the Dean of Edinburgh while he was performing his Office and after that was done re-inforced their assault upon the Bishops whom the Earls of Roxbrough and Traquaire pretended to protect who indured some affronts that their Patience might provoke a greater rage in the Multitude which a vigorous punishment had easily extinguish'd For they that are fierce in a croud being singled through their particular fears become obedient And that Rabble that talks high against the determinations of their Prince when danger from the Laws is within their ken distrust their Companions and return to subjection But it soon appeared that this was not the bare effort of a mutinous Multitude but a long-formed Conspiracy and to this Multitude whose present terrour was great yet would have been contemptible in a short space there appeared Parties to head them of several Orders Who presently digested their Partisans into several Tables and concocted this Mutiny into a formal Rebellion To prosecute which they mutually obliged themselves and the whole Nation in a Covenant to extirpate Episcopacy and whatsoever they pleased to brand with the odious names of Heresie and Superstition and to defend each other against all Persons not excepting the King To reduce this people to more peaceful Practices the King sends Marquess Hamilton one who being caressed by His Majestie 's Favour had risen to such a degree of Wealth and Greatness that now he dreamed of nothing less than Empire to bring his Power to perfection at least to be Monarch of Scotland to which he had some pretensions by his birth as His Commissioner Who with a species of Loyalty dissembled that pleasure which he took in the opposition of the Covenanters whose first motions were secretly directed by his Counsels and those of his Dependents Traquair and Roxbrough for all his Allies were of that Party contrary to the custom of that Country where all the Members of a Family espouse the part of their Head though in the utmost danger and his Mother rid armed with Pistols at her Saddle-bow for defence of the Covenant By his actings there new seeds of Discontents and War were dayly sown and his Oppositions so faint that he rather encreased than allayed their fury By several returns to His Majesty for new Instructions he gave time to the Rebels to consolidate their Conspiracy to call home their Exiles of Poverty that were in Foreign Armies and provide Arms for open Force By his false representations of the state of things he induced the King to temporize with the too-potent Corruption of that Nation an Artifice King JAMES had sometimes practised and by granting their desires to make them sensible of the Evils which would flow from their own Counsels Therefore the King gave Order for revoking the Liturgy the High-Commission the Book of Canons and the Five Articles of Perth But the Covenanters were more insolent by these Concessions because they had gotten that by unlawful courses and unjust force which Modesty and Submission had never obtained and imputing these Grants to the King's Weakness not His Goodness they proceeded to bolder Attempts Indicted an Assembly without Him in which they abolished Episcopacy excommunicated the Bishops and all that adhered to them Afterwards they seised upon the King's Revenue surprised His Forts and Castles and at last put themselves into Arms. Provoked with these Injuries the King amasses a gallant Army in which was a very great appearance of Lords and Gentlemen and with these marches and incamps within two miles of Berwick within sight of the Enemy But their present Condition being such as could endure neither War nor Peace they endeavoured to dissipate that Army which they could not overthrow by a pretence to a Pacification For which they petitioned the King who yielded unto it out of His innate tenderness of His Subjects Blood So an Accord was made June 17. An. 1639 and the King disbands His Army expecting the Scots should do the like according to the Articles of Agreement But they being delivered from Fear would not be restrained by Shame from breaking their Faith For no sooner had the King disbanded but they protested against the Pacification printed many false Copies of it that might represent it dishonourable to the King retained their Officers in pay changed the old Form of holding Parliaments invaded the Prerogatives of the Crown and sollicited the French King for an aid of Men and Money This perfidious abuse of His Majestie 's Clemency made those that judge of Counsels by the issue to censure the King's Facility Some wondred how He could imagine there would be any Moderation in so corrupt a Generation of Men and that they who had broken the Peace out of a desire of War should now lay aside their Arms out of a love to Quiet That there would be alwaies the same causes to the Scots of disturbing England and opposing Government their unquiet Nature and Covetousness therefore unless some strong impression made them either unable or unwilling to distract our quiet the King was to look for a speedy return of their Injuries Others attributed the Accord to the King's sense that some eminent Officers in his own Camp were polluted with Counsels not different from the Covenanters and that Hamilton His Admiral had betrayed the seasons of fighting by riding quietly in the Forth of Edinburgh and had secret Conference with his Mother the great Nurse of the Covenant on Shipboard But most referred it to the King 's innate tenderness of His Subjects Blood and to His Prudence not to defile His Glory with the overthrow which seemed probable of a contemptible Enemy where the gains of the Victory could not balance the hazards of attempting it While Men thus discourse of the Scots Perfidiousness An. 1640 the King prepares for another Army and in order thereto calls a Parliament in Ireland and another in England for assistances against the Rebels in Scotland The Irish granted Money to raise and pay Eight Thousand Men in Arms and furnish them with Ammunition Yet this Example with the King's account of the Injuries done to Him and this Nation by the Scots and his promise of for ever acquitting them of Ship-money if now they would freely assist Him prevailed nothing upon the English Parliament whom the Faction drew aside to other Counsels And when the King sent Sr Henry Vane to remind them of His desires and to demand Twelve Subsidies yet to accept of Six but he industriously as was collected from his own and his Sons following practices insisted upon the Twelve without insinuation of the lesser quantity His Majesty would be contented with which gave such an opportunity and matter for seditious Harangues that the House was so exasperated as that they were about to Remonstrate against the War with Scotland To prevent this ominous effect of the falseness of His Servant the King was forced to dissolve the Parliament May 5. yet continued the Convocation which granted Him Four Shillings in the Pound for
His Atturney-General to accuse Five Members of the House of Commons and one of the Lords upon Articles of High Treason to be tried according to the Laws of the Land And He also sends some other Officers to seal up their Trunks and Cabinets in their several Lodgings and to secure their Persons This being related to the House of Commons wherein the Faction was now grown more powerful and with whom did joyn many men of Integrity in this Occurrence being too careful of the Priviledges of their House which yet secure none of the Members against Justice for Murder Felony or Treason they were so far from admitting the King's Charge against them that they accused the King of breach of Priviledge and Vote all those guilty of Enmity to the Commonwealth that shall obey the King in any of His Commands concerning them This obstruction of Justice so far moved the King together with the Advice of some of His Council that were also of the House of Commons as also an hope of rooting up the Faction this way that none through the hope of Concealment should be incouraged to conspire the publick Ruine that He Himself with about an hundred Lords and Gentlemen and their followers went to the House of Commons Where commanding His Attendants to move no further than the Stairs to offer no violence nor return any uncivil Language to any although provoked Himself with the Paltzgrave only enters the House and demands that the Incendiaries might be delivered into His hands with whom he promises to deal no otherwise than according to the Law But they whom He sought being before informed as it is reported of the King 's coming by the secret Intelligence of Marquess Hamilton and a Court Lady who having lost the Confluence of Servants with her Beauty sought now to prevent a solitude by politick Ministeries had forsook the place and withdrawn themselves into the Sanctuary of the City Wherefore the King having renewed His Charge without injury to any immediately departs But the Faction would not let Him so rest but prosecuted this attempt of His with all the Clamours that they possibly could raise spread the sparks of Dissension far and wide make the common People mad with Fears and Distractions stir up some in several Counties to bring Petitions for the Impeached Members and their Violated Priviledges and at last prepare an armed Rabble disposed into Order to bring the accused Demagogues to the House from their Coverts in London This coming to the knowledge of the King although many Gallant and Faithful Persons proffered their Service by mingling with the Rout or by being as Spectators to curb any Insolencies that should be attempted on Him yet was He resolved to withdraw Himself with the Queen and their Children to Windsor that He might permit their Fury to languish when it had no opposition and to give time for their jealousies and rumours to wax old and perish For the first Indignation of a mutinous Multitude is most fierce and a small delay breaks their consent and Majesty would have a greater Reverence if any at a distance The King's Wisdom was perceived by His Enemies and therefore to counterwork it and not to let the People sleep without fear lest they should come to be sober and return to the love of Obedience strange reports were every day brought of dangers from the King That Troops of Papists were gathered about Kingston upon the Thames where the County Magazine was lodged under the command of the Lord George Digby who was then famed to be a Papist though at that time he was an elegant Assetor of the Protestant Faith and Col. Lunsford who was characterised to be of so monstrous an Appetite that he would eat Children And Parties were sent to take them both which found no such dreadful Preparations At other times when the People on the Lord's days were at Divine Worship they were distracted from it by Alarms that the Papists who and from whence none could tell were up in Arms and were just then about to fire their Houses and mix their Blood with their Prayers That there were Forces kept in Grotts and Caves under Ground that should in the Night break out into the midst of the City and cut all their Throats And what was more prodigious and though ridiculous yet had not a few Believers in London That there were Designs by Gunpowder to blow up the Thames and choak them with the Water in their Beds Thus were the people taught to hate their Prince and by bloody News from every Quarter they were instructed to that Cruelty which they vainly feared and to adore those by whose Counsels they were delivered from so unexpected Dangers By all this the Faction gained the repute of Modesty inferiour to their supposed Trust when they demanded nothing else but the Command of the Tower and the Militia of all the Counties in England together with the Forts and Castles of the same For all which they moved the House of Commons to petition who desiring the Conjuncture of the Lords in the same were wholly refused by them Therefore stemm'd by the Faction they petition alone Which unlimited Power the King absolutely refused to grant unto them who He foresaw would use that as they had all His other Concessions to the ruine of the Author of their Power Yet was pleased to consent after He had demonstrated the Prejudice they required to the English Nation that they might send over an Army of 10000 Scots into Ireland and deliver unto them the strong Town and Port of Carickfergus one of the chief Keys of that Kingdom which was done to oblige the Scots to them in their future Designs And also He was pleased to wave the Prosecution of the Impeached Members and was willing to grant a Free and General Pardon for all His Subjects as the Parliament should think convenient But all this could not content them who had immoderate Desires and they were more discontented that they could not usurp the King 's Right than if they had lost their own Privileges therefore to bring the Lords to a Concurrence with them the hitherto prosperous art of Tumultuous Petitions was again practised and great Numbers from several Counties were moved to come as Earthquakes to shake the Fundamental Constitutions of their House and to require that neither the Bishops nor the Popish Lords should continue in their ancient Right to Vote among the Peers By this means they should weaken the King in the Voices of that House and whosoever they could not confide in they could fright Him from Voting against them by exposing him as Popish to the Popular Fury For this was the method of using the Petitions The most common Answer was with Thanks and that the House of Commons were just now in consideration thereof The Petitioners were taught to reply that They doubted not of the Care of the Commons House but all their Distrust was in the House of Lords where the
continue the Wounds of the Nation open and bleeding since there were many Forts yet held out for the King by Gallant Persons besides the Lord Hopton had an Army yet unbroken and Ormond and Montross had considerable Interests in Ireland and Scotland all which might be perswaded in a Treaty to part with those Arms which could not be taken from them without much blood and it was the common belief that these Men sought for Victory not Peace and Liberty which was now tendred therefore to raise suspicions in the Vulgar it is suggested that the Cavaliers who came to Compound would take the advantage of the King's Presence if he were permitted to be there and kindle a new Flame and War in the City And that it might be thought they had real grounds for these fears the disarmed Compounders were commanded to depart above twenty Miles from London and to injealous the People more all the transactions of the King in the Irish Pacification were published and amplified with the malicious Slanders and Comments of the implacable and conscious Demagogues that so the terrours of the Vulgar being augmented they might be frighted into a longer patience The King finding these men irreconcileable to Peace and that they had declared against His Coming though without a Caution tries the Leaders of the English Army but they proved no less pertinacious and were now approaching to besiege Oxford Providence not leaving any more Choice but only shewing Him a way for a present Escape He goes in a Disguise which when Necessity cloaths Royal Persons with seems like an Ominous Cloud before the Setting of the Sun to the Scottish Camp that was now before Newark where the Ambassadour of the King of France who was then in the Leaguer had before covenanted for His Majestie 's Safety and Protection and the Scottish Officers had engaged to secure both Him and as many of His Party as should seek for Shelter with them and to stand to Him with their Lives and Fortunes The King being come thither May 4. made a great alteration in Affairs An. 1646 Newark was surrendred by the King's Command and St Thomas Glemham having gallantly defended Oxford till the Besiegers offered Honourable Conditions delivered up that also But the greatest Change of Counsels were at London where when it was related among whom the King had sought a Sanctuary various and different Discourses were raised Some wondred that His Majesty had sought a refuge there where the Storm began and how He could apprehend to find Relief from those that were not only the Authors of His Troubles but now the great Advancers of His Overthrow And they conceived no Promises or Oaths can be a sufficient Caution from those People that have been often Persidious Others judged that in those Necessities wherein the King was concluded it was as dangerous not to trust as to be deceived no Counsel could be better than to try whether a Confidence in them would make them faithful and whether they would then be honest when they had the Critical Opportunity to testifie to the World that they intended not what they did but what they said That they fought not against Him but for Him But a last sort bewailed both the greatness of the King's Dangers that should make Him seek for Safety in a tempestuous Sea and false bottom as also the debaucheries of the English Genius which was now so corrupted that their Prince was driven to seek an Asylum from their injuries among a People that were infamous and polluted with the Blood of many Kings While others discoursed thus of the King's journey the Parliament heated by the Independents fiercely declared against the Scots who were removing the King to Newcastle and used several methods to make them odious and drive them home For they kept back their Pay that they might exact free-Quarter from the Countrey then they did extenuate their Services derogate from their famed Valour upbraid them as Mercenaries threaten to force them out by the Sword All which while the English Presbyterians though they wish'd well to their Brethren yet lest they should seem to indulge the Insolencies of a strange Nation did not dare to plead in their defence But the Scots themselves for a time did justifie their Reception and Preservation of His Majesty by the Laws of Nature Nations and Hospitality which forbid the delivery and betraying of those that have fled to any for Succour The Democratick Faction urged that it was not lawful for the Scots their Hirelings and in their Dominion to receive the King into their Camp without the leave of their Masters and keep Him without their Consent These Debates were used to raise the King's price Which when the Scots were almost assured of to make their ware more valuable they sollicit the King in hopes of their Defence to command Montross to depart-from his noble Undertakings in Scotland where he had almost recovered the Overthrow Roxbrough and Traquaire had betrayed him unto and was become formidable again as also the Loyal Marquess of Ormond to desist from his gallant Oppositions both of the Irish Rebels and English Forces Which when the King had done being not willing those Gallant Persons should longer hazard their brave Lives and after both these Excellent Leaders had more in anger than fear parted with their unhappy Arms that they might have a colour of betraying Him whom the General Assembly of Scotland which useth to hatch all the Seditions to the heat and strength of a seeming Authority had forbid to be brought into His Native and Ancient Kingdom as He affectionately call'd it they tender Him the Covenant pretending without that Chain upon Him they did not dare to lead Him into Scotland This His Majesty refused not if they would first loose those Scruples of Church-Government which lay upon His Conscience Therefore to untie those Knots Mr. Henderson that was then the Oracle of the Kirk and the great Apostle of the Solemn Covenant was employed to converse with Him But the Greatness of the King's Parts and the Goodness of His Cause made all his attempts void for the Papers being published every one yielded the Victory to His Majesty and unfortunate for he returned home and not long after died as some reported of a Grief contracted from the sense of his Injuries to a Prince whom he had found so Excellent While these things were acting at Newcastle the bargain was stroke at London and for 200000 l. His Majesty stripp'd of those Arms He had when He came among them was deliver'd up as it were to be scourged and crucified to some Commissioners from the Parliament But to honest their Perfidiousness they add this Caution That there should be no attempt made upon the King ' s Person but being entertained at one of His own Palaces He should there be treated with upon Propositions from both Nations which should speedily be sent to Him But the Parliament never though of sending any Propositions till He
manner of a Parliament new Jurisdictions were erected of Romish Archbishops Taxes levied another State moulded within this State independent in Government contrary in Interest and affection secretly corrupting the ignorant or negligent Professours of our Religion and closely uniting and combining themselves against such as were sound in this posture waiting for an opportunity by force to destroy those whom they could not hope to seduce For the effecting whereof they were strengthened with Arms and Munition encouraged by superstitious Prayers enjoyned by the Nuntio to be weekly made for the prosperity of some great Design And such power had they at Court that secretly a Commission was issued out intended to be issued to some Great men of that profession for the levying of Souldiers and to command and employ them according to private instructions which we doubt were framed for the advantage of those who were the contrivers of them His Majesties Treasure was consumed His Revenue anticipated His Servants and Officers compelled to lend great sums of mony Multitudes were called to the Council-Table who were tired with long attendances there for refusing illegal payments The Prisons were filled with their Commitments many of the Sheriffs summoned into the Star-Chamber and some imprisoned for not being quick enough in levying the Ship-money the people languished under grief and fear no visible hope being left but in desperation The Nobility began to be weary of their silence and patience and sensible of the duty and trust which belongs to them and thereupon some of the most eminent of them did petition His Majesty at such a time when evil Counsels were so strong that they had reason to expect more hazard to themselves then redress of those publick evils for which they interceded Whilest the Kingdom was in this agitation and distemper the Scots restrained in their Trades impoverished by the loss of many of their Ships bereaved of all possibility of satisfying His Majesty by any naked Supplication entred with a powerful Army into the Kingdom and without any hostile Act or spoil in the Countrey as they passed more then forcing a passage over the Tyne at Newborne near Newcastle possessed themselves of Newcastle and had a fair opportunity to press on further upon the Kings Army but duty and reverence to His Majesty and brotherly love to the English Nation made them stay there whereby the King had leisure to entertain better Counsels wherein God so blessed and directed Him that He summoned the great Council of Peers to meet at York upon the twenty fourth of September and there declared a Parliament to begin the third of November then following The Scots the first day of the great Council presented an humble Petition to His Majesty whereupon the Treaty was appointed at Rippon a present Cessation of arms agreed upon and the full conclusion of all Differences referred to the wisdom and care of the Parliament At our first meeting all Oppositions seemed to vanish the mischiefs were so evident which those evil Counsellors produced that no man durst stand up to defend them Yet the work it self afforded difficulty enough The multiplied evils and corruption of sixteen years strengthned by Custome and Authority and the concurrent interest of many powerful Delinquents were now to be brought to judgment and Reformation The Kings Houshold was to be provided for they had brought Him to that want that He could not supply His ordinary and necessary Expences without the assistance of His People Two Armies were to be payed which amounted very near to thirty thousand pounds a month the people were to be tenderly charged having been formerly exhausted with many burthensome Projects The Difficulties seemed to be insuperable which by the Divine Providence we have overcome the Contrarieties incompatible which yet in a great measure we have reconciled Six Subsidies have been granted and a Bill of Poll-money which if it be duly levied may equal six Subsidies more in all six hundred thousand pounds Besides we have contracted a debt to the Scots of two hundred and twenty thousand pounds and yet God hath so blessed the endeavours of this Parliament that the Kingdom is a great gainer by all these charges The Ship-money is abolished which cost the Kingdom above 200000 pounds a year The Coat and Conduct-money and other military charges are taken away which in many Countries amounted to little less then the Ship-money The Monopolies are all supprest whereof some few did prejudice the Subject above a Million yearly the Soap an hundred thousand pounds the Wine three hundred thousand pounds the Leather must needs exceed both and Salt could not be less then that besides the inferiour Monopolies which if they could be exactly computed would make up a great sum That which is more beneficial then all this is that the root of these evils is taken away which was the arbitrary power pretended to be in His Majesty of taxing the Subject or charging their estates without consent in Parliament which is now declared to be against Law by the judgment of both Houses and likewise by an Act of Parliament Another step of great advantage is this the living Grievances the evil Counsellors and actors of these mischiefs have been so quelled by the Justice done upon the Earl of Strafford the flight of the Lord Finch and Secretary Windebank the accusation and imprisonment of the Archbishop of Canterbury of Judge Bartlet and the impeachment of divers other Bishops and Judges that it is like not only to be an ease to the present times but a preservation to the future The discontinuance of Parliaments is prevented by the Bill for a Triennial Parliament and the abrupt dissolution of this Parliament by another Bill by which it is provided it shall not be dissolved or adjourned without the consent of both Houses Which two Laws well considered may be thought more advantageous then all the former because they secure a full operation of the present remedy and afford a perpetual Spring of remedies for the future The Star-chamber the High-Commission the Courts of the President and Council in the North were so many forges of Misery Oppression and Violence and are all taken away whereby men are more secured in their Persons Liberties and Estates then they could be by any Law or Example for the regulation of those Courts or Terror of the Judges The immoderate power of the Council-Table and the excessive abuse of that power is so ordered and restrained that we may well hope that no such things as were frequently done by them to the prejudice of the publick Liberty will appear in future times but only in Stories to give us and our posterity more occasion to praise God for his Majesties Goodness and the faithful endeavours of this Parliament The Canons and the power of Canon-making are blasted by the Vote of both Houses The exorbitant power of Bishops and their Courts are much abated by some Provisions in the Bill against the High-Commission Court
all their Ecclesiastical Promotions But the Laity that in the House had not time to declame against His Majestie 's Proceedings did it without doors for being dispersed to their homes they filled all places with suspicious rumours and high discontents and in Southwark there was an open Mutiny began which was not pacified without much danger and the Execution of the principal Leaders The King thus betrayed defamed and deserted by those who should have considered that in His Honour their Safety was embarqued though He had no less cause to fear secret Conspiracies at Home which were more dangerous because obscure than the Scots publick Hostility yet vigorously prosecuted his undertaking and raised a sufficient Army but could not do it with equal speed to His Enemies who had soon re-united their dispersed Forces and incouraged by the Faction with whom they held Intelligence in England contented not themselves to stand upon the defence but invaded us and advanced so far before all the King's Army could be gathered together that they gave a defeat to a Party of it ere the Reer could be brought up by the Earl of Strafford who was appointed General or the King could come to incourage them with His Presence He was no sooner arrived at his Army but there followed Him from some English Lords a Petition conformable to the Scotch Remonstrance which they called the Intentions of the Army So that His Majesty might justly fear some attempts in the South while He was thus defending Himself from the Northern injuries The King answered the Petitioners That before their Petition came He had resolved to summon all the Peers to consult what would be most for the Safety of the Nation and His own Honour Who accordingly met Sept. 24. Where it was determined that a Parliament should be called to meet Nov. 3. and in the mean time a Cessation should be made with the Scots with whom some Commissioners from the Parliament should treat Nov. 3. began that Fatal Parliament which was so transported by the Arts of some unquiet persons that they dishonoured the name and hopes of a Parliament ingulfed the Nation in a Sea of Blood ruined the King and betrayed all their own Priviledges and the People's Liberty into the power of a phanatick and perfidious Army And although His Majesty could not hope to find them moderate yet He endeavoured to make them so telling them at their meeting that He was resolved to put himself freely upon the Affections of His English Subjects that He would satisfie all their just Grievances and not leave to malice it self a shadow to doubt of His desire to make this a glorious and flourishing Kingdom He commended to their care the chasing out of the Rebels the Provisions of His own Army and the Relief of the oppressed Northern Counties But the Malignity of some few and the ignorance of more employed that Assembly in other matters first in purging their House of all such as they conceived would not comply with their destructive Enterprises and for such men they either found some fault with their Elections or made them Criminals in some publick Grievance though others of a deeper guilt they kept among them that their Offences might make them obnoxious to their power and obsequious to their commands Then with composed Harangues they declamed upon the publick Grievances and reckoned up causal Misfortunes amongst designed Abuses of Government every way raising up Contumelies against the present Power and that which was fullest of Detraction and Envy was applauded as most pregnant with Liberty Thus pretending several Injuries had been done to the People they raised the Multitude to hopes of an unimaginable Liberty and a discontent with the present Government After this they set free all the Martyrs of Sedition that for their malignant Libels had been imprisoned and three of them were conducted through London with such a company of people adorned with Rosemary and Bayes as it seemed a Triumph over Justice and those Tribunals that sentenced them Then they fell upon all the chief Ministers of State they impeached the Earl of Strafford Lord Lieutenant of Ireland after him the Archbishop of Canterbury the Lord Finch Keeper of the Great Seal the Judges that according to their Oath had determined Ship-money legal and others some of which fled those that were found were clapt in Prison so that the King was soon despoiled of those that were able or faithful to give Him Counsel and others terrified in their Ministry to Him While the Factious thus led the House their Partisans without by their Instructions formed Petitions against the Government in Church and State to which they seduced the ignorant Rabble in the City and several Counties to subscribe and in a tumultuous manner to present them to their Patriots Who being animated by the success of their Arts fell to draw up a Bill for Triennial Parliaments wherein the Power of calling that great Council of the Nation was upon the refusal of the King and the neglect of others devolved upon Constables which prophanation of Majesty though the King disswaded them from yet they persisted in and He passed it After five Months time for so long a space they took to rake up Matter and Witnesses to justifie their accusation An. 1641 and to give leisure to the Court for Overtures of gainfull Offices to the great Sticklers against him which not appearing the Earl of Strafford is brought to his Triall in Westminster-Hall before the Lords as His Judges the King Queen and Prince sitting behind a Curtain in an adjoyning Gallery and round about the Court stood the Commons His Accusers and Witnesses were English Scotch and Irish and indeed so brave a Person could not be ruined but by the pretended hatred of the whole Empire The English were such as envied his Vertues and greatness in the King's Favour The Scotch because they knew his Prudence able to counterwork their Frauds discover their impudent Cheats and his wise management to overthrow their Force The Irish hatred arose from his just and necessary Severity in his Government whereby he had reduced them from so great a Barbarousness that was impatient of Peace to a Civility that was fertile of Plenty and by Artifices Husbandry and Commerce had rendred that tumultuary Nation so rich that they were now able to repay to the English Treasury those great Debts which their former Troubles and Commotions had contracted Although those of this Nation were Papists and sworn Enemies both of the English name and State and were even then practising and meditating their Rebellion which they hoped more easie when so wise a Governour was removed and so prone enough of themselves to the Crime yet were they much caressed by the Faction that these in the name of the whole Kingdom should press the Earl with envy to the Grave His Charge consisted of twenty eight Articles that their number might cover their want of Evidence To all which the Lieutenant whose
at first secretly they whispered and at last publickly imputed that horrid Massacre Which Slanders were coloured by the Arts of the Irish Rebels who to dishearten the English from any resistance bragged that the Queen was with their Army That the King would come amongst them with Auxiliary Forces That they did but maintain His Cause against the Puritans That they had the King's Commission for what they did shewing indeed a Patent that themselves had drawn but thereto was affixed an Old broad Seal that had been taken from an obsolete Patent out of Farnham Abbey by one Plunckett in the presence of many of their Lords and Priests as was afterwards attested by the Confession of many That the Scots were in Confederacy with them to beget a Faith of which they abstained from the Lives and Fortunes of those of that Nation among them On the other side to incourage the Natives of their own Party they produce fictitious Letters wherein they were informed from England that the Parliament had passed an Act that all the Irish should be compelled to the Protestant Worship that for the first offence they should forfeit all their Goods for the second their Estates and for the third their Lives Besides they present them with the hopes of Liberty That the English Yoke should be shaken off that they would have a King of their own Nation and that the Goods and Estates of the English should be divided among the Natives And with these hopes of Spoil and Liberty and Irish were driven to such a Fury that they committed so many horrid and barbarous Acts as scarce ever any Age or People were guilty of In the mean while nothing was done for the relief of the poor English there but only some Votes passed against the Rebels till the King returned to London which was about the end of November where He with the Queen and the Prince were magnificently feasted by the Citizens and the chief of them afterwards by Him at Hampton-Court For he never neglected any honest Arts to gain His Peoples love to which they were naturally prone enough had not His Enemies methods and impulses depraved their Genius But this much troubled the Faction who envied that Reverence to Majesty in others which was not in themselves and they endeavoured to make these loves short and unhappy for they discountenanced the prime advancers of this Honour of the King and were more eager to render Him odious For having gotten a Guard about them they likewise insinuated into the people dangerous apprehensions as the cause of that Guard and every day grew more nice and jealous of their Priviledges and Power The King's advices to more tenderness of His Prerogative or His Advertisements of the scandalous Speeches that were uttered in their House they interpret as encroachments upon their Grandeur and upbraided the King for them in their Petitions to Him But their greatest effort upon Majesty was the Remonstrance after which they took all occasions to magnifie the apprehensions of those Fears which they had falsly pretended to in it This the Faction had before formed and now brought into the House of Commons where it found a strong opposition by those wise men that were tender of the publick Peace and Common Good though those who preferred their Private to the General Interest and every one that was short-sighted and improvident for the future were so fierce for it that the Debates were continued all Night till ten a Clock the next Morning so that many of the more aged and Persons of best Fortunes not accustomed to such watchings were wearied out and many others not daring to provoke the Faction in this their grand Design left the House so that at last they carried it yet but by eleven Votes Which they presented with a Petition to take away the Votes of Bishops in the House of Lords and the Ceremonies in the Church and to remove those Persons from His Trust which they could not confide in yet named none but only accused all under the name of a Malignant Popish Party Which they had no sooner delivered than they caused it to be published in print To which the King answers in another publick Declaration but so much to the Discontent of the Demagogues to find their Methods of Ruine so fully discovered as they were in His Majesties Answer that they had recourse to their former Sovereign Remedy which sober men accounted a Crime and an indignity to Government the Tumults of the Rabble Who in great numbers and much confusion came up to Westminster some crying out against Bishops others belching their fury against the Liturgy and a third Party roaring that the Power of the Militia should be taken out of the King's hands To their Clamours they added rude Affronts to those Lords whom their Leaders had taught them to hate and especially to the Bishops at their going in or coming out of the House and afterwards drawing up to White-Hall they appeared so insolent as it was evident they wanted only some to begin for there were enough to prosecute an assault upon the King in His own Palace The Bishops thus rudely excluded from their Right and Liberty of coming to the Parliament Twelve of them afterwards protest against the Proceedings of it during their so violent Exclusion Which Protestation the Commons presently accused of High Treason and caused their Commitment to the Tower where they continued them till the Bill against their Votes in the Lord's House was past that they might not produce their Reasons for their Rights and against the Injustice offered unto them and then afterwards released them The King also saw it necessary to take a Guard of such Gentlemen as offered their Service for His Safety and to prevent the prophaning of Majesty by the rude fury of the People who used to make their Addresses acceptable at Westminster by offering in their passage some base Affronts at White-Hall But when the terrour of this Guard had reduced them to some less degree of Impudencie they then instructed by their Heads laboured to make it more unsafe to the King by seeking to raise the Rage and Jealousie of the whole City against Him For at Midnight there were cries out in the Street that all People should arise to their defence for the King with His Papists were coming to fire the City and cut their Throats in their Beds Than which though nothing was more false yet it found the effects of truth and the People by such Alarms being terrified from sleep the impressions of those nightly fears lay long upon their Spirits in the day and filled them almost with Madness The King therefore not alwaies to incourage these Violences with Patience but at last by a course of Justice to take off those whom He had found to be the Authors of these destructive Counsels the grand Movers of these Seditious practices and which was more the Inviters of a Foreign Force the Scotch Army into this Nation commands
furiously designed who were now resolving to encrease our Miseries by Calling in the Scots to their assistance For though they pretended so highly to God's Cause as if they had the certainty of some Divine Revelation yet they would not trust Him for their Preservation notwithstanding their Pretences to his Cause had furnished them with so vast a Treasure and so mighty a Strength but would invite others to the Violation of most Sacred Oaths to sin against all Laws and every Rule of Justice that themselves might be secure in their Usurpations And that perfidious Party that then ruled in Scotland hoping for as great Advantages as their former Wickedness had yielded contrary to all Obligations which the King's Goodness had laid on them and their free and voluntary Execrations as was that of Alexander Lesley who lifting up His arms and hands to Heaven wished they might rot to his body before he died if ever he should heave them up hereafter or draw his Sword against so gude a King drew that people once more into Rebellion against their Prince and to make them more eager and think the Enterprize easie they first raised a Report that the King was deserted by most of His Nobility The Parliament at Oxford having by a Letter moved the Earl of Essex to endeavour Peace did also declare against this Invasion of the Scots by another Letter sent to them in which also they acquaint them with the falseness of their officious Lye and shew how inconsiderable a Number of Lords were with those that invited them in The King Himself writes also to put them in mind of their several Ingagements to be Quiet But with an Insolency fit for most perjured Souls they commanded the Letters to be burned by the hand of the Hangman A more secret falshood He also found in the Marquess Hamilton whose Treasons now came to be more suspected For His Majesty having written to him to use all his Power and Interest to keep his Country-men at home which had not been difficult for one of his Grandeur in that unquiet Nation he by some secret arts doth more inflame them and to cover his Perfidiousness flies from Scotland to Oxford as seeking a shelter for his Loyalty but indeed to be a Spy in the King's Counsels But his Treasons had out-stripp'd him and his Brother the Earl of Lanerick who came with him therefore they were both forbidden the Court. Lanerick not willing to tarry till a further Discovery gets out of Oxford flies to those at London and by them was employed in the Scotch Army which made Hamilton's Treachery more evident and he was sent Prisoner to Pendennis Castle But the dishonour of that Nation was in a great measure repaired by the Gallantry and Faithfulness of the Marquess Montrosse who being Commission'd by the King with an incredible Industry by small numbers of men won many Battels and overthrew well-formed Armies and had not the Fate of his Master which was to be betrayed by those He trusted been likewise common to him he had forced that Nation to Justice and Quiet But ere Montrosse could get his Commission the Scots were entred into England whose coming that it might be less odious to the People who now grew cold in their Zeal to the Cause and saw themselves deluded into so continued Dangers the Faction make use of such Frauds as should make the People either think them necessary Assistances or might divert their Thoughts from apprehending the Miseries they brought with them to this Nation therefore they invent new Slanders of the King and His Party That His Majesty did intend to translate Monarchy into a Tyranny that He would seize upon all their Estates who had any way opposed Him and make their Persons Slaves and that there was no hope of Pardon from Him who was so merciless that He would take away all their Liberties and Privileges as forfeited destroy the Protestant Religion and introduce Popery which at Oxford He did practise Himself and that all men must be forced to go to Mass As for His Party they set them out to be such Monsters that the lower sort of People doubted whether the Cavaliers had the shapes of men For sad Relations were Printed and Published of their Inhumanity and barbarous Murders That they did feast upon the Flesh of Men and that they fed their Dogs and their Horses with the same Diet to make them more fierce for the blood of the Godly Party that no man's house was so poor and mean that a Cavalier would think beneath his Rapine Thus they wrought upon the Melancholy Spirits of some by Fear For those of a Morose and Cholerick temper they had proper Divertisements they permitted to them a tumultuary Reformation to pull down the Pictures and Images of Christ the Virgin Mary and the Saints which with great Solemnity they committed to the Flames that they might suffer as it were another Martyrdom All Crosses though set up for Ornament and Use in the Streets of London and other places they pulled down they invade the Churches and there deface what their Humour or Rapine would call Superstition pull down the Organs tear the Surplices and all this was suffered to please the Rabble who delight in Violences and such Ostentations of their Fury and to make them in something or other guilty that they might despair of Pardon For others who were to be wrought upon by Religion they entertain them with Fasts publick Thanksgivings for slight Victories and solemn Spiritual Meetings as they called them where whatsoever the Faction dictated was commended by the Speakers to their unwary Hearers as the Oracles of Heaven and being thus wrapp'd up in those true Delights which accompany the Worship of God they were securely swallowed by them as Poyson when it is offered in a Sacramental Chalice To please their Ministers whom hitherto they had used as their Properties and Instruments of their Arts Presbytery is set up that they also might have an Imaginary Empire but it was not intended they should exercise it For the Pretensions of that to a Divine Right did so terrifie them who were resolved against all Government that was not subject unto or dependent on theirs that they presently raised all the other Sects Independents Erastians who for the most part were Lawyers that could not endure to hear of any Thunderbolts of Excommunication but what was heated in their own Forges Anabaptists Seekers and Atheists of which there were many sprung up who seeing how Religion was abused to carnal and unjust Ends began first to despise that and afterwards to deny God to write and declame against this new Polity as the most severe and absolute Tyranny under the Sun and the Tenth Persecution But this seeming Modesty of admitting a Church Government served their Ends for the present till they could acquire a greater strength in confidence of which they might slight the Terrors of the Law and the Anathema's of the Church The Liturgy
intentions in His former Messages He doth now declare that if His Personal repair to London as aforesaid shall be admitted and a Peace thereon shall ensue He will then leave the nomination of the Persons to be intrusted with the Militia wholly to His two Houses with such power and limitations as are expressed in the Paper delivered by His Majesty's Commissioners at Vxbridge the sixth of February 1644. for the term of seven years as hath been desired to be given immediately after the conclusion of the Peace the disbanding of all Forces on both sides and the dismantling of the Garrisons erected since these present Troubles so as at the expiration of the time before mentioned the power of the Militia shall entirely revert and remain as before And for their further security His Majesty the Peace succeeding will be content that pro hac vice the two Houses shall nominate the Admiral Officers of State and Judges to hold their places during life or quam diu se bene gesserint which shall be best liked to be accountable to none but the King and the two Houses of Parliament As for matter of Religion His Majesty doth further declare That by the Liberty offered in His Message of the 15 present for the ease of their Consciences who will not communicate in the Service already established by Act of Parliament in this Kingdom He intends that all other Protestants behaving themselves peaceably in and towards the Civil Government shall have the free exercise of their Religion according to their own way And for the total removing of all Fears and Jealousies His Majesty is willing to agree that upon the conclusion of Peace there shall be a general Act of Oblivion and free Pardon past by Act of Parliament in both His Kingdoms respectively And lest it should be imagined that in the making these Propositions His Majesty's Kingdom of Scotland and His Subjects there have been forgotten or neglected His Majesty declares That what is here mentioned touching the Militia and the naming of Officers of State and Judges shall likewise extend to His Kingdom of Scotland And now His Majesty having so fully and clearly expressed His intentions and desires of making a happy and well-grounded Peace if any person shall decline that Happiness by opposing of so apparent a way of attaining it he will sufficiently demonstrate to all the World his intention and design can be no other than the total subversion and change of the ancient and happy Government of this Kingdom under which the English Nation hath so long flourished Given at Our Court at Oxon the 29. of January 1645. XXI From OXFORD Feb. 26. MDCXLV VI. For an Answer to the Former For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland CHARLES R. HIS Majesty needs to make no excuse though He sent no more Messages unto you for He very well knows He ought not to do it if He either stood upon punctilio's of Honour or His Own private Interest the one being already call'd in question by His often sending and the other assuredly prejudg'd if a Peace be concluded from that He hath already offered He having therein departed with many His undoubted Rights But nothing being equally dear unto Him to the preservation of His People His Majesty passeth by many scruples neglects and delayes and once more desires you to give Him a speedy Answer to His last Message for His Majesty believes it doth very well become Him after this very long delay at last to utter His Impatience since the Goods and Blood of His Subjects crie so much for Peace Given at our Court at Oxford the 26. day of February 1645. XXII From OXFORD Mar. 23. MDCXLV VI. Concerning His Return to the Houses For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster CHARLES R. NOtwithstanding the unexpected Silence in stead of Answer to His Majesty's many and gracious Messages to both Houses whereby it may appear that they desire to obtain their ends by Force rather than by Treaty which may justly discourage His Majesty from any more overtures of that kind yet His Majesty conceives He shall be much wanting in His duty to God and in what He oweth to the safety of His people if he should not intend to prevent the great inconveniences that may otherwise hinder a safe and well-grounded Peace His Majesty therefore now proposeth that so He may have the Faith of both Houses of Parliament for the preservation of His Honour Person and Estate and that Liberty be given to all those who do and have adhered to His Majesty to go to their own Houses and there to live peaceably enjoying their Estates all Sequestrations being taken off without being compelled to take any Oath not enjoyned by the undoubted Laws of the Kingdom or being put to any other molestation whatsoever He will immediately disband all His Forces and dismantle all His Garrisons and being accompanied with His Royal not His Martial Attendance return to His two Houses of Parliament and there reside with them And for the better security of all His Majesties Subjects He proposeth that He with His said two Houses immediately upon His coming to Westminster will pass an Act of Oblivion and free Pardon and where His Majesty will further do whatsoever they will advise Him for the good and Peace of this Kingdom And as for the Kingdom of Scotland His Majesty hath made no mention of it here in regard of the great loss of time which must now be spent in expecting an answer from thence but declares that immediately upon His coming to Westminster He will apply himself to give them all satisfaction touching that Kingdom If His Majesty could possibly doubt the success of this offer He could use many arguments to perswade them to it but shall only insist on that great One of giving an instant Peace to these afflicted Kingdoms Given at our Court at Oxford the 23. of March 1645. XXIII From SOUTHWELL May 18. MDCXLVI With his further Concessions for the obtaining of Peace For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland CHARLES R. HIS Majesty having understood from both His Houses of Parliament that it was not safe for Him to come to London whither He had purposed to repair if so He might by their advice to do whatsoever may be best for the good and Peace of these Kingdoms until He shall first give His consent to such Propositions as were to be presented to Him from them and being certainly informed that the Armies were marching so fast up to Oxford as made that no fit place for Treating did resolve to withdraw Himself hither only to secure His Own Person and with no
time appoint whereof the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs for the time being to be three to be imployed and directed from time to time during the said space of ten years in such manner as shall be agreed upon and appointed by both Houses of Parliament and that no Citizen of the City of London nor any of the Officers of the said City shall be drawn forth or compelled to go out of the said City or Liberties thereof for Military service without their own free consent That an Act be passed for granting and confirming the Charters Customs Liberties and Franchises of the City of London notwithstanding any Non-user Mis-user or Abuser And that during the said ten years the Tower of London may be in the government of the City of London and the Chief Officer and Governour from time to time during the said space to be nominated and removeable by the Common Council as are desired in your Propositions His Majesty having thus far expressed His consent for the present satisfaction and security of His two Houses of Parliament and those that have adhered unto them touching your four first Propositions and other the particulars before specified as to all the rest of your Propositions delivered to Him at Hampton-Court not referring to those heads and to that of the Court of Wards since delivered as also to the remaining Propositions concerning Ireland His Majesty desires only when He shall come to Westminster personally to advise with His two Houses and to deliver His Opinion and the reasons of it which being done He will leave the whole matter of those remaining Propositions to the determination of His two Houses which shall prevail with Him for His consent accordingly And His Majesty doth for His Own particular only propose that He may have liberty to repair forthwith to Westminster and be restored to a condition of absolute Freedom and Safety a thing which He shall never deny to any of His Subjects and to the possession of His Lands and Revenues and that an Act of Oblivion and Indemnity may pass to extend to all persons for all matters relating to the late unhappy Differences which being agreed by His two Houses of Parliament His Majesty will be ready to make these His Concessions binding by giving them the Force of Laws by His Royal assent HIS MAJESTIES DECLARATIONS I. His MAJESTIES DECLARATION After the Votes of no further Address Carisbrook Jan. 18. MDCXLVII To all My People of whatsoever Nation Quality or Condition AM I thus laid aside and must I not speak for My self No I will speak and that to all My People which I would have rather done by the way of My two Houses of Parliament but that there is a publick Order neither to make Addresses to or receive Messages from Me. And who but you can be judge of the differences betwixt Me and My two Houses I know none else for I am sure you it is who will enjoy the Happiness or feel the Misery of good or ill Government and we all pretend who should run fastest to serve you without having a regard at least in the first place to particular Interests And therefore I desire you to consider the state I am and have been in this long time and whether My Actions have more tended to the Publick or My own particular good For whosoever will look upon Me barely as I am a Man without that liberty which the meanest of My Subjects enjoys of going whither and conversing with whom I will as a Husband and Father without the comfort of My Wife and Children or lastly as a King without the least shew of Authority or Power to protect My distressed Subjects must conclude Me not onely void of all Natural Affection but also to want common understanding if I should not most cheerfully embrace the readiest way to the settlement of these distracted Kingdoms As also on the other side do but consider the form and draught of the Bills lately presented unto Me and as they are the Conditions of a Treaty ye will conclude that the same Spirit which hath still been able to frustrate all My sincere and constant endeavours for Peace hath had a powerful influence on this Message For though I was ready to grant the substance and comply with what they seem to desire yet as they had framed it I could not agree thereunto without deeply wounding My Conscience and Honour and betraying the Trust reposed in Me by abandoning My People to the Arbitrary and Unlimited Power of the two Houses for ever for the levying and maintaining of Land or Sea Forces without distinction of quality or limitation for Money-Taxes And if I could have passed them in terms how unheard-of a Condition were it for a Treaty to grant beforehand the most considerable part of the subject matter How ineffectual were that Debate like to prove wherein the most potent Party had nothing of moment left to ask and the other nothing more to give so consequently how hopeless of mutual compliance without which a settlement is impossible Besides if after My Concessions the two Houses should insist on those things from which I cannot depart how desperate would the condition of these Kingdoms be when the most proper and approved remedy should become ineffectual Being therefore fully resolved that I could neither in Conscience Honour or Prudence pass those four Bills I onely endeavoured to make the Reasons and Justice of my Denial appear to all the World as they do to me intending to give as little dis-satisfaction to the two Houses of Parliament without betraying My own Cause as the matter would bear I was desirous to give My Answer of the 28 th of December last to the Commissioners sealed as I had done others heretofore and sometimes at the desire of the Commissioners chiefly because when My Messages or Answers were publickly known before they were read in the Houses prejudicial interpretations were forced on them much differing and sometimes contrary to My meaning For example My Answer from Hampton-Court was accused of dividing the two Nations because I promised to give satisfaction to the Scots in all things concerning that Kingdom And this last suffers in a contrary sense by making Me intend to interest Scotland in the Laws of this Kingdom than which nothing was nor is further from my thoughts because I took notice of the Scots Commissioners protesting against the Bills and Propositions as contrary to the Interests and Engagements of the two Kingdomes Indeed if I had not mentioned their dissent an Objection not without some probability might have been made against Me both in respect the Scots are much concern'd in the Bill for the Militia and in several other Propositions and My silence might with some Justice have seemed to approve of it But the Commissioners refusing to receive My Answer sealed I upon the engagement of their and the Governor's Honour that no other use should be made or notice taken of it than as if it had
good shift with empty purses as they or they must have some greater defect else their Levies could not be so backward as they are for I assure Thee that I have at this instant many more men in the Field than they I am not very confident what their Northern Forces are but except they are much stronger than I am made believe I may likewise include them Now I must make a complaint to Thee of My Son Charles which troubles Me the more that Thou maiest suspect I seek by equivocation to hide the breach of My word which I hate above all things especially to Thee It is this He hath sent to desire Me that Sir John Greenvil may be sworn Gentleman of his Bed-chamber but is already so publickly ingaged in it that the refusal would be a great disgrace both to my Son and the young Gentleman to whom it is not fit to give a just distaste especially now considering his Father's merits his own hopefulness besides the great power that Family has in the West Yet I have refused the admitting of him until I shall hear from Thee Wherefore I desire Thee first to chide My Son for ingaging himself without one of Our consents then not to refuse Thy own consent and lastly to believe that directly or indirectly I never knew of this while yesterday at the delivery of My Son's Letter So farewel Sweet Heart and God send Me good news from Thee To My Wife May 14. 1645. XXXVII To the QUEEN Daintry Sunday 9. June DEAR Heart Oxford being free I hope this will come sooner to Thee than otherwise I could have expected which makes Me believe that My good news will not be very stale which in short is this Since the taking of Leicester My marching down hither to relieve Oxford made the Rebels raise their siege before I could come near them having had their Quarters once or twice beaten up by that Garrison and lost four hundred men at an assault before Bostol-House At first I thought they would have fought with Me being marched as far as Brackly but they are since gone aside to Brickhill so as I believe they are weaker than they are thought to be whether by their distractions which are certainly very great Fairfax and Brown having been at Cudgels and his men and Cromwell's likewise at blows together where a Captain was slain or wasting their men I will not say Besides Goring hath given a great defeat to the Western Rebels but I do not yet know the particulars Wherefore I may without being too much sanguine affirm that since this Rebellion My Affairs were never in so fair and hopeful a way though among our selves we want not our own follies which is needless and I am sure tedious to tell Thee but such as I am confident shall do no harm nor much trouble Me. Yet I must tell Thee that it is Thy Letter by Fitz-Williams assuring Me of Thy perfect recovery with Thy wonted kindness which makes Me capable of taking contentment in these good successes For as divers men propose several recompences to themselves for their pains and hazard in this Rebellion so Thy Company is the only reward I expect and wish for To My Wife 9. June 1645. XXXVIII To Prince RUPERT CAERDIFFE Aug. 3. MDCXLV C. R. NEphew This is occasioned by a Letter of yours which the Duke of Richmond shewed Me yesterday And first I assure you I have been and ever will be very careful to advertise you of My resolutions so soon as they were taken and if I enjoyned silence to that which was no secret it was not My fault for I thought it one and I am sure it ought to have been so Now as for your opinion of My Business and your Counsel thereupon If I had any other quarrel but the defence of My Religion Crown and Friends you had full reason for your advice For I confess that speaking either as a meer Souldier or Statesman I must say there is no probability but of My Ruine yet as a Christian I must tell you that God will not suffer Rebels and Traitors to prosper nor this Cause to be overthrown And whatsoever personal punishment it shall please Him to inflict upon Me must not make Me repine much less give over this quarrel and there is as little question that a composition with them at this time is nothing else but a submission which by the grace of God I am resolved against whatsoever it cost Me for I know My obligation to be both in Conscience and Honour neither to abandon God's Cause injure My Successors nor forsake My Friends Indeed I cannot flatter My self with expectation of good success more than this to end My days with Honour and a good Conscience which obligeth Me to continue My endeavours in not despairing that God may yet in due time avenge His own Cause though I must aver to all My Friends that he that will stay with Me at this time must expect and resolve either to die for a good Cause or which is worse to live as miserable in maintaining it as the violence of insulting Rebels can make him Having thus truly and impartially stated My Case unto you and plainly told you My resolutions which by the grace of God I will not alter they being neither lightly nor suddenly grounded I earnestly desire you not in any wise to hearken now after Treaties assuring you that as low as I am I will do no more than was offered in My Name at Vxbridge confessing that it were as great a miracle that they should agree to so much reason as that I should be within a month in the same condition that I was immediately before the Battel at Naseby Therefore for God's sake let us not flatter our selves with these conceits And believe Me your very imagination that you are desirous of a Treaty will but lose Me so much the sooner wherefore as you love Me whatsoever you have already done apply your discourse hereafter according to My resolution and judgement As for the Irish I assure you they shall not cheat Me but it is possible they may cozen themselves for be assured what I have refused to the English I will not grant to the Irish Rebels never trusting to that kind of people of what Nation soever more than I see by their Actions And I am sending to Ormond such a Dispatch as I am sure will please you and all honest men a Copy whereof by the next opportunity you shall have Lastly be confident I would not have put you nor My self to the trouble of this long Letter had I not a great estimation of you and a full confidence of your Friendship too Caerdiffe August 3. 1645. C. R. XXXIX To Secretary NICHOLAS CAERDIFFE Aug. 4. MDCXLV Nicholas HAving commanded your fellow-Secretary to give you a full account as well of our proceedings here as resolutions I will neither trouble you nor My self with repetitions Only for My self I must desire you
Chaplains makes us at this time not only to acknowledge your former Civilities but likewise now to acquaint you that three of Our Chaplains to wit Dr Sheldon Dr Holdsworth and Dr Haywood are newly landed in this Isle not doubting but they shall have the same protection that formerly they had which still will shew the continuation of your good respect unto Us which we upon all fitting occasions shall not be backward to acknowledge So We bid you heartily farewel Given at Carisbrook-Castle Novemb. 27. 1647. XLVI To the Lords Gentlemen and Committee of the Scotch Parliament together with the Officers of the Army CARISBROOK July 31. MDCXLVIII My Lords and Gentlemen IT is no small comfort to Me that My Native Country hath so true a sense of My present condition as I find expressed by your Letter of the eighth of this Month and your Declaration both which I received upon Friday last And the very same reason which makes you discreetly and generously at this time forbear to press any thing to Me hinders Me likewise to make any particular professions unto you lest it may be imagined that desire of Liberty should now be the only Secretary to My thoughts Yet thus much I cannot but say that as in all humane reason nothing but a free Personal Treaty with me can settle the unhappy distractions of these distressed Kingdoms so if that could once be had I would not doubt but that by the grace of God a happy Peace would soon follow Such force I believe true reason has in the hearts of all men when it may be clearly and calmly heard and I am not ashamed at all times to profess that it hath and shall be alwaies want of Understanding not of will if I do not yield to reason whensoever and from whomsoever I hear it and it were a strange thing if reason should be less esteemed because it comes from Me which truly I do not expect from you your Declaration seeming to Me and I hope your Actions will prove that I am not deceived to be so well grounded upon Honour and Justice that albeit by way of opinion I cannot give a Placet to every Clause in it yet I am confident upon a calm and friendly debate we shall very well agree To conclude I cannot for the present better shew My thankfulness to you for the generous and loyal expressions of your Affections to Me than by giving you My honest and sincere advice which is really and constantly without seeking private ends to pursue the publick professions in your Declaration as sincere Christians and good Subjects ought to do always remembring that as the best foundation of Loyalty is Christianity so true Christianity teaches perfect Loyalty for without this reciprocation neither is truly what they pretend to be But I am both confident that needs not to you as likewise that you will rightly understand this which is affectionately intended by your assured Friend Carisbrook Monday 31. July 1648. C. R. XLVII To the PRINCE NEWPORT Nov. 29. MDCXLVIII SON BY what hath been said you may see how long We have laboured in the search of Peace Do not you be discouraged to tread those ways in all worthy means to restore your self to your Right but prefer the way of Peace Shew the greatness of your Mind rather to conquer your Enemies by pardoning than by punishing If you saw how unmanly and unchristianly this implacable disposition is in our ill-willers you would avoid that spirit Censure Us not for having parted with too much of Our Own Right the price was great the commodity was Security to Us Peace to Our People And We are confident another Parliament would remember how useful a King's Power is to a Peoples Liberty of how much We have devested Our self that We and they might meet again in a due Parliamentary way to agree the bounds for Prince and People And in this give belief to Our experience never to affect more Greatness or Prerogative than what is really and intrinsecally for the good of your Subjects not satisfaction of Favourites And if you thus use it you will never want means to be a Father to all and a bountiful Prince to any you would be extraordinarily gracious unto You may perceive all men trust their treasure where it returns them interest And if Princes like the Sea receive and repay all the fresh streams and rivers trust them with they will not grudge but pride themselves to make them up an Ocean These considerations may make you a great Prince as your Father is now a low one and your state may be so much the more established as Mine hath been shaken For Subjects have learnt We dare say that Victories over their Princes are but triumphs over themselves and so will be more unwilling to hearken to changes hereafter The English Nation are a sober People however at present under some infatuation We know not but this may be the last time We may speak to you or the world publickly We are sensible into what hand We are fallen and yet We bless God We have those inward refreshments that the malice of Our Enemies cannot perturb We have learnt to own Our self by retiring into Our self and therefore can the better digest what befalls Us not doubting but God can restrain Our Enemies Malice and turn their fierceness unto His Praise To conclude If God give you success use it humbly and far from revenge If he restore you to your Right upon hard conditions whatever you promise keep Those men which have forced Laws which they were bound to observe will find their triumphs full of troubles Do not think any thing in this world worth obtaining by foul and unjust means You are the Son of Our love and as We direct you to what We have recommended to you so We assure You We do not more affectionately pray for you to whom We are a natural Parent than We do that the ancient glory and renown of this Nation be not buried in irreligion and fanatick humour and that all Our Subjects to whom We are a Politick Parent may have such sober thoughts as to seek their Peace in the Orthodox Profession of the Christian Religion as it was established since the Reformation in this Kingdom and not in new Revelations and that the ancient Laws with the interpretation according to the known practices may once again be an Hedge about them that you may in due time govern and they be governed as in the fear of the Lord. C. R. The Commissioners are gone the Corn is now in the Ground We expect the harvest if the fruit be Peace We hope the God of Peace will in time reduce all to Truth and Order again which that he may do is he Prayer of C. R. XLVIII For the KING SIR HAving no means to come to the knowledge of Your Majesties present condition but such as I receive from the Prints or which is as uncertain Report I have sent this
doubted not had they had power to recede some of His Reasons would have prevailed with them as He is confident had it been with His two Houses it would have done with them and therefore beseeches them to take the same freedom with His two Houses to press them to a compliance with Him in those things His Conscience is not yet satisfied in which more time may do His Opinion not being like the Laws of the Medes and Persians unalterable or infallible He added His very hearty thanks for the pains they had taken to satisfie Him professing that He wanted Eloquence to commend their Abilities He desired them candidly to represent all the Transactions of this Treaty to His two Houses that they might see Nothing of His Interest how near or dear soever but that wherein His Conscience is unsatisfied can hinder on His part a happy conclusion of this Treaty LVI To the Lords Commissioners at their taking leave NEWPORT Nov. MDCXLVIII MY Lords You are come to take your leave of Me and I believe we shall scarce never see each other again but God's Will be done I thank God I have made my Peace with Him and shall without fear undergo what He shall be pleased to suffer man to do unto Me. My Lords you cannot but know that in My Fall and Ruine you see your own and that also near to you I pray God send you better Friends than I have found I am fully informed of the whole carriage of the Plot against Me and Mine and nothing so much afflicts Me as the sense and feeling I have of the Sufferings of my Subjects and the Miseries that hang over my three Kingdoms drawn upon them by those who upon pretences of Good violently pursue their own Interests and Ends. LVII His MAJESTIE's Speeches to the pretended High Court of Justice with the History of His Tryal Jan. MDCXLVIII IX Westminster-Hall Jan. 20. ON Saturday the twentieth of January afternoon Serjeant John Bradshaw President of the pretended Court with about fifty seven of his fellow-Commissioners came into Westminster-Hall having sixteen men with Partisans and their Officers with a Sword and Mace marching before them thus profaning the Name the Place and the Ensigns of Justice in the perpetration of the most enormous and unexampled Villany And at the West end of the Hall prepared for their purpose Bradshaw seated himself in a Crimson-Velvet Chair in the midst having a Desk with a Crimson-Velvet Cushion before him and at his feet a Table covered with a Turkey Carpet whereon the Sword and Mace were laid the rest were placed on each side upon Benches hung with Scarlet and the Partisans divided themselves on each hand before them Being thus sate and Silence made the great Gate of the Hall was set open and all persons promiscuously let in so that the Hall was presently filled and Silence again ordered Then Colonel Matthew Tomlinson was commanded to bring the Prisoner their King into the Court which he did within a quarter of an hour with about twenty Officers with Partisans marching before Him and others behind Their Serjeant at Arms with his Mace received Him and brought Him to the Bar where a Crimson-Velvet Chair was set His Majesty with an unconcerned Look upon his pretended Judges and the People in the Galleries on each side sate down without taking notice of their Court but presently rose up again and turned about looking down upon the Guards placed on the left side and the multitude of Spectators on the right side of the Hall After Silence made the pretended Act for His Trial was read by their Clerk sitting at the side of the Table where the Sword and Mace lay An Act of Parliament of the House of Commons for Trial of Charles Stuart King of England WHereas it is notorious that Charles Stuart the now King of England not content with the many incroachments which his Predecessors had made upon the People in their Rights and Freedom hath had a wicked Design to subvert the Ancient and Fundamental Laws and Liberties of this Nation and in their place to introduce an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government and that besides all evil ways to bring his Design to pass he hath prosecuted it with Fire and Sword levied and maintained a Civil War in the Land against the Parliament and Kingdom whereby this Country hath been miserably wasted the publick Treasure exhausted Trade decaied thousands of People murthered and infinite other mischiefs committed for all which high Offences the said Charles Stuart might long since have been brought to exemplary and condign Punishment Whereas also the Parliament well hoping that the Restraint and Imprisonment of his Person after it had pleased God to deliver him into their hands would have quieted the Distempers of the Kingdom did forbear to proceed judicially against him but found by sad experience that such their Remissenss served only to encourage him and his Complices in the continuance of their evil practices and in raising new Commotions Rebellions and Invasions For prevention of the like and greater inconveniences and to the end no Chief Officer or Magistrate may hereafter presume Traiterously and maliciously to imagine or contrive the enslaving or destroying of the English Nation and to expect impunity Be it Enacted and Ordained by the Commons in this present Parliament assembled and it is hereby Enacted and Ordained that Thomas Lord Fairfax General Oliver Cromwell Lieutenant-General Commissary General Henry Ireton Major General Philip Skippon Sir Hardresse Waller Colonel Valentine Walton Colonel Thomas Harrison Colonel Edward Whaley Colonel Thomas Pride Colonel Isaac Ewer Colonel Richard Ingoldsby Sir Henry Mildmay Sir Thomas Honywood Thomas Lord Grey Philip Lord Lisle William Lord Mounson Sir John Danvers Sir Thomas Maleverer Sir John Bourchier Sir James Harrington Sir William Brereton Robert Wallop Esq William Heveningham Esquire Isaac Pennington Alderman Thomas Atkins Alderman Colonel Rowland Wilson Sir Peter Wentworth Colonel Henry Marten Colonel William Purefoy Colonel Godfrey Bosvile John Trenchard Esquire Colonel Herbert Morley Colonel John Berkstead Colonel Matthew Tomlinson John Blakeston Esq Gilbert Millington Esquire Sir William Constable Colonel Edward Ludlow Colonel John Lambert Colonel John Hutchinson Sir Arthur Hasilrig Sir Michael Livesey Richard Salway Esquire Humphrey Salway Esquire Colonel Robert Tichborne Colonel Owen Roe Colonel Robert Manwaring Colonel Robert Lilborn Colonel Adrian Scroope Colonel Richard Dean Colonel John Okey Colonel Robert Overton Colonel John Harrison Colonel John Disborough Colonel William Goffe Colonel Robert Duckenfield Cornelius Holland Esquire John Carew Esquire Sir William Armyne John Jones Esquire Miles Corbet Esquire Francis Allen Esquire Thomas Lister Esquire Benjamin Weston Esquire Peregrine Pelham Esq John Gourdon Esquire Serjeant Francis Thorp John Nutt Esquire Thomas Chaloner Esq Colonel Algernon Sidney John Anlaby Esquire Colonel John Moore Rich. Darley Esq William Say Esquire John Aldred Esquire John Fagge Esquire James Nelthrop Esquire Sir William Roberts Colonel Francis Lassels Colonel Alexander Rigby Henry Smith
that Torrent which might have overwhelmed Us and made them as well and by the same Rule Masters of Our Person as of Our Militia This carried Us first from Theobald's to New-market And whosoever reads the Declaration sent Us thither the strange language given Us and Scandals laid upon Us in that Declaration will not wonder that We made all the haste We could from thence to Tork What hath hapned since Our coming hither both in Words and Actions is too notorious to all the parts of Christendom who with wonder and delight are amazed to see the Wisdom Courage Affection and Loyalty of the English Nation appear so far shrunk and confounded by the Malice Cunning and Industry of persons contemptible in Number inconsiderable in Fortune and Reputation united only by Guilt and Conspiracy against Us. A Licence even to Treason is admitted that is not punished in Pulpits and persons ignorant in Learning and Understanding turbulent and Seditious in disposition Scandalous in life and unconformable in Opinion to the Laws of the Land are by these Men their recommendation and authority imposed upon Parishes to infect and poison the minds of Our People Our Towns Our Goods Our Mony are taken from Us and to make the scorn compleat care is taken to perswade Us that We are not injured but that all is done for Our good Opinions and Resolutions are imposed upon Us by Votes and Declarations that We intended to levy War and then Arms taken up to destroy Us Rebellions and Treasons contrived fomented and acted against Us and then Reproaches cast on Us and War raised against Us because We are displeased We send Our Command to Our Keeper of Our Great Seal of England to Adjourn the Term from London to York a thing as much in Our Power as in what room of Our House We will lodge or eat This is straight Voted to be illegal and Our Keeper of Our Own Seal peremptorily forbid to do his Duty to Seal a Writ or Proclamation to that purpose and when in Obedience to Our express Command he comes to wait on Us he is pursued with a Warrant to all Mayors Justices of the Peace Sheriffs and other Officers to apprehend him A Committee is sent down into the Countries near Us to execute their pretended Ordinance who compel Our Subjects to take Arms against Us and threaten and imprison such as refuse without the least colour of Law whilst such who execute Our legal Commission of Array are sent for as Delinquents and declared to be Enemies to the Kingdom Our own Monies seized upon at London and no supply suffered to be sent Us all persons are forbid to come to Us and charge given to all Men near the Northern Road to stop all Men and Horses who are for Our Service coming to York there being as Master Hollis says in his Speech of which he hath the sole Printing and hath granted that Monopoly to one Vnderhill a mark set upon that Place and an opinion declared concerning those who shall resort thither Our High-ways are shut up and Our good Subjects are hindred in their journies and their goods seized and detained from them because they have occasions to use them in the North Our own Houshold Servants refuse to attend Us upon Our Summons and then the putting them from their Places is voted an injury to the Parliament and whosoever shall accept of those Places to offer an affront to the Parliament and render themselves Unworthy of any place of Honour or Trust in the Commonwealth Sir John Hotham is commended and protected for keeping Us out of Our Town of Hull by Force and Arms and Our raising a Guard for Our Defence is voted levying War against Our Parliament whilst he murthers Our Subjects takes them Prisoners burns their Houses drowns their Land and robs all Men he can lay hold of and commits all the insolent Acts of Hostility against Us and Our Subjects which the most equal and declared Enemies practise in any Country And when after all these Outrages Our miserable Subjects throw themselves at Our feet crying for and challenging Our Protection We must not perform that Duty towards them nor presume to say Sir John Hotham is a Traitor because he hath Priviledge of Parliament Our Royal Navy Our Own Ships are taken from Us the Earl of Warwick made Our Admiral in despight and scorn of Us who chases Our Subjects and makes War upon Us under the Authority of another pretended Ordinance and his Letter published by the direction of the House of Peers to shew how easie it was to make an election rather to despise Us and the known unquestionable Law of the Land than to neglect an Order of both Houses in a matter they have no more just power to meddle in than they have to sell Our Houses Parks and Crown-Land and they may as lawfully send those Ships to the Indies and ordain that We shall never have more as keep them in the Downs against Our Will and under a Command We do protest against to all the World We are defamed and publickly reproached for want of zeal against the Rebels in Ireland and when We offer to venture Our own Person and Our Crown-Land for the relief of Our miserable Subjects there such a Journy is voted to be against the Law to be an incouragement to the Rebels that whosoever shall assist Us in it shall be an Enemy to the Commonwealth and that the Sheriffs of Counties shall raise power to suppress any Levies We shall make to that purpose And after all this when it hath been publickly said by Master Martin That Our Office is forfeitable and that the Happiness of this Kingdom doth not depend upon Vs or any of the Regal Branches of that Stock and by Sir Henry Ludlow That We are not worthy to be King of England and been declared that We have no Negative voice which puts Our Crown the Law of the Land the Liberty and Property of the Subjects absolutely into their hands We are told by these devout Champions for Anarchy and Confusion That We are fairly dealt with that We are not deposed That if they did that there would be neither want of Modesty or Duty in them They publish false scandalous Declarations to corrupt Our good Subjects in their Loyalty and Affection to Us injoyn them to be read and disperse them with all Care and Industry and send for all Ministers who according to Our Command publish Our Answers to undeceive Our People as Delinquents notwithstanding We have not prohibited any to read theirs They commit the Lord Mayor of London and other Mayors for publishing Our Proclamations according to Our Writ and his Oath and streightly charge all Our ministers of Justice not to obey Us They raise an Army against Us and chuse the Earl of Essex for their General and grant him a power Over Us the Law and all Our People that he may kill and destroy whom he thinks fit and impose an
We are to receive Advice for the Preservation of the Religion Laws and Safety of the Kingdom and as far as in Us lyes to restore it to its former Peace and Security Our chief and only end from those whom they have trusted though We cannot receive it in the place where We appointed And for the better encouragement of those Members of either House to resort to Us who may be conscious to themselves of having justly incurred Our Displeasure by submitting to or concurring in unlawful Actions and that all the World may see how willing and desirous We are to forget the Injuries and Indignities offered to Us and by an Union of English Hearts to prevent the lasting Miseries which this Foreign Invasion must bring upon this Kingdom We do offer a free and General Pardon to all the Members of either House who shall at or before the said twenty second day of January appear at Our City of Oxford and desire the same without Exceptions which considering the manifest Treasons committed against Us and the Condition We are now in improved by God's wonderful blessing to a better degree than We have enjoyed at any time since these Distractions is the greatest instance of Princely and Fatherly Care of Our People that can be expressed and which malice it self cannot suggest to proceed from any other Ground And therefore We hope and are confident that all such who upon this our gracious Invitation will not return to their Duty and Allegiance shall be no more thought Promoters of the Religion laws and liberty of the Kingdom which this way may be without doubt setled and secured but Persons engaged from the beginning out of their own Pride Malice and Ambition to bring Confusion and Desolation upon their Country and to that purpose having long since contrived the Design to invite and joyn with a Foreign Nation to ruine and extinguish their own and shall accordingly be pursued as the most desperate and malicious Enemies of the Kingdom And Our pleasure is That this Our Proclamation be read in all Churches and Chapels within this Our Kingdom and Dominion of Wales Given at Our Court at Oxford the two and twentieth day of December in the Nineteenth year of Our Reign 1643. God Save the KING MDCXLIII IV. A Letter from the Lords at Oxford and other Lords whose Names are subscribed to the Lords of the Privy-Council and the Conservators of the Peace of the Kingdom of Scotland Our very good Lords IF for no other Reason yet that Posterity may know we have done our Duties and not sate still while our Brethren of Scotland were transported with a dangerous and fatal mis-understanding that the Resolution now taken among them for an Expedition into England is agreeable to their obligation by the late Treaty and to the Wishes and Desires of this Kingdom expressed by the two Houses of Parliament we have thought it necessary to let your Lordships know That if we had dissented from that Act it could never have been made a Law And when you have examined and considered the Names of us who subscribe this Letter who we hope are too well known to your Lordships and to both Kingdoms to be suspected to want Affection to Religion or to the Laws and Liberties of our Country for the Defence and maintenance of which we shall always hold our Lives a cheap Sacrifice and when you are informed that the Earls of Arundel and Thanet and the Lords Stafford Stanhope Coventry Goring and Craven are in the parts beyond the Seas and the Earl of Chesterfield Westmorland and the Lord Mountague of Boughton under restraint at London for their Loyalty and Duty to His Majesty and the Kingdom your Lordships will easily conclude how very few now make up the Peers at Westminster there being in truth not above five and twenty Lords present or privy to those Councils or being absent consenting or concurring with them whereas the House of Peers consist of above one hundred besides Minors and Recusant Lords neither of which keep us company in this Address to your Lordships How we and the major part of the House of Commons come to be absent from thence is so notorious to all the World that we believe your Lordships cannot be strangers to it How several times during our sitting there Multitudes of the meanest sort of People with weapons not agreeing with their condition or custom in a manner very contrary and destructive to the privilege of Parliament fill'd up the way between both Houses offering Injuries both by words and actions to and laying violent hands upon several Members and crying out many Hours together against the established Laws in a most tumultuous and menacing way How no remedy would be submitted to for preventing those Tumults After which and other unlawful and unparliamentary Actions many things rejected and setled upon solemn debate in the House of Peers were again after many Threats and Menaces resumed altered and determined contrary to the Custom and Laws of Parliaments and so many of us withdrew ourselves from thence where we could not Sit Speak and Vote with Honour Freedom and Safety and are now kept from thence for our Duty and Loyalty to our Sovereign And we must therefore protest against any Invitation which hath been made to our Brethren of Scotland to enter this Kingdom with an Army the same being as much against the Desires as against the Duty of the Lords and Commons of England And we do conjure your Lordships by our common Allegiance and Subjection under one gracious Sovereign by the Amity and Affection between the two Nations by the Treaty of Pacification which by any such Act is absolutely dissolved and by all Obligations both Divine and Humane which can preserve Peace upon earth to use your utmost endeavours to prevent the effusion of so much Christian blood and the Confusion and Desolation which must follow the unjust Invasions of this Kingdom which we and we are confident all true English men must interpret as a Design of Conquest and to impose new Laws upon us And therefore your Lordships may be assured we shall not so far forget our own Interests and the Honour of our Nation as not to expose our Lives and Fortunes in the just and necessary defence of the Kingdom But if your Lordships in truth have any doubts or apprehensions that there now is or hereafter may be a purpose to infringe your Laws or Liberties from any Attempt of this Kingdom we do engage our Honours to your Lordships to be our selves most religious observers of the Act of Pacification and if the Breach and violation do not first begin within that Kingdom we are most confident you shall never have cause to complain of this And having thus far expressed Our selves to your Lordships we hope to receive such an Answer from you as may be a means to preserve a right understanding between the two Nations and lay an Obligation upon us to continue Your Lordships
the Lieutenant and Judges there should be nominated by the two Houses of Parliament as is expressed in the twentieth Proposition who will recommend none to be imployed by his Majesty in places of so great trust but such whose known Ability and Integrity shall make them worthy of them which must needs be best known to a Parliament nor are they to have any greater Power conferred upon them by the granting this Proposition then they have had who did formerly execute those places And we know no reason why your Lordships should make difficulty of his Majesties consenting to such Acts as shall be presented unto him for raising Moneys and other necessaries from the Subject which is without any charge to himself for no other end but the settling of the true Protestant Religion in that Kingdom and reducing it to his Majesties Obedience for which we hold nothing too dear that can be imployed by us And we cannot but wonder that your Lordships should make the prosecution of the War of Ireland which is but to execute Justice upon those bloody Rebels who have broken all Laws of God and Man their Faith their Allegiance all bonds of Charity all rules of Humanity and humane Society who have Butchered so many thousands of Innocent Christians Men Women and Children whose Blood cries up to Heaven for Vengeance so many of his Majesties Subjects whose Lives he is bound to require at their hands that spilt them and to do Justice upon them to put away innocent Blood from himself his Posterity the whole Land these execrable Antichristian Rebels who have made a covenant with Hell to destroy the Gospel of Christ and have taken up Arms to destroy the Protestant Religion to set up Popery to rend away one of his Majesties Kingdoms and deliver it up into the hands of Strangers for which they have negotiations with Spain and other States a War which must prevent so much mischief do so much good offer up such an acceptable Sacrifice to the Great and Just God of Heaven who groans under so much Wickedness to lie so long unpunished a War which must reduce that Kingdom unto his Majesties Obedience the most glorious work that this Kingdom can undertake that the prosecution of such a War your Lordships should make to depend upon any other condition that the Distractions of these Kingdoms should be laid as an impediment unto it and that there should be any thought any thing which should give those Rebels hope of impunity if our Miseries continue whereas according to Christian reason and the ordinary course of God's Providence nothing can be more probable to continue our Miseries then the least connivence in this kind What can be said or imagined should be any inducement to it We hope not to make use of their help and assistance to strengthen any party here to bring over such Actors of barbarous Cruelties to exercise the same in these Kingdoms We desire your Lordships to consider these things and that nothing may remain with you which may hinder his Majesty from giving his Consent to all good means for the reducing of Ireland according to what is desired by us in our Propositions The King's Commissioners Reply to the two last Papers The King's Commissioners Paper 20. February WE are very sorry that our Answers formerly given to your Lordships in the business of the Cessation which was so necessary to be made and being made to be kept have not given your Lordships satisfaction and that your Lordships have not rather thought fit to make the reasonableness of your Propositions concerning Ireland appear to us or to make such as might be reasonable in the stead then by charging his Majesty with many particulars which highly reflect upon his Honour to compel us to mention many things in Answer to your Lordships Allegations which otherwise in a time of Treaty when we would rather endeavour to prevent future Inconveniences then to insist on past mistakes we desired to have omitted And we can no ways admit that when the Cessation was made in Ireland his Majesties Protestant Subjects there could have subsisted without that Cessation nor that the War can be maintained and prosecuted to the subduing the Rebels there so long as the War continues in this Kingdom which are the chief grounds laid for the Assertions in your Lordships first Paper delivered this day concerning the business of Ireland Neither can we conceive that your Lordships have alleged any thing that could in the least degree satisfie us that his Majesty had no Power to make that Cessation or had no Reason so to do considering as we have formerly said and do again insist upon it that by that Cessation which was not made till long after this Kingdom was embroiled in a miserable War the poor Protestants there who for want of Supplies from hence were ready to famish and be destroyed were preserved and that Kingdom kept from utter Ruin so far was it from being a design for their Destruction or for the advantage of the Popish bloody Rebels as is insinuated for it appears by the Letters of the Lords Justices of Ireland Sir William Parsons and Sir John Borlase and of the Council there of the fourth of April 1643. before that Cessation made directed to the Speaker of the House of Commons a Copy whereof we delivered to your Lordships though we presume you may have the Original That His Majesties Army and good Subjects there were in danger to be devoured for want of needful Supplies forth of England and that His Majesties Forces were of Necessity sent abroad to try what might be done for sustaining them in the Country to keep them alive until Supplies should get to them but that design failing those their hopes were converted into astonishment to behold the Miseries of the Officers and Souldiers for want of all things and all those Wants made unsupportable in the want of Food and divers Commanders and Officers declaring they had little hope to be supplied by the Parliament pressed with so great importunity to be permitted to depart the Kingdom as that it would be extreme difficult to keep them there And in another part of that Letter for we shall not grieve you with mention of all their Complaints they expressed That they were expelling thence all Strangers and must instantly send away for England thousands of poor despoiled English whose very eating was then unsupportable to that place that their Confusions would not admit the writing of many more Letters if any for they had written divers others expressing their great Necessities And to the end His Majesty and the English Nation might not irrecoverably and unavoidably suffer they did desire that then though it were almost at the point to be too late supplies of Victuals and Ammunition in present might be hastned thither to keep life until the rest might follow there being no Victual in the store nor a hundred Barrells of Powder a small proportion to defend
the Lords Justices and Council there yet we were assured even by some who were of the Council at that time when the Letters were written that the same was done only to press for Supplies from hence without the least intention in them of inducing a Cessation neither do the Copies contain any thing tending to a Cessation or the least mention thereof And we have cause to grieve not only at what your Lordships express concerning the complaints from Ireland and their great extremities but that the same being procured and increased by the Popish Party yet we should find such earnest endeavours to lay the blame and neglect therein upon the two Houses of Parliament here who have been so zealous for their Relief and whose only care under the Blessing of God hath been their Preservation and that in the heat of our own miserable Distractions have continued their Supplies and from our own great Wants have not spared to afford our Brethren there the means of their subsistance The Protestants in Munster Connaught and Vlster who opposed this Cessation were many of them English and both they and the Scots suffering under as great Wants and Failer of Supplies as the Protestants in other places and in no better posture of their own defence notwithstanding in a true sense of their own Duty and Conscience they have opposed and still do oppose the same neither were the English there neglected as your Lordships have been misinformed by such who labour to destroy both Nations and as a means thereto to divide them Besides the Goods seised near Coventry we have mentioned other particulars asserted to be seised not without His Majesties own knowledge and direction as we are informed and are most unwilling to believe Neither do we understand it to be an excuse for seising some Goods to say that His Majesty did forbear to seise others in His Power but when His Majesty shall rightly ponder the horridness of that Rebellion we hope those wicked Instruments who contrived and do support the same will have no power to alter His Majesties tender sense of the miseries of His Protestants Subjects in that Kingdom nor at all to lessen His Piety and gracious Care for quenching the Flames of that unhappy Rebellion We do again affirm unto your Lordships the truth of what we said before concerning the Supplies of Ireland by the two Houses and it seems strange that what hath been lately sent should not be looked upon as a Support of the War against the Rebels by which only the Protestants were enabled to defend themselves and to infest their Enemies nor can we imagine any other means as a Support of that just War being most assured that if this had not been done the Rebels must certainly have prevailed and the remnant of His Majesties good Subjects of that Kingdom have perished Your Lordships are pleased to remember some moneys by us imployed particularly one hundred thousand Pounds which was raised for Ireland all which have been re-satisfied with advantage and we must as often as you are pleased to repeat it refer your Lordships to our former just and clear Answers concerning the same and the like for the Forces under the Command of the Lord Wharton And we believe what your Lordships express concerning the Forces brought hither to His Majesty out of Ireland after the Cessation it being one end for which the Cessation was made that those Forces might be imployed against the two Houses of Parliament here and those Scotish Forces which came over were not sent for We know of no Persons who have returned into Ireland since the Cessation except such as were Agents for the procuring thereof and divers principal Rebels who presumed to address themselves unto His Majesty at Oxford and were there countenanced It is probable that some might endeavour to alienate the hearts of the Officers of the Army there from the two Houses whereby their Service against the Rebels might be interrupted To that particular of the Subscriptions of the Officers and of the Committee sent into Ireland and of the diversions of moneys alledged and of the Copies of Letters given us by your Lordships without the Names of those who subscribed them we have already given your Lordships a full and clear Answer but have not received satisfaction concerning the denial of the Lord Wharton's Commission whereby the Service of that Kingdom was much prejudiced It is so far from being made appear that His Majesties English Protestant Subjects in Ireland could not subsist without a Cessation that the contrary is undeniable and that His Majesties Protestant Subjects there both English and Scotish who have opposed that Cessation have subsisted and do still subsist and we are sorry to find any inclination to continue that Cessation which whensoever made will be esteemed by all good Protestants a countenancing of that bloody Rebellion We do insist upon our former Demands concerning Ireland and doubt not but those being granted notwithstanding our present miserable Distractions here we shall by the Blessing of God bring those bloody Rebels to a speedy and just Punishment and settle that unhappy Kingdom in their due Obedience to His Majesty and the Crown of England Their other Paper 22. Feb. IT is not possible for us to give a more clear Answer than we have done to shew that there can no such Inconvenience follow upon confirming the Ordinance of the 11. of April by Act of Parliament as your Lordships do imagine it being desired that the Treaty of the sixth of August be in like manner confirmed by which the Commanders of the Scotish Forces in Ireland are to be answerable to His Majesty and the two Houses of Parliament of England for their whole deportment and proceeding there and it being desired by the 13. Proposition that the Prosecutions of the War of Ireland should be settled in both Houses of Parliament all which taken together it cannot follow that upon any Disagreement between the Committees there the Earl of Leven may carry on the War according to his own discretion As for our Expression when there shall be a Lieutenant in Ireland which was used in Answer to your Lordships second Paper of the 20. of February it was to satisfie your Lordships that there could be no interfering between the Powers of the Lord Lieutenant and of the Earl of Leven and still we say when there shall be a Lord Lieutenant chosen as is expressed in our 20. Proposition for we do not admit the Marquiss of Ormond to be so the Commander in chief of the Scotish Army is to receive Instructions from him in such manner as we have laid it down in that Answer of ours to your Lordships Paper above-mentioned which will we hope satisfie your Lordships other Objection that this is not to deliver over the whole Kingdom of Ireland into the hands of His Majesties Subjects of the Kingdom of Scotland seeing such of that Nation as are there imployed are to be subordinate
Rebels are not able to overcome His Majesties Army and devour His other good Subjects here as they desire yet both His Army and good Subjects are in danger to be devoured by the wants of needful Supplies forth of England For as we formerly signified thither those Forces were of necessity sent abroad to try what might be done for sustaining them in the Countrey so as to keep them alive until Supplies should get to us but that design now failing those our hopes are converted into astonishment to behold the unspeakable Miseries of the Officers and Soldiers for want of all things and all those Wants made the more unsupportable in the want of Food whilst this City being all the help we have is now too apparently found to be unable to help us as it hath hitherto done and divers Commanders and Officers in the Army do now so far express their sense of their Sufferings which indeed are very great and grievous as they declare that they have little hope to be supplied by the Parliament and press with so great importunity to be permitted to depart the Kingdom as it will be extream difficult to keep them here By our Letters of the three and twentieth of March we signified thither the unsupportable burthen laid on this City for Victualling those of the Army left here when the Lord Marquess with the Forces he took with him marched hence which burthen is found every day more heavy than other in regard of the many House-keepers thereby daily breaking up house and scattering their Families leaving still fewer to bear the burthen We also by those Letters and by our Letters of the five and twentieth of February advertised thither the high danger this Kingdom would incur if the Army so sent abroad should by any distress or through want be forced back hither again before our relief of Victuals should arrive forth of England When we found that those men were returning back hither although we were and are still full of Distraction considering the dismal consequences threatned thereby in respect of our Wants yet we consulted what we could yet imagine feasible that we had not formerly done to gain some Food for those men and found that to send them or others abroad into the Countrey we cannot in regard we are not able to advance Money for procuring the many Requisites incident to such an Expedition In the end therefore we were enforced to fix on our former way and so to see who had any thing yet left him untaken from him to help us and although there are but few such and some of them poor Merchants whom we have now by the Law of Necessity utterly undone and disabled from being hereafter helpful to us in bringing us in Victuals or other needful Commodities yet were we forced to wrest their Commodities from them And certainly there are few here of our selves or others that have not felt their parts in the enforced Rigour of our proceedings towards preserving the Army so as what with such hard dealing no less grievous to us to do than it is heavy to others to suffer and by our descending against our hearts far below the Honour and Dignity of that Power we represent here under His Royal Majesty we have with unspeakable difficulty prevailed so as to be able to find Bread for the Soldiers for the space of one Month. We are now expelling hence all Strangers and must instantly send away for England Thousands of poor despoiled English whose very eating is now unsupportable to this place And now again and finally we earnestly desire for our Confusions will not now admit the writing of many more Letters if any that His Majesty and the English Nation may not suffer so great if not irrecoverable Prejudice and Dishonour as must unavoidably be the consequence of our not being relieved suddenly but that yet although it be even now at the point to be too late supplies of Victuals and Munition in present be hastened hither to keep life until the rest may follow there being no Victual in the store nor will there be a hundred Barrels of Powder left in the store when the out-Garrisons as they must be instantly are supplied and that remainder according to the usual necessary expence besides extraordinary accidents will not last above a month And the residue of our Provisions must also come speedily after or otherwise England cannot hope to secure Ireland or secure themselves against Ireland but in the loss of it must look for such Enemies from hence as will perpetually disturb the Peace of His Majesty and His Kingdom of England and annoy them by Sea and Land as we often formerly represented thither which mischiefs may yet be prevented if we be yet forthwith enabled from thence with means to overcome this Rebellion We hope that a course is taken there for hastening hither the Provisions of Arms and Munition mentioned in the Docquet sent with our Letters of the twentieth of January and the six hundred Horses which we then moved might be sent hither for Recruits and that the seven thousand eight hundred fourscore and thirteen pounds three shillings for Arms to be provided in Holland besides those we expect in London hath been paid to Anthony Tierens in London or to Daniel Wibrants in Amsterdam and if that Sum had been paid as we at first desired we might well have had those Provisions arrived here by the tenth of March as we agreed however we now desire that that Money if it be not already pay'd may be yet pay'd to Mr. Tierens in London or Mr. Wibrants in Amsterdam that so those Provisions may arrive here speedily which considering that Summer is now near at hand will be very necessary that when our Supplies of Victuals Munition Cloaths Money and other Provisions shall arrive we may not in the publick Service here lose the benefit and advantage of that season And so we remain from His Majesties Castle of Dublin 4. April 1643. POSTSCRIPT As we were ready to sign this Dispatch we received at this Board a Paper signed by sundry Officers of the Army now here at Dublin which is in such a Stile and threatens so much Danger as we hold necessary to send a Copy thereof here inclosed whereby still appears the high Necessity of hastening away Money for them and the rest of the Officers and Victuals for the Soldier without which it will be impossible to contain them from breaking out into mutiny The Letter inclosed My Lords AT our first entrance into this unhappy Kingdom we had no other Design than by our Swords to assert and vindicate the Right of His Majesty which was here most highly abused to redress the Wrongs of His poor Subjects and to advance our own particulars in the prosecution of so honest undertakings And for the first of these we do believe they have since our coming over succeeded pretty well but for the last which concerns our selves that hath fallen out so
considering any thing contained in those Papers or Writings framed by the said Earl and those Commissioners with whom he Treated as he doth absolutely disavow him therein and hath given Commandment to the Lord Lieutenant and the Council there to proceed against the said Earl as one who either out of falseness presumption or folly hath so hazarded the blemishing of his Majesties Reputation with his good Subjects and so impertinently framed those Articles of his own head without the Consent Privity or Directions of his Majesty or the Lord Lieutenant or any of his Majesties Council there But true it is that for the necessary preservation of his Majesties Protestant Subjects in Ireland whose Case was daily represented unto him to be so desperate his Majesty had given Commission to the Lord Lieutenant to Treat and conclude such a Peace there as might be for the safety of that Crown the preservation of the Protestant Religion and no way derogatory to his own Honour and publick Professions But to the end that his Majesties real Intentions in this business of Ireland may be the more clearly understood and to give more ample satisfaction to both Houses of Parliament and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland especially concerning his Majesties not being engaged in any Peace or Agreement there he doth desire if the two Houses shall admit of his Majesties repair to London for a Personal Treaty as was formerly proposed that speedy notice be given thereof to his Majesty and a Pass or safe Conduct with a Blank sent for a Messenger to be immediately dispatched into Ireland to prevent any accident that may happen to hinder his Majesties Resolution of leaving and managing of the business of Ireland wholly to the two Houses and to make no Peace there but with their Consent which in case it shall please God to bless His endeavours in the Treaty with success His Majesty doth hereby engage himself to do And for a further explanation of his Majesties Intentions in his former Messages he doth now Declare That if his Personal repair to London as aforesaid shall be admitted and a Peace thereon shall ensue he will then leave the Nomination of the Persons to be entrusted with the Militia wholly to his two Houses with such Power and Limitations as are expressed in the Paper delivered by his Majesties Commissioners at Vxbridge the 6. of Febr. 1644. for the term of seven years as hath been desired to begin immediately after the Conclusion of the Peace the disbanding of all Forces on both sides and the dismantling of the Garrisons erected since these present Troubles so as at the expiration of the time before mentioned the Power of the Militia shall entirely revert and remain as before And for their further security his Majesty the Peace succeeding will be content that pro hac vice the two Houses shall nominate the Admiral Officers of State and Judges to hold their places during Life or quamdiu se bene gesserint which shall be best liked to be accomptable to none but the King and the two Houses of Parliament As for matter of Religion his Majesty doth further Declare That by the Liberty offered in his Message of the 15. present for the ease of their Consciences who will not communicate in the Service already established by Act of Parliament in this Kingdom he intends that all other Protestants behaving themselves peaceably in and towards the Civil Government shall have the free exercise of their Religion according to their own way And for the total removing of all Fears and Jealousies His Majesty is willing to agree That upon the Conclusion of Peace there shall be a general act of Oblivion and Free Pardon past by Act of Parliament in both his Kingdoms respectively And lest it should be imagined that in the making these Propositions his Majesties Kingdom of Scotland and his Subjects there have been forgotten or neglected his Majesty Declares That what is here mentioned touching the Militia and the naming of Officers of State and Judges shall likewise extend to his Kingdom of Scotland And now his Majesty having so fully and clearly expressed his Intentions and Desires of making a happy and well-grounded Peace if any person shall decline that Happiness by opposing so apparent a way of attaining it he will sufficiently demonstrate to all the World his intention and design can be no other then the total subversion and change of the ancient and happy Government of this Kingdom under which the English Nation hath so long flourished Given at the Court at Oxford the 29. of January 1645. His MAJESTIES Message to both Houses from Oxford Feb. 26. 1641. For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland CHARLES R. HIS Majesty needs to make no excuse though he sent no more Messages unto you for he very well knows he ought not to do it if he either stood upon punctilioes of Honour or his own private Interest the one being already call'd in question by his often sending and the other assuredly prejudic'd if a Peace be concluded from that He hath already offer'd He having therein departed with many of his undoubted Rights But nothing being equally dear unto Him to the preservation of His People His Majesty passeth by many scruples neglects and delays and once more desires you to give Him a speedy Answer to His last Message For His Majesty believes it doth very well become Him after this very long Delay at last to utter His Impatience since that the Goods and Blood of His Subjects cries so much for Peace Given at the Court at Oxford the 26 th of Febr. 1645. His MAJESTIES Message to both Houses from Oxford March 23. 1645-46 For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster CHARLES R. NOtwithstanding the unexpected silence instead of Answer to His Majesties many and gracious Messages to both Houses whereby it may appear that they desire to attain their ends by Force rather than Treaty which may justly discourage His Majesty from any more Overtures of that kind yet His Majesty conceives He shall be much wanting to His Duty to God and in what He oweth to the Safety of His People if He should not intend to prevent the great inconveniences that may otherwise hinder a safe and well-grounded Peace His Majesty therefore now proposeth That so He may have the Faith of both Houses of Parliament for the preservation of His Honour Person and Estate and that liberty be given to all those who do and have adhered to His Majesty to go to their own Houses and there to live peaceably enjoying their Estates all Sequestrations being taken off without being compelled to take any Oath not enjoyned by the undoubted Laws of the Kingdom or being put to any other molestation whatsoever He will
Debate like to prove wherein the most potent party had nothing of moment left to ask and the other nothing more to give so consequently how hopeless of mutual compliance without which a Settlement is impossible Besides if after my Concessions the two Houses should insist on those things from which I cannot depart how desperate would the Condition of these Kingdoms be when the most proper and approved Remedy should become ineffectual Being therefore fully resolved that I could neither in Conscience Honour or Prudence pass those Four Bills I only endeavoured to make the Reasons and Justice of my Denial appear to all the World as they do to me intending to give as little dissatisfaction to the two Houses of Parliament without betraying my own Cause as the matter would bear I was desirous to give my Answer of the 28. of December last to the Commissioners sealed as I had done others heretofore and sometimes at the desire of the Commissioners chiefly because when my Messages or Answers were publickly known before they were read in the Houses prejudicial interpretations were forced on them much differing and sometimes contrary to my meaning For example my Answer from Hampton-Court was accused of dividing the two Nations because I promised to give satisfaction to the Scots in all things concerning that Kingdom and this last suffers in a contrary sense by making me intend to interest Scotland in the Laws of this Kingdom then which nothing was nor is further from my thoughts because I took notice of the Scots Commissioners protesting against the Bills and Propositions as contrary to the Interests and Engagements of the two Kingdoms Indeed if I had not mentioned their dissent an Objection not without some probability might have been made against me both in respect the Scots are much concerned in the Bill for the Militia and in several other Propositions and my silence might with some justice seem to approve of it But the Commissioners refusing to receive my Answer sealed I upon the engagement of their and the Governour 's Honour that no other use should be made or notice taken of it than as if it had not been seen read and delivered it open unto them whereupon what hath since passed either by the Governour in discharging most of my Servants redoubling the Guards and restraining me of my former Liberty and all this as himself confest meerly out of his own dislike of my Answer notwithstanding his beforesaid Engagement or afterwards by the two Houses as the Governor affirms in confining me within the circuit of this Castle I appeal to God and the World whether my said Answer deserved the Reply of such proceedings besides the unlawfulness for Subjects to imprison their King That by the permission of Almighty God I am reduced to this sad condition as I no way repine so I am not without hope but that the same God will in due time convert the Afflictions into my Advantage In the mean time I am confident to bear these crosses with Patience and a great equality of Mind but by what means or occasion I am come to this Relapse in my Affairs I am utterly to seek especially when I consider that I have sacrificed to my two Houses of Parliament for the Peace of the Kingdom all but what is much more dear to me than my Life my Conscience and Honour desiring nothing more than to perform it in the most proper and natural way A Personal Treaty But that which makes me most at a loss is the remembring my signal Compliance with the Army and their Interests and of what importance my Compliance was to them and their often-repeated Professions and Engagements for my just Rights in general at Newmarket and Saint-Albans and their particular explanations of those generals by their Voted and revoted Proposals which I had reason to understand should be the utmost extremity would be expected from me and that in some things therein I should be eased herein appealing to the Consciences of some of the chiefest Officers in the Army if what I have said be not punctually true and how I have failed of their expectations or my professions to them I challenge them and the whole World to produce the least colour of Reason And now I would know what it is that is desired Is it Peace I have shewed the way being both willing and desirous to perform my part in it which is a just Compliance with all chief Interests Is it Plenty and Happiness they are the inseparable effects of Peace Is it Security I who wish that all men would forgive and forget like me have offered the Militia for my time Is it Liberty of Conscience He who wants it is most ready to give it Is it the right administration of Justice Officers of trust are committed to the choice of my two Houses of Parliament Is it frequent Parliaments I have legally fully concurr'd therewith Is it the Arrears of the Army Upon a Settlement they will certainly be payed with much ease but before there will be found much difficulty if not impossibility in it Thus all the World cannot but see my real and unwearied endeavours for Peace the which by the Grace of God I shall neither repent me of nor ever be slackned in notwithstanding My past present or future Sufferings But if I may not be heard let every one judge who it is that obstructs the good I would or might do What is it that men are afraid to hear from me It cannot be Reason at least none will declare themselves so unreasonable as to confess it and it can less be impertinent or unreasonable Discourses for thereby peradventure I might more justifie this my Restraint than the causers themselves can do so that of all wonders yet this is the greatest to me But it may be easily gathered how those men intend to govern who have used me thus And if it be my hard Fate to fall together with the Liberty of this Kingdom I shall not blush for my self but much lament the future Miseries of my People the which I shall still pray God to avert whatever becomes of me CHARLES R. Votes for a Treaty Die Veneris 28. Jul. 1648. Resolved THat a Treaty be had with the King in Person in the Isle of Wight by a Committee appointed by both Houses upon the Propositions presented to him at Hampton-Court and for the taking away of Wards and Liveries for settling of a safe and well-grounded Peace Die Mercurii 2. Aug. 1648. Resolved THat a Committee of both Houses be sent to his Majesty to acquaint him with their Resolutions to treat personally with his Majesty by a Committee of both Houses in such place as his Majesty shall make choice of in the Isle of Wight upon the Propositions presented at Hampton-Court and the taking away of Wards and Liveries for the settling of a safe and well-grounded Peace Which Treaty is resolved by the two Houses to be transacted with Honor Freedom and Safety