the same subject which under colour of a desire to search after his death for some Writings in his Study were by certain Clergy-men who stood disaffected to the Discipline of the Church unhappily lurch'd away they did at length gain those very Books into their hands and not long after the beginning of this late unparallel'd Rebellion for the better accomplishing their long studyed ends most shamefully corrupted them in sundry places omitting divers passages which were unsutable to their purposes and instead thereof inserting what they thought might give countenance to their present evil practises amongst which was this in terminis that though the King were singulis major yet he was universis minor and having so done caus'd them to be publish'd in Print By which fallacy divers well meaning people were miserably captivated and drawn to their Party And at length were not ashamed in that Treaty which they had with his Majesty in the Isle of Wight to vouch the authority of this venerable man in derogation of his Supremacy and to place the Soveraign power in the People that great Antimonarchist William late Vicount Say and Sele being the person who boldly urged it Whereunto the good King answered that though those three Books were not allowed to be Mr. Hookers yet he would admit them so to be and consent to what his Lordship endeavoured to prove out of them in case he would assent to the judgment of Mr. Hooker declared in the other five Books which were unquestionably His. But as to these their indirect dealings in thus corrupting the works of that excellent man whose memory for his profound learning singular piety and most exemplary life will be ever precious to succeeding ages and his necessary vindication therein I shall for more full satisfaction to my Reader refer him to that seasonable Historical discourse lately compiled and published with great judgment and integrity by that much deserving person Mr. Isaac Walton containing a perfect Narrative of the life and death of this right worthy person Of which I hold it necessary that special notice should be taken by reason that since the happy Restauration of our present Soveraign K. Charles II. Dr. Gawden then Bishop of Exeter upon the reprinting those five genuine Books of Mr. Hooker together with the other pretended three taking upon him to write a Preface to the whole and therein to give an account of Mr. Hooker's life hath not only with great confidence used divers Arguments to satisfie the world that those three Books were penn'd by Mr. Hooker notwithstanding those poysonous assertions against the Regal power which are to be found therein but much misreported him in the Narrative of his life representing him to have been a single man with many other gross mistakes as whoso compares it with Mr. Walton's History of him may easily see Moreover well knowing that the City of London in respect of its Riches and Populousness must be the principal stage for this Tragic-Action there was no small care taken for fitting all places of Authority therein especially the Common-Council with such active men as might advance this blessed work Wherein having made a fair and succesful progress but discerning that the Sword must at length be made use of they then began to frequent the Artillery-yard and to be diligent Practisers of military Discipline in which they grew in a short time so great Proficients that most of the cheif Officers in that School were men of that stamp and got into their hands the best and choicest Arms. And that they might make the more secure progress in this their long studyed design they laid the Scene at first in Scotland the Subjects of that Realm being most tainted with Presbytery so that in case this their contrivance should speed there they might the more boldly adventure upon the like here The first thing therefore that was made use of towards their Master-piece in Scotland was an exception or rather cavil by divers eminent persons in that Kingdom at his Majesties Revocation of such things as had been passed away in prejudice of that Crown especially by some of his Progenitors in their minorities though not without example This being advised by those that were then his Majesties Privy-Councellers and Officers of State in that Realm whose late Actions have sufficiently manifested what effect they desired it should produce did accordingly occasion much repining by divers principal persons who thereupon infused into his Subjects a distaste of his Government And though the King was pleased to wave his interest therein and to remit as well the Equity as rigour of the Laws in that point the Male-contents would not be satisfyed but still endeavoured to work a disaffection in the people thereto And whereas his Majesty out of his pious care of the Clergy who had been much opprest by the Laity that pay'd Tythes being pleased to grant out Commissions in their behalf had so good issue therein as that both Parties were abundantly satisfyed the maintenance of the Clergy being thereby improv'd and the Laity freed from a dangerous dependance upon Subjects yet the Nobility and Lay-Patrons fretting privately for being rob'd as they conceiv'd of the dependance of the Clergy and Laity bent their envy against the Bishops under pretence that they were the principal causers thereof To quiet therefore these discontents in the year 1633 his Majesty made a progress into Scotland and was there crowned having not been personally there till then since the death of his Royal Father at which time he also held a Parliament in that Realm wherein great suggestions were made of fears that dangerous Innovations in Religion would be attempted as also instead of acceptance of an Act for Ratification of all other Acts concerning the Religion professed and established it was dissented to by divers of the after-chiefest Covenanters And no sooner was he returned back into England but that infinite Libels were disperst abroad to impoyson the People with his Majesties proceedings at that Parliament Of which Libellers amongst others the Lord Balmerino was found guilty by his Peers and accordingly should have receiv'd sentence of death for it nevertheless through his Majesties goodness was not only pardoned but enlarg'd and afterwards became an eminent Covenanter Which Insolency of the Scots did not a little animate and encourage the Puritan-faction here who loudly declaimed against the Discipline of the Church as it then by Law stood establish'd and to beget a greater contempt thereof in the generality of the people represented it to be superstitious and like to usher in Popery dispersing many scandalous seditious and libellous Pamphlets to that purpose infusing likewise into them strange apprehensions that their Liberty and Property were in no little danger and the better to give colour to their pretended fears of these approaching Evils they took ready hold of this following occasion The Soveraignty of the Brittish-Seas by antient right justly appertaining to the Crown
the Parliament House crying No Bishops and calling them the limbs of Antichrist And on the same day to accompany so good a work they presented to the King by the hands of the Earl of Holland their grand Remonstrance of the Grievances of the Kingdom which had been ordered to be brought into the House the twelfth of August past thereby to blast all those gracious condescentions which they had obtained from him before Whereunto his Majesty soon after made a full and clear Answer and publish'd his Royal Declaration thereupon for the satisfaction of all his good Subjects to the end they might not be deluded by those undutiful false and scandalous aspersions cast upon his Government by that malicious Libel And soon after for the better prevention of any more such dangerous tumults and uproars at or near the Houses of Parliament he directed his special Writ according to the Statute unto the Sheriffs of London to place a Guard at Westminster But the House of Commons deeming this Guard thus legally placed by the King no way conducing to their Design presently voted it to be a breach of their priviledges and an offence of an high nature and thereupon not only order'd that the said Watch should be discharg'd but that the Justices of Middlesex for their obedience to his Majesties commands herein should be question'd whereupon Justice Long was committed to the Tower That there was a most factious party in the City of London which were great Instruments in raising the ensuing Rebellion is plain enough Nor is it less observable that they acted their parts therein by colour of Authority viz. by outing all the Common-Council which were men of worth and bringing men of desperate fortunes in their rooms Wherein they had such furtherance by the help of the multitude who aim'd at their own advantage by any change of Government that they then introduced Fowkes Ryley the Boddies-maker Perkins the Lord Say's Taylor Normington the Cutler Mills the Brick-layer and divers other such mean fellows instead of Mr. Drake Mr. Roger Clarke Sir George Bynion Mr. Roger Gardner and several other worthy Citizens whose loyalty they well knew could not be corrupted These being the principal agents in all the Tumults which stood them in much stead for accomplishing of their chiefest aims And therefore plain it was to be seen what design they had when they urged the passing of the Bill for not Adjourning or Dissolving of that Parliament without their own consents having such a party in the City to back them upon all occasions Having thus dissolv'd the Guard so appointed by his Majesty there came another Tumult of the Citizens to Westminster Whereupon some Members of the House of Commons making complaint of the danger whereunto they were subject by those riotous people and how that already they had been assaulted and evil intreated by them at the very door of the House desired that some course might be taken for restraining and punishing them for the same But instead thereof divers spoke in justification of them and commended their affections saying they must not discourage their friends this being a time to make use of them all And Mr. Pym added God forbid that the House of Commons should proceed in any sort to dishearten the people for obtaining their just desires in such a way And accordingly there was a paper delivered by some or other to the Minister that preach'd at Christ-Church the Sunday following desiring that Prayer might be made to God to assist the Apprentices with strength to root out Superstition and to extirpate the Innovations of the Bishops and Clergy After which matters were every day carried with a more high hand than before the Tumultuous people having as apparent countenance from the House as before they had private encouragement Insomuch as the Lord Mayor of London came to Whitehall and acquainted the King that he discerned if Sir Thomas Lunsford whom he had newly made Lieutenant of the Tower were not removed the Apprentices would rise and pull him out So that his Majesty to prevent such an insurrection took the Keys from Sir Thomas Lunsford and constituted Sir Thomas Byron in his room with whom the factious Spirits were as ill satisfied tho they knew not well what to object against him till at last Lieutenant Hooker the Aquavitae-man and Nicholson the Chandler complained in the Common-Council that since Sir Iohn Byron came to be Lieutenant of the Tower the Mint to the great prejudice and dishonour of the Kingdom stood still Yea so insolent were these tumultuous people grown that upon the Kings Proclamation grounded upon a Penal Law to dissipate them in contempt thereof they came early the next morning in greater numbers than ever divers of them being arm'd with Swords and Halberts and towards the evening assaulted the great Church at Westminster threatning to pull it down So that the Bishops thenceforth thought it not safe for themselves to come any more to the House The News whereof so pleased those unruly people that on the morrow they came again crying No Bishops notwithstanding another Proclamation issued out by the King to restrain them And in their return making a stand before Whitehall said that they would have no more Porter's Lodge there but would speak with the King when they pleased Which rebellious uproar caused his Majesty forthwith to place a Guard for his own safety at the Court-gates But the main cry of danger was by the House of Commons as if they themselves had been the only men in peril of their lives and therefore to make the greater shew of their own fears they order'd that Halberts should be brought into their House for defence of the Members and then they made a noise of new discoveries of farther dangerous conspiracies one by a Letter from France intimating great intelligence held betwixt England and Rome and no small likelihood of dreadful plots in agitation against this Kingdom Also of another Letter at the same time found in a Jesuit's Study of great troubles which should befall this Realm And the more to amuse the people they adjourn'd to sit in a Committee at Guild-Hall to draw up a Remonstrance of the many dangers this Kingdom had undergone within the space of three years Where being met another Letter pretended to be brought from Italy was read discovering divers Plots by the Papists here Whereupon they consider'd about drawing up of another Remonstrance laying open the peril of the Spanish Fleet the coming over of the Queen-Mother the Pope's Nuncio as also several other Plots in agitation by the Jesuits and a Romish-party Which subtil practices being set on foot by some particular persons of both Houses through whose influence chiefly others were guided caused his Majesty out of a desire to prevent the ensuing calamities which he clearly foresaw must by these means inevitably follow to demand the persons of the Lord
but sent down the Earl of Stanford and Lord Willoughby of Parham with four of the House of Commons as a Committee to assist Sir Iohn Hotham there voting that his Majesties declaring Sir Iohn Hotham Traitor was an high breach of the Privilege of Parliament against the Liberty of the Subject and Laws of the Land And now that by their feigned Fears and Jealousies with other subtile devices they had sufficiently amused the people and possess'd themselves of the Royal Navy Forts Ports and Magazine and within a few days following set forth a Declaration signifying their purpose to put in execution their Ordinance for the Militia they answered that Message from his Majesty of the 24 th of April touching Hotham with sundry foul aspersions taxing him with hearkning to wicked Counsels which had practised to put the Kingdom into a combustion and again justifying Sir Iohn Hotham expressed their intentions to settle the Militia according to their Ordinance for suppressing the wicked and malignant Party desiring his Majesties return to be near his Parliament And as the Citizens of London out of their ambition to be a free State were the first and cheif Instruments to set forward this grand work so in this of the Militia they gave example to all other parts of the Kingdom executing the same in Finsbury-feilds with twelve thousand men in Arms ordered by Serjeant Major General Skyppon the members of both Houses being present to give countenance thereto who thereupon voted that having shew'd so much obedience to the Ordinance of Parliament concerning the Militia they had done it according to the Laws of the land and that they should have the assistance of both Houses of Parliament against any that might oppose or molest them therein CHAP. XI ABout this time therefore the King discerning no small danger to his person by reason of these hostile preparations and Actions having not any Guard but with a thin retinue residing at York and withall observing that in most parts of the Kingdom the schismatical Party under colour of putting themselves into a Posture of Defence had provided Arms as also trained and exercised themselves contrary to the Laws of the land sent his Summons to the Gentry of Yorkshire to attend him at York Where being met he shew'd them divers reasons why he conceiv'd it fit to have a Guard for his own Person desiring their assistance therein Whereupon most of them yeilding cheerful obedience he signified to them by his Letters that he should take it well if they would personally attend him in such sort followed and provided as they should think fit for his better safety But before the knowledg thereof could possibly come to them at Westminster having some private advertisement of what was intended they publish'd a Declaration in the name of both Houses of Parliament setting forth That it was against the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom that any of the Subjects thereof should be commanded to attend his Majesty at his pleasure excepting such as were bound thereto by special service And that if the Trained Bands or any other his Majesties Subject should upon any pretence be drawn together in a posture of war the Sherifs of such a County ought to raise the power thereof to suppress them And having forthwith voted that the Magazine of each respective Shire in the Realm of England and dominion of Wales should be presently put into the power of such Lord-Lieutenants of those Counties as the Parliament did confide in they publish'd a Declaration scandalizing his Majesties gracious Messages Answers and Declarations taxing him with breach of his word and promises as also with continued oppressions and violation of the Laws countenancing the Rebellion in Ireland and with intent to bring up his Northern-Army to awe the Parliament And having so done voted that the King seduced by wicked Counsel intended to make war against his Parliament who in all their Consultations and Actions had proposed no other end unto themselves but the care of his Kingdom and the performance of all duty and loyalty to his person Next that whensoever the King maketh war upon the Parliament it is a breach of the Trust reposed in him by his people contrary to his Oath and tending to the dissolution of this Government and that whosoever should serve or assist him in such wars were Traitors by the Fundamental Laws of this Realm the very same day sending down the Knights and Burgesses of Buckinghamshire by special Order to see their Ordinance for the Militia put in execution in that County And having proceeded thus far setting also forth another large Remonstrance in justification of all their practises in which they had this bold expression that now they had brought their work to such an height and degree of success that nothing seem'd to be left in their way able to hinder the full accomplishment of their desires unless God in his justice should send a grievous curse upon them within three days following they sent a Petition to the King in the name of both Houses which was delivered to him at York Wherein they boldly reproacht him with his many fair promises and pretences and desired him to disband his Guard it being a cause of great jealousie and danger to the whole Kingdom Otherwise they told him that they should employ their care and utmost power to secure the Parliament and to preserve the peace and quiet of the Realm And shortly after publish'd a third Remonstrance justifying their former Actions farther reproaching him in every thing and challenging the Obligations of his Oath upon that ungrammatical construction of quas vulgus digerit to pass all Bills which they should tender unto him About this time also removing the Magazine form Hull to the Tower of London The King therefore discerning what preparations they had made in every respect in order to the forming of a rebellious Army did by his Royal Proclamation bearing date the xxvijth of May expresly forbid all and every of his Subjects belonging to the Trained-Bands or Militia of this Kingdom to rise march muster or exercise by vertue of any Order or Ordinance of one or both Houses of Parliament without consent or warrant from himself upon pain of punishment according to the Laws And plainly discerning through these their subtile practices what advantages they made to themselves upon the smallest pretences as also by casting Scandals upon all his Actions he summon'd the Gentlemen and Free-holders of Yorkshire to come to Heyworth-Moore upon the third of Iune Where he declared unto them the reason of his reâ—siding at that time amongst them being driven away from Whiteâ—Hall by Tumults with his purpose to maintain the true Protestant Religion and Laws and that the Guard he there had for the safety of his Royal person consisting of the chief Gentry of that County and one Regiment of the Trained Bands could
that though the Committee which were sent to bring in the Scots went but lately thither yet the Brethren there having had former advertisements how great a necessity here was of them to the end their Friends should not faint hasted over a Declaration hither whereby they signified that whereas the Kingdom of England had a long time suffered by the Popish and malignant Counsels about his Majesty and that the miseries in England were but preparations to theirs they therefore did resolve to assist the Parliament of England And high time it was for their forces in most parts going by the worst it put them upon new contrivances every day So that Sir William Waller was fain to come again to the House and take the Covenant a second time to encourage some that had not taken it before And though the Committee which met at Merchant-Taylor's-Hall for raising the people of the land as one man did give direction to the Aldermen and their Deputies in every Ward with the Ministers Common-Council-men and others to promote the work as being the last Refuge of the people for so they express'd and no vain bait or allurement yet saw they so little fruit of this great endeavour that they were constrain'd to effect that by their power which they could not do by perswasion and therefore ordered the raising of two thousand men in Norfolk Suffolk and Cambridgshire every man to have a months pay in his pocket And for a speedy supply of more they passed two Ordinances One that the Committee for the Militia of London with the Deputy-Lieutenant's and Committees of Parliament in every County throughout the Kingdom should have power to raise levy and impress such numbers of Souldiers as should be appointed by both Houses of Parliament The other for pressing no less than twenty thousand men with so many Gunners Trumpets and Chirurgeons as should be thought fit for the six associated Counties of Norfolk Suffolk Essex Cambridg Hertford and Huntington with the City of Norwich and Isle of Ely to be rais'd within the said Counties for the service of the Kingdom and Parliament And notwithstanding all this being in a declining condition by reason that their moneys were spent their men wore out and no small discontents amongst themselves in order to some recruit they made an explanation of their old Ordinance for Sequestration of Delinquents with certain enlargements wherein is set forth who were to be reputed Delinquents over and besides such as were described in the former Ordinance with power to examine upon Oath for discovery as also Rewards to Discoverers And likewise passed another Ordinance relating to a former for the speedy raising of a body of Horse for the Preservation Peace and Safety of the Kingdom to resist the Insolencies and outrages committed by the Souldiers of the King's Army those being the words thereof By which they farther ordained that Tenants should pay the Assesments out of their Landlords estates and defalk them out of their Rents But that which they then chiefly look'd on being the assistance of the Scots whereon they principally depended as their last refuge to keep up the hearts of their then drooping party they made it their business therefore to cry up loudly the aid of these their dear Brethren For which respect it will not I suppose be impertinent to make here a short digression in shewing by what means they were dealt with in order to this their second Invasion CHAP. XVI AFter the English Committee was arriv'd in Scotland and had made large promises to the Brethren of an advantagious journey viz. the lands of the Church by the extirpation of Episcopacy the Scots well resenting so beneficial an offer did set forth a Proclamation whereby pretending the King's Person their Religion and Priviledges of Parliament to be in no small danger for preservation of these they required that all persons in that Realm of what sort quality or degree soever between sixteen and sixty years of age should forthwith fit themselves with fourty days Victual Amunition Arms and all other warlike Provision under penalty of confiscation of their whole Estates and to be punished as Enemies to Religion King and Kingdoms And having set forth a plausible Declaration shewing the reasons of such their intended assistance to the Parliament of England against the Papists and Prelatical party as they therein express'd they passed an Act in their convention of Estates for putting that Kingdom into a Posture of Defence naming therein the principal Colonels and Officers for that purpose To accomplish likewise their cheif design of enjoying the Church-Lands they fram'd a new Oath called the solemn League and Covenant Which was forthwith sent over into England and read in the House of Commons at Westminster thence to be transmitted to the Assembly of Divines for their approbation and being by them approved was remitted to the House of Commons And that the grand Contrivers at Westminster might the more ingratiate themselves with those their Brethren of Scotland they passed an Ordinance for demolishing all Monuments of Superstition and Idolatry as they intituled it In which was particularized the removal of all Communion-Tables from the East end of the Chancels in every Church as also for taking away the Rails which defended them levying the Chancels where the East part was higher with removing of Tapers Candlesticks and Basins For the speedy raising of more Moneys they likewise passed another Ordinance for fourteen thousand pounds to furnish one or more Magazines of Arms and Amunition and for raising of Horse c. Which sum was to be levied within the Hamlets of the Tower City of Westminster Burrough of Southwark and other places of Middlesex and Surrey within the lines of Communication Hitherto it was only pretended that those new Regiments of Voluntiers rais'd by the Ordinance of April the xiith for the better security of the City of London should not go out of the Lines of Communication But as Mr. Pym in his Epistle to Sir Iohn Hotham concerning Excise wrote that they must be used to it by little and little so now they began to shew them what they must trust to and passed another Ordinance to enable the Committee for the Militia of London to command forth one or more Regiments of the Trained-Bands or Auxiliaries within the Liberties of London and Westminster to go forth under the command of Sir William Waller and upon occasion to be assistant to the Lord General And herein I cannot but observe an excellent expression made to the House of Commons by Mr. Oliver St. Iohn sometime his Majesties Sollicitor General but then a dear Member and special Contriver in this great work in answer to Mr. Iohn Pym who seemed to stand strict for observing the Ordinance of April the xiith alleaged that though those men by that Ordinance raised only for the defence of the City were not to
Army and all being done to give them for the pains hazzard and charges which the said Army should undergo a due recompence by way of Brotherly Assistance Towards the performance of which agreement though these Grandees did manifest that besides much free Quarter the Scots-Army had monthly received nineteen thousand and seven hundred pounds and for the last year ending ultimo Octobris seventy two thousand nine hundred seventy two pounds two shillings and eleven pence for the Customes and other Impositions upon coals onely the Brethren nevertheless having then the better end of the staff in their hands as being possess'd of the King delivered in unto them an account of Arrears besides losses of no less than a Million of money their free Quarter reckoned but with a kind intimationâ— that they would accept of a less sum in gross for a full discharge of all Whereupon a Committee being appointed to treat with them thereon and times of payment they then stoop'd to the one half viz. five hundred thousand pounds whereof two hundred thousand pounds to be paid upon the departure of their Army and the rest within twelve months Much dispute indeed they had about this business yea some high words but at length four hundred thousand pounds was the sum agree'd on the one half in hand upon delivery up of the King Which sum without more ado stop'd the mouths of those Vultures and put a period to all this hot contest All their Oaths and Obligation whereon they had so much insisted meerly to heighten the price of their Sovereign being then set aside as 't is notoriously known Being therefore thus sold and delivered to the Earls of Pembroke Denbigh and Lord Mountagu of Boughton Sir Iames Harington Sir Iohn Holand Sir Walter Earl Sir Iohn Cook Iohn Crew Esq and Major General Brown Commissioners from the Members at Westminster to be carried to Holdenby-House in Northamptonshire his Majestie hoped that he might have two of his own Chaplains admitted to attend him in this sad and disconsolate condition having not one servant of his own about him but that request would not be granted though again seconded ¶ Thus did the bonny Scots part with their native King leaving those Northern countries miserably beggar'd by many grievous Taxes imposed on them by their Army and most lamentable oppressions by Free-Quarter Which burthens were so heavy that the Inhabitants of Cleveland by their petition to the Members at Westminster and Letter therewith sent complained that their oppressions were greater than those who suffered by the Turks both their persons and Estates those under the Turk being quit for a fifth part whereas they in one year did pay their whole Revenues seven times over We are say they in their Letters the absolutest slaves that ever was read of for they assess us at their pleasures leavy as they please If they bid us go and ride none dare refuse The Kill us in hot bloud beat us in cold c. In a word our stock is already wasted our little corn we had ill gotten in by reason of the great moisture we are now thrashing it for the Scots We are eating our last bread Who have been able to get away are gone c. The perfect Diurnal further adds The Country puts up many complaints Bedall a little Town in Yorkshire of 57 li. old Rent and Ayscough a lesser Village of 42 li. have put up their several complaints that they have in less than five months last past paid to the Scots Army quartering upon them almost two thousand pounds besides former Billettings and Taxes by which sad sufferings some have left their Houses others at the point of leaving theirs also Lâ—tters from Richmundshire did likewise intimate that two Constableries of that County the Rent whereof amounted to no more than ninety nine pounds per annum were assessed by the Scottish Army and paid in Free Quarter no less than nineteen hundred pounds in four months But having made such a fair Market of the King leaving those Countries thus harrassed they march'd back over Tweed upon the eleventh of February ¶ Hereupon the Grandees at Westminster having to the view of the World finish'd their great work by getting the person of the king into their power they imployed Phillip Earl of Pembroke Basill Earl of Denbigh Edward Lord Mountagu of Boughton Sir Iames Harington Sir Iohn Holand and Sir Iohn Cook Baronets Sir Walter Earl Knight Iohn Crew Esq and Major General Brown as already hath been observed to bring his Majestie from Newcastle to Holdenby in Northampton shire Who coming to Newcastle upon the 22. of Ianuary after their stay there till the last day of that month they set forwards on the Journey and on the sixteenth of February got to holdenby where they kept him under a strict restraint Colonel Richard Greaves a most confiding Presbyterean having the chief command of his Guards not suffring any of his own servants to come near him no not so much as one Chaplain for performance of such divine offices as common charity could not have denyed to the greatest criminal though often and earnestly moved by his Majestie thereto Which being done they thought of nothing more than singing a Requiem to their Souls In order whereunto in the first place they concluded on the new modelling of their Army lest the tender Independent who grew up apace might otherwise overtop his Presbyterean-parent and therefore resolv'd to cull out those who were not Covenant-proof and send them for Ireland there to encounter as well with hunger and cold as other miseries and hardships of war Then to disband others and make a new establishment consisting of such onely as were pure Covenanters and firm to the good old Cause And next to the end that with more plausibility to the people and security to themselves they might have the full sway of all their drift was to extoâ— the King's consent he being then their prisoner 〈◊〉 this their new designed Dominion For the accomplishment whereof according to their wonted praâ—â—â—ses they caused a petition to be exhibited to the two Houses at Westminster by the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common Council of London Wherein was contained a subtil insinuation of their desires that God would bring his Majestie 's Heart nearer to his chief and greatest Council the Parliament and that he would be perswaded to joyn with them in the National League and Covenant and give satisfaction in the Propositions which the Parliaments of both Nations should make unto him for the full assurance of his People for the future and firm establishment of the Peace and Vnion of the Kingdomes in Church and Commonwealth In which Petition it was also desired that for security to the Parliament and City such as had been in opposition to the Parliament id est loyal to the King might be removed out of the City and kept at a
â—henceforth they should not be oppressed with any violence And that when they had thus at few words declared the cause of their enterprize they would then command their Neighbours to arm and come unto them immediately and help them If not then would they threaten to come upon them with all their force But having gotten the power and Arms into their hands they committed divers horrid outrages insomuch as Luther exhorted all men that they would come to destroy them as wicked Theeves and parricides in like case as they would come to quench a common fire having most shamefully broken their faith to their Princes taken other mens goods by force and cloak all this abomination and wickedness with the cover of Christianity which saith he is the vilest and unworthiest thing that can be imagined In Suevia and Franconia about forty thousand Pesants took Arms rob'd a great part of the Nobility plunder'd many Towns and Castles Muncer being their chief Captain so that the Princes of the Empire Albert Count of Mansfeild Iohn Duke of Saxony and his Cousen George Philip the Lantgrave of Hesse and Henry Duke of Brunswick were necessitated to raise what power they could and having offered them pardon upon submission and delivering up their principal Leaders which was refused marcht against them But Muncer preparing for Battel encouraged his followers crying out to them to take their weapons and fight stoutly against their Enemies singing * a Song whereby they call'd for help of the Holy Ghost The success of which Battel was that the Rebels at the first onset were soon put in disorder and above five thousand slain on the place and that Muncer fled and hid himself but being found and brought to the Princes was with his fellow Phifer beheaded at Mulhuse And about the year 1535 Iohn of Leyden a Taylor by trade and of this Tribe preaching the Doctrine of Rebaptization so much infected the inferior sort of people by the means of private Conventicles that his followers grew numerous and exercised violence against those that were not of their Sect. At last robbing their adversaries and gathering together in great Troops they possest themselves of the strongest part of the City of Munster declaring that all such as were not rebaptized ought to be accounted Pagans and Infidels and to be killed His Companions were Rosman and Cnipperdoling who gathered together to that City great numbers of the base sort of people and seeing their strength chose new Senators of their own Sect making Cnipperdoling the chief who taught that the People might put down their Magistrate And albeit that the Apostles had no commandment to usurp any jurisdiction yet such as were their Ministers of the Church ought to take upon them the right of the Sword and by force to establish a new Common-wealth Hereupon they spoil'd the Suburbs and burnt the Churches so that the Bishop of Munster who was Lord of the City and forced out beseiged them the neighbour Princes giving assistance which seige continuing long the famine grew to be such as that the beseiged miserably perished in great numbers and at length the beseigers forcing their entrance by assault slew many took the Ring-leaders and having put them to death hang'd their Bodies in several Cages of Iron on the highest Towers of that City Thus far Sleidan It is not unworthy observation that divers of these German Phanatiques to the end they might at that time be the better known to those of their own Sect did cut their hair round as Petrus Crinitus an Author of good credit in his Book de Bello Rusticano Tom. 3. pag. 209. averreth From which example there is no doubt but that these of ours took their pattern whence they were generally called Roundheads Concerning these men the testimony likewise of Mr. Iohn Calvin may I presume be here not unfitly produced as well for other respects as for that he lived in that time Olim Fanatici homines saith he ut sibi applauderent in sua inscitia jactabant Davidis exemplo spernandas esse omnes literas sicut hodie Anabaptistae non alio praetextu se pro spiritualibus venditant nisi quod omnis scientiae sint expertes Brainsick men in times past would take example from David to despise all learning as now our Anabaptists who only hold themselves inspired with gifts because they are ignorant of all literature And he addeth Cum sub specie studii perfectionis imperfectionem nullam tolerare possumus aut in corpore aut in membris Ecclesiae tunc Diabolum nos tumescere superbia hypocrist seducere moneamur Whereas under the colour of a desire of perfection we can tolerate no imperfection either in the body or the members of the Church then may we be admonished that it is the Devil which pusseth us up with pride and seduceth us with hypocrisy And in another place he further saith Quia nulla specie illustriori seduci possunt miseri Christiani c. Because silly Christians who with a zeal to follow God cannot by any more notable shew be seduced then when the word of God is pretended the Anabaptists against whom we write have that evermore in their mouths and always talk of it There is an undoubted Tradition that upon the suppressing of this pernicious Sect in Germany many of them fled into the Netherlands and that thence â—â—70 Ships laden with some got into Scotland where they first propagated their mischievous Principles Which within a short time spreading hither have not a little endangered the utter ruine of Church and State For that they soon after arrived here to a considerable increase it may very well be concluded from what the same person hath expressed in an Epistle of his written to Edward Duke of Somerset then Protector to King Edward the sixth in these words Amplissime domine Audio esse duo seditiosorum genera c. Sir I hear there are two sorts of seditious men among you who lift up the head against the King and state of the Kingdom the one are a sort of Giddy-headed men who promote their sedition under the name of the Gospel The other are so hardned in the superstitions of Antichrist that they cannot endure a revulsion of them and both these must be restrained by the revenging Sword which the Lord hath put into your hand since they rise up not only against the King but against God himself who hath placed the King in his Royal Throne and made you Protector of his person and his Royal Majesty CHAP. II. ANd as this evil Generation became at that time first transplanted hither upon the dissipating of those German Sectaries so had it shortly afterwards much furtherance in its growth from some persons of more able parts and of no mean quality who having embraced the Reformation here in the time of King Edward the sixth to avoid the storm in Queen Mary's Reign fled beyond Sea where
civil Government I now descend to those their Arts and Devices whereof by the help and influence of a most subtile corrupt and schismatical party in Parliament they made use in order to the raising this late nefarious Rebellion the consequence whereof viz. the extirpating of Monarchy here was in their design long before however it may be thought by some that Necessity and Despair put them upon that blod Exigent after they had gone farther than they thought they could by any outward reconciliation or pardon be safe for if need were sufficient and undoubted testimony might yet be produced who did hear a principal Actor in this late woful Tragedy about a twelve-month after the barbarous murther of King Charles the First express these words I bless God that I have now lived to see the ruine of Monarchy and that I haue been instrumental in it for I do here acknowledge that it hath been in my design ever since I was at Geneva which is now thirty eight years Of these the first and indeed most fatal Artifices was the reducing his Majesty to Necessities to the end he might be inforc'd to betake himself unto such extraordinary means for supply as would certainly attract the odium of his Subjects For accomplishing whereof that war wherein King Iames became engaged on the behalf of his daughter and her children for recovery of the Palatinate gave them a seasonable opportunity the Story whereof I shall briefly here set down Upon the death of the Emperour Matthias 8. Aug. An. 1619. 17 Iac. Ferdinand his Brother adopted by Matthias in his life time was elected Emperour and crowned 19 Septemb. following Which Election the Bohemians disclaiming they chose for their King Frederick Count Palatine of the Rhine Who thereupon by his Letters to King Iames whose daughter he had marryed acquaints him therewith craving his advice as to his reception thereof Howbeit before King Iames his answer could come to his hand which was utterly dissuasory he had accepted their choice Whereof King Iames hearing in no little perplexity disavow'd the act and would never stile him by that Title That this unhappy business prov'd most destructive to the Count Palatine will immediately appear For the Emperor Ferdinand became so highly irritated thereat that he soon after publish'd a Proscription against him proclaim'd him guilty of High Treason and declared his resolution to prosecute him as a public Enemy of the Empire and accordingly sent Marquess Spinola with numerous Forces to invade the Palatinate as also Buquoy and D. Balthasar into Bohemia who with a powerful Army gave him Battail near to the City of Prague upon the eighth of November An. 1620 utterly routed the Bohemians and forc'd that new King with his Queen to flee the Country The Report whereof arriving soon after in England caused King Iames to advise with the Lords of his Council upon the 13 th of Ianuary following for recovery and protection of the Palatinate it being the antient Inheritance of his Son in Law and his Children Whereupon thirty thousand Pounds was forthwith sent to the Princes of the Union for their assistance therein and in order to farther help a Parliament call'd to sit at Westminster upon the 30 th of the same month of Ianuary At which Convention the King acquainting the two Houses with what had happened farther represented unto them that he had already treated a Peace in this business but Perswasions without power being as he said of little effect he told them that he thought it fit to provide an Army against the Summer following and desired them therefore to think upon his Necessities Which Parliament having sate about four months and done little in this matter the King considering of a Recess for a time in regard of the season that might cause Infection represented to them by the Lord Treasurer his purpose to adjourn them Whereat the Commons growing displeased they desired the Lords to joyn with them in petitioning against it the King therefore taking much exception thereupon judging it derogatory to his Prerogative it being in his sole power to call and adjourn and dissolve Parliaments they thereupon for satisfaction of his Majesty publish'd a Declaration wherein they signified unto him that in case his endeavours by a Treaty could not effect the restitution of the Palatinate upon signification of his pleasure in Parliament they should be ready to the utmost of their powers both with their lives and fortunes to assist him so as by the Divine help of Almighty God he might be able to do that with his Sword which by a peaceable course could not be effected After this the Parliament was adjourn'd from the fourth of Iune until the twentieth of November at which time of meeting again the King being absent for lack of health the Lord Keeper told them that unless they took farther resolutions and were expeditious the Army in the Palatinate would fall to the ground The Lord Treasurer also acquainting them how empty the King's Coffers were and that his Majesty had assisted the Palatine and Princes of the Union with great Sums which had so exhausted his Treasure that he was much in debt Also that notwithstanding the King had declared for War he pursued Peace and resolv'd therefore to close with Spain hoping by that Alliance to heal the breach Which Speech of the Lord Treasurer tending to Peace so startled the House of Commons wherein the Puritan was predominant that they soon after drew up a Remonstrance to his Majesty wherein representing Religion to be in danger by the growth of Popery they incited him to take his Sword into his Hand for the aid of those of our Religion in forreign parts and that the bent of this War might be against that Prince whose Armies and Treasures had maintained the War in the Palatinate Signifying that they had given him one Subsidy for the present Relief of the Palatinate But in this Remonstrance there being also divers things which the King esteem'd to tend unto his high dishonour and to trench upon his Prerogative-royal he forbad them farther to entermeddle concerning his Government and deep affairs of State and particularly with the match of his Son with a Daughter of Spain Certain it is that the Parliament made little hast in the offering of that for which they were chiefly called together viz. the giving to the King considerable aid for relief of the Palatinate in so much as the Lord Digby then took occasion to put the Peers in mind thereof and that it was to that end they were summon'd thither reporting the present distress of that Country and danger thereto by the Duke of Bavaria as also that the Army of Count Mansfeild which came in for defence thereof if not speedily supplyed was like to desert that service But instead of hasting such Relief Christmass approching and the King upon the
nineteenth of December giving a Commission for their Adjournment till the eighth of February following the house of Commons made a Protestation wherein they declared for sundry Priviledges of which his Majesty in a Speech at the Council-Table upon the thirtieth of that month took notice that it was unduly gained late at night when not a third part of the House was present and penned in such ambiguous and general words as might serve for future times to invade most of the Rights and Prerogatives annexed to the Imperial Crown And discerning that some Parliament men who had a great influence upon the House rather hinder'd that good progress which he expected they would have made towards the recovery of the Palatinate then further'd the giving of money in order thereto did by unanimous consent of his whole Council dissolve that Parliament by Proclamation upon the sixth of Ianuary following And seeing his hopes of raising moneys by Parliament to be thus frustrate they first endeavoured the restitution of the Palatinate by all good means of Treaty both with the Emperour and King of Spain Which not succeeding he caused Letters to be written by the Lords of the Council to the Justices of the Courts at Westminster and likewise to the Sheriffs of the several Counties and Justices of Peace throughout England as also to the Mayors and Bayliffs of Towns-Corporate to raise moneys by a Benevolent contribution for recovery thereof by force yet still pursued the Spanish match in hope to gain it thereby But after many subtile delays made by the Spaniard that match being not like to take effect His Majesty sent the Lord Kensington into France to try whether a match might there speed which was well accepted Whereupon the King call'd another Parliament which began 19 Febr. 1623. At which time he acquainted them with the ill success of that dilatory Treaty in order to the match with Spain and desired their advice on the behalf of his Son the Count-Palatine and his Children In answer to which they signified that the said Treaty both for the Marriage and the Palatinate could not longer be continued with the honour of his Majesty the safety of his People welfare of his Children and Posterity and assurance of his antient Allies and Confederates Whereunto the King replyed that he should be loath without necessity to imbroil himself in war And manifesting to them his wants for the support of a war desired their advice offering that in case he took a resolution by such their advice to enter into a war they themselves by their own Deputies should have the disposal of the moneys Hereupon the Parliament tendred three Subsidies and three Fifteens to break off both the Treaties viz. that of the match with Spain and that concerning the Palatinate desiring his Majesty that he would be confidently assured they would never fail in a Parliamentary-way to assist him in so royal a design But the King esteeming that too little demanded five Subsidies and two Fifteeens for every Subsidy towards the support of that war and one Subsidy and two Fifteens yearly till his debts were pay'd Nevertheless told them that he would be content to quit that demand for his own debts in case they gave six Subsidies and twelve Fifteens for the war declaring his resolution to dissolve the Treaties whereupon Bonefires were made in London and the Bells rang for joy And farther told them that he did assure himself they would make good what they had said and that what they had advised him unto they would assist him in with their Wisdom and Council as also with Forces if need required Shortly after which Count Mansfeild arriving in England twelve thousand Foot with two hundred Horse were raised to go under his Command for recovery of the Palatinate and in August following the match with France was concluded But this hopeful Army under Count Mansfeild consisting of twelve Regiments was by tedious stay on Ship-board so infected with the Pestilence that scarce a third part thereof came safe to Land a third part likewise mouldring away so that the design came to nothing And upon the seven and twentieth of March following King Iames departed this life Unto whom King Charles the first succeeded who resolving to pursue the recovery of the Palatinate upon the grounds of those great promises so made by the Parliament to his Father did in the beginning of May next ensuing issue out Warrants for the levying of Souldiers to be imploy'd in that Expedition whereof eight thousand to rendezvouz at Plymouth one thousand at Hull to be transported into the Netherlands for the service of the United Provinces and two thousand returned thence for his Majesties present service And having marryed a Daughter of France who arrived at London upon the sixteenth of Iune he began his Parliament at Westminster within two days following Where in his Speech to both Houses he put them in mind how they had engaged his Father in the war for the Palatinate earnestly pressing their speedy assistance And the Lord Keeper added that the principal cause of calling that Parliament besides the beholding his Subjects faces was to mind them of the great Engagement for the recovery of the Palatinate imposed on his Majesty by the King his Father and by themselves who thereupon brake off the two Treaties with Spain as also to let them understand that the Subsidies granted by the preceding Parliament with much more of the King 's own Revenue were already spent in the following Treaties and Alliances upon the Armies sent into the Low-Countries and in repairing of the Forts with the Fortifying of Ireland all which did meet in one center the Palatinate whereof the Account was ready Hereupon the Houses presenting the King with two Subsidies the Lord Conway then one of the Secretaries of State signified his Majesties gracious acceptance thereof yet told them that the necessity of the present affairs were not therein satisfied and therefore required their farther Councils Reminding them that the late King was provoked beyond his nature to undertake a war for recovery of his Childrens antient Patrimony the charges whereof did appear by computation to amount unto seven hundred thousand Pounds a year viz. in supporting the Netherlands in preventing the Emperour's design of concluding with the Princes of Germany for utter excluding the Palsgrave and levying an Army under Count Mansfeild Farther representing to them that the Kings of Denmark and Sweden and Princes of Germany had levyed another That France Savoy and Venice joyn'd together for a war of diversion and that to uphold the Netherlands the charges of Mansfeild's and Denmark's Army must yet continue But the Plague increasing sore in London occasion'd some delay in their Proceedings by an Adjournment to Oxford at which place they met the first of August following Where on the fourth of that month his Majesty in a
speech to both Houses did again put them in mind of their engaging his Father in that war for recovery of the Palatinate upon promise of their assistance in a Parliamentary-way and that they themselves then appointed a Council of war and Treasurers He also acquainted them with the expence of the three Subsidies and three Fifteens then given And further expressed that he had thus reassembled them upon the death of his royal Father to receive their farther advice and aid for proceeding in that wherein by their Councils his Father was engaged as also that they had granted unto him two Subsidies then ungathered which were far short of setting forth the Navy at that time preparing And the Lord Conway and Secretary Cook did then more particularly declare unto the House of Commons the state of Affairs as they at that time stood manifesting that much more then the two Subsidies already given though not paid had been disbursed Moreover that the Fleet was then at Sea hastening to their Rendezvouz the Army at Plymouth expecting their Commanders his Majesties Honour Religion and the Kingdoms safety engaged That the King had certain advice of his Enemies intentions to infest his dominions in Ireland and the English Coasts and of their increase of Shipping in all parts as also that the present charge of his Army and Navy did amount to above four hundred thousand Pounds The Lord Treasurer likewise representing to them the late Kings debts Viz. To the City of London 120000l besides Interest For Denmark and the Palatinate 150000l For his Wardrobe 40000 l. All which did then lye upon his Majesty And that his then Majesty was indebted to the City of London 20000l That he had laid out upon his Navy 20000 l. For Count Mansfeild 20000l For Mourning and his Father's Funeral Expences 42000 l. For Expences concerning the Queen 40000 l. And that the pay of the Navy during the time intended for that present Expedition with the setting forth thereof would amount to 300000 l. But the Commons instead of that calm and temperate Consideration of the present Exigencies which his Majesty expected fell into very high debates and alledg'd that the Treasure was misimploy'd that evil Councils guided the King's designs that his Necessities grew by improvidence that they had need to petition the King for a straight hand and better Council to manage his affairs and that though a former Parliament did engage the King in a war yet if things were managed by contrary designs and the Treasure misimploy'd that Parliament was not bound by another Parliament to be carried blindfold in designs not guided by second Councils Adding that it was not usual to grant Subsidies upon Subsidies in one Parliament and no grievance redressed Notwithstanding which objections it was earnestly pressed by some Members of the House that two Subsidies and two Fifteens might be given his Majesties Honour and the Necessity of Affairs requiring it as it then appeared out of Considerations which had been frequently represented But these motives little avail'd for instead of hearkening thereto the Commons then publish'd a plausible Declaration wherein they solemnly protested and vowed before God and the world with one Heart and Voice that they were all resolv'd and did thereby declare that they would ever continue most loyal and obedient Subjects to their most gracious Sovereign Lord King Charles and that they would be ready in convenient time and in a Parliamentary-way freely and dutifully to do their utmost endeavours to discover and reform the Abuses and Grievances of the Realm and State and in like sort to afford all necessary Supply to his most excellent Majesty upon his present and all other his just Occasions and Designs The King therefore plainly perceiving that the House did not incline to any Supply and that in their debates they reflected upon some great persons near unto him dissolved that Parliament upon the twelfth of August Which done he resolved that the Fleet should speedily put to Sea and entred forthwith into a League with the United Provinces against the Emperour and King of Spain for restoring of the Liberties of Germany But being in great and present Want of moneys he issued out Letters under his Privy-Seal for borrowing to supply those Necessities and summon'd another Parliament to meet upon the sixth of February ensuing which was four days after his solemn Coronation Soon after the sitting of which Parliament the Earl of Pembroke at a Conference of both Houses represented how the affairs of Christendome stood before the breach of the Treaties with Spain and how at that present as also the condition of the Palatinate and likewise the King of Denmark's engagement in the quarrel with the forwardness of the Swedes and contract with the Hollander and that the Fruits of all these would be lost unless a speedy Supply were resolved on But notwithstanding all this the Commons still delay'd the giving of any Supply which occasion'd the King by a Letter to the Speaker to press them again thereunto and to remind them of their promises withall assuring them that he would willingly apply fit and seasonable remedies to such just Grievances as they should present unto him in a dutiful and mannerly way without throwing an ill odour upon the present Government or upon the Government of his Father Unto which Letter they made a specious general answer intimateing that they really intended him Supply and accordingly voted three Subsidies and three Fifteens but gave them not Not long after this His Majesty by the mouth of the Lord Keeper took notice to the House of Commons of a seditious expression made by Mr. Clement Coke one of their members as also of Dr. Turner's unparliamentary carriage in reference to the Duke of Buckingham likewise of suffering his Council of State to be censured and traduced in their House by persons whose Years and Education could not judge of things that forreign business had been entertain'd in the House to the hindrance and disadvantage of his Majesties Negotiations yea that upon the first day of his Inauguration they suffered his Council Governours and Servants to be parallel'd with the times of most Exception that their Committees had also presumed to examine the Letters of his Secretaries of State nay his Majesties own Letters and sent a general Warrant to his Signet Office commanding his Officers there not only to produce and shew the Records but their Books and private Notes which they made for his Majesties service Next he told them that they had been made acquainted with the greatness of his Majesties affairs both at home and abroad with the strong preparations of the Enemy with the Importance of upholding his Allies strengthening and securing both England and Ireland besides the encountring and annoying the Enemy by a powerful Fleet at Sea and the charge of all And that this being calculated unto them they had professed unto his Majesty by the
and three Fifteens which were by the late Parliament resolv'd on to have been given to the King setting forth a Declaration to manifest the reasons of his requiring that Loan Soon after which he sent away six thousand Foot-Soldiers under the command of Sir Charles Morgan and others for the service of the Vnited Provinces Moreover to heighten and increase these his wants about this time a most unlucky occasion hapned which in short was this that the French Priests and Domestics of that Nation which came into England with the Queen were grown so insolent and had put so many affronts upon the King that as the French King had sent back all the Spanish Courtiers which his Queen brought with her his Majesty was forc'd to send them home But that King not looking on this Example and knowing upon what ill terms our King stood both at home and abroad first seized on all the Merchants Ships which lay in the River of Bourdeaux and then brake out into open war so that the King was constrain'd to make use of those Forces against the French which were design'd to have been used against the Spaniard and to comply with the desire of the Rochellers who humbly sued for his protection and defence but the Fleet set forth for that purpose being encountred with great Tempests was forc'd to return without doing any thing farther then shewing his Majesties good will and readiness to assist them CHAP. IV. BUT the next year the King having made new Preparations for a war with France to manifest what ground he had for it declared that the House of Austria conspiring the ruin of all those of the Reform'd Religion through Christendom as he said plainly appear'd in the wars of Germany had such an influence upon the Councel of France as to prevail with the French to obstruct the landing of Count Mansfield's Army contrary to promise with whom they should have join'd Forces for the relief of the Palatinate and the German Princes the failure wherein proved the ruin of that Army the greatest part whereof perished Furthermore that having by his mediation prevail'd for a Peace between the French King and his Protestant Subjects and engaged his Word that the Protestants should observe the Articles of Agreement nevertheless the King of France contrary to those Articles block'd up their Towns Garrisons and Forts committing many spoils upon them though they had done nothing in violation of the Edict of Peace Whereupon the Duke of Buckingham in order to the relief of the Palatinate being made Admiral and Commander in Chief of the Land-Forces on the 27th of Iune set out from Portsmouth the Fleet consisting of an hundred Sail whereof ten were of the King 's Royal Navy having aboard six or seven thousand Land-Soldiers and towards the later end of Iuly appear'd before Rochel Where attempting to gain the Isle of Rhee which lay before that Town and imbarr'd their Trade his unskilful conduct therein was such that he was forc'd to a retreat with the loss of many valiant men and not a little of his Honour the more full relation of which ill success I refer to our Historians This Expedition proving thus unhappy his Majesties necessitous condition forc'd him to pawn much of his Lands to the City of London for an hundred and twenty thousand pounds which he then borrowed and also to borrow thirty thousand pounds more of the East-India Company But all this being not sufficient to support the charge of the Fleet notwithstanding these former great discouragements still hoping by a Parliament to obtain some reasonable Supply in these his pressing Necessities he call'd another Parliament to begin on the seventeenth of March next following At the meeting whereof he told them None there but knew that common danger was the cause of that Parliament and Supply at that time the Chief end thereof Likewise that if to maintain their own advices and as the case then stood for the following thereof the true Religion Laws and Liberties of this State and the just defence of its true Friends and Allies were not sufficient then no Eloquence of men and Angels could prevail the particular dangers being laid open by the Lord Keeper Hereupon after some time spent in debate of these things five Subsidies were voted and the Petition of Right assented to by his Majesty After which the Parliament was first prorogued from the 26th of Iune till the 20th of October And then by Proclamation till the 20th of Ianuary At which meeting the Clergy also gave the King as many Subsidies In the interim of which Prorogation the Duke of Buckingham who had formerly been the Darling of that Parliament which made use of him to King Iames for breaking the match with Spain being now grown odious and in this Parliament represented to be the chief cause of all their Grievances not only by reason of the losses at the Isle of Rhee but for many other respects as in the Annals of that time may at large be seen hoping as well to regain the honour he lost in the last year's attempt in that Isle as a better opinion of the People design'd another Expedition to Rochel In order whereunto being Commander of the Royal Fleet ready to set sail from Portsmouth he was there desperately murther'd by one Iohn Felton a discontented Officer of the last years Army upon the 23d of August who gave no other reason for that his barbarous and bloody Act then that the Duke had been declared an Enemy to the Commonwealth in a Remonstrance tendred to the King by the House of Commons in the former Session But I proceed notwithstanding this fair shew of an hopeful accordance there were not a few turbulent-spirited men both in the Parliament and elsewhere who sought all advantages for breaking thereof divers Merchants refusing to pay Tonnage and Poundage in regard it had not been granted to the King by a special Act since the death of his Royal Father King Iames. Whereupon his Majesty first sent for those Merchants to the Council-Table and after by a Speech to both Houses told them he expected they should pass the Bill for it But instead of complying therein the Commons publisht a Declaration concerning Religion alledging that they must prefer it before all other business Whereupon the King whose urgent Necessities for want of the Supply expected pressed hard upon them issuing out a special Commission for taking of Tonnage and Poundage Against which the Commons not only protested but some of their Members behaved themselves therein so disobediently and seditiously to the contempt of his Regal authority that fearing they should be dissolved before they had vented their own passions in that particular they lockt the doors of the House of Commons kept the Key and held the Speaker by strong hand in his Chair till they had thunder'd out their Anathema's not
of England having not only been invaded by the Dutch but their bold usupation therein openly justifyed by certain public Writings the King with the advice of his Council-learned did about the same time issue out certain Writs directed as well to all the Inland Counties as to the respective Port-Towns according to the example of his Royal Progenitors to set out a certain number of Ships furnish'd with Mariners Amunition Victual and all other necessaries for defence of the Realm By which means he did not only assert and recover that dominion on the Sea which really belong'd to this Kingdom but much improved Trade and Commerce whereby the generality of his Subjects were not a little enrich'd But this just and rational practise some of the malevolent Members of his former Parliaments and others of that stamp under pretence of standing up for the Rights and Properties of the Subjects did stubbornly oppose though his Majesty had the clear and unanimous opinion of all the grave and learned Judges of his Courts in Westminster-Hall under their hands to justify those his Proceedings Nevertheless waving any arbitrary power he freely gave leave that the Case should be solemnly debated in the Exchequer-Chamber Which being publikly done after divers solid Arguments thereon no less then ten of those twelve Judges fully declared their opinion for the Legality thereof Sr. George Crook and Sr. Richard Hulton only dissenting though they had formerly subscribed thereto This as to the Civil Liberties and what as hath been before observed of the great noise made every where touching the fear of Popery was it whereof not only the factious people here took great advantage but those of that leven in Scotland who thereupon began to set on foot a contrivance whereby they might have the colour of Religion* to help on their work Whereunto the rise they took was a pretended apprehension that the Liturgy sent to them in an 1637 was a meer Popish Service-book and purposely design'd to introduce the Romish worship into both Kingdoms From the ground of which seeming jealousies they fell foul upon the Bishops under colour that they were the framers thereof and the chief Instruments for obtruding it upon them To clear them therefore of this most impious scandal I shall here breifly represent to the world what that so much defam'd Liturgy was and on what occasion it was sent into that Realm King Iames after he came to enjoy the Crown of England well observing the Decency and Uniformity of God's worship here and the Deformity thereof in his own native Kingdom where no set or public form of Prayer was used but oftimes seditious expressions girding at Sovereignty and Authority and stuft with false Reports upon his Progress into Scotland an 1616 an Assembly being then held at Aberdene he proposed to that Convention a public Liturgy to be used in that Realm Which pious motion being then and there well approved of a Liturgy was accordingly framed and in all points properly fitted for that Kirk and after his return into England convey'd to him where it was viewed by some of his Scottish Subjects yet not sent thither whilst that King lived Being thus composed his Son and Successor K. Charles after a review thereof finding it in substance the same with the English Liturgy which his Majesty in point of prudence declin'd to recommend unto them lest they might cavil thereat under colour that it would be look'd upon as a badge of Dependency upon the Church of England then sent it to the Lords of the Privy-Council of that Realm by their advice to be publicly read without the least suspition of any dislike thereof in regard it did so little differ from the English Liturgy wherewith his Scottish Subjects of all sorts were well acquainted by reason of their frequent resort to his Majesties own Chappel and many other Churches in this Realm where it was constantly used as also in his Royal Chappel at Haly-Rood-House whereunto the Nobility Bishops Judges Gentry and people of all degrees did usually come Cathedrals of Scotland and University of St. Andrews and not only so but commended in the Sermons of some of their after principal Covenanters especially Mr. Rollock But Rebellion being the close and underhand design of these great Pretenders to Godliness whereby in case they did prosper they might swallow up the Possessions of the Crown and Church with the Estates of all his Majesties loyal Subjects the contrivance was so laid that the Common people should be possess'd with an opinion that the King having married a Popish Queen did resolve to introduce the Romish Religion first into Scotland and afterwards into the rest of his dominions and to that end first to settle this Liturgy there it being privately whispered that it was the very Mass translated into their Language Which so far incensed the vulgar that upon the reading thereof in the great Church at Edenborough upon the 23 d of Iuly the same year 1637 they made such a tumult as that the Dean who read it and many other persons of note had much adoe to escape thence with their lives Which uproar was so barbarous that the day following the Lords of the Council there set forth a Proclamation* in dislike thereof And the Magistrates of Edenborough to make up the Pageant sent Letters into England to the Archbishop of Canterbury desiring him to recommend to the King's Majesty their zeal and forwardness for setling the peaceable practise thereof Neither would any man of note then seem to own that Tumult but attributed it to the Rogues and base multitude except the zealous Kirkmen who cryed it up in their Pulpits and magnifyed them for the most heroical Sparks that ever God inspired and raised up in this last age of the world and for their happy Mouths and Hands which God was pleas'd to honour that day with the beginning of their new Blessed Reformation and occasioning their celestial Covenant as they call'd it that their memorial should be eternal and all succeeding generations should call them blessed After this about the end of Harvest began a tumultuous conflux of the Nobility Gentry Ministers and others at Edenborough from all parts of the Kingdom howbeit as yet the principal persons in authority there seemed to stand right enough in their loyalty so that his Majesty the less feared the ensuing mischeifs the more to prevent any suspition thereof set forth three Proclamations First that nothing should be treated of at the Council-Table there about Church-business till they saw the times and meeting of his Majesties Subjects more quiet and peaceable The Second for removing the Session or Term from Edenborough to Lithgow for fear of present danger The third for burning a seditious Book dispersed in derogation of the Ecclesiastical Government in England But these Proclamations were for little else then shew the Tumults increasing so that the next day
the Bishop of Galoway and the Lord chief Justice of that Kingdom were assaulted by the multitude and the Lords beset in the Council-house the people in their clamorous noises crying God defend all those who will defend God's cause and God confound the Service-book and all the maintainers thereof And so great were their outrages that they pull'd down the Lord Treasurer took his Hat Cloak and White-Staff from him and set upon the Provost as he was entring his own House These with the like were the beginnings to their intended glorious work of Reformation as they call'd it which they 〈◊〉 God even to a miracle had so graciously prospered in their Hands In which last Tumults none were more forward than two of those who were lately Bayliffs of Edenborough and had subscribed the before-mention'd Letters to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury Subsequent to which Tumults two Petitions were presented to the Lord Chancellour and Council against the Service-book the first in the name of all the Men Women Children and Servants of Edenborough the second by the Noblemen Gentlemen Ministers and Burgesses suggestions being made to the people of the King's inclination to Popery Of which stirs in Scotland the King having advertisement he sent over the Earl of Roxborough Lord Privy-Seal into that Kingdom Whereupon a Proclamation was set forth there by his Majesties appointment for dispersing of the dangerous multitudes got together at Sterlyn But against this Proclamation the Earl of Hume and Lord Lindsey with many others of all ranks made a Protestation which Protestation they published at Lithgow and afterwards at Edenborough forcing the Heraulds that proclaim'd the same to stay and hear the Protestation against it So that 't is observable that the first Tumult was by the name of Rascals and Scum of the people The second by the best sort of Citizens and the third by the Nobility Gentry and Magistrates After which Protestation they erected public Tables of Advice and Council for ordering the affairs of that Kingdom in contempt of his Majesties authority entring into a formal Combination which they call'd a Covenant against all that should oppose them Which Covenant Mr. Andrew Cant in his Sermon at Galsgow told the people he was sent to them with by a Commission from Christ to bid them Subscribe it being Christ's contract and that he himself came as a wooer to them for the Bridegroom and call'd upon them to come to be hand-fasted by subscribing that contract Adding that he would not depart the Town till he got all the names of those who should refuse to subscribe that Contract of whom he promised to complain to his Master The King therefore hearing of the increase of those troubles sent over the Marquess of Hamilton with Commission for composure of them Who on the sixth of Iune following arrived at Dalkeith where the Lords of his Majesties Council of that Kingdom were then assembled for safety as 't was pretended in regard of the combustions at Edenborough which daily increased But the cheif of the Covenanters grew daily more violent in their courses increased the meetings of their Tables subdivided them into several Committees augmented their Provisions of Armes and infusing fears and jealousies into the people by seditious Sermons caused Edenborough-Castle to be girt with strong Guards hindred all persons to go to the Marquess to treat or speak with him in the business for which he was sent giving out that there was a Plot to blow them up with Gunpowder if they should go to Dalkeith and received in two Ships-lading with Armes and Amunition at that time Whereupon at the request of the Citizens of Edenborough the Marquess took his journey from Dalkeith to Haly-Rood-House But before he got thither the Covenanters meeting him on the way with multitudes that made great Exclamations against Popery and Bishops required a General Assembly of the Church and then a Parliament justifying their Covenant as being more available and usefull to them as they said than all the Laws and Acts of Parliament which had been enacted in that Kingdom since the time of Fergus the first King thereof The Peoples fury also growing more hot than ever new Guards were clap'd upon the Castle of Edenborough the Pulpits rung of Libellous Sermons and Prayers yea so insolent they were that they sent a Prohibition against reading the English-Service in the King 's peculiar Chappel where the Marquess his Majesties Commissioner and the Council were to be Which Tumults as 't was said occasioning the Marquess to go back to Dalkeith the Covenanters sent Letters to every one of his Majesties Council requiring their Subscription to the Covenant And understanding that the Marquess did resolve to publish a Declaration of his Majesties forwardness to maintain the Religion professed in that Kingdom and his aversness to Popery disswaded him as he tendred the King's honour his own safety and peace of the Publick from doing it But not withstanding these arguments the Marquess did cause his Majesties Proclamation to be publish'd by Heraulds at the Market-Cross in Edenborough declaring his resolution to maintain the true Protestant-Christian-Religion And for farther clearing of scruples assured them that he would neither then nor thenceforth press the practise of the Canons and Service-Book otherwise than in such a fair and legal way as should satisfy his loving Subjects that he neither intended Innovation in Religion or Laws warning all his good people to beware of disobedience But all this no whit sufficed them for in open affront thereto they caused multitudes of people to fill the streets especially near the Cross in an hostile equipage with Pistols and Swords out of their Belts giving out that if this Proclamation were hearkned unto it would bring undoubted ruine to their Religion Laws and Liberties and upon a Scaffold erected for that purpose they mounted with a Rebellious Protestation in defence of their Covenant which they published openly concluding that if his Majesty would not allow their proceedings they themselves would call a General Assembly justifying all their doings to be most necessary and an orderly means agreeable to the Laws and practise of that Church and Kingdom Whereupon the Marquess returning into England to acquaint the King with what had passed resolving to be back again before the Fifth of August with new instructions they in his absence inform'd the People that he was well satisfied with their Covenant Against which calumny upon his return he publish'd a Manifesto in Print And having direction from his Majesty to indict an Assembly sent to divers of the principal Covenanters concerning some Propositions to be resolv'd upon before the meeting thereof But this Message was receiv'd with so much choler and contempt that they blazed it abroad for a proposition tending to the utter ruine of the Laws and Liberties of that Church and Kingdom Which much startling the Marquess he told them of his resolution to go
back into England and that he could not concur with them but that he had power to grant them a new Assembly which he could not conceive to be free if they should bring in every man to have a voice whom they had a mind to And accordingly went again into England Where having acquainted the King with what had hapned he returned Howbeit before he came back the Covenanters contrary to promise had elected Commissioners for the Assembly Upon which his Return he delivered to his Majesties Council at Haly-Rood-House Letters concerning the Confession of faith of the date at Edenborough Ian. 28. 1580 and signed by King Iames. But the Covenanters hereupon gave out to the people that the News brought by the Marquess did tend to the utter subversion of their Religion and Liberties also that there was a new Covenant to be set on foot by the King to destroy theirs and that if now they resisted not all was lost that they had already done Nevertheless the Marquess caused his Majesties Declaration and Confession of Faith ut supra to be publish'd at the Market-Cross in Edenborough and at the same time not only a Proclamation for indicting a General Assembly at Glasgow the one and twentieth of November ensuing but an Act of the Lords of the Council requiring all his Majesties Subjects to subscribe the said Confession of Faith and Band annexed Which Declaration contain'd a grant for redress of all the particular Grievances desired in their Supplications Remonstrances Protestations Declarations c. and besides all this their own Confession of Faith the ground as they pretended of their Covenant renewed and established But the principal Covenanters having possess'd the People with a prejudicate opinion of this gratious Declaration before they heard it as destructive to the Laws and Liberties of that Church and Kingdom erected a large Scaffold near the Cross where the same was to be published at which divers Earls Lords Gentlemen and others with their Swords in their Hands and Hats on their Heads stood jeering and laughing during the time of the same Declaration and it being ended with Insolent and Rebellious behaviour assisted one Archibald Iohnston in the publishing a most wicked and treasonable Protestation wherein they invoked God's holy name as a witness to many notorious falshoods attributing Infallibility to their Rebellious Covenant affirming that it was approved from Heaven with rare and undeniable instances And the next Sunday after all the Pulpits rang with bitter invectives and Declamations against his Majesties Declaration branding it with the depth and policy of Satan Nevertheless this Declaration and Confession of Faith so sent by his Majesty was very well received in all places except such whereunto the Covenanters from their Tables had prepared their Emissaries to disswade the acknowledgment of it witness the Letter sent to the Marquess dated 24 Sept. from the Provost Bayliffs and Council of Glasgow and the Ministers there And the Assembly at Glasgow being thus indicted they cunningly contrived that the Commissioners should be elected of the most rigidand fanatic spirits that were the Principal Covenanters perswading the People that the King intended no performance of what he promised in his last Proclamation no not the Assembly it self but to gain time until he were ready for their ruine sending likewise for all their party to flock to Edenborough as if then there had been greater danger than ever increasing also their Guards about the Castle their Preachers publishing in the Pulpits that whosoever subscribed his Majesties Confession and Covenant were perjur'd Villains Moreover they caused a most false odious and scandalous Libel to be drawn up against the Archbishops and Bishops and exhibiting it to the Presbytery of Edenborough procured it to be publicly read in the Pulpits Whereupon the Archbishops and Bishops were cited by the Presbytery of Edenborough to appear before the General Assembly to be holden at Glasgow 21 Nov. following And the more to infatuate the giddy-headed multitude they set up such another Impostor as the Holy Maid* of Kent in King Henry the Eighth's time was viz. one Michelson's daughter said to have been long distracted by Fits and then pretended to be inspired with Divination who was cryed up for raving against the Bishops in her mad Fits Rollock one of their fiercest Presbyters giving out that God spake through her her expressions being that it was revealed unto her from God that their Covenant was approved from Heaven And soon after this they indicted an Assembly by their own authority upon the one and twentieth of November following But upon knowledg that the Lord Marquess his Majesties Commissioner was resolv'd to hold the Assembly at the time and place appointed by the King's Proclamation they altered their purpose and sent out Papers for a General meeting at Edenborough upon the twelfth of November and to stay there till they were to go to Glasgow on Saturday the seventeenth of that month Which meeting according to the King's Proclamation being very great after his Majesties Commission read the Marquess exhorted them to a peaceable and moderate carriage giving some touch of the disorders that had passed Whereunto answer being made by a Nobleman a Lay Elder that they had given his Grace satisfaction for all their proceedings they went on to the choice of a Moderator without the approbation and consent of his Majesties Commissioner appointing for that purpose Mr. Alexander Henderson the most rigid Covenanter Against whom when the Marquess protested such was their heady and exorbitant carriage that by the hands of Doctor Hamilton they presented to the Marquess a a Declinator and Protestation against his proceedings in the name of the Bishops Nay so formidable they soon after grew as that the University of Aberdene having been threatned with the loss of their lives for writing against the Covenant durst not send any of their Professors to that Assembly And on the eight and twentieth of October a calumnious Libel against the Bishops was read in all the Churches of Edenborough one Gibson in the Assembly thundring out a verbal Protestation that they would pursue their Libel against the Bishops so long as they had lives and fortunes Which Assembly was form'd of Ministers Commissioners to it chosen by Lay Elders the Lay Elders themselves being likewise present in it 〈◊〉 course so much distasted by several parts of the Kinâ—â—â—â— that they thereupon made Protestations against 〈◊〉 proceedings divers of which were read at the instance of his Majesties Commissioner but the Lord Lowdon hindred the reading of that from Glasgow And as their Elections were wholy undue so were their Actions in the Assembly all being carried by faction and clancular contrivances as appeared by their own Private Papers of Instructions some whereof were discovered by the Marquess neither was any freedom of debate therein but what tended to the advancement of their evil
the Ecclesiastical and Civil Laws of his Kingdom of Scotland he did not only agree to the same but should always protect them to the utmost of his power they yielding him in the mean time such civil and temporal obedience as could be justly required of loyal Subjects Upon this Petition therefore Articles of Pacification were concluded on at Barwick whereby his Majesty was contented not only to confirm whatsoever his Commissioner had promised in his name but that all Ecclesiastical matters should be determined by the Assemblies of the Kirk Likewise matters Civil by the Parliament and other inferior Judicatories establish'd by Law Moreover that for setling the distractions of that Kingdom he was willing to grant a free general Assembly to be kept at Edenborough the sixth of August ensuing and after that a Parliament the twentieth of August for ratifying what should be concluded in the Assembly being graciously pleased to declare that upon disbanding of their Forces dissolving all their pretended Tables restoring his Forts Castles and Amunition c. To his good Subjects their Liberties Lands Goods c. detained since the late pretended general Assembly he would recall his Fleet retire his Land-forces and make restitution to them of their Ships and Goods arrested c. Which Agreement was entertained by them with so much outward acceptance that by the Subscriptions of the chiefest of them it was promised they would ever in all things carry themselves like humble loyal and obedient Subjects But instead of performance of their parts at the very publishing the Articles in their Camp a Protestation was made dishonourable to his Majesties Government to the further encouraging of the People in their disobedient and mutinous ways And at the same time they delivered into the hands of some of the English Nobility and spread among others a scandalous Paper intituled Some conditions of his Majesties Treaty with his Subjects of Scotland wherein were contained such untruths and seditious positions and so contrary to what was concluded in the Articles of Pacification that howsoever they pretended a desire of peace yet they intended nothing less and instead of disbanding their Forces within forty eight hours after publication of those Articles they kept great parts of them together and held in pay almost all their Officers continuing their unlawful meetings and conventicles to the great vexation and trouble of all such his Majesties good Subjects as did not adhere to their rebellious Covenant and Act of the pretended Assembly at Glasgow keeping up all their Fortifications Yea such was the fury of the People animated by that Protestation with divers scandalous Papers and seditious Sermons that they deterred his Majesties good Subjects from going to their dwellings threatning them with loss of their lives if they repaired to their own Houses labouring also to pervert them in the choice of the Commissioners for the general Assembly appointed by anticipating their voices in making them swear to and subscribe the approbation of the same Assembly at Glasgow and Acts thereof deterring others from repairing thereto So that by these new disorders the peace and quiet of his Subjects was greatly disturbed great Insolencies being offer'd to the Earl of Kinnowl his Majesties high Treasurer as also to Sir Iames Hamilton Justice-general and other his Majesties Councellors and good Subjects so that the King sorbore to come to Edenborough such of his Loyal Subjects as attended his Person and adhered to him being branded by them with the vile aspersion of Traitors to God and their Country and threatned to be proceeded against with censures accordingly And lastly shaking off all respect due to sacred Majesty protested that all members of the Colleges of Iustice and Leiges were not to attend the Session and that all Acts Decrees and Sentences therein past against any of them should be null void and ineffectual contrary to the King 's express Warrant for the down-sitting thereof and the heavy damage of his good Subjects who were thereby frustrated of Justice And having laid these insolent and seditious foundations for a Parliament it could not be expected but that the structure must be full of confusion as indeed it proved their Actions and demands favouring of nothing but undutifulness and disloyalty for they stuck not to deny to his Majesty the most essential and inherent Prerogatives of his Crown striving by all means to change and alter the constitutions of the Parliament and frame of Government Likewise to restrain his power in point of coinage custody of Castles grants of Honour and Commissions-Justiciary or Lieutenancy And his Majesty by his Commission having allow'd them the liberty of convening and meeting until a certain day for distributing of their pretended charges amongst such as should willingly condescend thereunto they did not only without Warrant continue their Conventicles and Tables since that Commission expired contrary to the positive Laws of that Kingdom the Act of Pacification and their own acknowledgment in petitioning for the aforesaid Commission but urged that all those his good Subjects who adhered to him in defence of his Royal authority against their rebellious commotions should be made equal if not more liable to the defraying of their pretended charges Which might imply his Majesties countenance and justification of all their Rebellions and Treasons The King therefore discerning their persistance in such unsufferable demands return'd to England signifying to the Earl of Traquier his Commissioner that it did evidently appear unto him that their aim was not now for Religion as they always pretended but rather the alteration of the Government of that Kingdom and withall the total overthrow of Royal authority commanding his said Commissioner to prorogate the parliament till the second of Iune next following Notwithstanding which Prorogation they continued their sitting at Edenborough and sent their Deputies over into this Kingdom to make Remonstrance of their doing without knowledg of his Commissioner Whereupon his Majesties Commissioner came over and acquainting him with those Insolencies also by his command relating them at his Council-board the King there proposed to the consideration of the Lords then present whether it were not more sit to reduce them to their duty by force than give way to their demands so much prejudicial to his Honour and safety Which being unanimously voted in the affirmative his Majesty resolved to call a Parliament soon after In which Interim the Scots lost no time but making fair pretences by their Remonstrance protested against this Act of Prorogation and declared that the same was contrary to the Constitutions and practise of all precedent Parliaments contrary to the liberties of that Kingdom and repugnant to the Articles of the late Pacification and that it was ineffectual and of no force to hinder their proceedings professing that it was never their intention to deny his Majesty any part of that civil and temporal obedience which is due
to all Kings from their Subjects and from them to their dread Soveraign after a more special manner but meerly to preserve their Religion and Liberties of the Kingdom and that whatsoever course they should take it should be no imputation to them being constrain'd thereto for best securing that Kirk and Kingdom from the Extremity of confusion and misery taking God and man to witness that they would be free of all outrages and Insolencies that should be committed in the mean time And then they began again to levy and raise Forces in several parts of the Realm in great numbers excercised train'd and assign'd them a Rendezvouz as also a day to be in readiness to march making Provisions of Artillery Amunition and Armes in great quantities from forreign parts laying Taxes and Impositions of ten marks in every hundred upon all the Subjects of that Kingdom according to their several Revenues for support of their Rebellion exacting the same with the greatest rigour that could be imagined spreading sundry Papers and Pamphlets scandalous to the King's proceedings block'd up the Castle of Edenborough and fortified divers places imprisoned the Earl of Southeske one of his Majesties Privy-Council there and sundry others of quality for not adhering to them in their Rebellious courses endeavouring to settle Intelligencers in parts beyond-Sea and practising to let in forreign power inclining rather to prostitute themselves to a forreign Government and different in Religion than yield obedience and conformity to his Majesty their natural Soveraign as appears by their Addresses and Letter to the French King By what hath been said it appearing that the first glimpse of this grand and destructive Rebellion shew'd it self at Edenborough upon the three and twentieth of Iuly an 1637 the scum of the people then taking fire at thâ— reading of that Service-book which was sent over by his late Majesty of blessed memory as a proper Liturgy for the Church of Scotland and most nearly suting with this of England Forasmuch therefore as from those Sparks the ensuing flames arose which from and after that time continued burning for the space of many years until they had overspread and much wasted the cheif parts of this great Isle to make the Bishops of both Kingdoms odious there are not a few who either out of malice to their sacred function or ignorance as to matter of fact have imputed the original of all this mischeif unto them as the first Authors or procurers of that Book which they would have believed to be the first rise thereof To the end therefore that those reverend persons soon after ruin'd and since dead may be fully vindicated from being primarily instrumental therein though had they so been no person of upright judgment could justly have blamed them from endeavouring an uniformity in the service of God in both Kingdoms I shall desire my Reader to cast his eye upon that faithful Narrative written by the command of our late Soveraign King Charles the first and corrected throughout with his own hand as many yet living can testify whereby he will clearly discern that the then Lords of the Privy-Council of Scotland were the men who advised the King to commend a Service-Book to be received and used in all the Churches of that Realm of which there was no little want every man being left to his own giddy fancy Now whether this advice of those Lords was not with purpose to trepan his Majesty to do that which as they resolv'd to order the business should occasion a tumultuous Insurrection by the rabble whence their grand Design of raising a general flame of war might ensue let the Reader judge when he looks back upon their discontents upon his Majesties Revocation of such things as had been passed away in prejudice of that Crown especially by some of his Progenitors in their minorities though not without advice of those who were then his Privy-Councellors in that Realm as hath been already observed And withall consider what combinations were driven on divers years before betwixt the most considerable persons of the Puritan-party in England and the Grand-Contrivers there Mr. Knightley's house in Northampton-shire being the chief place where that restless faction had their frequent meetings whence a Gentleman of quality was sent into Scotland afterwards a great Parliament-man here who residing there for some time before the troubles broke out represented to those which had the chief Interest there that the business of the Ship-money and Habeas Corpus with divers other things whereof there was much noise made afterwards had so irritated the greatest part of the English Nation that if they made sure work at home they needed not to fear any thing from England Moreover how earnestly and eagerly after that Tumult at Edenborough was so raised all sorts of people took advantage thereof the Kirkmen laying about them in their Pulpits so that the Citizens Gentry and Nobles speedily put themselves in Armes entring into a rebellious Confederacy called the Covenant And lastly that when his Majesty most gratiously offered to recall the Service-Book which was the great business at which they seem'd to take offence they were no whit lenified It will be visible enough to any person of judgment who doth not wilfully shut his Eyes that the hatching of this Rebellion was of a much elder date than that Service-Book But I now return to England CHAP. VI. HIs Majesty thus seeing his danger from Scotland and hoping of help from his English Subjects resolv'd of calling a Parliament here But no sooner were Writs out for that purpose than that the Schismatical Party used all possible endeavour to strengthen their side by choosing of their own faction for Knights and Burgesses And to accomplish the same spared for no pains in packing of Voices and making parties wherein their Seditious Pulpit-men bestir'd themselves to purpose such being then their fury that those meetings for Elections appeared more like riotous tumults than orderly conventions nevertheless the Nation was not then so generally tainted but that many good men were chosen Which Parliament began at Westminster upon the thirteenth day of April wherein his Majesty declared to both Houses the indignities receiv'd from his Scotish Subjects and to suppress their Rebellion proposed a Supply of twelve Subsidies in lieu whereof he was content to forbear Ship-money than which nothing seem'd so grievous Had not that Parliament been broke by the subtile artifices of the Grand-Contrivers in the immediate Rebellion no doubt but all those miseries which were thereby soon after brought upon this Realm might have been easily prevented and that the breach thereof was wrought by them is plain enough For Sir Henry Vane Senior a member of the House of Commons at that time and one of his Majesties principal Secretaries of State having by the King's appointment moved for a Supply of twelve Subsidies yet with power to stoop to eight when he saw an inclination
now plainly see Eleven of those sixteen English Lords which were chosen on his Majesties part being afterwards Actors or Assisters in the late war against him The first demand there made by the Scots Commissioners being no less then forty thousand pounds a month for maintenanne of their Army during the Treaty Which tho not directly granted was so far yielded to as that the Assessment impos'd by them upon the Countie of Northumberland Bishopric of Durham and Town of Newcastle should stand good for the raising of Eight hundred and fifty pounds a day allowance for the space of two months to begin upon the sixteenth of that instant October And that there should be a cessation of Arms the Scots Army to be confin'd on the North part the River Tese and the English to the South thereof CHAP. VII WHich footing thus gotten by the Scots in the North gave no small encouragement to their well-wishers in the South especially in London who in contemplation also of the ensuing Parliament which by his Majesty was summon'd to meet upon the third of November following were not a little animated in divers bold Enterprizes for scandalous papers and Libels were frequently thrown in the streets against the Bishops Yea so bold were the multitude grown by the example of the Scots in an 1637 and through the incitation of many Citizens and others of note who would not then shew themselves that on the 22th of October a rabble of no less than Two thousand Brownists and the like Sectaries entred St. Paul's Cathedral where the high Commission Court then sat tore down all the Benches and cried out No Bishop No High Commission To the consideration of which Parliament begun on the third of November accordingly did the King represent the safety and security of this Realm earnestly desiring that care might be speedily taken for riddance of the Scots which had thus invaded the North and to satisfy their just Grievances promised his hearty concurrence desiring that his Army might not be suffer'd to disband for want of pay before the Rebels for so he then call'd the Scots were put out And that they would lay aside all suspicions to the end it might become a happy Parliament resolving to cast himself wholly upon the love and affection of his English Subjects But the house of Commons consisting of the same or persons worse affected then those in April before the prevalent party purging the House of divers persons whom they concieved would not comply with their destructive enterprises for such they either finding fault with their Elections or making them criminals as to some public Grievances though others of a deeper guilt were not touch'd whose offences might make them obnoxious to their power or obsequious to their designs went slowly on with what his Majesty had proposed to them for the busy-party who were the great Actors in the ensuing Tragedy then fell to contrivance about the accomplishment of their long desired work To which purpose the Treaty at Rippon was soon after remov'd to Westminster to the end that there they might have the Scots Commissioners at hand and the power of the Londoners to assist them for it had been impossible without the conjunction and help of the Prevalent and factious party in that City ever to have accomplish'd the ruine of the establish'd Government and destruction of the King as they afterwards did In order whereunto the first step they made was the entertaining Petitions of Grievances from all parts of the Realm which made such a noise as if the Subjects of England had suffered under the greatest slavery and oppression that had ever been heard of and being devised and framed by themselves were receiv'd with such great acceptance as that the People began to shew no small expressions of Joy in their new Reformers Who to win them the more besides the Impeachment of the Earl of Strafford which was within two days following whom they had made sufficiently odious by representing him to be one of the greatest causes of their oppressions and an especial Enemy to Parliaments expell'd divers Projectors and Monopolists out of the House of Commons impeach'd the Archbishop of Canterbury the Bishop of Ely and Lord Keeper Finch for Treason against the State having in order thereto by libellous Pamphlets and Pictures rendred them hateful to the People Damn'd that hideous Grievance of Ship-money by vote Pass'd a Bill for a Triennial Parliament as also impeach'd Justice Berkley of High Treason for his activeness in the business of Ship-money And to try how safely they might adventure to strike at the establish'd Government of the Church which might make the easier way for ruine of the State they brought Pryn Burton and Bastwick in triumph to London who had been censured in the Star-Chamber for Libels against the Hierarchy countenancing a Petition exhibited to them by Alderman Penington against Episcopacy and Church-Discipline Yet that there might be no doubt of their zeal and dutiful affection to the King they sent a Message to his Majesty to desire leave that they might advance and settle his Revenue offering to make him the richest King in Christendom And having thus gain'd a strong confidence with the people what blessed Patriots they were like to be that they might also seem as zealous for God's cause they exhibited a Remonstrance in the name of both Houses to his Majesty grounded upon divers Petitions which they had subtilly procured from all parts of the Realm of the increase of Popery Also that the danger thereof might the more amaze the world they then began to open their Cabinet of Plots and Conspiracies four of the House of Commons imparting to the Lords a a discovery of an horrid design by many thousands of Papists in England Ireland and Wales Moreover because of the great complaint of Innovation in Religion increase of Popery and growth of Superstition they appointed Commissioners for removing Rails from about all Communion-Tables throughout the Realm Likewise to the end that the Bishops might the better attend their Spiritual functions they voted that none of them should have voice in Parliament nor meddle in temporal affairs And to assure the Scots whose Army they as yet thought not fit to part with till their work was brought to more maturity they gave them three hundred thousand pounds towards a supply of their losses and Necessities Which signal favour got them the stile of Brethren and thanks from the Scotish-Commissioners who seem'd so tender of our good that they desired the Treaty might be accelerated and the Kingdom eased of the burthen of the two Armies by their returning home The next thing wherewith they went in hand was the Trial of the Earl of Strafford for 't was resolv'd he must be cut off being a person of such integrity to the King and known abilities To which purpose
that place and the Magazine there by his Majesties authority Nay so diligent were they now to lose no time that they procured the Essex-men to deliver a Petition to them setting forth their fears and jealousies with desire that the Tower of London might be committed to safe hands the Arms of the Trained Bands trusted with approved persons and the Priviledge of Parliament asserted Likewise another from Colchester against Bishops and for liberty of Conscience desiring that Church-discipline might be established according to the word of God and their Town better fortified And well knowing how fair a countenance these Petitions thus framed by themselves carried to further their designs they caused more from Devon Somersetshire Middlesex and Hartfordshire for putting the Kingdom into a posture of Defence and the Forts into safe hands excluding Bishops Popish Lords c. As also another from the City of London signifying their inability to lend an hundred thousand pounds desired by the Houses for the service of Ireland by reason that the Cinque Ports were not put into safe hands the Kingdom not put into a posture of Defence the Lieutenant of the Tower not removed Priviledges of Parliament not vindicated Delinquents not punished and the Bishops and Popish Lords not put out of the House of Peers Whereupon it being the same day voted that the Cinque-Ports should be secured and the Tower of London put into such hands as the Parliament might confide in the very next day they brought down the Apprentices and Seamen with the like Petition for putting the whole Kingdom into a Posture And being now resolv'd as by their votes and the drift of these Petitions is manifest to hasten the Militia totally into their own power to the end they might the more plausibly effect their design therein they exhibited to his Majesty a Petition desiring that the Tower of London with the other principal Forts and whole Militia of the Kingdom might be put into the hands of such persons as should be by them recommended suggesting withall that without this sure ground of safety and confidence which he should hereby raise unto them they could not be enabled to discharge their duties in the considering of those important things proposed to them by him in his Message of the 20th of Ianuary Nor be so freed from fears and jealousies as with chearfulness to proceed laying a sure foundation of Honour Greatness and Glory to him and his Royal Posterity and of Happiness and prosperity to his Subjects throughout all his Dominions The chief colour and pretence given out to the people for this Posture of Defence being this that without the power thereof in their own hands to maintain the good Laws enacted there was no expectation but that they would be made fruitless to them by the prevalency of evil Counsellors and a malignant Party Whereunto his Majesty answered that though the nomination of those to whom the custody of the Forts and Castles were to be committed was an inseparable flower of his Crown yet that he would leave them to the Justice of his Parliament if through mis-information he had conferr'd such trust upon any undeserving person And that when any particular course for ordering the Militia should be digested by his Parliament and proposed to him he would return such an answer as should be agreeable to his honour and the safety of his people conjuring them not to be transported with Jealousies To this indeed they replyed that they acknowledged it as a principal and inseparable flower of his Crown to dispose the command of the Forts and Castles of the Kingdom and that by Law the Militia was subject to no command but his authority and what is lawfully derived from him But within two days following a Petition being brought into the House from Suffolk calling upon them to put the kingdom into a Posture and another from many thousands of poor Tradesmen in London as they stiled it urging the like alledging a great decay of Trade whereby they wanted Bread and that they believed not any cause thereof to be in the House of Commons but by reason of the Bishops and Popish Lords voting in the House of Peers it was earnestly moved at a Conference by Mr. Hollies that the Lords would no longer delay but now joyn with them to petition his Majesty that the Kingdom might be put into a Posture By which device the Lords who refused to joyn with them in their Petition of the six and twentieth of Ianuary were now so brought about that they did it And to the end they might not want more popular countenance for their grand work which was now in such forwardness they got more Petitions from several parts for putting the Kingdom into a Posture One from the women about London another from Northamptonshire a third from Kent which was brought by five or six thousand that rode through the City in ranks to the Parliament-House Whereby they gave the Lords thanks for concurring with the Commons in the Bill against the Bishop's votes and putting the Kingdom into a Posture of Defence desiring them to go on with the Commons in a thorough Reformation in Religion and to remove evil Councellors The like had they from the Counties of York Oxford and Lincoln So that having laid such a foundation by ensnaring the people with their own Petitions they made an order to enable some of the Aldermen and Common-Council of London with Serjeant Major Skippon to regulate the Militia of the City voting new Lords-Lieutenants throughout the several Counties of England and Wales And to blow up the people into a perfect Rebellion they appointed weekly Lectures to be generally set up which was accordingly perform'd by the most seditious and turbulent Spirits that could be found procuring more Petitions by multitudes of people from sundry parts setting forth great grievances and desiring that the factious party for so they call'd the most loyal of the Nobility might be expell'd the House of Peers Also that the Divine Worship of God might be no longer prophaned and that they might be better furnished with Arms to oppose forreign power Such also came from Wales Ipswich Warwickshire and Sussex the Sheriff of that County and at least fifteen hundred on Horseback accompanying him therewith And least the pretended great dangers for prevention whereof all this stir was made should be forgot a Letter from Lancashire was produced discovering dangerous Plots by the Papists in that County viz. the finding of ten Barrels of powder to make Balls of Wild-fire wherewith to burn divers chief Towns in this Realm Whereupon another Petition was dispatcht to his Majesty then at Dover for ordering the Militia Whereby they desired such a speedy Answer as might raise in them a confidence to use their own words that they should not be exposed to the practises of those
whose endeavours were to kindle that combustion in England which they had in so great a measure effected in Ireland and which nothing could do as they said but the granting that Petition Which Petition together with an Ordinance of both Houses setting forth a most dangerous and desperate design upon the House of Commons and many discoveries importing fears of rebellious Insurrections by Papists and other ill affected persons in this Kingdom they then exhibited Whose answer thereunto being that for the City of London and other Corporations which by any antient Charters had power of ordering the Militia he conceiv'd it unfit to alter their government but that he could not consent to the indefinite time propounded for this Posture Whereupon they forthwith voted this Answer to be a flat denial and that his Majesties advisers thereto were Enemies to the State and mischeivous Projectors against the defence of the Kingdom Also that this denial was of such dangerous consequence that it would hazard the peace and safety of all his Kingdoms unless some speedy remedy were applyed by the Parliament And immediately dispatch'd another Petition to his Majesty then at Theobalds wherein they protested that if he did not speedily pass his assent to the satisfaction of their desires they should be inforced by authority of both Houses to dispose thereof and that they did accordingly so resolve to do Farther voting that the Kingdom should be forthwith put into a Posture of defence by Authority of both Houses that the Navy should be speedily rigg'd and a Declaration of their just Fears and Jealousies speedily drawn up with the grounds of their former votes for putting the Kingdom into a Posture by authority of both Houses to clear the Parliament of all mistrusts And to carry out all this under colour of the Peoples desires New Petitions were brought from several Counties viz. one from Staffordsh pretending such dread of the Papists rising there that every man was constrain'd to stand upon his Guard not daring to go to Church unarm'd Others from Worcestersh Berksh Norfolk Norwich Lynne Royston Salop all of them earnestly desiring this Posture of Defence And the very next day the Ordinance for ordering the Militia of the Kingdom by authority of both Houses sent to his Majesty 22 Febr. was assented to by the Lords and thereupon new Lieutenants were assign'd throughout all England and Wales And having in a grand Committee at Merchant-Taylers Hall contrived the Declaration mention'd in their Votes of March the second wherein they made a very great noise of a design to alter Religion in this Kingdom and that the wars with Scotland and Ireland were framed to that end they presented the same to his Majesty at Newmarket within few days after voting the King's Commissions of Lieutenancies in the several Counties illegal as also that there was an urgent and inevitable Necessity for putting his Majesties Subjects into a Posture of Defence and that the Ordinances of both Houses for the Militia being obliging to the People ought to be obeyed by the Fundamental Laws of this Kingdom And lastly that the Earl of Warwick should be appointed Vice-Admiral of his Majesties Ships And having now by these their exorbitant courses together with the Tumults so much endangered his Majesties Royal person that he was forced for safety of himself and the Prince to retire into the North they voted that they would go on with their former Votes concerning the Militia Also that when the Lords and Commons in Parliament should declare what the Laws of the Land be to Question it was a high breach of the Privilege of Parliament After this within few days they sent a Petition to York which was there presented to his Majesty by the Lord Willoughby of Parham and others wherein they alledged that his Majesties denial to their petition for disposing the Militia was a great hinderance to their other proceedings and justified the Tumults at Westminster by taxing his Majesty with denial of such a Guard to them as they might confide in aspersing his Government for many continued Acts of violation of Laws c. And to keep the people still awake by allarming them with new dangers they caused Letters to be read in the House which were said to come from Amsterdam intimating intelligence from Denmark of a great Army ready prepared there to be transported for England and to land at Hull upon some dangerous enterprize The like Letter pretended to come from Newmarket then produced and another from France Whereupon having receiv'd a Petition from the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common-Council of London in which great Thanks was given to the House for ordering the Militia of the City as they had done with their resolutions therein signified to obey the same As also another from the Cinque-Ports desiring that those places might be strongly guarded and fortified and the Kingdom put into a Posture they ordered that every of his Majesties Forts and Castles should be presently fortified with an Hundred men of the Trained Bands next adjoining to them and ten pieces of Ordinance to each place Also that no Forces should be admitted into Hull without the consent of the Lords and Commons and that Instructions should be sent thither for the farther fortifying of that place Likewise upon another pretended discovery made by one Mr. Cartwright and the Speaker of the House of Commons that they were advertised by Letters from France of an Army preparing there to come for England or Ireland the Lords sent a message to the Commons to let them know that they had designed the Earl of Warwick Vice-Admiral of the Fleet. Whereupon both Houses joyn'd in a Message to the King to inform him of the grounds and reasons of their sending out that Earl as Vice-Admiral without his Majesties consent The King therefore discerning that they had got the Royal Navy into their hands thought it high time to make sure of his Magazine which had been laid up at Hull about two years before part for the service of Ireland and the rest for the security of the North and accordingly rode from York thither for the disposal thereof But when he came to the Gates of that Town Sir Iohn Hotham a member of the House of Commons being a confiding man with the factious party there and by their contrivance got privately thither with Souldiers refused him entrance affirming that in so doing he had the authority of Parliament to bear him out For which insolent act he was declared traiterous by his Majesty and by a special Message so signifyed to both Houses with demand of Justice against him according to the Laws But instead thereof they forthwith not only publish'd a bold Declaration with Votes and order of assistance in the name of both Houses of Parliament justifying Hotham therein
and Sconces at Graves-end and Chatham together with Dover-Castle Into Leicestershire they sent the Earl of Stanford with Horse Foot and Canon Into Warwickshire the Lord Brooke and others with six thousand Horse and Foot and into Dorsetshire the Earl of Bedford with seven thousand Foot six hundred Horse and fourteen pieces of Canon and special direction into other parts that their Lieutenants and Deputy-Lieutenants should speedily execute their Ordinance for the Militia and declare to all men that it had been and should be the endeavour of both Houses of Parliament to provide for his Majesties safety c. But the more to incense the people they issued out other Declaration in the name of the Lords and Commons in Parliament scandalizing the King with laying the foundation of an arbitrary and tyrannical Government and that notwithstanding all his Vows and Protestations to govern by Law which had been dispersed throughout the Kingdom to blind and deceive the people as they alleaged the most mischievous principles of Tyranny had been exercised that ever were invented with promise to all well affected persons as they term'd them that should be prejudiced by the Cavaliers that they should have full reparation of their damages out of the Estates of all such persons as had withdrawn themselves to York to serve his Majesty The King therefore seriously weighing the perillous condition in which himself and the whole Realm were thus miserably plunged through the rage and malice of these desperate men that he might leave nothing unattemted for preventing of those great calamities which he clearly saw approaching after he had thus erected his royal Standard sent a Message from Notingham to those Houses at Westminister by the Earls of Southampton Dorset and others whereby he propounded that for composure of those unhappy differences some fit persons might be enabled to treat on both sides in such manner and with such freedome as might best tend to an happy conclusion of them But this gracious offer was receiv'd by them with so much scorn and insolence they then having a powerful Army on foot with plenty of Money and other accommodations and his Majesty destitute of all these that the substance of their Answer was that if his Majesty would forsake all his Loyal Subjects then with him and return to his Parliament he should find such expressions of their fidelities and duty as might assure him that his safety Honour and Greatness was only to be found in their affections And immediately publish'd a Declaration setting forth that the Arms which they had taken up c. should not be laid down until his Majesty should withdraw his protection from such as had been voted by both Houses to be Delinquents or that should be so voted and should leave them to the justice of the Parliament Things being brought to this height it will not be improper now to take notice how the Scots did behave themselves towards the King in this unhappy Juncture whose gracious condescensions to them had been such as hardly any age can parallel Wherein it is to be considered that they could not but discern what breaches had been made upon his Majesty and his just Rights by those here who sat at Westminister and call'd themselves the Parliament as also to what degree of strength and power they were grown with the artifices whereby they attain'd thereto Moreover that though by a Petition exhibited to the Lords of his Majesties Privy-Council of that Realm upon the last of May an 1642 they had intimated a desire to shun any just occasion that might give offence to their gracious Soveraign as they then call'd him or of Iealousy to their Brethen of England and so seemed to stand only as Spectators yet when they heard that their Friends in England had put themselves in Arms and were so powerful in strength every way and his Majesty so weak they then not only shew'd themselves more open but sent a Form of their Kirk-Government to the Parliament at Westminster as a Pattern for Reformation with desire from the Assembly of that Kirk that the same might be establish'd here and a Declaration of their affections to the Reformation in Kirk and State Wherein they signified their expectation that England would now bestir themselves and extirpate the Prelatical Hierarchy that the remainder of the work might be the more easy offering their assistance for furthering thereof Of which more anon That there was nothing wanting in his Majesty that could be expected from a most pious and gracious Prince for prevention of those miseries which this turbulent Generation afterwards brought upon these Realms doth sufficiently appear by his sundry pathetick Messages to them formerly sent Nevertheless to acquit himself farther to God and the world by another Message of Sept. the eleventh he manifested to them what endeavours he had used by his many offers but could not obtain any Treaty And therefore now declared that being thus left to his necessary defence relying only on the Providence of God the justness of his Cause and the affections of his good people he should yet piously remember the blood that was to be spilt in this Quarrel and chearfully embrace a Treaty when ever they should desire it But to this was returned a most scornful and scandalous Answer taxing him with committing by his Souldiers oppressions rapines and murthers upon his good Subjects saying that they had offered him all Security Honour Service Obedience Support c. and sought nothing but that their Religion Liberty Peace of the Kingdom and Safety of the Parliament might be secured from the open violence and cunning practises of a wicked party who had long plotted their destruction upbraiding him that Irish Traitors and Rebels were admitted to his presence grace and favour and telling him that if he would return to his Parliament without his forces they would secure his royal Person Crown and Dignity Being thus driven to these great Extremities which was either to submit to their mercy and forsake all those his loyal Subjects who had faithfully adhered to him or to expose his royal Person with that small part of an Army he then had to the uncertain chance of war and hearing that the Earl of Essex the Rebell 's General was gone out of London in great State upon the tenth of September the cheif part of his Army being advanced to Northampton before he march'd from Notingham towards Shrewsbury upon the thirteenth of that month with what forces he then had and at the Head of them near Wellington made a solemn Protestation to defend the Protestant Religion establish'd in the Church of England to govern by the known Laws of the Land that the Liberty and Property of the Subject might be by them preserved with the same care as his own just rights Also to maintain the just Priviledges of Parliament And that he would expect no
aid from any man nor protection from Heaven when he willingly should fail in these particulars Which pious intentions of his thus declared were of no small advantage to him at that time his Army increasing daily beyond expectation The Rebels therefore hearing which way the King moved beâ—t their course speedily towards him making their Head-quarter in and about Worcester from the four and twentieth of September till the nineteenth of October following Near to which place upon their approach some few Troops of his Majesties under the command of Prince Rupert most happily defeated a far greater number of the Rebel 's principal Cavalry Colonel Sandys Major Douglas and other Commanders with divers other being there slain six Cornets of Horse taken and all this with the loss but of one man Which being the first notable encounter that his Majesties forces had with them and so successful did not a little amaze most of the Rebels party Lest therefore the truth thereof being divulged should dishearten their friends in London and other remote parts they not only caused divers printed Papers to be spread about bragging of it for a special victory but that it might gain the more credit ordain'd a public Thanksgiving in London for the same And to hinder his Majesty from the assistance of his good Subjects under one pretence or other though they had cryed out against his raising an Army by the help of Papists to destroy the Protestant Religion they were not ashamed to make a public Order that if any Papist would bring in considerable sums to them upon the Propositions it should be accepted of As by these subtile devices they had rais'd the flames of Rebellion to this height and deprived the King of all visible means here for the quenching thereof so did they use their utmost endeavours to prevent any help that might be obtained for him from forreign parts as appears by their negotiation with the States of the Vnited Provinces wherein they imploy'd one Walter Strickland with a special Declaration to them complaining of the Prince of Aurange for countenancing the Lord Digby in his making warlike Provisions in those parts for the King's use and in favour of that Lord and other wicked Counsellers and Incendiaries to have licensed experienced Officers and Souldiers to resort into this Kingdom in aid of his Majesty against the Parliament Scandalizing the King also that his Councils were corrupted by a Jesuitical faction and that he had drawn his sword for the destruction of his people desiring therefore that his Majesty might have no manner of Supplies from thence and withall insinuating how near a relation there was betwixt that model into which they aimed to cast this Government and the State of those Provinces and that therefore they expected assistance from them Nor did they rest here as is evident from those Instructions which were brought up by a Committee to be sent into Holland for this Mr. Strickland upon the 29th of February an 1643 by which he was to represent to the States of those Provinces that the Parliament of England did only strive for Reformation of that Religion and State they live in and therefore desired those States that they would now afford them their Brotherly assistance as they had formerly assisted them As also that they would enlarge their union to other Princes and lend them some money upon the public faith of both Kingdoms and the rather because they made Reformed Churches the pattern of their endeavours Neither could they be silent at home but the more to stir up the people inculcated to them that the King had raised an Army by the help of Papists the corrupt part of the Clergy the Delinquent Nobility and Gentry and some notable Traitors beyond-Sea that they had liberty to rob and spoil all sorts of people as also to exact Money and Plate from Corporations by threatning Fire and Sword to the refusers that he had hired a Scotchman to murther Sir Iohn Hotham that by violent oppressions he had exhausted the parts about Shrewsbury and that the Cavaliers were hungry for the wealth of London and the fruitful Counties adjacent that if he should prevail there was no expectation but that all would be exposed to the malice and rapine of his ravenous Souldiers and all honest and religious mens throats cut And therefore that the means of curing and preventing these dangers must be by Loan and contribution to the Earl of Essex's Army which was not inferior in number to the King 's besides better armed full pay'd c. but above all well encouraged and instructed in the Cause by the labour of many Godly and painful Divines and therefore that all Trained Bands Voluntiers c. in all places should assist the Lord General c. Whereunto they added these ensuing Votes viz. 1. That such persons as should not contribute to the charge of the Common-wealth in this time of Necessity should be held sit to be secured and disarmed 2. That the Fines Rents c. of Arch-Bishops Bishops Deans c. and of such notorious Delinquents who had taken up Arms against the Parliament or had been active in the Commission of Array should be sequestred for the use and service of the Common-wealth 3. That the King's revenues should be brought into the several Courts and other places where they ought to be paid in and not issued out until farther order was taken by both Houses of Parliament And to sum up all they set forth another Declaration and Protestation wherein they did in the presence of Almighty God protest and declare to this Kingdom and the whole World that no private passion or respect nor evil intention to his Majesties person no design to the prejudice of his just Honour and Authority had engaged them to raise Forces and take up Arms c. that they had professed their Loyalty by several Remonstrances that they had passed by ignominious Slanders c. that for the avoiding of blood they had directed the Earl of Essex by himself or others to cause an humble Petition to be delivered to his Majesty to return in peace to his Parliament that his Majesty had refused to yield safe conduct for the delivery thereof that he was engaged to the Popish-party for suppression and extirpation of the true Religion and exposing the wealth of this Kingdom to be plundered and spoil'd by Cavaliers c. contrary to his solemn Oaths Protestations and Execrations and therefore that they resolved to enter a solemn Oath and Covenant to defend this Cause with the hazard of their lives against the King's Army And that they expected help from the Brethren of Scotland herein His Majesty therefore having in a very short time and beyond expectation raised an indifferent Army though his wants of many accomodations were very great finding no means of Peace or Safety but by the hazard of Battel which the Rebels eagerly sought casting himself wholly upon
that all Horses within the City of London and the Suburbs and five miles adjacent should be speedily prest for the service of their Army as also that all Horses in the Tower should be seized on and no Coaches suffered to be kept there except one for the Lieutenant And to puff up their General with such vain apprehensions as might hearten him to persist in that his high imployment in regard he was then somewhat popular they form'd a specious Declaration which they ordered to remain upon Record in the Books of both Houses of Parliament as a mark of Honour to the name and Family of the Earl of Essex for the good service he had done to the Common-wealth in the office of General by the hazard of his life in the battel of Kineton Likewise for a firmer union of their forces they made an Order in the name of both Houses that the Counties of York Lincoln Notingham Derby Stafford Chester Lancaster Northumberland Cumberland Westmorland and Duresme with the Town and County of Newcastle should associate themselves by raising Horse and Foot to suppress and subdue the Popish and malignant Party and that the Lord Fairfax should command in chief throughout those Counties But his Majesty coming safe to Oxford after a short stay there march'd towards London the noise whereof caused the Members at Westminster to bestir themselves for preventing his Majesties coming thither whereupon all the power they could raise was sent out to give him astop the Earl of Essex with part of his Army to Kingston upon Thames and the Lord Brooke's and Mr. Hamden's Regiments to Brainford where the Royalists fell so sharply on them that they took five hundred Prisoners and sunk some of their Ordinance intending to march forward on the next day But having advertisement that Essex had drawn his Forces from Kingston and joining with the London-Auxiliaries lay in his way at Turnham Greene he chose rather to make a safe retreat than hazard his Army by a second Battel and so by Reading came back to Oxford where he took up his Winter-Quarters making it his cheif Garrison The flame of war beginning thus to spread each part strove to possess themselves of what strong Towns and Castles they could as also to fortify such other places as might enable them to have command over the parts adjacent The gaining whereof and other Acts of Hostility on each part in places remote as also the most considerable transactions of the Members at Westminster who calling themselves the Parliament sate there with strong Guards to carry on this Grand Rebellion being not possibly capable of a perfect Narrative in punctual order of time to avoid confusion therefore I have thought it most proper to place what is most remarkable on the military part at the end of each years beginning with this of 1642 in which the war did commence To proceed therefore The Rebels by this time discerning the King to get ground partly by the increase of his Forces in sundry Counties and partly by undeceiving many well-meaning people who had been seasoned by divers Lecturing-Preachers and other corrupt Clergy-men with disloyal principles and now doubting the issue without farther help sent a Declaration and Invitation to the Scots for their assistance granting Letters of Mart to all Merchants that would set forth Ships to guard the Seas and to take all Shipping bringing Arms or other aid from forreign parts to assist the King and to detain the same as their lawful prize Furthermore as London and the Counties adjacent gave example to all other parts of the Realm in the first raising of this grand Rebellion so were they the first over whom their great Masters exercised their power Nor were the deluded people elsewhere who had likewise given the Reines into these men's hands for a few fair words long spared for upon the xxixth of November there issued out an Order from both Houses that Committees should be named throughout all Counties to take care for provisions of Victual for the Army raised by the Parliament as also for seizing on Dragoon-Horses and draught-Horses and for borrowing of Money or Plate to supply the Army upon the public Faith Which Committees had thereby power to send for and take such Provisions Money Plate and Horse as the owners did then neglect to bring in And having formerly order'd that the King 's and Queen's Revenue coming into the Exchequer should be detained and employ'd for the public service they seized on thirteen hundred Quarters of Corn which then were in the King's Stores Also for explanation of their former Ordinance touching the contribution of Horse Money and Plate upon the Propositions they order'd that the Refusers should be distrain'd and in default of Distresses to be found their persons to be imprison'd and their Families no longer to remain in London Westminster or the Counties adjacent Shortly after this likewise they framed more Ordinances of Association for divers other Counties constituting Commanders in chief of new forces to be levyed within those Associations beginning with Buckingham Bedford Rutland Northampton Leicester Derby Notingham and Huntington appointing the Lord Grey of Groby son to the Earl of Stanford Serjeant Major General there planting Garrisons in every Castle and great Town throughout all those parts The like Association for the Shires of Cambridge Norfolk Suffolk Hartford Essex part of the Isle of Ely and City of Norwich William Lord Grey of Warke being made Commander in Chief throughout all those Counties And to put the people in hope that this charge and trouble should not last long they gave out that his majesties Forces were utterly broken and shatter'd and read Letters in the House from their General that he would pursue the King with all vehemency Soon after this also they made an Ordinance for taxing all Malignants and such as had not contributed upon the Propositions for Money Horse and Plate according to their abilities that they should pay the Twenty-fifth part of their Estates Under which name of Malignants they brought in all that were worth any thing if within their reach But in this Ordinance it is to be observed that the Assessors were not to tax any Member of either House Neither could their oppressions at home suffice but they countenanc'd the seizing of a Ship call'd Santa Clara out of the Port of Santo Domingo in the King of Spain's Dominions laden with Plate Cochinele and other Merchandise of great value and by order of the House of Commons set up Bills upon the Exchange for sale thereof And that no part of the Realm might be free from their oppressions they constituted Committees in the Counties of Warwick Stafford and City of Coventry for associating of those Counties and planting of Garrisons there authorizing them to suppress and disarm Enemies and persons ill affected also for raising Horse Money Plate c. And soon after that
York as also by fourty three Dukes Marquesses Earls Vicounts and Barons of the House of Peers and cxviii members of the House of Commons there present many others by reason of distance of place sickness and imployments elsewhere in his Majesties service and for want of timely notice of that Proclamation of Summons not being then come thither But the effect which this their Letter produced was in the first place to be cryed throughout the Streets of London in scorn as the Petition of the Prince and Duke of York for peace and a meer frivolous answer or Paper in form of a Letter directed to the Earl of Forth then General of the King's forces wherein was inclosed a printed paper called a National Covenant of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland and two other Papers the one called a Declaration of both the Kingdoms and the other a Declaration of the Kingdom of Scotland In that their General 's Letter it was pretended that because there was no address to the two Houses of Parliament nor acknowledgment of them it could not be communicated to them whereas it was notoriously known that he did so far impart it as that a Committee of theirs advised and fram'd the answer Besides it plainly appears by the penning thereof that they all concurr'd in the Resolution therein mention'd whereby 't is clear enough that this was but an excuse or shift to avoid any Treaty And what could that printed Covenant and two Declarations inclosed signifie but to shew that before they would admit of a Treaty all the Lords and Commons assembled at Oxford must join in that Covenant with them for the absolute extirpation of Church-government here without nay tho against the King's consent submit the Lives Liberties and Estates of themselves and all others who according to their allegiance had assisted his Majesty to the mercy of those members then sitting at Westminster as also to admit of and justifie that invasion of the Scots according to the plain sense of their Declaration But notwithstanding all this the Lords and Commons at Oxford continuing still sollicitous for an happy peace for avoiding delay or cavil about Names or Titles or descants upon words humbly besought his Majesty to send Messengers with Instructions to desire a Treaty for peace Whereunto he readily assenting two persons were by him nominated and a Letter written to the Earl of Essex for their safe conduct Which Letter had in substance this Answer viz. that if they would first agree that those Lords and Commons sitting a Westminster were the Parliament and the King 's only Council that those Gentlemen should have a safe conduct This being therefore taken into consideration it was thought fit to desire his Majesty to write his royal Letters to the Earl of Essex himself and therein to inclose a Letter superscribed To the Lords and Commons of Parliament assembled at Westminster Which his Majesty accordingly did and thereby desired that a convenient number of fit persons might be appointed and authorized to meet with all convenient speed at such a place as they should nominate with an equal number of fit persons appointed and authorized by him to treat of the ways and means for setling the present distractions of the Kingdom and procuring a happy peace In answer whereunto they insisted that themselves thus sitting at Westminster were the Parliament convened according to the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom and that those loyal persons members of the Parliament who were come to his Majesty at Oxford according to his royal Proclamation had deserted their Trust and levyed war against the Parliament and in sum did intimate that what they should do herein must be with the concurrent advice of the Commissioners for the Kingdom of Scotland according to their late solemn League and Covenant calling his Majesties earnest endeavours for Peace but Professions and their own feigned pretences most real intentions letting fall by way of menace that his Majesty could not be the least and last sufferer Hitherto as a consequence of this second Invasion by the Scots I have given a brief touch of his Majesties farther incessant endeavours for obtaining a happy peace with these violent spirited men by an amicable Treaty Which taking no effect by reason they then saw such a likelihood through the aid and assistance of those their dear Brethren to carry all powerfully before them I shall look back a little and take notice not only how their heavy oppressions upon the people by many farther grievous Impositions were carried on but how they proceeded in their advancing the Scepter of Iesus Christ in this Realm for so they called their Presbyterian Discipline Wherein I observe that within six days next after this their Invasion the Members at Westminster passed an Ordinance for regulating the Vniversity of Cambridge by Edward Earl of Manchester then their Chancellour that is to say for turning out all loyal persons from their Headships and Fellowships in any of the Colleges there and for removing scandalous Ministers id est all orthodox men throughout the several associated Counties of Essex Norfolk Suffolk Hertford Cambridge Huntington and Lincoln That the Welch also might be the sooner brought under the yoke they soon after made another Ordinance whereby they impower'd Sir Thomas Middleton Knight to take Subscriptions for raising of Forces in the six Counties of North-wales and give the public faith for such moneys as should be raised to that purpose CHAP. XVIII HAving thus taken notice of the Transactions in their Parliament at Westminster I come now according to my designed method to the Militarie-business of this year 1643. In which I find that the King having gained ground in the North and West his farther success in sundry parts was not unsutable thereto for Sir Hugh Cholmley of Whitby in Yorkshire who at first had been a most confiding man thought it now time to declare for the King So likewise did Captain Brown-Bushell Governour of Scarborough Castle in that County who then delivered it up for his Majestie And within few days after their great Northern Champion Ferdinando Lord Fairfax was routed by the Earls of Newcastle and Cumberland at Bramham-moore in that County which great defeat so startled the Members at Westminster that they forthwith solicited the ayd of their Brethren the Scots In the neck of this also Prince Rupert upon a sharp encounter near Bermicham a seditious and populous Town in Warwick shire with a strong party of the Rebels commanded by Colonel Greaves worsted them with the loss of the Loyal William Earl of Denbigh who there received his deaths wound Soon after that also another party of them commanded by Iohn son and heir to the famous Sir Iohn Hotham their trusty Governour of Hull was routed near Ancaster in Lincolnshire And Litchfield close which they had got after the unsuccessfull attempt thereof by the Lord Brooke was without much adoe
rendred to Prince Rupert by Lieutenant Colonel Russell Subsequent to these I shall onely enumerate the rest in order of time Iames Earl of Northampton routed another stout party of them at Middleton Cheney in Northampton shire And about ten days following Sir Ralph Hopton obtain'd a clear victory over the Dehonshire and Cornish Rebels at Stratton in Cornwall the Earl of Stanford and Major General Chudleigh being Commanders in chief of them In which Battle were taken seventeen hundred Prisoners thirteen brass piece of Ordnance seventy Barrels of powder and store of other provisions by reason whereof the greatest part of the West except Plymouth and some other Port-Towns was reduced to obedience and in consideration of this signal service the said Sir Ralph Hopton soon after viz. 4. Sept. 1643. was advanced to the dignity of Lord Hopton of Stratton aforesaid The next month also ensued Prince Rupert's Victory over the Rebels at Chalgrave-field in Oxfordshire Commanded by Colonell Iohn Hampden who there received his deaths wound that being the very field wherein he first put in Execution the Parliaments Ordinance for the Militia of that County as a president to the rest of England and the Earl of Newcastle taking Howley house in Yorkshire soon after defeated the Lord Fairfax at Adderton Heath in that County At the beginning of Iuly likewise a party of Horse and Dragoons Commanded by Colonel Middleton coming to surprize Sir Charles Lucas in his Quarters at Padbury near Buckingham were by him routed And the Earl of Newcastle valiantly assaulting Bradford in Yorkshire took it by storm Sir Thomas Fairfax who was Governour there fleeing thence by night whereupon Hallifax and Denton house Sir Thomas Fairfax his seat were quitted by the Rebels Burton upon Trent also in Staffordshire was taken by the Lord Iermyn upon the Queens passage from Burlington in Yorkshire towards Oxford Near which time was the great fight at Landsdown in Somerset shire where the Lord Hopton had the better of the Rebels though the Valiant Sir Bevill Grenevill was there slain The Lord Wilmot and Earl of Carnarvon likewise routed Sir William Waller and Sr. Arthur Haselrigg at Roundwaydown in Wiltshire Prince Rupert also having taken Burleigh house in Rutland marcht to Bristol and after a short Siege of that City had a surrender thereof from Colonel Nathaniel Fiennes the then Governour In the next month likewise was Dorchester in Dorset shire rendred to the Earl of Carnarvon and the Isle of Portland reduced to His Majesties obedience Hereupon Weymouth and Melcombe in com Dorset submitted These great successes encouraged the King to come before the City of Gloucester the most considerable Garrison in all that part of the Realm which so startled the Earls of Bedford and Holand and the Lord Paget that they came in to the King but not long after being less apprehensive of danger fell off again to their own party Soon after this Beverley in Yorkshire was taken by the Earl of Newcastle Biddiford◠Appleford and Barnstaple in com Devon were also rendred The City of Exeter was likewise taken by Prince Maurice and Sir William Waller one of their active Generals routed at Winchester Near Auburne also in Wiltshire a strong party of them was worsted by Prince Rupert But soon after this the Earl of Essex with his whole Army met his Majesty near Newbery in Berkshire where after much slaughter neither could boast of the victory though the Earls of Carnarvon and Sunderland with Lucius Viscount Falkland then one of the Kings principal Secretaries of State there lost their lives the noise whereof did not a little avail the Rebels it giving them much reputation with all their party In October the next month Dertmouth in Devon-shire was rendred to Prince Maurice and shortly after Hawarden-Castle in Flint-shire yielded to the King's obedience Arundell-Castle also in Sussex was rendred to the Lord Hopton Beeston castle in Cheshire taken Likewise Lapley house in Stafford-shire Grafton house in Northampton-shire and Crew house in 〈◊〉 shire Towards the end of Ianuary also Sir Thomas fairfax and Colonel Milton were routed by Prince Rupert at Drayton in Shropshire Hopton Castle in Shropshire and Wardour Castle in Wiltshire were likewise taken And upon the relief of Newark in Nottinghamshire besieg'd by Sir Iohn Meldrum a Scot with seven thousand men Gaynesborough Lincolne and Sleford all in Lincolnshire were quitted by the Rebels And Sturton-castle in Staffordshire about this time taken ¶ These being the most remarkable Actions on the King's part for this year 1643. I come now to observe what success the Rebels who were not idle had the same year In April therefore the Earl of Essex came before Reading in Berkshire and soon obtain'd it by surrender Colonel Feilding being then Governour thereof Siege being also laid to Wardour-castle in Wiltshire it was rendred So likewise was Monmouth in Monmouth shire And at Wakefield in Yorkshire His Majesties forces encountring the Rebels were worsted Soon after which Taunton and Bridgwater both in Somersetshire were also delivered up to them But notwithstanding all this they were not without their fears and therefore dispatcht the Lord Grey of Warke together with Mr. Henry Darley and Sir William Armine both trusty Members of their House of Commons by special order into Scotland earnestly to sollicite the dear Brethren of that Realm to their assistance Shortly after this they took Gaynesborough in Lincolnshire and attempted Basing house in Hantshire without effect But in September the Earl of Essex with more help from the zealous Londoners approaching Gloucester with a great strength caused the King to raise the siege which he had laid to that rebellious place In the same month also was Lynne in Norfolk yielded to the Earl of Manchester and shortly after the City of Lincoln taken by him forcibly Arundel-castle in Sussex likewise in Ianuary following yielded to Sir William Waller Whereupon being recruited with more forces he was constituted Major General of Kent Surry Sussex and Hantshire But that which proved to be instar omnium was that grand Invasion of the Scots which on the 22d of Ianuary crossed the River Tine with their numerous Army to the assistance of these Rebels as hath been already observed For at that time all the North of England beyond Trent excepting Hull in York shire and some few inconsiderable places being by the Marquess of Newcastle for so he had been lately made reduced to the King's obedience as also the West by Prince Rupert and Prince Maurice His Majesties Nephews excepting Poole and Lime in Dorset shire and Plymouth in Devonshire the Members sitting at Westminster became so startled that some of the leading-men prepared for quitting the Realm But this great ayd from
his desire And having no Answer to that neither he sent a third whereby he offered upon engagement for his freedome and safety in going and returning to come himself to London or Westminster for the space of fourty days and there to treat personally with them offering to commit the Militia of this Realm unto certain persons to be nominated by himself and them equally for such a time and with such powers and limitations as were delivered in by a paper upon the Treaty at Uxbridg After which third Message he received their Answer to his second which was the refusal of a safe-conduct to the Duke and those other who were design'd to go saying that they then had certain Propositions and Bills under consideration which they purposed to tender unto his Majestie for the setling of a safe and well grounded peace as they call'd it which after agreement upon them by the Scotch-Commissioners they resolv'd to present unto him The King not satisfied with this sent a fourth Message whereby he earnestly pressed their embracing his offer for a personal Treaty with them at Westminster And after expectance of an Answer thereto for the space of full twenty days and hearing nothing he sent them a fifth Message to the same purpose enlarging his offers for his People's quiet in sundry particulars But whilst this message was upon the way towards them came an answer to his fourth absolutely negative as to his admittance for coming to them still telling him of the Propositions and Bills which they were preparing to send Which Answer being wholly unsatisfactory and apparently manifesting their aversness to peace he sent a sixth Message to them incessantly importuning their speedy Answer to his former and within few days after a seventh wherein he expressed somewhat in confutation of those frivolous Arguments which they had used against his Personal Treaty with them continuing his desires thereof Certain it is that as they grew in strength and power so their Insolence which thus prompted them to decline all good expedients for accommodation increased more and more Nevertheless his Majestie not totally despairing but that by farther condescensions he might move this hard-hearted Generation sent unto them his eighth Message whereby acquitting himself from having any hand in some passages of the Lord Herbert of Ragland then called Earl of Glamorgan in Ireland which he well knew that they would be apt enough to scandalize him with he offer'd that in case they would admit him to come to London in order to a personal Treaty with them he would leave the management of the War in Ireland wholly to themselves as also the nomination of the Persons to be entrusted with the Militia with such power and limitations as were express'd in the Paper delivered by his Commissioners in the Treaty at Uxbridge for the Term of seven years as had been by them desired Likewise the nomination of the Lord Admiral Officers of State and Judges And for Religion to give liberty that all those who were unwilling to communicate with the Church of England in the Service already establisht by Act of Parliament should not be urged thereto provided that all other Protestants behaving themselves peaceably and quietly in and towards the Civil Government should have the free exercise of theirs tendring also unto them a general Act of Pardon and oblivion Which gracious Message so full of condescension produced from them nothing in effect but Scorn and Contempt For though the King caused the Lord Herbert for that his misdemeanor in Ireland to be arrested upon suspicion of Treason and imprisoned they traduced his Majestie with under-hand-compliance therein affirming that he had given that Lord a private Commission with command to manage it with all secrecie and that it contain'd such odious and shamefull things as himself blusht publickly to own or impart to the Marquess of Ormond his Lieutenant there And whereas he had in his said Message most graciously tendred them all that the most wicked and guilty persons could desire or wish viz. Liberty for their Consciences safety for their Persons security for their Estates greatness for their desires and peace to enjoy all nothing would be accepted insomuch as after a full months expectation of some return upon those his offers and hearing nothing by His ninth Message he pressed them for some Answer but all to no purpose For like as a Shadow pursued they still fled from him whereupon after the stay of one month more he sent them His tenth Message wherein taking notice of the duty he owed to God and sense of his peoples miseries that no means might be left unattempted which could conduce to a safe and well-grounded peace he offer'd unto them that in case he might have the Faith of both their Houses of Parliament for the preservation of his Honour Person and Estate and liberty given to all his faithfull Subjects who had adhered to him to go to their own Houses and there enjoy their estates peaceably without compelling to take any Oath that was not enjoyned by the undoubted Laws of the Kingdome or other molestation he would immediately disband all his Forces dismantle his Garrisons return to his two Houses of Parliament pass an Act of Oblivion and free pardon there and doe whatsoever else they should advise him to for the good and peace of the Kingdome But these great Masters who to captivate the people before they had got sufficient power into their hands had by their most solemn Protestations and Declarations which are publisht in Print to the world profess'd in the presence of Almighty God and for the satisfaction of their consciences and discharge of that great Trust which lay upon them as they then exprest made their solemn Protestation and Declaration to this Kingdome and Nation and to the whole World that no private passion or respect no evil intention to His Majesties person no design to the prejudice of His just Honour and Authority engaged them to raise Forces and take up Arms c. And again we profess from our very Hearts and Souls our Loyalty and Obedience to his Crown readiness and resolution to defend his Person and support his Estate with our Lives and Fortunes to the utmost of our power c. Moreover we profess we desire nothing from his Majesty but that he would return in peace to his Parliament And again We profess in the sight of Almighty God which is the strongest obligation that a Christian and the most solemn publick Faith which any such State as a Parliament can give that we would receive him with all Honour yield him all true obedience and subjection and faithfully endeavour to defend his person and estate from all danger and to the utmost of our power to establish to him and his people all the blessings of a most glorious and happy reign Nevertheless so obdurate were their Hearts being then rais'd to an height of confidence that
Aldermen and Common-council of the City of London which because 't is penned in so divine a stile I have here transcribed Right Honourable Your late and seasonable Testimony given to the truth of the Gospel and you affection to the peace of the Kingdomes manifested in your humble Remonstrance and Petition to the Honourable Houses of Parliament hath so revived the remembrance of your former faith and zeal and proclaymed you the worthy seed of so noble Ancestors in that famous City as we cannot but acknowledg with all thankfulness the Grace of God bestowed on you and stir you up to take notice how since you were precious in the Lord's sight you have been ever honourable The Lord hath ever loved you given men for you and people for your life What an honour was it in the days of old when the fire of the Lord was in Sion and his furnace in your Hierusalem even in Queen Mary's days that there were found in you men that loved not their lives unto the death What a glory in after-times when Satan had his Throne and Antichrist his seat in the midst of you that there were still found not a few that kept their Garments clear But the greatest praise of the good hand of God upon you hath been this that amidst the many mists of Error and Heresie which have risen from the bottomless pit to bespot the face and darken the glory of the Church while the Bride is a making ready for the Lamb you have held the Truth and most piously endeavoured the setting of Christ upon his Throne We need not remember how zealous you have been in the cause of God nor how you have laid out your selves and estates in the maintenance thereof nor how many acknowledgments of the same you have had from the Honourable Houses nor how precious a remembrance will be had of you in after Ages for your selling of all to buy the Pearl of price Wee onely at this time do admire and in the inward of our hearts do bless the Lord for your right and deep apprehensions of the great and important matters of Christ in his Royal Crown and of the Kingdomes in their Vnion while the Lord maketh offer to bring our Ship so much afflicted and tossed with tempest to the safe harbour of Truth and Peace Right memorable is your zeal against Sects and Sectaries your care of Reformation according to the Word of God and the example of the best reformed Churches Your earnest endeavours and noble adventures for preserving of the Rights and Priviledges of Parliament and Liberties of the Kingdome together with his Majesties just power and greatness and your high profession that it is not in the power of any humane authority to discharge or absolve you from adhering unto that our solemnly sworn League and Covenant or to inforce upon you any sense contrary to the Letter of the same Besides your other good services done to the Lord and us in strengthening the hands of the reverend Assembly of Divines and of our Commissioners in their asserting the Government of Christ which the more it is tryed will be ever found the more precious Truth and vindicating the same from the Vsurpation of man and contempt of the Wicked These all as they are so many testimonies of your piety loyalty and undaunted resolution to stand for Christ so are they and shall ever be so many obligations upon us your Brethren to esteem highly of you in the Lord and to bear you on our Breasts before him night and day and to contribute our best endeavours to improve all opportunities for your encouragement And now we beseech you in the Lord Honourable and well-beloved go on in this your strength and in the power of his might who hath honoured you to be faithfull Stand fast in that Liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free And in pursuance of this Truth we are confident you will never cease to study the peace and nearer conjunction of the Kingdomes knowing that a threefold cord is not easily broken Now the Lord Iesus Christ himself and God even our Father who hath loved and honoured you and given you everlasting consolation and good hope through Grace comfort your Hearts and stablish you in every good work Subscribed in the name of the general Assembly by Robert Blair Moderator Moreover in another Letter from the said Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland to the Assembly of Divines at Westminster they told them how they did congratulate with the Lord's people in all their successes and did impatiently desire to have their Brethren here and themselves joyned nearer to Christ and to one another in all his Ordinances and especially in Presbytereal Government But in the neck of these Letters 't is worthy observation that the Marquess of Argyle and Scottish-Commissioners delivered a paper to the Members at Westminster representing the Necessities of their Army desiring therefore that their Quarters in the North might be enlarged and a considerable supply of mony dispatcht to them Most certain it is that though these sanctified men both English and Scotch did seem to be so firmly united by their grand Combination called the solemnleague and Covenant as that in humane reason few there were that thought they could afterwards have differed the gayning of the King's person into their Hands began now to make it manifest that this seeming sacred Tye was but a mear jugling device originally forged and set on foot for the better carrying on their sacrilegious temporal ends For from that very time however they conceal'd themselves with all the subtilties imaginable their animosities against each other did daily increase as 't will hereafter appear Nevertheless to make a specious outward shew of their continued accordance they agreed together in sending certain Propositions to the King which they had been no less than eight months in hammering in order to a well-grounded Peace as their phrase was whereunto they required his Answer within four days How monstrous and unreasonable these were the tenor of them will sufficiently shew they being publickly printed in brief that he should ratify the solemn-league and Covenant abolish Episcopacy invest the subject with the power of the Militia and exempt from pardon several Lords and other considerable persons that during the war had adhered to him Whereunto His Majesty most piously and prudently made this return That they importing so great alterations in Government both in Church and Kingdome it was very difficult to return a particular and positive answer to them before a full debate wherein their necessary explanation true sense and reasons of them were rightly weighted and understood To which end he desired to come to London or any of his Houses thereabouts upon the publick Faith and the security of the two Houses of Parliament and Scottish-Commissioners Where by his personal presence he might not onely raise a mutual confidence betwixt himself and his people but have those doubts
cleared and those difficulties explained to him which he then conceived to be destructive to his just regal power in case he should give a full consent to those Propositions as they then stood Engaging himself to give his chearful assent to all such Bills as should be really to the good and peace of his people and to prefer the happiness of this Kingdome before his own particular And as a farther means to work a confidence in them of his own sincerity in these things he offered again to trust them with his own person conjuring them as they were Christians and Subjects and as they were men who desired to leave a good name behind them so to receive and make use of that his Answer that all issues of bloud might be stopped and those unhappy distractions peaceably setled But as his former gracious and frequent offers so this could not then find any acceptance at all with them by reason that it tended to the composure of those lamentable distractions which tended to the utter ruine of the King and Realm their aims at first and continued resolutions still being to share the spoyl which by their strength and power they had most unjustly got Nay in stead of any kindness or comfort which he might rationally expect from their many and most solemn promises and protestations they perpetually tormented his pious Soul with incessant importunities to take their hypocritical Covenant and sent for several of their most rigid Preachers to terrify him with their Kirk-censures upon his refusal thereof In which sad and disconsolate condition I shall for a while leave him and take a short view of the transactions betwixt the Members sitting at Westminster and those at Edenborough with their respective Commissioners The principal work being now done here in England by the help of the Scots the Grandees here as well as others began to be weary of their dear Brethren and for the sooner riddance of them passed a Vote that a Message should be sent to the Scottish Army that in regard they were not usefull in this Kingdome for the present and that the payment thereof would be a great burthen thereto they should with all convenient speed return into their Country But the Scots never intending to be loosers by their journey hither knowing full well how to make the best use of those advantages they then had gave their dear Brethren very good words telling them in their answer to the demands made in pursuance of that Vote that their earnest desires were the setling of Religion and Church Government which as it was the principal ground of their engagement in this Cause so would the perfecting of it be their chiefest joy and Glory of both Kingdomes it being the constant resolution of that Kingdome against all opposition to strengthen and cherish the Brotherly kindness between the Kingdomes and Peace setled with Truth and those things performed by the Honourable Houses which by Treaty they were obliged unto to recall their Army with as great alacrity as they were ready to send the same into England for the assistance of their Brethren And in another Letter speaking of the Arrears due to their Army they had these words This Kingdome lyeth under the burthen of great and vast expence in raising and entertaining of Armies and hath with the lives of many precious men set their own Houses on fire to quench the flame of yours And seeing by the seasonable assistance afforded by this Kingdome to you and by the late successes wherewith God hath blessed your Armies you are in a great measure freed of your troubles and are in a far better capacity to pay the moneys due to our Armies in England and Ireland than you were at any time since the beginning of these Wars we demand of the honourable houses to make payment of the summs of money duly owing to this Kingdome ¶ The state of things standing thus made the Game now to be play'd betwixt these great Masters not a little difficult to each the chief business of the then predominant party at Westminster being to gain the person of the King into their own hands and in case he should not upon the matter totally quit his Regal power to them by taking their Covenant and assenting to those their destructive propositions before-mentioned then to keep him close prisoner and exercise the same power without him And the design of the Scots not onely to use the like Regal-power in Scotland but to get a large sum of mony to boot considering that having the King in their hands the Grandees there were able to make their own terms on the behalf of themselves as to Riches and Honours There was therefore no means unessayed by each for accomplishing their respective ends But the Arguments and debates about this business continuing no less than six months before all things were fully agree'd I shall reserve my observations upon them till then and in the mean time take notice of what else did occur that is most remarkable in order to the carrying on their main work and divide the same into two parts the one touching their attempts upon the King in relation to the Covenant and Propositions the other towards the advancement of the Scepter of Iesus Christ for by that title they called their Presbyterean Doctrine and Discipline As to the first About the beginning of September Iames Duke Hamilton Lindsey Earl of Craford the Earl of Cassiles and some others from the Estates of Scotland came to Newcastle to the King and there earnestly solicited him to take the Covenant and sign the Propositions To second which motion there was a petition presented to His Majesty from the general Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland for Reformation of Religion according to the Covenant and uniformity of Church government denouncing God's anger upon him and the hazard to lose the Hearts of his good subjects in case he assented not thereto Soon after which Mr. Andrew Cant Mr. Robert Blayre and Mr. Iames Douglass came thither also to press him to the same purpose To torment him likewise yet more one of these violent men I mean a rigid Presbyterean-preacher besides many rude and uncivil expressions in his Sermon there before the King called for the 52. Psalm to be sung by the congregation which beginneth thus Why do'st thou Tyrant boast abroad thy wicked works to praise Whereupon His Majesty instantly stood up and called for the 56. Psalm beginning thus Have mercy Lord on me I pray for men would me devour Which the people readily sung waving the other Nay the fierceness of these Scottish-presbyters against His Sacred Majesty was such as that upon certain Proposals made to those of them who were Commissioners from the general Assembly viz. If the King shall come into Scotland and that the Kingdome of England shall exclude him of the Government there for his leaving them without granting the Propositions Whether or not
make him increase his plagues upon us and to punish us seven times more because we continue to walk contrary unto him 2. That the Lord's hand is still stretched out against us in the Iudgment of the Pestilence which spreads not onely in several parts of the Country but continueth and increaseth in many of the most eminent Cities of the Kingdome 3. The great danger that threatens Religion and the work of Reformation in these Kingdomes for the number power and policy of the Secretaries in England which are like not onely to interupt the progress of uniformity and the establishment of the Ordinances of God in their beauty and perfection but to overturn the foundation already laid and all that hath been built thereupon with the expence of so much bloud and pains And therefore we are earnestly to pray to the Lord that the solemn League and Covenant may be kept fast and inviolable notwithstanding all the purposes and endeavours of open Enemies and secret underminigs to the contrary We are to intreat the Lord on the behalf of the King's Majesty that he may be reconcil'd to God and that he may be now furnished with wisdome and councill from above that he be not involved in new snares to the endangering of himself and these Kingdomes but that his Heart may incline to such resolutions as will contribute for setling of Religion and Righteousness We are also to intreat the Lord on the behalf of the Parliament of England of the Synod of Divines and of all such in that Land as do unfeignedly mind the work of God that they may not be discouraged nor swerve in the day of temptation but that every of them in their Stations and according to their places and callings may be furnished with Light and Strength from Heaven for doing of their duty with faithfulness and zeal We are to supplicate for direction to our Committee of Estates that they may discern the times and know what is fitting to be done for securing our selves and encouraging our Brethren We are to pray for a Spirit of Light of Love unto our Assembly that they may be instrumental in preserving Truth and advancing Holiness amongst our selves and for carrying on the work of God amongst our Neighbours That the Lord would pour out upon all sorts of persons in these Kingdomes a Spirit of Grace and Supplication that it may repent us of all our Iniquities and that we may be reconcil'd unto the Lord that so all tokens of his wrath may be removed from amongst us and he may bless us with the sweet fruits of Truth and Peace It cannot easily be thought but that the Scots did somewhat more than fast and pray considering the desperate condition wherein their Covenanting-Brethren especially at Westminster and in London then stood and that the great work of Reformation as they call'd it lay in such hazard But at such a distance what more could soon be expected than that they should by the help of the zealous Preachers earnestly incite the Covenanters in London to bestir themselves and put more courage into those drooping Members who after the late purge were then left in the House which for certain they under-hand in some sort did and were like enough above board to have done much more considering that by an Ordinance of May the 4th then past the Militia of that great City was established in the hands of such persons as were nominated by the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common-Council there To secure themselves therefore against this iminent danger the Army were necessitated by picking a quarrel with the City to wrest the Militia out of their hands and then totally to cleanse the House at Westminster of the remaining Presbyterean-humour by a stronger purge then it formerly had In order whereunto there was a Letter forthwith sent from General Fairfax and the Army together with a Remonstrance to the Houses at Westminster demanding the Militia of the City to be put into their Hands Whereupon the House of Commons tamely and readily voted the repealing of that Ordinance of May the 4th and presently passed a new Ordinance for reviving the old Militia and transmitted it to the Lords Which unexpected change caused the City to meet in Common-Council and to resolve of Petitioning the Parliament again therein within two days following And so they did by their Sheriffs and some of the Common-Council But to second this Petition there followed them within three hours some thousands of Apprentices and other stout fellows with another Petition whereby they claim'd the Militia as the Citie 's Birthright by sundry Charters confirm'd in former Parliaments for defence whereof they alledg'd that they had adventured their Lives as far as the Army and thereupon desired that the Militia might be put again into the same Hands in which it was put with the Parliament and Citie 's consent upon the 4th of May. And this they did in so tumultuous a fashion that the Lords who were then but seven in number presently granted it And having so done and sent it to the Commons slipping out by a postern went themselves away by water But the Commons having no mind to displease the Army refus'd to do the like and angrily bad the Apprentices to be gone intending to rise and adjourn themselves Which purpose of theirs being discern'd by those youngsters was by them soon prevented by shutting up their doors and peremptorily requiring their complyance with the Lords The Commons therefore seeing themselves in this streight did at length with much unwillingness yeild to the importunity of these their bold Suitors and not onely so but were by them forc't to pass a farther vote which was that the King should be admitted to come to London to treat But this uproar being made known to the Grandees of the Army the greatest advantage imaginable was made thereof For the confiding Members being thereupon sent for to the Army fled to the Head-Quarters at Windsore within three days after the Speaker also bearing them Company who having cousened the State of vast sums of Money was threatned with an Impeachment if he did not come with them Of the House of Commons that so fled to the Army the number was said to be above fourty and of the Lords which came after the names were these viz. the Earls of Northumberland Warwick Manchester Salisbury Kent Moulgrave the Viscount Say and Sele the Lords Grey of Warke Wharton and Howard of Escrick Of the House of Lords that stay'd the Lord Willoughby of Parham was made Speaker But of the Commons there was about one hundred and fourty who coming to the House and missing their old Speaker and the Serjeant at Mace which usually attended chose Mr. Henry Pelham to be their new Speaker and another Serjeant to attend him Which number being all of the old Covenanting flock and yet not further illuminated proceeded to doe and act as a Parliament first
voting in their old companions called the Eleven impeached Members Next setting up a Committee of Safety enabling them to joyne with the Committee of the restored City-Militia and giving them power to list and raise forces appoint Commanders and Officers and issue forth Arms and Amunition for defence of both Houses and the City against all that should invade them And in the neck of these Votes came out a Declaration of the City which the Lords and Commons then sitting at Westminster ordered to be published throughout all England and Wales wherein after a large preamble they went on thus We do in the presence of Almighty-God profess that there is nothing in the world that we more desire than that His Majesty may be put and left free in such an honourable condition and capacity as his person may appear to be at Liberty to receive and treat upon such Propositions as shall be presented unto him from the Parliaments of both Kingdomes for our Consciences tell us that whilst his royal person is environ'd by an Army and remains under the power thereof we cannot expect that either His Majestie 's Princely Heart can give that free assent unto those things which shall be propounded unto him as is requisite or if he do cannot hope with good reason that we and our posterity shall without alteration enjoy the same And therefore we are resolved earnestly yet with humility to apply our selves to the Parliament to this purpose and hope that all good Subjects who are touched with any sense of that duty and allegiance which by the Law of God and man they owe unto the King will unanimously joyn with us therein We cannot omit also to declare unto the Kingdome how we have sadly observed since the Eleven accused Members withdrew themselves and that the Army hath daily grown upon the Parliament that a great and considerable number of other Members of the House of Commons have also retired themselves to the endangering of the Kingdom which never more needed a full Council And therefore we shall make our speedy address to the honourable House of Commons to call in all the Members of their House residing in the Army or retired to their dwellings by leave of the House or otherwise And we shall particularly insist upon the readmission of the Eleven Members lately driven out of the House of Commons by the violent pursuit of the Army contrary to the sense of the same House the Law of the Land and the Priviledges of Parliament wherein also we are confident all good English-men and Lovers of their Country will adhere unto them and us c. And we declare that we sincerely desire an happy and speedy Peace by the settlement of true Religion in this Kingdome by re-establishing His Majesty in his just Rights and Authority by upholding all lawful Priviledges of a free Parliament by maintaining the Fundamental Laws of the Land by restoring and securing the Subject unto and in his just liberty and property and by freeing the long oppressed Kingdome of all Taxes and enforced free Quarter towards the maintenance of an Army which of a long time hath had no visible Enemy to encounter And from this Resolution by the blessing of God we shall never recede for any earthly consideration or advantage whatsoever But whilst the Citizens were thus Declaring and the Members very busy at Westminster the Fugitives for so they then call'd them that were fled to the Army were not idle at Windsor for there they sate in consultation with the Council of War and signed an Engagement to live and dye with General Fairfax and the Army under his Command as also a Remonstrance shewing the grounds of their intended advance towards London Declaring against the choyce of the new Speaker at Westminster and that as things then stood there was no free-Parliament sitting being through the violence done on the twenty sixth of Iuly before wholy suspended as also that whatsoever Orders or Votes had passed since that time they should be null and void and not at all submitted unto With the Army thus marching towards the City also joyned the Trayned Bands of some Countries viz. Kent Essex and Surrey which put the Covenanting Brethren into such dreadful apprehensions and pannick fears as that they often sent Commissioners to mediate for peace but could obtain no other terms than that they must desert the Members sitting at Westminster as also the Eleven formerly impeached Moreover that they should call in their Declaration then newly printed and published Relinquish the Militia Deliver up all their Forts and Line of Communication to the Army together with the Tower of London and all the Magazines of Armes therein Disband all their Forces Turn all the Reformados out of the Line withdraw all their Guards from the Houses Receive such Guards of Horse and Foot within the Line as the Army should appoint to guard the Houses Demolish their works and suffer the whole Army to march in triumph through the City Unto all which they forthwith tamely yielded as may seem from those poor pittiful abject and slavish Expressions made by the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common-Council then sent to General Fairfax in these words And forasmuch as we observe that the chief cause which hath drawn you Excellency and your Army thus near the City is to bring home those noble and honourable Memebers of both Houses who because of the Tumults at Westminster the twenty sixth past have retired themselves to the end they may by you be placed in safety and in a free-Parliament at Westminster we chearfully and heartily joyne with your Excellency therein and according as we shall find directions from your Excellency they shall find all ports and passes open to receive you and them and also such Guards of two or three Regiments as you Excellency shall think fitting for their conduct to the two Houses of Parliament And the Parliament being set with Peace and Safety we shall humbly submit to their direction what forces of yours and ours to continue for their future Guard in which service we humbly offer the whole strength of this City Whereupon on Hounslow Heath the Army drew up in Batalia there being present the Earls of Northumberland Salisbury Kent and Moulgrave the Viscount Say and Sele the Lord Gray of Werke the Lord Howard of Escrick and Lord Wharton the Speaker also of the House of Commons and about one hundred Members of that House Where the Common-Souldiers were taught to make great Shouts and cry Lords and Commons and a free-Parliament From whence upon the sixth of August the General brought the fugitive Members with a strong party to the Parliament House the two Pallace-yards being filled with armed Guards and double Files placed throughout Westminster-Hall to the stairs of the House of Commons and so through the Court of Requests to the Lords House put the Speakers in their respective chayrs and set
a Block-house in the Sea not far from the Isle of Wight where the cold was most sharp and the Air very unwholsome as men inslam'd in this desperate condition they again took courage and held out a stout contest with the Independant-Party for the space of a whole day and night together And notwithstanding the many sharp Menaces which they had from the Sword-men on the other side they then Voted that the King's Answer to the Propositions from both Houses was a ground for them to proceed on to the settlement of the Kingdoms Peace Which put the Army into such a rage that they forthwith sent a Paper to the House by Pride and Hewson two of their Collonels requiring that the formerly impeached Members together with Major General Browne whom they charg'd to have been an Inviter of Duke Hamilton with the Scottish Army might be secured and brought to Iustice. As also that the Ninety and odd Members who refused to Vote against the late Scottish Engagement and all that Voted for recalling the Votes of Non-Addresses and likewise those that Voted for the late Treaty and that the King's concessions therein were a ground for the Houses to proceed to a settlement should be immediately suspended the House And that all such faithful Members as were innocent of those Votes should by protestation acquit themselves from any concurrence in them to the end they might be distinguished And scorning to make any long stay for an Answer to that their Paper they sent the next Morning certain Regiments of Horse and Foot to Westminster who setting Guards upon all the Avenues to the Parliament House seized upon one and Forty of the Members then Sitting viz. Major General Browne Mr. Iohn Buckley Colonel Birch Mr. Thomas Boughton Mr. Francis Buller Sir Iohn Clotworthy Mr. Lionel Copley Mr. Iohn Crew Sir Simonds D'ewes Knight and Baronet Mr. Drake Sir Walter Earle Mr. Nathaniel Fienes Mr. Giles Greene. Sir Gilbert Gerard. Sir Herbottle Grimston Kt. Mr. Francis Gerard. Sir Robert Harley Kt. Colonel Edward Harley Sir Anthony Irby Mr. Iohn Knightley Sir Martin Lyster Colonel Edward Leigh Mr. Lane Sir Samuel Luke Sir William Lewes Major General Massy Sir Iohn Merrick Sir Richard Onslow Mr. Henry Pelham Sir Robert Pye Kt. Mr. William Pryn. Mr. Preistley Sir Benjamin Rudyard Mr. William Strode Sir Thomas Soame Mr. Edward Stephens Mr. Iohn Swinfen Mr. Charles Vaughan Sir William Waller Mr. William Wheeler The Lord Wenman Mr. Clement Walker Of whose Names Mr. Hugh Peters one of their hot-headed Preachers came to take a List and then convey'd them into their great Victualling-house near Westminster-Hall called Hell where they kept them all night without any Beds Whence being driven a Prisoners through Snow and Rain by the Guards to several Inns in the Strand the Souldiers upbraided them in their passage that they were the men who had cousened the State of their Money and kept back the Armies Pay Which signal Act hapned the very day that their great Master Oliver Cromwel return'd from Scotland to Loudon And as they made Prisoners of these so they denyed entrance into the House unto above one hundred and Sixty more Whereupon the rest of the Presbyterian Party being terrified with this usage of their Fellow-Members declin'd the House leaving it to about an hundred and Fifty who for the most part being Officers of the Army perform'd whatsoever the Grandees of that Faction prompted them to do This Exclusion of those Members being call'd Colonel Pride 's Purge ¶ It is very well known to the world that throughout the whole course of this grand Rebellion it was the usual practise of the Presbyterians to make great advantages unto their Party by frequenting of Sermons and performance of other pretended exercises of Religion Amongst which the strict observance of such dayes as were set apart by their Leaders for Seeking of God as they call'd it by Fasting and Prayer and other wayes of Humiliation were not the least In which act of deluding the People they were at length grown to be such excellent Masters that when any transcendent work was to be done it was always ushered in with this sanctified veile under pretence that in the zealous performance of those Duties they did ask Council of the Lord and thereupon by some more than ordinary Illumination were directed to proceed in the business design'd Which notable example the Independants deeming fit to be imitated in order to their own High and Mighty designs they kept a Fast in the House of Commons upon the Eighth of December Where Mr. Stephen Marshall formerly the Great Bell-weather of the Presbyterian Flock Mr. Carrill and Hugh Peters Preacht that day to them under pretence of directing them to humble their Spirits now that God had so signally appeared to them in their great Victory over the Scots at Preston and other eminent manifestations Next to which devout work the remaining Members that sate after this Grand Purge damn'd all the Votes which the Presbyterians had made either in reference to the Treaty or to their secluded Brethren And within few days after divers of the Lords went to the General to express their good affections to him and concurrence with his purposes for the Common God as also to let his Excellency know that they would wave their Priviledges and Titles in case they should be found burthensome to the Liberties of the People And as the Lords had thus manifested their obsequiousness to the Army so did also the most Godly men of the House of Commons by subscribing a Protestation against the late Treaty with the King in the Isle of Wight but especially against that Vote of 5. Dec. allowing His Majesties Answer to the Propositions of Both Houses to be a ground for them to proceed on for a Settlement the names of which worthy Members I have here added Philip Lord Lisle Colonel Boswell Mr. Iohn Gourdon The Lord Grey of Groby Mr. Peregrine Pelham Colonel Iones Colonel Temple Colonel Ven. Sir Thomas Maleverer Sir Thomas Wrothe Sir Iohn Bourcher Colonel Peter Temple Mr. Humphry Edwards Mr. Thomas Chaloner Sir Gregory Norton Michael Old worth Augustine Garland Sir Iohn Danvers Mr. Dove Mr. Henry Smith Mr. Frye Mr. Searle Mr. Nicholas Love Mr. Iohn Lisle Colonel Rigby Mr. Cornelius Holland Colonel Ludlow Gregory Clement Colonel Purefoy Colonel Stapeley Mr. Dunch Mr. Cawley Colonel Downes Mr. Iohn Carey Mr. Iohn Blakeston Mr. Thomas Scott Colonel Hutchinson Sir Henry Mildmay Sir Iames Harington Colonel Edward Harvey Alderman Penington Alderman Atkins Mr. Daniel Blagrave Colonel Moore Colonel Millington Mr. Prideaux Mr. Roger Hill Mr. Dennis Bond. Colonel Harrington Mr. Hodges Mr. Benjamin Valentine The work being therefore thus smoothly carryed on to accomplish their chief design for murthering the King they remov'd him from Hurst-Castle to Winchester and thence to Farâ—ham-Castle in Hantshire And that they might effect their business with the greater Formality they held a
to posterity he should sooner be willing to be rolled to his Grave in blood and buryed with Infamy than to give consent to the throwing it away And therefore that he had caused a stop to their entrance into the House till such time as they should subscribe a Recognition thereof and did submit thereto And that if things were not satisfied as were then reasonably demanded he for his part should do that which becom'd him seeking his Council from God The truth is that which principally emboldened him to be thus peremptory with them was the strength of the Souldiery which were generally of his side and which the adverse party knew full well So that of the whole number of those Members though there was not above sixty that did at first subscribe the Recognition yet the greatest part of the rest after private consultations together being well aware that by taking their best advantages upon all occasions within the House they might do him more mischief than they could any way to otherwise came in by degrees and formally signed the same But as those who were his chief Confidents did strive all they could to carry on affairs for his peculiar Interest according to the frame of that Government whereby he was so advanced to that place and Title sure it is that the rest by those rubs and obstructions which they cast in his way did make all their endeavours totally fruitless So that after well near five Months expectance and nothing at all done he was necessitated to dissolve that his first and once hopeful Parliament I should here have concluded this years Transactions but that I cannot omit to relate a very pregnant Instance how timely our now gracious Soveraign King Charles the second did adhere to the Protestant Religion professed in the Church of England even in those days when there was so little hopes to see it ever restored the Rebels in this Realm being then so prosperous that the greatest Potentates courted their alliance but even then so fervent was his Majesties zeal thereto that by his great and effectual care he prevented the perverting of his Brother the Duke of Gloucester to that of the Church of Rome In the relation of which there are so many considerable circumstances whereof very little publick notice hath been taken that contrary to the designed brevity of this History I shall give a full account of the same partly taken from a Relation Printed at London in an 1655 and partly from the certain information of persons of undoubted credit yet living who were present at the transacting thereof His Majesty understanding that there was a firm League very far advanced betwixt the French King and Oliver Cromwell withdrew himself this year into Germany out of France where till then he had ever resided since his happy and miraculous escape from Worâ—ester and designing to take the Duke of Gloucester with him was prevailed with by the Queen his Mother to leave him with her at Paris upon promise she would not permit any force to be put upon him to change his Religion but that he should be attended by those Protestant-Servants himself had placed about him and have free liberty to resort to the publick Service of the Church of England at the King's Chappel in Sir Richard Brown's House then his Majesties Resident at Paris But about the beginning of November in this year the Duke under pretence of weaning himself from the company of some young French Gallants who being in the same Accademie were grown into a more familiar conversation with him than was thought convenient was removed to Abbot Mountague's House at his Abby near Potoiso And after a few days Mr. Lovel his Tutor going to Paris for one day only on business designedly contrived as was suspected by Abbot Mountagu during his absence was most vehemently pressed by the Abbot to turn Roman-Catholick with all the motives spiritual or temporal he thought might prevail upon him having at that time no Protestant near him to advise with but Mr. Griffin of his Bed-Chamber a young Gentleman since dead but his Fame for his servent zeal to the Protestant Religion and faithful service to his Master yet living who deported himself with greater prudence than could with reason have been expected for one of so tender years assisted only by so young a second for both their ages did but some few years exceed thirty replying to their Arguments with great ingenuity evidencing no little zeal for his Religion For he told the Abbot he admired how he durst make this attempt upon him knowing how the Queen his Mother had engaged to the King his Brother that no change in his Religion should be endeavoured Also that for his own part he was resoly'd not to incur the Kings displeasure by neglecting the observance of his command which was not to listen to any Argument for change of his Religion Likewise that as to the specious proposals of making him a Cardinal and promising to advance him to be King of England he did with indignation and contempt deride and reject them complaining withal how disingeniously he was dealt with to be thus assaulted in the absence of his Tutor whom the King had placed over him and who he doubted not could easily refute all their Arguments which in truth at his return to Ponroise he did so fully that it was thought convenient to remove the Duke back thence to Paris where he was permitted to resort to the Kings Chappel and enjoy the free exercise of his Religion though not long For after some little time the Queen his Mother did own the attempt made on him to have been done with her approbation and declared she could not but labour to have her Son shew'd the right way to Heaven and though she had promised he should not be forced by her yet to have that way proposed to him she thought requisite And that he might the easier be prevail'd upon his Protestant Tutor was put from him and he himself hurryed out of Paris in such hast that he might be deprived of the Assistance and Advice of any Protestant that he could not though he earnestly beg'd it prevail to stay till he might get some warmer Cloaths and convey'd to Mr. Crofts afterwards Lord Croft's his House but under the direction of Abbut Mountagu none of his Servants but young Mr. Gryffin being permitted to attend him The News whereof did deeply afflict all the loyal-Protestant Exiles then in Paris but no man was more passionately concern'd than that Eminent sufferer for his loyalty to the Royal Family and Zeal to the Protestant Religion the late Lord Hatton Who as soon as he understood how violently this young Prince was Persecuted for his Religion he consulted with that famous Confesfor for the Church of England Dr. Iohn Cosens late Bishop of Durham but at that time Dean of Peterborough and Chaplain to his Majesty then residing in Paris and drew up what Arguments and
next following landed at Dover Whence attended by most of the Loyal Nobility and Gentry of this Realm he came to London upon the 29th of that Month being the Anniversary of his Birth where with stately Arches of Triumph costly Pageants Bells various sorts of excellent Musick Bonefires and joy inexpressible he was received and proceeded in State through that great City to his Royal Palace at White-Hall the chief and happy Instrument of this His Majesties most miraculous Restauration without blood-shed being the above-mentioned Colonel George Monke a Devonshire Gentleman of an Antient and Worthy Family lineally descended from King Edward the IV by the Lady Frances Daughter and Coheir to Arthur Plantagenet Vicount Lisle his Natural Son Who having put himself in Arms for the King at the Commencement of this grand defection and so continuing till by a second Invasion of the Scots the Rebels prevailed in sundry parts by taking divers Garrisons and many of His Majesties Loyal Subjects Prisoners amongst which it was his hap to be one he thought it better to gain his Liberty by receiving entertainment in their Army until he could discern a proper opportunity to do His Majesty service than by so suffering Which at last with no less Prudence than Courage he most faithfully performed as hath been observed and for which he hath since that time been deservedly remunerated not only with several great and honourable Titles viz. Baron Monke of Powtheridge Earl of Torington Duke of Albemarle and Knight of the most Noble Order of the Garter as also made Captain General of all his Forces Horse and Foot throughout his whole Dominions but with ample Possessions for the better support of those high Dignities A SHORT VIEVV OF THE LATE TROUBLES IN ENGLAND CHAP. XLIII HAving now finished this Narrative with as much brevity as I well could do whereby it hath been fully made evident by what Artifices this seeming-Godly Generation did at first get power into their cruel hands that is to say their many specious Declarations and solemn promises for the Defence of the Protestant Religion the Laws of the Land the Liberties of the Subject and Priviledges of Parliament I shall now crave leave to make some short Observations thereon and give most ample instances of their contrary Actings in every of these even in those very times in which their Dagon of Presbytery was visibly Triumphant And first as to the Protestant Religion After they had under pretence of great danger by a Jesuitical-party of destroying the Protestant Religion fram'd a protestation for preserving the same as it was exprest in the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England Which protestation the farther to satisfy the People of their own integrity was solemnly taken by all the Members and Ordered to be Printed and sent down into the several Counties within few days after they made an Explanation thereof viz. That by the true reformed Protestant Religion was meant so far as it was opposite to Popery and that the said words were not to be extended to the maintenance of any Form Discipline or Government nor of any Rules or Ceremonies of the said Church of England And having given themselves such Latitude by that their After-explanation viz. not to desend the Protestant Religion as it stood establisht by Law and was exprest in the XXXIX Articles but as it was repugnant to Popery and taught perhaps by all Brownists Anabaptists Familists and other Sectaries which made way for all that brood to joyn with them They then Ordered that no Minister should take any Oath at his Induction but what should be warranted by Scripture And soon after fell into debate for the Extirpation of Episcopacie Then Ordered that no Service should be Read nor Psalm sung in going pâ—ocession Next Voted that the Government of the Church of England by Archbishops Bishops c. had been found by long experience to be a great impediment to the perfect reformation and growth of Religion and very prejudical to the civil Government of this Kingdom As also that Archiepiscopal and Episcopal Iurisdiction should be exercised by themselves And brought in a Bill for abolishing the Cross in Baptism Surpliss Bowing at the name of Iesus standing up at the Gospel c. Nevertheless to set up Lectures Likewise that whosoever should refuse to take the Protestation should be held unfit to bear Office in the Church or Common-Wealth conceiving it to be a true testimony for that was their expression to distinguish the Ephramites from the Gileadites And within four days after Voted Thirteen Bishops Delinquents with desire that they might be impeached as Authors of Sedition for having a hand in the later Canons What private Conferences they had about this time in order to the Extirpation of Episcopacy whereby for want of Government in the Church they might the sooner bring all to confusion take their own Testimony At an assembly of about an hundred Priests at Mr. Calamie's a London Priest about a Petition against the Bishops it being insisted on that Heresies would farther spread if Bishops were put down the Priests thereupon sent for Mr. Green and Mr. Spenser of the seperate Congregations to desire them for a time they would suspend their open meetings and be more private in their practise in regard that their publique meeting was an obstacle to the suppression of the Bishops but afterwards they might have free libertie of their practise The words were uttered by Mr. Calamine who was afterwards to violent against their toleration And to hasten this universal Confusion they appointed the pulling down of Rayles about Communion Tables and the removing of such Tables giving liberty by a special Order to the Inhabitants any where throughout the Kingdom to erect Lectures whereby Mechanicks and Illiterate-men were set up to the infinite scandal of Religion and increase of Schisme And when the House of Lords discerning these licentious and irreverent courses made a publique Order injoying the due observation of the Book of Common Prayer in all Churches without alteration the House of Commons by means of the prevalent Partie therein in opposition thereto and extenuation thereof declared that but Eleven of the Lords assented to that Order and that Nine refused ordering that their Declaration therein should be dispersed and Read throughout all the Churches in England It can hardly be imagined what strange effects these their practises in the House of Commons did in a short time produce one of their own partie then acknowledging in Print That all Government and Discipline of the Church was lay'd in her Grave and all the putredinous Vermine of bold Schismaticks and frantick Sectaries glory in her Ashes making the fall thereof their own rising to mount the Pulpits c. And another of them crying out in these words Alas your poor Church is oppressed and who layeth hand to help the
and Poundage contrary to an express Act made also that very Parliament So likewise a new Imposition called Excise upon Victuals and all other Commodities against which they themselves had much declaimed And to countenance these grand Oppressions voted that an Ordinance of Parliament was as binding to the Subject as an Act of Parliament Thereupon ordaining that such Persons as ought to pay any Rents Debts c. due to those who are assessed and refused so to do should be Discharged against the Landlord or Creditor And at length became so bold as that their new Lord Mayor Isaac Pennington chalenging a Sturgeon which was taken above London-Bridge and it being answered that it belonged to the King or Lord Admiral Replyed you Malignant Rogue I would have you to know that there is neither King nor Admiral that hath any Power in London but my self Add thereunto their Ordinance for keeping Michaelmas Terme at Westminster notwithstanding his Majesties Proclamation And another Constituting the Earl of Warwick Governour and Lord Admiral of all the Islands in America Inhabited or Planted by the King's Subjects Another declaring the King's Broad-Seal Invalid and Commanding Obedience to all Writs c. to be issued under a new great Seal made by themselves And Sequestring all Offices of those Clerks in Westminster-Hall which were with the King The authority given to the Earl of Manchester by another Ordinance to deprive and displace all Masters and Fellows of Colledges and Halls in Cambridge and all other Clergy-Men within the Association as he should think convenient The Ordinances for seizing the Kings Queens and Princes Revenew for cutting down their Woods For Commanding all Men to pay nothing to his Majesty the Queen and Prince which was due and ought to have been paid to them for those are the words also the Commitment of Laughern and Vivian to Colchester-Goal for denying to pay two Thousand Pounds which was due to the Prince from them though the Receiver was Plundred of the Money And when it was told Mr. Strode Chair-Man to the Committee for raising Money that no more Money could be advanced their Purses having been so drain'd already he Replyed that they must have no denial for their Money was demanded by the Supream Court of Iudicature adding that those were times of necessity Another of the Members sticking not to say shortly after that if it would advantage their Cause he thought it lawful to unvote whatsoever had passed since the beginning of that Parliament Besides which grievous Impositions upon the Subjects Estates they stuck not at the like to their Persons upon pain of Death restraining all Persons for going from London to the King or Queen And for a farther Testimony of their dealing with the People in point of their Proprietie take their Governour of Abington's Answer viz. Coll. Browne to no less than Seven-score poor People which came thither to him at one time wringing their hands and begging for some small Pittance of what he had caused to be taken from them in the Villages thereabours which was no less than all their Goods even to part of their wearing Apparel which was thus with Tears in his Eyes Alas good People it is not in my Power to help you For if this were done by meet Rudeness of my Souldiers I could say something but you have not lost a Pin but according to the Command of both Houses of Parliament who injoin'd us to spare nothing Therefore said he whispering to one or two of them if you have any thing left 't is your best course to Convey it away quickly for the Parliament hath Commanded me to take all I can carry and burn up the rest before the King comes These and the like as by many Instances might be made apparent have been their Practises in violating the Laws of the Land with the Liberties and Properties of the Subject however Fair and Specious their Promises were otherwise until they had got Power into their hands being at length not ashamed to discover their full Intentions by those Propositions which they tendred to His Majesty at Oxford upon the 23d of November 1644. And whereupon a Treaty was had at Uxbridge Where it was judiciously observ'd by his Majesties Commissioners That after a War of near three Years for which the Defence of the Protestant Religion the Liberty and Property of the Subject and the Priviledges of Parliament were made the cause and Grounds in a Treaty of full twenty days nor indeed in the whole Propositions upon which the Treaty should be there was nothing offered to be treated on concerning the Breach of any Law or of the Liberty or Property of the Subject or Priviledge of Parliament but only Propositions for the altering a Government Established by Law and for the making of new Laws by which all the old were or might be Cancelled there being nothing insisted upon on the part of his Majesties Commissioners which was not Laws or denied by them that the other demanded as due by Law The next and last particular for which they made such great Pretences is the Priviledge of Parliaments Having therefore under that colour justified most of their pernicious Actions let us take notice how consonant to Justice Reason or common Honesty their Practices upon this point have been Did they not soon after the beginning of that Unhappy Parliament without any president found a Close-Committee consisting of eight persons whereof no less than seven were principal Contrivers of the ensuing Rebellion And in the business of the Earl of Strafford was not their Bill for his attainder twice read and voted in one day and fifty-five of the Members Posted for not assenting thereto whose Names to their lasting Honour I have here added 1. George Lord Digby 2. Iames Lord Compton 3. Richard Lord Buckhurst 4. Sr. Robert Hatton 5. Sr. Thomas Fanshaw 6. Sr. Edward Alford 7. Sr. Nicholas Slanyng 8. Sr. Thomas Danby 9. Sr. George Wentworth 10. Sr. Peter Wentworth 11. Sr. Frederick Cornwallis 12. Sr. William Carnaby 13. Sr. Richard Wynn. 14. Sr. Gervace Clifton 15. Sr. William Widdrington 16. Sr. William Pennyman 17. Sr. Patricius Curwen 18. Sr. Richard Lee. 19. Sr. Henry Slingesby 20. Sr. William Portman 21. Mr. Gervase Hollies 22. Mr. Sidney Godolphin 23. Mr. Cooke 24. Mr. Coventrey 25. Mr. Benjamin Weston 26. Mr. William Weston 27. Mr. Selden 28. Mr. Alford 29. Mr. Llhoyd 30. Mr. Herbert 31. Captain Digby 32. Serjeant Hyde 33. Mr. Tailor 34. Mr. Gryffith 35. Mr. Scowen 36. Mr. Bridgman 37. Mr. Fettiplace 38. Dr. Turner 39. Capt. Charles Price 40. Dr. Parry a Civilian 41. Mr. Arundell 42. Mr. Newport 43. Mr. Holburne 44. Mr. Noell 45. Mr. Kirton 46. Mr. Pollard 47. Mr. Price 48. Mr. Trevanion 49. Mr. Iane. 50. Mr. Edgcombe 51. Mr. Chichley 52. Mr. Mallorey 53. Mr. Porter 54. Mr. White Secretary to the Earl of
Dorset 55. Mr. Philip Warwick Likewise after the Lords had passed their Votes therein was not their House called to find out which of them had not given their Votes thereunto And was not Mr. Gervase Hollies Burgess for Grymesby in Lincoln-shire expelled the House for his free Speech against the Scots propositions for the altering of our Church-Government Also the Lord Digby's Speech against the Bill for the Earl of Strafford's Attainder Voted to be burnt by the common Hangman Mr. Taylor Burgess of Windsore Expell'd for speaking his mind against the same and Mr. Geffrey Palmer Burgess of Stamford Committed for speaking against the Printing of that Scandalous Declaration called the Grand-Remonstrance Were not Multitudes brought down to Westminster even to the Doors of the Parliament many of them Weaponed by the Instigation of Captain Venn then a Member of the House of Commons who by Notes under his hand Sollicited them in these expressions That the better sort were like to be over-powred by the worser And did not those tumultuous People cry loud for Iustice against the Earl of Strafford saying down with the Bishops aspersing also divers of the Peers by name for evil and Rotten-hearted Lords And notwithstanding that the Lords by several Messages desired the House of Commons to join with them in a Declaration against those Tumults did not they refuse or neglect to do it Mr. Pym plainly saying in the House God forbid we should dishearten our Friends who came to assist us And when his Majesty by a Legal Writ upon the Statute for Suppressing of Tumults setled a Guard at Westminster was it not Voted a Breach of their Priviledges Moreover was not there a Petition Exhibited to the House of Commons in the Name of many Thousands of poor People in and about the City of London taking notice of a Malignant Faction which made Abortive all their good Motions Desiring that those Noble Worthies of the House of Peers who concurred with them in their happy Votes might be earnestly desired to join with that Honourable House and to sit and Vote together as one entire Body And professing that unless some speedy Remedy were taken for the removing of all such Obstacles as hindred the happy Progress of their great endeavour the Petitioners should not rest in quietness but should be forc'd to lay hold on the next Remedy at hand to remove the Disturbers of their Peace And Want and Necessity breaking the Bounds of Modesty not to leave any means unessayed for their Relief Adding that the cry of the Poor and Needy was that such persons who were the Obstacles of their peace and the hinderers of the happy proceedings of that Parliament might be forthwith publickly declared whose removal would put a period to those Distractions Which Petition being brought up by the House of Commons unto the Lords at a conference a Member of the Commons by a Message pressed the Lords at their Barr to joyn with them in their desire about the Militia expressing That if their desire were not assented to those Lords who were willing to concur would find some means to make themselves known that it might be seen who were against them to the end they might notifie it unto those which sent them To proceed Was not the Duke of Richmond Voted by the Commons an evil Councellor to his Majesty one of the Malignant-Party and not fit to bear Office or place of Trust and that consideration should be had of drawing up a Charge against him and all this for no other than moving in the House of Lords that the Parliament might be Adjorn'd for six Months And Mr. Gamull Burgess for the City of Chester told him that if he left not the Town speedily he should be Committed to the Tower or knockt on the head by the Souldiers And when an Order was reported to be confirm'd by the House hath it not been only put to the Question without any debate thereon and publickly said in the House to those who have taken Exceptions thereat that they were only to Vote and not to Dispute Was not Sir Ralph Hopton Committed to the Tower for speaking against that Declaration of March the Second Also Serjeant Hide Voted to be Expelled and Committed to the Tower for not Publishing the Order of the House as Recorder of Salisbury And Sir Sidney Montague Expelled the House for refusing to take the Protestation to Live and Dye with the Earl of Essex Did they not Impeach and Commit divers Lords to the Tower for not Concurring with them in these their Irrational and most Unjust Doings And when it was moved that they might be Bailed was it not answered That there would be no Sitting for them if those Lords were Released and Restored to the freedom of their Votes again And when the Members of the House of Commons had upon a solemn Debate agreed to join with the Lords in sending Propositions for Peace to his Majesty were there not Printed Papers the next day scattered in the Streets and fixed upon Posts in publick places in the City and Suburbs requiring all Well-Affected persons to rise as one Man and to come to the House of Commons next Morning for that Twenty thousand Irish Rebels were Landed And was not Direction and Information given in the Pulpits by their Seditious-Preachers and in some of those Papers Exprest that the Malignant Party had over-Voted the good and if not prevented there would be Peace The Propositions for Peace the Day before being carried by twenty nine Voices Whereupon multitudes by the Instigation of Alderman Pennington came in a most tumultuous manner with Threats and Menaces to divers of the Members of both Houses and said that their Petition tooke notice of Propositions passed by the Lords for Peace which if allowed would be destructive to Religion Laws and Liberties many of them telling the Members that if they had not a good Answer they would be there the next Day with double the Number Again when it was moved that the two Sir Iohn Evelins should be Discharg'd from Prison being Members of the House and thereupon the House dividing LXXI standing for their Enlargement and LXV against it were not divers called out of the Committee-Chamber who neither heard the Debate nor Vote and because the LXXI Opposed their entrance did not the LXV prohibit the Speaker to pronounce any Order therein Lastly did not the Commons Vote that the Committee of both Kingdoms should proceed as they did for three Months longer though the Lords refused to consent thereto Many more Instances of this nature might be given but I shall for brevities sake pass them by and descend to some where the Lords after they had freely passed their Votes were by the prevalent Party in the House of Commons contrary to all course and usage in Parliament constrain'd to yield unto what they had upon free and serious
Debate resolv'd against In the Case of the Bishops the Lords first Voted that they should retain their Voices in Parliament For taking the Protestation throughout the Kingdom the Lords first cast out the Order And notwithstanding their Order and Declaration for the due Observance of the Book of Common-Prayer the Commons made and set forth a contrary Order thereto appointing it to be dispersed and published in all the Churches throughout the Kingdom Likewise though the Lords refused to joyn with the Commons for Petitioning his Majesty that the Cinque-Ports might be secured Yet were they afterwards by terror constrain'd thereto So Likewise though they refused to join with them in their consent for removing the King's Magazine from Hull yet afterwards through over-awing did it And though they concurr'd not with them in that case of the Militia the House of Commons Voted that they did agree therein Thus we plainly see that the Breach of those antient Priviledges for Freedom of Debate and Vote in Parliament was not made without some difficulty But these subtile Men having by the help of those Tumults from the Londoners opened the gap went afterwards smoothly through with all their unjustifiable Practises which in the end brought Confusion both of Parliament and Kingdome So that by these Devices having effected whatsoever they had a mind to they stuck not to deliver it for a Breach of Priviledge that the Lords should dissent to any thing they had Voted as is manifest from that of the New great Scal wherein the Lords had the same measure put upon themselves as they had offered to the King in joyning with the Commons to Vote his Majesties Dissent to the Bills they tendred to him a Breach of their Priviledges CHAP. XLV BY what hath been already said I doubt not but it is apparent enough that these great pretended Champions for the Protestant-Religion the Laws of the Land the Liberty of the Subject and Priviledges of Parliament made use of those specious pretences for no other end than to Captivate the People and by that means get the Power of the Sword into their Mercyless Hands Now forasmuch as they were not asham'd in the midst of all their Vile Practises to cry out that they sought nothing but that Religion Liberty and Peace of the Kingdom should be preserved Having already shewed how well they regarded Religion and the Peoples Liberties let us see how much they endeavoured that generally wished for Peace Did they not order that the King's Proclamation of Pardon to all that would lay down Arms and return to their Obedience should not be Proclaim'd in London and Westminster And when divers Cittizens met at Guild-Hall to frame a Petition to present to the Members at Westminster for Peace was not there a Troop of Horse sent amongst them which with their Swords drawn and terrible Menaces caused them to Disperse for safeguard of their Lives And afterwards when a Committee of the Petitioners were by appointment attending the Court of Aldermen and Common Council at Guild-Hall did not more than Twenty Souldiers rush in amongst them with drawn Swords Crying On on strike now or never Let us destroy these Malignant Doggs that would have Peace Let us cut the Throats of these Popish Rogues And accordingly fell upon the Petitioners in a cruel manner beating and wounding divers of them And when the Petitioners being many disarm'd those Souldiers and shut up the Hall Doors was not there then a Troop of Horse which Discharg'd their Pistols in at them threatning to kill any that issued out And did they not presently bring two great Guns and plant them against the Doors so that the Petitioners were constrain'd to fly up to the Common-Council Chamber for Protection and beg for their Lives to be dismissed with safety Which being granted and they let out did not many lye in wait for them with drawn Swords who pursued them with bitter Execrations the Multitude kicking and striking at them in their Passage crying Hang them cut their Throats Whereupon divers of them were sore hurt and some drag'd to Prison Did not their House of Lords refuse a Petition for Peace from the Inhabitants of Westminster and the Suburbs And was not there a Constable in Westminster Committed for having a hand in that Petition And when His Majesties Commissioners of Array in Cheshire and the Parliaments Committee in that County for Exercising the Militia out of an earnest regard to prevent the Miseries of War in those parts had made an Agreement against any farther Hostility and to preserve the Peace of the Country did not they at Westminster make a publick Declaration against the same whereby they Renounced that Agreement as prejudicial and dangerous to the whole Kingdom and declared it void And was not Sir William Brereton thereupon sent down in all hast with a Troop of Horse a Regiment of Dragoons and four Field Pieces for raising new Forces in that County to serve the Parliament And was not the like Revocation and Disclaymer made by those Members at Westminster against the Agreement in York-shire by the Earl of Cumberland and others the Commissioners of Array there for His Majesty and the Lord Fairfax and others for the Militia Was not Mr. Nicholls and Prideaux two of their Members ordered to go down to break the like Pacification made by the Gentry and others in the Counties of Devon and Cornwail notwithstanding that the Commissioners had taken a Solemn Prorestation and received the Sacrament for Observation thereof And when His Majesty had sent a Gracious Letter and Declaration to the Sheriffs and City of London with Direction that it should be read in their Common Hall was not there an Order in the Name of both Houses to forbid their meeting for to hear it Read And divâ—â—s Discharg'd by Order of the Houses who met accordingly Likewise when His Majesty sent a Message to them for a Treaty with free Trade did not the Members in the House of Commons signify to the Lords at a Conference that it would prove destructive to the Liberty of the Subject and to the Kingdom And when the Women came in great Numbers to Westminster to cry for Peace were they not beaten and abused and three of them killed Were not there certain Propositions read in their House of Commons which were found in Mr. Salâ—marsh his Trunk near Hull First that all means should be used to keep the King and his People from a suddain Union Secondly to cherish the War under the notion of Popery as the surest means to engage the People Thirdly if the King would not grant their demands then to root him out of the Royal Line and collate the Crown upon some body else How hard a matter it was like to be to obtain Peace from these Men therefore let Stephen Marshall tell you whom Mr. Case
that they had all sworn and religiously promised to stand upon their Guard that the Church of God might be restored to her Honour the true Christian Catholick Religion Established the Nobility enjoy their Liberty entirely as they ought the People relieved and all new Impositions abolished And that these were the occasions of their taking up Arms for rescuing the Kingdom of France from ruine the preservation of good Men and punishment of bad and for the security of their own persons there being no other means left to preserve themselves and turn away the Knife from their own Throats which yet they would not make use of if their Estates only were in danger and the Subversion of Religion and State of the Kingdom were not inseparably joined with their own for the preservation of which they should not fear any hazard concluding that they could not choose a more Honourable Grave than to spend their Lives in so Holy a Cause so just a Quarrel in discharge of that Duty and Obligation which they owed as good Christians to the Service of God and as good and Loyal Subjects to oppose the Subuersion of which the State must naturally follow the alteration of Religion Protesting that they did not take up Arms against the King their Soveraign Lord but for the guard and just defence of his Person his Life and State for whom they had promised and sworn to hazard their own Lives and Fortunes to the last drop of their Bloud and to lay down Arms so soon as it should please his Majesty to remove the danger which threatned the ruine of the Service of God and so many good Men Intreating all that were not Confederate with them to favour their Designs and to assist them by their Power in the Execution of that good and Holy Work Exhorting all Towns and Corporations as they tendred their own preservation to judge uprightly of their Intentions and to consider what benefit and repose would accrue unto them and so doing to put their hands to that good work Declaring that they would not use any act of Violence but against such as should oppose them and by other undue means favour their Adversaries which sought to ruine the Church and Subvert the State Assuring every Man that their Holy-Armies should do no Man any wrong or oppression whether in passing or staying in any place but should live orderly and pay for all they took Protesting never to lay down Arms till they had fully Executed all the Premisses but rather die with a willing Heart desiring to be Intombed in a Monument Consecrated to the last of French-Men who died in Arms for the Service of God and their Country At which time they were so high in their own Opinions and their Conceits of the Peoples Inclinations that in this Declaration as an argument to win every Man to their Party they Invited all to put to their helping hands to their good Design which by the Grace of God as they said could not choose but prosper Sutable whereunto our Men to affright such from their Loyalty as they could not perswade told them that they had brought their work to such an height and degree of Success that nothing seemed to be left in their way able to hinder the full accomplishment of their desires unless God in his Iustice should send a grievous Curse upon them And as the Leaguers backing the words of their Remonstrance with Actions of no less efficacy began immediately upon it to impatronize themselves of many Cities and Strong-holds partly by underhand Practises and partly by open force Such were Lull and Uerdune the first Citties in France that cast out the Kings Officers and received the Leaguers so did ours possess themselves of Hull and Plymmouch and other places of Strength which tended so much to the advancement of their Design When therefore the Leaguers had by these Subtilties wrought the People out of Opinion with the King and him out of his Power over his Subjects When he could not with satisfaction to himself neither joyn with the Huguenots nor give content to the Leaguers waiting to make use of such Council as time should Minister unto him his Affairs going on but a slow pace he stood rather to justify himself than to stop the Progress of the Confederates And when he was assured from all parts at the same time of raising Forces and frequent meetings of Men in Arms he did no more than set forth an Edict wherein after the usual Preamble he protested his earnest desire of the Publick Tranquility and by all good means to provide for the ease of his People In which perceiving that some who were Enemies of their Peace did labour to oppose him He therefore straitly prohibited all Levies and gathering together of Souldiers Commanding that their Leaders should be Apprehended and Prosecuted according to Law By which he gained no more but this viz. That by the continuing of their Levies it did then sufficiently appear who were his Enemies Thus did the Leaguers get the Start of the King in their warlike Prepations and it was long before he could perswade himself to prepare for his Defence But being at last necessitated to make other Provisions than Proclamations more sutable to the exigency of the times after much doubting and deliberation he resolved to resist the force and practises of the League as well as he could without any Intelligence or Assistance from the Huguenots hoping that he should be able of himself to curb them But scarcely had he begun to put this deliberation in Execution than that he discovered the weakness of his Councils in that of his Forces The Lord of Truery had raised for him Ten Thousand Switzers But the Counties of Burgundy Champaine and Lyouns being all possess'd by them of League there was no passing for them that way The Count of Scomberg was sent to hire some German-Horse but in his passage thither through those Counties he was seized on and Committed to Prison by the Duke of Lorrain Nor did the Kings business go on much better at home than abroad The Nobility divided partly by reason of their Religion and partly by antient Feuds newly divided by these Dissentions came but slowly in to the King The People generally dissaffected did not concur to the relief of his wants The Revenues of the Crown not only stopt by noise of War but purposely Interrupted and seized upon bp the Heads of the Faction were utterly decayed so as the Sinews of War were wanting on all sides to the Kings Party Those of the League therefore perceiving with what difficulties the King wrestled began with great earnestness to gather Forces and to put in Execution the Plot they had laid long before The King having as yet nothing to oppose them but his Pen was necessitated to imploy it in vindication of himself from those Imputations which were thrown upon
31 Aug. * 4 Sept. * 6 Sept. * 11 Sept. Scob. Coll. p. 54. * 13 Sept. * 25 Sept. The solemn League and Covenant fram'd in Scotland taken by the Members at Westminster Archbishop Laud's life p. 510. * See the Remonstrance of the Army in order to the King's Trial dated at St. Albans 16 Nov. 1648. * Covenant with Narrative p. 12. * 21 Sept. Scob. Coll. p. 54. * 2 Oct. * 5 Oct. * 6 Oct. * 7 Oct. * 18 Oct. * 9 Oct. Scob. Coll. p. 57. * 18 Oct. * Articles of the Treaty at Edenborough for bringing in the Scots Army * 29 Nov. * 20 Nov. * 28 Nov. Scob. Coll. p. 59. * 13 Dec. * 25 Dec. Scob. Coll. p. 60. * 9 Jan. Scob. Coll. p. 60. * See the Letter to his Majesty from the Lord Chancelour and divers Lords of that Realm â—ated at Edenâ—â—rough 1 Julii 1643. wherein they promise not 〈◊〉 raise any â—orces without special warrant from the King * His Majesties Declaration to all his Subjects of Scotland â— Jan. 1643. The Scots second Invasion See the Supplication of the Noblemen Barrons Burgesses c. exhibited to the Marquess of Hamilton his Majesties Commissioner an 1638. Wherein by way of Explication of their National Covenant they acknowledge that the quietness and stability of their Religion and Kirk depends upon the safety of the King's Majesty as God's vice-gerent See the Supplication of the general Assembly at Edenborough 12 Aug. 1639. Whereby it appeareth that the whole Kingdom was sworn with their means and lives to stand to the defence of their dread Sovereign his person and authority in every cause which may concern his Majesties Honour with their friends and followers in quiet manner or in Arms as they shall be required by his Majesty See Act 5. of the second Parliament of King Charles concerning the ratification of the Covenant by which their universal Protestation and promise under a solemn Oath and Hand-writing upon fearful pains and execrations is apparent viz. to defend the King's person and authority with their goods bodies and lives against all Enemies within the Realm or without as they desire God to be a merciful defender to them in the day of their death and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. See the Petition presented to his Majesty Jan. 1642 manifesting the promise of the whole Clergy in their National Assembly to keep the people under their charge in obedience to his Majesty and to his Laws confessing it a duty well-beseeming the Preachers of the Gospel See the Petition of the Nobility Gentry Burroughs Ministers and Commons to the Lords of his Majesties Privy-Council of that Kingdom wherein they acknowledged his Majesties zeal for maintaining the true Religion and that to call in question the same after so many reiterated professions and asseverations could not be but an unchristian distrustfulness and in them the height of disloyalty and ingratitude confessing themselves bound in duty to God by whose great name they had sworn to defend and maintain the person greatness and authority of their dread Soveraign as God's Vicegerent to the utmost of their power with their means and lives in every cause which might concern his Honour professing themselves fully satisfied and perswaded of his Majesties royal zeal and resolution and that malice and detraction could not prevail to make the least impression in their loyal hearts of jealousy and distrust or their intending any thing to the prejudice of that Brotherly and blessed conjunction of the two Nations attesting God the searcher of all hearts of their dutiful intentions towards his Majesty their dread and native King strictly bound thereto by all the ties of Nature Christianity and Gratitude 22 Jan. 27 Jan. * Dated 30 Jan. 3 Martii 9 Martii * 22 Jan. Scob. Coll. p. 61. * 20 Febr. Scob. Coll. ut supra Anno 1643. a 26. March b 29. March c 3. April d 6. May. * 16. May. f 18. June g 22. June h 30. June i 1. July k 2. July l 5. July m 13. July n 24. July o 26. July p 2. Aug. q 5. Aug. r 10. Aug. †20. Aug. t 28. Aug. v 1. 3. Sept. x 4. Sept. y 6. Sept. z 17. Sept. a 20. Sept. b 6. Oct. c 4. Decem. d 9. Decem. * 12. Decem. f 21. Decem. g 25. Decem. h 28. Decem. i 25. Jan. k 13. Feb. l 18. Feb. m 21. Mar. n 21. Mar. o 23. March p 16. April q 26. April r 8. May. †21. May. t 5. June v 6. July x 30. July y 2. Aug. z 10. Septem a 16. Septem b 20. Octob. c 3. Jan. d 22. Jan. The Scots Invasion Anno 1644. * 26. March Scab coll p. 65. f 8. July Ibid. p. 73 g 2. July The Battle at Marston-moore h 13. July i 4. July The King's Message from Evesham k 1. Septemb. l 5. Septemb. from Tavestoke m 23. Nov. f 26. Nov. g 2. Decem. Scob. Coll. p. 75. h 9. Decem. The self-denying Ordinance The Book of Common Prayer Abolisht The Directory Establisht i 4. Jan. k 10. Jan. Arch. Bp. of Canterb. beheaded Treaty at Vxbridge l Impr. Oxon. 1645. m Ibid. p. 31. n Ibid. p. 144. 145. o 3. Apr. p 6. Apr. q 25. May r 27. May †28. May t 12 Iune u 20. June x 30. June y 3. July z 15. August * 1. Septem a 14. Sept. b 25. Octob. c 7. Novem. d 17. Nov. * 23 Febr. f 1. March g 29. March h 2. July i 23. July k 19. Octob. l 27. Octob. The second Battel of Newbery * 9. Decemb. The self-denying Ordinance m 31. Dec. n 31. Dec. o Heath's Chron. p. 68. p Ibid. 23. Decemb. q Ibid. p. 18. * cap. 8. r 1. Jan. See the King's observation thereon in his Eikâ—n Basilike cap. †10. Jan. Anno 1645. a 22. April b 31. May. c 25. March d 24. April * 22. May. f 23. May. g 26. May. h 1. June i 14. June k 18. June l 27. June m 28. June n 21. July o 23. July p 25. July q 31. July r 15. August †17. Aug. t 21. Aug. v 22. Sept. x 26. Sept. y 1. Oct. z 14. Oct. a 15. Octob. b 5. Nov. c 16. Nov. d 4. Decem. * 17. Decem. f 17. Jan. g 19. Jan. h 2. Feb. i 3. Feb. k 16. Feb. l 25. Feb. m 28. Feb. n 29. Feb. o 3. March p 14. March q 21. March p 23. Aug. Scob. Col. p. 97. Message from the King for peace q 5. Decem. r 15. Decem. †26. Decem. t 29. Decem. u 15. Jan. x 17. Jan. y 24. Jan. z 29. Jan. a 26. Feb. b 23. March c 22. Octob. Anno 1642. Anno 1646. d 7. Apr. * 8. Apr. f 13. April g 15. April h 25. April i 26. April d The King's Letter to the Marquess