for the Receiving and Issuing of the several sums of Money appointed to be received and paid by vertue of their Act for the raising of 120000 pounds per mensem for 4 Months to Commence the 28 of Decemb. 1650. for the Maintenance of the Army c. Another Act passed for Importation of Bullion with the usual priviledges and to have free passage and protection without any seizure upon any pretence whatsoever which was very well cautioned and another against Forced and Stolen Marriages Enabling Commissioners of the Great Seal to Issue Commissions of Delegates in case of pretended Marriage and lastly one for taking away the Fee of Damage-clear or Damna Clericorum from the first of Ianuary 1650. Not to omit in this place that Sir Iohn Stawell was now the third time before the High Court of Iustice. From the Gown pass we to the Sword The English Army in Scotland not being able to effect any thing against the main Army of the Kings that lay on Sterling-side resolved to be doing with a party that then lay in the West of Scotland under the Command of Colonel Ker and Straâ—ghan with whom Cromwel had maintained an open intercourse and had profered them a Cessation driving at this to take them off and subdivide the Nation in several parties and the effect of his Papers taxing the Scots with the admission of the King upon the old Malignant score did operate as he projected for thereupon out comes a Declaration or Remonstrance from these Western Fellows full of saucy and Treasonable Language which accordingly was Voted both by the Commissioners of the Kirk and the Committee of Estates to be scandalous and seditious Sir Iames Stuart and Sir Iohn Cheisly and one Mr. Leviston who seemed to countenance it were strictly watched and Straughan taken and made Prisoner in Dunbarton and after in Cathnes-Castle whence he escaped and came over to the English at Edenburgh but 't was more the sacred hunger of Gold than Zeal for Religion made him first betray his King and his Country after and we shall see all Cromwel's Proselytes of that Nation both Dundass Warreston and Giffin to love nothing so much as the Mammon of Presbytery Straughan thus removed Major-General Lambert was sent to prevail with Ker either by blows or words the latter being thought as feasible as the former and accordingly on the last of November having difficulty found and passed a Ford over Hamilton-River Ker got notice of it and resolutely fell into the Major-Generals Quarters at a Town of that name but the Horse being in a readiness to receive him he lost a hundred men had his Hand almost cut off and was taken Prisoner and the rest of his party being 5 Regiments of Horse two whereof were the Earl of Cassels and Kirconbrights pursued as far as Ayre where Commissary-General Whaley was now left to Command in chief in those Western-parts Cromwel had marched with his Army this way as far as Glasgow in October but understanding or dreading the Enemy would come and relieve Edenburgh-Castle with Provisions and another Governour being in Treaty with the present for a sum of Money he forthwith retired having there took and Garrisoned two Houses while Colonel Whaley took in Dalkeith and another nest of Moss-Troopers yet his coming thither hindred Major-General Mountgomery from marching into those parts to reduce Ker likewise to his obedience to the King Edenburgh-Castle had been Besieged some Months and upwards with little loss on either side save that the Great Guns from the Castle did some mischief in Edenburgh-streets and one Captain Hamilton was shot in the Head with a Musquet as he was viewing the Castle and the Morter-pieces made semblance of great terrour and annoyance to the Besieged a Mine was likewise carried on some 60 foot the Stone being cut all the way but then they could proceed no further being come to the Rock whereon the Castle stands nevertheless the Derby-shire-Miners being 12 in number did what they could to proceed the Enemy throwing Pitch and Flax and other combustible stuff into the Works At last the personated Hostility came to a period and Dundass old Levens Son-in-law pretending want of Water came to a Parley and having premised a colourable request of 10 days time to send to the Committee of Estates by whom he said he was intrusted which he knew was to be denied and after several Missives betwixt Cromwel and Him concluded the rendition of that most important place to the Kings Service in these Articles agreed on betwixt Major Abernethy Dundasses man and Captain Henderson on one side and Colonel Monke and Lieutenant-Colonel White on the other It was always before called the Maiden it may henceforth be called the Prostitute Castle The Articles were as follow That the Castle should be Surrendred to his Excellency Oliver Cromwel with all the Ordinance Arms Magazine and Furniture of War thereunto belonging on Tuesday the 24 of December 2. That the Governour Officers and Souldiers should march with Drums beating c. in Military posture to such place as they shall appoint 3. The Publike moveables private Writs and Evidences to be removed to Sterling 4. That Proclamation should be made for all that had Goods in the Castle to come or send to own and receive them 5. All sick Officers and Souldiers as well such as hurt in reputation to have liberty to stay in Edenburgh and the English to provide Horses and Waggons for the Governour and other Officers and Hostages to be given on the Scots part for performance There were found in it five French Cannon nine Dutch half-Cannon two Culverings two demi-Culverings two Minions two Falcons 28 Brass Drakes called Monkeys two Petards betwixt seven and eight thousand Arms neer eighty Barrels of Powder and a like store of Cannon-shot Colonel Fenwick was presently upon the Surrender made Governour of this and Leith Sir Arthur Haslerig and Mr. Scot were present at the Rendition thereof and then departed their work being done which that it may the better appear for a piece of the vilest Treachery any Scot ever committed though Cromwel ascribes it in his Letter to the Speaker to the alone wisdom of God beyond all humane power and accomplishment take this account from the lovers themselves of this Treason at Edenburgh The greatest want they had was of Beer but as for Oatmeal Butter Fresh Water and Salt Meat they had enough The Master Gunner told me that when our Guns were a drawing to the Batteries he had so placed his Peices that ours could not possibly have been planted without great loss but when he prepared to give fire he was forbidden by the Governour upon pain of death His man Abernethy went often out of the Castle upon pretence of getting Intelligence but it was to hold it with Cromwel sure it is that Dundass and he and some others were a little wiser and went not over the Water as they had made
commanded and whither some of these routed Troops had fled for shelter At his approach he instantly summoned it in a very threatning Message if he rendred it not immediately his Horse casting out words for the Foot to fall on when there was none there The governour over-ruled by his fair young Bride and some Ladies that were come thither to visit and frighted with the menace delivered the House with all the Arms and Amunition therein For which the hopeful young Gentleman for all the prayers and intreaties of his Wife and the merit of his Father was shot to death against Merton-Colledge-Wall in Oxford to the great regret afterwards of the King when he understood the business and for which he was highly displeased with Prince Rupert After the taking of this Blechingdon-House Cromwel sent the Prisoners away to Alisbury and slighted that Garrison and having intelligence of a party of 350 Foot under Sir William Vaughan who were marching that way towards Radcot-bridge he pursued them and took the said Sir William Lieutenant-Colonel Littleton and about 200 more Prisoners His next attempt was upon Farringdon having borrowed 600 Foot from Abingdon of Major-General Brown here he lost some 50 men withont any success and so gave over the design but before he could get off was attaqued by part of General Gorings Horse commanded by himself then newly come out of the West from Taunton-siege who by his valour so ordered his business that he gave Cromwel the first brush he received taking Major Bethel Prisoner and three Colours and then retreated to Letchlade in order to his return to strengthen and renew the siege against the aforesaid Town of Taunton The new modeled Army on the first of May began to march after a debate whether it should march Westward to the relief of Taunton or to besiege Oxford The first designment was followed and so on the 7 of May from Windsor General Fairfax reached Blandford in Dorset-shire whither he marched without any opposition save a little skirmish betwixt some of his Troops and one Lieutenant-Colonel Hacket whom they took Prisoner The King taking this opportunity of the Armies marching Westward drew his Forces and Artillery out of Oxford into the field Which the General foreseeing had left Cromwel and Major-General Brown to attend his motions but they being not of strength sufficient to impede his Marches or Conjuncture with Prince Rupert who advanced out of Hereford-shire and Worcester-shire Fairfax was recalled out of the West and ordered by the Committee of both Kingdomes to allot onely a portion of his Army for Taunton which was a Brigade consisting of four Regiments the Supreme Command whereof was given unto the eldest Colonel Welden Upon approach of those Forces the Royalists thinking it had been the whole Army for Fairfax made such semblance marching as far as Dorchester with the said relief drew off and gave them the liberty of entrance the fourteenth of May where they were welcomed by the resolute Governour afterwards General Blake a man more famous in the Times succeeding General Fairfax on the 14 of May likewise arrived at Newbery where two days he rested his wearied Foot and there again received new Orders to lay Siege to Oxford and Cromwel and Brown were recalled from following the King to joyn with the General in that Enterprise Nevertheless a party of 2500 Horse and Dragoons under Colonel Vermuden Cromwel not being so acceptable to that Nation were sent to joyn with the Scots in their march Southwards Fifteen days the Parliaments Army lay before the City while the King was at liberty and irresistable in the Field Fairfax despairing of reducing the Town never sent in a Summons thereby intending to save the first reputation of the Army when it should rise from thence without it Nothing occurred of any remark during this Siege but that a Bridge was laid over the River for a Communication and a resolute Sally made by the Garrison upon a Corps du Gard neer Heddington-hill which they surprized killed twelve and took the rest which made up 100 Prisoners who were Exchanged for the like number which the Adjutant-General Fleming took neer Newnham under the command of Captain Gardiner who had been sent Prisoners to Abingdon where a cruel custom had been practised of hanging all the Irish without any manner of Tryal under which notion very many English also suffered A barbarity so common that it grew into the Proverb of Abingdon-Law Borstal-house was likewise besieged by Skippon whither the General went himself but to no purpose Gaunt-house being battered by Colonel Raynsborough and a breach made after a resolute answer was glad to abate from its stubbornness and take Conditions upon quarter from the Enemy But while General Fairfax trifled at Oxford news came that the King having relieved Chester distressed by Sir William Brereton and the Neighbouring County-forces was now marching towards Leicester and the Association the Scots Army instead of advancing against the King being gone more Northward towards Westmerland their own affairs at home so requiring And also that General Goring Sir Ralph Hopton and Sir Richard Greenvile had joyned all their Forces against Colonel Weldens Brigade in a manner besieging them and the Town of Taunton together And that which brought up the Rear of these intelligences was worst of all that the King had taken Leicester by Storm the manner thus After Prince Rupert had summoned it wherein he offered quarter to the Town the Committee of that County then resident there assembled all the Commanders and read the Summons unto them by whom it was resolved to give answer next morning The Trumphet was no sooner returned but a Drum was presently dispatcht for a full answer within an hour which while they debated beyond their stint the Kings Guns played from the Battery and all Souldiers were commanded to their respective Posts the great and small Shot never intermitting that day and night when next morning they Stormed at six or seven places At Newark-breach they entered first where Colonel St. George was slain with a great shot in a Bravery and Gallantry of Courage venturing upon the mouth of the Cannon The Works being seized there yet remained a Work of greater Bloudshed the Market-place where the Defendants had drawn up their Artillery and for three hours space maintained the fight at the Cross therein They were at last over-powered the Committee-men with Sir Robert Pye Colonel Hacker and Colonel Grey taken Prisoners and put into custody onely Sir Robert had some more respect shewed him The Town was plundered and some of the Inhabitants for the present secured the spoil part of it carried away to the Kings adjacent Garrison of Newark Ashby-Delazouch and Belvoyr-Castle But the Parliament-forces found very neer as good Booty in those sudden spoils that came from Naseby All men upon this Success looked upon the Kings Army as far the more puissant
let the English escape and not venture the fortune of War upon an Enemy made desperate of which there were so many sad examples saying that God had delivered Agag meaning Cromwel into their power and if they let him go would require him at their hands On Tuesday-morning at four of the Clock a Brigade of the English Army drew down to possess themselves of a Pass upon the Road between Edenburgh and Berwick which being had they might with the more ease and advantage make their way home and in order thereto pass over to the Enemy to fall upon them This Brigade consisted of three Regiments of Horse of Major-General Lambert's Commissary-General Whaley's and Colonel Lilburn's and two of Foot This gave the Scots a great Alarm and a sore dispute happened about the Pass which lasted above an hour the great Guns playing in the mean time against both the Bodies At length that stout Brigade gained and possessed the Pass much gallantry and bravery being shewed on both sides This Pass lay at Copperspeth in the English way homewards to impede which they had drawn off their best Horse upon the right Wing to receive the English whose Word was The Lord of Hosts theirs The Covenant The Enemy charged hereupon with their Lanciers so that the Horse gave way a little but immediately Rallied and the Foot advancing to second them the Scots were charged so home that they put them presently to the rout it being about six a clock in the morning the left Wing of Horse without striking one stroke following the same way the Foot seeing this rout and flight of the Horse and not able in any order by reason thereof to Engage were all of a sudden so confused and confounded that without any resistance or offer of Engagement they threw down their Arms and fled giving the English the full pursuit of them above eight miles beyond Haddington The number of the slain were 4000 9000 Prisoners many whereof were desperately wounded and 10000 Arms all their Ammunition Bag and Bagage Prisoners of Note were Sir Iames Lumsdale Lieutenant-General of the Army the Lord Libberton imployed by the Estates to the King lately and died of his wounds presently after the Fight at Dunbar Adjutant-General Bickerton Scout-master Campbel Sir William Douglas Lord Cranston and Colonel Gurden 12 Lieutenant-Colonels 6 Majors 42 Captains 75 Lieutenants 17 Cornets 2 Quarter-masters 110 Ensignes Foot and Horse Colours 200 27 Guns some Brass Iron and Leather with the loss of not above 300 English and one Major Rookisly who died after of his Wounds There was likewise taken the Purse to the great Seal of Scotland which was presently sent up to London and the Colours with those taken before at Preston ordered forthwith to be hung up in Westminster-hall The full Contents of all which was signified in a Letter from the General in his usual strain of devout zeal tending very much to strengthen the Independent against the Presbyterian at home and the advancement of a Commonwealth to the imitation of the rest of the World the latter part thereof for the severe aspect it had towards the Ministry in favour of Anabaptists with which the Army swarmed I have here inserted The Ministers of Scotland have hindered the passage of those things meaning his Affection to the good people of Scotland to those to whom we intended them and now we see that not onely the deceived people but some of the Ministers three or four are fallen in the fight This is the great hand of the Lord and worthy of the consideration of those who taking into their hands the Instrument of a foolish Shepherd to wit medling with worldly policies and mixtures of Earthly powers to set up that which they call the Kingdom of Christ which is neither it nor if it were it would such be found effectual to that end and neglect or trust not to the Word of God the Sword of the Spirit which is alone able and powerful to that end and when trusted to will be found effectually able c. This is HUMBLY offered for their sakes who have lately turned too much aside that they might return again to Preach Iesus Christ c. and then no doubt they will discern and finde your protection and encouragement Which Humble offer was to command a strict Inquisition upon them as those most probable to obstruct the new Model and his future greatness The glory of this field though it were by his own party ascribed to his Valour yet it laid a great blemish on his Conduct and indeed the rescue of his honour is principally to be referred to Colonel Monke whose company he had obliged in this Expedition being very understanding in the choice and as subtile in the shaking off his Friends and Familiars He had newly had a Regiment conferred on him made up of recruits and other impâ—rfect Compâ—â—â—es and did now at the Generals request draw and designe the fight and embattle the Army and seconded that deliberate speculation with forwardest of action for which indeed most of the Officers were very praise-worthy After the fight Cromwel used some catching courtesies to the wounded Souldiers and the feebler sort of Prisoners but the poor Highlanders and such-like paid dear for that partial kindness shewed their Country-men as many as with difficulty lived being sold for slaves Nor were their Lords and Superiours at home in much better condition of minde being confounded and distracted at this strange and most unexpected disaster The Kirk immediately ran to her old trick of humiliation assigning their vain confidence in the arm of flesh to be the sole and most just cause of this their defeat not considering their disloyal arrogance to and most unnatural diffidence in their Leige-Lord and Soveraign was that accursed thing which God made inquisition after in this blood though they had hidden it and most hypocritically vail'd it under the covering of the Covenant These were the rigid Kirk-men whose peevish obstinacy this remarkable success of the English was so far from reclaiming that in the conclusion they totally prevaricated from the interest of their Nation Others the more sober being taught by this Lesson what it was to set up and maintain parties and factions when the Enemy was at the door and so Victoriously potent were for the perfect reconciling and uniting them which necessary most incumbent and pressing affair was yet unhappily hindred by even those men themselves who when they began to consider how they must part with that Supream and extraordinary power they had so long Usurped made so many nice difficulties by their Cavils and Disputes about the admission of the Royal party that Cromwel had fixed such â—ooting in their Country that made it a difficult task to them to keep any part for themselves The Royalists onely and the King himself by all manner of tenderness and condescentions studying the common preservation and suffering any thing from
Lord Say Proprietor of the place The Castle demolished Colonel Whaley marcheth to Worcester Besiegeth it for the Parliament Colonel Washington the Governour yâ—ildeth July 23. Wallingford yeilded July 28 to the Parliament Sir Thomas Fairfax goeth to the Bath from thence to Ragland Castle to assist Colonel Morgan Sir Trevor Williams and Colonel Laughorn Sir Thomas Fairfax summons the Marquess of Worcester The Marquess his Answer He desires to send to know the Kings pleasure The General denyes it shews the inconveniencies of the Marquess hiâ— refusal The Marquess urgeth reasons on his side The Marquess excepted out of the Parliaments Pardon The General promiseth to interpose between his Lordship and the Committees The Marquess cites the Earl of Shrewsburies Case Ragland Castle surrendred Aug. 19 to the Parliament The Marquess casts himself on the Parliaments mercy Several persons of Quality in the Castle The Marquess a great Scholar to whom the King was much indebted he departs this life Major-General Mitton takes Conway Castle by Storm for the Parliament Carnarvan Castle delivered as also Ludlow Litchfield Close and Borstal house Pendennis Castle and Mount-Michael taken for the Parliament by Colonel Hammond John Arundel Esq. the Governour having order from the King to surrender Scilly Island Denbigh and Holt Castle Surrendred Cromwell the Idol of the pretended Saints He disbands 〈◊〉 of the Armâ— under Major-General Massey Cromwel designes to create differences in the Army Colonel Cooks Brigade disbanded * Anglia Rediviva * Anglia Rediviva Many of the disbanded Souldiers of Forreign Countries The Factions begin now to unmask themselves and lay open their intentions The two Factions Presbytery and Independency distruct each other The King maligned to his people his party highly exasperated The Scotch Parliament and Army ingross the wealth of the Nation The Scots are for ready Cash the others for Delinquents Estates The King in the Scots possession The Parliament of England consult concerning the Kings person The King at Newcastle May 13. The Sâ—ots Gen. Proâ—laims that no Papists nor Delinquents shall came neer the Kings Person The Scâ—ts lay heavy Assessments on the Northern Counties They send for their Horse The English Parliament Vote them home and 100000 l. to be paid to their Army The Scotch Commissioners gloze with the English Parliament The Dispates betwixt the King and Mr. Henderson at Newcastle Mr. Henderson languisheth and dyeth Mr. Stephen Marshal a great Preacher of the Covenant at Newcastle Politick disputes between the Parliament and the Scotch Commissioners 〈◊〉 and 〈…〉 〈…〉 11. The Scots urge the Parliaments promise of Uniformity and their ordering the Covenant to be printed in most Forrain Languages The Parliament publish a Declaration One Paragraph thereof relating to Church-Goverment c. The 23 Propositions sent to the King at Newcastle These the chiefest of the Propositions the rest relating to Ireland and other private Concerns Discouâ—â— between the King and the Parliaments Commissioners The King Answer to the Propositions August 1. Duke Hamilton and the Earl of Lanerick industrious to work his Majesty to consent The Fastioâ—s scandalize the King as being obstinate and perverse The Marquess of Montross ordered to lay down his Arms. He takes ship for Norway sollicites for the King in forain Courts at last betakes himself to the Court of King Charles the 2. The Earle of Lowdon unravels the compact of both Parliaments to the King The Lord Lowdon 's speech to the King Instructions sent from Scotland to Newcastle concerning giving over the King The Scots oppress the Northern Counties They agree with the Parliament to deliver the King for 400000 l. they insist upon the salt of Delinquents estates for security of performance But are pâ—id out of Church-Lands solâ— by â—rder of Paâ—liament The King delivered by the Scots The Kings Message from Newcastle of the 20th of December He prâ—pâ—sâ—th again his coming to London Scotch Parliament resolves concerning the Kings person A Plot noysed of the King's escape The affairs of Ireland related 150000 men women and children massacred by the Irish Rebels the English Lords of the Pale side with them Earl of Leicester appointed Lord Deputy and appoints the E. of Ormond to be his L. Gen. who after many successful encounters concludes a Cessation with the Rebels in 1643 by order from the King The Parl. party and Scots carry on the War there they arraign Mac Mahon and the L. Macquire both w ch were executed at Tyburn Ld. Inchiquin Lord Broughil in distress The Lord Lisle ordered to go into Ireland with an Army of 8000 men The Ld. Muskerry Gen. for the Irish. Marquess of Ormonds converts the Cessation into Peace it is â—â—pâ—â—ed by the Popiâ—h Câ—ergy and the inveâ—â—ate Papist A half peace made in Ireland Colonel Monck is sent by the Parliament into Ireland The Parliament and Popes Nuncio alike unconcerned in the Peace The Spaniard threatens to besiege Dublin The Nunâ—io and his party notwithstanding some divisions among them prosecute the War The Earl of Essex dyes Sept. 13. suspected to be poysoned A Zealous man for a composure and an able Souldier He was unfortunately married to the Lady Francis Howard and afterwards married to Sir Amias Pawlet's Daughter His Funeral solemnized Oct. 22 in a magnificent manner Drawn in Effigie upon a Chariot from Essex house to Westminster-Abby his Funeral Sermon preached by Mr. Vines Most of the Parliament-Nobility in close mourning The Effigie placed in the Chancel and privately defacâ—d The Earldom of Essex conferred on the Capels The Presbyterian Government and Directory no sooner set up but slighted The Ordinance for Presbyterian Government to be in force but three years The Directory established The Presbyterian and Independent parties divided The Independents subtile practices The self-denying Ordinance by which the Independents out-wit the Presbyterians The Presbyterians Counterplot of disbanding the Army Cromwel sents it and â—preâ—s it among his Souldiers They chuse Adjutatours to draw up the seâ—â—e of the Army â—â—d assist at their Councils of War Cromwel a compleat Polititian The Army declare not to disband till all their Arrears are paid The King and Newcastle turned over to the English Commissioners Feb. 6. They kiâ—â— the Kings hand he is coâ—veyed to Holdenby met in the way by the General who aâ—â—â—â—ted and kiâ—â—'d the Kings hands the King commends him for a truely Noble person At the Kings arrival at Holdenby his friends are forbid to attend him his Chaplains denyed admittance This solitude the occasion of his writing his excellent Meditations Major-General Brown reconciled to the King He â—iverts himself by Bowling with the Earl of Pembroke and Major-General Brown Harrington an ungrateful servant The Great Seal of England broken Cornet Joyce seizeth the King aâ— Holdenby June 4. The King deliberates what to do puts several questions to the Souldiers He requests them His Majesty takes horse is welcomed at Childersly by the General but especially by Cromwel The Army suffer the Kings friends and Chaplaiâ—s
English Lords and to perswade them of the honest intentions of the Scotch Nation were therefore for a while committed but soon after set at liberty having in part effected their errand and insinuated a good opinion of their proceedings withal begot an intelligence and correspondence with some of the Peers who before were well inclined to their cause This appeared soon after in the English Councils of War where the first Gallantry and Resolutions of the Principal Commanders were seen to flag and abate and dissolve into more soft and pliable dispositions to peace The English Army being far superiour in Arms men and bravery was encamped near Barwick and the Scots at Dunslo when by mediation of the persons aforesaid a Treaty was begun which ended presently in a short-lived Peace upon several Articles which being not performed on the Scots part are needless here to repeat In the mean time the Parliament of Scotland according to the Kings Proclamation when he also summoned their Assembly met on the appointed 15th of May and was prorogued till the last of August at which time they sate four days and therein formed four demands for the King The Assembly also sate a little before and abolisht Episcopacie the Liturgy and the Book of Canons with the High Commission c. These things coming to the Kings knowledge together with a Pamphlet prevaricating the conditions of the late Treaty their Letters to the King of France for aid their new Provisions for Arms their levying of Taxes of ten marks per Centum and continuing their Officers and Fortifications induced him by his new Commissioner the Earl of Traquair to command the Adjournment of the Parliament until the second of Iune next ensuing upon pain of Treason Against which Command the Covenanters declare and send a Remonstrance to the King by the Earl of Dumfermling and the Lord Loudon the Chancellour of that Kingdom afterwards who coming without Warrant from the Kings Commissioner Traquair were sent back again Whereupon Traquair a person suspected to have abused his trust comes himself and advising with Hamilton they both propound to the Council the affairs of Scotland being so desperate whether it were not more expedient the King should go himself in person into Scotland than to reduce them by Arms which after many politique considerations was Resolved in the Affirmative That nothing could reclaim them to their duty but force of Arms. This again brought the Earl of Dumfermling and the Lord Loudon to London with two other Commissioners where before the King again they insisted upon the justification of their innocence and withal desired that the King would ratifie and confirm their proceedings and that their Parliament might proceed to determine of all Articles or Bills brought to them to the establishing of Religion and Peace But instead of an Answer to their requests the King charged them with the aforementioned Libel and their Letters and Intelligence held with the French King which then came to English light and were known by the Characters to be the writing of the Lord Loudon who was thereupon committed for a short time but released upon the mediation of the Marquess Hamilton After his release he and Dumfermling presented their Assemblies and Parliaments Remonstrance to the King and the Commissioner returned also and gave a full account of the state of that Kingdom All three of them being admitted unto the Council together the matter was there managed with so much anger and sharpness that the King and the Scots were more exasperated against one another than before The Prince Elector Palatine the Kings Nephew by the Queen of Bohemia about this time came into England having utterly lost his interest in the Palatinate by the late defeat given him there by Count Hatsfield the Emperours General where Prince Rupert so famous afterwards in our Wars and the Lord Craven were taken he staid not long here but departed again and was taken at Lions by the French having past so far undiscovered he was soon after released and returned into England where by the Parliament he had 8000 l. a year assigned him out of his Uncles the Kings Revenue till after His Murther he departed home upon the Articles of Munster-Treaty by which he was restored to his Dignities and Sovereignty being conveyed hence in 1649. in a man of War to the Brill in Holland This year was signalized also by a famous Sea-fight between the Flemings and the Spaniards in the Downs Don Antonio Ocquendo was Admiral of the Spanish Fleet which consisted of seventy Sail of great Ships and Gallions on which were put aboard as the report went twenty five thousand men designed for the service of the Spaniard against the Dutch of the one side and the French on the other and were ordered to be landed at Dunkirk with money for the paying of his Armies then afoot On the 17th of September they were met by the Vice-Admiral of the Holland-Fleet who engaging them in the Chanel was worsted but getting to windward kept near them continuing firing to give Van Trump then before Dunkirk notice of their approach Betwixt Dover and Calice the two Dutch Fleets joyn and attaque the Spaniard the English Fleet under the Command of Sir Iohn Pennington looking on the while who being sore bruised was forced to the English Coast where the Spanish Ambassadour desired they might be protected for two Tides by the Kings Ships but that could not be allowed for the Kings Neutrality between both Whereupon in the night some part with the most of the Treasure and fourteen Ships got safe to Dunkirk the rest Van Trump being recruited with an hundred Ships in an instant almost of time set upon and dispersed sinking and taking and stranding very many so that few escaped home This was the second luckless Armado of the Spaniard on which the malecontents of this and the Kingdom of Scotland grounded many false and scandalous surmises against the King To return again to Scotland where I may not omit one fatal passage On the 19th day of November being the Anniversary of his Majesties Birth part of the Walls of the strong Castle of Edenburgh fell down which was likewise interpreted for an ill Omen such another though more unhappily and nearly significant was that of the fall of the head of his staff at his Tryal before the pretended High Court of Justice For the repairing of these ruines the King sent the Lord Estrich Col. Ruthen and others who were resisted by the Covenanters as men not qualified for the service No hopes for these and other reasons being conceivable of treating and perswading the Scots to obedience a Resolution was taken vigorously to prosecute the War commenced the year before to which purpose it was debated at a Cabinet-Council where none were present but the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Earl of Strafford and Hamilton and there agreed that a Parliament
of General Lesly Earl of Leven an old Souldier in the Swedish Wars better armed intelligenced and provided than the last year on the 27th of August Lesly desired leave of my Lord Conway for his whole Army to pass to the King with their Petition which he as before avowed to be the honesâ—est loyallest and innocent thing in the World but was refused and stopped Thereupon three hundred Scotch Horse attempted to cross the River and were therein repelled by the shot of the English Musquetiers who were placed under the shelter of a Breast-work This was no sooner done but the Scots with nine pieces of Ordinance which they had placed on the side of the River and blinded them with bushes plaid upon those breast-works which so affrighted the English Infantry being raw Souldiers and not used to the noise and execution of Canon that they presently forsook their Posts cast down their Arms and fled Instantly the Scotch Horse with their General himself advanced but were handsomely welcomed by Commissary-General Wilmot who with the Cavalry which consisted mostly of Gentlemen very stoutly stood to it till they were over-born by number and galled with great Bullets and so forced into a disorderly retreat Here were slain two or three Gentlemen of Quality among which was Cornet Porter Son to Endymeon Porter of the Bed-chamber with some fourscore and odd of common Souldiers The Lord Conway after this defeat carried himself the first news of it to the King that it might not be told by others to his prejudice and Sir Iacob Ashley Governour of Newcastle knowing the place not tenable deserted it sinking the Ordnance in the River so that upon Lesleys approach both that Town and Durham rendred themselves into his hands These losses accelerated the Earl of Strafford into those parts who having the supreme Command of the Army therefore conferred upon him and knowing his Honour and Reputation to be embarqued in this business resolved to put it to the decision of the Sword which he was as well able to manage as his Pen Challengeth the Lord Conway for the disaster at Newborn before the King as if his ill conduct had occasioned it who as stoutly denied it laying the fault as indeed it ought upon the rawness of his Souldiers In Scotland the Earl of Haddington who commanded as Major-General the Forces raised and to be raised in Lothian having recovered from the Souldiers of Berwick Garrison the pieces of Ordnance which Lesley had left behind him at Dunslo and brought them to Dunglass was the next day slain with twenty more Knights and Gentlemen in the midst of his Court by the stones that flew from the Vault neer adjoyning which was then blown up with the Magazine that lay in it Though the Earl of Strafford was so eagerly and intensly bent on fighting with the Scots yet with the King who was loth to run that hazard not knowing how to recruit himself if he were worsted unless he should condescend as much or more to his English Subjects in Parliament those Martial resolutions soon abated to the regret of that Noble Earl whose safety as well as glory consisted in driving the Scots out of this Kingdom So that though the King had declared them to be Rebels and Traytors by Proclamation and commanded that publick Prayers should be put up against them in all Churches and had set up his Royal Standard at York yet now he was contented to treat with them and to that end received from them a Petition stuft with their grievances to which he returned answer by his Secretary of Scotland the Earl of Lanerick That he expected their particular demands which were tendered to him within three days after and imported his Majesties calling a Parliament in England without which there could be no satisfying redress for them Thay had likewise published sometime before their marching into England a Declaration intituled The intentions of the Army which signified that they would not lay down their Armes till the reformed Religion were setled in both Nations upon sure grounds and the causers and abetters of their present grievances and troubles were brought to publique Justice and that in Parliament In order to the speedy accommodation therefore of this quarrel Twelve of the Nobility who were there with the King by name Hertford Essex Bedford Warwick Mulgrave Bristol Bullingbrook Say Mandevil Howard Paget and Brook drew up a Petition to the King and had it delivered after which others of the same contents were brought from London and other places of the Kingdom which unanimously agreed in this That nothing could satisfie the people nor relieve their grievances and pressures but a Parliament This the King willingly assented to and in part condescended to other of the Scots demands and for the present summoned the Lords of England to appear at York where accordingly they met and on the first day of their sitting in Council it was agreed that a Parliament should be called to convene the third of November next And in reference to the Scotch business and the poor oppressed Northern Counties where both the Armies that Summer had quartered the Bishoprick of Durham being then taxed by the Scots at three hundred and fifty pound the Country of Northumberland at three hundred pound a day it was also resolved that a Treaty should be had and thereupon sixteen English Lords whereof eight were Earls the other Barons should meet with so many of the Scotch Nobility and the place was assigned at York which was refused as not safe enough for the Scotch Commissioners by reason of the presence of the Lord Deputy Strafford who had proclaimed them Traytors in Ireland and against whom they had matters of high Complaint And so it was resolved it should begin at Rippon The first thing the English insisted on was a present Cessation but the Scots objected against that and said that other things were more expedient to be first considered For as they would obey the Kings command in advancing no further so would they not go back again till they had accomplisht the business they came for and therefore propounded four Praeliminaries to be resolved on which were concluded on and agreed to At the first of these That the Scotch Army should be paid and maintained out of the English purse the Earl of Strafford was highly incensed and enraged being so dishonourable a thing to the Nation and therefore would have perswaded the King to give him leave to fight them no way doubting but that he should be able to drive them presently into Scotland again though accounted then far superiour in Discipline and Souldiery to the English Army But the affair of the Treaty was so far advanced for the reasons aforesaid that there was no fair way of receding if the King had been powerful enough to have combated them as some made no scruple so that on the 16 th of October the English Commanders
some through fear others out of compliance with the major part agreed to the ensuing Articles which for an envious remark I have transcribed First That there be a Cessation of Arms both by Sea and Land from this present Secondly That all Acts of Hostility do thenceforth cease Thirdly That both parties shall peaceably return during the Treaty whatever they possess at the time of the Cessation Fourthly That all such persons who lived in any of his Majesties Forts beyond the River of Tweed shall not exempt their Lands which lye within the Counties of Northumberland and the Bishoprick from such Contributions as shall be laid upon them for the payment of eight hundred pound per diem Fifthly That none of the Kings Forces upon the other side of Tweed shall give any impediment to such contributions as are already allowed for the competency of the Scotch Army and shall fetch no victuals nor forage out of their bounds except that which the inhabitants and owners thereof shall bring voluntarily to them and that any restraints or detention of Victual Cattel or Forage which shall be made by the Scots within those bounds for their maintenance shall be no breach Sixthly That no recruit shall be brought into either Armies from the time of the Cessation and during the Treaty Seventhly That the contribution of eight hundred and fifty pounds per diem shall be onely raised out of the Counties of Northumberland Westmerland and the Bishoprick and the Town of Newcastle and that the not payment thereof shall be no breach of the Treaty but the Counties and Towns shall be left to the Scots power to raise the same but not to exceed the sum agreed upon unless it be for charges of driving to be set by a Prizer of the forage Eighthly That the River Tweed shall be the bounds of both Armies excepting always the Town and Castle of Storkton and the Village of Egyshiff and the Counties of Northumberland and the Bishoprick be the limits within which the Scotish Army is to reside having liberty from them to send such Convoys as shall be necessary onely for the gathering up of the Contribution which shall be unpaid by the Counties of Northumberland and Cumberland Ninth and Tenth Articles of private injuries Eleventhly No new Fortifications to be made during the Treaty against either Party Twelfthly That the Subjects of both Kingdoms may in their trade of Commerce freely pass to and fro without any stay at all but it is particularly provided that no member of either Army pass without a formal Pass under the hands of the General or of him that commands in chief This was the sum of that unlucky Cessation which was afterwards at London concluded in a Treaty soon after the sitting of the Parliament who in February next paid the Scots off giving them the stile of their dear brethren which much pleased them but the money which accrewed by an arrear of 124000 l. was a great deal more acceptable And thus with their pay and dismission out of this Kingdom I dismiss them for this time from any further Narrative and look home to our own affairs in England The Parliament sate down on the third of November and immediately fell to questioning several chief Ministers of State Bishops and Judges pretending thereby both to satisfie this Nation and the Scots Monopolies also were voted down and much more good was promised and expected from the Parliament The principal of those Grandees that were accused was the Earl of Strafford against whom Mr. Pym is sent from the Commons to the Lords with an Impeachment of High Treason whereupon he was sequestred from sitting as a Peer and his Privado Sir George Ratcliff was sent for out of Ireland by a Serjeant at Arms. Soon after the aforesaid Earl was committed to the Usher of the Black Rod and so to the Tower in order to his ensuing Tryal yet he obtained the assignation of Councel and a Sollicitor for the better managing his defence The Bishop of Lincoln contrariwise was released out of the Tower and Mr. Pryn Dr. Bastwick and Mr. Burton returned from their kind of banishment in great pomp and bravery attended by many hundreds on Horseback with boughs in their hands to London for the Tide was turned and ran strong the other way In the interim the Lord Keeper Finch and Sir Francis Windebank Secretary of State both charged with no less than High Treason wisely withdrew themselves into Forein parts and weathered the storm that would have sunk them One Iohn Iames the Son of Sir Henry Iames of Feversham in Kent and of the Romish Religion audaciously adventured to stab Mr. Howard a Justice of Peace in Westminster-Hall the said Mr. Howard being about to deliver to the Committee for Religion a Catalogue of such Recusants as were within his liberty The House of Commons now Voted the Assesment of Ship-mony about which there had been so much ado and so many contests together with the Opinions of the Judges and the Writs for it and the judgment of the Exchequer against Mr. Hambden to be all illegal and the Arguments of the two Justices Crook and Hutton shewing the illegality thereof to be Printed and also ordered a Charge of High-Treason to be drawn up against eight others of the Judges Which business of Ship-money being made so accessary to our ensuing Troubles I have thought fit to insert these Records concerning the same The Case as it was stated by the King to the Judges CHARLES REX WHen the good and safety of the Kingdom in general is concerned and the whole Kingdom in danger Whether may not the King by Writ under the Great Seal of England command all the Subjects in this Kingdom at their charge to provide and furnish such number of Ships with Men Victual and Munition and for such a time as he shall think sit for the defence and safeguard of the Kingdom from such danger and peril and by Law compel the doing thereof in case of refusal and refractoriness And whether in such cases the King is not sole Iudge both of the danger and when and how the same is to be prevented and avoided Their Opinions MAy it please your most excellent Majesty we have according to your Majesties command severally and every man by himself and all of us together taken into serious consideration the Case and Questions signed by your Majesty and enclosed in your Letter And we are of opinion that when the good and safety of the Kingdom in general is concerned and the whole Kingdom in danger your Majesty may by Writ under the great Seal of England command all the Subjects of this your Kingdom at their charge to provide and furnish such a number of Ships with men victual and munition and for such time as your Majesty shall think fit for the defence and safeguard from such a danger and peril and that by law your Majesty may compel the doing thereof
the Kings sight now refused the delivery of the City without his Majesties Command so that after a Noble Treatment given the Commissioners they for the present ceased any further Transaction and shipped away the said Forces under Colonel Monck for Belfast in the North of Ireland where they did very good service against Oneal and his fellow-Rebels The conclusion of this Peace was as ill resented by the Nuncio and all the said Popish party as it was by the Parliament For the Catholick Armies having lately had several great successes and neither of the two other Kingdoms then in a condition to relieve that of Ireland thought upon nothing less than a shaking off the English yoak which so often in former ages they had attempted but never had the like probabilities as now the Clergy therefore who were generally addicted to the Spaniard under whose protection they would render themselves and the Nation thundered out Excommunication against any that should acquiesce in the said Peace and Agreement and with an Army of 17000 Horse and Foot resolve notwithstanding thereof to march and besiege Dublin This result begot a division among them as by the Marquess was afore consulted but yet so great a strength remained to that party against the Peace that the said Marquess was forced to resume his former Treaty with the Parliament concerning the delivery of those places he held to their Commissioners who being sensible how difficult a work it would prove to begin a new Conquest of that people if either by force or a Treacherous Peace they should possess themselves of that little that was left to the English Protestant interest did labour with the King the Marquess and the Scots that there might be no entertainment of any Accommodation with them being ready they said to Transport over a numerous Army to râ—duce and subdue that Rebellion which they pretended had ere long been done if the King would have permitted them by a complyance with their Propositions The King indeed was loth to abandon himself and his hopes in that Kingdom with his Forces in England and Scotland at the same time sadly foreseeing how the two Houses would use their Victory and plainly seeing how his Scotch Subjects had already abused him therefore he with no little reluctancy was brought to give way to the demand concerning Ireland but there being no remedy all the assurances he had from the Marquess and the Lord Digby as well as from the transaction of the Marquess of Worcester then Earl of Glamorgan being disappointed by the Rebels falseness and Treachery who indeed thought of nothing less than Peace whereby the English Forces there could not be spared to his assistance he consented to supersede and cease all manner of Treaty with the Enemy as aforesaid which it is probable they coming to understand did therefore the rather Violate their Accord which so unwillingly they entred into as doubting of the performance of it it being wholly out of his Majesties Power and Authority Whatsoever the matter was the Lord of Ormond was at last constrained as the lesser Evil to close with the Parliament and surrender of which and the War prosecuted there by them in the next year The 13 of September the Earl of Essex the former General dyed of an Apoplexy suddenly having for a little while before retired himself to his house at Eltham not without great suspicion of poyson or some such practice For he was known to have had his judgment rectified concerning the Quarrel and to have stickled for a composure of the War in the House of Peers and his influence on the Army not yet so weakned but that he could make a party there to any design he should stand for and the Reformadoes his fast friends He was an able Souldier confest whether so much a man disputed the reproaches of his debility that way as loud and unmannerly as the praises of his Valour and conduct were justly due and renowned The Royalists derided him with the stile of his OXCELLENCY jeering him with his two unfortunate Marriages first with the Lady Francis Howard from whom he was divorced for his impotency and frigidity quoad hanc and the Daughter of Sir Amias Pawlet in Wiltshire suspected of incontinency with Mr. Vâ—edal Her he had declined himself who during the War continued at Oxford while her Husband was in the field Nor did he suffer less reproach from the Pâ—anatick Rabble who prostituted his honour at the same rate They that were once most highly in love with his person scorning and contemning him like adulterous fondness which converts into extreme hate and contempt By them whom his popularity had estranged from their first love to their Prince was he alike repudiated with publike dicteries and representations in Pictures So Transitory is Vulgar esteem grounded no other where than upon levity and desire of change the deserved fate of such Grandees who with the specious debauchery of good Commonwealths-men and Patriots corrupt the minds and alienate the affections of the Subject to dote upon the bewitches and flatteries of Liberty of which such persons are held forth by their courtesie and affability to be the main assâ—rtors so that it may be said of this Earl that he was alike served with his wives and the Commonalty saving that by the last he lost his innocency and the real honour of his house and Family But the Parliament to which the Faction very readily concurred to make reparation for those indignities done him of which they could not otherwise acquit themselves ordered his Exequies to be performed in a very solemn and magnificent manner The Independent party to colour and allay with the pomp and honour of his Funerals the envy and suspicion of his death not grudging belike to make a golden bridge for a departing Enemy as they might well reckon him to prove to their succeeding designs when his duty to his injured Prince and love to his abused deluded Country and indignation of those affronts and contumelies put upon him should raise in him a spirit as able to lay that white Devil of Reformation as he was to conjure it up in the dreadful shape of an unnatural and disloyal War Cineri Gloria sera venit Mart. He was drawn in Effigie upon a Chariot from Essex-house in the Strand to the Abby-Church at Westminster where Mr. Vines an eminent Presbyterian Preached his Funeral-Sermon upon this Text Knowest thou not that a Prince is this day fallen in Israel very learnedly and elegantly most of the Parliament-Nobility in close mourning following him on foot The Effigie was afterwards placed in the uppermost Chancel in very great state till a rude vindictive fellow laid his prophane hands upon it and so defaced it privately in the night that it was by order removed Very few condolements were made after he being like to be soon forgotten who had neither interest nor relation to his Honour remaining dying childless
effect his mischievous intent against the City of which suddenly leaving him to prepare against the storm for Scotland whose preparations we now speak of The Scots Commissioners upon the said Votes had desired to know whether they did exclude them or the Subjects of that Kingdom from any Addresses and had answer by an Interpretative Vote that they were left at liberty and might make application c. They then demanded the Arrears of money due and other mutual stipulations according to Covenant which being delayed they departed home This netled the Derby-House blades which from a Committee of Safety as it was constituted in the beginning of the War being a joynt Committee of Lords and Commons of both Kingdoms was now become a Committee of Danger the power of the former being vested wholly in those persons English only with some other Independent Grandees added in the room of some deceased remaining of that Juncto whereupon by their appointment the Parliament send Commissioners to Scotland two Lords the Earl of Nottingham and another and four Commons whereof Mr. Ashurst was the chief and two Clergy-men Mr. Marshall a Renegado and Spy and Mr. Herle who did no more there but give constant notice of the Scots resolutions and the forwardness of their Levies In the mean time comes an angry and expostulating Declaration from Scotland where as usual the Covenant was mentioned but with such scorn received and so opprobriously vilified that of all its former veneration in that place it was now thought worthy only of a Sirreverence This Declaration was long debated and several Postilions employed betwixt this and Edinburgh with Lemtives Invectives Explanations Corrections and such sort of scribling but all to no purpose The Scots were mad for another Expedition being invited by the best pay-masters the City of London and a better Cause which might assure them of freer and more welcom entertainment besides the unknown reward of Victory if it should prove their good fortune to restore the King whose condition is the next consideration which we have elegantly described by himself in his Declaration in Answer to the Votes of No further Addresses To all my People of whatsoever Nation Qualification 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 rather have done by the way of my two Houses of Parliament but that there is a publike Order neither to make Addresses to nor receive Message from me And who but you can be Iudge of the Difference betwixt me and my two Houses I know none else for I am sure it is you who will enjoy the happiness or feel the misery of good or ill Government and we all pretend who shall 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 publike or my own particular good For whosoever will look upon me barely as I am a man without the liberty which the meanest of my Subjects enjoys of going whither and conversing with whom I will as a Husband and a 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 only void of all natural Affection but also to want Common Vnderstanding if I should not most chearfully 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 to 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 powerfull influence on this Message for though I am 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 Vnlimited Power of the two Houses for ever for the levying and maintaining of Land and Sea-Forces without distinction of quality or limitation for Money and Taxes And if I could have passed them in terms how unheard-of a condition were it for a Treaty to grant before-hand the most considerable part of the Subject Matter How ineffectual were that debate like to prove wherein the most potent Party had nothing 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 shall 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 to 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 and Answers were publikely 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 the which nothing is or was 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 several other Propositions and my silence might seem to approve of it But the Commissioners refusing to receive my Answer sealed I upon the Engagement of theirs and the Governours 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
I conceive there is nothing can more obstruct the long-hoped-for Peace of this Nation than the illegal proceedings of them that presume from Servants to become Masters and labour to bring in Democracie and to abolish Monarchy Needs must the total alteration of Fundamentals be not only destructive to others but in conclusion to themselves for they that endeavour to rule by the Sword shall at last fall by it for Faction is the Mother of Ruine and it is the humour of those that are of this Weather-cock-disposition to love nothing but Mutabilities neither will that please them but only pro tempore for too much variety doth but confound the senses and make them still hate one folly and fall in love with another Time is the best cure for Faction for it will at length like a spreading Leprosie infect the whole Body of the Kingdon and make it so odious that at last they will hate themselves for love of that and like the Fish for love of the Bait be catched with the Hook I once more declare to all my loving Subjects and God knows whether or no this may be my last that I have earnestly laboured for Peace and that my thoughts were sincere and absolute without sinister ends and that there was nothing left undone by me that my Conscience would permit me to do And I call God to witness that I do firmly conceive that the interposition of the Army that Cloud of Malice hath altogether eclipsed the glory of that Peace which began again to shine in this Land And let the world judge whether it be expedient for an Army to contradict the Votes of a Kingdom endeavouring by pretending for Laws and Liberties to subvert both Such acts as these must produce strange consequences and set open the flood-gates of ruine to over-flow this Kingdom in a moment Had this Treaty been only mine own seeking then they might have had fairer pretences to have stopt the course of it but I being importuned by my two Houses and they by most part of the Kingdom could not but with a great deal of alacrity concur with them in their desires to the performance of so commodious a work And I hope by this time that the hearts and eyes of my people are opened so much that they plainly discover who are the underminers of this Treaty For my part I here protest before the Face of Heaven that my own afflictions though they need no addition afflict me not so much as my peoples sufferings for I know what to trust to already and they know not God comfort both them and me and proportion our patience to our sufferings And when the malice of mine Enemies is spun out to the smallest thread let them know that I will by the Grace of God be as contented to suffer as they are active to advance my Sufferings and mine own Soul tells me that the time will come when the very Clouds shall drop down vengeance upon the heads of those that barricado themselves against the proceedings of Peace for if God hath proclaimed a blessing to the Peace-makers needs must the Peace-breakers draw down curses upon their heads I thank my God I have armed my self against their fury and let the Arrows of their envy fly at me I have a breast to receive them and a heart possest with patience to sustain them for God is my Rock and my Shield therefore I will not fear what men can do unto me I will expect the worst and if any thing happen beyond my expectation I will give God the Glory for vain is the help of man This Declaration gave entire and compleat satisfaction to the most refractory of the Presbyterian Party who when too late perceived their untoward scuffling and debating with so excellent a Prince had brought him and themselves to ruine together with three Kingdoms the care of which when his Protection failed the King as his last and most incumbent business resumed in this following Letter For having thus resigned himself into the hands of God and patiently submitted to his Cross he in a way of renunciation and Self-deposition of his Government transferred and bequeathed the Scepter with these following excellent Advices to his Son the Prince Newport Novemb. 29. 1648. 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 unchristian this implacable disposition is in Our Ill-willers you would avoid that spirit Censure Vs 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 Kings Power is to a Peoples Liberty and 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 bountifull 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 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 learned We dare say that Victories over their Prince are but Triumphs over themselves and so will be the 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 publikely We are sensible into what hands We are fallen and yet we bless God we have those inward refreshments that the malice of Our Enemies cannot disturb To conlude if God give you Success use it humbly and far from Revenge If he restore you to your Rights 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 force 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
wasted the Publique Treasure exhiâ—â—ted Trade decreased 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 fâ—und by sad experience that such their remisness served only to encourage him and his Complices in the continuance of their evil practices and in raising new Comâ—â—tions Rebellions and Practises 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 c. the other persons that actually did Siâ— and Sentence are hereafter subjoyned shall be and are appointed Commissioners and Iudges for the Hearing Trying and Iudging of the said Charles Stuart And the said Commissioners or any twenty of them shall be and are hereby Authorized and Constituted an High Court of Iustice to meet at such convenient time and places as by the said Commissioners or the major part or twenty or more of them under their Hands and Seals shall be appointed and notified by publique Proclamation in the great Hall or Palace-yard of Westminster and to adjourn from time to time and from place to place as the said High Court or the major part thereof meeting shall hold fit and to take order for the Charging of Him the said Charles Stuart with the Crimes above-mentioned and for receiving his personal Answer thereunto and for examination of Witnesses upon Oath if need be concerning the same and thereupon or in default of such answer to proceed to final Sentence according to Iustice and the merit of the Cause to be executed speedily and impartially And the said Court is hereby Authorized and required to chuse and appoint all such Officers and Attendants and other Circumstances as they or the Major part of them shall in any sort judge necessary or useful for the ordering and good managing of the Premises And Thomas Lord Fairfax the General with all Officers of Iustice and other well-affected persons are hereby Authorized and Required to be aiding and assisting to the said Commissioners in the due execution of the Trust hereby committed to them Provided that this Ordinance and the Authority hereby granted do continue for the space of one Month from the Date of the making hereof and no longer This Act was followed by a Proclamation Ianuary 9. made by Serjeant Dendy by sound of Drums and Trumpets and Guards of Horse and Foot in Westminster-Hall whereby notice was given that the Commissioners of the pretended High Court of Justice were to sit down on the morrow and that all those that had any thing to say against Charles Stuart King of England might be heard The like was done in Cheap-side and the old Exchange The Actors or Tragical Persons in this Ordinance were stumbled at several illegalities and irregularities thereof which in a presumptuous confidence as drunken men passing over a dangerous Bridge then yet slighted But when it was perfected and the consummatory part of the Seal to be affixed and the whole result to be warranted thereby they were at a stand as knowing the Kings Seal could not be made use of against him while the Army-Familiars inspired them that the King and his Seal was alike unnecessary and that they must now according to their advice act by themselves and their own Authority which direction they followed and gave order for a new Seal to their ensuing Acts as hereafter We have omitted the Cypher-Names specified in the said pretended Act because cause many of them upon reluctancie of Conscience or more happy perswasions of Friends did not undertake the Impiety as also because we would not defame the Names of those Lords and Peers of the Kingdom and the Judges whose Function instructed them to the contrary that were invited and listed onâ—e by the same Treasonable Combination to be partakers in that Guilt but those that appeared and prosecuted their Power and are worthy of their brand are with their due Character here subjoyned The Kings Iudges marked with †are those that were Executed †Oliver Cromwel an English Monster a shame to the British Chronicle a name of ruine and mischief a Native of Huntingdon-shire who needs no other Character than this Chronicle being the Troubler of our Israel whose ruines were his Grave yet hath found another under Tyburn Ian. 30. †Henry Ireton Commissary-General of Horse Cromwel's Second espoused his Daughter as well as his Designes so like Father-in-law like Son-out-law and renterised in the same manner and at the same time 1660. †Iohn Bradshaw President Cum nemini obtrudi potest itur ad Hunc there was no such Villain to be found among the Long-Robâ— who drowned all his wickedness and false practises not to be compared under this most flagitious and scelerate parricide of the King A Cheshire-man born but hateful to his Country more abominable to his Name most odious to his Nation whose hopeful recovery by the first endeavours of his own County under Sir George Booth in 1659. he so pined at that taking a just desperation he died Two Terms before the Perpetration of the Kings Murther he had took the Oath of Allegeance as a Serjeant at Law being called to that Dignity from the scolding and railing of Guild-hall London to convitiate and reproach his most peaceable Sovereign He grew conscious as to the safety of his Body of his Fact when he shewed his aversness to Oliver the very name of a Single Person frighting him but so cauterized as to the salvation of his Soul that he departed in a most damnable obstinacie and maintenance of his Fact presuming there was no High Court of Iustice in Heaven or else that he was judged already The price of this Villany was the Presidencie of their Council of State the Lord Cottington's Estate and the Dutchy of Lancaster with some Advance-Money like Iudas for his undertaking It is observed he died in his Bed advantageously Commented on by the Imps and Abettors of his villany by others at least taken as a note of admiration leaving his Name and Memory to be tortured for ever The good Providence of God removing this wretch and the most implacable Enemies of our Sovereign by the same easie hand which might otherwise have been died in blood with which it restored Him to his Kingdoms and his people to their Laws Liberty and Religion he was likewise digged out of Westminster-Abby and thrown under
and most considerable Towns of the Kingdom still untaken any of which if they be well Garrisoned as questionless now they are will be neer a Summers work to reduce The Forts of Duncannon and Sligo the Castles of Caterlo Athlone Charlemont and Neanagh are not easie purchases the Province of Connaght is still preserved entire by the Lord Clanrickard who will be able to bring 4000 men of his own into the field now that Galloway and his Country is somewhat cleared from the infection of the Plague which begins to rage greatly in the Enemies quarters as Corke Youghall Wexford and Dublin it self Kilkenny Clonmel with several places thereabouts being left desolate with it The County of Clare in Munster brought unto the Lord-Lieutenant at a Rendezvouze at the same time above 2000 men wherewith his Excellency being invited by the Magistrates was ready to march into Limerick to Garrison that place and to make it his residence What Forces the Irish had in Vlster and towards Kerry I have already told you as likewise what Connaght and the County of Clare afforded I must adde that Hugh Mac Phelim had in Wiâ—klow and towards Wexford hard upon 2000 men and at Waterford General Preston and Hugh O Neal had little less to conclude besides all this the Lord Castlehaven the Lord Dillon and the Bishop of Drummore made account they should draw together a considerable Body in Meath and the rest of Leimster to joyn with the Marquess of Clanrickard towards the relief of Tecroghan then besieged by Colonel Reynolds Thus you may see that provided they be united amongst themselves and that means can be found of keeping them in bodies together there are men enough in Arms yet to dispute the business with an Enemy that is not half their number and whose quarters are pestered likewise with the Plague and Famine as well as theirs especially these having such strengths and fastnesses still in their hands as are almost inaccessible to Cromwels Souldiers Who after having mastered the greatest part of Munster and Leimster their supplies from England coming in but slowly have made bold at last with the people they flattered with before and altered their manner of proceedings taking from them by force what they pleased and violating their protections given making not nice to tell them they suffered them to possess their Estates but during pleasure and till they could have Planters to put into their rooms by which kind of clear dealing they have so lost and made desperate the Natives that lamenting their former too ready compliance with the Enemy they now called for the Lord-Lieutenant again and taking Arms in their hand began to rise in all quarters of the Kingdom so that it is impossible for a greater power than Ireton hath there to attend to the suppression of them all This is the perfect account of the Irish affairs whereby the first Trophees of the English Commonwealth raised themselves to greater Atchievements by a chain of successes but Winter growing on their Army was put into Winter-quarters Cromwel himself to that purpose taking up Youghall lately with Corke wherein were the Lord Inchiqueens Lady and Family revolted by the treachery of the Colonels Gilford Warren and Townsend Colonel Wogan newly defeated in his attempt in Passage-Fort and then taken prisoner by Colonel Zanchy whereupon Prince Rupert with the Constant Reformation the Convertine wherein was Prince Maurice the Swallow where was Sir Iohn Mien and some other Sips set sail from Kingsale where he had continued Blockt up most part of the last Summer by Admiral Popham and betook themselves to the Narrow Seas now that the Parliament had most of that Coast in their possession and sailed for France In the mean while Captain Young had fired the Antilope one of the Kings ships at Helvoet-sluce in Holland and the Guinny-Frigot was mastered and taken neer Scilly the Rendezvouze and Harbour of his Majesties Fleet that did very much hinder and obstruct the Trade at Sea wherein his Majesties Rebels were now principally concerned of which we shall have yet further occasion to speak in the ensuing year The Parliament had in Iune filled up the Benches at Westminster Aske from Clerk of the Crown one of their Beagles at the High Court of Iustice was made one of the Justices of the Vpper so was the Kings Bench newly called and Broughton a Clerk to the same Court had his former Office Puliston and Warberton in the Common-pleas to whom in the place of Judge Phesant Serjeant Atkins was added Colonel Rigby and Thorpe were made Barons of the Exchequer by the last of whom Colonel Morris the late noble Governour of Pomfret and Cornet Blackborne were Condemned and Executed at York on the 18 day of August at which Sessions Thorpe likewise in his Charge to the Grand-Jury magnified the late Actions of the Parliament and justified their Authority and endeavoured to shew its consonancy to the Laws which fine Oration is yet extant in Print About this time after much debate by these Judges and at the instance of the Army the Parliament passed the Act commonly called the Five Pound Act whereby Debtors in Prison upon their Oath that they were not worth five pound were discharged by Vertue whereof most of the Goals in England were emptied and room made for Cavaliers and Royalists of which party Sir Robert Heath the Noble and most Loyal Lord Chief-Justice of England being an excepted person by the Parliament died at Caen in Normandy about the end of August and Sir Kenelm Digby and Master Walter Mountague were ordered to depart the Kingdom as not being within any of the qualifications for Delinquents Composition Thus stood things at home in a Commanding and Authoritative posture we will see next how they fadge abroad and first the Scot their next Neighbours having an Army moving up and down in the North of that Kingdom to suppress the Montrossian Party which appeared in the Isles of Orkney the Marquess then bestirring himself in the Court of the Duke of Holstein for supplies and ready to Embarque having sent a forerunning Declaration wherein he recited the greatness of those condescentions to and that confidence his late Majesty had of them when he put himself into their Hands at Newark both which some wicked persons of that Nation had Trayterously abused even to the Murther of that blessed Prince and thereafter would impose Conditions and Limitations to their present Soveraign and desired all good and honest Subjects who had been misled to appear with him to the vindication of those injuries as well as reproach of the Scotch Nation c. and other Forces quartering about Edenborough had Decreed that no Provision whatsoever should he carried into England and shewed an absolute averseness to any further Treaty or Correspondence with the English but had dispatcht away the Laird of Windram one Master Libberton to the King who after his arrival at Zeland sailed to the King at
Iersey with the onely Conditions of taking the National-Covenant and renouncing of Montross and other Royalists of that Nation For in the beginning of September the King was arrived there with His Brother the Duke of York in company with Sir George Carteret the Governour and other his Nobles and Confident Followers having before his departure designed some of his Lords as Embassadors to several Princes The French also had prohibited the Importation of Cloth into France in a proud revenge and quittal whereof the Parliament forbad the Importation of French-wines and the States General of the Vnited Provinces had denied Audience to Walter Strickland their new Resident after several instances onely the Spaniard who had lately before acknowledged the same Provinces for a Free State began to wind about and to insinuate a Compaliance wâ—th the English One as imagining it no way dangerous but advantageous to his Interest and Stale Ambition of Universal Soveraignty as Campanella had designed it For in tendency thereunto he prohibited his Subjects in Flanders to serve the King at Sea his Ports being before open to such Vessels that served the King and were Manned with Flemings for the most part and did also underâ—tand hold Intelligence with this State But the Emperour of Russia no sooner heard of the Kings Death but he immediately Commanded all the English to depart his Dominions and was hardly perswaded having first secured their Goods to give them leave to stay a while in Arch-Angel his onely Port of Trade whither from his Court and City of Musco he had driven them He had profered to the Lord Culpeper His Majesties Embassador to have given him all the English Estates but he declining it and telling the Emperour the King conceived very well of those His Subjects he very frankly lent the King 20000 l. with a protestation of his further good will if he had not been so greatly engaged in a War at home The Dane the Swede and the Pole knew not what to make of our New Lords and so let them alone the Portugal's actions Declared Him Several Affronts were likewise given them under their very Noses the London Presbyterian Ministers would not Officiate neither at their Fasts nor Thanksgivings for which Contempts several of them were brought before their Committees and after severe reprehension and warning dismissed as namely Master Love Master Ienkins and Master Ash And the Levellers began to make new broils the Garrison of Oxford of Colonel Ingoldsby's Regiment mutining and securing their Officers while Lilburn and his Associates vex them in print by a new Pamphlet called the Apprentices Outcry The Mutineers were suppressed in a manner by themselves and two of them shot to Death Lilburn having been kept a long while before Prisoner in the Tower was now brought to his Tryal at Guild hall by a Commission of Oyer and Termier directed to the new Lord-Commissioner Keeble Justice Iermin and others where after a confident defence of himself reading of several Statutes and thumming of Magna Charta and a hundred Slurs upon the Court he was acquitted by his Jury and not long after chosen a Common-Council-man for the City though the Parliament by Vote afterwards disallowed it and made him uncapable of any Office And finally that I may have done with this Trouble-world not long after Sentenced him to Banishment which was procured by the old Feud betwixt him and Sir Arthur Hasilrigge To secure themselves therefore from that and all other Parties they Legislated a thing called an Engagement which though at its first designment it reached onely persons in Office and Trust and the Lawyers that Pleaded with an additional precept to the several Benches to remove out of their Chambers in the Respective Inns of Court all who had served the King in the late War saving the benefit of Articles as they had kept them some good while before from the Bar yet at last it included all sorts of men from 18 years old and upwards who were enjoyned to recognize and then subscribe this knack in these Republican words You shall promise to be true â—â—d faithful to the Commonwealth of England as it is now established without King or House of Lords And their repeated prosperous violation of all things Sacred and Civil had so prob Dolor Atheisted the Land that people jested themselves into this snare the Royalists and some such sober Presbyterians onely disavowing it though no protection or benefit of the Law was to be had without it On the 4 of Ianuary happened a most terrible blow by Gunpowder in Tower-street out of a Ship-chandlers cellar who going down about 8 of the Clock about some business there with a Candle it unfortunately sparkled into the Powder as was conceived and blew up and spoiled above 100 Houses some 60 persons being killed the most whereof were slain as they were drinking in the Rose-Tavern in whose Ruines they were over-whelmed This accident invited the curiosity of some to say that the Treason committed that time Twelve month before was followed with this its sutable attendant to point to the Authors the likeness of their Villany But whatever that disaster signified the Death of Alderman Hoyle a great Rumper of York who hanged himself on the same day and hour Twelve month that the King was Murthered plainly shewed the vengeance and displeasure of God against that monstrous and abominable Fact This was the Evening-Sacrifice to their Thanksgiving-Devotion in most solemn manner celebrated by the States aâ— Westminster in commemoration of their lately recovered Liberty from the Laws and a just Government by the Death of the King being the Anniversary of his Martyrdom but had so many ill Omens and sinister Prognosticks that they rased this Festival out of their Kalendar which carried in it so many signal remarques of the just Judgement and Veâ—geance of God upon that impious Fact and their no less abominable mockery of Him as the Author thereof in this their pretended religious observation of that fatal Providence General Blake was now fitting out to Sea with a lusty Fleet to hinder Prince Rupert now Commanding in the Western-seas from doing further prejudice to the Trade the Nation being then much incommodated by several Ships of War set out by His Majesties Commission the execution whereof could not discern betwixt His Subjects and His Rebels The Prince was then in Harbour at Lisbone whither Blake directly sailed with 16 able Men of War and blockt up the Port demanding license to fall upon the Prince in the River which being denied an attempt was made by him but the Castles firing upon his foremost Frigots in favour and protection of the Prince's Fleet he was forced to give it over and come to an Anchor at the Mouth of the Tagus resolving to stop and seize such Vessels of the Portugals as should make for that place and the Brazile Sugar-Fleet was then daily expected An Act now
Limburgh into whose hands upon a remove they lighted This troublesome delay so displeased their Westminster-masters that on the 18 of May the Parliament recalled them which being notified to the States they seemed surprized and by consent of the Embassadors sent away an Express accompanied with Mr. Thurloe Saint Iohn's Secretary to London to desire a longer respit in hope of a satisfactory Conclusion But after a vainâ—r Expectation thereof saving this dubious insignificant Resolution as the States called it In haec verba The States General of the Netherlands having heard the report of their Commissioners having had a Conference the day before with the Lords Embassadors of the Commonwealth of England do declare That for their better satisfaction they do wholly and fully condescend and agree unto the 6 7 8 9 10 and 11 Propositions of the Lords Embassadors which were the most unconcerning and also the said States do agree unto the 1 2 3 and 5 Articles of the year 1495. Therefore the States do expect in the same manner as full and clear an Answer from the Lords Embassadors upon the 36 Articles delivered in by their Commissioners the 24 of June 1647. This indifferency being maintained and strengthned by the presence and Arguments used in a Speech made by Mr. Macdonald the Kings Agent then at that time Resident at the Hague who also printed their Articles or Propositions with his Comments on them another Months time being spent they were finally remanded and departed on the 20 of Iune re infecta to the trouble as was pretended of most of the Lords of Holland When Saint Iohn gave the States Commissioners who came to take leave of him these parting words My Lords You have an Eye upon the Event of the Affairs of the Kingdom of Scotland and therefore do refuse the Friendship we have offered now I can assure you that many in the Parliament were of opinion that we should not have come hither or any Embassadors to be sent to you before they had superated thâ—se matters between them and that King and then expected your Embassadors to us I nâ—w perceive our errour and that those Gentlemen were in the right in a short time you shall see that business ended and then you will come to us and seek what we have freely offered when it shall perplex you that you have refused our proffer And it â—ell ouâ— as he had Divined it Upon his coming home after those welcomes and thanks given him by the Parliament he omitted not to aggravate those rudenesses done him and to exasperate them against the Dutch and the angry effects of his Counsels and report soon after appeared On the 9 of April in order and designe to abolish all Badges of the Norman Tyranny as they were pleased to call it now that the English Nation had obtained their natural Freedom they resolved to Manumit the Laws and restore them to their Original Language which they did by this ensuing additional Act and forthwith all or most of the Law-books were turned into English according to the Act a little before for turning Proceedings of Law into English and the rest written afterwards in the same Tongue but so little to the benefit of the people that as Good store of Game is the Country-mans Sorrow so the multitude of Sollicitors and such like brought a great deal of trouble to the Commonwealth not to speak of more injuries by which that most honourable profession of the Law was profaned and vilified as being a discourse out of my Sphere At the same time they added a second Act explanatory of this same wonderful Liberty both which here follow Be it Enacted by this present Parliament and by the Authority thereof That the Translation into English of all Writs Process and Returns thereof and of all Patents Commissions and all Proceedings whatsoever in any Court of Iustice within this Commonwealth of England and which concerns the Law and Administration of Iustice to be made and framed into the English Tongue according to an Act entituled An Act for the turning the Books of the Law and all Proces and Proceedings in Courts of Iustice into English be and are hereby refered to the Speaker of the Parliament the Lords Commissioners of the Great Seal of England the Lord Chief Iustice of the Upper-Bench the Lord Chief Iustice of the Common-pleas and the Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer for the time bâ—ing or any two or more of them and what shall be agreed by them or any two or more of them in Translating the same the Lords Commissioners shall and may affix the Great Seal thereunto in Cases where the same is to be fixed And so that no miss-Translation or Variation in Form by reason of Translation or part of Proceedings or Pleadings already begun being in Latine and part in English shall be no Errour nor void any Proceedings by reason thereof Provided That the said recited Act shall not extend to the certifying beyond the Seas any Case or Proceedings in the Court of Admiralty but that in such Cases the Commissioners and Proceedings may be certified in Latin as formerly they have been An Act for continuing the Assessment of 120000 l. per mensem for five Months from the 25 day of April 1651. for maintenance of the Armies in England Ireland and Scotland was likewise passed By our way to Scotland we must digress to a petty commotion in Wales Hawarden and Holt-Castle Seized and a Hubbub upon the Mountains which engaged Colonel Dankins to a craggy expedition Sir Thomas Middleton purged and the Coast cleared of a Presbyterian discontent upon which score the noise was raised but the story not taking Presto on all 's gone and the invisible Royalists cannot be found or sequestred for their combination in Lancashire-plot now started and hotly sented and pursued by the Grandees of the Council of State and the Blood-hounds of their High Court of Iustice again unkennelled of which more presently Blackness-Castle was now delivered to General Cromwel in Scotland on the first of April while he yet continued sick of an Ague General Dean being newly arrived with Money and supplies from England two days before and on the 11 of the same Month the Scotch Parliament sat down where they rescinded that often-mentioned Act of Classes of Delinquents whereby way was made to the restoring of the Loyal Nobility to their seats in Parliament and an Act passed from the perceipt of the dangerous consequences of the Western Remonstrance that it should be Treason to hold correspondence with or abet the Enemy Cromwel having already made another journey into those parts to carry on his business at Glascow which place had been infamed at the beginnig of the Scotch Troubles and was now by the just Judgement of God the Stage designed to act the Catastrophe and last act of three Kingdoms Ruine For I must remember the Reader that here the first Scene of our misery was laid
wherein He was so much concerned by the obstinacy of the Princes party who would not yield to any thing without the Cardinals removal which the King and Queen-mother would no way grant at the Command of their Subjects He betook himself to the Duke of Lorrain then at Dampmartin where he was received with all possible demonstrations of Honour by that Army drawn up in Battalia the Irish Officers of three Regiments of that Nation being admitted to kiss his Hand In this encounter at Estampes the Duke of York then on the Kings side did so nobly and valiantly behave himself that the Marshal de Turenne his General gave a very obliging Character of him in his Letters as the onely meriting person in that Service which procured him especial regard and Honour from that Court and all the Grandees of that Nation which they abundantly testified on all occasions In the interim of that Action the King His Brother after some Conference with the Duke of Lorrain had engaged him to a kind of Neutrality which he declared and made evident just as the two Armies of the King and Princes were facing one another to the disappointment of a resolution and desperate Engagement on the Princes â—ide who were compell'd to retreat to Paris and resume those thoughts of Peace which from their Confidence in Lorrain they had totally abandoned The frantick Parisians were so incensed at this peaceful conclusion that they publikely taxed the King and His Mothers menage thereof with that Duke so that till the advantages thereof should reclaim their mistake the King withdrew himself for some time to St. Germains whence upon the conclusion of the whole affair he returned most infinitely welcome to those so lately-passionate and inconsiderate people Whither a while before the Marchioness of Ormond having left Ireland came to meet the Marquess her Husband and was followed by the Earl of Castlehaven We must back again return to that Kingdom now quite spent with the continued Calamities of a luckless War which after several Surrenders and Capitulations was managed there by flyiâ—◠〈◊〉 and sudden Excursions and Retreats the sum of which was in 〈◊〉 On the third of April Roscommon-Castle was yiâ—lded as likewise 〈◊〉 Town to Commissary-General Reynolds by Major Daly and Colonel Connor Teige O. Roe submitted at the same time upon Articles soon after the Earl of Westmeath and Sir William Tungan Sir Francis Talbot and many others to the number of 800 after a Treaty at Kilkenny did the same and the Lord Muskerry was sending the same way but thought his past Actions and his Condition more considerable than to be hudled up in common and ordinary Terms Onely the Lord-Marquess Clanrickard according to the Tenour of his past promise upon his first undertaking the Service and after the sole Command of the Army resolvedly and Loyally waived the proffer of those Kilkenny-Articles which were now tendered as their standing Rule to all the Irish namely upon submission protection and those who ever they were that should be found guilty of the Massacres in the first Rebellion to be questionable for it and to be excluded from any benefit of Conditions and prosecuted the War afresh On the 16 of May with the Connaught-Forces he marched to Ballishannon having drawn with him some Ordnance from Slego and after two days Battery made a breach and Stormed it and after two repulses carried it by main force and gave such Quarter as his Party on the like occasion used to receive next he took Dungal-Castle and there the Vlster-Forces under Sir Phelim O Neal the O. Relies and Mac Mahon's joyned with him but upon notice of Sir Charles Coot's advancing thither after him and of Venable's Brigades to assist him he departed to Armagh intending for Raphoe and in the mean time Lieutenant-General Ludlow marched towards Ross in Kerry to attaque that strength of the Lord Muskerries and Lieutenant-Colonel Throckmorton May the 6 defeated a party of 500 Foot and 400 Horse neer Wexford under Commissary-General Duncan at the same time in Treaty with Ludlow who now likewise had reduced the Lord Muskerry to a necessity of such Terms a party of his Forces being defeated by the Lord Broghil 300 killed and Colonel Supple and other Officers taken Prisoners as he bogled at first his strong Hold of Ross having yielded on the 27 of Iune and his Field-forces laying down their Arms upon Articles for Transportation Iuly 5. And Colonel Grace had a brush from Colonel Henry Ingoldsby and another part of that Army of the Vltoghs under Mac Reli defeated in Gavan by Sir Theophilus Iones on Iune the 14. These Losses and Defeats together with the rendition of Galloway on the 12 day of May and Proclamation of the Commissioners for Outlawing the County of Wicklow and parts adjacent to it out of which those salleys of Tories were frequently made and not pursuable therein by reason of the Fastnesses and Bogs it being the Store-house and Magazine of Victual for the Irish and now miserably harassed with Fire and Sword without mercy by the English the rather for the death of Colonel Cook slain by Nash and his party of Irish though Nash died also upon the same spot some while before made Ireland a Scene of blood and misery and the stubborn Natives and the resolute Loyal English-Irish a mournful consideration to their Friends and a wanting laborious defence to themselves nothing being to be afforded further upon the most considerable Surrender than common protection and Indemnity from the Parliament Ballishannon was again retaken upon quarter for Life and Slego Rendred to Sir Charles Coot Colonel Grace got over the Shanon from Colonel Ingoldsby having lost 2 Colonels 7 Captains and 800 Souldiers killed and taken Iune 20. In May the Commissioners of the Parliament for the settlement of the Nation of Scotland having had conference with the Deputies of some Shires who accepted the Union and refused to Treat with others that came not with a Plenipotence for their acquiescing therein and engagement to it and the Authority of the Parliament and to the fuller effect thereof had caused Proclamation to be made that such Deputies as should acknowledge and accept the said Union should proceed to the Election of 14 Deputies of Shires and 7 for the Burghs by August to attend the Parliament at London in the behalf of the whole Kingdom departed out of Scotland for London to make report of their transaction which had hitherto met with very obstinate averseness to the Parliaments tender of Incorporation the provincial Assemblies of the Kirk every where declaring against it forbidding the people to accept or embrace any such motion Nor did the new English Judges finde better welcome than the Commissioners though three of them were noted men of the Scotch Nation the chief of whom was the Lord Swinton and Colonel Lockhart and though at their opening of the Session or Term they
made all possible speed to ply up towards them and yesterday in the morning we saw them at Anchor in and neer Dover-Road being come within three Leagues of them they weighed and stood away by a Wind to the Eastward we supposing their intention was to leave us to avoid the dispute of the Flag about two hours after they altered their course and bore directly with us Van Trump the headmost whereupon we lay by and put ourselves into a fighting posture judging they had a resolution to engage Being come within Musquet-shot I gave order to fire at his Flag which was done thrice after the third shot he let flie a Broad side at us Major Bourn with those ships that came from the Downs being eight was then making towards us we continued fighting till night then our ship being unable to sail by reason that all our Rigging and Sails were extreamly shattered our Mizen-mast shot off we came with advice of the Captains to an Anchor about three or four Leagues off the Ness to refit our ship at which we laboured all the nightâ— this morning we espied the Dutch Fleet about four Leagues distance from ours towards the Coast of France and by advice of a Council of War it was resolved to ply to windward to keep the Weather-gage and we are now ready to let fail our Anchor this Tide what course the Dutch Fleet steers we do not well know nor can we tell what harm we have done them but we suppose one of them to be sunk and another of thirty Guns we have taken with the Captains of both the Main-mast of the first being shot by the Board and much water in the Hold made Captain Lawson's men to forsake her We have six men of ours slain and nine or ten desperately wounded and 25 more not without danger amongst them our Master and one of his Mates and other Officers We have received about seventy great shot in our Hull and Masts in our Sails and Rigging without number being Engaged with the whole Body of the Fleet for the space of four hours being the Mark at which they aimed We must needs acknowledge it a great mercy that we had no more harm and our hope is the Righteous God will continue the same unto us if there do arise a War between us they being first in the Breach and seeking an occasion to Quarrel and watching as it seems an Advantage to brave us upon our own Coast c. Your most humble Servant Robert Blake From aboard the James three Leagues off the Hydes the 20 of May 1652. The third in a Letter from Maj. Bourne Upon the 18th of May the Wind being at North-East the weather something hazy about ten in the morning we saw a great Fleet on the back-side of the Goodwyn-sand which lay with their Sails hayl'd up and drove to the Southward the latter Tide of Ebb in land about twelve they were so nigh that we plainly descried them to be all Men of War consisting of 41 in number one whereof had a Flag at the Main-top-mast-head the rest Jacks and Ancients Hollands Colours at which time they were neer the South-sand-head There was in the Downs the Andrew Triumph Fairfax Entrance Centurion Adventure Assurance Grey-hound and the Seven Brothers all the rest of the Fleet being with the General to the Westward by whose special Command I wore a Flag at the Main-top-mast-head the appearance of which I humbly conceive was one cause amongst others which moved their General to send two Frigats towards me which as soon as I perceived plying into the Road I sent out the Grey-hound to Examine them and know the ground of their Approach who returned this Answer to the Captain That they had a Message from their Admiral to the Commander in the Downs at which he made sail towards me and permitted them to come in the two Frigats came neer and saluted the Flag and then the Captains came on Board whose Names were one Tyson and the other Aldred who brought this Message from their Admiral Van Trump That by reason of much Northerly Winds he with his Fleet was put to the Southward further than he intended and having Anchored the day before off Dunkirk many of his ships had lost Anchors and Cables and so were forced to Leewards but withal declared that they had special Command from their Admiral to signifie thus much That it was the onely cause of their coming to prevent any thoughts or misapprehensions for that he had not the least purpose to offer injury to any of the English Nation but for fear lest any Noise or Alarm should be given either at Land or Sea he thought good to send this Message And further the one of them in discourse said that their Admiral Trump would have come himself into the Road but that he was not willing to breed any difference about his Flag forasmuch as he had not order to take it down To whom I replied That I presumed there would be no new thing required of them and neither more nor less would be Expected from them but what they knew to be the Antient Rights of this Nation and withal I desired them to return this Answer from me to their General That their Message was civil that our General was to the Westward whom I looked for hourly and that received and if what they delivered was so intended I desired the Reality thereof might be manifested by their speedy drawing off from this place with their Fleet for else this their appearance would be otherwise expounded and so I dismiss'd them who made sail to their Admiral who lay off the South-sands-head I expected them to come into the Road every moment and therefore was in readiness with the small strength I had under my charge So soon as the two Frigats before mentioned came back to their General they all made Sail and stood towards Dover and there they came to an Anchor that Tide At the first appearance of them after I had made them certainly to be the Holland-fleet I did according to my Duty give such an Account thereof to the Right Honourable the Council of State as the time and other business would permit and withal I immediately dispatcht a Ketch to our General who met with the advice thereof that night about Ness. All the next night we lay in readiness our Anchors apeak and kept two Frigats one at a distance from the other betwixt us and them giving them Instructions to make a Signal to me either night or day that I might understand their motion whether towards the General or elsewhere to the end I might the better be able to order my self and the party with me to the best advantage for security of the General 's Fleet and our selves In the morning about ten a clock I received-advice from the General being a little to the Westward off Foulstone and according to Order received from him Calculated the Time and Tide so
very desperate Captain Gibbons with 100 men staid in Kerry where the Irish out of fear and distrust of any preservation or favour from the English rose in Arms again there remained too the Island of Enisbuffin whose Forces had in December to the number of 500 in Boats fallen down upon the Isles of Arran Garrisoned by an English company of 150 under a Captain who upon the first Summons rendred the Fort in that Island upon leave to depart for which he was condemned to dye and the Officers under him Cashiered To recover this Isle being of consequence to the peace of the Neighbouring Country Commissary-General Reynolds was sent with a sufficient Force and likewise to reduce Enisbuffin At his approach to Arran it rendred to him upon the first Summons as before it was lost on the 15 of Ianuary where he left some ships for the better securing of it their absence being the occasion of the loss of it before and so marched to Enisbuffin but with more hast than good speed 300 of the Van of his Forces being cut off but the Island being blockt up Colonel Câ—sack the Governour accepted of the usual Articles for Transportation and Surrendered that place Never were any Christian people or Nation in such a wretched condition as those Irish who from a vain conceit of obtaining their Liberty and shaking off the English Yoâ—k by their Rebellion now found iâ— set closer and harder on suffering the very extremity of Revenge and the dregs of Rage from a merciless Conquering Enemy to whom first the crying Sin of their barbarous Massacres and then their contempt of the Kings Authority when received among them and lastly their fatal divisions among themselves caused by their Fryers and the Nuncio-party had given them over As to the Priests they were by Proclamation upon pain of Death Banished for ever out of the Kingdom as the like had been done lately before in England and many of them had already been snapt by the Irish High Court of Iustice. The Parliament were no way insensible of the Damage and disgrace they had suffered from the Dutch in the Downs and to minde them the more of it Cromwel and his Officers kept a Fast by themselves upon that occasion but added other causes viz. the delay of the new Representative according to the old strain and therefore thinking the meanness of their Pay might dishearten the Seamen from serving in the Fleet they raised their Wages from 19 to 24 shillings a month and 20 Nobles for every Gun in any ship they should take from the Enemy with other advantages as to the shares of the Prizes and the better to defray this allowance they ordered the Sale of Somerset-house Windsor-Castle Greenwich Hampton Court Vaâ—â—â— hall in Lambeth Cornbury-Park For the invitation to which purchases and all other Forfâ—iâ—â—d Lands they had abated the interest of Moneys from eight to six per cent that the advantages of laying out their Money with them might appear to the Usurer who by such Bargains could not get less than 50 l. per cent provided it would last and the Lands continue in their possession Those Houses notwithstanding escaped by the hinderance and artful delays of Oliver Cromwel who designed them for his own greatness and State in his projected Supremacy He was now debating in Council with his Bashaws about the very same matter and the Parliament fell presently upon the Bill to prevent him and his Armies desires for the same Representative and offered fair Ianuary the fifth The Danish Embassadors had in the beginning of October departed England and by the way visited Holland and continued their Journey by Land home where upon their arrival that King had declared himself for the Hollander yet the Parliament hoping to reclaim him and the want of those Merchandizes he had seized urging them to it sent Bradshaw a bold fellow like his Kinsman who preferred him to Copenhagen from Hamburgh where he resided with that City as their Agent He came to the Court before Christmas but was delayed Audience till after the Holy-daies and when he had it granted it was to so little purpose and of so great danger to him at his return he being besides affronted highly in the streets that he wisht himself quit of his Employment and at home again At his request for a Guard to convey him back and his payment of them and passing by-ways and over several Waters he at last in much fear being certainly way-laid recovered Hamburgh whence he sent the Parliament an account of his fruitless Negotiation for the goods were unladen and sold and the Merchants Books of Accompt seized and in the Kings hands desiring also the repayment of those Moneys he had disbursed for the carrying the Masters and Seamen of those ships to Lubeck and those parts being not able to stay in Denmark any longer where a Comet newly appeared the effects whereof were very visible in those calamities that presently began in this and the Swedish War in which that King was desperately Engaged The Dutch had been Commanded to Sea from Porto Longone some while before by the Spanish Governour so that the English ships were at liberty and Badiley was now at Leghorn of whom the Great Duke demanded the Phoenix to be restored to the Dutch at their instance to him as taken in his Port which being refused he commanded that those English ships that then lay within the Mole being six in number should put to Sea within ten daies the debate had lasted a good while before this resolution which the Duke said he could not in justice and by the Law of Nations deny to the Hollander the event of which we will presently relate At home the Dutch were still far perter Songs and by words and Pictures made of this English defeat the names of the ships discanted upon that were taken as ominous to us having lost the Garland c. and the like devices this the Vulgar the Great ones were consulting of sending a Fleet to seize all our America-Isles and to Lord it there as their Ships did in the Streights and de Wit was also now almost ready to put to Sea with another Fâ—eet of 40 ships and Van Trump was ordered to come away speedily with such Merchant-men as were râ—â—dy to set Sail and Anchor at the Thames mouth and block up General Blake and the Fleet that was there ready but he came too late to effect it for on the 8 of February from Quinborough the General set sail with about 60 men of War intending to joyn with 20 more from Portsmouth such a Force and of so sudden a rise that the Dutch found themselves much deceived in their designe abroad and Conclusions at home On the 11 of February the Portsmouth-Fleet the Wind blowing Eastward joyned with the General at Beechy head and thence sailed over against Portland where they lay a cross the Channel half Sea over to
whose Ports and Harbours upon the pursuit as far as the Texel they had driven and scattered the Dutch Fleet which had so brought down the stomacks of the Hollander that that Province having as before sent away a Boat with a white Flag with a Messenger for a Pasport and a Safe-Conduct for two Embassadors and having obtained it sent away the Lords Youngstall and Vande Perre to follow two others newly gone before These arrived the 20 of Iune and had Audience the 22 their Message being of such importance for every day their Merchant-ships were taken coming home and there was no stirring out for any so that there was an absolute Cessation there of Trade no less than 30 ships of good lading having been taken by our Fleet riding up and down about their Havens But this expedited and the more hastily and intently carried on their preparations for War if Peace should not be presently concluded the major part of their Fleet being put into Zealand and that Coast was new Rigging there and some new ships off the Stocks and this Van Trump supervised another new Fleet was equipping at Amsterdam and that De Wit took the care and charge of the Marriners Wages though there was no other Employment for them were now raised the Lords States themselves came down to the several Ports and saw the men imbarqued to whom they gave Money in hand and took them by it requesting of them now to do valiantly for their Country and telling them that if they fought well this time they should fight no more and for the better incitement and to see every man do his duty two of the States went on board a nimble-Frigat to be present at the Fight now with all speed resolved on and in confidence of success this Fleet was Victualled for five Months which time it should continue abroad blocking up our Harbours in like manner as we did theirs for as yet in Forrain Courts and Countries they would not confess we were too hard for them and this bout would rectifie all and adjust their Stories This happened in the end of Iuly it having been so ordered that both the Fleets under Van Trump from the Weilings in Zealand and De Wit from the Texel should meet upon the Engagement General Monke with the English Fleet lying as it were in the mid-way On the 29 of Iuly the Scouts a Head discovered this Dutch Fleet whereupon the General made after them but they standing away for De Wit it was five a clock at night ere any of our Frigats got up to them when they appeared to be 90 sail of Men of War and ten Fire-ships about 7 that night General Monke aboard the Resolution got up to them with some 30 ships and Frigats in all and charged through their whole Fleet when it beginning to grow duskish the Masters advised the General not to stand to them again that night for fear of the Fire-ships but the noble General turning himself with indignation towards them commanded them in some disgraceful but more unproper terms that they should To um again for said He The very Powder of the Guns of this Ship is able to blow away a Fire-ship from it and so they tackt about and through the Dutch again in which by a Ball from the Enemy both Fleets being close to one another the Mizen-shrouds of the Resolution were fired but quickly put out again by the courageous Activity of one Captain Ioseph Taylor then assisting and standing by the General Nothing of more remarque was done that night save that the Garland with the Enemy received much prejudice being known and saluted by every ships Broad-side though the Dutch had altered her Decks and so the English stood to the Southward and Van Trump to the Northward that night and joyned with De Wit and withal got the Weather-gage by reason his sailing Northwards was no way suspected by our Fleet. The next day there being much Windy and foul Weather both Fleets could not Engage the Sea was so high but found it a difficult work to get off of a Lee-shore which was so much the worse to the English being on an Enemies Coast but a most gallant delightful sight it was to see the two Fleets so neer one another plying their Sails fill'd with as much Revenge and desire of Engagement as with those envious Gusts that kept them asunder But next morning being Sunday the Weather proving fair and little Wind Iuly 31 both Fleets Engaged again in a most terrible Fight the Dutch animated with the equal if not the inclinable success of Friday and the English loth to contest so long for a resolved Victory as if three days were always to be the apportioned time of their labour in Conquest It is impossible to give a distinct account of this Battle in Fire and Smoak Board and Board for eight hours together incessant The Garland was the first disabled and the Dutch Fire-ships notably managed their business the Andrew Victory Triumph and Rainbow the great ships at whom the Dutch spight was greatest being so endangered that out of the Triumph which was fired by one of them several of the ships crue threw themselves into the Sea but others of better spirits remaining behinde with great gallantry quenched the Fire and gave a merry occasion of a Civil Law or Admiralty-Controversie Whether the Chests Goods and Cloaths which those that stayed in the ship had got on of those that deserted it and when the danger of the Flame was past got in again should belong to the present Possessor who refused to d'off or re-deliver them to the former owner who was much troubled to see other men in his Apparel The Victory in which was Captain Lane was stoutly beset with a Vice-Admiral and two other Flemish War-ships and so distressed that another Dutch Vice-Admiral in an East-India-ship of 60 Guns coming up by her Quarter and mistaking the Condition as well as Resolution of that Captain proffered him Quarter and bid him yield which was answered with the thanks of a Broad-side that sunk the Dutch-man immediately by his side No less gallant service did the Speaker-Frigat so well known to the Dutch by the name of the Prater and truly there was nothing but the antient glory right of the English to be Superiors to that Nation which differenced the valour of both since had the Dutch fought upon a juster Quarrel Fortune might have been as equal Besides the Death of their Admiral the brave Van Trump in the beginning of the Fight by the shot of a Musquet-bullet in his left Pap mainly contributed to their Defeat His Flag the Original of the War was strucken with a shot and whether they would not for a signe to their Fleet to revenge his Death or could not make it stand there was no such Ensigne the greatest part of the Fight which having continued from seven in the morning till one or two in the afternoon the Dutch
entailing his Estate upon his Grand-son as divining what his Son with whom he died in feud would come to General Blake was yet in the Streights demanding satisfaction of the Algier-Pirates for the depredations committed on the English and required the delivery of the Captives of our Nation whose number was very great but neither of these would be hearkned to whereupon Blake sent in a threatning Message to which they returned in scorn and contempt this Answer Here are our Castles of Guletto and Castles of Porta Ferino do what you can do ye think we fear the shew of your Fleet A Council of War being called upon this daring affront it was resolved to Burn those ships in Ferino in defiance of their Stone-line Forts and Castles well furnished with Ordinance and manned with the whole Country adjacent On the 4 of April the attempt was made Blake and the greater ships with their seconds coming within Musquet-shot of the Castle and Line which in two hours time they rendred defenceless dismounting all the Great Guns and clattering the Stones so about their Ears that the Enemy abandoned them having seen their nine Ships and Frigats burning in the mean time which was done by Boats from every ship during this hot service atchieved in this honourable manner Blake set sail again to the same place and renewed his Demand and was Answered in another strain that not Ours but now Those were the Castles and ships of the Grand Seigniour who would be sure to require an account of them In conclusion they came to Treat and did what they were beaten to for else they saw their Thieving Trade would be short Nathaniel Fiennes second Son to the Lord Say and the once-famous Governour of Bristol was made Cromwel's Lord Privy-Seal Recorder Steel a growing Favourite for his Speeches Lord Chief-Baron and Lambert yet above-board Lord-Warden of the Cinque Ports and soon after Serjeant Glyn was made Lord Chief Justice of England Mr. Parker and Vnton Crook the Father made Serjeants For Military Commanders Colonel Reynolds was â—ow Knighted and ordered to carry it with him to grace Henry Cromwel then preparing â—or his journey into Ireland to be inaugurated Lord-Lieutenant in place of Fleetwood where he arrived in the middle of Iuly and Captain Vnton Crook was rewarded for his late service with 200 l. per annum The Scoâ—câ— Council was nominated and dispatched also viz. General Monke Lord Broughill President Colonel Howard now Earl of Carlisle Colonel Adrian Scroop Colonel Cooper Colonel Wetham Mr. Desborough Colonel Lockhart Laird Swinton and Downing Secretary It was omitted that Sir Gilbert Pickering was entituled Lord-Chamberlain to Oliver and that he had a Guard of Halberdiers in Grey-coats Welted with Black-Velvet in the same manner and custom as the Kings of England used them but this Satellitium and Band of Bailiffs was rather out of fear than in regard to the honour of their Attendance Sir William Constable one of the Kings Judges Governour of Gloucester and the last of his Name which rots in his dust died now and was buried in the Military way in Henry the 7th's Chappel lighted into his Tomb with a terrible Fire in the opposite Town of Lambeth A new Plot was now started and most of the Nobility and Gentlemen of England secured Sir Geoffrey Palmer Lord Willoughby of Parham Lord Lovelace Earl of Lindsey Lord Newport and Sir Richard Wingfield Lords Maynard Petre Lucas and Faulkland Sir Frederick Cornwallis c. and this done by Manning whose Villany was not yet discovered though to render an entire account of him his death was before related County-Troops were now also established for security to his Highness such Trooper 8 l. a year pay and more in case of service a Captain 100 l. and Officers proportionably and as these new Forces were raised here so were other old ones disbanded in Scotland and Ireland in which last place the Disbanded were yet to be the same kinde of standing Militia they being setled in the Rebel Forfeited Lands their Tenure being their service and thus that Kingdom was re-peopled An Agent that had come hither from Ragotski Prince of Transilvania now departed the Conspiracy betwixt whom and the King of Sweden and the Swede and Cromwel was just ripe for Execution For the terrible news came that Carolus Gustavus with an Army of 20000 Swedes was landed in Pomerania and fallen into Poland and that the Palatinate of Posen had submitted and the Vice-Chancellor Radzikousky was come in and complied with that King and little doubt was made of his over-running that Kingdom the like Treachery and other divisions among the discontented Nobility opening him a way Cromwel's reach in this War was to divert the Emperour who was arming apace in aid of the King of Spain and defence of the House of Austria against the French as foreseeing also the rupture of the Peace with the Spaniard by Cromwel in the Low-Countries and a Peace once by this ballance effected to espouse the quarrel of our King to the same purpose the Transilvanian was engaged who like a stormy Cloud hung over the Imperial Dominions so that no assistance could be had from this part of the World This highly disappointed the Spaniard and retarded those hopes of our King in order to his Restitution by Arms. He was yet at Colen and caressed by several Princes who Honoured his Privacy among many others the Landtgrave of Hessen gave him an honourable Visit and Prince Rupert returned from the Emperour gave him his due attendance to evidence that the Relation of a King in some such cases may be without a Kingdome or Subjects A Swedish Embassador Named Christian Bond arrived here neer the same time and was in great State received according to the Amplitude of his Highness and Rolt a Bed-chamber-man of this Altess was sent recipocrally to the King of Sweden but was neer quitting the Cost of his Journey by a terrible Storm About the time the news came of his getting ashore in safety Hannum a most notorious Thief suspected of the Robbery of the King at Colen in which parts he was no stranger broke Prison and escaped likewise From the noble Exploit of Porta Ferino Blake sailed to Cadiz and those parts of Spain where he found that the Armada of Spain was at Sea to look after the arrival of their India-Fleet and it fell out that the English and Spaniards met together in those Seas the Spaniards being 32 ships in all but no quarrel happened for neither had Commission to right The same indifferent but more cowardly temper at the same instant in August made the Iamaica-Fleet returning home suffer the longed-for Plate-Fleet to pass untought when discovered in the Gulf of Florida upon their Voyage to Spain so that none of the Fates were wanting to make this the most unglorious undertaking of the English Upon a resolution taken by a Council of War at Iamaica the greatest
Crimson-Velvet and adorned with White Red and Yellow plumes of Feathers being led by the Master of the Horse The Rear of this brave Show was brought up by the Protector 's Guard of Halberdiers the Warders of the Tower and a Troop of Horse The Effigies in this manner being brought to the West-gate of the Abbey-Church of Westminster it was taken from the Chariot by ten Gentlemen who carried it to the East-end of the Church and there placed the Picture in a most magnificent Structure built in the same form as one before had been on the like occasion for King Iames but much more stately There had been a Convention or Synod of the Independent Ministers resolved upon and called by Oliver in his Life-time to make out a Declaration and Confession of their Faith and to make a kinde of Canon or System of their Tenets and Doctrine he of all Religions most favouring this for by their means he began and carried on his Designes Sometimes he would offer to make an Agreement and reconcile and unite the Presbyters and them but when any such thing came in agitation he would be sure to divide them further than ever This Synod or Assembly met now at the Savoy and Prince Richard had the honour to have his Reign ennobled with a discovery of what Independency was and its consistency which the World never heard of before nor was it the wiser or better satisfied now it was fully informed There was another as notable a passage and as memorable Richard still followed his old Game of Hawking and being one day with his Horse-guard engaged in a flight the eagerness of the sport carried him out of their sight and his Horse Floundring or Leaping short threw him into a Ditch where by the help of a Country-man he was taken out and preserved he had carried himself very quietly thitherto to all about him this disaster and accident made him angry and to charge them roughly with this neglect telling them he expected more service and respect and would have it from them He began also to be weary of his Old Cavalier-Friends and to require their absence from his Court where now the Army beginning to swerve from their loving Addresses the Republicans and Lambert secretly tampering with them and undermining their Fidelity and Zeal to Oliver's house as it was timely enough discovered a resolution was taken to call a Parliament to meet the 27 of Ianuary next and by pretence of restoring the people to their antient way of Elections but really that the Court might command the more Votes the Burroughs had Writs also seâ—t to them and the Elections were all made in the ancient way onely thirty Members were called by Writs from Scotland and as many from Ireland according to the late Combination of the three Nations into one Common-wealth This new kinde of Parliament being met at the time and place appointed having heard a Sermon of course at Westminster Abbey the young Protector also in State coming to the other House and making a Speech which was seconded by Fiennes who began with a gross ridiculous flattery though designed What can a man say after the King a quotation borrowed from the Proverbs God had so well ordered the Elections notwithstanding the practices of men that their English spirit quickly appeared both against Impositions from Court and Army And though their Counsels were at first interrupted with an Act of Recognition of the Protector prepared and brought in by the Court which took up the first fortnight of their time upon the very point of Recognition yet they were at length extricated from that difficulty by the Expedient of an honest Gentleman in passing these Votes on Munday the 14 of February 1658. without any division or Negative Resolved That it be part of this Bill to Recognize and declare his Highness Richard Lord Protector and Chief Magistrate of the Commonwealth of England Scotland and Ireland and the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging And 2. That before this Bill be committed the House do declare such additional clauses to be part of this Bill as may bound the power of the Chief Magistrate and fully secure the Rights and Priviledges of Parliament and the Liberties and Rights of the people And that neither this nor any other previous Vote that is or shall be passed in order to this Bill shall be of force or binding to the people until the whole Bill passed Their next work was to appoint a Committee for inspection into the Accounts and Revenue of the Commonwealth which had been lamentably squandered and wasted ever since 1648. and twelve Members versed in matters of account whereof Mr. Scowen was in the Chair were selected for this work and fully impowered for the work they had in hand in order to the retrenching and lessening the charge of the Commonwealth On Saturday the 19 of February they proceeded in the Act of Recognition and resolved That it shall be part of this Bill to declare the Parliament to consist of two Houses And had afterwards several days debate by order concerning the bounding of the Chief Magistrate's power and the Bounds and powers of another House in relation to the former Votes but could come to no resolution thereupon the Court-party stickling hard for the Powers given them by the Petition and Advice and the honest Patriots of the House whose weighty Reasons then convinced the Commonwealth-party to go along with them denying it to be a Law being obtained by force and Exclusion of above a hundred Members in the year 1656. by which force also the Purse was taken from the Commons by setling a Revenue of 1300000 l. a year in perpetuity of the Command of the Single person and the ruling Members of the other House being most of them Officers of the Army and Courtiers which being allowed for Law the people would have been absolute Slaves to their power the Purse being stolen from the Commons as aforesaid Whilest the Temper of the House was thus tried and they appeared sufficiently to be English men divers of the Members of Scotland and Ireland joyning with them in the same resolutions By the joynt advice of the Court and Army-party the question of Transacting with the persons sitting in the Other House as an House of Parliament was set before them upon pretended grounds of Law and Necessity and by Arguments of Force and Interposition from the Army and of impossibility to proceed in any thing without the said Other House This attempt was as stoutly opposed for fourteen days by the moderate honest Patriots of the House as the former the undoubted right of the antient Peers asserted and all the said grounds and Arguments confuted except that of Force which was not to take place with any thing like a Free-Parliament of English-men But in the close of the fourteen days debate wherein much of the Honesty Ingenuity and Courage of the English Nation did appear seeing all
Edmund Fowel in Com. Devon Kt. created Baronet May 1. Iohn Cropley in Com. Middlesex Esq. created Baronet May 7. William Smith in Com. Bucks Esq. created Baronet May 10. George Cook in Com. York Esq. created Baronet Mâ—â— 10. Charles Lloyd in Com. Montgomery Esq. created Baronet May 10. Nathaniel Powel in Com. Sussex Esq. created Baronet May 14. Denny Ashburnham in Com. Sussex Esq. created Baronet May 15. Sir Hugh Smith in Com. Somerset Kt. created Baronet May 16. And so we have glided through this Sphere of Glory in which the ancient honour of the Government is refixed and gives us the full and compleat fight of this wonderful Revoluâ—â—on each Luminary shining in its proper Orb and in its Degree the Soveraign Nobility Clergy and Gentry recovered to their former and distinct Lustre and to say no more the whole community of English Freemen whose state and condition no Nation can parallel from being the servants of servants are become their own Masters and are arrived by this Change to be again the envy that were but lately the scorn and derision of the World In this Consistency the King was desirous to meet this Illustrious Body in Parliament to close those distances and separations and redintegrate the mutual affections endearments and natural kindnesses which the unnaturalness and perverse malignity of the times had by our Divisions abrupted and hitherto discontinued the King had promised so much at the Dissolution of the late Free-Parliament or Convention and accordingly issued out His Writ soon after for their sitting down the Eighth of May a little before which several Musters had been made in England of the Militia and a General Train in London in Hide-Park of Horse and Foot Fourteen Regiments whereof the King was pleased to view there In these Elections it appeared how much a Commonwealth or those Actions which were pretended to be done by the People in Parliament by a few modulers thereof were ever approved for not such a man had a Voyce and the Election of the Free Parliament gave little Encouragement to stand for it the main stickling was between the Episcopal and Presbyterian Parties and even that numerous Party as was said by themselves found how much they were mistaken in the Suffrages of the Kingdome when under no awe nor in the phrensy of misguised Zeal several Letters were intercepted from the chief Ministers of that Perswasion exhorting their Correspondents to do their utmost for favourable Elections to their Discipline and that very confidently after the choyce made at London of persons the most of them of their way But nevertheless that there might not the least remain of the Government be left unjustified and unreared it so happened that far the major part of this House of Commons were not better affected to the Peace of the Kingdome than to the Restauration and Settlement of the Church To this Parliament the King with his Nobles according to the splendid custome of opening these grand Assemblies rode in State and Triumph but because so full a Narrative of such Glory hath already preceded I will not further dazile the Reader The House being met the King sent for the Commons into the House of Lords where most obligingly he declared His content in meeting them most of them being known to him that he was as confident as of any thing whatsoever that it would be a happy Parliament and in conclusion acquainted them with his Resolution of marrying the Infanta of Portugal which Match he said he had proposed to his Privy Council and they had every one highly approved it that he thought none of them would willingly have him live and dye a Batchelour and therefore he had newly made and signed a Treaty with the King of Portugal by his Ambassadour Don Francisco De Mello here Resident and now upon departure with the same Treaty in which this Article of Marriage was inserted And then my Lord Chancellour by His Order gave the Parliament a further Account of His Majesties calling them Sir Edward Turner the Dukes Attourney General was chosen Speaker for the House of Commons who in his Speech to the King expressed the hopes of the Commons that as His Majesty had manifested his great Indulgence to that Adopted so that he had a Blessing left for this his Natural Parliament These Ceremonies being over wherein the dutiful respects of the Houses answered the favour and affection of the King the Parliament proceeded to the Affairs of the Kingdome Near that very time a Parliament began in Ireland after a like happy Convention had been by his Majesties Order from their Adjournment upon his Restitution reassembled in that quality Sir Audly Mervin being chosen Speaker The Convocation of the English Clergy all eminent and most learned pious Persons met on the sixteenth of May at Westminster And the Queen of Bohemia his Majesties Aunt from a long absence of forty eight years returned to White-Hall where She was Married in One thousand six hundred and twelve to the Prince Elector Palatine He return was further signalized by the reviviscency of the memory of the most renowned Marquess of Montross whose Limbs having been set upon the Gates of four distant Cities by the Kirk and Argyles party there were taken down and in State and in all fit Solemnity and with the same Honour brought together and by his Majesties Order whose love and memory of his Servants is one of his many other Princely vertues and great evidence of the sweetness of his Nature and the resolution of the Parliament Interred with a Funeral becoming his Family and as far as such too late evidences and expressions of Grief and Honour could reach his merit his own personal Renown and Glory so much the more indeed conspicuous by the Death and deserved Execution of the Marquess of Argyle who was this Hero's mortal and spightful Enemy that now expiated by a juster Sentence those barbarous violencies he had done to Montross he cunningly defended himself and Pleaded the Kings Pardon and the Treaties in One thousand six hundred and fifty and One thousand six hundred fifty one but there were Crimes of a later date besides the never-to-be-forgotten Treachery of Selling King Charles the first to the English which Condemned him He seemed at his Death to be resolved enough and justified the Covenant and had his Head taken off with the Maiden so is the Axe called in Scotland Near the same time Mr. Iames Guthery one of the Remonstrators and a violent Adversary of the Marquess of Montross and all the Loyal party together with Captain Giffan a â—enegâ—do to Cromwel by Sentence and Decree of Parliament were Hanged in Edenburgh so far the Laws and a suffering-sense of the Miseries and Reproaches that Nation lay under by these men and their Partizans guilt did now prevail against the Dominion of the Kirk which had Inslaved and Inchanted the whole mass of that people And for a final blow as these
defend themselves so that the River was quite covered with men and Horses The Count made use of the opportunity not taking so much as one Prisoner so that between killing and drowning very few escap'd though above 10000 in all above a thousand of their Horses were taken coming out of the water A considerable prevention of their entring Stiermark and coming up as far as Grats without any possibility of opposition The like success had the Portugals against the Spaniards taking the Town of Ginaldo in Gallicia wherein was the Magazine of Spain Afterwards giving Battle to Don Iohn of Austria who commanded 7000 Horse 12000 Foot and 18 pieces of Ordnance they routed him in the open field and took all his Bag and Baggage being assisted by the English They slew 1000 took 4000 Prisoners and most of the eminent Commanders But a worse fate had attended the Protestants of Piedmont had not they sâ—outly defended themselves For while their Delegates were pleading for them at Turin under the Protection and Safe-conduct of the Duke of Savoy their Sovereign Prince protesting their Loyalty and Submission to him his Forces to the number of between 16 or 18000 Horse and Foot entred the Valleys at Prerustine St. Bartholomew Rocheplate and other places endeavouring to possess themselves of Angrogue and St. Martins two of the strongest Holds in all the Valley of Piedmont In their way they set all on fire cut and tore the Vines and destroy'd all The Inhabitants seeing themselves assaulted contrary to Faith given and seeing they were undone made head the Fight was hot for the time but though the Savoyards were thirty for one they were at length forc'd to retreat with the loss of above a thousand men kill'd and wounded and many Officers All which was said to be done by the Iesuits Council de Propaganda Fide Anno Dom. 1664. WE shall begin this Year with the Trial of several persons for their Lives being of the same Party with those last Year executed at York The greatest part of their hopes of destroying his Majesty was built upon the confidence of a power they had as well to divide and distract his Friends as unite his Enemies which they endeavour'd to do by divers false and scandalous Rumors which upon all occasions they scatter'd among the people as being one half of their business The Tragedy was to have begun in the Counties of Westmerland Durham and Yorkshire by seizing upon Carlisle all the eminent Persons and Justices of the Peace of the said Counties and what Publick Treasure they could find A small Party met at Kirkby-Steven but failing of their number soon dispers'd themselves again Several were executed particularly at Appleby Robert Waller Stephen Weatherhead and Henry Petty But such was the inveterate malice of these kind of people such was the Influence of Ejected Ministers among them that notwithstanding so many persons had suffer'd the year before yet at Newbury the Mayor and Company of the Town being met upon Easter Tuesday to chuse Church-wardens for the year ensuing they were assaulted by a rude and confus'd multitude of all sorts of Phanaticks some crying one thing and some another and though sundry times excluded by the Constables that were call'd to keep the peace yet they still broke in with fresh clamours crying out that it did not belong to the Mayor and Company but the whole Parish to make the choice In fine they came to this at last that they did not matter who was chosen so one Pocock render'd odious to the Rabble for his Loyalty to the King were not one But Sir Thomas Doleman coming immediately to Town upon notice of the disorder with a Guard of Soldiers seiz'd the chief sticklers who were afterwards proceeded against according to their demerits And understanding that certain Grand Phanaticks being charg'd with Arms refus'd to send in their men he with the rest of the Deputy-Lieutenants caus'd them to be fin'd and levied their fines by distress of their goods In the mean time notice being taken of several dangerous applications made to some Prisoners in the Tower Mildmay Wallop Fleetwood and Garland were sent away to Tangier and certain other Prisoners dispos'd of into other places of security This Month also brought Intelligence of the proceedings of the Earl of Teviot then Governor of Tangier who finding Gayland unwilling to comply with him in his propounded Articles of Peace resolv'd to make use of Force and having worsted the Moor in an Attack which he made upon the English with great courage and vigor for some time afterwards undisturb'd began and finish'd a great part of the outermost Fortifications and to make room for the English and Strangers of better account turn'd all the Jews out of the City Now was it less welcom news for his Majesty to hear that his Embassador Sir Rich. Fanshaw was magnificently receiv'd and entertain'd by the King of Spain in testimony of the high value which that King put upon his Majesties Alliance and the reverence he had for that Correspondence which so great an Embassador was sent to continue and preserve between both Kingdoms But as if the heat of the Spring had warm'd the English bloods His Majesty and his Parliament at this time sitting began to take into their deep Consideration the great Complaints that had been made against the Dutch whose injuries and affronts had not a little enrag'd the Nation Whereupon a Report being made by Mr. Clifford of their Encroachments upon Trade from a Committee appointed to examine that affair Thereupon the House made two Resolves the Substance of which were That the wrongs dishonours and indignities the damages affronts and injuries done by the Subjects of the United Provinces to our Merchants were the greatest Obstructions to Forein Trade That His Majesty should be mov'd to take speedy and effectual course for the redress thereof and that they would assist him with their lives and fortunes against all opposition whatsoever The Lords concurr'd and thereupon both Houses attended his Majesty who declar'd his Royal Sense and high Esteem of their care and tenderness for the Honor and Good of the Nation Letting them farther know That he would examine and prove the particular Complaints that he would demand satisfaction by a Publick Minister and do his utmost endeavour to secure his Subjects from the like Violences for the future depending upon the Promise of both Houses to stand by him Upon which Declaration both Houses return'd their humble and hearty Thanks April 6 th Soon after this the King came to the House pass'd two particular Acts the one for holding Parliaments once in three years at least and repealing a former Act call'd An Act for preventing the inconveniencies by long intermissions of Parliament At the signing thereof his Majesty gave them thanks for their ready concurring in a thing so advantageous to the Nation and for recalling the other so prejudicial and so
much to the discredit of Parliaments as if the Crown were jealous as Parliaments or that Parliaments were jealous of the Crown While these things were transacting Sir Iohn Lawson Admiral of the English Fleet sent into the Mediterranean Sea to repress the Insolencies of the Pirates of Argier sent home seventeen Ships and between two and three hundred men and great store of Goods which those Corsairs had taken prize to the Honor of the Publick and private satisfaction of many Nor can we omit the punishment of a Criminal Book long after the Author's decease For with the same justice may Books as well as men be executed for Treason And therefore long after his death about the beginning of May was Mr. George Buchanans Book De Iure Regni apud Scotos call'd in and suppress'd by an Act of the Parliament of that Kingdom having been condemned before by another Act of Parliament in the year 1584. Nor was it less to the advantage of his Majesties Service that at the same time they issued out another Proclamation To prohibit all persons to seek demand receive or deliver any Contributions or Supplies but what were publickly allow'd and practiz'd without allowance of the Lords of the Privy Council For without Libels and Collections the grand support of Conventicles it is morally impossible to unsettle any Government Among such serious things as these Historians have allow'd themselves to entertain their Readers with miraculous Accidents Which puts us in mind of the portentous Tartar which Count Serini was reported to have taken about this time From the shoulder upward he had the shape of a Giant-like man his Neck long and like that of a Horse with a Manâ— the lower part of his face like a man with a great wild Beard the upper part like a Horse with large Ears He was arm'd with a great Bowe and a Quiver by his side with a long Dart. If this Relation may not gain sufficient credit yet the Monster may serve to fight many Ages hence with Regulus's his Serpent Another strange Accident was related from the Barbado's then published not without great Authority which was that about 900 miles Eastward of the Barbadoes a Vessel being in her full course a certain great Fish struck the Ship on the Star-board side and passing under it touch'd the Rudder and threw the Sâ—eâ—rs-man from the Helm and when she came on the other side heav'd a great Sea into the Ship At her first stroke she ran her Horn through the sheathing a three-Inch Plank and threw the Timber into the Cieling where it broke short off so that a piece of 12 Inches long and 100 and a half weight was left in the hole Had not the Horn been broke in the hole the Vessel had been lost for notwithstanding that stoppage the water came in so fast that it kept a Pump imploy'd The Horn was like an Elephants Tooth but more ponderous But passing over these Relations of lighter moment the next Intelligence which we meet withal is of Sir Iohn Lawson who having offer'd all fair Accommodation to the Pyrates of Argier yet finding them disdain his proffer'd Peace he declares open War against them and immediately after took one of their Corsairs of thirty four Guns and 260 men which he sent into Majorca Part of the Prisoners being Turks and Moors he sold to the Duke of Beaufort Admiral to the King of France then in those Seas But now his Majesty mindful of the great work he had in hand had given his particular Instructions to his Embassador in the Netherlands who thereupon about the middle of May gave in his Memorandum to the States of the damages which the English complain'd to have suffer'd by the Subjects of those Provinces But the unprepar'd Belgian not finding it convenient to give such speedy Answers resolv'd to send their own Embassadors to the King himself which as it was a way of answering more magnificent so it was the occasion of greater delay Upon the 17 th of May the Commons being met in the House of Lords His Majesty in a gracious Speech gave both Lords and Commons to understand his Royal Approbation of their Cares and Labors for the good of the Publick together with a Princely acknowledgment of their compliance with his pleasure in the dispatch of the business of the last Sessions Afterwards his Majesty caused them to be Prorogued till the 20 th of August ensuing Withal declaring that unless something extraordinary should fall out it was his Royal purpose not to call them together till November following whereof they should have seasonable notice by Proclamation Upon which Sir Edward Turnor then Speaker represented to his Majesty the humble Thanks of the House for his Gratious acceptance of their endeavours in the Service of his Majesty and the Publick After which he particularly insisted upon the unsettled condition of the Country by reason of Phanaticks Sectaries and Non-conformists and next to that upon the Injuries complain'd of by our Merchants concerning the frauds and practises of our Neighbours the Dutch in the East and West-Indies in Turkey and Africa which besides the Indignities offer'd to his Royal Majesty and the Crown of England were computed to amount to no less than the value of seven or eight hundred thousand Pounds Lastly he presented the Heads of several Bills ready for his Royal assent Accordingly his Majesty sign'd several private and some few publick Acts among the rest An Act to prevent and suppress Seditious Conventicles which though it occasion'd great trouble to the Magistrates of the several Counties yet it made apparent their faithful care and Loyalty to his Majesties Service so that indeed it was the whole employment of this Year to apprehend and try the daily offenders against this Statute His Majesty in the mean time finding it agreeable to his Royal wisdom forthwith to equip two considerable Fleets both to secure his Subjects in their freedom of Trade and maintain the Honor and Interest of the English Nation employ'd some of the Lords of his most Honorable Privy Council to the City of London for the Loan of an hundred thousand pounds upon so extraordinary an occasion referring them to the Lord Treasurer for terms of repayment This was received with so dutiful a compliance by the Common Council of the City that the said Supply was presently Voted acquitting themselves at once both in point of Loyalty and prudence Their present duty and Service to the King manifestly redounding to the welfare and safety of themselves While his Majesty is thus busied in his preparations at home we may look abroad where we are forc'd to behold the fall of the Noble Earl of Teviot who upon the third of May passing the Iews River fell into an ambush planted there by Gayland shelter'd by a thick wood and seconded by his whole Army The Party which the Earl commanded was totally lost excepting a
very few his Memory however is there held in great Honor as if the Memory of his Courage were the Soul of the Garrison And seeing we are got so far abroad it may not be unseasonable to remember the famous Battle fought between the Turks and Christians under the conduct of Montecuculi it being one of the 〈◊〉 famous Occurrences of this year most fatal to the Infidels who that day left dead upon the field the flower of their Infantry to the number of 6 or 7000 among which two Bassaes all their Cannon above forty Colours with Plunder inestimable To which Honorable Victory the wounds of the French did not a little conduce Nor are we so slenderly to pass by another Atchievement of Geneal Souches the general good of Christendom being equally concern'd in both who with an unequal number of only six thousand encountring above 15000 of the Enemy near the Garrison of Lewentz with the loss only of 250 slew eight thousand thereby gaining an absolute Victory vast Booty and Provisions of all sorts All this while though there was open War with Argier and that Lawson kept so vigilant an eye over them yet by reason that either through Cowardize or want of sufficient force they were constrain'd to keep close in their Harbors that sedulous Admiral could do little good upon them otherwise than by blocking up their Harbors to keep them from Roving doing mischief His Majesty therefore having more occasion for so great and eminent a Commander at home sent for both him and C. Berkley into England to employ them against a more Noble Enemy in pursuance of which Order Sir Iohn Lawson returns for England leaving Captain Allen to Command in Chief in his Room who in a short time after brought them to that distress that they were glad to accept of Peace upon terms advantageous enough for the King of England The Divan disowning the Breach and laying the fault upon some few that for their own benefit would not be rul'd by their Superiors As thus his Majesties Arms so were his Counsels active abroad The Earl of Carlisle is sent Embassador to Muscovy and Sweden whither also Sir Gilbert Talbâ—t was likewise employ'd as a particular Envoy as likewise Mr. Coventry to Denmark All upon such important Instructions as the emergency of Affairs at that time requir'd but in general to keep a strict union and Correspondence with those Nations Neighbours of his Enemies Sir George Downing was presently after his return into England sent back again with full Instructions what he had to do Many Conferences he had about the Lists of Damages but the Dutch would return no positive Answer to any thing nor come to any Agreement hoping to prove the event of certain great expectations which they had not the least of which was the return of a vast Treasure in several great Fleets of Merchant-men His Majesty well knowing how strong a Nerve of War Mony is resolv'd to way-lay those vast Masfes of Wealth as they pass'd his own Channel mov'd also by certain Intelligence which he had that the Dutch were resolv'd in contempt of his power to send their Guinee preparations by Sea and that Opdam should convey them through the Channel To which end and purpose that he might be before-hand with the preparations of the Dutch the King strives with all his Puissance to make ready his Navy Whose Royal endeavours and indefatigable pains in his own particular Person were answered by the Success For such was the alacrity of his Subjects that saw him continually travelling from place to place by the presence of his own Majesty to encourage forward the work and to see all things effectually and speedily done that the City freely at the first demand made by the Earl of Manchester Lord Chamberlain of the Kings Houshold suppli'd him with another Loan of another hundred thousand Pounds which so highly promoted his Royal Designe that while the Dutch slattering themselves with vain suppositions of his want of Men and Mony and broken with the Calamity of the Pestilence were only forc'd to look on and with envy behold his vigorous preparations the King had furnish'd out such a magnificent Navy to the Sea as the Ocean had hardly seen in any former Ages On the other side the Dutch having consider'd the dangers of the Northern Passage seemingly lay aside all thoughts of going about by Scotland and resolve to force their passage through the Channel The Commissioners therefore of the several Admiralties having revictual'd Opdams Fleet from the middle of October to the middle of December gave him order to hasten out to Sea with the first wind and to Conduct the Guinee-Succors through the Channel having taken care for some other Ships from the Vlie and Texel to joyn with him and in the mean time they sent a Galliot before to their Director-General in Guinee to give him notice of their Proceedings Which resolution taken and carried on with so much vigour most men believ'd to have been extorted from them by the necessity of their present condition for they had scatter'd many Contempts upon the English Nation and yet falter'd in the point of execution Nor was the Issue of this Bravado it self other than what their â—ear presented for about the middle of October Prince Rupert arriv'd at the Spit-head with sixteen Sail of Men of War The first thing he discover'd was a small Man of War of 14 Guns which the Prince suspecting to be employ'd for Discovery and Advice sent his Smack out to Sea with Orders to forbid him to beat there any longer unless he were upon Trade upon which Message he vanish'd At the beginning of November the Duke of York Lord high Admiral of England departed towards his Charge at Portsmouth having receiv'd a most gracious farewel from his Majesty in a short while after he went aboard and joyn'd with the Prince and Earl of Sandwich so that it was no easie thing to unlock the Narrow Seas Opdam lay with his Fleet in the Goree and great debates there were whether he should out or no but the Wind continuing cross put an end to that Dispute And a fair excuse they had for not adventuring upon so great disadvantages as they were like to have found for as we said before the Duke was now joyâ—â—d with the Prince and the Earl of Sandwich Thereupon about the beginning of December perceiving great likelihood of Frosts and high Winds they thought good to lay up till Spring which was accordingly put in Execution to the great dissatisfaction of the Merchants who now found themselves abandon'd and left to all the hazards of a Winter Voyage Opdam return'd to the Hague and the Seamen were paid off And last of all for the better Information of the King of France how Affairs stood Monsieur Benninghen was dispatch'd away Post for Paris To recompence the Stay of the Royal Navy to
Embassador who began to deal roundly with 'um and to insist upon the very Letter of a late Treaty for the restitution of two French East-India Ships which had been so long and often demanded The Dutch offer'd certain small Vessels which they pretended would do the French business as well Hereupon a general Embargo was order'd by the King of France upon all their Merchants Vessels till the Dutch made satisfaction for the two Ships for though the Netherlanders had the confidence to with-hold 'um yet the King of France had effectually paid for 'um so that at length they were forc'd not only to part with the Ships but the Lading to booâ— In the mean while they enlarg'd their Embargo upon the English and not only made a Prohibition of Trade with England but also provided that none of the Subjects of that State should ensure any Goods belonging to the Subjects of the King of England And all Newters were forbid to carry Counterband-goods to the Dominions of his Majesty The Reason why the States were so backward with the Fleet was most certainly the aversness of the people whom it cost the States not a little cunning to make tractable to their purposes To which intent they insinuated into the ears and minds of the people That the King of England was not in a condition to set out a Fleet which they not only found to be otherwise but also purely done upon the stock of his own proper Authority and Credit When they saw that brought to pass the next thing they flatter'd the people withal was that though the King had strain'd himself to bring a Fleet to Sea yet that the Parliament would never supply him with a sum of Mony answerable to the Charge of so expensive a War Finding themselves deluded therein also by their Act for the Royal Aid the next suggestion was that the people would never submit to pay it But the voluntary Present made to his Majesty by the City of London soon clear'd that mistake To these they added that they should find friends in England together with great Aid and Support from Forein Princes wherein they found themselves at length totally disappointed Among the rest of their disappointments the King of Denmark's calling in all his Seamen out of Forein Service was not the least for thereby they were disfurnished of many able Sea-men which otherwise they might have had for their Mony This Month also arriv'd at London the Duke of Verneuil and Monsieur Courtin from the King of France and from the King of Spain the Conde de Molina The two former had their Audience within three days after their Entry which was very magnificent They were sent upon Mediation and Composure the event whereof the Dutch did much depend upon and extremely hearken after Nor were the Dutch a little active in hopes to deceive Forein Princes in Printing and publishing Libels to the scandal and defamation of the English Nation Among others the most remarkable of their Papers were the Remarks of the Deputies of the States General upon the Memorial of Sir George Downing Envoy Extraordinary c. A Discourse full of irreverence and falsehood of which the world was sufficiently convinc'd when they read the Reply of Sir George Downing thereto In the next place they Printed a pretended Letter from one Valkenburgh Director-General of Guinee to the States feigning how that at Adia the English after they had given quarter with rusty Knives cut off the Noses of those whom they had taken alive and exercised many other strange Amboyna-cruelties upon the Hollanders in these parts Therefore that so great a scandal might appear the more notorious there was publish'd an Account of the Guinee-Transactions In brief That Captain Robert Holmes who was Commanded for the Coast of Guinee in October 1663 coming thither all people complain'd how â—ll the Dutch had treated the English how they had engag'd the King of Barra to assault the English Factories which Designe failing how they had endeavour'd to corrupt the Officers of the Charles and Iames Islands to deliver up their Forts How they had counterfeited the King of England's Signe-Manual and Signet to countenance their Entry into the River had they not been frustrated by the notice which the King of Barra gave of the whole Designe After this Captain Holmes for the better security of some English Ships daily expected sailed to Cabo Verde fearing one Iohnson that was said to lie in the way where without any provocation they â—ired from the Fort killing his Master and wounding divers of the Company notwithstanding all which the Governour surrendring the place next morning he and all his Company were treated with all possible respect and civility by the Captain At Sestos they had been dealing with the King of that place to throw out the English inveigling the people abroad and then abusing them under English Colours the better to attain their ends The like was done upon the Coast of Castle de Mina where Valckenburgh offer'd a Bendy of Gold for every English head At another time they shot at a Convoy of Capt. Holmes from a Fort of theirs which so enrag'd the Moors that they fell upon the Fort and took it and would have put all the Hollanders to the Sword had not the Captain prevented them Lastly Captain Holmes having sent a Drum to Ariamaboa with Honorable Proposals contrary to the Rule of War they mangled stript and left him dead upon the place Which Account being so far from the Accusations of Valckenburgh gave no small satisfaction to the world so that they lost their aim among all just and sober Persons But now the Netherlanders finding how little they could boast of their Alliances near home they made great Brags of the kindness shewn their Embassador at a distance by the Emperor of Russia though by his reception no such thing appear'd for as for his Present which was of silver Plate it was so miserably thin that it would scarce endure the carrying His allowance was very ordinary and the person appointed to attend him as Master of the Ceremonies was only a Merchant and Alderman of the City who having at a drinking Bout began the Prince of Orange's health before that of the States General rais'd a very great Dispute so that upon the whole his Entertainment seem'd rather a matter of State and Custom than of kindness In England was observ'd a general Fast with a reverence befitting the Solemnity of the occasion both Queens did most affectionately concern themselves therein by express and particular Appointment commanding all their Servants to set themselves apart with more than ordinary Devotion for the Service of the Day This was answer'd with the happy Omens of future Victory from the fair success of small Enterprises For not long after were taken three men of War The first a Caper of seven Guns and 47 men The other were Direction-Ships
uncertainty of the Kings intentions in the matters declared The Marquess Hamilton being arrived at London gave the King an account of the whole business and according to his new instructions returned back again by their appointed time the 15 th of August 1638. and entred presently into a Treaty with them about the manner of calling the General Assembly which they would not hear of but that a General Assembly should be immediately called and of the due Elections thereto when they were met themselves should be the judge For otherwise there would of necessity be some prelimitations which the freedom thereof might not suffer Upon this Emergency all things growing worse and worse the Marquess was forced upon another journey to consult the King the Covenanters concluding that if he returned not before the 21 of September they would of themselves Indict this Convention who concluded of giving that Kingdom the utmost satisfaction and with a Commission to summon this Assembly returned But the day after the Covenanters contrary to promise made an Election in one of the Presbyteries Adjacent of themselves whereas throughout the Kingdom according to the directions of the Tables Lay-Elders and Ministers were chosen together a thing never seen before in that Kingdom This Assembly the Source of those calamities which afterwards embroyl'd and enslaved that Nation was held at the City and University of Glasgow in November 1638. in which they so carried and packt the Elections that there was scarce one Dissenter from those Resolutions they had profest in their Covenant The Bishops were Totally excluded from sitting or voting therein but were cited to compeer as offenders and answer their charge Against these proceedings and the illegality of the constitution of this Assembly they first protested and tendered their reasons but they would not be admitted for such so that the Lord Commissioner seeing no hope of Justice Law or Reason or Loyalty taking place there at seven days end dissolved them by a Proclamation which they took no further notice of then only by opposing another Protestation wherein they declared that the Assembly ought not to be nor was as dissolved until such time as those ends so often before expressed were fully attained and so proceeded in their Session Strange and desperate was the Pride of this Assembly far beyond the Popes infallible Councils taking upon them to be the Supreme Judicatory on earth above all Laws and Parliaments and King himself as Christs Council and that if the Judges and other Ministers of State should not obey their Commandment they might proceed to sentence of Excommunication against them Which was effectually put in practice afterwards against the Bishops and their adherents before they armed themselves otherwise against their Soveraign Yet notwithstanding they did pretend that the King should he be satisfied of the equity and lenity of their proceedings would no doubt comply with them in the matters they Petitioned for which more exasperated his Majesty than all the Violations and Usurpations of his Authority The Earl of Arguile who had hitherto kept fair with the King and was one of his Privy Council there now owned the Covenanters and professed his adherence to their cause It is believed he was one of the first that stirred in this unfortunate business and that therefore the better to satisfie him the King after the first Pacification made him a Marquess More certain it is he was the last that suffered in it as in the conclusion of this Chronicle will appear I have insisted the longer on this story because the general Commotions that followed it ran almost the same parallel in their respective commencements in the three Kingdoms and to shew that neither prudence nor arms both which were seasonably applyed could stop or prevent those judgements of Confusion and Ruine which soon after ensued this Tragical Prologue in a miserable catastrophe For the Scots presently began to arm having first sent to the French King craving his aid and assistance which was readily proffered them by Cardinal Richlieu his chief Minister of State who was supposed to have fomented the quarrel from the very beginning to quit scores with the King of England for siding with the Rochellers in the beginning of his Raign But before any blood was drawn came over the Queen-Mother whom the generality of the people took for a Prognostick or ill Omen of a War or some Rupture approaching Many scandals were raised against the King for her admission hither but all things were gone too far beyond the contribution of her advice to make her guilty of our troubles However she seemed the Comet that did portend and foretel them the like Commotions having happened for some years past in the places of her residence The Scots towards the end of the year 1638 had gotten together a competent Army raised by the Authority and Ordinance of the aforesaid Assembly for the pretended defence of the Kingdom its Religion and Laws Nor did the King neglect the affairs of that Kingdom but was arming here in England with all the speed his Purse would afford which was then in a low ebb Yet by the Loans of the Nobility Gentry and Clergy he had raised a gallant Army with which he marched towards the borders Over this Army the Earl of Arundel was made General the Earl of Essex Lieutenant-General of the Foot and the Earl of Holland Lieutenant-General of the horse A Fleet also was rigged and well manned and set to Sea under the command of the aforesaid Marquess Hamilton which soon after came to an Anchor in the Frith neer Edinburgh The King being thus in readiness Emitted another Declaration wherein he taxed the Scots with several rebellious Libels for their Protestations against his commands for usurping his Authority and for refusing the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy upon account of their having taken the Covenant reiterates his resolutions of maintaining Episcopacy in that Kingdom and lays the blood if any were spilt in that quarrel upon themselves as Rebels whom he ought not longer to suffer to proceed in those undutiful and destructive courses but hoped to reduce to their former and due Obedience To which the 22 of March the said Assembly reply by an Ordinance wherein after expostulating the Kings Declaration they curse themselves if they intend any harm to England concluding their War to be meerly defensive and grounded upon the natural and Civil Law Anno Dom. 1639. THe King set forward with his Army and in April came to York and in May to Barwick where both Armies came in view one of another When the King was at York the Earls of Roxborough and Traquair two formerly of his Council and Officers of State came to him as Commissioners from the Covenanters under pretence of Treating with the King who wanting their due Commission and being suspected to have been sent on an errand purposely to tamper with the