot brought up the Rear And so though the matter of the Prologue may be spared being made up with Elegancy yet rather then it shall be lost you may please to read it at this length My Lords THere are so many things of great importance to be said in very little time this day that I conceive it will not be unacceptable to your Lordships if setting by all Rhetorical affectations I onely in plain Country language humbly pray your Lordships favour to include many excuses necessary to my manifold infirmities in this one word I am commanded by the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the Commons house to present unto your Lordships their most affectionate thanks for your ready condescending to this Conference which out of confidence in your great wisdoms and approved Justice for the service of his Majesty and the welfare of this Realm they desired upâ—â— this occasion The House of Commons by a fatal and universal concurrence of complaints from all the Sea-bordering parts of this Kingdom did find a great and griâ—vous interruption and stop of Trade and Traffique The base Pirats of Sally ignominiously infesting our Coasts taking our ships and goods and leading away the Subjects of this Kingdom into barbarous Captivity while to our shame and hinderance of Commerce our enemies did as it were besiege our Ports and block up our best Rivers mouths 〈◊〉 Friends on flight pretences made embargoes of our Merchants goods and every Nation upon the least occasion was ready to contemn and slight us So great was the apparent diminution of the ancient honour of this Crown and once strong reputation of our Nation Wherewith the Commons were more troubled calling to remembrance how formerly in France in Spain in Holland and every where by Sea and Land the Valours of this Kingdom had been better valued and even in latter times within remembrance when we had no Alliance with France none in Denmark none in Germany no Friend in Italy Scotland to say no more ununited Ireland not setled in peace and much less security at home when Spain was as ambitious as it is now under a King Philip the second they called their wisest the House of Austria as great and potent and both strengthened with a malitious League in France of persons ill-affected when the Low-countreys had no being yet by constant counsels and old English wayes even then that Spanish pride was cool'd that greatness of the house of Austria so formidable to us now was well resisted and to the United Provinces of the Low countreys such a beginning growth and strength was given as gave us honour over all the Christian World The Commons therefore wondring at the Evils which they suffered debating of the causes of them found they were many drawn like one Line to one Circumference of decay of Trade and strength of Honour and of Reputation in this kingdom which as in one Centre met in one great man the Cause of all whom I am here to name the Duke of Buckingham Here Sir Dudly Diggs made a stand as wondring to see the Duke present Yet he took the Roll and read the Preamble to the charge with the Dukes long Titles and then went on My Lords This lofty Title of this mighty Man me thinks doth raise my spirits to speak with a Paulo majora canamus and let it not displease your Lordships if for foundation I compare the beautiful Structure and fair composition of this Monarchy wherein we live to the great work of God the World it self in which the solid body of incorporated Earth and Sea as I conceive in regard of our Husbandry Manufactures and Commerce by Land and Sea may
into one Opinion that thereby no reason given to the House their Restraint was an Arrest of the whole Body and a breach of Priviledge must needs follow which was so remonstrated to the King and they therefore released But what ground â—r Presidents had the Judges a late law of their own making for it is well observed That in the Parliament 35. Eliz. Sr. Peter Wentworth and Sr. Henry Bromley by petition to the Upper House to be supplicants with them of the Lower House unto her Majesty for entailing the succession of the Crown the Bill being drawn by them These two were summoned before Sr. Thomas Henage one of the Privy Councel and commanded to forbear the Parliament and to stand secured to their Lodgings and after further examination before the Councel were committed Wentworth to the Tower Bromley and other Courtiers to the Fleet. Another instance Mr. Morice Attorny of the Dutchy of Lancaster for moving against the justice of the Courts of Ecclesiastical Iudges Subscriptions and Oaths was taken out of the House so saith another Authour and committed to Prison for whose release Mr. Wroth humbly moved the House to be petitioners to her Majesty But was answered That the Queen must not accompt for actions of Royal Authority which may be of high and dangerous consequence nor can it become them to search into the Prerogative of Soveraigns These Members were five in all and might have been Precedents for the King and his five Members in due place hereafter But this course now taught the Lords to resent the like indignity to them in the Earl of Arundels case who lay committed to the Tower as before said and so they would sit still without motion to any matter till that he might be reâ—admitted which was instantly done To ballance with the Dukes Enemies Three Persons his confederates were made Barons to compeer in the Lords House the Lord Mandevil the eldest son to the Earl of Manchester created by Patent Baron Kimbolton Grandison son to the created Baron Imbercourt and Sr. Dudly Carlton made Baron Tregate being newly returned from his Trade of seven years Leiger Ambassadour abroad in Venice and Holland But it is said That the Lords found out an Old Order to Counter checque that designe That no Creations sedente Parliamento should have power to vote but onely to sit Not to Iudge but to learn to understand during that Session so that their Suffrages were excluded But I am assured of the contrary for they sate and voted Hence it is truly observed That in the late Parliament 1640. Seymor Littleton and Capel were so created sedente Parliamento and Digby Rich and Howard of Charlton called by special Writ were also admitted their votes and afterwards the last of the nineteen Propositions to the King at York for the King to passe a Bill to restrain Peers made hereafter to sit and vote in Parliament unlesse with consent of both Houses To which the King absolutely refused But however they were admitted the Duke was put to his own Innocency partially stiled impudency and lodges injustice on the Peers whose ill opinion he sayes deprest him and partial affection elevated the other who received the Attornies charge with undaunted spirit and returned so home an Answer as the House was amply satisfied of which take his own so saying for we hear not a word more nor other of it than that he saies so But the Dukes defence came quick to the Lords the eighth of Iune Who he sayes sequestered him from the House until his cause was determined upon which he was much dejected when really of himself he had forbore the House And therefore this morning had resolved to send it but was advised to present it himself which we shall finde to this purpose The Commons Impeachment and Declaration against the Duke of Buckingham FOr the speâ—dy redresse of the great evils and mischiefs and of the chief causes of those evils and mischiefs which this Kingdom of England now grievously suffereth and of late years hath suffered and to the Honour and Safety of our Soveraign Lord the KING and of his Crown and dignities and to the good and welfare of his people the Commons in this present Parliament by the authority of our said Soveraign Lord the King assembled do by this their Bill shew and declare against GEORGE Duke Marquesse and Earl of Buckingham Earl of Coventry Viscount Villers Baron of Whaddon great Admirall of the Kingdoms of ENGLAND and Ireland and of the principalitie of Wales and of the Dominions and Islands of the same of the Town of Calais and of the Marches of the same and of Normandy Gascoigne and Guyen Generall Governour of the Seas and Ships of the said Kingdoms Lieutenant Generall Admirall Captain Generall and Governour of his Majesties Royall Fleet and Army lately set forth Master of the Horses of our Soveraign Lord the King Lord Waâ—den Chancellour and Admirall of the Cinque-ports and of the Members thereof Constable of Dover Castle Iustice in Eyre of all Forests and Chaces on this side of the River of Trent Constable of the Castle of Windsor Lieutenant of Middlesex and Buckingham-shire Steward and Bailiffe of Westminster Gentleman of his Bed-chamber and one of his Majesties honourable Frivie Councel in his Realms both of England Scotland and Ireland and Knight of the most noble order of the Garter The Misdemeanors Misprisions Offences Crimes and other matters comprised in the Articles following And him the said Duke do accuse and impeach of the the said Misdemeanors Misprisions Offences and Crimes ARTIC I. The Duke 's 1. Reply THat he the said Duke being young and unexperienced hath of late years with exorbitant ambition and for his own advantage procured and engrossed into his own hands severall great Offices both to the danger â—f the State and prejudice of that Service which should have been performed in them and to the discouragement of others who are thereby precluded from such hopes as their virtues abilities and publique employments might otherwise have obtained THat his late Majesty did of his own Royal Motion bestow them upon him and he hopeth and concieveth he may without blame recieve what his bountiful Master conferred upon him if the Common-wealth doth not suffer thereby Nor is it without precedents that men eminent in the esteem of their Soveraign have held as great and many Offices as himself But if it shall be proved that he falsely or corruptly hath executed those Offices he is and will be ready to resign them with his life and fortunes to his Majesties dispose II. Reply 2. That in the 16. year of the Reign of the late King he did give and pay to the then Earl of Nottingham for the Office of Great Admiral of England and Ireland and of the principality of Wales and Generall Governour of the Seas and Ships of the said Kingdomes and for the surrender of the said Offices to the intent the said Duke might
and so quit the place for we think it a hatefull thing that any mans leaâ—ing the Bishoprick should almost undoe the Successor And if any man shall presume to break this Order we will refuse him at our Royall assent and keep him at the place which he hath so abused Ninthly Lastly we command you to give us an Accompt every year the second of Ianuary of the performance of this our Command Dorchester Our Naval forces now Compleat the Duke of Buckingham is resolved to satisfy their expectation who heretofore complained of his great neglect being Admiral of England in committing the late Expeditions at Sea to other Commanders and stay behind himself He is now therefore made General also of six thousand Horse and foot in ten ships royall ad ninety Merchant-men and set sail from Portsmouth the 27. of Iune and his MANIFESTO came out the one and twentieth of Iuly following as it was there published in France declaring The emergent causes of his Majesties present Arming What part the Kings of Great Britain have alwaies taken in the affairs of the reformed Churches of France and with what care and zeal they have laboured for them is manifest to all and the Examples of it are also as ordinary as the occasions have been The now King my most honored Lord and Master comes nothing short of his Predecessors therein if his good and laudable Designs for their Good had not bin perverted to their Ruin by those who had the most interest for their accomplishment What advantages hath he refused VVhat parties hath he not sought unto that by his alliance with France he might work more profitably and powerfully the restitution of those Churches into their antient liberty and splendour And what could be best hoped by so strick an alliance and from so many reiterated promises by the mouth of a great Prince but effects truly royall and sorting with his Greatness But so far fails it therein that his Majesty in so many promises and so strait obligations of Friendship hath found means to obtain Liberty and surety for the Churches and to restore peace to France by the reconciliation of those whose breath utters nothing else but all manner of obedience to their King under the liberty of the Edicts that contrarywise they have prevailed by the interest he had in those of the Religion to deceive them and by this means not only to unty him from them but also to make him if not odious to them at the lest suspected in perverting the means which he had ordained for good to a quite contrary end VVitness the English Ships not designed for the extirpation of these of the Religion but to the Contrary express promise was made That they should not be used against them which notwithstanding were brought before Rochel and were imployed against them in the last Sea-fight what then may be suspected from so puissant a King as the King my Master so openly eluded but thorough feeling equal and proportioned to the Injuries received But his Patience hath gone beyond Patience and as long as he had hope that he could benefit the Churches by any other means he had no recourse by way of Arms so far that having been made an Instrument and Worker of the late Peace upon Conditions disadvantagious enough and which would never have been accepted without his Majesty's Intervention who interposed his credit and interest to the Churches to receive them even with threatnings to the end to shelter the honour of the most Christian King under assurance of his part not onely for the accomplishment but also for the bettering the said conditions for which he sends caution to the Churches But what hath been the issue of all this but only an abuse of his goodness and that which his Majesty thought a Soverain remedy For all their forces hath it not brought almost the last blow to the ruin of the Churches It wanted but little by continuing the Fort before Rochel the demolishing whereof was promised by the violence of the Souldiers and Garrisons of the said Fort and Isles as well upon the Inhabitants of the said Town as strangers In lieu whereas they should wholly have retired they have daily been augmented and other Forts built and by the stay of Commissioners in the said Town beyond their Term agreed on to the end to make broils and by the means of the Division which they made to open the gates to the Neighbouring Troops and by other withstandings and infractions of Peace Little I say failed it that the said Town and in it all the Churches had not drawn their last breath And in the mean while his Majesty hath yet continued and not opposed so many Injuries so many faith-breakings but by Plaints and Treatings until he had received certain advise confirmed by intercepted Letters of the great Preparation that the most Christian King made to showr upon Rochel And then what could his Majesty do less but to vindicate his Honor by a quick arming against those who had made him a Party in their Deceit and to give Testimony of his Integritie and zeal which he hath alwayes had for the re-establishing of the Churches which shall be dear and precious to him above any other thing This was not published until the first assault of the Castle of Saint Martins in the Isle of Rhe about the 21. of Iuly following And because I have laboured the Truth of this Expedition from the calumnies of our Adversaries I shall name them now to direct the Reader in the examination and crave the patience to excuse the length of the story in some measure to vindicate our Honour The first is Anonymus and the Title Ladiscente des Anglois somewhat ingenious The French Mercury or Vulgar Fragmentarian herein despicable the brand of Malice and Immodesty The third was Isnardus the Parisian Advocate whose contumelies even the best of them were censured culpable as being published after a perfect Peace was established by the polite Polititian Cardinal Richlieu And the last of them was Monetus a Iesuit more close and wary yet blasting the beauties of our best Martialists But because this Action of the English might not lodge upon mistakes of our too hasty quarrelling without just cause I shall enter the Reader by remembring former passages and state the cause as it now stood between Us and France King Iames succeeding Q. Eliz. his Neighbors and Him courted each other into friendship and confederacy so that no plot or frame of domination invaded each other by jealousie or envy and so soon as Henry 4. was murthered how often and sundry waies did King Iames assist Lewis the 13. his Son and Successor quieting his Civil Wars and after such a League entred into with the Emperour as neither affinity with the Palsgrave utility with aiding the Spaniard or Religion by assisting the Hugonotes could in him any way dissolve and so became Arbiter and Umpire of Europe Yet cause we had
Councel at Hampton Court the case was concluded for the Arch Bishop as the greatest reason not to rule themselves having suffered such an Inconvenience there without so much as taking notice much lesse reforming It had been more then fifteen moneths that the Writs of Ship-money were issued out to divers Counties many Men and in special Mr. Hambden of Buckingham Shire being Assisted by the Sherifâ— made default of payment this Person well known and supposed a stake for others not without a resolved factious assistance of powerful parties And therefore the King this Michaelmas Term not precipitate into a quarrel advised the opinion of his Judges stating the Case by Letter to them To our trusty and well-beloved Sir John Bramstone Knight Chief Iustice of Our Bench Sir John Finch Knight Chief Iustice of Our Court of Common Pleas Sir Humphrey Davenport Knight Chief Baron of Our Court of Exchequer and to the rest of the Iudges of Our Courts of Kings Bench Common Pleas and the Barons of our court of Exchequer Charls Rex Trusty and well-beloved we greet you well taking into our Princely consideration that the Honor and safety of this Our Realm of England the preservation whereof is onely entrusted to Our care was and is more dearly concern'd then in late former times as well by divers councels and attempts to take from Us the Dominions of the Seas of which We are sole Lord and rightful Owner or Propriator and the losse whereof would be of greatest danger and peril to this Kingdom and other Our Dominions and many other wayes We for the avoiding of these and the like dangers well weighing with our self that where the good and safety of the Kingdom in general is concerned and the whole Kingdom in danger there the charge and defence ought to be born by all the Realm in general did for the preventing so publique a mischief resolve with our self to have a Royal Navy prepared that might be of force and power with Almighty Gods blessing and assistance to protect and defend this Our Realm and Our Subjects therein from all such perils and dangers and for that purpose We issued forth Writs under our Great Seal of England directed to all Our Sheriffs of Our several Counties of England and Wales Commanding thereby all Our said Subjects in every City Town and Village to provide such a number of Ships well furnisht as might serve for this Royal purpose and which might be done with the greatest equality that could be In performance whereof though generally throughout all the Counties of this Our Realm We have found in Our Subjects great chearfulnesse and alacrity which We gratiously interpret as a testimony as well of their dutiful affection to us and our service as of the respect they have to the Publique which well becometh every good Subject Nevertheless finding that some few happily out of ignorance what the Laws and Customs of this Realm are or out of a desire to be eased in their particulars how general soever the charge be or ought to be have not yet paid and contributed to the several Rates and Assesments that were set upon them And fore-seeing in Our Princely wisdom that from thence divers Suits and Actions are not unlikely to be commenced and prosecuted in our several Courts at Westminster We desirous to avoid such inconveniencies and out of Our Princely love and affection to all Our People being willing to prevent such Errours as any of Our loving Subjects may happen to run into have thought fit in a case of this nature to advise with you Our Judges who We doubt not are well studied and informed in the Rights of Our Sovereignty And because the Trials in Our several Courts by the Formalities in Pleading will require a long protraction We have thought fit by this Letter directed to you all to require your Judgments in the Case as it is set down in the inclosed Paper which will not onely gain time but also be of more authority to over-rule any prejudicate opinions of others in the Point Given under Our Signet at our Court of White-hall the Second Day of February in the Twelfth Year of Our Reign 1636. CHARLS Rex CHARLS Rex VVhen the good and safety of the Kingdom in general is concern'd and the whole Kingdom in danger whether may not the King by VVrit under the great Seal of England command all the Subjects in his Kingdom at their charge to provide and furnish such number of Ships with Men Victuals and Munition and for such time aâ— he shall think fit for the Defence and Safeguard of the Kingdom from such Danger and Peril and by Law compel the doing thereof in case of Reâ—usal or Refractoriness and whether in such case is not the King the sole Iudge both of the Danger and when and how the same is to be prevented and avoided The Judges return their Opinions thus May it please your Most Excellent Majesty we have according to your Majesties Command severally and every Man by himself and all of us together taken into serious consideration the Case and Questions signed by your Majesty and inclosed in your Letter And we are of opinion that when the Good and Safety of the Kingdom in general is concerned and the whole Kingdom in Danger your Majesty may by Writ under your Great Seal of England command all the Subjects of this your Kingdom at their charge to provide and furnish such number of Ships with Men Victual Munition and for such time as your Majesty shall think fit for the Defence and Safeguard of the Kingdom from such Peril and Danger And that by Law your Majesty may compell the doing thereof in case of Refusal or Refractoriness And we are also of opinion that in such Case your Majesty is the sole Iudg both of the Danger and when and how the same is to be prevented and avoided John Bramston John Finch Humphrey Davenport John Denham Richard Hutton William Jones George Crook Thomas Trever George Vernon Robert Barkly Francis Crauly Richard Weston Thus they subscribe which was inrolled in all Courts at Westminster Hall and without doubt Warrant sufficient for the King to proceed against any Defaulters specially singly against Hambden who appeared upon Process and required Oyer of the Ship Writs and so being heard he demurred in Law and demanded the Iudges opinion upon the Legality of those Writs which being argued in the Exchequer all the Iudges and those Barons except Crook and Hutton were of opinion for the Writs and the Barons gave Iudgment accordingly against Hambden who under hand advised held up the Quarrel by Intermissions till further time and conveniency The Queen bare the Princess Ann the seventeenth of March the third Daughter to the King This Midsummer Term were censured in Star-chamber three Delinquents confederate A medley of Mal-contents The one a Divine Mr. Burton who is a mistiled Sometime Tutor to the King which he never was nor any
England which received opposition and intermissions till the year 1616. where at Aberdine their general assembly of Clergy made an act authorizing some of their Bishops to compile a form of Liturgie or book of Common-Prayer first for the King to approve which was so considerately there revised and returned for that Kingdome to practice which same service book was now sent for by this King and committed to some Bishops here of their own to review and finding the difference not much from the English He gave command in Scotland to be read twice a day in the Kings Chappel at Holyrood-house at Edenburgh that Communion should be administred in that form and taking on their knees once a month the Bishop to wear his Rocket the Minister his surplice and so to inure the people by president of his own Chappel therâ— first and afterward in all parts for the publique The Scottish Bishops liked it reasonable well for the matter but the manner of imposing it from hence upon them was conceived somewhat too much dependancie of theirs on our English Church therefore excepting against the Psalms Epistles and Gospels and other sentences of Scriptures in the English book beeing of a different translation from that of King Iames they desired a Liturgie of their own and to alter the English answerable to that and so peculiar to the Church of Scotland which indeed was more liker that of King Edward the sixth which the Papist better approved and so was the rather permitted by the King as to win them the better to our Church And so had it been accustomed to the Scottish several Churches for some years without any great regret and now particularly proclaimed to be used in all Churches to begin on Easter sunday which was respited to Sunday the three and twentieth of Iuly being then to be countenanced at Edenburgh by the Lords of Session then sitting as it had been before commanded in publique Sermons to the people by divers Ministers by Rallock that Covenanter afterwards and others of the same And accordingly in St. Giles Church the chief of Edenburgh the Dean in presence of the Counsell Bishops Lords and Magistrates beginning to read the women first and meaner men began the Mutiny clapping their hands and cursing with their tongues raising such a hubbub that none could be heard but themselves The Bishop designed for the Sermon stepâ— up into the Pulpit to interpose their madness and minding them of their irreverence and horrible prophanation of that sacred place which incensed them into fury flinging what came to hand Stones Seats Stooles and cordgells almost to his murther Then the Arch Bishop St. Andrews Lord Chancellor and others offering to a peace were no better handled untill the Provost Bayliffs and civill Magistrates were forced to shut the multitude out of the Church And so the Service-book was read throughout though with the rage of the people hollowing knocking and battering of the windows without with staves and stones and watching for the Preachers the Bishops he was incompassed with the cominalty of the baser sort and hardly escaped their intent to smother him to death And so in sundry other Churches in the City with the like clamour and disorder which moved the Councill further to assemble at the Chancellors and there to command the Lord Revall and Officers to order the people into a more quiet for the afternoon which was done with some moderation in the Churches but after Sermon endangering the Earl of Roxborough Lord Privy seal to be the first Martyr St. Stephen for but having the Bishop of Edenburgh put in the Coach with him And in outward shew Magistrates dissembled their resentment of those disorders and pronounced an order of the Councill to themselves to advice upon anobligatory Act of security to the Ministers persons that did or hereafter that should undertake to read the Book and maintenance also for them And afterwards in shew some of the most unruly were slightly punished as being therefore under hand encouraged to do so again for which at first had they been hanged the example might have discovered all others from falling into the like folly the King having thâ—n force enough at Sea to have blocked up their Haven he might soon have brought the Edenburghts to obedience and after them the whole Nation But by his suffering of them then and of such like following after he was come to that misery as one saies well cum vel excedenda sit natura minuenda dignitas either out go his own nature or forgoe his own Authority And the Scots were so well assured of the Kings Levity as that with a couple of Letters from them to the Arch Bishop of Canterbury to palliate the practice and to promise their paines to the compleat effecting of his Majesties desire in the Service-book and so signed by all the Bayliffs who proved afterwards the onely Actors in the like mutinie The Stage indeed became afterwards better hanged and the Schemes better set out their intended Tragedy with a specious Title â—f Piety and Religion The next Moneth of businesse abroad Vacation and Harvest employed them from their confluence of acting until October when all such came to Edinburgh of all conditions and from all Counties of that Kingdom which looked so like a Muster for Insurrection that the Councel was put to prevent it by three Proclamations the 17. of October 1 That no Church matters should be resolved but that all persons depart home unlesse they shew good cause to the Councel upon pain of Rebellion 2. For removing the Session or Term from Edingburgh to Lithgow for the present and afterwards the succeeding Sessions to Dundee till further pleasure 3. And the third for calling in and burning a seditious Book intituled A Dispute against the English Popish Convention obtruded upon the Kirk of Scotland These proceedings prevailed not to appease them for the next day the Councel Chamber being the place appointed â—o Examination of a Judicial Tryal before Sr. William Elphingstone and the Bishop of Galloway passing thither was suddenly surrounded with the tumult of disordered people to the very Councel House where he was again assaulted with a fresh Troop to the hazzard of his life had he not been defended and pulled in whom yet they demanded with such outrage as necessarily called to his succour the Earl of Trahair then Treasurer and the Earl of Wiggon of the Councel who got in and were then in worse case being all besieged and enforced to send for aid to the Provost and Officers assembled at the City Councel They also in the like extremity sent word by their Messenger Sr. Thomas Thomson of the same mischief to themselves and that to save their lives from fury were forced to subscribe 1. To joyn in opposition to the Service-Book and in Petitioning to that purpose 2. To restore Ramsey and Rollock two silenced Ministers 3. And to receive Henderson again their
Deputy Magistrate Seeing therein their Title bears evidence against them for in their three first subscriptions is exprest either King Iames his own act or an ordinance of the secret Councel equivalent to regality or at the desire of the General Assembly to intreat it If they had power to command the new taking of an old Oath as they had not what authority had they to interpret it concerning the five Articles of Perth the Service Boâ—k the Book of Canons and high Commission their Predecessours abjuring onely those Romish corruptions of that time near sixty years since but what could not be more evident was taken upon trust with Jesuitical Equivocation to many such Objections The former Confession and Band annexed heretofore was mâ—de in defence of the King his Authority and Person with their bodies and lives in defence of the Gospel of Christ and Liberties of that Kingdom To which they now have added a mutual defence of one another against all opposers the King not exâ—epted nor any for him Nay by two Acts of their own Parliaments Declare all leagâ—es of subjects amongst themselves without the King to be seditious and punishable The Oath of Iames the sixth and ninth Parliament of Queen Mary the Kings consent never granted nor ever asked The fire of this seditious Covenant flaming throughout the corners of that Kingdom the King to appease those passages sends the Marquesse of Hamilton with power of High Commissioner to conclude and determine for the peace of the Kingdom But why a peace-maker Commissioner and not a war-like Commander And if by a fair Imparlance why Hamilton so much reason to be distrusted as before observed unlesse rather to be deceived than to distrust against the advice of some Scotish Lords the Earl of Sterling Secretary of State the Bishops of Rosse and Broken Privy Counsâ—llours Sr. Robert Spotswood Lord President of the Colledge of Justice and Sr Iohn Hay Master of the Robes who came post hither to disswade the King from him and to present the Marquesse Huntley for that service one utterly in Enmity against Covenanters where the other was suspected But the King carried on by fate suffered the weak contribution of the Duke of Lenox his advise though the old Enemy of his house than that a County Lord Huntley should carry it from them both And indeed it was a Royal deputation fitted for King Hamiltons ambition who having lost the Scotish army for the King of Swedes ayd He fell upon secret designes for his own ends obliging all Scots at Court his dependants and by his authority in Scotland he had the means to alien any from the King to himself as he did in his trust cosen the King by granting what the Covenanters desired even to his Crown by degrees To suspend and after to suppresse the Common Prayer and Canons the five Articles of Perth got by Inches from his Father to be confirmed by Parliament and the Covenant authorized with the calling of General Assemblies for votes of Covenanters to censure and Excommunicate the Bishops and to abolish Episcopacy and all the Royal Clergy to be ruined making himself the greatest figure in Scotland and the King his cypher He acting all in the after Warre as the story proceeds to shew in particular But in Iune the sixth day his Commission was read at Dalkieth four miles from Edinburgh where the Covenanters increased devising because some powder landing at the Fryth for supply of the provision of Edinburgh Castle that assuredly the plot was to blow away the Covenant by destroying the Covenanters And in earnest they were to disdain any notice of the Commissioner or his arrand unlesse he came to them where they were fixed with better force than to adventure out of Edinburgh they having openly landed two good ships loaded with Arms and Amunition and then invited him to come thither which he did Being met with the Nobility and Gentry Covenanters and all sides making a lane of the looser sort who were made believe that Popery and Bishops were One with bitter cursings against both and therefore He being setled at Haly-rood House desired the Covenanters to dismisse their Multitude which they did to be eased of the charge And then He demanded first What they would expect from him Secondly What might be expected from them in duty to the King To the first That nothing but a General Assembly and Parliament would please them and so in both they would be their own Judges and for return to any former obedience they acknowledge no dissertion in the least degree from justifying their actions and rather renounce Baptism than loose one Article of their Covenant or rebate one syllable of the literal rigour of it Religion and Laws be at stake They double their guards of the city the Ministers libel the pulpits and send to the Commissioner the Sunday Eve that whosoever should read the English service though in the Kings Chappel should die the death where they were observed and increasing Insolency they send several letters to each of the secret Councel to require them to take the Covenant Therein expressing the comfortable experience they have already of the wonderfull favour of God upon renewing their Confession of their Faith and Covenant their resolution and beginnings of Universal Reformation to God his great glory contentment of his Majesty blessing to the Kingdom and joy of all good subjects And doubt not that your Lordship will both subscribe to the Covenant and be promover to it in the duty of a good Patriot the Office and trust of a Privy Councellour this the time of trial of your affection to Religion the respect of your fame the eyes of men and Angels being upon your carriage the Lord Iesus a secret witnesse to observe and a Iudge hereafter to reward and confesse such men before his Father that take his part before men All and each of these call and cry to God and your Lordship in a cause of so great and singular necessity as you expect at the hour of death to be free of the terrour of God and to be refreshed with the comfortable remembrance of Christ Iesus King of Kings and Lord of Lords The Marquesse now findes this place too hot for him and removes to Dalkieth without adventuring upon the English Divine Service formerly continually used there for twenty years in audience of the Councel Nobility and Judges and here he Proclames his Maiest es gracious Declaration for relieving of their grievances and satisfying of good people in his forwardnesse for maintenance of the Religion professed in that Kingdom His aversnesse from Popery Not to presse the practise of the Service-Book and Canons but in a legal way of proceeding and had ordered the discharge of all acts and Councels concerning them and to indict a General Assembly or Convocation and Parliament to agitate the welfare of the Church and Kingdom The Covenanters afraid that this Justice and clemency might
sets forth his Proclamation and Declaration To inform his loving Subjects of the seditious practices of some in Scotland seeking the overthrow of this Royal Power under false pretext of Religion the seven and twentieth of February 1638. referring to theirs in Edinburgh the fourth of February before and therein he discovers their traiterous intentions by the multitudes of their Pamphlets and Libels against Regal Authority by their Letters to private persons inciting them against the King by their Covenanters private meetings at London and in sundry places of the Kingdom some whereof he knows and some he hath seen by their contempt and protests against his Majesties commands by their rejecting of his Covenant because commanded by him and their inducing their own into Band and Covenant of conspiracy against him and lastly by their hostile preparations of Arms. He remonstrates all the former passages of his grace clemency and indulgence towards them their undâ—tifull returns of all and now their insolencies by their erecting a Print of their own raise Arms block up and besiege his Castles tax his Subjects slight his Counsellours set up Tables Councils of their own sit by Committees of their late pretended Assembly He takes God to witness he is constrained by these their Treasons to take Arms for the safety of that and this Kingdom They refusing the Oath of Allegeance and Supermacy because they have taken their Covenant He resolves to maintain Episcopacy there and refers to a large Declaration coming forth which suddenly succeeded of all the Passages as aforementioned to that Day of the Date February 27. at White-Hall To which they answer by theirs at Edinburgh the two and twentieth of March next following under the title of An Ordinance of the General Assembly And begin with their usual Canting That though the secrets of Gods way cannot be sounded yet considering his Providence in their personal affairs the Lord is about some great Work on Earth for the Cup of affliction propined to other Reformed Kirks is now presented to them though instead of a gracious Return of their humble Petitions from time to time the Return is a late Declaration of the seven and twentieth of February last libelâ—ed against them though the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against their Cause and the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ now in question which Declaration proceeds from the unchristian Prelates and their party inserting the image of their Hierarchy into the Kings Portraict and by their unequal poise overturn the Boat of all the Passengers and the Steer-man himself to perish And in good earnest they rip up their Reasons first by their long suffering of the Prelates insolency against their Ministery purity of Doctrine their Reformation the wonderfull Work of Gods Mercy to that Nation and so most falsly seting down the aforesaid Passages to their own ends fearing Popery to be introduced and because all the particular mischiefs calamities and curses recited shall not fall upon them to prevent the after-quelling of their childrens return wherefore hath the Lord done thus and hus against then the men shall say because they have forsaken the Covenant of the Lord therefore have all these Evils come upon them And for doing any harm to England cursed be their breasts if they harbour any such thought Implore the good opinion of their well affected Brethren in England And so to conclude their War defensive they cite the Law Natural and Civil that Ad defensionem sufficit quoâ— praecedat offensa vel justus timor offensae nec debet quis expectare primum istum melius enim jura intacta servare quam post vulneratam causam remedium quaerere quando praecedunt signa actus manifestae offensionis quando aliter nosmet tueri non possumus tum inculpata necessaria diciâ—ur tutela ac in dubia insultus quicquid facit in incontinentâ— praesumitur ad sui defensionem facere It is enough for defence that the offer of offence or just fear of offence go before as we profess it to be our case at this present even the defence of God and his Religion Edinburgh the 22. of March 1639. And so you see the occasion of this War which is untruly said to be the Arch-bishops advice and we are told the reason because it was the Bishops War the Covenanters called it so by which the Historian is observed to be one and that though it was so hinted a War to maintain the Bishops Hierarchy we are assured of the truth that though their contract and Covenant against the Liturgy and Episcopacy were their chief pretencs yet not the causes Religion the Vizard to disguise Rebellions when covetousness sacrilege rapine have a chief hand then as you may reade the true occasion in the entrance of this History under this Title The Scots Interest But as the English Clergy so the Nobility and Gentty had contributed largely and raised a considerable Power under Conduct of the Earl of Arundel the Kings General the Earl of Essex Lieutenant General of the Foot and the Earl of Holland of the Horse a considerable part of the Royal Navy with plenty of Corn and Ammunition intrusted the Kings fatal oversight to the command of the Marquess Hamilton who is marked out by an Observator and that justly to have anchored with his Fleet in the Frith of Edinburgh receiving his Mothers Visit a rigid Covenanter which the Scots themselves could then interpret That the Son of such a Mother would not hurt them for there he loitered to no good purpose for the King untill that he was informed of the Treaty tending to Pacification at Barwick and then he got on Land and poasted thither on purpose to disturb the intentions or master them to his own sinister respects as you shall reade hereafter And with these Forces the King himself sets ouâ— the very day of the same Moneth of his advance to this Crown March 27. And because it was a sudden War we shall soon march to the Enemy for in April he came to York where he stayed some time being the Rendezvouz for his Army marshalling his Men and consulting also of necessary Affairs of the State and Council-table and to indulge with a Proclamation April 13. Revoking and making null sundry Grants Licences and Commissions unduly obtained upon false suggestions I shall number them to the shame of such corrupt Ministers as did not prevent them viz. against Cottages and Inmates Scriveners and Brokers several Commissions for compounding with Offenders for transporting of Butter for importing of Log-wood for selling Under-sheriffs Places for destruction of Woods in Iron-works for Concealments and Incroachments within twenty Miles of London for transporting Sheep-skins and Lamb-skins for dressing Venison Pheasants Patridges in Inns Ale-houses Ordinaries and Taverns for licensing Wine-cask Brewers transporting Lamperes And revokes several Grants viz. for weighing Hay and Straw in London and three Miles compass the Office for registring
is very memorative how hardly King James the sixth procured the Post-Nati of Scotland by which they are admitted to all dignities priviledges and offices in England must they have freeâ—dom here and must the English be debarred there o Tempora o Mores 4. How many of themselves at that instant had preferment to hereditable rites of Iudiciary and why must the King be now limited 5. The Chancellour of Scotland holds his precedency without any positive Law why not the Treasurer and Privy Seal the first branch of the Kings Crown is to distribute honours and precedencies as he please But the King having knowledge of these their Extravagancies sent to his Commissioner the Earl of Traquair to Prorogate the Parliament until the second of Iune and if they should presume to sit still then to discharge them upon pain of Treason But if they did yeeld obedience thereto his Majesty was graciously pleased to admit such persons to his presence as they should send to represent their desires and his Commissioner to repair to the King and to bring all the transactions of that Session Against this command they protest and stile it a Declaration of the Parliaments 18. December 1639. WHereas John Earl of Traquair his Majesties Commissioner having closed the Assembly and sitting in Parliament with them did now take upon him without their consent or offence to prorogate the Parliament upon a private warrant this being a new and unusual way without president in this Kingdom heretofore once being convened have continuation by the expresse consent of the Estates We therefore declare that any prorogation made by the Commissioners Grace without consent of Parliament shall be of no force and the actors to be censured in Parliament And knowing that Declarations have been published against us and our proceedings made odious to such 〈◊〉 do not consider that we are not private subjects but a sitting Parliament We therefore declare that whatsoever we might do lawfully in sitting still yet we have resolved for the present to make Remonstrance to his Majesty and some of each Estate to remain still at Edinburgh to attend his gracious Answer And if it shall happen that our malicious enemies do notwithstanding prevail against us we professe our selves free of the outrages and Insolencies that may be committed in the mean time we do our best to prevent confusion and misery And the Committee appointed to expect the Kings Answer were the Earls Lothian and Dalhouse the Lords Yester Balmerino Cranston and Naper for the Barons the Commissioners of the Lothians Fife and Twidale the Burroughs named the Commissioners of Edinburgh Lithgow Sterlin Hadington Dunbar to attend at Edinburgh the return of his Majesties Answer Their Deputies came to the King at White Hall the Earl of Dumfirmlin and the Lord Loudon but coming without warrant from the Kings Commissioner Traquair being a high contempt they were in disdain commanded home again without audience Then comes Traquair and privately consults a whole night with Hamilton and between them was framed a writing a represenration to the Councel of the most considerable matters proposed in that Parliament satisfactory enough to make the wound wider for however Traquair managed his Commission the end of the designe was to foment a war and to engage the King and for the Scots they were prepared And it is most true that a muttering there was in Court against Traquairs treachery for the Arch Bishop of St. Andrews the Bishops of Rosse and Brichen accused Traquair of High-Treason in the grosse miscarriage of his Commission in the General Assembly and Parliament and subscribed the charge the Scots law in such cases bearing poenam Talionis if they could not prove it A strange law against the secutity of Kings certainly treasonable in the making and no where else is practized but in Scotland But upon the whole matter related by Traquair the debate was whether considering the Insolency and height of their demands even in civil obedience it were not fit to reduce them to their duty Then the Question whether by the presence of the Kings Person and acting power of justice there But that was expresly opposed by arguments of policy and other reasons offered in writing with this title Shall the King go to Scotland I wish he may if with honour and safety he can but as the case stands and spirits are affected I see neither 1. THe treaty of peace is by them most falsly interpreted without any regard at all to His Majesties honour 2. The many and palpable violations of the Articles of peace are known to the King 3. It is evident what his Majesty expects at their hands for to let go all the disgraces offered to his Royal authority since the beginning of these troubles what one thing the King hath obtained of them in acknowledgement of so many favours upon their several petitions bestowed upon them 4. Their obstinate resolution to adhere in all points to their Assembly at Glasgow is undeniable witnesse their false and disgraceful glosse upon that Article of the treatie witnesse their oath of adherence to that Assembly since the peace witnesse their protestation against calling of Bishops and Arch Bishops to the Assembly witnesse the violence offered to the Clergy for not adhering to the Assembly even since the peace 5. So the Assembly now to be holden at Edinburgh shall have but one act for all and that shall be the ratification of the Assembly held at Glasgow 6. Now shall the King countenance such an Assembly the very constitution and first meeting whereof is most derogatory to the honour of his Crown while by a mutinous crew of Incendiarie Preachers and a conspiracy of Lay Elders the Prelates of the Church are by meer violence against all authority Law example or reason excluded abjured excommunicated 7. Shall the most Christian Defender of Faith countenance such a conspiracy against God his Church and himself where the most matchlesse Villany that ever was hatched shall be made piety Rebelions conscience and Treason reason all the Loyal and Orthodox Clergy banished most Ignorant and trayterous fire-brands put in their places the Supream power in Spiritual and Ecclesiastical causes violently pulled from the Crown and devolved in the hands of a mixt meeting of Ministers and Lay-men 8. It is high Treason in my minde to conceal from His Majesty that his Supremacy in Elections is in greater security for the Crown in the hands of any whosoever then in the power of such men whose pernitious maximes subjects the Crown to the pleasure of the people whom they have ever since their Reformation set on fire when they have been so pleased and stirred up to Rebellion by their seditious Sermons have countenanced all the commotions against authority in King Iames his reign and robbed the King of the hearts of his Subjects by most trayterous calumnies And now there is not one Presbytery free of Seditious Sermons even since the peace 9. Shall
the King countenance an Assembly where Episcopacy is abjured though the prophetical Government of the Church from Christ and his Apostles the onely support of the Crown and in lieu thereof an Estate erected in the Kingdom Independent from the King which rejects his Supremacy and power in Elections which holds he may be Excommunicated by their Assembly censured and deposed by their Parliament which maintains most treasonable tenets with a discipline which was never yet in a Monarchy without Rebellion 10. Shall the King go to Scotland to do against his Oath at his Coronation to doe against his royal word and promise in open and Printed Proclamations to grant that that in his Declaration he professeth to all the world he never will endure 11. Shall the King go to Scotland where he is not able by power or prayer so much as to do Justice to the oppressed to obtain peace for his own servants exiled as Traytours to their Countrey for adhering to the King to re-establish the Prelates in their places or any one Orthodox conform or Loyal Preacher or professor in any Church or Colledge of this his Native and ancient Kingdom 12. Shall the King countenance that Assembly which is onely free from Gods Laws and his own where all the members are inviolably tyed by Covenant Oath and Band in alteram partem contradiction where deliberation can have no place all parties coming with prejudice and predetermination of the businesse in question 13. And yet this Assembly thus free from all Law and authority so hardly obtained so highly honoured with his Majesties presence howsoever contrary to his conscience and honour shall be the most solemn Assembly that ever was in Scotland and that be a president for England and Ireland 14. Shall the King go to Scotland to break Laws make Laws take Laws at the pleasure of lawlesse Rebells to absolve the Traytours with what Justice to condemn the Innocent with what conscience and both with what honour this is no lesse then to lay royalty at the feet of rebellion 15. Shall the King go to Scotland to hear see and suffer the honour of his Royal Father with the integrity of whole Parliaments the equity of his Laws quarrelled and questioned by those whom his Clemency hath imboldened to all villany 16. Shall the King go to Scotland to encourage the Rebells to futher mischief to discourage all his Loyal Servants and to make it a time never to be faithful to a King hereafter this is as much as to Un-King himself with his own hands 17. Now all this and worse if worse can be shall infallibly fall out if His Majesty go to Scotland for having him in their power they shall either force his approbation of their will or use him as their prisoner for thus they served his Royal Father of happy memory 18. As they wish to be absolved from Treason and have all their Rebellious proceedings justified as fervently must they desire to have the King at home among them 19. And having the King in their power can any man think that so desperate Rebels who have gone on in all this businesse with so high a hand with such contempt of authority with such successe that they have eluded all his Majesties Councels contemned his forces frustrate his Intentions and interpreted all this as Gods blessing upon their good cause I say can any man imagine that having so fair an occasion they will be deficient to themselves and not rather attempt or do any thing to Crown all their knavery with the Kings approbation 20. Now for so Mighty a Monarch to involve himself without any necessity into such a labyrinth of misery as shall presently burst out either upon his Majesties condiscendence to the Rebels or upon his detention by them is me thinks to tempt God 21. At any rate though at the highest that can be authority must be vindicated and redeemed from contempt the life of government is reputation make sure this and the other prospers 22. What will neighbour Princes say and think of the managing of this matter wherein all the honour and eminency of Majesty consists what will not posterity abhorre in all these proceedings if Royal honour for want of Councel or courage shall become a prey to Rebellion 23. Rebellion never leaveth Authority without addition or diminution of dignity 24. Usurped Royalty was never laid down by perswasion from Royal clemency for in armis jus omne regni 25. O that there were found so much Loyalty wisdom and valour in the whole Monarchy as to suppresse the Rebells and put the King out of these straits 26. This is the sorest blow that ever our Religion received and the greatest advantage that ever our adversary had this doe all Protestants owe to the Reformation of Scotland that no Christian Prince shall hereafter trust our profession 27. The King cannot go to Scotland with honour untill the Covenant be abjured the Assembly of Glasgow renounced and all things re-established as they were before the Covenant THE VOTE And upon all It was unanimously Voted To force them to their Duty Whereupon soon after the King resolved to call a Parliament and that it was so called and appointed hereafter let no man Imagine but that besides his Councellours advice his own Inclination was most affected thereto as himself hereafter professeth After this comes four covenanting Commissioners from Scotland Dunfirmlin Loudon Sir W. Douglas Mr. Robert Berkley of Derreyn The King receives a handsom Petition with humble thanks in the general and to be heard in their further desires but absolutely refuse to appear before a Committee of the Council without the Kings own personal presence And to him Loudon makes a long Speech of the Independency of the Parliament of Scotland subject to no Iudicature A Profession of their Loyalty and Affection to the King A Iustification of their Assembly and Parliament agreeable to the Articles of Pacification the Laws and practice of the Kingdom And thereupon they desire that the King would ratifie and confirm their Proceedings and that their Parliament might proceed to determine of all the Articles or Bills brought to them to the establishing of Religion and Peace c. But the Council examining their Commission it was found short of impowring them in any consideration to oblige those that sent them onely they produced a Paper authorizing Dunfermlyn and Loudon therein but their Parliament now not sitting they could have no other and indeed to avoid their clamour it was accepted and they went on Deans answer First for a free Parliament It was answered Not to pass the bounds of the Ecclesiastick and civil Laws to fly at Monarchical Government to rob the Crown of the fairest flowers and to destroy all regal power Dean They assume that liberty by the Kings allowing of their Covenant to which his former Commissioner Hamilton had signed and other Subjects Answer That Covenant subscribed by him is the same Covenant and
Band made by King Iames the sixth 1580. obliging those mutually to assist one another at the Kings command but this Band of theirs made without the Kings consent and excepting him is a cunning Combination against and to abuse the People as if by it they were tied by Oath to joyn in Arms or Rebellion No Covenant in the whole World that ever had left out the Head or had not a Negative voice except in cases of Rebellion as this is Then they were told of their treasonable actions Their provisions of Arms. Their levying Taxes of ten Marks per centum every Mark a Hangmans wages in England thirteen pence half penny publishing seditious Papers burned by the Hangman refusing the Lord Estrich sent by the King to be Governour of Edinburgh Castle committing Outrages upon the Garrisons there Raised Fortifications against the Castle and Inchgarvy imprisoned the Lord Southeck and others for their fidelity to the King delivered up the power of Government of several Towns to a Committee which is High Treason and then to fill up the measure to the brim the King produces their own Letter to the French Kirk to call in forreign aid So then the Covenant the Articles of Perth the scandalous Paper burnt and this Letter is to be particularly expressed and somewhat to be said concerning them This Covenant was accompanied with a Supplication or Imprecation upon Record and witness to posterity against them That we the General Assembly acknowledg that there resteth nothing for crowning of his Majesties incomparable goodness towards us but that the Members of this Church and Kingdom be joyned in one and the same Confession and Covenant with God with the Kings Majesty and amongst our selves and do even declare before God and the World that we never had nor have any thought of withdrawing our selves from that humble and dutifull subjection and obedience to his Majesty and his Government which by the descent and under the Reign of an hundred and sevâ—â— Kings is most chearfully acknowledged by us and our Predecessors That we never had nor have any intention or desire to attempt any thing that may tend to the dishonour of God or diminution of the Kings greatness and authority but on the contrary acknowledg all our quietnes stability and happiness to depend upon the safety of his Majesties person and maintenance of his greatness and Royal authority as Gods Vicegerent set over us for the maintenance of Religion and Ministration of Iustice. We have solemnly sworn and do swear not onely our mutual concurrence and assistance for the cause of Religion and to the utmost of our power with our means and life to stand to the defence of our Dread Sovereign his Person and Authority in the preservation and defence of the said true Religion Liberties and Laws of this Church and Kingdom but also in every cause which may concern his Majesties honour shall according to the Laws of this Kingdom and the duty of good Subjects concurre with our Friends and Followers in quiet manner or in Arms as we shal be required of his Majesty his Council or any having his authority and therefore being most desirous to clear our selves of all imputation of this kinde and following the laudable example of our Predecessors 1589. do most humbly supplicate your gracious Majesty and the Lords of his Majesties most honourable Privy Council to injoyn by Act of Council that this Confession and Covenant which as a testimony of our fidelity to God and loyalty to our King we have inscribed be subscribed by all his Majesties Subjects of what kinde and quality soever The thirtieth of August 1639. How they have faithfully observed this National Profession let the World judg and how they have grounded their Covenant which follows God will judg of their Oath It was presented to his Majesties Commissioners by this assembly That besides many other the true and real causes of so many evils which hath troubled this Kirk and Kingdome might appear First the pressing of this Kirk by Prelates with a Service-book or Common-prayer without direction or warrant from the Kirk and contayning besides the Popish frame thereof divers Popish Errors and Ceremonies and the seed of manifold gross superstitions and Idolatry with a Book of Canons without warrant or direction from the general Assembly establishing a Tyranical power over the Kirk in the persons of Bishops and overthrowing the whole discipline and Government of the Kirk by Assemblies with a Book of consecration and ordination without warrant or authority civil or Ecclesiastical apointing Offices in the house of God which are not warranted by the word of God and repugnant to the discipline and acts of our Kirk and with the High-commission erected without the consent of this Kirk subverting the Iurisdiction and ordinary Iudicatories of this Kirk and giving to persons meerely Ecclesiastical the power of both swords and to persons meerly civil the power of the Keyes and Kirk-censâ—res A second cause was the Articles of Perth viz. The observation of festival daies kneeling at the Communion confirmation administration of the Sacraments in private places which were brought in by a Null Assembly and are contrary to the confession of faith as it was meant and subscribed anno 1580. and divers times since and to the order and constitution of this Kirk Thirdly the change of the Government of this Kirk from the assemblies of the Kirk to the persons of some Kirkmen usurping priority and power over their brethren by the way and under the name of Episcopal Government against the confession of faith 1580. against the order set down in the Book of Policy and against the intention and constitution of this Kirk from the beginning Fourthly The civil places power of Kirkmen their sitting in Session Councell and Exchequer their riding sitting voycing in Parliament and their sitting on the Bench as Iustices of peace which according to the constitutions of this Kirk are Incompatible with their spiritual function lift them up above their brethren in worldly pomp and do tend to the hindrance of the Ministry Fiftly their keeping and authorizing corrupt assemblies in Linlithgow 1606. and 1608. at Glascow 1610. at Aberdine 1616. at Saint Andrews 1617. at Perth 1618. Which are null and unlawful as being called and constitute quite contrary to the order and constitution of this Kirk received and practized ever since the reformation of Religion and withal labouring to introduce novations in this Kirk against the order and Religion established A sixt cause is the want of lawfull and free assemblies rightly constitute of Pastors Doctors and Elders yearly and oftener pro ne nata according to the liberty of this Kirk expressed in the Book of Policie and acknowledged in the act of Parliament 1592. After which the whole assembly with one heart and voyce did declare that these and such other proceedings from the neglect and breach of the Nationall
did call the Assembly pretended our humble and loyal Proceedings disorders our courses disagreeable to Monarchical Government nor the Castle of Edingburgh rendered which was onely taken for the safety of the Town of Edinburgh simply without assurance by Writ of their indempnity except for the trust we reposed in their Relation and confidence in his Majesties royal words which we believe they did not forget but will bring those which did hear the Treaty to a right remembrance thereof which Paper was onely written for that cause lest either his Majesty or his Subjects should averr that they spake any thing without a Warrant And yet the Lords of the English Council and of their party disavowed it openly at the Council-table And afterwards pag. 33. they say That the said Paper containing some of his Majesties expressions in the time of the Treaty which were put in the hands of the English and others have suffered innocently For first it was the means that brought about the Pacification and gave some satisfaction to his Majesties Subjects against certain words and clauses of the Declaration which without that Mitigation they would never have been able to digest Secondly it did bear nothing contrary to the Articles of Pacification but was a mollifying of his Majesties Declaration that it might be more readily received of the Subjects This is most untrue or else there would have been no question made of it Thirdly it had been extreme and more than imaginable impudency to put in the hands of the English Nobility a Paper professing what was openly spoken a little before in their own hearing that it might be remembered afterwards as occasion should serve and yet containing untruths and seditious Positions contrary to all that was done for Peace So it was done as they declared at the English Council-table Fourthly when there was great Murmuring and Exceptions taken at the words of the Kings Declaration our Commissioners were carefull to remember every lenifying sentence and word which proceeded from his Majesties mouth and the hearers were no less carefull to not all with their Pens which was by them related every man according as he was able to conceive And thus at first there were Relations somewhat different both in word and writ an evil very ordinary at such times till our commissioners joyning did bring all to their remembrance that neither more or less might be written than was spoken and what was written might be written to some of the English in futuram rei memoriam One thing it may be hath fallen further contrary to his Majesties desire that the Paper hath come to the knowledg of strangers which we may averr hath not been done by us and which was impossible for us to avoid for our Commissioners being about the desired Peace could not in their Relations conceal his Majesties gracious Expressions and these intended for our tranquillity coming into so many hands at home have possibly been divulged unnecessarily carried abroad contrary to our intended desires This in the simplicity of our hearts we â—o declare to be the plain truth of that which hath been before urged against us and is now so much noised and it is likely that the smoke of the fire and the hand of the hang-man have carried it to the knowledge of many who otherwise would never have known of it by the breath or hands of other And thus much concerning that Paper The Letter was written to the French King with this endorsment Au Roy To our King which in France is alwayes understood from those subjects onely to their Natural Prince Sire Vostre Majeste Cestant l'asyle sanctuaire des Princes Estates affligez c. SIR YOur Majesty being the refuge and sanctuary of afflicted Princes and States We have found it necessary to send this Gentleman Mr. Calvil to represent unto your Majesty the candor and ingenuity as well of our Actions and proceedings as of our intentions which we desire to be engraven and written to the whole world with a beam of the Sun as well as to your Majesty We therefore most humbly beseech you Sir to give Faith and Credit to him and to all that he shall say on our part touching us and our affairs being almost assured Sir of an assistance according to your wonted clemency heretofore and alwayes shewed to this Nation which will not yeeld the glory to any other whatsoever to be eternally Sir Your Majesties most humble most obedienâ— and most affectionate servants Rothes Montrose Lesly Mar Montgomery Lowdon Forrester To which the Scots make this Excuse This Letter is the Decumanus fluctus say they This is that French Letter so much talked of and insisted upon as to open a gate to let in foreign power into England which by what consequence can be inferred we would fain know when a people is sore distressed by sea and land is it not lawfull by the Law of God and Man to call for help from God and Man If there were no help nor assistance by Intercession by supply of money c. is all assistance by sword and men may not friends and equals assist as well as superiours we never had intention to prefer any foreign power to our native King whom God hath set over us The Proclamation at that time as may be seen by our Remonstrance page 34. was without example Great forces by Sea and Land were coming upon us Informations went abroad to foreign Nations to the prejudice of us and our cause This made us resolve to write unto the French King apprehending that upon sinister resolution his power might be used against us what kinde of assistance of men or mediation are best known by our Instructions ready to be seen and are signed also by the Lord Lowdons hand now in prison Ayd and assistance hath been given in former times as now in the return of our troubles upon Denmark Holland Sweden Poland or other Nations for help And when all is said or done the Letter is but an Embryo forsaken in the birth as containing some unfit expressions and not agreeable to our Instructions and therefore slighted by the subscribers Another Letter was formed consonant to the Instructions and signed by many hands but neither of them sent Their greatest trust was in their English brethren and Mr. Pickring was then and afterwards with them to assure them thereof until divers of them of better quality came there secretly and disguisedly and gave them more assurance from their party here in England and Nath. Fines the Lord Savil Mr. Cambden Mr. Lawrence and others as appeared afterwards in the petition of eleven Lords that posted to York in August 1640. and Treaty at Rippon because wee conceived it would come to late to France to avert the danger The Letter it self carrieth two tokens unperfected First That it wanted a date Secondly That it hath no superscription from us Both these are turned against us The blank date hath
Earl craved not to Answer an unexpected addition without time assigned yet the Lords prevailed and put him to a present reply 1. That he had withdrawn four and twenty thousand pounds and more from the Exchequer in Ireland and converted to his own use 2. That in the beginning of his Government the Garrisons of Ireland had been maintained by the English Treasury 3. That he had advanced popish and infamous persons as the Bishop of Waterford and others to the prime Room in the Church of Ireland Answer 1. That England was indebted to Ireland so much which he took up upon his own credit and paid it in again producing the Kings Authority and Letter for the same 2. That the Garrisons had been formerly burdensom to England which he so found and had so improved the Kings Revenues there that they were not burdensom at all 3. That he never preferred any but whom he conceived consciencious and honest not being able to prophesie of mens future conditions And for the Bishop of Waterford he hath satisfied the Law The next Day March 24. the particular Articles were inforced to each he answered in order The further Impeachment of Thomas Earl of Strafford by the Commons assembled in Parliament The first Article was not insisted upon 2. That shortly after the obtaining of a Commission dated the 21. of March in the 8. Year of his now Majesties Reign to wit the last Day of August then next following he the said Earl to bring his Majesties Liege-people into a dislike of his Majesty and of his Government and to terrifie the Iustices of the Peace from executing the Laws he the said Earl being then President of the Kings Council in the Northern parts of England and a Iustice of Peace did publickly at the Assizes held for the County of York in the City of York in and upon the said last Day of August declare and publish before the People there attending for the administration of Iustice according to the Law and in the presence of the Iustices sitting that some of the Justices were all for Law but they should finde that the Kings little finger should be heavier than the loyns of the Law Testified by Sir David Fowls and others The Earls Reply That Sir David Fowls was his profest Enemy that his words were clearly inverted that his expression was That the little finger of the Law if not moderated by the Kings gracious clemency was heavier than the Kings loyns That these were his words he verified First by the occasion of them they being spoken to some whom the Kings favour had then enlarged from Imprisonment at York as a Motive to their Thankfulness to his Majesty Secondly by Sir William Pennyman a Member of the House who was then present and heard the words Which Sir William declaring to be true the House of Commons required Iustice of the Lords against him because he had voted the Articles as a Member of the House whereupon Sir William wept 3. That the Realm of Ireland having been time out of minde annexed to the Imperial Crown of this his Majesties Realm of England and governed by the same Laws the said Earl being Lord Deputy of that Realm to bring his Majesties Liege-people of that Kingdom likewise into dislike of his Majesties Government and intending the subversion of the Fundamental Laws and settled Government of that Realm and the distraction of his Majesties Liege-people there did upon the 30. Day of September in the 9. Year of his now Majesties Reign in the City of Dublin the chief City of that Kingdom where his Majesties Privy Council and Courts of Iustice do ordinarily reside and whither the Nobility and Gentry of that Realm do usually resort for Iustice in a publick Speech before divers of the Nobility and Gentry and before the Maior Aldermen and Recorder and many Citizens of Dublin and other his Majesties Liege-people declare and publish that Ireland was a conquered Nation and that the King might do with them what he pleased and speaking of the Charters of the former Kings of England made to that City he further said that their Charters were nothing worth and did binde the King no further than he pleased Testified by the Earl of Cork and two other Lords The Earls Reply That if he had been over-liberal of his tongue for want of discretion yet could not his words amount to Treason unless they had been revealed within fourteen days as he was informed As to the Charge he said True it is he said Ireland was a conquered Nation which no man can deny and that the King is the Law-giver in matters not determined by Acts of Parliament he conceived all loyal Subjects would grant 4. That Richard Earl of Cork having sued out Process in course of Law for recovery of his Possessions from which he was put by colour of an Order made by the said Earl of Strafford and the Council-table of the said Realm of Ireland The said Earl of Strafford upon a Paper-petition without legal proceedings did the twentieth Day of February in the eleventh Year of his now Majesties Reign threaten the said Earl of Cork being then a Peer of the said Realm to imprison him unless he would surcease his Suit and said that he would have neither Law nor Lawyers dispute or question any of his Orders And the twentieth of March in the said eleventh Tear the said Earl of Strafford speaking of an Order of the said Council-table of that Realm made in the time of King James which concerned a Lease which the said Earl of Cork claimed in certain Rectories or Tithes which the said Earl of Cork alleged to be of no force said that he would make the said Earl and all Ireland know so long as he had the Government there any Act of State there made or to be made should be as binding to the Subjects of that Kingdom as an Act of Parliament And did question the said Earl of Cork in the Castle-chamber upon pretence of Breach of the said Order of Council-table and did sundry other times and upon sundry other occasions by his words and speeches arrogate to himself a Power above the Fundamental Laws and established Government of that Kingdom and scorned the said Laws and established Government The Earls Reply It were hard measure for a man to lose his Honour and his Life for an hasty word or because he is no wiser than God hath made him As for the words he confessed them to be true and thought he said no more than what became him considering how much his Masters Honour was concerned in him that if a proportionable obedience was not as well due to Acts of State as to Acts of Parliament in vain did Councils sit And that he had done no more than what former Deputies had done and than what was agreeable to his Instructions for the Council-table which he produced And that if those words were Treason they should have been revealed within
others who came over only to complain of the exorbitances and oppressions of the said Earl Testified by the Earl of Desmond the Lord Roch Marcattee and Parry The Earls Reply That the Deputy Falkland had set out the same Proclamation That the same Restraâ—nt was contained in the Statute of 25 of Henry 6. upon which the Proclamation was founded That he had the Kings express Warrant for the Proclamation That he had also power to do it by the Commission granted him and that the Lords of the Council and three Justices not onely yielded but pressed him unto it That it was done upon just cause for had the Ports been open divers would have taken liberty to go to Spain to Doway Rhemes or Saint Omers which might have prooved of mischievous consequence to the State That the Earl of D' Esmond stood at the time of his Restraint charged with Treason before the Council of Ireland for practising against the Life of one Sir Valentine Coke That the Lord Roch was then a Prisoner for Debt in the Castle of Dublin and therefore incapable of a Licence That Par ry was not sined for coming over without Licence but for several Contempts against the Council-board in Ireland and that in his Sentence he had but onely a casting Voice as the Lord Keeper in the Star chamber The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Articles were not insisted upon 19. That the said Earl having taxed and levyed the said impositions and raised the said Monopolies and committed the said oppressions in his Majesties name and as by his Majesties Royal command he the said Earl in May the fifteenth year of his Majesties reign did of his own authority contrive and frame a new and unusual oath by the purport whereof among many other things the party taking the said oath was to swear that he should not protest against any of his Majesties Royal commands but submit themselves in all obedience thereunto Which oath he so contrived to enforce the same on the subjects of the Sâ—oâ—ish Nation inhabiting in Ireland and out of a hatred to the said Nation and to put them to a discontent with his Majesty and his Government there and compelled divers of his Majesties said subjects there to take the said oath some he grievously fined and imprisoned and others he destroyed and exiled and namely the 10. of October Ann. Dom. 1639. he fined Henry Steward and his wife who refused to take the said oath five thousand pounds a peece and their two daughters and James Gray three thousand pounds a peece and imprisoned them for not paying the said fines The said Henry Stewards wife and daughters and James Gray being the Kings liege people of the Scotish Nation and divers others he used in the like manner and the said Earl upon that occasion did declare that the said oath did not only oblige them in point of allegiance to his Majesty and acknowledgement of his supremacy only but to the Ceremonies and Government of the Church established or to be established by his Majesties royal Authority and said that the refusers to obey he would prosecute to the bloud The Earls Reply That the Oath was not violently enjoyned by him upon the Irish Scots but framed in compliance with their own express Petition which Petition is owned in the Proclamation as the main Impulsive to it That the same Oath not long after was prescribed by the Council of England That he had a Letter under his Majesties own hand ordering it to be prescribed as a Touch-stone of their Fidelity As to the greatness of the Fine imposed upon Steward and others he conceived it was not more than the heinousness of their offence deserved yet had they petitioned and submitted the next day that would wholly have been remitted 20. That the said Earl in the fifteenth and sixteenth Years of his Majesties Reign and divers Years past laboured and endeavoured to beget in his Majestie an ill opinion of his Subjects namely those of the Scotish Nation and divers and sundry times and especially since the Pacification made by his Majestie with his said Subjects of Scotland in Summer in the fifteenth Year of his Majesties Reign he the said Earl did labour and endeavour to perswade incite and provoke his Majesty to an Offensive War against his said Subjects of the Scotish Nation and the said Earl by his counsel actions and endeavours hath been and is a chief Incendiary of the War and Discord between his Majesty and his Subjects of England and the said Subjects of Scotland and hath declared and advised his Majesty that the Demand made by the Scots in this Parliament were a sufficient cause of War against them The said Earl having formerly expressed the height and rancour of his minde towards his Subjects of the Scotish Nation viz. the tenth Day of October in the fifteenth Year of his Majesties Reign he said that the Nation of the Scots were Rebells and Traitours and he being then about to come to England he then further said that if it pleased his Master meaning his Majesty to send him back again he would root out of the said Kingdom meaning the Kingdom of Ireland the Scotish Nation both Root and Branch Some Lords and others who had taken the said Oath in the precedent Article onely excepted And the said Earl hath caused divers of the said Ships and Goods of the Scots to be staied seized and molested to the intent to set on the said War The Earls Reply That he called all the Scotish Nation Traitours and Rebells no one proof is produced and though he is hasty in speech yet was he never so defective of reason as to speak so like a mad man for he knew well his Majesty was a Native of that Kingdom and was confident many of that Nation were of as heroick spirits and as faithfull and loyal Subjects as any the King had As to the other words of rooting out the Scots both Root and Branch he conceives a short Reply may serve they being proved by a single â—estimony onely which can make no sufficient faith in case of Life Again the Witness was very much mistaken if not worse for he deposeth that these words were spoken the tenth day of October in Ireland whereas he was able to evidence he was at that time in England and had been so near a Moneth before The one and twentieth and two and twentieth Artâ—cles were not urged 23. That upon the thirteenth Day of April last the Parliament of England met and the Commons House then being the Representative Body of all the Commons in the Kingdom did according to the trust reposed in them enter into Debate and Consideration of the great Grievances of this Kingdom both in respect of Religion and the publick Libertie of the Kingdom and his Majestie referring chiefly to the said Earl of Strafford and the Arch-bishop of Canterbury the ordering and disposing of all matters concerning the Parliament he the said Earl of
to his Son Sir Harry Vane a Key to fetch some Papers out of a Cabiner in which he findes another Key to an inward Shutter which he opens and lighted upon these Notes who forthwith shews them to Master Pym and that afternoon occasioned a Conference with the Lords to whom he urges the Commons former Request that the Earl might answer to new Proofs referring to the three and twentieth Article and were grounded upon these Notes which he then produced and that the Commons desired that the Earl might answer to them the next Day at the Bar in Westminster-hall which was granted April the thirteenth he appeared and the Notes were read upon this ground No danger of a War with Scotland if Offensive not Defensive Then their several Opinions which he collected in brief with Nominal Letters for each Counsellours Name thus K. C. H. How can we undertake Offensive War if we have no more money L. L. IR. Borrow of the City an hundred thousand pounds Go on vigorously to levy Ship-money Your Majesty having tried the affections of your People you are absolved and loose from all Rules of Government and to do what power will admit Your Majesty hath tried all ways and being refused shall be aquitted before God and Man and you have an Army in Ireland that you may imploy to reduce this Kingdom to obedience for I am confident the Scots cannot hold out five Moneths L. Arch. You have tried all ways and have always been denied it is now lawfull to take it by force L. Cot. Leagues abroad there may be made for the defence of the Kingdom The Lower House are weary of the King and Church All ways shall be just to raise Moneys in this inevitable necessity and are to be used being lawfull L. Arch. For an Offensive not any Defensive War L. L. Ir. The Town is full of Lords put the Commission of Array on foot and if any of them stir we will make them smart The Earls Reply That being a Privy-counsellour he conceived he might have the freedom to vote with others his opinion being as the Exigent required it would be hard measure for Opinions resulting from such Debates to be prosecuted under the notion of Treason And for the main hint suggested from his words The King had an Army in Ireland which he might imploy here to reduce this Kingdom He answereth That it is proved by the single Testimony of one Man Secretary Vane not being of validity in Law to create Faith in a Case of Debt much lesse in Life and Death That the Secretaries Deposition was very dubious for upon two Examinations he could not remember any such words And the third time his Testimonie was various but that I should speak such words or the like and words may be very like in sound but differ in sense as in the words of my charge here for there and that for this puts an end to the Controversie There were present at this Debate but eight Privy-counsellours in all two are not to be produced the Arch-bishop and Windebank but Sir Harry Vane affirms the words I deny them then there remain four for further evidence viz. the Marquis Hamilton the Earl of Northumberland the Lord Treasurer and the Lord Cottington who have all declared upon their Honours that they never heard me speak those words nay nor the like Lastly suppose though I granted it not that I spake those words yet cannot the word this rationally imply England because the Debate was not cerning Scotland as is yielded on all hands because England was not out of the way of obedience as the Earl of Clare well observed and because there was never any the least intention of landing the Irish Army in England as the aforesaid Lords of the Privy-council are able to attest And having done the Lord High Steward asked him if he had any more to say in his own defence for the Court was willing to prepare matters for Judgment To which he made a summary Repetition of his several Defences And having ended he spake thus My Lords THere remaines another kind of Treason that I should be guilty of for endeavouring to subvert the Fundamental Laws of the Land That this should be Treason together that is not Treason in one part a Treason accumulative that when all will not do it alone being weaved up with others it should do it seems very strange Under favour my Lords I conceive there is neither Statute nor Common Law which doth declare this endevouring to subvert the Fundamental Laws of the Land to be high Treason for I have been diligent in the inquiry as you know it deeply concerns me and could never discover it It is hard to be questioned for life and honour upon a Law that cannot be shewn for it is a rule in Sir Edward Coke De non apparentibus non existentibus eadem est ratio Ihesu Where hath this fire lain hid so many hundreds of years without smoak to discover it till it thus burst forth to consume me and my children That punishment should precede promulgation of a law to be punished by a law subsequent to the Fact is extreme hard what man can be safe if this be admitted My Lords it is hard in another respect that there should be no token set by which we should know this offence no admonition by which we should avoid it If a man pass the Thames in a boat and split himself upon an Anchor and no Buoy be floting to discover it he who â—weth the Anchor shall make satisfaction but if a Buoy 〈◊〉 sot there every man passeth upon his own peril Now where is this mark where the token upon this Crime to declare it to be high Treason My Lords be pleased to give that regard to the Peerage of England as never to expose your selves to such moot-points such constructive interpretations of Laws If there must be a tryal of wits let the subject matter be of somewhat else than the lives and honours of Peers It will be wisdome for your selves for your posterity and for the whole Kingdom to cast into the fire these bloudy and mysterious volumes of constructive and arbitrary Treason as the Primitive Christians did their Books of curious Arts and betake your selves to the plain letter of the Law and Statute that telleth us what is and what is not Treason without being more ambitious to be more learned in the art of Killing than our fore-fathers It is now full 240. years since any man was touched for this alleged Crime to this height before my self let us not awaken these sleeping Lyons to our destruction by taking up a few musty Records that have lain by the walls so many ages forgotten or neglected May your Lordships please not to add this to my other misfortunes for my other sins be-slave me not for Treason Let not a president be desired from me so disadvantagious as this will be in the consequence to the whole Kingdom
the field Observations upon his History The Historian replies Observator observed The Observator Rescued and Rejoynes And the Historian at a Non-plus his friend even Squire Sanderson as the man that mediates for him The Interim took up the Kings time in doubt what answer to return to his subjects a discontented people Himself their Soveraign troubled with a distracted conscience They for Justice He for Mercy In this perplexity saies the Historian the King consults with feur Bishops the sunday morning desiring them as Casuists to advice him what course to steer between these twog â—eat Rocks c. That three of them urged the opinion of the Judges and the votes of Parliament c. That they advised yea partly perswaded his Majesty though not fully convinced to pass the Bill But the motive to all he saies was a Letter to the King from the Earl himself that very day viz. Sir To set your Majesties conscience at liberty c. more of this hereafter But this Observator enforceth reasons That the Bishops were not sent for but sent to the King by the Parliament to inform his conscience and bring him to yeild to the Bill who consulted rather their own ends And names them the Primate of Armagh the Bishops of Lincoln Durham and Carlile the two last unskilled depended wholly on the other two and those two as the Parliament knew full well carried a sharp tooth against the Lord Lieutenant upon former grudges that of the Primate for abrogating of the Articles of Religion established in the Church of Ireland and setting in their place the Articles of the Church of England and because Doctor Bromel once chaplain to the Lord Lieutenant then Bishop of Derrie had opposed most in it c. That of the Bishop of Lincoln on whom was the most dependance of worse affections than the other c. The Historian replies in his observator observed page 41 That the Bishops were not sent to the King but sent for by the King That they were five not four Bishops That if any of them depended on the Iudgment of others it was the Bishop of London who at the last meeting spake not a syllable That Durham and Carlile spake as freely as any other That the Lord Primate had no sharp tooth against the Lieutenant and instances in that of the Articles of Ireland which were never abrogated and produces this Certificate of two Doctors of Divinity We who were present at and Members of the Convocation holden at Dublin Anno. 1634. do hereby testifie That upon the proposal of the first Canon wherein for the manifestation of our agreement with the Church of England in the confession of the same Christian faith and doctrine of the Sacraments as was then expressed wee did receive and approve the Book of Articles of Religion agreed upon in the Convocation holden at London Anno 1562. One of the Assembly stood up and desired that the other Book of Articles agreed upon in the Convocation holden at Dublin Anno 1615. should be joyned therewith Unto whom it was then answered that this addition was altogether needless that Book having been already sufficiently ratified by the decrees of the former Synod But that the least motion was then or there made for the suppressing of those Articles of Ireland hath no truth at all in it And therefore the Observator and whosoever else hath or doth aver that the said Articles either were abolished or any motion made for the suppressing or abolishing of them are grosly mistaken and have abused the said Convocation in delivering so manifest an untruth The eighteenth of March 1655. Nicholas Bernard Samuel Pullen And to prove no discontent between the Primate and Earl he remarks That before his sentence He did advise with the Primate concerning his defence And after sentence the Earl desired that the Primate might serve him in his ministerial office in his last and fatal extremity who prayed with him sent Messages to the King by him took him by the hand and led him to the Scaffold That there was never any controversie in that Synod of Ireland between the Primate and the Bishop of Derrie concerning the Articles That the King pressing the Judges to declare any particular Article which if proved was treason could not extort from them one single instance but that the Earl was guilty upon the whole matter So much saies the Historian The Observator is rescued with witty Arguments to make good his defence in justification of what he had said before concerning the Bishops in which he puts himself upon a very unhandsome expression is it likely saies he c. that the King would confide in Potter Bishop of Carlile a man of so much want and weakness concluding the Historians Ipse dico no proof at all And so keeping the field the Historian appears no more But the Observator having dispatched that adversary he finds out another and indeavours to be rescued from the back blowes of Dr. Barnard Indeed if there were any they could be no other for the Author there turned the back not the face being an Anonymus and so appeared in that disguised for he that smote a Clergie Man without his Priestly habit was thereby excused A man that walks in the dark may meet with a knock by such as mean him no harm for the Doctors aim was if I mistake not from his apprehension of the Authors disaffection to the Primate of Ireland endeavouring to blemish that worthy Prelate of our Church in some particulars following and gave it then suspected by the Arch-Bishop himself and others to be some Agent of the See of Rome though as yet not any one of them hath moved his tongue against this Isralite at his exile hence And wee may be sorry to see his sole enemies to be those of his own house in profession that out of themselves should arise Men speaking perverse things such pen and tongue combates are gratefull to none but to the grand adversary of us all It comes in my way by calm endeavours and command of the dead to vindicate him that holy Prelate and to compose what relates to him on either side specially in these two mistakes concerning the Articles of Ireland and the scandal put upon him in relation to the Earl of Straffords death as I have received it from himself and others and charged upon me to publish which was long since prepared by it self but after conceived more convenient to be inserted in this history First for the Articles of Religion established in the Church of Ireland Anno. 1615. and pretended to be abrogated Anno. 1634. it so far onely concerns the late Primate as being chosen by the Synode to draw them up which was no more a Scandal to them than for King Iames his sending into Ireland the Articles of Lambeth as the Author tells us were to those Indeed Dr. Heylen in his History of the Sabbath pag. 2. Cap. 8. hath
taken a latitude in affirming that the whole Book of Articles of Ireland was called in and in the place thereof the Articles of the Church of England confirmed by Parliament in that Kings name Anno. 1634. whom the Observator hath followed in the like terms pag. 241. and so both imagined to be from the same Person for there was no such motion made and indeed no likelyhood to have taken place there being then so many Papists of both Houses who would have received neither For the further clearing of which this part of a Letter will evidence being written by the late Primate in Answer to an Honourable person of this Kingdom upon the first coming forth of that Book As for Dr. Heylens relation concerning our Articles of Ireland it is much mistaken For first where he saith they did pass when his Majesties Commissioners were imployed about the settling of the Church Anno. 1615. and chargeth them with this strict aâ—sterity as he termeth it in the prescript and observation of the Lords day he sheweth himself very weak there having been no such Commissioners here at that time and our Articles having been published in Print divers years before that the Commissioners whom he meaneth came hither as Sir Nathaniel Rich who was one of them himself can sufficiently inform you Secondly where he saith he is sure that till that time the Lords day had never attained such credit as to be thought an Article of faith he speaks very idely He that would confound the ten Commandements whereof this must be accounted for one unless he will leave us but nine with the Articles of the faith had need be put to learn his Catechism again and he that would have every thing which is put into the Articles of Religion agreed upon in the Synod for the avoyding of diversity of opinions and for the maintenance of peace and uniformity in the Church to be held for an Article of the faith should do well to tell us whether he hath as yet admitted these two here instanced were not by way of diminution for he did highly approve of both as being most excellent composures but because they are either for the most part to be reckoned among the Agenda rather than the Credenda or that in both there are some circumstantials observed and exhorted unto onely for decency and order according to the wisdom of the Church which come not within the compass of the Creed as upon the view of them without descending to Particulars may easily appear the Book of the Ordination of Bishops and the two volums of Homilies into his creed for sure I am he shall finde these in the Articles of Religion agreed upon in the Synod held at London 1562. To which Dr. Heylin himself having subscribed I wonder with what face he can oppose the conclusion which he findeth directly laid down in the Homily of the time and place of prayer in the fourth Commandement God hath given express charge to all men that upon the Sabbath day which is now our Sunday for these are the plain words of the Homily which the Doctor with all his sophistry will never be able to elude they shall cease from all week-day labour to the intent that like as God himself wrought six daies and rested the seventh and blessed it and Sanctified it and consecrated it to quietness and rest from labour even so Gods obedient people should use the Sunday and rest from their common and dayly business and also give themselves wholly to heavenly exercise of Gods true Religion and service By the verdict of the Church of England I am sure the Lords day had attained such a pitch of credit as nothing more could be left to the Church of Ireland in their Articles afterward to adde unto it Thirdly he shameth not to affirm that the whole book of the Articles of Ireland is now called in which is a notorious untruth and lastly the Articles of the Church of England were confirmed by Parliament in this Kingdom Anno. 1634. which it is well known that they were not so much as once propounded to either house of Parliament or ever intended to be propounded the truth is that the house of convocation in the beginning of their Canons for the manifestation of their agreement with the Church of England in the confession of the same Christian faith and the Doctrine of the Sacraments as they themselves profess and for no other end in the world did receive and approve of the Articles of England but that either the Articles of Ireland were ever called in or any Articles or Canons at all were ever here confirmed by act of Parliament may well be reckoned among Dr. Heylins fancies who sheweth how little credit he deserveth in his Geography when he bringeth us news of the remote parts of the world that telleth us so many untruths of things so lately and so publiquely acted in his neighbour nation Now although this of that most Reverend Primate writ many years since with the said Certificate of Dr. Barnard and Dr. Pullein may be satisfactory that the said Articles were not repealed or abrogated for we must keep the Authors own terms who is so precise that he hath at large contended for it yet I shall further confirm it by this brief Narrative of the whole matter as I had it from such as were present First in the house of the Clergie which was then in the Cathedral of St. Patricks Dublin there was a motion made for the reception a new of the Articles of Ireland and all unanimous were for the affirmative excepting two who went out Another time the whole house of the Clergie being called into the Quire where the Bishops sat and the same thing again propounded to them they all stuck to their former vote excepting seven The intent of the whole Clergie being by this sufficiently understood and it appearing there was no need of any such confirmation having been Anno. 1615. fully and formally established that motion was no more repealed only the Primate was consulted conâ—erning the approving and receiving of the Articles of England also to which he readily consented therein being no substantial difference between them which he had subscribed himself voluntarily long before in England and conceiving it to be without any prejudice to the other Hereupon the first Canon being all that was done in relation to them was drawn up the Primate approved it and proposed it himself as president of the Synod in the House of the Bishops commended it to the House of the Clergie where by his motion many assented the more readily they all gave their Votes man by man excepting one person who suspended his out of the suspition that some might make that construction which is the Observators conclusion to whose Arguments somewhat may be answered His chief is from the words of the Canon where they do not onely approve but receive the Articles of England from this must infer a super inducing
Covent-garden when a Messenger coming to him from his Majesty he answered that he was then as he saw imployed in Gods service which as soon as he had done he would attend upon the King to understand his pleasure But the King spending the whole After-noon in the serious debate of the Earl of Strafford's case with the Lords of the Council and the Iudges of the Land he could not before Evening be admitted to his Majesties presence when the Question was again agitated Whether the King in justice might pass the Bill of Attainder against the Earl of Strafford For that he might shew mercy to him was no question at all no man doubting but that the King without any scruple of conscience might have granted him pardon if other reasons of State in which the Bishops were neither made Iudges nor Advisers did not hinder him the whole result therefore of the determination of the Bishops was to this effect That herein the Matter of Fact and the Matter of Law were to be distinguished that of the Fact he himself might make a Iudgment having been present at all the proceedings against the said Lord where if upon the hearing of the allegations on either side he did not coâ—ceive him guilty of the crime wherewith he was charged he could not in justice condemn him But for the Matter of Law what was Treason and what was not he was to rest in the Opinion of the Iudges whose office it was to declare the Law and who were sworn therein to carry themselves indifferently betwixt him and his Subjects which gave his Majesty occasion to complain of the bad dealing of the Iudges with him not long before that having earnestly pressed them to declare in particular what point of the Earls charge they adjudged to be Treason for as much as upon the hearing of the proof produced he might in his conscience perhaps finde him guiltless of that Fact he could not by any means draw them to name any particular but that upon the whole matter Treason might justly be charged upon him And in the second Meeting at night it was observed that the Bishop of London spake nothing at all and the Bishop of Lincoln not onely spake but sent a Writing into the Kings hands wherein what was contained the rest of his Brethren knew not So much writes the Arch-bishop Some of these passages are dispersed in the Observatour observed but not credited by the Authour of the Observatour rescued receiving it onely upon the Historians bare affirmation but by this Testimony it may be hoped he will be of more moderation notwithstanding he hath there shewn much disaffection to the Primate in endeavouring to his utmost to evade divers of those particulars either in giving the worst sense of them or turning them to other ends wherein he doth not onely obscurely fall upon this reverend Primate but injuriously detracts from a very worthy man Doctour Potter Bishop of Carlile and that after his death Dr. Cosens hath given him a better Example who heaâ—ing in France of the Primate's Funeral and what had been then said of this subject writes thus to his Friend I am glad to hear my Lord of Armagh was carried with so much honour to his Grave who yet deserved far more than was given him I never believed that he perswaded the King to put the Deputy of Ireland to death for he satisfied me against the common Report in that matter long since himself the world will hereafter know who it was c. Neither do I finde any thing in the late Kings Book in that Meditation as followeth concerning the Earl of Strafford that hath any such necessary inference that way either as to him or any of his Profession And for the note put upon the person to be one that had been harrased and crushed by the people I see not how it might be appliable to him his loss being by that Rebellion in Ireland and by the Parliament here he had an Allowance and had more esteem from â—â—em than others of his Profession What the Observatour took upon trust in some mistaken Notes given him of Doctour Bernard's Sermon concerning this subject â—â—er the spending some sharp language upon him he puts afterwards into Errata of Advertisements and Additions and so I pass it over So then thus far we may be satisfied There were but four Bishops at the first London Lincoln Durham and Carlile and at night five Bishops the Arch-bishop of Armagh making one the judgment of the Judges and the opinion of the Bishops formerly set down answer in effect to the controverted Disputes But it seems from all the Controversions to be thus concluded that the Kings former promise to save the Earl was at last and that absolutely the Kings desire to be satisfied therein whereupon say I the Bishop of Lincoln finding the Kings pulse to beat upon that string and knowing that four days before not that morning the Earl had writ a long Letter to the King concluding to solve his Majesty from that promise this Bishop Lincoln took upon him to tell the King that morning when Armagh was not present that if that were all he was confident that the Earl was so great a Lover of his Majesties peace and tender of his conscience and the Kingdoms safety as willingly to acquit the King of that promise To which the King gave a brow of anger as if thereby to be ensnared and so the four Bishops parted Upon this Lincoln in private speaks with the Lieutenant of the Tower or rather some other person who was at hand waiting the Kings pleasure and cunningly relates to him so much of the morning conference and the mâ—â—ner as might suit with his purpose that nothing stuck with his Majâ—sty but his promise to the Earl and that under his hand So then says he if when my Lord Strafford sendeth to you and asketh what is done concerning him you may acquaint him therewith I know the Earl of Strafford Lord Lieutenant of Ireland will disdain to hold his life upon no other merit but a bare promise and if all the service he hath done be not a stronger obligation than a few words he will I dare say to try the Kings affection soon acquit him of that promise And as the Devil and he would have it so it happened for the throbbing Prisoner inquisitive concerning his doom the Lieutenant or the other person told him that the King was satisfied of his guilt in Law and was onely bound up by his promise to your Lordship At which the Earl started up out of his Chair immediately calls for Pen and Paper Nay said he if that be all that bindes the King I shall soon release him and presently fell to writing say some that short Letter that same morning which the Historian pag. 257. minceth into a particle of the whole and begins â—â—at the last Paragraph in these words SIR To set your Majesty c. But I say otherwise
for that Letter which he means was 〈◊〉 five days before Yet the Earl intending to say more than had been writ in some passion he cast away the Pen and out of his Cabinet drew that Paper-promise under the Kings hand intrusting it to the Lieutenant or to that other person for the King whether sealed up or open I cannot say and this is the Paper which the Primate doth mention that Lincoln put into the Kings hand But the Letter before spoken of was very long and written to the KIng upon the Citizens Tumult at Westminster And it was thus May it please your Majesty It hath been my greatest grief in all these Troubles to be taken as a person which should endeavour to represent and set things amiss between your Majesty and your People and to give Councils tending to the disquiet of the three Kingdoms Most true it is that this mine own private condition considered it had been a great madness since through your gracious favour I was so provided as not to expect in any kinde to mend my fortune or please my minde more than by resting where your bounteous hand had placed me Nay it is most mightily mistaken for unto your Majesty it is well known my poor and humble advices concluded still in this that your Majesty and your people could never be happy till there were a right understanding betwixt you and them no other means to effect and settle this happiness but by the counsel and assâ—â—â— of the Parliament or to prevent the growing evils upon this State â—ut by intirely putting your self in your last resort upon the loyalty and good affections of your English Subjects Yet such is my misfortune this truth findeth little credit the contrary seemeth generally to be believed and my self reputed as something of separation between you and your people under a heavier censure than which I am perswaded no Gentleman can suffer Now I understand the minde of men are more incensed against me notwithstanding your Majesty hath declared that in your princely opinion I am not guilty of Treason nor are you satisfied in your conscience to pass the Bill This bringeth me into a very great strait there is before me the ruine of my Children and Family hitherto untouched in all the branches of it with any foul crimes Here is before me the many ills which may befall your sacred person and the whole Kingdom should your self and the Parliament part less satisfied one with the other than is necessary for the preservation of King and people Here are before me the things most valued most feared by mortal man Life or Death To say Sir that there hath not been a strife in me were to make me less than God knoweth mine infirmities give me And to call a destruction upon my self and young children were the intentions of my heart at least have been innocent of this great offence may be believed will finde no easie content to flesh and bloud But with much sadness I am come to a resolution of that which I take to be best becoming me to look upon that which is most principal in it self which doubtless is the prosperity of your sacred person and the Common-wealth infinitely before any private mans interest And therefore in few words as I put my self wholly upon the honour and justice of my Peers so clearly as to beseech your Majesty might please to have spared that Declaration of yours on Saturday last and intirely to have left me to their Lordships So now to set your Majesties conscience c. at liberty I do most humbly beseech you for the preventing of such mischief as may happen by your refusal to pass the Bill by this means to remove praised be God I cannot say this accursed but I confess this unfortunate thing forth of the way towards that blessed Agreement which God I trust shall for ever establish betwixt you and your Subjects Sir my consent herein shall more acquit you to God than all the World can do besides To a willing man there is no injury done And as by Gods grace I forgive all the World so Sir I can give up the Life of this World with all chearfulness imaginable in the just acknowledgment of your exceeding favours and onely beg that in your goodness you would vouchsafe to cast your gracious regard upon my poor Son and his Sisters less or more and no otherwise than their unfortunate Father shall appear more or less guilty of his death God long preserve your Majesty Your Majesties most humble and faithfull Subject and Servant STRAFFORD Tower May 4. 1641. But then this Letter you see was dated five days before the ninth day of May which was Sunday So that the account stands thus Saturday May the first the Kings Speech to both the Houses in defence of the Earl of Strafford Munday 3. The Tumult of the Citizens at Westminster crying out for justice against the Earl Tuesday 4. The said Letter was writ from the Earl to the King mentioning the Kings Speech on Saturday last Wednesday 5. The Lords laid aside the Bill of Attainder because it brought the King in as a Judge and consulted to fall upon several Articles of his Accusation Thursday 6. The Lords voted him guilty of high Treason and the Commons as busie about the Bill for continuation of the Parliament Saturday 8. Both Bills were presented to the King who promised his Answer on Munday after Sunday 9. The conference with the Bishops At the close of which and at parting at night the Bishop of Lincoln having gotten that Paper-promise under the Kings hand from the Lieutenant of the Tower or from that other person sent it or put it into the Kings hands These passages made it late on Sunday night And the next morning Munday the tenth of May he was solicited early from both Houses with those two Bills which the King signed and commissioned the Earl of Arundel the Lord Privy Seal the Lord Chamberlain and others for the passing of them the one for the continuation of the Parliament during the pleasure of the two Houses the other the Bill of Attainder against the Earl of Strafford at one time the same instant with the same Pen and Ink the King lost his Prerogative and Strafford's life also Corruptio unius generatio alterius But because we may not censure without the Book see what the King says giving his Reasons which enforced him to the signing of both these Bills and first as in order upon his passing the Bill for the Triennial Parliament and after settling this during the pleasure of the two Houses THat the world saies the King might be fully confirmed in My purposes at first to contribute what in Iustice Reason Honour and Conscience I could to the happie success of this Parliament which had in Mee no other design but the General good of My Kingdoms I willingly passed the Bill for Triennial Parliaments which as gentle and seasonable Physick
oppressing theirs nor were those Lords and Gentlemen which assisted me so prodigal of their Liberties as with their Lives and Fortunes to help on the enslaving of themselves and their Posterities As to Civil Immunities none but such as desire to drive on their ambitious and covetous Designs over the Ruines of Church and State Prince Peers and People will ever desire greater Freedoms than the Laws allow whose Bounds good men count their Ornament and Protection others their Manacles and Oppression Nor is it just any man should expect the Reward and Benefit of the Law who despiseth its Rule and Direction losing justly his Safetie while he seeks an unreasonable Libertie Time will best inform my Subjects that those are the best Preservers of their true Liberties who allow themselves the least licentiousness against or beyond the Laws They will feel it at last to their cost that it is impossible those men should be really tender of their Fellow-subjects Libertie who have the hardness to use their King with so severe Restraints against all Laws both Divine and Humane under which yet I will rather perish than complain to those who want nothing to complete their mirth and triumph but such Musick In point of true consciencious tenderness attended with humilitie and meekness not with proud and arrogant activitie which seeks to hatch every Egg of different opinion to a Faction or Schism I have oft declared how little I desire my Laws and Scepter should intrench on Gods Sovereigntie which is the onely King of mens consciences and yet he hath laid such Restraints upon men as command them to be subject for conscience sake giving no men libertie to break the Law established further than with meekness and patience they are content to suffer the Penalties annexed rather than perturb the publick Peace The truth is some mens thirst after Novelties others despair to relieve the Necessities of their Fortunes or satisfie their Ambition in peaceable times distrusting Gods Providence as well as their own merits were the secret but principal Impulsives to these popular Commotions by which Subjects have been perswaded to expend much of those plentifull Estates they got and enjoyed under my Government in peaceable times which yet must now be blasted with all the odious Reproaches which impotent malice can invent and my self exposed to all those Contempts which may most diminish the Majestie of a King and increase the ungratefull Insolencies of my People For mine Honour I am well assured that as mine Innocencie is clear before God in point of any Calumnies they object so my Reputation shall like the Sun after Owls and Bats have had their freedom in the Night and darker times rise and recover it self to such a degree of splendour as those feral Birds shall be grieved to behold and unable to bear For never were any Princes more glorious than those whom God hath suffered to be tried in the Fornace of Afflictions by their injurious Subjects And who knows but the just and mercifull God will do me good for some mens hard false and evil speeches against me wherein they speak rather what they wish than what they believe or know Nor can I suffer so much in point of Honour by those rude and scandalous Pamphlets which like Fire in great conflagrations flie up and down to set all places in like flames as those men do who pretending to so much pietie are so forgetfull of their Dutie to God and me By no way ever vindicating the Majestie of their King against any of those who contrary to the Precept of God and President of Angels speak evil of Dignities and bring railing Accusations against those who are honoured with the name of Gods But 't is no wonder if men not fearing God should not honour their King They will easily contemn such Shadows of God who reverence not that Supreme and Adorable Majestie in comparison of whom all the glorie of Men and Angels is but obscuritie yet hath he graven such Characters of Divine Authoritie and Sacred Power upon Kings as none may without sin seek to blot them out Nor shall their black Veils be able to hide the shining of my Face while God gives me an heart frequently and humbly to converse with him from whom alone are all the Irradiations of true Glorie and Majestie There was ever and anon some occasions offered in the Commons House against Bishops and I finde one Master Thomas to start up in confirmation of what was said there before when they voted the Bishops out of the Upper House and now he explains himself whose Speech in some Points may be observed He takes a View and Examination of all the former Actions of Bishops in Parliament from the Year 1116. to this this time in the several Reigns of three and twenty Kings and Queens of this Kingdom how obnoxious they have been to Prince and People and therefore not fit or convenient that they should continue Members of the Higher House in which they have been said he so disloyally and traiterously affected to Regality and no less mischievous and pernicious to Church and Common-wealth Then he ravels into all foreign Records whereout he could pick any personal Delinquency of any Bishop and from thence falls upon such others in the Reigns of English Sovereigns But as to their Interest in Parliament he acknowledges them from the first Parliament Anno 1116. but he would have them now considered not an fuerunt but an profuerunt and so not to debate an factum but an fieri debuit if bad the longer the worse Antiquity without Truth is but ancient Errour for Henry 1. an Usurper upon Robert his elder Brother admitted them in the Upper House to justifie hisTitle to the Crown They advanced King Stephen another Usurper though they had formerly sworn to Maud the Empress endeavouring to salve it by bringing in the Salique Law into this Kingdom And tells the story of Thomas Becket against Henry 2. that although the Papists adored him as a Saint Martyr yet the Doctours in Paris did debate whether he were damned therefore avowing that he deserved Damnation for his Contumacy towards the King being the Minister of God That Bishop Longchamp Governour or Viceroy for Richard 1. absent in the Holy War Rex Sacerdos who for his Sacrilege and barbarous Misdemeanours being taken in Womans Apparel velâ—t delicata Muliercula was banished And remember the story of the Bishop of Bavois in France taken Prisoner in his Coat of Mail was by that King sent to the Pope with a Vide an tunica filii tui sit an non That Arch-bishop Hubert advanced the Usurper King Iohn rejecting Arthur his eldest Brothers Son and yet at last deprived Iohn of his Life and Kingdom But herein Mr. Thomas is mistaken for Hubert died ten years before King John That Henry 3. and his eldest Son the Prince were forced by Stephen Arch-bishop of Canterbury to swear to be governed by four and twenty Noble-men
all Irish Papists many of the chief Commanders now in the Head of the Rebells have been licensed to pass thither by his Majesties immediate Warrant His Majesty therefore having used all possible ways to prevent it he would be resolved if this Speech were so delivered by Master Pym that they review upon what information it was grounded and so to be found false and the King injured or the King to be assured by whose means his Authority has been so highly abused as to be made to conduce to the assistance of that abhorred Rebellion and so to see himself vindicated Febr. 7. To this Message they justifie the Authour Master Pym what he said to be the sense of the House and ordered to be printed and that they are so advertised had your Majesties Warrant and that some others have been staid and are yet in safe custody and named these to be the Lord Delvin and four others in his company and one supposed to be a Priest Colonel Butler Brother to the Lord Miniard now in Rebellion and Sir George Hamilton all Papists and another the Son of the Lord Nettersfield whose Father and Brother are now in Rebellion And are sorry that his Majesties extreme caution therein hath been so ill seconded by his Ministers of which they beseech him to prevent the future dishonour to his Majesty and mischief to the Kingdom Febr. 10. To this the King replies Whether such a general Advertising be ground enough for Master Pym's Speech and their positive Affirmation and challenges them to name any so warranted which he is assured that they cannot and bids them lay it to heart how this their Authority may trench upon his Honour in the affections of his good people as if not sensible enough of that Rebellion so horrid and odious to all good Christians by which in this Distraction what Danger may possibly ensue to his person and estate and therefore expects their Declaration to vindicate his Innocency and Honour And as for the Persons named Butler and Nettersfield had their Passes of his Majesty in Scotland long before any Restraint here being assured of Butler's loyal affection to his service and Uncle to the Earl of Ormond approved faithfull and both Protestants and of Nettersfield there never had been any the least suspition Nor did the King know of their Order of Restraint till Hamilton's stay who was the last that had any Licence And if any had been Papists yet of known integrity they may remember that the Lords Justices of Ireland declared in their Letters that they were so far from owning a publick Jealousie of all Papists that they had armed divers Noble-men of the Pale that were Papists and therefore expects their Declaration for his Vindication as in Duty and Justice they ought to do This he required but that they would not do and the King must sit down by the loss and rest so satisfied Nay they never left clamouring till he had turned out Sir Iohn Byron and put in Sir Iohn Coniers at their Nomination to be Lieutenant of the Tower of London And then they proceed to their Nomination of several fit persons for Trust of the Militia in their respective Counties And passes an Act for disabling all persons in Holy Orders to exercise any Temporal Jurisdiction or Authority as if no men of Religion were fit to do Justice He tells them by Message that to satisfie and compose all Distempers he will by Proclamation require all Statutes concerning Recusants to be put in execution That the seven condemned Priests shall be banished and all Romish Priests within twenty Days to depart the Kingdom That he refers the consideration of the Government and Lituâ—gie of the Church wholly to the Houses And offers himself in person to the Irish War Again the Parliament are at their five Members and Lords and Commons petition that though your Majestie â—inde cause to desert their Prosecution yet in their Charge the whole Parliament is imputed and therefore desire the King to send the Informers against the said Members with their suggestions to the Parliament to be proceeded as in 37 38 Edward 3. Thus forward they are and the Parliament begin to ordain the power of the Militia for safeguard of the Parliament Tower and City of London under the Command of Serjeant Major General Skippon approving all his Orders and Commands already therein by former Directions and now they establish him therein declaring that if any person shall arrest or trouble him for so doing he doth break the Privâ—leges of Parliament violate the Liberty of the Subject and is thereby declared an Enemy to the Common-wealth No more mention of King or Kingdom And they petition him to settle the Militia according to their Nomination of particular persons in Trust therein for all the several Counties To which the King respites till his Return being now to conduct the Queen and the Princess Mary to Dover for their Voyage into Holland Which they answer is as unsatisfactory as an absolute Denial pretending that the Irish endeavour to invade England with assistance of the Papists here Febr. 22. The Lord Digby for some passages heretofore to prevent the Censure of the Parliament was fled beyond Seas and had written three Letters one to the Queen and two others to Secretary Nicholas and Sir Lewis Dives which the Parliament intercepting and opening very maliciously â—omenting the Jealousie between the King and his People therefore upon the Desire of the King for that Letter to the Queen they send hâ—m all three with their prayers for the King to perswade her Majesty not to correspond with him or any other Fugitive or Traitours who depend on the Examination and Judgment of Parliament The King now returned from Dover from whence the Queen and the Princess Mary voyaged to Hâ—lland where she was to negotiate Forreign Aid and Assistance for the Kings Designs being too hot for him to remain at London sends to Hampton Court for the Prince to meet him at Greenwich wherein the Parliament were surprised as now doubting the effect and therefore send a Message thâ—t the Prince his Removal may be a cause to promote Jealousies and Fears which they conceive very necessary to avoid but could not prevail to prevent it The Parliament havâ—ng now the Militia the security of the Tower and City of London Trained Bands of the Kingdom and all the Forces out of the Kings hands they begin to think upon Propositions of themselves for reducing the Rebells of Ireland and order That two Millions and an half of those Acres to be confiscate of Rebells Lands in four Provinces may be allotted to such persons as will disburse Moneys for mannaging that War viz. For each Adventure of Two hundred pounds one thousand Acres in Ulster Three hundred pounds one thousand Acres in Connaught Four hundred and fifty pounds one thousand Acres in Munster Six hundred pounds one thousand Acres in Lemster All English Measure Medow Arable
command upon a person of unquestionable sufficiencie into a Town and Fort and Magazine of his own and yet they to be so bold as to commit it without his consent to Sir John Hotham but is confident it shall be rendered to him when he is pleased to require it and so to dispose of the Magazine as shall be fitting in some proportion not altogether and hopes that they will not do here as they have done in the Militia petition him and make themselves the Carvers and tells them that if they shall attâ—mpt any thing herein without his consent he will hold it as an act of violence against him and so declare it to all the world And for the six Priests Reprieve the time being out he leaves them to the execution of the Law And refers them to Mr. Pym's Speech against the Earl of Strafford for preservation of the Law which he wishes them to peruse and not to infringe it themselves The Parliament seeing the King bent to his personal Voyage into Ireland and to dispose of affairs accordingly to put him off from that Design they petition him with Reasons not to enterprize such a Journey for the hazzard of his person and interruption of the proceedings of the Parliament here And conclude that they cannot consent to any Levies but such as they shall advise and direct if otherwise raised they must interpret it to the terrour of the people and suppress it and to refâ—se to submit to any Commissioners which the King shall chuse but to govern in his absence by consent of Parliament so praying him to desist from any such Design in the end of all they counsel him to come home to them c. It was sufficient they discovered themselves each to other for it was not likely the Parliament would trust the King with an Army that might be no boldness in them to disswade but to tell him how they would govern themselves and his people not to submit to any Commissioners in his absence that was strange indeed To which the King replies That he looks upon them as his great Council with great regard but yet upon himself as not deprived of his understanding or divested of any right he had before the Parliament sate he called them by his Writ and Authoritie to give him counsel but did not resign his interest and freedom nor will subject himself to their determinâ—tions nor hath he dissented at any time without his Reasons given with candour and conscience and however a major part may binde them in matter of opinion yet he holds himself free to dissent from them And as that part of their Petition which pretends to carry reason doth not satisfie so the other part rather reprehension and menace than advice cannot stagger him who is content to expect the event of their undertaking and care therein And for many other expressions in the Petition he forbears to take notice or to answer lest being tempted in a just indignation to express a greater passion than he is willing to put on But indeed so forward he was in the Design that the Lords Justices and Council in Ireland having a hint of his desire return his Majesty an Answer to his of the thirteenth of April inclosing his Message to his Parliament there which Letters and Message being instantly printed as it was commanded they all cast themselves at his feet for this high addition to all former gracious favours in not sparing the hazzarding of his sacred person for suppression of this hideous Rebellion rejoycing even in the midst of those calamities to receive assurance of his princely purpose therein and hold it agreeable to his resolution and their duty to acquaint him with the estate of his affairs there by Letters to Mr. Secretary Nichols That so he may appear there in that majestie which is sutable to the greatness and wisdom of a mightie King as God hath appointed him who bless him with glorie honour and eternal happiness Dublin April 23. 1642. Signed Will. Parsons Io. Burlace Justices and all the Council there This was welcome to the King and sutably they subscribe Your Majesties humble and obedient loyal and faithfull Subjects which was published here in Parliament and canvased too not with over much thanks to the Irish Commissioners and Council there who finding the Earl of Leicester their designed Deputy to be so long loitering and held so here against the Kings desire they promoved this his Majties royal undertaking with all possible instances of advantage to those Irish affairs But it must not be and so the King declining it the Parliament were put forward to their own proceedings therein which went on but lamely for a long time being retarded untill the Parliament should be better assured of the right to the Militia To which purpose a Question was started How Laws are to be understood and obeyed Which were answered and printed to the Parliaments advantage Whether the claim of the Kings disposing of the Militia be in him It was answered Rebus sic nolente Rege it is in the Parliament And the Reasons were these In Law an equitable and literal sense The King intrusted with the Militia for the people against a foreign invasion or domestick rebellion never to intrust him against themselves so that when there is an appearance of the letter against the equitie publick good then the commander is to be disobeyed by the commanded For the Law abstract from reason and end is as a bodie without a soul and the execution accordingly is the spirit that gives life the letter kills Instanced in the trust of Militia of an Armie to a General not to turn the Cannon against his own Souldiers though not so conditioned and they may disobey not binding them to cut their own throats or their companies If otherwise the legal and mixt Monarchie is the greatest Tyrannie as conferred legally when the other that rules by will and not by law are Tyrants by force and so justifie an arbitrarie tyrannie legal not assumed Herein the instance of a General is the Argument but how reasonable and justifiable may it be when an Armie mutinie the Commander may and ought to suppress by force of Cannon no doubt and so unquestionably may a Monarch if the established Laws be disobeyed he may reduce them by force All Laws may be laid aside if such seditious and treasonable distinctions to withdraw the Subjects obedience be suffered Indeed the Doctrines of this nature were then frequent discourse in Pulpits and Prints That humane Laws do not binde the conscience There needs no more to dissolve all civil Government and peace of a Kingdom And therefore the King in much regret requires the House of Peers to use all possible diligence to have the Authour found out and punished but nothing was done being there fomented April 22. The Magazine of Hull under Sir Iohn Hotham command by authority of Parliament and like enough now to be
the other now formed into force sufficient to advance towards the King as yet aâ— York where he summons all his loving Subjects on this side Trent to come to his aid the Rendezvouz being at York Thursday the fourth of August 1642. And to begin the quarrel Sir Iohn Hotham had on Wednesday before sallied out of Hull with forty horse and fell upon one hundred and fifty of the Kings party whom they called Cavaliers and so shall we stile them for distinction throughout them intrenched at Anlaby and surprized shifted away but their two Centinels slain which flesht the other in blood galloping after the Foot seized their Colours and seveâ—ty Muskets with some prisoners burned the poor Barn which Sir Iohn named a â—arison and so returned Victor The next news comes from Portsmouth The County bands â—ntending to surprize that Town which was kept for the King by Colonel Goring who having timely notice met them by the way two miles off where he skirmished and retyred But the Assaylers gave Intelligence into the Town to their faction of their design and were promised connivance whilst the Parliament espousing the quarrel Sir Iohn Merricks Regiment and a Troop of Horse were suddenly sent thither to joyn with the Trained bands of Hampshire who began the Siege which Marquess Hertford hastens to remove The Kings Forces were at first formed at York then the Rendezvouz to Nottingham where he sets up his standard and there increasing he Marches Westward to Stafford then to Leicester and so passing by the Earl of Essex house Chartâ—ey without other pressure upon that place than as if he were the Kings General nay the Kings express pleasure was to restrain the Souldiers Liberty who otherwise would have rased it to the ground and ruined his Estate about it from thence he Marches towards Wales and settles at Shrewsbury where he gathers into a body capable to March Southward and to meet his Enemy The Parliaments Forces formed at London Rendevouz at St. Albans marching Northwards to Attach the King and to take him from his Cavaliers and bring him home to his Parliament and henceforward we shall finde the effects of both Armies And the Parliament to bound and limit their General prescribe to him directions in effect 1. To restrain all prophaness in his Army 2. To March and fight with the Kings Army and by Battel or otherwise to rescue his Majesties person the Prince and Duke of York out of the hands of those now aâ—out him 3. To take his opportunity in some honourable way to cause the Petition of Parliament to be presented to his Majesty who if he be pleased to withdraw himself from his forces and to resort to his Parliament you shall cause those forces to disband and shall serve and defend the King with sufficient strength in his retâ—rn 4. To declare that if any will within ten daies after publication withdraw from Assisting the King and return to the Parliament shall have pardon Except Delinquents already voted or to be voted or Impeached or who stand impeached of High Treason or have been eminent or active against the Parliament And except the Duke of Richmond The Earl of Cumberland Newcastle Rivers and Carnarvan Viscounts Newark and Falkland principal Secretary to the King Secretary Nicholas Mr. Endimion Porter and Mr. Edward Hide 5. To receive the Loans or contributions of Money Plate or Horses for the support of the Army certifying the sums of money weight of Plate and value of Horses that the parties may thereby be repaid upon publique faith 6. To protect the good people from violence of the Cavaliers and to restore to them their losses 7. To apprehend all persons Impeached as Traytors or other Delinquents and secure them to the Parliament 8. To observe such further directions as he shall receive from the Parliament He had a Committee or any four of them whereof the General to be one from time to time to consult and to acquaint the Parliament with their Resolutions for both houses to proceed thereupon as to them shall be thought fitting And to take subscriptions for any Money Plate or provisions and their Testimony shall be sufficient warrant to be repayed at 8. per cent by publique faith And to have power to examine apprehend and punish or discharge malignants as they shall think fit Sir Iohn Byron having raised some Troops in the County of Oxford for the Kings service and Marching towards Northampton refreshed himself and horses at Brackley and there unexpectedly was assaulted by sundry Troops of the Parliaments party from Northhampton and indeed treacherously set upon by the Town of Brackley and forced to retreat to the Heath in which confusion his servants were surprized in the Town some carriages and his Cabinet of papers seized Of which he complains to Mr. Clark at Craughton neer Barkley to be in his Custody to whom he sends a Messenger with a letter for the restitution and tells him which if you do I shall represent it to his Majesty as an acceptable service If not assure your self I shall finde a time to repay my self with advantage out of your estate and consider That as Rebellion is a weed of a hasty growth so it will decay as suddainly and that theâ—e will be a time for the Kings Loyal Subjects to repair their losses sustained by Rebels and Traytors Oxford the first of September Yours John Byron This Letter Craughton remits to the Parliament upon which they declare Byron and his Associates Rebels encourage the other parties as good Subjects and acceptable to the Parliament and shall be so justified and all others taking part with them The Marquess Hertford and his Forces seized Sherborn Castle which the Earl of Bedford was ordered to besiege but staied so long at Dorcester for Forces from about Plimouth that this Marquess took his leave Marching over Serdown towards Shrewsbury and after him followes Bedford Sir Iohn Byron marches to Worcester and takes it for the King intending to garison there but to prevent any Forces to joyn with him Mr. Fines is sent from his Father with some Dragoons to stop the passage and to prepare for a Siege At this time arrives two of the Elector's Brothers Rupert and Maurice and no sooner come to the King but are entertained presently with power and authority and put into action fatal Assistants they were to their Uncle the King in these unhappy proceedings The ninth of September sets forth the Earl of Essex out of London towards St. Albans and his Army in way of triumph he went out waited on by the Parliament and millions of people laning the high way throughout attended with the gallantry of his great Commanders and accompanied with such of the Nobles and Gentry who favoured his Design the multitude crying out Hosanna others muttering That even so was done and said to his Father in his Expedition towards Ireland who returned back a Traitor and lost his head
and sword he will take it for a favour but if you will not he doubts not but Gideon's Sword will do the Work alone I speak not it that I doubt you but that you would resolve that when you hear the Drums beat for it is resolved that the Drums shall beat to morrow our Drums shall beat to lead out our men and the Committees Drums shall beat to lead out their men say not I beseech you I am not of the Trained Band nor this nor that but doubt not to go out to work and fight couragiously and this shall be the Day of your Deliverance However on Friday the eleventh of November the King at Colebrook receives a Petition from the Parliament by the two Earls and Gentlemen named in the Conduct and not Sir Io. Evelin To the Kings most Excellent Majestie The humble Petition c. of the Lords and Commons in Parliament c. Being affected with a deep and piercing sense of the Miseries of this Kingdom and the Danger of your Majesties person the great effusion of Bloud with the late Battel and weighâ—â—g the addition of Loss and Miserie if both Armies should again joyn in another Fight as without Gods blessing and his Majesties concurrence will not probably be avoided to which they believe his Majestie hath a sutable impression of compassion to accept of this their Petition and to appoint some convenient place not far from London where your Majestie will be pleased to reside untill Committees of Parliament may attend with some Propositions to your Majestie for removal of these Distempers as may conduce to Gods glorie c. The King liked this Petition of an humble nature unlike their late Papers presented to him and the next day gives this gracious Answer He takes God to witness how deeply he is affected with the Miseries of this Kingdom which he hath striven to prevent and as he was not the first that took up Arms so he hath been ready of composing all things in a fair way to avoid the Destruction of his Subjects which would always make his greatest Victories to him c. And to that end he will reside at his own Castle at Windsor till Committees may have time to attend hiâ— which he wishes to be hastened either there or if it be refused any other place and God of his mercie give a blessing Nov. 12. But the same night after the Messengers were gone News came to the King that General Essex had drawn his Forces with his Ordnance out of London towards him and so he being almost surrounded some at Windsor Kingston and Acton if Brainford were possest likewise the King would be hemm'd in and his Army deprived either of moving or subsisting and so a Council of War concluded to advance towards Brainford and either to possess it or to repossess them which he did and many slain The King withall considered that it could not reasonably be esteemed an Aversion from Peace or an Intention to interrupt the Treaty then in expectation since on the other side he had cause to believe that if he would not preserve himself out of their power the very possibility of a Treaty would vanish And indeed willingness to receive a Treaty was never held to amount to a suspension of Arms otherwise why did Essex incompass him on all parts to Colebrook Towns end And there being no word of Suspension of Arms in all the Kings Answer nay since in that by wishing their Propositions to be hastened he implied that by this Arms were not suspended And most of all since the Parliaments Votes of proceeding as hath been said vigorously notwithstanding their Petition and their own actions sending after their Messengers great store of Forces evidently implied the same The King being resolved upon Reasons that his Advance was just yet he endeavoured to satisfie the Parliament that Peace was still his desire by a Messenger but so ill received as he and his Trumpeter were like to kiss the Gate-house The Message was thus Novemb. 12. Whereas the last night November 11. after the departure of the Committee with his Majesties Answer to their Petition he received information that the Earl of Essex had drawn his Forces out of London towards him which hath necessitated him to march with his Forces to Brainford he thinks fit hereby to signifie that he is no less desirous of the peace than he exprest in his foresaid Answer and desires to receive the Propositions of Brainford this night being Sunday or early to morrow morning And another Argument for the King is that so soon as the Earls Forces were removed from Kingston before any Forces appeared out of London the King gave order to quit Brainford and to possess Kingston And the success to the King was answerable to his just intention God being pleased to assist him by Land and Water so as with a third part of his Foot and with the loss but of ten Men to beat two of their best Regiments out of Brainford to kill him that commanded in chief and his Ensign Ralph Wilbie a hopefull Gentleman at the very Bridg and many others by land and water took five hundred Prisoners and as many Arms eleven Colours and store of Ammunition fifteen Pieces of Ordnance and then unfought with to march away to Oatlands Reading and so to Oxford And upon all this the Parliament voted to have no Accomodation although the King concluded That God so bless his future Actions as he is excusable and innocent from any deceit herein The Parliament in their Answer to the Kings Message do confess That they gave direction to the Earl of Essex to draw the Armie out of London and that part of it was inquartered at Branford whilest the Committee was with the King And they excuse it belike confessess to themselves of just Exceptions that they sent a Messenger with a Letter to know whether his Majestie intended forbearance of Hostilitie be found them in fight and could not pass Brainford The King replies That his Message of the twelfth though not received by the Parliament till the fourteenth was sent to them upon the same Day as it was dated and the way not clear was again sent upon the thirteenth and taken that morning by the Earl of Essex and though not directed to him was opened by him so as the slowness of the deliverie is not so strange as the stop of the Letter sent by the Parliament to the King which he never received and the King could not suppose to take any of the Parliaments Forces unprovided who in their March to Brainford might as well have been intended to Colebrook upon the King And indeed take other Observations to boot The Parliaments printing so out of time of such a Declaration as was their Reply to the Kings Answer to theirs of the six and twentieth of May but the day before they voted the sending of a Petition and the March of the
had their several successes and losses on each other recovered from suddain ruine by the assistance of either Allies their Colleagues for the French Swede and all the Protestant Princes against the Emperour and House of Austria who had the help of Spain with the most of Catholiques The Weymarians were well reinforced by the conduct of four Marshals of France with their French Troops and undertook to quarter in Bavaria and were thwarted by the Duke of Loraine whose sufferings from the French forced him to accept the Spanish Command he was accompanied with Iohn de Werde and the Baron of Mercy directors of the Cavalrie to spie out the enemy and in the end met with the Messieurs routed each quarter after other took the Marshals prisoners with four hundred Officers and one thousand common Souldiers without counting the pillage This defeat was as famous for the Spaniard and saved Bavaria from that storm intended and put the French to raise another Army under the same name Weymarian but with a new General for Guebriana was killed the day before the fight And this glorious battel takes name of Durling where it was disputed we shall not read of any such battels so memorable in this last age the first was in May and began the happy reign of Lewis 14 th The other in the end of November and these may stand parallel with those of Leipsick and Northingen the last year This Victory set up Lorain who was caressed into a treaty by the French without any fruit having been once at Paris to that purpose and abused back again to take revenge and marches away to the Low-countries takes Falconstia and leaves the Army to the brave Baron of Mercy who takes Rotweil and Uburling comes to Fiburgh and Brisquer where he meets with his match the Prince of Conde The Parliament having sent their Emissaries to the neigbour Princes and States to caress them for their friendships the King was careful likewise to satisfie them of the true cause of these differences And as they had sent to the King of Denmark so does he also by an expresse one Colonel Cockram with these instructions You are to inform the King â—f Denmark that by his Majesties command as to the nearest ally of his Crown his Unkle and who he believes will not be unconcerned in his affairs as well in interests as affections you are sent to give a particular account of the state of his Majesties affairs to renew the antient League and Amity between the two Kingdoms and Families Royal and to reduce it to more exact particulars such as might be useful to the present affairs of England and all occurrence of those of Denmark That the present affair of your negotiation is to demand an assistance from his Majesty such as the present state of the affairs of England requires against a dangerous combination of his Majesties Subjects who have not only invaded his Majesty in his particular rights but have laid a design to dissolve the Monarchy and frame of Government under pretence of Liberty and Religion becoming a dangerous precedent to all the Monarches of Christendom to be looked upon with successe to their design That the nature of their proceedings hath been such as hath not admitted any foreign treaty to be interessed in suppressing their design without giving them advantage of Scandaling his Majesties intentions and drawing away universally the hearts of his people whom they had insinuated under pretence of Reformation of particular abuses of Government and Ministers of Estate to concur generally with approbation of their proceedings and in which though the dangerous consequence aâ—d design were visible to his Majesty a present compliance was necessary lest any publick opposition on his Majesties part that might seem to defeat the great expeâ—tations which they had raised in the Commons in those plausible particulars might have occasioned a general revolt throughout the Kingdoms great jealousies being dispersed and fomented amongst them of his Majesties Foreign Treaties and Force to be used to oppose and suppresse those their desires and the movers therein Upon the credit they had herewith on the peoples opinions they proceeded under pretence of Reformation of Religion to disolve the Government of the Church according to its constitution in England a chief column and support to that Monarchy and Crown They lastly invaded his Majesty in all the prerogatives of his Crown and under pretence of ill Ministers and Councellours of Estate whom they pretended to remove endeavoured to invest in themselves in all times for the future the nomination of all Ministers of Estate and of his Majesties Family withdrew all his Revenue into their own hands and to confirm themselves in an absolute power of disposing His estate entred upon possessing themselves of the Militia of the Kingdom His Navy and Magazines in which his Majesty being forced to appear in opposition dangerous Tumults were raised against Him so that He was forced to forsake London for preservation of His Person His Queen and Children That since for the safety of the Queen He hath been forced to send her into Holland to retire Himself to the best affected party of His Subjects from whence by Declarations setting forth the sinister proceedings of that Faction discovering their designs of innovating the Government and falsifying the scandals they had imputed to Him He hath had the advantage generally to undeceive His people to draw to Him universally the Nobility and Gentry of the Kingdom But the other Faction still keeping up some interest and credit with the Commons in the desperate estate they finde themselves begin to make head against Him have appointed a General and are levying Forces to maintain their party committing divers acts of hostility violence and Rebellion That his Majesty having great encouragements given Him by the exceeding numbers of Gentry and Noblemen that resort to Him is already advanced near them with six thousand Horse and ten thousand Foot That the States of Holland have condescended to give Her Majesty the Queen a convoy of the greatest part of their Fleet now at Sea for her â—eturn into England That divers Forts and Counties upon his Majesties personal appearance have declared for Him so that His affairs at home grow daily into abetter estate as he likewise expects and hopes that all His Neighbour Princes and Allies will not look upon so dangerous a president to their own Crowns and Monarchies without contributing to suppressâ— this so pernicious a design begun within His Kingdom That to give His Majesty the juster ground to reflect upon the dangerous consequences in relation to His own interest of their successe it hath been by them publickly moved in the Commons House long since to interpose in the accommodation of the Dutch and to set out a Fleet to take away His Customs of the Sound That they have since imputed to his Majesty as a ground to scandal Him with His people that he did
who whilst Waller hunted the King was gotten Westward and to please the Lo. Roberts with advice of his Iuncto Counsel a Committee of Members is perswaded into Cornwal to credit Roberts for getting his Rents his main end hitherto obstructed by the power of the Cavaliers in that County The King comes to Kingsmore in Somersetshire Iuly 23. and passed Tamer at Palton-bridge in Cornwal Aug. 1. and so to Liskard 8. miles disâ—â—nt from Essex who was at Lesttithyel in Cornwal 5. Aug. there he is encompassed his Majesty and Prince Maurice at Bonnock on one side and Sir Richard Greenvile in Bodmin and Sir Iacob Ashley at Haul which commands Foy Haven But so soon as his Majesties Army drew from Liskard he faced the enemy in their Quarters at Listithiel who had strongly fastned their Foot Quarter on one side of the Town and placed most of their Horse and some Foot on the hills beyond The Town is situate in a valley and Tyde flows up from Foy to the Bridg so as it is not Fordeable but at one passe between that and the Sea Upon sight of the enemy his Majesties Army was full of courage and desired to be engaged but that was not thought fit to be done and the way of distressing the enemy for want of Provisions was resolved on as the most secure and so drew into Quarters the King to Boconnocke the Lord Mohuns House his Army between him and a Heath that parted his Quarters and the enemy at Listithiel the distance between both being â—ot above a mile Assoon as his Majesty had fastned his which was quickly done every enclosure here being Cannon-proofe most of the chief Officers of both Armies subscribed a Letter to Essex by his Majesties consent notwithstanding his Majesties Gracious Letter to him immediately before was not vouchsafed an answer To the Letter sent by the Commanders he returned a Negative yet his denyal wrought no great effects on his Majesties Army for in this posture between the expectation of Sir Grenevile's assistance who was coming on from the West the starving of the enemy and many debates but no positive results His Majesty spent above eight dayes putting little in execution but drew out often on the Heath had some light skirmishes with the Horse Guards and so drew into Quarters again at last Sir Richard Grenevile came with his Force then the Army began more seriously in the prosecution of the design Grenevile fastning his Quarter at Lanhetherocke the Lord Robert's house beyond the River three miles West of his Majesty and possessed Leprin Bridg on the same River a mile above Listithiel and his Majesty on the other side placed Guards on all the passes on the River leading from his Quarters and Listithiel to Foy and possessing a house of the Lord Mohun's over against the Town and a Fort that commandes the very mouth of that Haven being there but half Musket-shot over this was the first work which conduced to his Majesties advantage which proved fatal to their Army they being thereby deprived of an Harbor to bring them in provisions or supplies which they had plentifully before and now they had only a small Creek at Mimibilley and Saint Blases Bay but neither of those safe for Ships yet they still possessed a large space of ground West-ward which made his Majesty after few dayes expectation conclude that he could not starve them in so short a time as was imagined and therefore drew nearer to their Quarters and fastned his Army within Encloâ—â—res on the Wings of theirs within Musket-shot each of the other between which lyes part of the Heath there not half a mile over At the farthest extent of the Kings Quarters on that Heath he built a Fort that by Cannon very much anoyed theirs though they returned daily twenty great shot for one of his the same day Grenevile on the other side of the River drew near to Listithiel took Lesterman Castle a strong Fort and a Passe underneath it little more then half a mile from the Town and hereby his Majesty bettered the communication of his Forces when he had secured these and his Quarters he lay still again expecting the event but the ill weather coming on he resolved on a new design which was to attempt on some of their Quarters by surprise and thereupon Prince Maurice's Army was ordered to have fallen on two dayes successively on the next Quarter to them but the first day it was thought neither easie to get nor advantageous being got and the next by delay and the enemies discovery of the design nothing was effected to the trouble and dislike of many who thought the same more easie then perchance it was yet that failing necessity forbad any longer idlenesse and so again his Majesty resumed the former design of starving them to which purpose General Goring with most of the Horse and Sir Thomas Basset with fifteen hundred Foot of Prince Maurice his Army were sent West to stop all provisions coming in at Saint Blase and to reduce them to straits by keeping their Horse and Foot close together This wrought the expected effect for on Friday night came intelligence that they were drawing their Cannon and Baggage towards Foy whereupon his Majesty made ready not knowing what they had done with their Horse who the next morning before day in great fear marched between his Majesties two Quarters being about two thousand five hundred commanded by Balfour but his Majesties Horse followed them though they made so great hast as that they were timely at Saltash near which Sir Edward Waldgraves brigade lay and was almost surprised but the gallant old man got his men together Flanked them slew a hundred took Major Abeâ—cromy and many prisoners Being well bruised here they laboured to transport themselves over the River for Plymouth their Horse being very weak and tired but in the afternoon that day General Goring and most of the Horse had order to pursue them and timely notice was given to all Forces in the Southern parts to meet them in the Front but failed Their Foot Army drew out likewise on Saturday and by eight in the morning marched away towards Foy his Majesty presently followed and having got the Bridg and Town of Listithiel advanced the Hill where he found two rare pieces of Cannon and about a mile farther three or four more with powder and Amunition which in their hast they left behind them Thus marching after them his Majesty fell in their Rear two miles from Listithiel and from hedg to hedg enforced them to an hasty retreat at length having got some advantage of an inclosure they made a stand and with their remaining Horse regained some fields whence they were forced before whereupon the King sent presently Captain Brett with the Queens Troop who in the Kings view forced them to retire regained the ground lost got more and returned gallantly and in good order with the losse only of four men and
thence she was conveyed to Cornwal to Pendennis Castle where she imbarqued and landed at Conquest in France in base Britain Iuly 15. Nobly received and with a Princely Train attending she was waited on to the Court at Paris where she remaines to this day Ambassadours were come and gon from France and the Netherland States to compose and mediate a Peace but to no purpose they returned Nay the King had ingeniously solicited his Parliament for a Peace but therein nothing prospered Whereupon we may see what was said from beyond the sea in answer to a Letter sent thither from a Member at Westminster for now having two Parliaments we must so distinguish them and thus it is Sir To answer you concerning his Majesties message of Peace and the refusal of it upon the grounds you mention give me leave to tell you in the way of friendship and confidence that whilest I reflect upon his Majesties pious Propositions and the aversness of the other party to imbrace the several overtures which he hath made by scandalizing his goodness in the eares of the people with interpretations of insincerity designs opposite to his professions me thinketh I see the true and the false mother disputing for the living child before Salomon and you know whose bowels yearned when it was to be divided with the sword I need not apply but you never yet read in any History that the true Patres Patriae refused to sacrifice their private animosity and interests to the tranquillity and happiness of their Country and it is an ill argument of their integrity who will be satisfied with nothing but its division and ruine If any man will have me believe that his Majesty doth not seriously labour to make up the breach he must first bespeak me to part with my understanding for I cannot but know that the common interest is only his and that he is impoverished in each Subjects losse and as for the substance of his Message which you say is absolutely destructive to your priviledges and which draweth into consequence a nullitie of your Parliament and a subversion of all your Acts I cannot gather any such thing out of it nor do I conceive it a disparagement to you that his Majesty should stile you fellow members which excludeth your conceit of two Parliaments Put the case there were no King at Oxford nor Lord nor Commoner only a Rebellious Army raised against King and State yet if it were so considerable as are his Majesties Forces I should esteem it a want of ordinary policy in you to refuse a Treaty with them and therefore I may not qualifie this rejection otherwise betwixt you and me then an act of the highest irreverence and disloyaltie that Subjects can commit against their Soveraign and a wilful betraying the trust reposed in them by the Kingdom for its security and doubtlesse they who acknowledg God to be a God of order can expect no blessing upon such an affected confusion It is no wonder all this while that the interpositions of the French and Holland Ambassadours prove ineffectual since his Majesties own messages which in civility ought first to proceed from you are thus vilified Had the Scots really taken New-Castle as you advertised me three weeks ago you might have had more plausible ground to staâ—d upon but since they are beaten from their Siege with such a considerable losse and his Majesty hath chosen such a time for his Propositions as will convince those of malice and falshood who seek to stain his good motions under the title of ill Councel it is most apparent that there are foul consciencies amongst the leaders who fear to come to peaceable trials and therefore they seek to drown the cry of their sins under the noice of the Drumme otherwise no wise man can expect that there shall ever be an accommodation unlesse both sides passe by more real inconveniencies then any you mention I direct not this discourse against your self for I gather out of your general wishes that you are a friend to peace But thus much by way of reply and so I rest Yours c. And so far the Parliament was from peace that they the twenty fourth of Iune voted twelve thousand Scots more should be brought into England the rather to spread abroad their power that if those in Yorkshire chance to miscarry they have a Magazine of more such for supportation of the Cause You have lately heard how earnest the King hath been with the Parliament for a Peace and from Evesham in Iuly he invited them there by Letters even then when he had an Army to command his desires And it was thus Charles R. We being sensible of the miseries and calamities of this our Kingdom and of the grievous sufferings of our poor Subjects do most earnestly desire that some expedient way may be found out which by the blessing of God may prevent the â—â—rther â—â—â—sion of â—â—ood and restore the Nation to Peace from the earnest and constant endeavouring of which as no discouragement given Us on the contrâ—â—y part shall make Us cease so no success on Ours shall ever divert Us for the effecting whereof We are most ready and willing to condescend to all that shall be for the good of Us and Our People whether by way of confirmation of what we have already granted or of such further concession as shall be requisite to the giving a full assurance of the performance of all Our most real professions concerning the maintenance of the true Reformed Protestant Religion established in this Kingdom with due regard to the ease of tender consciences the just priviledges of Parliament and the Libertie and Propertie of the Subject according to the Laws of the Land As also by granting a general Pardon without or with exceptions as shall be thought fit In order to which blessed Peace We do desire and propound to the Lords and â—ommons of Parliament assembled at Westminster That they appoint such and so many Persons as they shall think fit sufficiently Authorized by them to attend Us at Our Army upon safe conduct to come and return which we do hereby grant and conclude with us how the premises and all other things in question betwixt us and them may be fully setled whereby all unhappy mistakings betwixt us and our people being removed there may be a present Cessation of Arms and as soon as may be a total disbanding of all Armies the Subject have his due and we be restored to our Right Wherein if this our offer shall be accepted there shall be nothing wanting on our part which may make our people secure and happy They not hearkning to this His Majesty sent again from Tavestocke in Devonshire having sealed His Gracious Message with a most glorious Victory the week before but what answer it deserved let the Reader judg when he hath read this copy of the Message it self CHARLES R. It having pleased God in so eminent a
which some men use in their speeches and Expresses I wish my Subjects had yet a clearer sight into my most retired thoughts Where they might discover how they are divided between the love and care I have not more to preserve my own Rights then to procure their Peace and Happiness and that extream grief to see them both Deceived and Destroyed Nor can any mens malice be gratified further by my Letters then to see my constancy to my Wife the Laws and Religion Bees will gather Hony where the Spider sucks Poison That I endeavour to avoid the pressures of my Enemies by all fair and just correspondencies no man can blame who loves me or the Common-wealth since my Subjects can hardly be happy if I be miserable or enjoy their Peace and Liberty while I am oppressed The world may see how some mens design like Absolom's is by enormous actions to widen differences and to exasperate all sides to such distances as may make all reconciliation desperate Yet I thank God I cannot only with Patience bear this as other indignities but with Charity forgive them The integrity of my intentions is not jealous of any injury my expressions can do them for although the confidence of privacy may admit greater freedom in writing such Letters which may be liable to envious exceptions yet the Innocencie of my chief purposes cannot be so stained or mis-interpreted by them as not to let all men see that I wish nothing more then an happy composure of differences with Iustice and Honour not more to my own then my Peoples content who have any sparks of Love or Loyalty left in them who by those my Letters may be convinced that I can both minde and act mine own and my Kingdoms Affairs so as becoms a Prince which mine Enemies have alwayes been very loth should be believed of me as if I were wholly confined to the Dictates and Directions of others whom they please to brand with the names of Evil Counsellors It 's probable some men will now look upon me as my own Counsellor and having none else to quarrel with under that notion they will hereafter confine their anger to my self Although I know they are very unwilling I should enjoy that Liberty of my own Thoughts or follow that light of my own Conscience which they labour to bring into an absolute captivitie to themselves not allowing me to think their Counsels to other then good for me which have so long maintained a War against me The Victory they obtained that day when my Letters became their prize had been enough to have satiated the most ambitious thirst of Popular Glory among the Vulgar with whom prosperity gains the greatest esteem and applause as Adversitie exposeth to their greatest slighting and dis-respect As if good fortune were alwaies the shadow of Virtue and Iustice and did not oft'ner attend vitious and injurious actions as to this world But I see no secular advantages seem sufficient to that Cause which began with Tumults and depends chiefly upon the reputation with the Vulgar They think no Victories so effectual to their designs as those that most rout and wast my Credit with my People in whose hearts they seek by all meanes to smother and extinguish all sparks of Love Respect and Loialty to me that they may never kindle again so as to recover mine the Laws and the Kingdoms Liberties which some men seek to overthrow The taking away of my Credit is but a necessarie preparation to the taking away of my Life and my Kingdoms First I must seem neither fit to Live nor worthie to Reign by exquisite methods of cunning and cruelty I must be compelled first to follow the funerals of my Honour and then be destroied But I know Gods unerring and impartial Iustice can and will over-rule the most perverse wills and designs of men he is able and I hope will turn even the worst of mine Enemies thoughts and actions to my good Nor do I think that by the surprize of my Letters I have lost any more then so many Papers How much they have lost of that reputation for Civilitie and Humanitie which ought to be pai'd to all men and most becomes such as pretend to Religion besides that of Respect and Honour which they owe to their KING present and after-times will judg And I cannot think that their own Consciences are so stupid at not to inflict upon them some secret impressions of that shame and dishonour which attends all unworthy actions have they never so much of Publick flatterie and Popular countenance I am sure they can never expect the Divine Approbation of such indecent actions if they do but remember how God blessed the modest respect and filial tenderness which Noah's Sons bare to their Father nor did his open infirmitie justifie Cham's impudencie or exempt him from that curse of being Servant of Servants which curse must needs be on them who seek by dishonourable actions to please the Vulgar and confirm by Ignoble Acts their dependance upon the People Nor can their malitious intentions be ever either excusable or prosperous who thought by this means to expose me to the highest reproach and contempt of my People forgetting that Duty of modest concealment which they owed to the Father of their Country in case they had discovered any real uncomliness which I thank God they did not who can and I believe hath made me as he did David more respected in the hearts of many to whom they have thought by publishing my private Letters to have rendered me as a vile Person not fit to be trusted or considered under any notion of Majesty And concerning which Letters the King writes to Secretary Nicholas Though I could have wished the Parliaments paines had been spared in printing of them yet I will neither deny that those things are untrue which they have set out in my Name nor as a good Protestant or honest man blush for those Papers Indeed as a discreet man I will not justifie my self and yet I would fain know him who would be willing that the freedom of all his private Letters were publickly seen as mine have now been However so that one clause be rightly understood I care not much so the rest take their fortune It is concerning the Mungril Parliament The truth is that the Earl of Sussex his Factiousness at that time put me somewhat out of my patience which made me freely vent my displeasure against those of his party to my Wife and the intention of that phrase was that his faction did what they could to make it come to that by their raising and Fomenting base propositions This is clearly evidenced by my following Excuse to her for suffering those people to trouble her the occasion being to eschew those greater Inconveniences which they had and were more likely to cause here then there So much to his Secretary And in his Declaration concerning some of those Letters It is further
urged But they have found a Letter of his Majesties to the Queen which shewes that the Eminent places of the Kingdom are disposed of by her advice and then conclude from her Religion that they are by consequence disposed of by Papists and Jesuits and that the persons there Named even during the sitting of Parliament are either all impeached by them or bear Armes against them To this his Majesty replies First that he cannot but deplore the condition of the Kingdom when Letters of all sorts to Husbands and Wives even of his Majesty to his Royal Consort are intercepted and brought in evidence and published to the world Secondly that the places there named are not places as they call it of the Kingdom but private menial places a Treasurer of the Houshold a Captain of the Pensioners and a Gentleman of the Bed-chamber c. Nor of the persons there named is there any one a Papist or like one That in these his most private Letters to the persons nearest him wherein he cannot be justly suspected to say any thing out of Design or Policy His own clear perswasion that the Parliament and not he have been the cause and are the fosterers of this War and Universal distraction and his sence of it and his desire of the end of it are so plainly expressed that they will by this accident be much satisfied with his Innocency and reality and believe that the reading this in such a Letter is the very next degree to reading it in his Heart But their successes increase Leicester is rendered upon Articles and thus the Manner Sir Iohn Gell for the Parliament whilst the Armies were fighting had summoned all the forces of those Counties of Darby and Notingham and two dayes after the Battel they met with some of the Kings scattered Horse and took fifty Another of his party fell upon threescore of the Newarkers Horse did so by them and carried away fourty Prisoners and fifty Arms. And forthwith they joyn with Fairfax and sit down before Leicester Instantly Summons it with the true Relation of what had befallen the King and advises the Governour the Lord Loughborow to surrender speedily to avoid the Mischief of storming But he stoutly refused professing that it were a shame for them to submit since if the state of War was so to his Majesty it might prove the rather now propitious to them however their opposers should finde their Loyalty never a whit abated by the unhappinesse of his Majesties success but to do their duty to the utmost of their power which was equal to their Spirits Fairfax finding their Confidence calls a Council of War and concludes of storming the next day and instantly to surround the Town which was done with great expedition Raising their Batteries providing Ladders and Engins for their best advantage On Tuesday 17. Iune they began their Batteries with their great shot without ceasing and together fell upon storming in several places especially the Newark side supposed their greatest strength And not over-long it was that the breach widened which strook so much terrour to the besieged that Overtures were offered of surrender The Commissioners sent in were two Colonels Pickering and Rainsborough But whilst they capitulate Fairfax provides himself of Necessaries which he wanted Pittars Carts Hay Granadoes Ladders resolving to fall on upon their return But it was concluded to surrender and thereby much blood saved upon Noble Articles And at the Thanksgiving-day in London the City feast the Parliament at Grocers Hall where was for Principal guest the Prince Elector drinking health from the fatall events of his dearest Uncle the King and when a bold and worthy Merchant true to his principles Arrested him in the Room delivering a writ of Execution to the Sheriffes of London there present to do their Office which debt of 1000. Marks was instanly secured by the Lords that were present the Citizen committed for some dayes but his mony paied him to a farthing And after their full bellie-cheer they sung the 46. Psalm being a song of Thanksgiving for deliverance of Ierusalem after Senacherib with his Army was driven away or some other such deliverance But the prisoners were now disposed the most of them more then a thousand to be listed for the Parliaments service in Ireland Oxford siege is now resolved upon by the Parliament and twenty thousand pounds advanced for the Army for that and the Relief of Taunton now again hard beset by the Kings Forces Sir Thomas Glenham a gallant person had been for some time Governour of Carlisle Garison for the King and had endured a strickt and forceable Seige but not able to do more then could be expected by starved Souldiers lessened by small numbers little Ammunition and without expectation of Succour he surrenders the eight and twentieth of Iune upon honourable Conditions and the Garison to march away to Newark so then the Parliament had the North parts clear and therefore have a Conference how mainly to keep their Northern Garisons with Berwick Carlisle and Newcastle clear from the King or any other Enemy not trusting therein to our dear Brethren the Scots who were loth to remove Southward from the Northern neighbouring Counties We are told that the King is now in person about Ragland Castle in Wales to gather Recruits from his faithfull Brittains Fairfax at Marlborough Massie at Shaftsbury and Goring keeps aloof of Taunton so that the Besieged can sally out in more safety and this Goring might do and forrage the Countrey for the Club-men were up I cannot say in Arms onely with Cudgels nor can we as yet finde for whom they intend assistance an unruly Rabble five thousand and upwards daily increasing without Order or Discipline and so insolent that they forced the Parliaments Quarters in Wilts and Dorsetshire specially at Sturmister-Neuton and killed many and seize all the Horse in the grounds near a hundred Dragoons at a clap to whom therefore Major General Massie sends a Trumpeter for Restitution of Horse and Arms in other places also or suddenly reports to reduce them to obedience These Club-men were called Levellers in respect of some Principles which we shall discuss hereafter but for the present take this Description of their pretences at first The Countreys especially Wilts and Dorsetshire and some others had been extremely harrased plundered of their Lives and Fortunes by a two-edged Sword now in power for the King then for the Parliament and between both the poor people are crushed and ground to powder and in no one place more than at this time concerning Taunton to defend themselves the Clowns and Countrey-men stood upon their guard not submitting Contribution to either and in truth so formidable they were and for the present so independing as Fairfax is in doubt to march forward to relieve Taunton untill these mens interests were calmed or their intentions fixed And to make the business more formidable the Parliament come to a
great Guns Morter-pieces Fire-balls hot Irons with the help of the Winde fired the upper Town in four places of a flame and unquenchable Tom Eliot was sent down to the General who now would not be intreated nothing but Fire and Sword having twice refused his Offer of Treaty yet they agree and Surrender is made and a Cessation on the sudden the fire quenching and conclude with fair Quarter and to march out leaving such Ammunition and Plunder as escaped burning vvhich vvas very little not vvorth the bloudy purchase And to conclude this Moneth the lasting Siege of Scarborough Castle in the North vvas novv surrendered upon honourable terms many Commanders having laid their Bones there Meldrum the Scot did his best for a long time but enduring monstrous misery by a Shot in his back died under the Walls Then comes Sir Matthew Bointon in his place and after his tedious time and the Garison vvorn out by sickness and many slain and no hope of Relief all the North cleared to the Parliament the noble Governour Sir Hugh Cholmlâ—y renders it upon very good Conditions Rabby Castle suffered under the like fate and like Conditions Some two or three such Garisons continue yet for the King as Skipton and Sandal Castle but are upon surrendring The Scots are marching towards Worcester and by the way took Canon Froom a strong Garison by Storm Hopton is near Exeter Greenvile about Southam Goring at Okington Rupert at Bristol ready to endure a Stege Prince Maurice at Worcester and the King in Wales On goes the General and the last of Iuly Bath was surrendered to him His Head Quarters being at Wells he sent a Party against Sherburn and another Party of two Regiments of Horse and two Companies of Dragoons under Command of Colonel Rich towards Bath to view the Town at the approach of his Horse and coming down the Hill to the Bridg the Town took an Allarm and discharged their Ordnance and Rich assailed an Out-work and beat them in possessing the place all night indeed it was not fortied and no boot to stand it out against so great a power as Fairfax had hard by and the sooner to condition the better terms and so Sir Thomas Bridges the Governour renders it upon good Conditions to march out in Souldier-like posture to Bristol And Fairfax marches to Wells where he stays being by this time in want of Recruits and then he is for Sherburn The City of Hereford for the King was committed to the Goverment of Sir Barnabas Scudamore a gallant expert Commander a Garison of good consequence faithfull and loyal receiving Contribution from the Counties thereabout and thither were the Scots ordered to march for reducing it to the Parliaments Service They came the thirtieth of Iuly their Forlorn of Horse were suddenly charged with a party of twenty Horse and beaten into the Main Body retreating in disorder then the whole Body of Horse faced the Besieged about ten a clock in the morning within the reach of Cannon and were welcomed with some execution the Foot as yet undiscovered a strong party of Foot came out privately and lined the Hedges galling the Scots in their passage to the Fords and so retreated and presently insafed all their Ports the next Morning came up the sole Body of Foot and surrounded the City No sooner set but they invite the Besieged to a Surrender by a double Summons one from the General Leven directed to the Governour the other from the Committee of both Kingdoms attending the Army sent to the Mayor and Corporation who complied so well in their Resolution that one Answer served for both parties a scornfull Denial The Scots challenge was thus For the Governour of the Citie of Hereford SIR Our appearance in this posture is for no other end but the setling of Truth with Peace in England without the least desire of shedding the bloud of any Subject therefore this is to summon you to deliver up that City unto me for the King and Parliament of England if herein you be wise and happy you may have Conditions honourable and safe otherwise all the world will acquit me of the manifold Inconveniencies Consider your own condition and those under your charge whose bloud will be required upon your account And return me Answer within three hours July 31. ten a clock Leven My Lord I am not to give up the Kings Garisons upon any Summons or Letter neither shall it be in the power of the Mayor or other to condescend to any such Propositions made unto him I was set in here by the Kings command and shall not quit it but by special Order from his Majesty or the Prince And with this Resolution I shall persist in Hereford this July 31. 1645. B. Scudamore This not satisfactory the Scots began their Approach the first of August but very slowly rather intending their own security than the hurt of others but their art could not protect them from small and great Shot which fell upon them and by several Sallies were much galled first over Wye Bridg beating them to their Main Guard at another time demolisht one side of Martin's Steeple which would have annoyed the Besieged at the Bridg and Pallace and in these two Sallies they lost but two Men but the Scots lost many Then the Scots make use of a better Engin the Mayor and Aldermen are now courted to yield the Town by an Epistle subscribed by six of the County Gentlemen very compassionate and swasive which was answered with neglect And so they continue their Line of Communication raise their Batteries commencing at Wye Bridg from whence they received their own greatest Dammage and here amongst many others was slain their much lamented Major General Crafford which provoked them to play upon the Gate for two Days battering it useless but was stopt up with Wool-packs and Timber and to elude the Assailants the Besieged broke an Arch but raised a very strong Work behinde it The Scots frustrate here raise two several Batteries at the Friers and over the River and from thence ply their Ordnance against Wye side but are as quick repaired and the Walls lined faster than they can batter and therefore desist Then the eleventh of August the Scots undermine at Frene-gate but are discovered and counter-mined and thereupon it is carried on at the other side of the Gate which was defeated by making a Sally Port and issued thereout broke it open and fired it The thirteenth they raise Batteries round about the Town and make a Bridg over Wye The fourteenth they send a Messenger to Dr. Scudamore with a simple Letter from three Gentlemen of the County to the Governour May it please your Honour We having a great desire for the good of the City and County and seeing the great distress like to ensue to both Citie and Countie think fit to present these to your Honour and to give you to understand that if it
make Peace with the Parliament from Cardiffe Aug. 1645. CHARLES REX Nephew this is occasioned by a Letter of yours which the Duke of Richmond shewed to me last night And first I assure you I have been and ever will be very careful to advertise you of my resolutions as soon as they were taken and if I enjoyned silence to that which was no secret it was not my fault for I thought it one and I am sure it ought to have been so Now as for your Opinion of my Business and your Counsel thereupon If I had any other quarrel but the defence of my Religion Crown and Friends you had full reason for your advice for I confess that speaking either as a meer Souldier or Statesman I must say there is no probability but of my ruine Yet as a Christian I must tell you that God will not suffer Rebels and Traitors to prosper or this Cause to be overthrown And whatsoever personal punishment it shall please him to inflict upon me must not make me repine much less give over this quarrel And there is as little Question that a composition with them at this time is nothing else but a submission which by the grace of God I am resolved against whatsoever it cost me for I know my Obligation to be both in Conscience and Honour neither to abandon Gods Cause nor to injure my Successors nor forsake my Friends Indeed I cannot flatter my self with expectation of good success more then this to end my daies with Honour and a good Conscience which obligeth me to continue my endeavours as not despairing that God may yet in due time avenge his own Cause though I must avow to all my Friends that he that will stay with me all this time must expect and resolve either to dye for a good Cause or which is worse to live as miserable in maintaining it as the violence of insulting Rebels can make him Having thus truly and impartially stated my Case unto you and plainly told you my positive resolutions which by the grace of God I will not alter they being neither lightlie nor suddenlie grounded I earnestly desire not in any wise to hearken after Treaties assuring you as low as I am I will doe no less then what was offered in my Name at Uxbridge confessing that it were as great a miracle that they should agree to so much reason as that I should be within a moneth in the same condition that I was immediatelie before the Battel at Naseby Therefore for Gods sake let us not flatter our selves with these conceits and believe me your very imagination that you are desirous of a Treatie will but loose me so much the sooner and therefore as you love me whatsoever you have alreadie done applie your discourse hereafter according to my resolution and judgement As for the Irish I le assure you they shall not cheat me but it is possible they may cozen themselves For be assured what I have refused to the English I will not grant to the Irish Rebels never trusting to that kinde of People of what Nation soever more then I see by their Actions And I am sending to Ormond such a dispatch as I am sure will please you and all honest men a Copie thereof by the next opportunitie you shall have Lastly be confident I would not have put you nor my self to the trouble of this long Letter had I not a great estimation of you and a full confidence of your friendship to CHARLES REX Cardiffe Aug. 1645. These are the Kings grounds and reasons rebus sic not to descend beneath the propositions offered at Uxbridge And herein he was resolved not trusting to publick counsels in the affairs of Peace And therefore in General most opinions of his Friends were for a Treatie grounding their reasons upon the Kings desperate condition little hope being left to him by force to end these differences To the desire of a Treaty some Councellors in the Princes Army now in the West had advised his Highness to send to his Majesty to that effect Whereupon the Prince writes to the General Fairfax who with his Forces were quartered about him to grant his pass for the Lord Hopton and the Lord Culpepper to go to the King and mediate with him for a Treaty with the Parliament To which after a fortnights consult with his Committee he returns answer or rather his advice for the Prince to disband his Army he now commands which he conceives would be the readiest way for the security of him and his posterity and of those who attend and adhere to him Which if he will do the General would in person conduct himself to the Parliament November 8. To which Answer the Lord Capel had Commission three weeks after to Reply In answer to yours of the eight of the last Moneth His Highness hath commanded me to let you know that he did not believe that his overture of engaging himself in the mediation of a blessed peace for his miserable Kingdome which he did and doth still very earnestly desire to labour in would have brought him an inhibition to quit his duty and loyalty to his royal Father by dividing his Interest from that of his Majesties whereby he should render himself unworthy and uncapable of the fruits of that peace he labours for If his former propositions may be consented unto he hopes God will so bless his sincere intentions and desires as to make him a blessed Instrument to preserve this Kingdome from desolation But if that be rejected he shall give the world no cause to believe that he will forfeit that honour and integrity which can onely preserve him in a capacity of doing that service and shall with patience attend Gods good pleasure untill his endeavours may be applied with preservation of his innocency This is all I have in command from His Highness Exon. Decemb. 1. Your servant Arthur Capel And no reply hereto the King then at Oxford taking knowledge of these passages is put to the extremity of seeking it himself whether of his own inclination or pressed thereto by his Council He sends a Trumpet to the Parliament with a Letter for safe conduct for certain persons of Honour to be sent with propositions of peace which came inclosed in a Letter of Sir Thomas Glenhams Governour of Oxford and directed to the Speaker of the House of Peers Decemb. 5. C. R. His Majesty being deeply sensible of the continuation of this bloody and unnatural war cannot think himself discharged of the duty he owes to God or the affection and regard he hath to the preservation of his people without the constant application of his earnest endeavours to finde some expedient for the speedy ending of these unhappy distractions if that may be he doth therefore desire that a safe conduct may be forthwith sent for the Duke of Richmond the Earl of Southampton John Ashburnham and Jeffrey Palmer Esqs and their attendance for
their journey to Westminster during their stay there and to return when they shall think fit whom his Majesty intends to send to the Lords and Commons assembled in the Parliament of England at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland furnished with such propositions as his Majesty is confident will be the Foundation of a happy peace Oxford Decemb. 5. 1645. For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore To which the Parliament return Answer signed by the two Speakers and the Scotish Commissioners in effect thus That they were sensible of the sad condition of the three Kingdomes occasioned by his Majesties separation from them and that they will use all means possible for procuring of a safe and well grounded peace for the setling of his just and legal prerogative their undoubted priviledges and the Subjects liberties That had his Majesties intentions been the same with his pretences and expressions a happy peace had been setled long since That they cannot agree to his desires for coming of the Lords and Gentlemen with their attendants and followers into their Quarters in regard the design may be of dangerous consequence But that to shew their earnest endeavours and intentions for peace they were before his Majesties Letters sent in debate of propositions for peace which they are ready to draw up and finish with all expedition to be signed by way of Bill by his Majesty Decemb. 10. But although they had ordered Tuesdayes and Saturdayes express for debate of the Propositions yet they are not finished therefore the King remindes them with a Message in pursuance of the former thus C. R. His Majesty cannot but extreamly wonder that after so many expressions on your part of a deep and seeming sense of the miseries of this afflicted Kingdom and of the dangers incident to his Person during the continuance of this unnatural VVars your many great and so often repeated Protestations that the raising of these Arms hath been only for the necessary defence of Gods true Religion his Majesties honour safety and prosperity the peace comfort and security of his people you should delay a safe Conduct to the persons mentioned in his Majesties Message of the fifth of this instant December which are to be sent unto you with propositions for a well-grounded peace A thing so far from having been deâ—ied at any time by his Majesty whensoever you have desired the same that he believes it hath been seldom if ever practised among the most avowed and professed enemies much lesse from Subjects to their King But his Majesty is resolved that no discouragements whatsoever shall make him fail of his part in doing his utmost endeavours to put an end to these Calamities which if not in time prevented must prove the ruin of this unhappy Nation And therefore doth once again desire that a safe Conduct be forthwith sent for those persons expressed in his former Message and doth therefore conjure you as you will answer to Almighty God in that day when He shall make Inquisition for all the blood that hath and may be yet spilt in this unnatural War as you tender the preservation and establishment of the true Religion by all the bonds of Duty and Allegiance to your King or compassion to your bleeding and unhappy Country and of charity to your selves that you dispose your hearts to a true sense and imploy all your faculties in a more serious endeavour together with his Majesty to set a speedy end to these wasting Divisions and then he shall not doubt but that God will again give the blessing of peace to this distracted Kingdom Oxford the 15. of December 1645. For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore All this would not do the King in some trouble finding their neglect stirs them up another way offering a personal Treaty to prevent the Inconveniencies of Misunderstandings and the distance of place for amendments therefore he offers to come home to them and Treat December 26. C. R. Notwithstanding the strange and unexpected delayes which can be precedented by no former times to his Majesties two former Messages his Majesty will lay aside all expostulations as rather serving to lose time then to contribut any remedy to the evils which for the present doe afflict this distracted Kingdom therefore without further preamble his Majesty thinks it most necessary to send these Propositions this way which he intended to doe by the persons mentioned in his former Messages though he well knows the great disadvantage which overtures of this kind have by the want of being accompanied by well instructed Messengers His Majesty conceiving that the former Treaties have hitherto proved ineffectual chiefly for want of power in those persons that Treated as likewise because those from whom their power was derived not possibly having the particular informations of every several debate could not give so clear a judgement as was requisite in so important a businesse If therefore his Majesty may have the engagement of the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland the Major Aldermen Common-Councel and Militia of London of the chief Commanders in Sir Thomas Fairfax his Army as also those in the Scots Army for his Majesties free and safe coming to and abode in London or Westminster with such of his servants now attending him and their followers not exceeding in all the number of three hundred for the space of fourty dayes and after the said time for his free and safe repair to any of his Garisons of Oxford Worcester or Newark which his Majesty shall nominate at any time before his going from London or Westminster his Majesty propounds to have a personal Treaty with the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland upon all matters which may conduce to the restoring of peace and happiness to these miserable distracted Kingdoms And to begin with the three Heads which were Treated on at Uxbridg And for the better clearing of his Majesties earnest and sincere intentions of putting an end to these unnatural distractions knowing that point of security may prove the greatest obstacle to this most blessed work his Majesty therefore declares that he is willing to commit the great trust of the Militia of this Kingdom for such time and with such powers as are exprest in the Paper delivered by his Majesties Commissioners at Uxbridg the sixth of February last to these persons following viz. the Lord Privy Seal the Duke of Richmond the Marquesse of Hertford the Marquess of Dorchester the Earl of Dorset Lord Chamberlain the Earl of Northumberland the Earl of Essex Earl of Southampton Earl of Pembroke Earl of Salisbury Earl of Manchester Earl of Warwick Earl of Denbigh Earl of Chichester Lord Say Lord Seymour Lord Lucas Lord Lexington M. Denzil Hollis M. Perpoint M. Hen. Bellasis M. Rich. Spencer Sir Thomas Fairfax M. John Ashburnham Sir Gervas â—lifton Sir Hen.
Vane jun. M. Rob. Wallop M. Thomas Chicheley Mr. Oliver Cromwel M. Philip Skippon supposing that these are persons against whom there can be no just exception But if this doth not satisfie then his Majesty offers to name the one half and leave the other to the election of the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster with the Powers and Limitations before mentioned Thus his Majesty calls God and the VVorld to witness of his sincere intentions and real endeavours for the composing and setling of these miserable Distractions which he doubts not but by the blessing of God will soon be put to a happy Conclusion if this his Majesties offer be accepted Otherwise he leaves all the World to judg who are the continuers of this unnatural war And therefore he once more conjures you by all the bonds of duty you owe to God and your King to have so great a compassion on the bleeding and miserable estate of your Country that you joyn your most serious and hearty endeavours with his Majesty to put a happy and speedy end to these present miseries Given at the Court at Oxford the 26. of Decem. 1645. No nor yet neither the nearer the King comes the farther they fly And therefore he sends again in pursuance of the former for a personal Treaty C. R. Although the late Message sent to his Majesty may justly require an expostulatory Answer yet his Majesty layes that aside as not so proper for his present endeavours leaving all the World to judg whether his Proposition for a personal Treaty or the flat denial of a safe Conduct for persons to begin a Treaty be greater signs of a real intention to peace and shall now only insist upon his former Message of the 26 of this December That upon his repair to Westminster he doubts not but so to joyn his endeavours with his two Houses of Parliament as to give just satisfaction not only concerning the business of Ireland but also for the setling of a way for the payment of the Publick debts as well to the Scots and to the City of London as others And as already he hath shewn a fair way for the setling of the Militia so he shall carefully endeavour in all other particulars that none shall have cause to complain for want of security whereby just Iealousies may arise to hinder the continuance of the desired peace And certainly this Proposition of a personal Treaty could never have entred into his Majesties thoughts if he had not resolved to make apparent to all the VVorld that the publick good and peace of this Kingdom is far dearer to him then the respect of any particular interest VVherefore none can oppose this motion without a manifest demonstration that he particularly envies his Majesty should be the chief Author in so blessed a work besides the declaring himself a direct opposer of the happy peace of these Nations To conclude whosoever will not be ashamed that his fair and specious protestations should be brought to a true and publick test and those who have a real sense and do truly commiserate the miseries of their bleeding Country let them speedily and cheerfully embrace his Majesties proposition for his personal Treaty at Westminster which by the blessing of God will undoubtedly to these now distracted Kingdoms restore the happiness of a long-wisht-for and lasting peace Given at the Court at Oxford the 29. day of December 1645. For the Speaker of the House of Peers c. At a conference hereupon the House of Commons would not dissent from their resolutions past in that House That is not to Treat but to send the Propositions by way of Bill And voted that the Militia shall remain in the hands of the Parliament and no otherwise And this Resolution including all the rest of the Kings Propositions they thereby medled not as yet with that old Maxime of theirs for the King to come home to his Parliament of which he would often say that they never ment it but by limitation for him to be brought to them a Prisoner the effect and end of this Miserable war but not an end of Miseries But the Messenger sent with this last Answer from the Parliament met with another dated 30. Decemb. in pursuance of his latter in effect as before Adding withall that be will consent to any necessary course for the paiments of the debts of the Kingdoms and to the City of London and to the Kingdom of Scotland and all desirable satisfaction concerning Ireland Using fair and rational motives to the Parliament not to refuse the former Offers which Letters as all the former are debated and evermore committed to the Committee of both Kingdoms where they used to lodge And forthwith to make the matter of the Kings desire of coming to a personal Treaty at London more suspitious and dangerous every day must be debated by the Commons The great Inconvenience and mischief that may come to the City of London by permitting so great Number of Malignants and others from the Enemies Quarters that come to compound for their delinquency and do remain here Then comes out an Ordinance for the Committee of Militia with all speed to provide for the safety of the City and to search for Delinquents and to expel them the Lines of Communication As who should say we having here too many may not admit of any more from Oxford And several Votes and Orders presently thereupon as if the King by his desire of coming with three hundred men had some design to surprize the City and Parliament also It was the 13. of Ianuary before the Parliament had done debating of the Kings Letters of the 26. and 27. of December and now they return Answer to all May it Please Your Majesty VVe c. humbly return this Answer That therein hath been no delay on our parts c. Concerning the Personal Treaty desired by your Majesty there having been so much Innocent blood of your Subjects shed in this War by your Majesties Commands and Commissions Irish Rebels brought over into both Kingdoms and endeavours to bring over more both of them as also forces from foreign parts your Majesty being in Arms in these parts and the Prince in the Head of an Army in the West divers Towns made Garisons and kept in hostility by your Majesty against the Parliament of England There being also forces in Scotland against that Parliament and Kingdom by your Majesties Commissions The war in Ireland fomented and prolonged by your Majesty whereby the three Kingdoms are thereby brought almost to utter ruin and destruction VVe conceive that untill satisfaction and security be first given to both the Kingdoms your Majesties coming hither cannot be convenient nor by us assented unto Neither can we apprehend it a means conducing to peace that your Majesty should come to your Parliament for few dayes with any thoughts of leaving it especially with intentions of returning to Hostility against it And we do
observe that your Majesty desires the engagement not only of the Parliament but of the Lord Mayor Aldermen Common Council and Militia of the City of London the Chief Commanders of Sir Fairfax's Army and those of the Scots Army which is against the Priviledges and honour of the Parliament those being joyned with them who are subject and subordinate to their Authority That which your Majesty against the freedom of the Parliaments enforces in both your Letters with many earnest expressions as if in no other way then that propounded by your Majesty the peace of the Kingdoms could be established Your Majesty may please to remember that in our last Letter we did declare that Propositions from both Kingdoms were speedily to be sent to your Majesty which we conceive to be the only way for the attaining a happy and well grounded peace and your Majesties Answer to those Propositions will be an effectual means in giving satisfaction and security to your Kingdoms will assure a firm Union between the two Kingdoms as much desired each for other as for themselves and setle Religion and secure the peace of the Kingdom of Scotland whereof neither is so much as mentioned in your Majesties Letter And in proceeding according to these just and necessary grounds for the putting an end to the bleeding Calamities of these Nations your Majesty may have the glory to be principal instument in so happy a work and we how ever mis-interpreted shall approve our selves to God and the VVorld to be real and sincere in seeking a safe and well grounded Peace January 14. But the King being earnest for their Answers sends another Messenger the 15. of Ianuary in pursuance of his former Messages of the 26. and 29. of December which met the Parliaments Trumpet with their Answer of the 13. Ianuary The Kings Message was thus Ian. 15. C. R. But that these are times wherein nothing is strange it were a thing much to be marvelled at what should cause this unparallel'd long detention of his Majesties Trumpet sent with his gracious Message of the twenty sixt of December last peace being the only subject of it and his Majesties personal Treaty the means proposed for it And it were almost as great a wonder that his Majesty should be so long from enquiring after it if the hourly expectation thereof had not in some measure satisfied his impatience But lest his Majesty by his long silence should condemn himself of carelesseness in that which so much concerns the good of all his people he thinks it high time to enquire after his said Trumpeter For since all men who pretend any goodness must desire peace and that all men know Treaties to be the best and most Christian way to procure it and there being as little question that his Majesties personal presence in it is the likelyest way to bring it to a happy issue he judges there must be some strange variety of accidents which causeth this most tedious delay wherefore his Majesty earnestly desires to have a speedy account of his former Message the Subject whereof is Peace and the means his personal presence at Westminster where the Government of the Church being setled as it was in the times of the happy and glorious Reigns of Queen Elizabeth and King James and full liberty for the ease of their Consciences who will not communicate in that service established by Law and likewise for the free and publick use of the Directory prescribed and by command of the two Houses of Parliament now practised in some parts of the City of London to such as shall desire to use the same and all forces being agreed to be disbanded his Majesty will then forthwith as he hath in his Message of the twenty ninth of December last already offered joyn with his two Houses of Parliament in setling some way for the payment of the Publick Debts to his Scots Subjects the City of London and others and his Majesty having proposed a fair way for the sâ—â—ling of the Militia which now by this long delay seems not to be thought sufficient security his Majesty to shew how really he will imploy himself at his coming to Westminster for making this a lasting peace and taking away all jealousies how groundless soever will endeavour upon debate with his two Houses so to dispose of it as likewise of the business of Ireland as may give to them and both Kingdoms just satisfaction not doubting also but to give good contentment to his two Houses of Parliament in the choise of the Lord Admiral the Officers of State and others if his two Houses by their ready inclinations to peace shall give him encouragements thereunto Thus his Majesty having taken occasion by his just impatience so to explain his intentions that no man can doubt of a happy issue to this succeding Treaty If now there shall be so much as a delay of the same he calls God and the World to witness who they are that not only hinder but reject this Kingdoms future happiness it being so much the stranger that his Majesties coming to Westminster which was the first and greatest pretence for taking up Arms should be so much as delayed much lesse not accepted or refused but his Majesty hopes that God will no longer suffer the malice of wicked men to hinder the peace of this too much afflicted Kingdom Given at the Court at Oxford the 15. of Ianuary 1645. For the Speaker of the House of Peers c. And now it begins to work in the hearts of the people muttering and murmurring the true state of these transactions and the Christian pious affection of the King to peace The Parliament therefore set all their Engines to satisfie the public And after the debate of the King 's last Letter they read Letters from their Commissioners in Ireland together with some other Letters and Papers taken in the Pockets of the Arch-bishop of Trane who was slain at the overthrow of the Rebells at Sligo in Ireland discovering all the transactions between the King and them with whom the Bishop was to Treat offering Toleration of Religion themselves to choose a Governour of their own and to be intrusted with several Castles and Forts for their Caution upon condition to send in to England ten thousand Irish to assist him against his Enemies And these Papers were forthwith printed and published together with those Letters taken in the Lord Digbie's Coach at Sherburn in Yorkshire and all to amuse the people for to satisfie them thereby they could not The King hears of this and digesting it as well as he could he Plies them again with a tarter Message dated 17. Ianuary thus C. R. His Majesty thinks not fit now to Answer those aspersions which are returned as arguments for his not admittance to Westminster for a personal Treaty because it would enforce a stile not suitable to his end it being the peace of those miserable Kingdoms yet thus much he cannot but say
yet suffers not your Majesties Service herein to proceed with that advantage it might do I conceive it not so fit to commit to Paper but I shortly send my Brother who shall fully inform your Majestie with all particulars and thereby rectifie your opinion and give you true 〈◊〉 who are your faithfull Servants I hope long ere this that â—â—ptain Bacon hath arrived with you since mine Enlargement and therefore I need onely tell your Majestie that my further Services intended for you will I hope without further crosses be suffered to go on though strange is the industrie used by many seeming Friends to hinder me therein but I am confident it shall not lie in their power your Majestie remaining still constant as I doubt not but you will to your favourable opinion and right interpretation of my poor Endeavours which if they may take place will procure you to be a glorious and happie Prince I having no other ends but to approve my self Your Sacred Majesties most dutifull and most obedient Subject and passionate devoted Servant Glamorgan Waterford Febr. 23. 1645. But in the mean time ere this last Letter of Glamorgan's was discovered the King had sent another Message Febr. 26. CHARLS R. His Majestie needs to make no Excuse though he sent no more Messages unto you for he very well knows he ought not to do it if he either stood upon punctilio's of Honour or his own private interest the one being already call'd in question by his often sending and the other assuredly prejudg'd if a Peace be concluded from that he hath already offered he having therein departed with many his undoubted Rights But nothing being equally dear unto him to the preservation of his People his Majestie passeth by many Scruples Neglects and Delaies and once more desires you to give him a speedie Answer to his last Message for his Majestie believes it doth very well become him after this very long Delay at last to utter his impatience since the Goods and Bloud of his Subjects cries so much for Peace Given at our Court at Oxford the six and twentieth Day of February 1645. For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated c. The King hears of their Votes and Debates daily canvasing the Heads of Propositions and to remove these Remora's that stuck in their way he clears them by another Message and presses for his coming to London CHARLS R. Notwithstanding the unexpected silence in stead of answer to his Majesties many and gracious Messages to both Houses whereby it may appear that they desire to 〈◊〉 their ends by force rather than by Treatie which may justly discouraâ—â— his Majestie from any more Overtures of that kinde yet his Majestie conceives he shall be much wanting in his Dutie to God and in what he oweth to the safetie of his People if he should not intend to prevent the great Inconveniences that may otherwise hinder a safe and well-grounded Peace His Majestie therefore now proposeth that so he may have the Faith of both Houses of Parliament for the preservation of his Honour Person and Estate and that Libertie be given to all those who do and have adhered to his Majestie to go to their own houses and there to live peaceably enjoying their Estates all Sequestrations being taken off without being compelled to take any Oath not enjoyned by the undoubted Laws of the Kingdom or being put to any other molestation whatsoever he will immediately disband all his Forces and dismantle all his Garisons and being accompanied with his Royal not his Martial Attendance return to his two Houses of Parliament and there reside with them And for the better securitie of all his Majesties Subjects he proposeth that he with his said two Houses immediately upon his coming to Westminster will pass an Act of Oblivion and free Pardon and where his Majestie will further do whatsoever they will advise him for the good and Peace of this Kingdom And as for the Kingdom of Scotland his Majestie hath made no mention of it here in regard of the great loss of time which must now be spent in expecting an Answer from thence but declares that immediately upon his coming to Westminster he will applie himself to give them all satisfaction touching that Kingdom If his Majestie could possibly doubt the Success of this Offer he could use many Arguments to perswade them to it but shall onely insist upon that great one of giving an instant Peace to these afflicted Kingdoms Oxford March 23. 1645. For the Speaker of the House of Peers c. But not prevailing we shall end this years Proposals hoping by the next to finde the Parliament herein better disposed The Garison of Westchester for the King was of great consequence and therefore commanded by a Noble Person the Lord Byron the Port and Passage for Ireland the Countrey Contribution was of such a Circuit and sufficiencie that the Parliament now somewhat setled in successes resolved in the begining of August last to besiege it But ere their Forces undertook it they drew considerable strength into the Shire Quartering thereabout and Associating with other of their Garisons The work begins enduring many a brunt from Chester who were well appointed and vexed their Enemies with several repulses to resolve upon a design thus Col. Iones who commanded the Horse for the Parl in a Leaguer near hand at Beeston drew off with Col. Louthian at midnight who commanded the Foot and both making a Party of 1300. Horse and Foot came the next morning at 4. a clock before Chester on the East-side dividing their Forces into four parts to storm in 4. places and being so early and undiscovered Captain Ginbert got upon the Out-works at Forrest-street end Finch on the left hand Holt and Davis at two other places They were opposed by as gallant resolute Commanders but came too late for the Enemy was got in and paid dear for their purchase The Forrest-street and Lanes thereto was taken with the possession of the Mayors House Sword and Mace and the Sheriffs Wand and these sent to the Parliament for signal of thus much success Sept. 23. These Suburbs they possess against the Sallies of the Town daily incounters of either side within and without the Town The Kings Forces thereabout endeavouring with all possible waies to relieve this so useful Garison But then the Enemy enlarges by degrees almost block up the West-side of Chester Oct. 2 The distress comes close which troubles the King at Oxford who gives order to draw out from several Garisons of Hereford Ludlow Bridge-North and Worcester such considerable Forces as made up 1700. Horse and 700. Foot commanded by a Noble Knight Sir William Vaughan and got into a Body near Denbigh Castle twenty miles off of Chester when the Besiegers hear of this and go to Council whether to rest their near appoach or to fight them far off They resolve draw out 1400. Horse and
Parliament no further Expectation of Aid from Ireland or any foreign Friend the Lord Ashley was onely in a Body but closely pursued by Sir William Brereton and Colonel Morgan Governour of Glocester and in the end not able to avoid the Quarrel they came to fight the one and twentieth of March where Ashley was totally defeated near Stow in the Wold upon the edg of Glocestershire himself taken Prisoner fifteen hundred Horse and Foot with his Baggage Ammunition and all and therefore he told them that took him Their Work was done they might go play Meaning that the King had lost all And it seems so by the hasty Vote of the Parliament to the Kings Letter which Message was in effect That he offers to come to his two Houses upon their Assurance for the safety of his Person and to advise with them for the good and safety of the Kingdom Provided that all those who have adhered to his Majesty may have liberty to return in peace to their own home to live in quiet without the Obligation of the National Oath or Covenant and Sequestration to be taken off from their Estates And that then his Majesty will disband all his Forces dismantle his Garisons pass an Act of Oblivion and free Pardon to all and give ample satisfaction to the Kingdom of Scotland March 23. But it is now too late and therefore they answer not at all unless he be willing to take notice of this Ordinance That in case the King shall contrary to the advise of Parliament already given to him come or attempt to come within the Lines of Communication that then the Committee of the Militia of London shall have power and are hereby enjoyned to raise such Force as they shall think fit to prevent any Tumult that may arise by his coming and to suppress any that shall happen and to apprehend and secure any such as shall come with him to prevent resort unto him and to secure his person from danger Nay more That all persons whatsoever that have born Arms against the Parliament are to depart the City by the sixth of April upon the penalty as followeth viz. The Lords and Commons taking notice of the great concourse and resort of Papist Officers and Souldiers of Fortune and such as have been in Arms against the Parliament of England from the Enemies Garisons and Quarters unto the Citie of London and Westminster and other parts within the Lines of Communication That such depart c. before the sixth of April next or to be declared against as Spies and to be proceeded against according to the Rules of War unless with licence of the Committee of Goldsmiths Hall and of the Militia of London and the Sub-committees are hereby to keep strict Guards and Watches to make frequent Searches Provided that this Act shall not extend to such as came in to the Parliament before the first of June last And that no Peer have licence but by the House of Lords And this Order to continue for a moneth after the sixth of April and no longer March 30. Then for fear that the King should come notwithstanding all their fore-warnings Letters are devised from several places of Intelligence That the King is resolved to come suddenly to London And with some Designs also hinted as might seem most dangerous to the Parliament and Kingdom Therefore the Parliament order That Letters shall be suddenly sent to the Prince as in answer to former received from him as also to the King that Commissioners will forthwith be sent to his Majesty with Propositions of Peace And now we have almost done fighting in the Field some Garisons onely stand out but others are daily surrendred And for these and such like Victories we have such City-feastings Bonefires and Bell-ringings as that we were imagined to be all mad which the Pay-masters of all the Aldermen and the rest expressed in the highest manner that could be as being the effects of joy union sweet harmony heavenly blessings and the like as indeed we want words also to express their conceits Then was there established a Court Martial in London with Articles published against such Inhabitants as were but tending to the malignancy of Cavaliery as that it was almost impossible for a conscionable Subject but to be liable to their punishment And withall comes out another Ordinance viz. That no persons whatsoever shall repair to the King Queen Prince or Lords malignant or to either of them or to any Commander or Officer of theirs or shall hold Intelligence with them or shall plot contrive or endeavour with the Enemie contrary to the Rules of War not to relieve any person that have taken up Arms against the Parliament not to assemble or mutinie And against such as have taken up Arms against the Parliament and have taken the Covenant no Officer shall desert his Trust none that hath been in Arms against the Parliament or assisted the Enemy shall come to London or Westminster without a Pass and shall not also within eight and fourty hours tender himself to the Parliament All these aforesaid shall die the death without mercie And this Ordinance to last for three moneths April 3. What should the Kings party his Souldiers and Friends do that had delivered up themselves and Garisons upon Articles and Quarter but to return home which indeed in effect was for all or the most to come to London for means for inquiry for subsistence and for courses to sell Lands raise Moneys to seek Relief and to compound multitudes of such are come and must suddenly be gone again others on their way to the City and ignorant of the Ordinances fell unwittingly under the Penalties and so are daily taken seized and hurried into Prisons or Goals and are utterly ruined ere they know for what This makes them repent their hasty Surrenders of Garisons rather to have been there slain in honour by the Sword than after all to be undone at home Aud to colour the cruelty it was surmized that probably these had some horrible Design against the Parliament City and Kingdom which was referred to other Committees to do and order the Cavaliers to dispose and command them as they should think fit A mischief to the Sufferers beyond all their former miseries thus to submit to a City Committee made up they said of Tradesmen and Tailours These Tidings reach to the knowledg of the King and his Council at Oxford who disorderly seek in private their own safety leaving the King to shift for himself But to make their own Jealousies of some colour and Punishments answerable thereto It is devised that the King notwithstanding the Refusal of his coming he is yet resolved to come some fix upon the Day others suppose it uncertain some say he comes disguised and others affirm positively that he is come and is to be seen at the Lord Mayors whether the City Wives went to visit my Lady Mistress Mayoress
it had not been formed into a Garison it should not have suffered a Summons and were it disgarisoned neither you nor your house should receive disquiet from me Hereby I discharge my self of all extremities c. upon your refusal and remain Yours c. T. Fairfax Many Messages passed between them ere that the Marquess would Treat being in very great doubt he said whether the Parliament would confirm what the General should grant which being assured they fell to Treat the 13. of Aug. and a Cessation of Arms from ten a clock till 3. during which the Besiegers had permission to come up to their Stockadoes little regarding to have their works of defence viewed they were so strong sufficient to scare them from attempt And therefore the Marquess propounds the highest conditions as ever were demanded and had soon an Answer that they deserved no Answer but that his person must submit to the Parliaments mercy which was agreed upon amongst other Articles the nineteenth of August That all the Ordnance and Ammunition to be delivered up to the General That the Officers Gentlemen and Souldiers with all other persons there shall march out with their Horses and Arms Colours flying Drâ—ms beating Trumpets sounding Matches lighted at both ends Bullets in mouth each Souldier twelve charges of Powder Match and Bullet proportionable Bag and Baggage to any place within ten miles of any Garison where the Marquesse shall mention But in respect his Majesty hath no Garison nor Army in England their Armes shall be delivered up to such as the General shall appoint The Officers and Gentlemen have three moneths time for endeavouring their peace and composition with the Parliament if they will stay in England or to have Passes for beyond sea The sick to stay in the Castle or to be removed whither they please No person herein comprized shall be questioned for any act done in relation to War since the Commencement but be as free as any other persons whatsoever Nobly done to hold out the last Garison for the King in England or Wales And a thanksgiving-day was appointed by Parliament for the surrendring thereof and of others lately delivered up in this order Worcester Wallingford Ruthen Pendennis and Ragland the last Those of quality that marched out were the Marquess the Lord Charles Son to the Marquess the Countess of Glamorgan Sir Philip Iones and his Lady Doctor Baily Commissary Guilliams four Colonels twenty two Captains sixteen Lieutenants six Cornets four Ensignes four Quartermasters fifty two Esquires and Gentlemen In all with the common Souldiers seven hundred But before that Oxford was surrendred the King had made his disguised escape from thence whose story we now mention and call back the remembrance of a moneth or two for then came newes indeed Letter after Letter to the Parliament from Colonel Rainsbrough That the King was gone in disguise out of Oxford with Jack Ashburnham and only one more on Munday 27. April but which way is uncertain Various and strange conceits amazed the Members some that he was gone to Wales others to Montrose in Scotland but the most that he is come to London concealed forthwith the Commons Debate Vote a Committee to consider of an Order and to draw it up in this form That what person soever shall harbour and conceal or know of the harbouring or concealing of the Kings person and shall not reveale it immediately to the Speakers of both Houses shall be proceeded against as a Traitor to the Common-wealth forfeit his whole Estate and dye without mercy Then was the Ordinance for the Cavaliers to be casheered out of the Lines of Communication continued for a moneth longer and now a new Ordinance to remove twenty miles further and the Militia of London have power to search and punish so far Then comes Post that the King is gone Northward to Norfolk or to the Isle of Ely or to Lynn And to amaze the Parliament the more two great Packets are intercepted by the General the one directed to the Kings most excellent Majesty the other for his Highnesse Prince Charles which being conceived of mighty concernment were posted up to the Parliament and the House prepared to be full and so they were opened Which were no more nor no less then the Bills of Mortality bound up in a bundle of the whole years burials in London c. usually sent heretofore to the King Wagers were laid at London and at Oxford likewise who could riddle him into some certain place but in earnest of all places or any place rather then where he is It amazes all men to hear of him in the Scots Army before Newark thus to trust his Person with this perfidious Scot as they were stiled But it is now apparant that the King had this design of quitting Oxford some time since as appears by his Letters to Ormond dated April the third and his resolution there to hazard his Person to the Scots Army and the reason being upon contract and former assurance from the Scots Not only for his Majesty but for all others that doe or shall adhere to him to be safe in their Persons Honours and Consciences in the Scotish Army who shall really and effectually joyn with the King and with such as will come in unto him and joyn with them for the Kings preservation and shall imploy their Armies and Forces to assist the King to the procuring of a happy and well grounded Peace for the good of him and his Kingdoms in the recovery of his just Rights c. But take the whole Letter at length CHARLES REX Right Trusty c. We having used all possible and honourable means by sending many gracious Messages to the two Houses of Parliament wherein we have offered them all they have heretofore desired and desire from them nothing but what they themselves since these unhappy wars have offered to procure our personal Treaty with them for a fafe and well grounded Peace and having instead of a dutiful and peaceable return to our said Messages received either no Answer at all or such as argues nothing will satisfie them but the ruine not only of us our Posterity and Friends but even of Monarchy it self And having lately received very good security that we and all that doe or shall adhere to us shall be safe in our Persons Honours and Consciences in the Scotish Army and that they shall really and effectually joyn with us and with such as will come in unto us and joyn with them for our preservation and shall imploy their Armies and Forces to assist us to the procuring of a happy and well grounded Peace for the good of us and our Kingdoms in the recovery of our just Rights we have resolved to put our selves to the hazard of passing into the Scots Army now lying before Newark And if it shall please God that we come safe thither we are resolved to use our best endeavour with their assistance and with the
conjunction of the Forces under the Marquess of Montrose and such of our well affected Subjects of England as shall rise for us to procure it may be an honourable and speedy Peace with those who hitherto refused to give ear to any means tending thereunto Of which our Resolution we held it necessary to give you this Advertisement as well to satisfie you and all our Council and Loyal Subjects with you to whom we will that you communicate these our Letters yet failing in our earnest and sincere endeavours by Treaty to put an end to the miseries of these Kingdoms We esteemed our self obliged to leave no probable expedient unattempted to preserve our Crown and Friends from the usurpation and tyranny of those whose Actions declare so manifestly their desigâ—s to overthrow those Lawes and happy established Government of this Kingdom And now we have made known to you our resolution we recommend to your especial care the disposing and managing of our Affairs on that side as that you shall conceive most for our Honour and Service being confident the course we have taken though with some hazard of our Person will have a good influence on that our Kingdom and defer if not altogether prevent the Rebels transporting of Forces from them into that Kingdom And we desire you to satisfie all our well affected Subjects on that side of our Princely care of them whereof they shall receive the effect as soon as God shall enable us We desire you to use some means to let us and our Council at Oxford hear frequently from you and of your Actions and Condition there And so God prosper your Loyal endeavours Given at our Court at Oxon April 3. 1646. Which Letter Ormond receives the 20. of May and the next day communicates it to Montrose a great Commander of the British Forces in Ireland by this summons SIR This morning I received a dispatch from his Majesty and command therein to impart it not only to all his Councel but to all his Loyal Subjects I am confident you have so good a Title to the knowledge thereof that I have held it my part instantly to dispatch it unto you by an express I rest Yours Ormond Dublin May 21. 1646. And accordingly the King disguised got out by the discreet management of the Loyal and trusty Mr. Hudson a Clergy man and Mr. Iohn Ashburnham another of interest with the King They passed up and down as hereafter more particular to the French Agent Montril at Sowtham the 4. of May thence sent to the Scotish General Leven and was conducted to his Quarters by a Troop of Horse the Commissioners there soon after sent post to the Parliament of this news And likewise an Abstract of a Letter of the fourth of May discovering what was writ by the King to the Queen in France concerning his coming from Oxford and an agreement in the design she wot on Upon which Letter read in the House the Commons doe Order That the Commissioners and the General of the Scotish Army be desired that his Majesties person be disposed off as both Houses shall desire and direct And that he be thence disposed of and sent to Warwick Castle And that Jo. Ashburnham and the rest that came with the King into the Scots Quarters shall be sent for as Delinquents by the Serjeants at Arms and that the Commissioners of Parliament residing before Newark shall make a Narrative of the Kings coming thither and to present it to the House But to save them the labour there came this Letter from the Scots General and Commissioners to the Committee of both Kingdoms and by them communicated to the Parliament The Letter was thus Right Honourable The earnest desire which we have to keep a right understanding between the 2. Kingdoms moves us to acquaint you with that strange Providence wherewith we are now surprized together with our cariage and desires thereupon The King came into our Army yesterday in so private a way that after we had made some search for him upon the surmizes of persons who pretended to know his face ye we could not find him out in sundry houses And we believe your Lordships will think it was matter of much astonishment to us seeing we did not expect him to come into any place under our power We conceived it not fit to inquire into the causes but to endeavour that his being here might be improved for the best advantage for procuring the work of Uniformity for setling Religion and Righteousness and attaining of Peace according to the League and Covenant and Treaty by the advice of the Parliaments of both Kingdoms and their Commissioners authorized for that effect Trusting to our integrity we are perswaded that none will so far misconster us as that we intended to make use of this seeming advantage for promoting any other ends then are expressed in this Covenant and hath been hitherto pursued by us with no lesse Conscience then care And yet for further satisfaction we doe ingeniously declare That there hath been no Treaty nor Capitulation betwixt his Majesty and us nor any in our names that we leave the waies and meanes of peace unto the Parliament of both Kingdoms And so far as concerns us as we have a witness in heaven we are confident to make it appear to the world that there is nothing more in our desires then in all our resolutions and proceedings to adhere to the Covenant and Treaty Our gravest thoughts shall be taken up in studying and our utmost abilities imployed in acting those things that may best advance the Publick good and common happiness of both Kingdoms wherein by the help of the most High we shall labour to use so much tenderness and care that we hope it shall soon appear our Actions have been the result of honest and single intentions And further we cannot in a matter of so deep consequence and common interest but seek your Lordships advice for which effect we have also written to the Committee of Affairs of Scotland with intention to move your joynt Consents and Resolution that we at last after a Seed-time of Afflictions may reap the sweet fruits of Truth and Peace and in this confidence we remain Your Lordships humble servants Leven Dunferling Lothian S. D. Hume Sir Tho. Carr R. of Ireland W. Glendovin Iohn Iohnston Southwel May 6. 1646. To the Right Honourable the Committee of both Kingdoms And the eighth of May from Southwel the King sends this Message to the Parliament in effect That he understood from the Parliament that it was not safe for him to come to London untill he should consent to such Propositions as should be presented to him And being informed that the Armies marching so fast to Oxford made that place most unfit for a Treaty resolved to withdraw hither only to secure his Person with no intention to continue this War any longer or to make division between his two Kingdoms but rather to
give content to both in a happy peace Religion being the chiefest Point he advises them to take the Opinions of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster The Militia he will settle it as was offered at Uxbridge into the hands of such persons as the Parliament shall name for seven years and afterwards to be named by the King and Parliament and the like for Scotland and for Ireland He will doe what possibly he is able desiring such of their Propositions as are ready to be sent to him being resolved to comply with them in any thing He wishes both Kingdoms to be careful to maintain Him and his Honour and his just aâ—d lawful Rights He will take a course for satisfying of Publick Debts disband all Armies that so each hinderance being removed he may return to them with mutual comfort And in a Postscript To shew his real intentions to peace is willing that his Forces in and about Oxford be disbanded the Fortifications dismantled they receiving Honourable Conditions which being granted he will give the like order to all the rest of his Garisons Southwel 8. of May 1646. And two dayes after being come to Newcastle He writes his Letters to the States of the Kingdom of Scotland to the same effect And that the truth of these his intentions might be made known to all He desires a Proclamation might be there Printed and published together with this Letter that it is his Voluntary and Cordial resolution proceeding from the deep sence of the bleeding condition of his Kingdoms And that he intends to joyn with his Parliament in setling Religion in purity and the Subjects in safety so expecting their counsel and advice c. Newcastle May 10. 1646. And to satisfie all men He writes the same in effect to his City of London giving them the account of the former Letters from himself that his return to his Parliament might also be to their good likeing May 19. In the mean time came Letters from the Commissioners before Newark of the surrender of that Town and that the Scotish Army was drawn off and retreated about four miles and the King with them in their Army Then the House of Commons Vote for the demanding of his Majesties Person which took up a weeks time and not agreed For Letters were read That the Scotish Army and the King were marched further North towards their old Quarters and the King sodainly expected at Newcastle and a House there prepared for him But the Commons conclude They conceive it reasonable that in England his Majesty be disposed by none but the Parliament of England That the Scotish Armie in England is an Army of the Parliaments and in Pay to them and so theirs besides his Majestie is in open Hostility with the Parliament and hath Towns and Forces abroad against the Parliament and yet he is with the Scotish Army without the approbation of the Parliament c. That the King is or ought to be near his Parliament whereby they may have recourse to him for the better correspondencie between both and the obtaining the concurrence of his Majestie to such things as are most necessary for the Kingdom in the doing whereof it cannot but be of great prejudice and obstruction to have his Majesty some hundred of miles from his Parliament Likewise that by Covenant we are swâ—rn to preserve the Rights and Priviledges of Parliament but to detain the King from his Parliament is altogether inconsistent with the Covenant but the Lords take time to consider hereof The King at leasure also to consider his unhappy condition and now at Newcale the 13. of May in his Soliloquie complains of his misfortune and extremities which have forced him to seek relief any where specially of the Scots Although God hath given me three Kingdoms yet in these he hath not now left me any place where I may with safety and honour rest my head Shewing me that himself is the safest Refuge and the strongest Tower of defence in which I may put my trust In these extremities I look not to man so much as to God he will 〈◊〉 have it thus that I may wholly cast my self and my now distressed Affairs upon his mercie who hath both the hearts and hands of all men in his dispose What providence denies to force it may grant to prudence necessitie is now my Counsellor and commands me to studie my safetie by a disguised withdrawing from my chiefest strength and adventuring upon their Loyaltie who first began my troubles Haply God may make them a means honourably to compose them This my confidence of them may disarm and overcome them my rendering my person to them may engage their affections to me who have oft professed They fought not against me but for me I must now resolve the Riddle of their Loyaltie and give them opportunitie to let world see they mean not what they doe but what they say Yet must God be my chiefest Guard and my conscience both my Councellor and my Comforter though I put my Bodie into their hands yet I shall reserve my Soule to God and my self nor shall any necessities compel me to desert mine Honour or swerve from my judgement What they sought to take by force shall now be given them in such a waie of unusual confidence of them as may make them ashamed not to be really such as they ought and professed to be God sees it not enough to deprive me of all Militarie power to defend my self but 〈…〉 upon using their power who seem to fight against me yet oâ—ght in dutie to defend me So various are all humane afâ—airs and so necessitous may the state of Princes be that their greatest danger may be in their supposed safetie and their safetie in their supposed danger I must now leave those that have adhered to me and apply to those that have opposed me this method of Peace may be morâ— prosperous then that of War both to stop the effusion of blood and to close those wounds alreadie made and in it I am no less solicitous for my friends safetie then mine own chusing to venture my self upon further hazards rather then expose their resolute Loyaltie to all extremities It is some skill in plaie to know when a game is lost better fairlie to give over then to contest in vain I must now studie to re-inforce my judgement and fortifie my minde with Reason and Religion that I may not seem to offer up my Souls libertie or make my Conscience their Captive who ought at first to have used Arguments not Arms to have perswaded my consent to their new demands I thank God no success darkens or disguises Truth to me and I shall no less conform my words to my inward dictates now then if they had been as the words of a King ought to be among Loyal Subjects full of power Reason is the divinest power I shall never think my self weakned while I may make full and free use of
Forces as formerly 14. That all Honours and Titles conferred on any since the Great Seal was conveyed from the Parliament May 21. 1642. be made null and that those that shall be hereafter made Peers by the King shall not sit in Parliament without consent of both Houses 15. That an Act be passed to confirm all the Treaties between England and Scotland and a Committee of both Houses to be nominated Conservators of the Peace between both Kingdoms 16. An Act for establishing the Declaration of both Kingdoms of the thirtieth of January 1643. with the qualifications as follow The first Qualification That these persons shall expect no pardon In a word all the persons of Honour and Quality that have taken up Arms for the King in England or Scotland which because the Treaty took no effect is but frivolous to insert And all such others as being processed by the Estates for Treason shall be condemned before the Act of Oblivion be passed Then follows the second Qualification All Papists and Popish Recusants who have been now are or shall be actually in Arms or assisting against the Parliaments of either Kingdoms and by name the Marquess of Winton Earl of Worcester Lord Herbert Lord Brudnel Lord Arundel of Warder Earl Castlehaven and seven Knights and Gentlemen The third Qualification All persons that have assisted in the Rebellion of Ireland except such as are come in to the Parliament of England The fourth Qualification Herein are named above fifty Knights and Gentlemen that were at Oxford and it follows All such of the Scotish Nation as have concurred in the Votes at Oxford against the Kingdom of Scotland and all that have assisted in Arms against Scotland Then follows three Branches of this Qualification The fifth Qualification That all Iudges Officers and Practicers of the Law that have deserted the Parliament be incapable of Office or Practice in the Law the like of the Clergie With other Qualifications and Branches depending too tedious to insert and esteemed of all indifferent persons most improper for the King to consent unto And now comes the juggling French Agent Montril from the Queen in France with Letters to the King to make peace with his Parliament by any conditions reasonable And that the Prince of Wales is arrived at Paris without the Kings knowledg whom he designed to have come to him to Newcastle The Parliament had written to the King to give Warrant to his Lieutenant General Ormond in Ireland for disbanding his Forces andre ceive this Answer CHARLS R. That as none can be more deeply affected than his Majestie with the calamities of his Kingdom of Ireland so he will apply all future Remedies And as to the delivering of the City and Castle of Dublin Drogheda and all other Garisons in Ireland held for his Majesty into the hands of the Parliament of England He is most willing that all these places may be so disposed as they may best be secured from the Rebells and most for the safety of his good Subjects doth again earnestly press the Propositions so long expected expecting that they will contain the readiest means not onely of preserving those places which are already in his power but likewise of reducing the rest of that Kingdom possessed by the Rebells to his obedience all which will be setled upon the conclusion of a happy Peace which he will heartily endeavour Newcastle July 11. Which Message met the Commissioners on the way with the Propositions to the King The French Ambassadour Extraordinary had his first Audience of the 17. of Iuly in effect That he had a command from the Queen Regent and King of France to endeavour a composure of the Differences between the King and Parliament but understanding that Propositions are gone to his Majesty he hath no more to say to the Parliament but to take his leave and to desire their Pass for him to the King and to the States of Scotland and had this Answer That the Parliament receive with thankfulness the good Intentions of the King of France to these Kingdoms for ending of the Differences they had done their Endeavours and will so continue to do But they could not agree that any Foreign State interpose in the present remaining Differences nor that his Majesty of France in particular by his present Extraordinary Ambassadour And are very willing the Ambassadour have a Pass and be used with all respect and civility But the Ambassadour staid so long for this ceremony that he was gone towards the King without it The three and twentieth of Iuly the Propositions were presented to the King and the Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery being the best Man though the least able told the King That he knew well how unfit a Spokesman he was and desired that Mr. Goodwin might speak for them The King instantly asked If they had any power to treat They answered No. Then said he Saving the honour of the business an honest Trumpeter might have done as much I hope you expect not a present Answer to this high concernment They told him Their time was limited to ten Days And the French Ambassadour Balieme and Montril the Agent had Audience the next day and very private with the King We may easily believe how the King was beset with Petitions and Prayers hand over head to consent to all these Propositions by the English and Scots about him And how the Commissioners resented it appears in a Letter to the Speaker of the Commons We are sorry we cannot acquaint you with so good success as we desired having this Morning his Majesties Answer Negative with a Paper containing Offers to come to London and treat which we thought not fit to send because we know not the Parliaments pleasure whether or no they will take notice thereof as being no Answer to the Propositions We have taken leave and hasten home Earl Hepsley Goodwin Robinson August 2. 1646. It is likely they were sorry and said so but see what the King says for himself and concerning them dated a day before theirs and sent to the Houses a quick and sudden Answer to their tedious Propositions C. R. The Propositions tendered to his Majestie by the Commissioners c. to which the Houses of Parliament have taken twice so manie moneths for deliberation as they have assigned daiâ—s for his Majesties Answer do import so great alterations in Government both in Church and Kingdom as it is very difficult to return a particular and positive Answer before a ful debate wherein these Propositions and the necessarie explanations true Sense and Reasons thereof be rightly weighed and understood and that his Majestie upon a ful view of the whole Propositions may know what is left as well as what is taken away and changed In all which he findes upon discourse with the said Commissioners that they are so bound up from anie capacitie either to give Reasons for the Demands they bring or to give ear to
for his labour Then the Scots select a Committee of their own Lowthian and others to move the King once more for all to take the Covenant and sign to the Propositions which they did endeavour but could not prevail For the Kings intention to escape was thus proved out of several Letters of the Kings to Hudson whilst he was out of prison by way of direction how to manage the design with great promises of reward to such as should assist therein Hudson sends a Copy of this Letter inclosed in one of his own to Major Gen. Langhorn a Commander in Wales and tels him what a great value the King had of his worth and desires his assistance with other his friends to restore his Majestie to his Rights This letter was sent to Mr. Gibb late of Lincolns Inn who sent it to Mr. Price in Wales who delivered it to Langhorn And had the King escaped it was conceited that he was to be received into a Holland Ship that had lain off at Sea near the Shields this two moneths to carry him God knows whither for none on earth could imagine But now the Scots are ready to deliver up their King and Soveraign to Commissioners appointed by the Parliament to receive him and to convey him to Holmby Viz. the Earls of Pembroke Denbigh and the L. Mountague Sir Iames Harrington Sir Io. Hollyland Siâ— Walter Earl Sir Io. Cook Mr. Crew and Major General Brown And the servants to attend the King in Ordinary were Voted to be Sir Thomas Herbert Mr. Maxwell Mr. Astley Mr. Harrington Mr. Patrick Marel Sir Foulk Grevil Mr. Middleton Serjeant at Arms and Doctor Wilson Physician Mr. Marshall and Mr. Caryll to attend them as Chaplains The Parliament of Edenburgh had some debate concerning the King and Queries put to the General Assembly of Ministers Queries If the King shall come to this Kingdom and that the Kingdom of England shall exclude him from the Government there for his leaving them without granting their Propositions whether or no it will be lawfull for this Kingdom to assist him for the recovery of the Government he not granting the Propositions concerning Religion and the Convenant and not giving a satisfactory Answer to the rest of the Propositions They answer The Quere presupposeth the Kings coming into this Kingdom which Case we humbly conceive should not be put into the Question and therefore we desire your Lordships to go about all means to prevent it as a matter of most dangerous consequence to Religion this Kirk and Kingdom and to the King himself and his Posterity But if the Question be stated simply in these terms If the King be excluded from Government in England for not granting the Propositions concerning Religion and the Covenant and for not giving a satisfactory Answer to the rest of the Propositions whether in that case it be lawfull for this Kingdom to assist him for the Recovery of the Government or if it be not lawfull Being put to it we cannot but answer In regard of the Ingagement of this Kingdom by Covenant and Treaty Negative Hereupon the Parliament of Scotland resolve 1. Resolved upon the Question That the Kingdom of Scotland shall be governed as it hath been these five last years all means being used that the King may take the Covenant and pass the Propositions 2. Resolved That the taking of the Scots Covenant and passing some of the Propositions doth not give warrant to assist him against England 3. Resolved That upon bare taking the National Covenant we may not receive him 4. Resolved That the clause in the Covenant for defence of the Kings person to be understood in defence and safety of the Kingdoms 5. Resolved That the King shall not excute any power in the Kingdom of Scotland untill such time that he hath granted the Propositions concerning Religion and the Covenant and given a satisfactory Answer to both Kingdoms in the rest of the Propositions presented to him by both Kingdoms at Newcastle 6. Resolved That if the King refuse to pass the Propositions he shall be disposed of according to the Covenant and Treaty 7. Resolved That the Union be firmly kept between the two Kingdoms according â—o the Covenant and Treaties And to shew you the consequence hereof see the joint consent of the Estate of Scotland together with the Army for delivering up of the King If the King have any thoughts of coming to this Kingdome Scotland at this time he not having subscribed the League and Covenant nor satisfied the lawfull desires of his loyal subjects in both Nations we fear the consequence will be very dangerous which we desire may be timely prevented Neither is it possible but that our receiving him in this present posture of affairs will confirm the suspition of the English Nation of our under dealing with him before his coming to our Armies and make them not without cause to think that we purpose to dispose of him without their consent Which is contrary to the profession of those that were in trust at the Kings first coming to the Scots Quarters and overthroweth all the Arguments that have been used by the Commissioners of our Parliament in their Papers concerning the disposing of his Majesties Person by the consent of both Kingdomes given in to the Parliament in England Nor do we see how we can vindicate such a practice from a direct breach of our engagement to them by Covenant and Treaty which were not onely to expose us to the hazard of a bloody war but to involve us in the guilt of perjury And what greater disservice could be done to the King and his posterity than to give way to a course that might prove prejudicial to their Interest in the Crown and Kingdome of England and conclude Our carriage now for many years past in the midst of many temptations hath put us beyond all suspition in the point of our Loyaltie Ianuary 14. If otherwise let the world judge And yet the King put some Queries to the Scots Commissioners at Newcastle Ianuary 14 It is a received opinion by many That Engagements Acts or Promises of a restrained person are neither valid nor obligatory How true or false this is I will not dispute but I am sure if I am not free I am not fit to answer your or any Propositions Wherefore you should first resolve me in what state I stand as in relation to freedome before I can give you any further answer the reason of this my answer the Governour can best resolve you But if you object the loss of time and urgency of it certainly in one respect it presses none so much as my self which makes me also think necessary that I be not to seek what to do when this Garison shall be surrendred up to demand of you in case I go into Scotland if I shall be there with Honour Freedom and Safety or how being ready to give you a farther and more particular answer how
soon you shall have resolved these Queries The Scots Answer 14 Ianuary 1 To the first In what state you stand as in relation to freedom the Parliament of both your Kingdoms have given such orders and directions as they have thought fitting for the good and safety of your Majesty and the Kingdom to the General and Governour 2 To your second of going into Scotland we shall humbly desire that we may not be now put to give any Answer but if your Majesty shall either deny or delay your assent to the Propositions we are in that case to represent to your Majesty the Resolutions of the Parliament of England The King Replies I know very well that the General and Governor have received orders concerning me but the question is into what state those Orders put me in as relating to freedom to which you have either power to answer or not If you have then Answer me otherwise send to those that can And so to my second query And now must the Kingdom of Scotland set out their Remonstrance in relation to the Parliament of England's Order of disposing of the Kings person They do declare their concurrence for the Kings Majesties coming to Holmby House or some other of his Houses in or about London there to remain until he satisfie both Kingdoms in the Propositions of peace and that in the Interim there be no harm done to his person that there be no change of Government other than hath been the three years past and that his Posterity be no way prejudiced in their Lawful succession And as this is the clear Intention and full resolution of the Kingdome of Scotland according to our duty and interest in his Majesty so they are confident from the same grounds and many Declarations the same is the intent of their Brethren And at such time they do expect a renewed Declaration and that they will give brotherly and just satisfaction to the desires sent And they do assure it shall be their constant endeavour to keep all râ—ght between the Kingdoms according to the Covenant and Treaty The Commissioners for receiving the person of the King came to Newcastle Saturday the 22. of Iune and were appointed by the King to speake with him on Munday next after At their approach my Lord Pembroke began first as being the best man but the worst Speaker and told the King his Children were well at St. Iames's The rest said that they were commanded by the Parliament to attend him to Holdenby when his Majesty pleased He replied that he would give them Answer after he had put a few Questions to them and so they parted The Lord Lanerick was lately arrived at Newcastle from Scotland where the vote of their Parliament carried it by two voices only against the Kings coming into Scotland Then the Scots Lords came to the King who told them that he had often desired to go into Scotland that he came into their Army for protection and had it but now he perceived they were not willing thereto and they being to deliver up the Garisons he desires to know how they would dispose of him and for their Answer he desired them to withdraw and to consider to whom they would deliver him which they did telling the King That since his Majesty had refused to take the Covenant and sign the Propositions they were to deliver him to the Commissioners of the Parliament of England The next day came again the English Commissioners for Answer he told them he should not get ready for some dayes and said to Pembroke he had belyed him in many things but if this journey pleased him his expectation would be much frustrate Pembroke answered if he had had the least doubt some other should have come of the Errand and if this his good service deceived the King he was like so to deceive him more the King replied that the Scots were much beholding to him for travelling so oft of their errand to preserve peace of both Kingdoms The King desired that two of his Chaplains who had not taken the Covenant might attend him for his private use they excused it not to be in their Instructions nor could they send for leave to the Parliament but his Majesty might send by an Expresse of his own On Saturday the last of Ianuary the Scots Army marched out of Newcastle about three a clock after noon and the English forces entered at six at night and the King turned over to the English Commissioners who from Newcastle came with the King to Durham the first night with nine hundred Horse and Proclamation that none that had deserted the Parliament should come near his Majesty and yet a Scot one Mongo Murrey an old Servant conveyed a Letter into the Kings hands but was perceived and imprisoned and the Letter taken in Cipher By the way at Notingham General Fairfax with many of his Officers met the King who at his coming stopt his Horse the General alighted and kist his Majesties hand and then mounted talking with the King some miles of whom at parting the King gave this character that he was a Man of honour and had kept his word in observing Articles And so came to Holmby Tuesday the sixteenth of Feb. all the way especially in Towns the people in wonderful multitudes crying out Hosanna God save the King rejoycing to see him others the wiser sort weeping and sadly prophesing what after fell out The Rear of the Scots Army marched over Tweed the eleventh of Feb. at Kelsey and Barwick the six Regiments of Scots Horse which were appointed to disband according to agreement had their Rendezvouz at Kelsey where they were required to deliver up their Arms to take an Oath to offer no injury to the Country in their passage home to be faithful to the Covenant and Cause of both Kingdoms and not to engage with any against them which they sware to The French Ambassadour Extraordinary Belime that had been all this while with the King at Newcastle was come to the Parliament and had Audience signifying as before his Masters desire and his own endeavours hitherto for a happy accommodation between the King and Parliament and would not cease the prosecution if the Houses would please to make use of his service The King conceiving he was now to setle at Holmby and sufficiently sad and solitary sends to his House of Peers the next day after his coming a reasonable request for any two of his Chaplaines to pray with him And because he findes his condition not to command he begins now to intreat and to subsign his desires with the ordinary way of submission at the foot of his Letter and directed to the Speaker of the House of Peers Since I have never dissembled nor hid my Conscience and that I am not yet satisfied with the alteration of Religion to which you desire my consent I will not yet lose time in giving reasons which are too
obvious to every body why it is fit for me to be attended by some of my Chaplains whose opinions as Clergie-men I esteem and reverence not only for the exercising of my Conscience but also for clearing of my judgment concerning the present difference in Religion as I have at full declared to Mr. Marshal and his fellow Minister Having shewed them that it is the best and likelyest means of giving me satisfaction which without it I cannot have in these times whereby the distractions of this Church may be the better setled Wherefore I desire that at least two of these Reverend Divines whose Names I have here set down may have the liberty to wait upon me for the discharging of their Duty to me according to their function Charles Rex Holmby 17. Feb. 1656. Bish. London Bish. Salisbury Bish. Peterborough Dr. Sheldon Clerk of my Closet Dr. Marsh Dean of Yorke Dr. Sanderson Dr. Baily Dr. Haywood Dr. Beal Dr. Fuller Dr. Hamond Dr. Tayler For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore c. The Guardians Commissioners had two of their own Ministers Mr. Marshal and Mr. Caryl who undertok the King but so lamely as that they may be said to halt after Henderson And truly the King rather pittying then despising them and would never be perswaded to hear their preachings nor overswayed with their Councel The Guardians had kept a bounteous house it seems and were soundly chidden by the Parliaments Letters for spending the States Revenue so fast and therefore for want of better work they are very busie to new Model his Majesties litle Family into lesse and by degrees to none at all His hard condition to be minced meat and drink out of his own We may not omit the Remembrance of that worthy learned Lawyer Mr. Serjeant Glanvile mightily persecuted for malignancy of being of the Kings party Imprisoned in several durances and lastly of long time committed to the Tower two years without any charge at all against him he is now released upon Bail and this justice was done to him by the favour of the Lords House to which the Commons had been alwayes and now was dissenting We may observe that he had been hardly used heretofore in the beginning of this Kings Reign for not consenting to some passages of State and then sent to Sea which he humbly endured with patience and Loyalty And now also his Conscience bearing witnesse he suffers for his Sovereigns sake faithful to his principles The King having no Answer concerning his Chaplains writes again for them to come and comfort him It being now seventeen daies since I wrote to you from hence and not yet receiving any Answer I cannot but now again renew the same And indeed concerning any thing but the necessary duty of a Christian I would not thus at this time trouble you But my being attended with some of my Chaplains whom I esteem and reverence is so necessary for me even considering my present condition whether in relation to my conscience or a happy settlement of the distractions in Religion that I will slight divers kindes of censures rather than not to obtain my demand nor shall I wrong you as in this to doubt the obtaining of my wish it being totally grounded upon Reason For desiring you to consider not thinking it needful to mention the divers reasons which no Christian can be ignorant of for point of Conscience I must assure you I cannot as I ought take in consideration those alterations in Religion which have and will be offered unto me without such help as I desire because I can never judg rightly of or be altered in any thing of my opinion so long as any ordinary way of finding out the truth is denied me but when this is granted I promise you faithfully not to strive for victory in Argument but to seek and submit to truth according to that judgment which God hath given me alwaies holding it my best and greatest conquest to give contentment to my two Houses of Parliament in all things which I conceive not to be against my conscience or honour not doubting likewise but that you will be ready to satisfie me in reasonable things as I hope to finde in this particular concerning the attendance of my Chaplains upon me Charles Rex Holmby 6. March For the the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore To which the Parliament give Answer That all those the Kings Chaplaines are disaffected to the Established Government of the Church and have not taken the Covenant but for others that have if his Majesty please they shall be sent to him This troubled the King to be denied such as every Christian hath liberty to choose their Ghostly Fathers Spiritual Comforters This makes him complain When Providence was pleased to deprive me saies the King of all other civil comforts and secular Attendance I thought the absence of them all might best be supplied by the attendance of some of my Chaplains whom for their Function I reverence and for their Fidelity I have cause to love By their Learning Piety and Praiers I hoped to be either better enabled to sustain the want of all other enjoyments or better fitted for the recovery and use of them in Gods good time so reaping by their pious help a spiritual harvest of Grace amidst the thorns and after the plowings of temporal crosses The truth is I never needed or desired more the service and assistance of men judiciously-pious and soberly-devout The solitude they have confined me unto adds the Wilderness to my temptations for the company they obtrude upon me is more sad then any solitude can be If I had asked my Revenues my power of the Militia or any one of my Kingdoms it had been no wonder to have been denied in those things where the evil policie of men forbids all just restitution lest they should confesse an injurious usurpation But to deny me the Ghostly comfort of my Chaplains seems a greater rigor and barbaritie then is ever used by Christians to the meanest Prisoners and greatest Malefactors whom though the justice of the Law deprives of worldly comforts yet the mercy of Religion allows them the benefit of their Clergie as not aiming at once to destroy their Bodies and to damn their Souls But my Agony must not be releived with the presence of any one good Angel for such I account a Learned Godly and Discreet Divine and such I would have all mine to be They that envy my being a King are loth I should be a Christâ—an while they seek to deprive me of all things else they are afraid I should save my Soule Other sense Charitie it self can hardly pick out of those many harsh Repulses I received as to that Request so often made for the attendance of some of my Chaplains I have somtime thought the Unchristiannesse of those denials might arise from a displeasure some men had to see me prefer my own Divines
upon these faithless Creatures is to force them by the Sword which may cut off the rebellious Members and cause others to keep within the compass of Loyalty for no sooner were the English Forces called over out of Ireland for the Kings Service in England Anno 1643. but the Rebells broke all Contracts and began their Rapines and Murders as at first and in a word all Treaties of Peace with Irish Rebells from the first of their Insurrections have ever proceeded fatal to the English producing no other effects than Treacheries which being not timely discovered brought Mischief and Misery upon the heads of them who had too much relyed on them But now it may seem unreasonable say some to neglect an adventure of a second Treaty of Peace when the English are not able to force them by the Sword nor to defend themselves And 't is as true that the English deserve blame for trifling so much time before the Association with the Scots was concluded or the counsels of both communicated each to other uniting into one Body and might have prevented that unfortunate Blow which was given to the Scots by the Arch traitour Owen Ro Oneal who now wants nothing to crown his Designs but the winning of Dublin and Drogheda the onely two places of Importance within the Province of Lemster now remaining in the Kings possession The wilfull separation of the English and Scots which should hold together in this Irish War verifies the Observation Dum pugnamus singuli vincimur universi And by this means the Rebells prevailed in their Cruelties enforcing the Protestants to abandon their Habitations nay theiâ— Nation and to cross the Seas by Hundreds and Thousands to prevent the cruelty of the barbarous Enemy bemoaning themselves as formerly the Britains said by the Scots Repellunt Barbari ad Mare repellit Mare ad Barbaros inter haec duo genera funerum aut jugulamur aut mergimur But in effect good counsel was not accepted and so misery followed for a long time to the English Protestants The King now with the Scots Army was wrought upon to comply with them and the Parliament as he had cast himself into their hands so now it was his necessity also to put his own affairs to their managing and under his hand to give command to all his Garisons to surrender to the Parliament His affairs in Ireland were kept up as yet being at this distance not so soon to be submitted yet in order thereto he writes to the Marquess of Ormond his Lieutenant General there from Newcastle the eleventh of Iune 1646. requiring him and peremptorily commanding not to fall into any Treaty with the Irish which might engage the King to the Romish Catholicks party with whom he was induced to a Pacification which being communicated with the Council Board they all resolved to yield obedience in that point and a Letter instantly drawn up to return to the King with their punctual submission with an ample Relation of other Occurrents and passages concerning the Kings Service there where on the sudden one of the Council of honourable Rank gave it in to be considered that the King being now under Restraint may not be free to do as himself might think fit but what his new Masters may enforce from him and this Command of his was likely to proceed from them in the Scots Army To clear this Doubt the Bishop of Meath gave his Opinion that it seemed to him to be the Kings free act without enforcement Observing that they are not required by his Majesties Letters to take the Covenant or to conform to the new way of Reformation in Divine Worship nor to withdraw obedience from the Government established by his Royal Authority but the King being now disobliged of all former Engagement which the Irish had upon him by their wilfull Breach of Conditions he would not now again trust them any more upon the like score and therefore the matter of Peace being now the Rebells aim no longer than they may be anew furnished for a more fearfull War besides the Kings party must be enforced to make War upon the Parliaments party who are absolutely resolved never to afford them a Peace untill they have revenged the inhumane Murders made upon our Countreymen and Protestants And being now united with the powers of two potent Kingdoms England and Scotland this same Nation of Ireland if supposed to be faithfull can never be able to oppose them But this advice was somewhat checked by the visible assistance of the French who had already heightened up the Kings party to a War against the Parliament and to joyn in Peace with the Irish having already sent the Lord Digby with ten thousand pounds to Ormond as the earnest of some particular matters hereafter the pretence was to restore the King But in truth the French King aimed at his own advantage by favouring the Irish for the French Resident there had written to Ormond That if the King and Parliament should conclude a Peace it must be necessary to comprehend the Irish therein and for their settlement in their due Rights otherwise his Master must take the Irish into his Protection A practice evermore of the Irish to seek protection of Foreign Princes Bodin in his first Book de Republ. mentioneth an Earl of Desmond Gerald Fitz Iames the last of that House was killed in actual Rebellion and was afterwards attainted by Act of Parliament This Gerald had writ a Letter to Henry 2. of France That if his Majesty could procure a Grant of the Kingdom of Ireland from the Pope he would be content to hold it of him as in fee. Which Letter seems to have some reference to the Popes claim of a Right or propriety challenged by him in all the Islands of the World and so in Ireland upon which pretended ground Pope Adrian the fourth called Nicholas Breakspear â— and sometime a Monk of St. Albans licenced Henry 2. of England to invade Ireland and passed a Grant to him of the whole Kingdom reserving to his Holiness an annual Rent of Peter-pence to be passed out of every House in the Land the Original Record is kept in the Vatican and the Copy to be read in Baronius Annals And why not the same Design of France at this time the Popes Nuncio and the French Agent had been there above a year resident amongst the Confederates And it seems considerable for any ambitious Prince to purchace thereby to step into the Conquest of England It was the Observation of one of the Irish petit Kings who being driven out by some seditious Inhabitants sailed over into Anglesey then called Monae the Isle of Man and getting access to the Roman General Iulius Agricola told him that the Kingdom of Ireland might be kept in subjection Regione una modicis auxiliis adversus Britaniam profuturum If the Britains should by any sudden Insurrection shake off their yoke under the Roman Emperour And certainly
well Irish as strangers that we have not nor will give our consent to such Peace except that safe condition as well for our Religion as for the King and for the Countrey according to our Oath be offered unto us And that our Flocks and all our Catholick people without confederate Forces who in these general meetings have sometimes asked our advice in this Spiritual business belonging only to a Spiritual Iudge may know certainly what hath been determined by us to the end that the godly and faithful Catholicks obeying their Shepherds and Pastors may concur in the same We have commanded this Decree to be written and published in all places in the English and Irish tongues which we have confirmed with our hands and Seals But to the other question concerning Excommunication we have referred until the next Sessions Given at Waterford 12. of August 1646. And Ormond being wanting of Amunition and Powder Articled with two Captains of the Parliaments Ships upon the Coast of Ireland to furnish him to be imployed against the Irish Rebels and condiscended to his Propositions with assured hopes of his complying with the Parliament of England the House of Commons confirmed the Transactions and Negotiations herein sending Letters of thanks to the two Captains and to Captain Willoughby 5. October The Rebels had taken Acklew Castle belonging to the Protestants who had refused to subscribe unto the Peace with eighty Souldiers and one hundred Arms therein as also the Fort of Marborough in the Center of the Province of Lemster to Quarter with Sir William Gilbert Governour thereof all his Officers and Souldiers all the Arms and Amunition and about a thousand persons men women and children now at the mercy of the barbarous and insulting Enemy Theâ— three Commissioners sent to the Parliament of England from Ormond landed at Chester being transported over by Captain Willougby 26. October The Committee appointed to Treat with them made report of the conditions from Ormond for the surrender of Dublin and the rest of the places of Strength in his power he desires Supplies and Moneys for the Forces with him and for himself he is willing to come into England if it shall be thought fit which accord troubled the King at Newcastle The Parliament of England send over Commissioners to remain in Ireland with two Regiments and all possible speed for Amunition and Victual to follow And now the President of Connaught and the British bestirring themselves on one side and Inchequin of the other but it s believed the Rebels will be able to attempt upon Dublin and yet leave sufficient number of Forces to make incursions upon the British and Inchequin For by Ormonds Letters the Rebells are fifteen thousand Foot and two thousand Horse commanded by Owen O Neal at Kilkenny and have frequent Councel the chief of whom are Preston Roger Moore Hugh Mac Phelin Brion Con. O Neal with many more of the old Natural Irish. Preston is at Agamoe intending to advance towards Dublin and to attempt the same before the Parliament can send relief But the intended high flying Excommunication of the confederate Catholicks against such as agreed to the peace and the great Declaration of these against the Nuntio and others for opposing the peace are now composed to a cunning agreement and altogether to joyn for the design of taking Dublin and are minded to storm it speedily 3. November Ormond was now in Dublin accompanied with Sir Arthur Aston sometime Governour of Oxford and the Lord Castlehaven with three thousand in the City The Rebells are strong in Force and numerous who straiten Dublin have taken all the Out-Garisons seven all yeelding upon discretion save one commanded by Major Piggot who had Articles agreed upon and sending his brother to have them signed the Irish run in at the Gate fell upon them within put the Major and all others to the Sword except the Majors Wife and Daughter saved by an Irish Gentleman the Minister in whose hands they found a Bible they Butchered him and bid him goe preach to his Patron the Divel The Popes Nuntio and Clergy have a mighty influence upon the people for when the Accord was made being not agreed upon by the Nuntio a Roman Catholick coming to serve with 1100. men according to the agreement a Frier came and standing at the head of them declared that if they marched a foot forward they should be all Excommunicated whereupon they returned all home And all Letters give assurance that Ormond means faithfully to the Parliament of England The Recorder of Dublin Mr. Bise came over and reported that the Enemy lay ten Miles round about Dublin with such truths of their barbarous cruelties in their Marches upon the miserable Protestants taking a Castle by the way and the Minister one Mr. Brereton with sixty men upon Quarter yet killed them all in cold blood the Town of Dublin hath Victuals for five moneths The two Justices of that Government Sir Adam Loftis and Sir Williams Parsons are coming for England Nov. 10. Colonel Monk one that had served the King in his Wars and now taken prisoner was tampered with to take the Solemn League and Covenant and the Negative Oath also which he did was released and ordered for the Service of Ireland And there were Shipt for the same 1870. Horse and Foot now at Chester together with the Parliaments Commissioners who came to Dublin safe and were nobly welcomed by Ormond and the Counsel with full assurance to deliver to them the Castle and Town of Dublin the Souldiers landed and the Treaty began between them but Ormond disagreed and at last gave an absolute denial of Surrendring Dublin unto them Affirming that his Letters to the King not being sent by the Parliament according to conditions and so he not having his Majesties full command for the Surrender he utterly refused protesting that to be the only reason which if procured he would forthwith Surrender Upon which the Commissioners sent away by Shiping all the Forces brought with them Northwards to joyn with the British which land at Belfast a Town possessed by the Scots The Commissioners are jealous that the War between Ormond and the Rebels was but calmly prosecuted on either side which makes them suspect they are not in earnest For there hath been since the first of October these Garisons lost to the Rebels Lese Strathbally Bifert Grange Mellon Rebend Athy Greenhill Castle Iordan Edenberry Marmegs Town Sir Io. Hayes House Honestow Nans Castle Warden Monmonck Leslip Lucan Palmeshore Tallon Bulloeis and Bellimont 1. of December And now Ormond in this distress is forced to make a Cessation with the Rebells if not some say a confederacy taking the Keys from the Mayor and giving them to the Lord Lambert of Ireland who is now Governour there 2. December And these Propositions give likelyhood that they are agreed being from the confederate Catholicks of the Kingdom of Ireland to the Marquess of Ormond and signed by the Generals
down thither for Subscribers Then comes out an Apology of the common Souldiers to their General presented under the Hands of the Agents or Commissioners as they call themselves for the several Regiments wherein they complain of the Design of Modelling and Disbanding some of their Forces styling the publick proceedings To be a Plot a meer Cloak for some who have lately tasted of Sovereigntie and being lifted beyond their ordinary Sphere of Servants seek to become Masters and degenerate into Tyrants and therefore utterly refuse the Service of Ireland untill their Desires be granted the just Right and Liberties of the Subject vindicated and maintained To which they all subsign April 28. for which some of them were questioned and imprisoned but then they are angry indeed and complain to their General That they speaking but for the Rights and Liberties of this Nation are some of them slighted abused beaten and dragged to Goals to the Ruine of their Estates and loss of their Lives The Parliament bussle and vote the Apologizers Enemies to the State and such as they could catch were laid by the heels at London The King was close beset with watchfull eys over him and yet one Major Bosvil once of his Army and of the Lord Cleveland's Regiment disguised in a Countrey-mans Habit the King walking out passed over a narrow Bridg he put a Pacquet into the Kings hand but was discovered by the Miller directing the Pursuit after the Major who was overtaken and brought to confession That the Letters came from the Queen at Paris and that they contain a Desire of the Prince of Wales to go with the Duke of Orleans into the Field this Summer who commands the French Armie against the Spaniards in Flanders But the King being desired to acquaint his Guardians with the Contents he answered That he was not to give account to any man living And because the Countrey flocked to the Court for cure of the Disease called The Kings Evil the Parliament declare That the People shall be satisfied of the fond Superstition of that custome to be touched by the King and that they are not suffered to be healed by him And being the Feast of the Church called Easter the Parliament discharged that Solemn Custom But were told by the King that the Feast was Instituted by the same Authority which changed the Iewish Sabbath into the Lords day or Sunday for the Scripture doth not mention this So then we may as well return to the Sabbath Saturday if we refuse the Church Authority which Instituted both 23. April This day was read the Kings Letter to the Parliament in effect to Answer the Propositions formerly sent to him which he had lying by him and that himself without a Secretary had formed this Answer CHARLES REX As the daily expectation of the coming of the Propositions hath made his Majesty this long time to forbear giving his Answer unto them so the appearance of their sending being no more for any thing he can hear than it was at his first coming hither notwithstanding that the Earl of Louderdale hath been at London above these ten daies whose not coming was said to be the only stop hath caused his Majestie thus to anticipate their coming to him and yet considering his condition that his Servants are denied accesse to him all but very few and those by appointment not his own election and that it is declared a crime for any but the Commissioners or such who are particularly permitted by them to converse with his Majesty or that any Letters should be given to or received from him may he not truly say that he is not in case fit to make concessions or give Answers since he is not master of those ordinary actions which are the undoubted rights of any free-born man how mean soever his birth be And certainly he would still be silent as to this Subject untill his condition were much mended did he not prefer such a right understanding betwixt him and his Parliaments of both Kingdoms which may make a firm and lasting peace in all his Dominions before any particular of his own or any earthly blessing and therefore his Majesty hath diligently emploied his utmost endeavours for divers moneths past so to inform his understanding and satisfie his Conscience that he might be able to give such Answers to the Propositions as would be most conformable to his Parliament but he ingeniously professes that notwithstanding all the pains that he hath taken therein the nature of some of them appears such unto him that without disclaiming that Reason which God hath given him to judge by for the good of him and his people and without putting the greatest violence upon his own Conscience he cannot give his consent to all of them Yet his Majesty that it may appear to all the World how desirous he is to give full satisfaction hath thought fit hereby to expresse his readinesse to grant what he may and his willingnesse to receive from them and that personally if his two Houses at Westminster shall approve thereof such further information in the rest as may best convince his iudgment and satisfie those doubts which are not yet clear unto him desiring them also to consider that if his Majesty intended to winde himself out of these troubles by indirect means were it not easie for him now readily to consent to what hath or shall be proposed unto him and afterwards choose his time to break all alleging that forced Concessions are not to be kept surely he might and not incur a hard censure from indifferent men But maxims in this kinde are not the guides of his Majesties actions for he freely and clearly avowes that he holds it unlawfull for any man and most base in a King to recede from his promises for having been obtained by force or under restraint wherefore his Majestie not only rejecting those acts which he esteems unworthy of him but even passing by that which he might well insist upon a point of honour in respect of his present condition thus answers the first Proposition That upon his Majesties coming to London he will heartily joyn in all that shall concern the honour of his two Kingdoms or the Assembly of the States of Scotland or of the Commissioners or Deputies of either Kingdom particularly in those things which are desired in that Proposition upon confidence that all of them respectively with the same tendernesse will look upon those things which concern his Majesties honour In Answer to all the Propositions concerning Religion his Majesty proposeth that he will confirm the Presbyterial government the Assembly of Divines at Westminster and the Directory for three years being the time set down by the two Houses so that his Majesty and his houshold be not hindered from that Form of Gods Service which they formerly have And also that a free consultation and debate be had with the Divines at Westminster twenty of his Majesties nomination being added
1647. In the Letter to the House of Peers which is the same with this to the Commons there was inclosed a Letter from his Majesty to his Son the Duke of York CHARLES REX JAMES I am in hope that you may be permitted with your Brother and Sister to come to some place betwixt this and London where I may see you To this end therefore I command you to ask leave of the two Houses to make a journey if it may be for a night or two But rather then not to see you I will be content that ye come to some convenient place to dine and go back at night And foreseeing the fear of your being brought within the power of the Army as I am may be objected to hinder this my desire I have full assurance from Sir Thomas Fairfax and the chief Officers that there will be no interruption or impediment made by them for your return how and when you please So God bless you Your loving Father Charles R. Casam July 4 1647. Send me word as soon as you can of the time and place where I shall have the contentment of seeing you your Brother and Sister And accordingly the King and they met at Maidstone where they dined together went with the King to Casam and there stayed two dayes and returned Indeed at this time the Parliament were jealous of the K. and Army lest they should Treat without their consent and Pamphlets had been Printed of Heads presented by the Army to the King 19. June As also Articles agreed upon between the King and the Army 26. June which the General complained of since he came to Wickham being devised to distract the Peace of the Kingdom And daily several Petitions were presented by Prentices to the Parliament in many particulars which the next day another number of Prentices would contradict And the Army likewise devised as many jealousies and fears of a private Ingagement and Subscribing in the City of London and against the Army Then the Parliament Order their Votes of the Militia in the hands of the City to be Null and for to be Treason to seek Subscriptions to Petitions Upon which the Prentices clamour at the Houses and in Westminster Hall in such Multitudes and Mutiny that the Commons were forced to Unvote and Null their last Orders And in this Hubbub the Army Marches neerer London Orders are therefore given by the Militia that the Trained Bands doe Man the Works and Proclamation for all the Inhabitants that have or can bear Arms to appear in their defence of the City against the Army 30. Iuly But the 11. Members were wise enough to ponder their different conditions and Power now not to struggle with an Army though 5. such other Members had the better heretofore of the King And therefore these having made their way to some of the Officers of the Army and now by a Member Mr. Green to the Parliament They humbly desire and had it granted That leave be given to Denzil Hollis Sir Philip Stapleton and the rest c. for six moneths to be absent at their own home or to go beyond Seas and then to return and attend the Parliament to Answer the Charge against them The debate hitherto of the Treaty between the Commissioners of the Parliament and the Commissioners of the Army came to this result That a Declaration be published by Parliament against the coming in of any Foraign Forces That the pay of the Army be put into a constant course and Accountants called in question That the Militia of London return into former hands well affected That all persons imprisoned for pretended misdemeanours not by course of Law but by Order of Parliament or their Committees to have libertie of Baile and after of Trial If innocent that they may have reparation In particular they mention Lieutenant Colonel John Lilburn Mr. Musgrave Mr. Overton and others imprisoned at London or any other places contrarie to the Acts and Statutes of 35. Eliz. and the 3. of James agaist Conventicles or Meetings in pretence of Religious Exercises To grant these and other such Demands the Parliament Vote them neither for their Interest nor Honour the Souldiers heretofore for King and people March on towards the Parliament who with the Londoners prepare for Defence and Vote that the King be invited to London The Parliament in these Distractions had a while Adjourned and now come to Assemble the Speakers of both Houses with about half a hundred of their Members were slipt out of the City and were not to be found but anon tremblingly betake themselves to the Camp crying out against the outrage of their fellows and the Citizens and certain Reformadoes desiring the Armies protection of their persons and to punish the Offenders Some others also of their friends stay behind to manage the Councels in the Houses Hereupon the few Members present Vote new Speakers the Upper House chose the Lord Grey in the place of the Earl of Manchester The Commons Elect Mr. Pellam Councellor of Lincolns Inn and a Member to be Speaker pro tempore A new Mace bearer also one Mr. Nufolk borrowed the City Mace for the present of those who were their friends and thus fitted they began to Vote 29. Iuly That the King comes to London That the City raise what Force they think fit with such Commanders in Chief and Officers of the Militia as they shall appear and so the City chose Major General Massey their Master in chief for the City and Order that all Reformadoes doe appear and be listed in St. Iame's Fields for Defence of the City and so we finde the City and this new Representative to be all one But the General hears of this who for the ease of the Countrey was removed about Bedford pretending thereby in reference to the desires of the City not to approach near London and therefore now he writes to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen c. My Lord and Gentlemen You may please to remember the forward complyance of the Army with your desires to remove at this distance upon assurance that you would secure the Parliament from violence c. And therefore we cannot but be sensible of the unparalleled violation acted upon the Parliament on Munday last 26. July by a multitude from the Citie with incouragement of divers of the Common Councel a prodigious and horrid face tending to dissolve all Government and look upon them as accountable for to the Kingdom the interruption thereby of Peace and settlement of the Nation and relieving of Ireland upon which score the Armie will put every thing of the like nature except Iustice be done to the Offenders Bedford 30. July And finding the City to stand upon their Guard the Army forthwith March a round pace nearer London and within two days were got to Uxbridge and some Horse were entered Windsor Hownslow and then to London professing their Obligations to the Parliament whom they will deâ—end for
Common Enemy may yet be more honourable in the peoples eyes when they shall be called the Repairers of their Breaches and the Recoverers of their Peace Rights and Freedom And this is the prayer and the earnest endeavours of The Armies and all the peoples most faithful Servants The Agitators c. Gilford Octob. 9. 1647. The sum of the Generals Answer was That he judged their Intentions were honest and desired that every one of a publick spirit would be acting for the Publick and that he had for his part freely ventured his life for common right and freedom and should freely engage it again and referred it to the General Council And therefore according to the sence of some of these mischiefs evils and dangers the Parliament altered some of the Propositions to be sent to the King concerning the Period of Parliaments Act of Oblivion for the King and Queen waved in such others Then comes out a further Paper of Proposals from the said Agitators and also from other Agitators of four Regiments of Horse and seven Regiments of Foot joyning with them in very many particulars of Reforming abuses and ordering of the Government November 1. 1647. And in truth the Army was as sedulous in these and other such particulars as that we may conclude they were more busie than the Parliament But the Scots Commissioners here interrupted these proceedings with a Letter which they sent the sixth of November to the Speaker of the House of Commons in effect That since the Kings removal by force of the Army from Holmby and the resentment of the Kingdom of Scotland of that violent action the Commissioners applied themselves to his Majesty to shew there iâ— his usage but for his present condition he professeth he cannot and referreth us to the Parliament and Army That the Parliament by many engagements have declared to have care of his person power and greatnesse which both Kingdoms have sworn not to diminish therefore the Commissioners apply themselves to the Parliament presuming that the Army is under their command the rather because they are informed of the Armies intentions to remove the King from Hampton Court on whose safety their happiness depends and resolving that no alteration of affairs shall separate their duty and Allegiance to him to live and dye in all Loyalty under his Government Accordingly the votes of Parliament the twenty sixth of October resolved of sending Propositions to the King and therefore they desire that there may be a personal Treaty with him and that he may be invited to come to London or at least to remain at Hampton Court with that honour and freedom due to his Majesty and not to be under the power and restraint of the Souldiers and that the King be no more carried about at their pleasure These being the desires of the Kingdom of Scotland Worcester-house Nove. 6. 1647. And now the General excuses the Army promising his endeavours to settle the distempers there to answer the Parliaments desire to receive the Agitators against whose papers this daypresented to the Parliament called The case of the Army and another stiled The agreement of the People the Parliament voted them to be destructive to the being the Parliaments and the fundamental Government of this Kingdom Yet herein the Agitators continued so insolent that for example one of them White was shot to death at Ware for fomenting the said Papers Petition and Agreement The King in his late Answer to the Parliaments Propositions having therein given greater honour to the Army â—hen to the Houses he is therefore caressed by the Camp which exasperates some Members against him and plained the way for the Souldiers afterwards to excuse their not requiting him with sufficient kindnesse out of their due reverence to the Members and regard also to their Agitators of whom the King takes impressions of fear by private intelligence from the Camp who set them a work as also by some of the Members that they meant his personal danger which hazard the Commanders of the Army could not gainstand To make him more sensible it is apprehended likewise by three or four of the Kings Instruments often mixing with the Commanders and they are led into this construction That the Army was honest and more willing that the King should escape than that his destruction should happen under their Roof And by many circumstances the Kings Agents get the hint to prevent the danger by this foreign flight which yet if he did would Answer the general design of his undoing for by leaving his Government and People he should Denude himself of his Crown forsake the Protection of his Subjects and give just occasion to the Parliament to settle the peace of the Nation without him And so intricate was the Kings affairs to wade through that a confident of his intimate also with the councils of the Camp and at this time looking sadly the King told him his face presaged ill Newes He Answered Sir not for the danger but that I cannot council you Speak it out said the King he replied Sir your person is supposed in some hazard and yet because the Grandees of the Army advise your escape I am sure that their design is to ruin you by your own act My case is desperate said the King my condition in a sinking Barke no help at hand may I not leap over board to swim a shoar Yes whilst I submit my endeavours to Gods Providence I am in the best way of security Et sic fiat voluntas Dei As the scene is laid and taken the King consults with his confidents Mr. Iohn Ashburnham Sir Iohn Berkley and Colonel William Leg for his escape to the Isle of Iersey The Ship is prepared the place to Imbarke about Southampton and all things fitted his Horses are lodg'd in the evening on the other side of the Thames Hampton ferry and these men his attendants The time Friday night the eleventh of November when about noon that day a Letter of Intelligence devised by a Member to startle the King is conveyed into Colonel Whalies hands directed for his Majesty as from a dear friend Ignoto and dated two dayes before which he instantly communicates to the King and thus it was May it please your Majesty In discharge of my duty I cannot omit to acquaint you that my Brother was at a meeting last night with eight or nine Agitators who in debate of the obstacle which did most hinder the speedy effecting their design did conclude it was your Majesty And as long as your Majesty doth live you would be so And therefore resolved for the good of the Kingdom to take your life away and that to that action they were well assured that Mr. Dell and Mr. Peters two of their Preachers would willingly bear them Company for they had often said to their Agitators your Majestly is but a dead Dog My Prayers are for your Majesties safety but I do too much fear
must be the best and only remedy to remove our troubles That without a Treaty the Propositions may be esteemed Impositions That the King might have some just desires to move for the Crown and for himself and that every thing in the Propositions might not be of such importance as that the not granting it might hinder a peace That a personal Treaty is the best way to beget a mutual confidence between the King and Parliament And amongst other Protestations they aver That if Scotland had apprehended that the least injury or violence would have been committed against his person or Monarchical Government had they not received assurances from the Parliament to the contrary certainly all the threatnings and allurements in the world could never have perswaded them to have parted from the King and that it was their brotherly confidence in the Parliament fellow Subjects and the assurance that they had from both Houses that made them leave the King Then they complain of a vast deformity or multiformity of Heresies and sects endangering the ruin of Religion in this Kingdom But what ere the Scots have said in this Declaration the Parliament afterwards found out such Members at leisure that formed into a Committee for that purpose gave them a sound Answer But the King in the general Interest of all conceived them so unreasonable to be positively assented unto before a Treaty or dispute of some part or either of them as that he refused Giving his Reasons in a Letter or Message sealed up to the Commissioners for the Parliament to open But the Earl of Denbigh the cheif Commissioner desired the King that although they were intrusted only to bring the demands in writing and not to Treat yet they hope his Majesty would distinguish them from ordinary Commissioners and suffer them to see what was written professing that his Majesty should not receive disappointment or prejudice thereby The King Commands Ashburnham to read them aloud in these words C. R. The Necessity of complying with all engaged interests in these great distempers for a perfect settlement of peace his Majesty findes to be none of the least difficulties he hath met with since the time of his afflictions Which is too visible when at the same time that the two Houses of the English Parliament do present to his Majesty several Bills and Propositions for his consent the Commissioners for Scotland do openly protest against them So that were there nothing in the case but the consideration of that difference his Majesty cannot Imagine how to give such an Answer to what is now proposed as thereby to promise himself his great end A perfect Peace And when his Majesty further considers how impossible it is in the condition he now stands to fulfil the desires of the two Houses since the only ancient and known wayes of passing Laws are either by his Majesties personal assent in the House of Peers or by Commission under his great Seal of England He cannot but wonder at such failings in the manner of addresse which is now made unto him Unlesse his two Houses intend that his Majesty shall allow of a great Seal made without his Authority before there be any consideration had thereupon in a Treaty Which as it may hereafter hazard the security it self so for the present it seems very unreasonable to his Majesty And though his Majesty is willing to believe that the intentions of very many in both Houses in sending these Bills before a Treaty was only to obtain a trust from him and not to take any advantage by passing them to force other things from him which are either against his Conscience or Honour Yet his Majesty believes it clear to all understandings that these Bills contain as they are now penned not only the divesting himself of all Soveraignty and that without possibility of recovering it either to him or his Successors except by repeal of those Bills but also the making his Concessions guilty of the greatest pressures that can be made upon the Subject as in other particulars so by giving an arbitrary and unlimited power to the two Houses for ever to raise and levy Forces for Land or Sea service of what persons without distinction or quality and to what numbers they please And likewise for the payment of them to levy what monies in such sort and by such wayes and means and consequently upon the Estates of whatsoever persons they shall think fit and appoint which is utterly inconsistent with the Liberty and Property of the Subject and his Majesties trust in protecting them So that if the Major part of both Houses shall think it necessary to put the rest of the propositions into Bills his Majesty leaves all the World to judge how unsafe it would be for him to consent thereunto And if not what a strange condition after the passing of these four Bills his Majesty and all his Subjects would be cast into And here his Majesty thinks it not unfit to wish his two Houses to consider well the manner of their proceeding That when his Maiesty desires a personal Treaty with them for the setling of a Peace they in Answer propose the very subject matter of the most essential part thereof to be the first granted A thing which will be hardly credible to posterity Wherefore his Majesty declares That neither the desire of being freed from this tedious and Irksome condition of life his Majesty hath so long suffered nor the apprehension of what may befall him in case his two Houses shal not attend him a personal Treaty shall make him change his resolution of not consenting to any Act till the whole Peace be concluded yet then he intends not only to give just and reasonable satisfaction in the particulars presented to him but also to make good all other concessions mentioned in his Message of the twenty sixth of November last Which he thought would have produced better effects than what he findes in the Bills and Propositions now presented unto him And yet his Majesty cannot give over but now again earnestly presse for a personal Treaty so passionately is he affected with the advantages which peace will bring to his Majesty and all his Subjects of which he will not all dispair there being no other visible way to obtain a well grounded peace How ever his Majesty is very much at ease within himself for having fulfilled the Offices both of a Christian and of a King and will patiently wait the good pleasure of Almighty God to encline the hearts of his two Houses to consider their King and to compassionate their fellow Subjects miseries Carisbroke Castle Decem. 28. 1647. For the Speaker of the Lords House c. Herein the Commissioners found what pinched the Parliament and no sooner had the Parliaments Commissioners taken their leave and were gone towards Newport but Hamond turns out all the Kings Servants out of the Castle The confusion was so great that the King demands of
him and the memory of his deceased Father His head on the Block he ended his life in these words Merciful Iesus gather my soul unto thy Saints and Martyrs who have run before me in this race He was learned in the Mystery of things Divine and Humane and in the knowledge of Eastern Tongues in History Law and Politiques and alike excellent for the intergrity of his life And preferred to this commendation by a neer observer of him that he loved the old fashion piety with his soul to explain his meaning he saies and yet Not a vain and Superstitious professor of it before others but to distinguish him a sound Protestant Professor and no new Fangler Hugh Scrimiger sometime his Servant had leave to bury his body and continuing sorrowful ere the Scaffold was taken away he passing by fell into a swound and being carried home dyed at his own door Then followed Andrew Gutlery Son to the deserving Bishop of Murrey and by his Judges hated the more for that Blair fell upon him also to repent for siding in the evil Cause He answered therefore came I here to suffer for a good Conscience and a good King which he embraced without fear and would dye without dread of death for his sins he trusted were satisfied by the merits of his Saviour to whom he recommends his soul. The last was William Murrey brother to the Earl of Tullibardin a youth of 19. years at the most who told them That this his day of suffering he accounted a meer honour to his House that he descended of that Ancient Family should deliver up his life for his good King and his Cause and desires that his Parents would not grieve at the shortness of his life being abundantly recompensed with the honourable death And so with his own and good mens prayers he suffered Execution also Montrose much troubled to hear of their deaths was extreamly importuned to sacrifice such Prisoners as he had being they said real Traytors indeed and for which Justice he had Warrant from Gods Vice-gerent the King But as he nere put any to death in cold blood as yet so he would never be said to break his word of Quarter by exchange or imprisonment All this time had Huntley trifled in Plundering as he Marched and gave way to the relief of Innerness and retreats to the Spye notwithstanding Montroses several Messages to him to return to the Siege or to joyn their Forces and to descend Southward and to oppose a new Enemy Major General Middleton Marching with six hundred Horse and eight hundred Foot as far as Aberdine but Huntley would not Although there came in to Montrose many friends and Tenants of the Earl of Seafort the L. Rose and from the farthest Northern Islâ—nds Sir Iames Mack-donel Mack-lins and Glengar the chief of Mac-renalds and many more And by this means before the end of March he might have Marched Southward with a greater Army then ever had been beheld in Scotland But for the present he surrounds and besieges Innerness for the commodious Haven and sent back three Troops of Horse to lodge about the Passes of Spye to have a Watch upon Middleton who was now eighty miles off And had timely warning to draw off from the Siege and from the Enemies strength of Horse and to Retreat beyond Nessa with some Skirmishes and equal loss and so passed by Benly into Rose and after through Long-Nasse Strath-glasse and Harrage into the bank of Sprey And being now not far from Huntley he takes a Troop of Horse and gallops to him twenty miles sending word before that he was coming to crave his Councel in the Kings affairs but Huntley took Horse and fled and the other returned the last of May. By whose example Seaford and others began to falter which put resolution in Montrose to force all the Northern Parts which he could easily doe having tried all the fairest means and failed therein for of late Middleton was entred into Aberdine with five hundred men whom Huntley had besieged and taken upon his own score in revenge to the Town which he plundered though the Kings friends and released all Prisoners that were of Middletons men Montrose busie about his Northern designe on the last of May comes a Herald from the King whose misfortune had as you have heard elsewhere cast himself upon the Scotish Convenanters Army at Newcastle this time twelve moneth 13. of May and commands Montrose to lay down his Arms and Disband and to pass over to France till his Majesties further pleasure The valiant man was amazed at this sad news being assured that they had forced this upon the Kings miserable condition with some secret hint to look to himself also But Montrose must obey and Summons all his Consederates whom he conceived this disbanding would concern and principally he sends Hurrey to Huntley that Montrose was willing to come to his Castle for to be present at this Consultation he Answered The K. had written to him of the same and that his Commands may not admit of second thoughts but to obey as he would They replyed that it was likely Montrose was of that opinion too however ever it might concern them all to provide for prevention of future mischiefs and the very joynt consult would advantage them even in the Enemies opinion He replyed that he had resolved for himself and would have nothing to doe with any body else Montrose sends his Answer to the King by Letters wherein he humbly presumed to be so far inquisitive of his condition with the Covenanters if safe in their hands whether his Majestie was stedfastly resolved to Disband that Army of friends who had exposed their lives and fortunes for his Cause whilst his Enemies were Armed in both Kingdoms what course should be taken for them and their safety not to be left to the mercy of murderous men and in a word whether his particular service might be acceptable in any other way To these he received no open Answer but had returned to him some Articles signed by the Covenanters which he in great regret refused as unconscionable and not vouchsafing to Treat therein he speeds the Messenger back to the King professing that as he had not taken up Arms but by the Kings Commission so he would have no Conditions prescribed him to lay them down by any mortal man but the King himself Therefore he humbly besought the King to sign the Conditions to which though perhaps very harsh he promised obediently to submit unto but disdained the Commands of any other Many of his Friends had underhand sought their peace with the Enemy and Huntley and his Party to please them resolved to force Montrose submission Antrim was arrived alone from Ireland without any Forces but sought to draw the Highlanders to himself calling Montrose in scorn the Governour of the Low lands But Montrose was to depart by the Articles before the first of September
the Earl of Holland to St. Needs and pursued by Colonel Scroop from Hartford who being guided by Spyes got the secret waies thither ere the Defendants were aware yet some were Mounted and in a Body but were beaten by a Forlorn and Routed before the rest entered the Duke with sixty Horse flyes away towards Lincolnshire and escapes beyond Seas Their General not up or not dressed was taken in his Câ—â—mber many that fought got away some slain others prisoners persons of good Note so that the Souldiers said they never met with such golden booties fine clothes gallant Horses and pockets full of Coin The Parliament say they lost but three And for the present the Earl of Holland is sent prisoner to Warwick Castle where he continued untill his Arraignment and Execution at Westminster the 9. of March as hereafter follows But the Prisoners of note were the Earl of Holland Sir Gilbert Gerard Colonel Skemisher Major Holland Major Slepkin Lieu Col. Goodwin Colonel Legg and one hundred more Dalbier and a Son of Sir Kenelm Digbies slain the Lord Andover was after taken at Dover and there imprisoned The Parliament of Scotland were now sitting since the second of March and not well pleased with the English proceedings it was thought fitting here to send English Commissioners to reside there during their Session And of the Lords House were chosen the Earls of Nottingham and Standford the Commons were Mr. Arthurst Colonel Birch Mr. Herle and Mr. Marshal Preachers For the Scots recruit their Army at home and the English expect an Invasion of them being generally dissatisfied there of our proceedings against the King here However the Commssioners of England resident there acquainted our Parliament here with Propositions of Scotland and this their Answer to some Papers sent thither That it was the desire of the Parliament of England to maintain a good correspondency between the two Nations 2. That this Kingdom would take speedy care for the advance of a hundred thousand pounds due unto that Kingdom and so long as that sum or any part should be forborn they should have Interest after the rate of 8. l. per â—ent for the same 3. And that concerning the Arrears due to the Scots Army in Ireland the Parliament of Scotland are desired either to propound a certain sum by the Lump for the service of that Army there or else to appoint Commissioners on their side or appoint their Commissioners with ours to repair into Ireland to audit the 〈◊〉 of that Army So then we find the outward pretences on both sides to keep a good correspondency And to Caress them the more ever and anon the Parliament of England would by debates and Orders shew an inclination to settle the Presbyterian Government here by that means to quiet the bawling Spirits of the Scots Ministery in their Kirk and Pulpits though it was never seriously intended here And even at this time Letters of Intelligence came from Scotland that Sir Tho Glenham Sir Lewis Divâ—â—â—ir Marmaduke Langdale and others from the Queen in France are expected in Scotland and many discontented English flock to Edenburgh from all parts Captain Wogans Horse Marched thither from the Army with a full Troop and two Companies of Foot landed out of Ireland at Chester and Marched thither likewise But as the Affairs of the English Parliament had suffered under several distractions so these of Scotland were managed with great disturbance some of their Members would raise an Army to espouse the Kings quarrel and to restore him Another party desire an Army to suppress the Sectaries of both Kingdoms but are loath thereby to strengthen the hands of Malignants in either Kingdom A third would have no Army at all and to some end or other they frame an Oath That Presbyterial Government be maintained That the King be not restored till he subscribe the Covenant and endeavours the extripation of Sectaries That Ecclesiastical Power is not subordinate to the Civil That the Kings Negative voice in England be taken away In Debate of these Passages two of their best Sparks the Earl of Kilmore allied to Hamilton and the Lord Granston to their General Leven went out in a Fury and fought a Duâ—l and most of many are for War The Parliament of England confer and Vote that all Members be summoned to attend the Houses on the 24. of the next Moneth April for the Estates of Scotland had formed a Committee of danger who had of themselves voted to raise fourty thousand men and these were Duke Hamilton Arguile the Earls of Crawford Lindsey Lauderdale Lanrick Calandar Traquair and Roxborough the Lords Eimeâ—pethen Waneston 〈◊〉 Humbe Collington Arneston Gartland and Ennis and eight Burgessâ—s But against the manner of this Vote not the matter a Protestation was made by eighteen Lords and fourty other to this effect Whereas we have desired that no Power be granted to any Committee to engage this Kingdom in a War before the Parliament resolve on a War and state the cause and ends thereof it being not agreeable to the Act of Parliament 1640 c. And protest not to be included but may be free of all the evill that may follow thereupon to the cause of God the Covenant Religion and to the Kings person and Authority to this Kirk and Kingdom or the union of both The Scots are come and their General Duke Hamilton consults there with Sir Marmaduke Langdale whether towards Lancashire or New-castle the Duke marches himself in the Van with his Trumpeters before in Scarlet Coats with silver lace and much state His life guard proper persons well cloathed His Standard and other equipage Prince-like In the Van marched four Regiments of Horse seven Colours to a Regiment and in all of the Van about two thousand Their body led by Major General Middleton seven Regiments ten Colours to a Regiment and therein neer seven thousand Some carriages came with them but their compleat will be from Carlisle the only reason of his hasting thither The Rear is brought up by the Earl of Calander with fifteen hundred Additional forces they expect from Major General Monroe of three thousand Scots from Ireland under his Command And for assistance of the English about three thousand now ready to be drawn out into Arms under Langdale in the North. The Scots Declarations are already passed to smooth his passage to the people And being come thus near as Annan he Summons Major General Lambert the Parliaments Northern Commander to this effect Noble sir The Parliament of Scotland upon the imminent danger to Religion his Majesties sacred person and the peace of his Kingdoms from the prevailing power of Sectaries in England did send to the Parliament of England such demands as they conceived necessary and no Answer nor satisfaction therein the danger increasing by Northern Forces drawn to the Borders The Committee of Estates in Scotland have commanded him and other noble Personages his
things fitted for to morrow Saturday 20. of Ian. the King is brought from St. Iames's through the Park in a Sedan to White-hall thence by water with Guards to Sir Iohn Cottons House at the back end of Westminster Hall The Judges met in the Painted Chamber attending the President Bradshaw in his Scarlet Robe the Sword born before him by Colonel Humphrey the Mace by Serjeant Denby the younger and twenty men for his Guard with Partizans Himself sits down in a Crimson Velvet Chair of State fixed in the midst of the Court with a Desk before him and thereon a Cushion of Crimson Velvet The seats of each side Benches covered with Scarlet cloth all of bloudy colours for the Tryers the Partizans divided themselves on each side O yes and silence made the great Gate of the Hall was set open for any to enter Col. Thomson was commanded to bring forth the prisoner who was with twenty Partizans and other Guards The Serjeant with his Mace receives him to the Bar where was placed a red Velvet Chair The King looks sternly upon the Court and up to the Galleries and then sits down not shewing the least regard to the Court but presently rises up and looks downâ—ards on the guards and on the multitude of people spectators The Act of Parliament for the Trying of Charls Stuart King of England was read over by the Clerk one Phelps who â—at on the right side of the Table covered with a Turkey Carpet placed at the feet of the President upon which lay the Sword and Mace The several names in the Roll of the Tryers were called over and 80. answered to their names In the charge the King is accused in the name of the people of England of Treason Tyranny of all the murders and rapines that had happened in the war many things being added for aggravation they repose all the vveight of the accusation on this That he raised war against the Parliament A vast number of people looking on vvith groans and sighs deploring the miserable condition of their good King The President stood up and said Sir You have heard your Charge containing such matters as appears in it and in the close it is prayed that you Answer to your Charge which this Court expects The King vvhilst he heard the Charge vvith countenance of Majesty and at some passages vvith a brovv of scornefull smile and novv in ansvver to the President asks these nevv Judges By what Authority they did bring to Tryal a King their most rightful Sovereign against the publick Faith so lately given him when he commenced Treaty with the Members of both Houses By what saies he emphatically Lawful Authority for said he I am not ignorant that there are on foot every where very many unlawful powers as of Theeves and Robbers in the High way he bids them only declare by what Authority they had arrogated this what-soever-power to themselves and he would willingly answer to the things objected Which if they could not he adviseth them to avert the grievous crimes from their own heads and the Kingdom Whatsoever they did he was resolved not to betray the Charge committed by God and confirmed by ancient descent The President rejoyns That he was called to account by Authority of the people of England by whose Election he was admitted King The King replyes The Kingdom descended to him in no wise Elective but Hereditary for above a thousand years That he stood more apparantly for the Liberties of the people of England by refusing an unlawful and urbitrary Authority then the Iudges or any other whosoever by asserting it That the Authority and power of the people was shewed in Parliamentary Assemblies but that here appeared none of the Lords who to the constituting of a Parl ought to be there and which is more some King ought to be there present but that neither the one nor the other nor both the Parliament Houses nor any other Iudicature on earth had any Authority to call the King of England to account much less some certain Iudges chosen only by his accusers masked with the Authority of the Lower House and the same proculcated Howbeit he wills them again they would at least-wise produce this their Authority and he would not be wanting to his defence forasmuch as it was the same offence with him to acknowledge a Tyrannical power as to resist a lawful one The President often interrupting the Kings speech told him That they were satisfied with their Authority as it is upon Gods Authority and the Kingdoms in doing of Iustice this their present work To which the King replyed That it was not his own apprehension nor theirs neither that ought to decide it And so the President commanded the prisoner to be taken into custody and so the Court adjourned till Munday next 22. Ianu. to the Painted Chamber and from thence to the same place again and the King returned in the manner as before to St. Iames's Munday the Court met in the Painted Chamber and considering the Kings Resolution to deny ther Jurisdiction and Judicature They resolve that he should not be suffered to argue either the Courts Jurisdiction or that which did constitute it of which debate they had no proper Cognizance nor could they being a derivative power which made them Judges from which there was no appeal And therefore with that distinction they Order That if the King offer to dispute the same again the President shall tell him that the Commons of England assembled in Parliament have constituted this Court whose power may not be permitted to be disputed by him That if he refuse to answer it shall be recounted a contumacie to the Court That if he answer with a salvo his pretended Prerogative above the Court He shall be required to answer positive yea or no. That he shall not have a Copy of his Charge till he own the Court and declare his intentions to answer This concluded they assemble in Westminster Hall and the King called for and brought to the Bar in the same manner and with much contumacy as the other day when the Sollicitor Cook moves that the Prisoner may make a positive answer or that the Charge may be taken pro confesso and the Court to proceed to Justice The President repeats in brief the passages of the last day and commands the King to Answer to the Articles of his Charge unless he had rather hear the Capital Sentence against him The King persists to interrogate concerning their Authority and saies That he less regards his Life then his Honour his Conscience the Laws the Liberties of the people all which that they should not perish together there were weighty Reasons why he could not prosecute his defence before the Iudges and acknowledge a new form of Iudicature for what power had ever any Iudges to erect a Iudicature against their King or by what Laws was it granted surely not by Gods Laws
for the Spaniard Cockram's Instructions to the King of Denmark Annâ— 1644. 〈…〉 Sir W. Waller 's Commission The Scots are caressed Fight at Braâ—dean Heath Essex's Army recruited Tax of weekly Meals Bewdley taken Fairfax in the North. Parliaments Army hastened The Parliament assembled at Oxford proroguâ—d Parliament at Westminster write to the Parliament in Scotland Anno 1643. The Queen journeys to the West and so to France The Kings Protestation aâ— the Sacrament of the Eucharist Swansey summoned Anno 1644. Siege at Latham House from Aâ—ril 17 raised May 27. The Lady Winter summoned to yield Her Answer Malmsbury taken The Kings design to march from Oxford Essex and Waller divide Forces Waller to catch the King Waller defeated at Copredy Bridge General Essex defeated in Cornwal Anno 1643. Anno 1644. The King returns to Oxford The Kings Letter to the Earl of Essex The Lords Letters to Essex Another from Tavestock Holland Ambassadours have audience for Peace York relieved by P. Rupert York surrendered to the Parliament Dennington Castle assaulted by the Parliaments Forces A second Attempt upon the Castle Church Reformation Princess Henretta Maria born at Exceter Iune 16. Ambassadours mediatours for Peace A Letter from beyond Seas to a member at Westminster The Kings Letter to the Parliament for a Peacâ— Upon the Victory against Essex's Army in Cornwal Banbury stormed by the Parliament and repulsed Earl of Northampton defeats the Besiegers Massey meets Myns design Grâ—y and Hammond fall out Myn de feated and slain Prince Rupert near Bristol Ast Ferry Fight Lieutenant Col. Kirle betrays Monmouth to Massey Military affairs in Monmouthshire Fight on the East side of Spine Earl of Cleveland commended Fight near Shaw Monmouth surprized and how Sir Iac. Astley at Cirencester Sentenced to death Captain Hotham arraigned Hothams Letter to the Earl of Newcastle Eikon Bas. cap. 8. p. 46. A new Government of the Church voted Eikon Bas. Cap. 16. Parliaments Propositions for Peace Directions to Ormond to make peace with the Rebels in Ireland Memorials for Secretary Nicholas at the Treaty Directions to the Kings Commissioners to treat Treaty at Uxbridge The Kings Commissioners offers concerning Religion Ireland Observations concerning the Treaty Anno 1644. Upon Uxbridg Treaty and other the Kings offers Eikon Bas. Chap. 18. Irish Rebels Macquire and Mac-Mahone Executed The design of new modelling the Army Newcastle siege Newcastle surrendred The siege of Basing House Basing relieved the 12 of Sept. The Besiegers rise from Basing Arch-Bishop of Canterbury arraigned Acts 6. 12. Acts 12. 3. Isa. 1. 15. Psal. 9. 12. Heb. 12. His Prayer at the Block Colonel Stephens surprizing was surprized The Cavaliers prevail Price Rupert in Wales with additional Forces Military affairs in Scotland Montrose spoils the Mâ—neses Dâ—feat at Aberdinc Fight at Favy Montrose in Arguile divastates all Arguile defeated A Design for the Duke of Lorain's assistance to the King The reason of the Danish War Anno 1645. General Fairfax his Commission Peace with the Swedes Shrewsbury betrayed to the Parliaments Forces Anno 1645. The Earls of Essex Manchester and Denbigh surrender their Commissions A Paper delivered to the Lord by the Earl of Essex together with his Commission Declaration in behalf of these Generals Grand Ordinance to disable Members from Offices and Commands Both Armies how disposed Blackington delivered to the Parliament Colonel Windebank shot to death Taunton besieged by the Kings Forces Taunton relieved for the present and again besieged State Ambassadours take leave Sir Iohn Winter recruited Lidbury fight A Protestation of Loyalty to the King Leicester taken by the King Naseby Fight Their Order The Kings Letters taken and divulged Upon his Majesties Letters taken and divulged Eikon Bas. ch 21. And his Declaration Leicester Surrendered upon Articles to the Parliament Prince Elector arrested for debt at the City feast Oxford straitned Carlisle surrendered Club-men are up Club-men treat with Fairfax His Answer Club-men's mis-rule Goring and Fairfax fight at Sutton Field Goring goes Westward Fairfax to Bridgwater Bridgwater bravely defended Bridgwater bravely defended at last surrendered Scarborough Castle delivered to the Parliament Bath rendered to Fairfax Siege of Hereford by the Scots raised by the King Summons Answers The King raises the Siege The Scots in discontent Sherburn taken by storm Club-men surprized by Cromwel Huntington taken by the King The King comes to Wales Fight at Bauton Heath Bristol besieged by Fairfax and Cromwel Cromwels Letter from Bristol to the Speaker He takes the Devizes And Winchester His Letter A Ranting Commander Basing taken by storm The wealth of Basing The Kings condition His Forces defeated at Sherburn in Yorkshire Digbie's Letters taken concerning Ireland The Kings Officers quarrâ—l Commanders quit their Commissions Belvoir surrendred to the Parliament Latham House rendred to the Parliament Hereford surprized for the Parliament Of treachery or Corruptions Qualifications concerning Delinquents Prince Charles desires conduct for two Lords to treat about a peace Fairfax's Answer The Princes Reply The Kings Letter to the Parliamentâ— for a conduct for persons to treat The Parliaments answer The Parliaments Answer to the Kings former Letters Anno. 1645. Fasting and Prayer at Oxford Irish Letters Intercepted The Kings Commission to the Barl of Glamorgan Message about Ireland and personal Treaty Arch-Bishop of York his letter to the Lord Ashley Digby's letter Glamorgans letter to the King out of Ireland Westchester besieged and surrendered Court of Wards and Liveries voted down Lilburn petitions for justice Dartmouth besieged and surrendred to the Parliament Exeter summoned Hopton defeated at Torrington Lamiston quitted Hopton agrees to disband Eikon Bas. pa. 17. 2. His expedition to Dundâ—e Aldern Battel Kilsithe famous Battel Foreign Affairs Prisoners of note Anno. 1646. The Prince of Wales invited to the Parliament The King at Oxâ—ord in distress Lord Ashley defeated totally The King desires to come to his Parliament He is answered negatively Cavaliers to depart the City Court Martial and their Articles Misery of the Cavalier The Brass Tomb of Windsor sold. Garisons surrendred Exeter surrendred Garisons rendred up to the Parliament Williams Arch-bishop of York turnned Souldier against the King Dudley Castle surrendred Oxford City besieged the second time Instructions to treat Oxford surrendred upon Articles Prince Elector visits his Brothers The Kings Seal of State broken The Duke of York brought to London Princess Henretta conveyed into France Sir Richard Onslow complains of Withers Newark siege and surrender of it First summons Second summons Banbury Castle surrendered and Carnarvan Ragland Castle besieged The King escapes out of Oxford And arrives at the Scots Army before Newark The Kings Letter to Ormond of his intention to go to the Scots Army Order to dispose of the King Levens Letter concerning the King The Kings Message to the Parliament from Southwel Votes to dispose of the King Eikon Bas. chap. 21. The Prince invited again to the Parliament The King enters into Newcastle The Scots Army voted to be gone
Prerogative Sovereigntie and power in the King that other preteâ—ding to justifie privileges and Right of Parliament and Subjects freedom During the Kings preparations in the North the Parliamentarie attempted to put themselves in a posture of War which they called A Necessity of Defence And because the Ordinance of Militia was the first ground of Difference in shew between the King and them they desiring it which he would not intrust out of himself the Rent being thereby once made a greater necessitie impleaded the execution of that power Sundry Commissions issued out from either partie to divers Commissioners Lord Lieutenants of several Counties And by the Parliament many Companies were raised and called The Militia Bands a militarie pomp and appearance of braverie well affected to them and near at home The Commission of Aray for the King was commanded and commended to such other of his partie as were loyal to him but hazzarding it to the multitude found not in some places the like wished for effect especially far off in the mid-land Counties where the Lord Say had command for the Parliament and the Lord Chandos for the â—ing he was enforced to flie to Court and to leave his house and furniture at Sudeley Castle in Glocestershire to the furie of the people delighting in a coâ—tumelious revenge and rustick triumph of the ignoble communalâ—ie in whom not always the deep sense of their own interests doth purchase this extasie of passion but a very turning of the fancie sets them into an hurrie Their insolenâ—ies now appear intolerable by reason of their former usual restraint which they now usurping pretend freedom to do what they list and they were gained to the Parliament upon that blinde account which since hath proved to them the more slavish though for that present producing wondrous effects to that partie by self-ingagement of the common people which the Parliament knew how to promote and to execute thereafter to their own ends Most men did undoubtedly believe greater hopes of Libertie from the Parliament than from the King who called it Licentioâ—sness and this of the Kings Sovereigntie the Commons intituled to Tyrannie The Gentrie for the most part render themselves rather Subjects to Princes the better to rule over the Commons their vassals The Communaltâ—â— consisting chiefly of Yeomen Farmers petâ—y Freeholders and others men of manufacture bred up sparingly but living in plentie such as these always thwart the Gentrie by whom they subsist Persons of birth and breeding more jovial and more delicate neglecting a confined condition endeavour rather to hazzard what they have by aiming at the height of fortune unto which their noble Extraction wit and learning doth incite and stir them up This was not all the difference Religion diversly professed had a main interest The eternal Truth unchangeable bindes every soul to one Law perpetual and constant this therefore doth implead the necessitie of external privileges in the professour which though not to destroy the Kingdoms of the world nor to usurp a greater liberty than humane Laws will â—asily grant and hath in its nature an irreconcileable enmitie against arbitrarâ—e Government in such commands as they conceive not justly put upon them and out of which they are studious to free themselves when the felicitie of that time shall offer the means and as they thought it now a lawfull call by power of Parliament To their advantage there was raised a practical Ministerie captivating vulgar capacities to applie themselves more fitly to their own purposes for the present accounting all order and decencie in Church and State to be Innovations upon the Consciences and purses of the people and yet even the common natural Subject not thus deluded did come from the farthest parts to serve under their Sovereign by the light of loyaltie not to war against that Authoritie And yet after some strugling that the King had gotten a defensive Armie and his cause calling for some under-hand assistance of his neighbour Friends then the Parliament contract a League with the Scots pleasing them with the hopes of a through Scotish Presbyterian Reformation of Religion and to boot good entertainment for their beggarly Armie not without a solemn League by Oath and Covenant with them taken by both Nations they with Forces entred England won the prize got the King in their clutches and for a piece of money sold him to the Parliament to the death and execution of him and destruction of Church and State And so we return to our Historie Civil and Martial The King in a reasonable posture began to caress his people and first descends from York to the County of Nottingham and at Newark he summons the Gentlemen and Free-holders and tells them that their resolutions and affections to him and their Country for his defence and the Laws of the Land have been so notable that they have drawn him thither only to thank them that he goes to other places to confirm undeceive his Subjects but comes thither to encourage them That they have made the best judgment of happiness by relying on that Foundation which the experience of so many hundred years hath given proof viz. The assurance and securitie of the Law And let them be assured when Laws shall be altered by any other Authority than that by which they were made the Foundations are destroyed And though it seems at first but to take away his power it will quickly swallow all their interest He asketh nothing of them but to preserve their own affections to the Religion and Laws established he will justifie and protect those affections and will live and die with them in that quarrel The like caress he gives those of the County of Lincoln at Lincoln and intending to reduce his Town of Hull sends his Message to the Parliament with the Proclamation ensuing Iulie 11. That by his former Declarations and this his Proclamation they and all his good Subjects may see the just grounds of his present Journey towards Hull before he shall use force to reduce it to obedience and requires them that it may be forthwith delivered to him to which if they conform he will admit of their further Addresses from them and return such Propositions as may be for present peace and promises to them in the word of a King that nothing shall be wanting in him to redress the calamities threatening the Nation and expects their Answer at Beverley on Thursday next being the fifteenth of Iuly That the King having long complained of the affront done to his person by Sir Iohn Hotham when he went thither to view his Magazine at Hull which have been since carried away by Orders of Parliament and the Town kept and maintained against him and Votes and Orders in Parliament have justified the same that Hotham hath since fortified the Town drowned the Countrey thereabout and hath set out a Pinnace to Sea which hath seized and intercepted his Packet Pinnace with Letters of the Queen
to the King disarmed the wel-affected to the King in that Town And that the Earl of Warwick contrary to the Kings command under his hand being legally discharged of any conduct of his Majesties Ships hath taken upon him to dispossess the King of his Navy and imployed them against him and imprisoned divers of his Majesties loyal Officers and Subjects And therefore the King is resolved with Gods assistance to force Hotham and all other his Assistants in this his treasonable defence and invites all his good Subjects to assist him in this his resolution Dated at Beverley the eighth of Iuly Three daies after the Parliament Resolve That an Army shall be raised for defence of King and Parliament and of all such as obey the orders of both Houses That the Earl of Essex shall be the general and they to live and dy with him and that a petition should be sent to the King by the Earl of Holland Sir Iohn Holland and Sir William Stapleton to Beverley and that the Earl of Bedford be General of the Horse which so troubled the Earl of Holland who was refused upon voting that it was never digested Indeed the Parliament were wary not to intrust two Brothers with Land and Sea service together The effect of their petition was to pray the King to disband all his forces which are reckoned up to be about Hull and from Newcastle Tynmouth Lincoln and Lincoln-shire to recall his Commissioners of Array and to dismiss his guards and come to his People and Parliament and hearken to their advice and then what they will do for him The King might smile at this and therefore tells them They were never unhappy in their Petitions and supplications whilst they desired the preservation of Religion the Kings Honour and the peace of the Kingdome But after their martial designs and some proceedings and effects of their forces and after their votes and raising of an Army their Generals assigned and possessing his Navy to advise him to denude himself and wait upon them is pitiful councel to which he will not submit The Parliament provide for the sinews of war to that end they declare for Lone of Money upon publique faith of the Parliament upon which and the Ministers invitations the best part of their preachings turned into perswasions and prayers to the people for their contributions and assistance that it became incredible what a mass of money plate and Ammunition was presented even at the Parliaments feet from the golden cupbords of vessels to the Kitchen-maids silver bodkins and Thimble The King had some help from the diligent indeavours of the Queen beyond Seas and out of Holland upon the pawned Jewels and at home contributions of the Lords and Gentry Loyal to his service for what was publique he gives thanks To the Vice-chancellor and all other his Loyal Subjects of the university of Oxford for the free Loan of a very considerable sum of money in this his time of so great and eminent necessity shall never depart out of his royal memory Nor is it reasonable to deny them a memorable Record for ever which in duty to them I may not do Beverley 18. Iuly From thence the King removes to Leicester summons the appearance of the Gentlemen Free-holders and Inhabitants of that County telling them of the acceptable welcome he hath found in these Northern parts finding that the former errours of his good Subjects thereabout have proceeded by mistakes and misinformatioâ—s proceeding from the deceits used by Declarations and publications of the Parliament pretended for the peace of the Kingdom which rather would destroy it To prevent their mischief he needs not ask their assistance of Horse Men Money and Hearts worthy such a Cause in which he will live and die with them Iuly 20. The Earl of Stamford Lord Lieutenant of the County of Leiceister for the Parliament had removed the County Magazine from the Town to his own house at Bradgate over which he had set a Guard or Garison against the Kings command for which he and his Adherents are by name proclaimed Traitours which troubled the Parliament and discouraged their party untill they were vindicated by a publick Declaration that being for the service of the Parliament and the peace of the Kingdom it was an high Breach of Privilege in the King and that the said Earl and his Assistants are protected by them and all good Subjects The first of August brings the King back again to Yorkshire where he summons the Gentlemen of that County tells them the forward preparations of the Parliament to a War and desires their advice what Propositions they conceive for them to ask and he to grant in reference to their and his safety and for the present desires them to spare him some Arms out of their store which shall be redelivered when his provisions shall come thither and that his Son Prince Charls his Regiment for the Guard of his person under the command of the Earl of Cumberland may be compleated The Parliament declare for the raising of all power and force by Trained Bands and otherwise to lead against all Traitours and their Adherents that oppose the Parliament and them to slay and kill as Enemies to the State and peace of the Kingdom naming such of the Kings party that were his Lieutenants of Array of the Northern Counties viz. the Earl of Northampton the Lord Dunsmore Lord Willoughby of Eresby Son to the Earl of Lindsey Henry Hastings and others of the Counties of Lincoln Nottingham Leicester Warwick Oxfordshire And for the Western Counties the Marquess Hertford the Lord Paulet Lord Seymer Sir Iohn Stowel Sir Ralph Hopton and Iohn Digby and others in the County of Somerset And to oppose these and others the Parliament doth authorize the Earl of Essex the General as also these to be the Lieutenants of several Counties viz. the Lord Say of Oxon the Earl of Peterborough of Northampton Lord Wharton of Buckingham Earl of Stamford of Leicester Earl of Pembroke of Wiltshire and Hampshire Earl of Bedford of Somersetshire and Devon Lord Brook of Warwick Lord Cranborn of Dorsetshire Lord Willoughby of Parrham of Lincolnshire Denzil Hollis of the City and County of Bristol And thus ranked they are to kill and â—lay their Enemies August 8. And the King traceth them in these steps replies to theirs and will justifie the quarrel and for that purpose published his Proclamation against the Earl of Essex the General that he is Rebell and Traitour to the King and his Crown and all Colonels and Officers under him that shall not instantly lay down are guilty of high Treason And because of their two particular Designs to march Northward against the King and others Westward to seize and force the Garison and Fort of Portsmouth therefore he commands Colonel Goring his Captain Governour there to oppose the Rebells And commands his Cousin and Counsellour William Marquess Hertford his Lieutenant General of