Earls of Roxbrough and Traquaire pretended to protect who indured some affronts that their Patience might provoke a greater rage in the Multitude which a vigorous punishment had easily extinguish'd For they that are fierce in a croud being singled through their particular fears become obedient And that rabble that talks high against the determinations of their Prince when danger from the Laws is within their ken distrust their companions and return to subjection But it soon appeared that this was not the bare effort of a mutinous Multitude but a long-formed Conspiracy and to this Multitude whose present terrour was great yet would have been contemptible in a short space there appeared Parties to head them of several Orders Who presently digested their Partisans into several Tables and concocted this Mutiny into a formal Rebellion To prosecute which they mutually obliged themselves and the whole Nation in a Covenant to extirpate Episcopacy and whatsoever they pleased to brand with the odious names of Heresie and Superstition and to defend each other against all Persons not excepting the King To reduce this people to more peaceful Practices the King sends Marquess Hamilton one who being caressed by His Majesties Favour had risen to such a degree of wealth and greatness that now he dreamed of nothing less than Empire to bring his power to perfection at least to be Monarch of Scotland to which he had some pretensions by his birth as His Commissioner Who with a species of Loyalty dissembled that pleasure which he took in the opposition of the Covenanters whose first motions were secretly directed by his counsels and those of his dependents Traquaire and Roxbrough for all his Allies were of that party contrary to the custom of that Country where all the Members of a Family espouse the part of their Head though in the utmost danger and his Mother rid armed with Pistols at her Saddle-bow for defence of the Covenant By his actings there new seeds of Discontents and War were daily sown and his oppositions so faint that he rather encreased than allayed their fury By several returns to His Majesty for new Instructions he gave time to the Rebels to consolidate their Conspiracy to call home their Exiles of Poverty that were in foreign Armies and provide Arms for open Force By his false representations of the state of things he induced the King to temporize with the too-potent Corruption of that Nation an artifice King JAMES had sometimes practised and by granting their desires to make them sensible of the evils which would flow from their own counsels Therefore the King gave Order for revoking the Liturgy the High-Commission the Book of Canons and the Five Articles of Perth But the Covenanters were more insolent by these Concessions because they had gotten that by unlawful courses and unjust force which Modesty and Submission had never obtained and imputing these Grants to the King's Weakness not his Goodness they proceeded to bolder Attempts Indicted an Assembly without Him in which they abolished Episcopacy excommunicated the Bishops and all that adhered to them Afterwards they seised upon the King's Revenue surprised His Forts and Castles and at last put themselves into Arms. Provoked with these Injuries the King amasses a gallant Army in which was a very great appearance of Lords and Gentlemen and with these marches and incamps within two miles of Berwick within sight of the Enemy But their present Condition being such as could endure neither War nor Peace they endeavoured to dissipate that Army which they could not overthrow by a pretence to a Pacification For which they petition'd the King who yielded unto it out of His innate tenderness of His Subjects Blood So an Accord was made June 17. Anno 1639. and the King disbands His Army expecting the Scots should do the like according to the Articles of Agreement But they being delivered from Fear would not be restrained by Shame from breaking their Faith For no sooner had the King disbanded but they protested against the Pacification printed many false Copies of it that might represent it dishonourable to the King retained their Officers in pay changed the old Form of holding Parliaments invaded the Prerogatives of the Crown and solicited the French King for an aid of men and money This perfidious abuse of His Majesty's Clemency made those that judge of Counsels by the Issue to censure the King's Facility Some wondred how He could imagine there would be any Moderation in so corrupt a Generation of men and that they who had broken the Peace out of a desire of War should now lay aside their Arms out of a love to Quiet That there would be always the same causes to the Scots of disturbing England and opposing Government their unquiet nature and Covetousness therefore unless some strong impression made them either unable or unwilling to distract our quiet the King was to look for a speedy return of their Injuries Others attributed the Accord to the King's sense that some eminent Officers in His own Camp were polluted with Counsels not different from the Covenanters and that Hamilton His Admiral had betrayed the seasons of fighting by riding quietly in the Forth of Edinburgh and had secret Conference with His Mother the great Nurse of the Covenant on Ship-board But most referred it to the King 's innate tenderness of His Subjects Blood and to His Prudence not to defile His Glory with the overthrow which seemed probable of a contemptible Enemy where the gains of the Victory could not balance the hazards of attempting it Anno 1640. While men thus discourse of the Scots Perfidiousness the King prepares for another Army and in order thereto calls a Parliament in Ireland and another in England for assistances against the Rebels in Scotland The Irish granted Money to raise and pay 8000 men in Arms and furnish them with Ammunition Yet this Example with the King's account of the Injuries done to Him and this Nation by the Scots and his promise of for ever acquitting them of Ship-money if now they would freely assist Him prevailed nothing upon the English Parliament whom the Faction drew aside to other Counsels And when the King sent Sir Henry Vane to re-mind them of His desires and to demand Twelve Subsidies yet to accept of Six he industriously as was collected from His own and His Sons following practices insisted upon the Twelve without insinuation of the lesser quantity His Majesty would be contented with which gave such an opportunity and matter for seditious Harangues that the House was so exasperated as that they were about to Remonstrate against the War with Scotland To prevent this ominous effect of the falseness of His Servant the King was forced to dissolve the Parliament May 5. yet continued the Convocation which granted Him 4 s. in the pound for all their Ecclesiastical Promotions But the Laiety that in the House had not time to declame against His Majesties Proceedings did it without doors for being
High Treason to be tried according to the Laws of the Land and He also sends some other Officers to seal up their Trunks and Cabinets in their several Lodgings and to secure their Persons This being related to the House of Commons wherein the Faction was now grown more powerful and with whom did joyn many men of Integrity in this Occurrence being too careful of the Priviledges of their House which yet secure none of the Members against Justice for Murder Felony or Treason they were so far from admitting the King's Charge against them that they accused the King of breach of Priviledge and Vote all those guilty of Enmity to the Common-wealth that shall obey the King in any of His Commands concerning them This Obstruction of Justice so far moved the King together with the Advice of some of His Council that were also of the House of Commons as also an hope of rooting up the Faction this way that none through the hope of Concealment should be incouraged to conspire the publick Ruine that He Himself with about an hundred Lords and Gentlemen and their followers went to the House of Commons Where commanding His Attendants to move no further than the Stairs to offer no violence nor return any uncivil language to any although provoked Himself with the Paltzgrave only enters the House and demands that the Incendiaries might be delivered into His hands with whom He promises to deal no otherwise than according to the Law But they whom he sought being before informed as it is reported of the King 's coming by the secret Intelligence of Marquess Hamilton and a Court Lady who having lost the Confluence of Servants with her Beauty sought now to prevent a solitude by politick ministeries had forsook the place and withdrawn themselves into the Sanctuary of the City Wherefore the King having renewed His Charge without injury to any immediately departs But the Faction would not let Him so rest but prosecuted this attempt of His with all the Clamours that they possibly could raise spread the sparks of Dissention far and wide make the common people mad with Fears and Distractions stir up some in several Counties to bring Petitions for the impeached Members and their Violated Priviledges and at last prepare an armed Rabble disposed into Order to bring the accused Demagogues to the House from their Coverts in London This coming to the knowledge of the King although many Gallant and faithful Persons proffered their Service by mingling with the Rout or by being as Spectators to curb any Insolencies that should be attempted on Him yet was He resolved to withdraw Himself with the Queen and their Children to Windsor that He might permit their Fury to languish when it had no opposition and to give time for their jealousies and rumours to wax old and perish For the first Indignation of a mutinous Multitude is most fierce and a small delay breaks their consent and Majesty would have a greater Reverence if any at a distance The King's Wisdom was perceived by His Enemies and therefore to counterwork it and not to let the people sleep without fear lest they should come to be sober and return to the love of Obedience strange reports were every day brought of dangers from the King That troops of Papists were gathered about Kingston upon the Thames where the County Magazine was lodged under the Command of the Lord George Digby who was then famed to be a Papist though at that time he was an elegant Assertor of the Protestant Faith and Col. Lunsford who was characterised to be of so monstrous an appetite that he would eat Children And parties were sent to take them both which found no such dreadful Preparations At other times when the People on the Lord's dayes were at Divine Worship they were distracted from it by Alarms that the Papists who and from whence none could tell were up in Arms and were just then about to fire their Houses and mix their Blood with their Prayers That there were Forces kept in Grotts and Caves under ground that should in the night break out into the midst of the City and cut all their throats And what was more prodigious and though ridiculous yet had not a few believers in London That there were designs by Gunpowder to blow up the Thames and choak them with the water in their beds Thus were the people taught to hate their Prince and by bloody news from every Quarter they were instructed to that Cruelty which they vainly feared and to adore those by whose Counsels they were delivered from so unexpected Dangers By all this the Faction gained the repute of Modesty inferiour to their supposed Trust when they demanded nothing else but the Command of the Tower and the Militia of all the Counties in England together with the Forts and Castles of the same For all which they moved the House of Commons of petition who desiring the Conjuncture of the Lords in the same were wholly refused by them Therefore stemmed by the Faction they petition alone Which unlimited Power the King absolutely refused to grant unto them who He foresaw would use that as they had all His other Concessions to the ruine of the Author of their Power Yet was pleased to consent after He had demonstrated the prejudice they required to the English Nation that they might send over an Army of 10000 Scots into Ireland and deliver unto them the strong Town and Port of Carick fergus one of the Chief Keys of that Kingdom which was done to oblige the Scots to them in their future designs And also He was pleased to wave the Prosecution of the Impeached Members and was willing to grant a Free and General Pardon for all His Subjects as the Parliament should think convenient But all this could not content them who had immoderate desires and they were more discontented that they could not usurp the King 's Rights than if they had lost their own Priviledges therefore to bring the Lords to a concurrence with them the hitherto prosperous Art of Tumultuous Petitions was again practised and great Numbers from several Counties were moved to come as Earthquakes to shake the Fundamental Constitutions of their House and to require that neither the Bishops nor the Popish Lords should continue in their Ancient Right to Vote among the Peers By this means they should weaken the King in the Voices of that House and whosoever they could not confide in they could fright him from Voting against them by exposing him as Popish to the Popular Fury For this was the mothod of using the Petitions The most common Answer was with Thanks and that the House of Commons were just now in consideration thereof The Petitioners were taught to reply that They doubted not of the care of the Commons House but all their distrust was in the House of Lords where the Popish Lords and Bishops had the greatest Power and there it stuck whose names they desired to know
several Messages to the Parliament for a Treaty and offers to come Himself to London if He may have security for Himself and Attendants All which were either not regarded or answered with Reproaches And because the people began to murmur at so great an earnestness of the Faction to continue the Wounds of the Nation open and bleeding since there were many Forts yet held out for the King by Gallant Persons besides the Lord Hopton had an Army yet unbroken and Ormond and Montross had considerable Interests in Ireland and Scotland all which might be perswaded in a Treaty to part with those Arms which could not be taken from them without much blood and it was the common belief that these men sought for Victory not Peace and Liberty which was now tendred therefore to raise suspicions in the Vulgar it is suggested that the Cavaliers who came to Compound would take the advantage of the King's Presence if He were permitted to be there and kindle a new flame and War in the City And that it might be thought they had real grounds for these fears the Disarmed Compounders were commanded to depart above twenty miles from London and to injealous the people more all the transactions of the King in the Irish Pacification were published and amplified with the malicious Slanders and Comments of the implacable and conscious Demagogues that so the terrors of the Vulgar being augmented they might be frighted into a longer patience The King finding these men irreconcileable to Peace and that they had declared against His Coming though without a Caution tryes the Leaders of the English Army but they proved no less pertinacious and were now approaching to besiege Oxford Providence not leaving any more Choice but only shewing Him a way for a present Escape He goes in a Disguise which when Necessity cloathes Royal Persons with seems like an Ominous Cloud before the Setting of the Sun to the Scotish Camp that was now before Newark where the Ambassadour of the King of France who was then in the Leaguer had before covenanted for His Majestie 's Safety and Protection and the Scotish Officers had engaged to secure both Him and as many of His Party as should seek for Shelter with them and to stand to Him with their Lives and Fortunes Anno 1646. The King being come thither May 4. made a great alteration in affairs Newark was surrendred by the King's Command and Sir Thomas Glemham having gallantly defended Oxford till the besiegers offered honourable Conditions delivered up that also But the greatest Change of Counsels were at London where when it was related among whom the King had sought a Sanctuary various and different Discourses were raised Some wondred that His Majesty had sought a Refuge there where the Storm began and how He could apprehend to find Relief from those that were not only the Authors of His Troubles but now the great Advancers of His Overthrow And they conceived no Promises or Oaths can be a sufficient Caution from those People that have been often Persidious Others judged that in those necessities wherein the King was concluded it was as dangerous not to trust as to be deceived no Counsel could be better than to try whether a Confidence in them would make them faithful and whether they would then be honest when they had the Critical Opportunity to testifie to the world that they intended not what they did but what they said That they fought not against Him but for Him But a last sort bewailed both the greatness of the King's Dangers that should make Him seek for Safety in a tempestuous Sea and false bottom as also the debaucheries of the English Genius which was now so corrupted that their Prince was driven to seek an Asylum from their injuries among a people that were infamous and polluted with the Blood of many Kings While others discoursed thus of the King's journey the Parliament heated by the Independents fiercely declared against the Scots who were removing the King to Newcastle and used several methods to make them odious and drive them home For they kept back their Pay that they might exact Free-Quarter from the Country then they did extenuate their Services derogate from their famed Valour upbraid them as Mercenaries threaten to force them out by the Sword All which while the English Presbyterians though they wish'd well to their Brethren yet lest they should seem to indulge the Insolencies of a strange Nation did not dare to plead in their defence But the Scots themselves for a time did justifie their Reception and Preservation of His Majesty by the Laws of Nature Nations and Hospitality which forbid the delivery and betraying of those that have fled to any for Succour The Democratick Faction urged that it was not lawful for the Scots their Hirelings and in their Dominion to receive the King into their Camp without the leave of their Masters and keep Him without their Consent These Debates were used to raise the King's price Which when the Scots were almost assured of to make their ware more valuable they solicite the King in hopes of their Defence to command Montross to depart from his noble Undertakings in Scotland where he had almost recovered the Overthrow Roxbrough and Traquaire had betrayed him unto and was become formidable again as also the Loyal Marquess of Ormond to desist from his gallant Oppositions both of the Irish Rebels and English Forces Which when the King had done being not willing those Gallant Persons should longer Hazard their brave Lives and after both these Excellent Leaders had more in anger than fear parted with their unhappy Arms that they might have a colour of betraying Him whom the General Assembly of Scotland which useth to hatch all the Seditions to the heat and strength of a seeming Authority had forbid to be brought into His Native and Ancient Kingdom as He affectionately call'd it they tender Him the Covenant pretending without that Chain upon Him they did not dare to lead Him into Scotland This His Majesty refused not if they would first loose those Scruples of Church-Government which lay upon His Conscience Therefore to untie those Knots Master Henderson that was then the Oracle of the Kirk and the great Apostle of the Solemn Covenant was employed to converse with Him But the Greatness of the King's Parts and the Goodness of His Cause made all his attempts void for the Papers being published every one yielded the Victory to His Majesty and unfortunate for he returned home and not long after died as some reported of a Grief contracted from the sense of his Injuries to a Prince whom he had found so Excellent While these things were acting at Newcastle the bargain was stroke at London and for 200000 l. His Majesty stripp'd of those Arms He had when He came among them was delivered up as it were to be scourged and crucified to some Commissioners from the Parliament But to Honest their Perfidiousness they add this
dispersed to their homes they filled all places with suspicious Rumours and high Discontents and in Southwark there was an open Mutiny began which was not pacified without much danger and the Execution of the principal Leaders The King thus betrayed defamed and deserted by those who should have considered that in His Honour their Safety was embarqued though He had no less cause to fear secret Conspiracies at Home which were more dangerous because obscure than the Scots publick Hostility yet vigorously prosecuted His undertaking and raised a sufficient Army but could not do it with equal speed to His Enemies who had soon re-united their dispersed Forces and incouraged by the Faction with whom they held Intelligence in England contented not themselves to stand upon the defence but invaded us and advanced so far before all the King's Army could be gathered together that they gave a defeat to a Party of it ere the Rear could be brought up by the Earl of Strafford who was appointed General or the King could come to encourage them with His Presence He was no sooner arrived at His Army but there followed Him from some English Lords a Petition conformable to the Scotch Remonstrance which they called the Intentions of the Army So that His Majesty might justly fear some attempts in the South while He was thus defending Himself from the Northern injuries The King answered the Petitioners That before their Petition came He had resolved to summon all the Peers to consult what would be most for the Safety of the Nation and His own Honour Who accordingly met Sept. 24. Where it was determined that a Parliament should be called to meet Nov. 3. and in the mean time a Cessation should be made with the Scots with whom some Commissioners from the Parliament should Treat Novemb. 3. began that Fatal Parliament which was so transported by the Arts of some unquiet persons that they dishonoured the name and hopes of a Parliament ingulfed the Nation in a Sea of Blood ruined the King and betrayed all their own Priviledges and the People's Liberty into the power of a Phanatick and perfidious Army And although His Majesty could not hope to find them moderate yet He endeavoured to make them so telling them at their meeting that He was resolved to put Himself freely upon the Affections of His English Subjects that He would satisfie all their just Grievances and not leave to malice it self a shadow to doubt of His desire to make this a glorious and flourishing Kingdom He commended to their care the chasing out of the Rebels the Provisions of His own Army and the Relief of the oppressed Northern Counties But the Malignity of some few and the Iguorance of more employed that Assembly in other matters First In purging their House of all such as they conceived would not comply with their destructive enterprises and for such men they either found some fault with their Elections or made them Criminals in some publick Grievance though others of a deeper guilt they kept among them that their Offences might make them obnoxious to their power and obsequious to their commands Then with composed Harangues they declaimed upon the publick Grievances and reckoned up casual Misfortunes amongst designed Abuses of Government every way raising up Contumelies against the present Power and that which was fullest of Detraction and Envy was applauded as most pregnant with Liberty Thus pretending several Injuries had been done to the People they raised the Multitude to hopes of an unimaginable Liberty and a discontent with the present Government After this they set free all the Martyrs of Sedition that for their malignant Libels had been imprisoned and three of them were conducted through London with such a company of people adorned with Rosemary and Bays as it seemed a Triumph over Justice and those Tribunals that sentenced them Then they fell upon all the chief Ministers of State they impeached the Earl of Strafford Lord Lieutenant of Ireland after him the Archbishop of Canterbury the Lord Finch Keeper of the Great Seal the Judges that according to their Oath had determined Ship-money legal and others some of which fled those that were found were clapt in Prison so that the King was soon despoiled of those that were able or faithful to give Him Counsel and others terrified in their Ministery to Him While the Factious thus led the House their Partisans without by their Instructions formed Petitions against the Government in Church and State to which they seduced the ignorant Rabble in the City and several Counties to subscribe and in a tumultuous manner to present them to their Patriots Who being animated by the success of their Arts fell to draw up a Bill for Triennial Parliaments wherein the Power of calling that great Council of the Nation was upon refusal of the King and the neglect of others devolved upon Constables Which profanation of Majesty though the King disswaded them from yet they persisted in and He passed it Anno 1641. After five Months time for so long a space they took to rake up Matter and Witnesses to justifie their accusation and to give leisure to the Court for Overtures of gainful Offices to the great Sticklers against him which not appearing the Earl of Strafford is brought to his Trial in Westminster-Hall before the Lords as his Judges the King Queen and Prince sitting behind a Curtain in an adjoining Gallery and round about the Court stood the Commons His Accusers and Witnesses were English Scotch and Irish and indeed so brave a Person could not be ruined but by the pretended hatred of the whole Empire The English were such as envied his Vertues and greatness in the King's Favour The Scotch because they knew his Prudence able to counter-work their Frauds discover their impudent Cheats and his wise management to overthrow their Force The Irish hatred arose from his just and necessary Severity in his Government whereby he had reduced them from so great a Barbarousness that was impatient of Peace to a Civility that was fertile of Plenty and by Artifices Husbandry and Commerce had rendred that tumultuary Nation so rich that they were now able to repay to the English Treasury those great Debts which their former Troubles and Commotions had contracted Although those of this Nation were Papists and sworn Enemies both of the English name and State and were even then practising and meditating their Rebellion which they hoped more easie when so wise a Governour was removed and so prone enough of themselves to the Crime yet were they much caressed by the Faction that these in the name of the whole Kingdom should press the Earl with envy to the Grave His Charge consisted of Twenty eight Articles that their number might cover their want of Evidence To all which the Lieutenant whose Patience was not overcome nor his nature changed by the Reproaches of his Accusers answers with so brave a Presence of Spirit such firm Reasons and so clear an
Arts of the Irish Rebels who to dishearten the English from any resistance bragged that the Queen was with their Army That the King would come amongst them with Auxiliary Forces That they did but maintain His Cause against the Puritans That they had the Kings Commission for what they did shewing indeed a Patent that themselves had drawn but thereto was affixed an Old broad Seal that had been taken from an obsolete Patent out of Farnham Abby by one Plunckett in the presence of many of their Lords and Priests as was afterwards attested by the Confession of many That the Scots were in confederacy with them to beget a faith of which they abstained from the lives and fortunes of those of that Nation among them On the other side to encourage the Natives of their own party they produce fictitious Letters wherein they were informed from England that the Parliament had passed an Act that all the Irish should be compelled to the Protestant Worship that for the first offence they should forfeit all their Goods for the second their Estates and for the third their Lives Besides they present them with the hopes of Liberty That the English Yoke should be shaken off that they would have a King of their own Nation and that the Goods and Estates of the English should be divided among the Natives And with these hopes of Spoil and Liberty the Irish were driven to such a Fury that they committed so many horrid and barbarous acts as scarce ever any Age or People were guilty of In the mean while nothing was done for the relief of the poor English there but only some Votes passed against the Rebels till the King returned to London which was about the end of November where He with the Queen and the Prince were magnificently feasted by the Citizens and the Chief of them afterwards by Him at Hampton-Court For he never neglected any honest Arts to gain His Peoples love to which they were naturally prone enough had not His Enemies methods and impulses depraved their Genius But this much troubled the Faction who envied that Reverence to Majesty in others which was not in themselves and they endeavoured to make these loves short and unhappy for they discountenanced the prime advancers of this Honour to the King and were more eager to render Him odious For having gotten a Guard about them they likewise insinuated into the people dangerous apprehensions as the cause of that Guard and every day grew more nice and jealous of their Priviledges and Power The King's advices to more tenderness of His Prerogative or His Advertisements of the scandalous Speeches that were uttered in their House they interpret as encroachments upon their Grandeur and upbraided the King for them in their Petitions to Him But their greatest effort upon Majesty was the Remonstrance after which they took all occasions to magnifie the apprehensions of those Fears which they had falsly pretended to in it This the Faction had before formed and now brought into the House of Commons where it found a strong opposition by those wise men that were tender of the publick Peace and Common Good though those who preferred their Private to the General Interest and every one that was short-sighted and improvident for the future were so fierce for it that the Debates were continued all night till ten a clock the next morning so that many of the more aged and persons of best fortunes not accustomed to such watchings were wearied out and many others not daring to provoke the Faction in this their grand Design left the House so that at last they carried it yet but by eleven Votes Which they presented with a Petition to take away the Votes of Bishops in the House of Lords and the Ceremonies in the Church and to remove those Persons from His Trust which they could not confide in yet named none but only accused all under the name of a Malignant Popish Party Which they had no sooner delivered than they caused it to be published in Print To which the King answers in another publick Declaration but so much to the discontent of the Demagogues to find their Methods of Ruine so fully discovered as they were in His Majesties Answer that they had recourse to their former sovereign Remedy which sober men accounted a crime and an indignity to Government the Tumults of the Rabble Who in great numbers and much confusion came up to Westminster some crying out against Bishops others belching their fury against the Liturgy and a third party roaring that the Power of the Militia should be taken out of the King's hands To their Clamours they added rude Affronts to those Lords whom their Leaders had taught them to hate and especially to the Bishops at their going in or coming out of the House and afterwards drawing up to White-Hall they appeared so insolent as it was evident they wanted only some to begin for there were enough to prosecute an Assault upon the King in His own Palace The Bishops thus rudely excluded from their Right and Liberty of coming to the Parliament Twelve of them afterwards protest against the Proceedings of it during their so violent Exclusion Which Protestation the Commons presently accused of High Treason and caused their Commitment to the Tower where they continued them till the Bill against their Votes in the Lords House was past that they might not produce their Reasons for their Rights and against the Injustice offered unto them and then afterwards released them The King also saw it necessary to take a Guard of such Gentlemen as offered their Service for His Safety and to prevent the prophaning of Majesty by the rude fury of the People who used to make their Addresses acceptable at Westminster by offering in their passage some base Affronts at White-Hall But when the terrour of this Guard had reduced them to some less degree of Impudency they then instructed by their Heads laboured to make it more unsafe to the King by seeking to raise the Rage and Jealousie of the whole City against Him For at midnight there were cries out in the Street that all People should arise to their defence for the King with His Papists were coming to fire the City and cut their throats in their beds Than which though nothing was more false yet it found the effects of truth and the People by such Alarms being terrified from sleep the impressions of those nightly fears lay long upon their Spirits in the day and filled them almost with Madness The King therefore not alwaies to incourage these Violences with Patience but at last by a course of Justice to take off those whom He had found to be the Authors of these destructive Counsels the grand Movers of these Seditious practices and which was more the Inviters of a Foreign Force the Scotch Army into this Nation commands His Atturney General to accuse Five Members of the House of Commous and one of the Lords upon Articles of
assistance For though they pretended so highly to God's Cause as if they had the certainty of some Divine Revelation yet they would not trust Him for their Preservation notwithstanding their pretences to his Cause had furnished them with so vast a Treasure and so mighty a Strength but would invite others to the Violation of most sacred Oaths to sin against all Laws and every Rule of Justice that themselves might be secure in their Usurpations And that Perfidious Party that then ruled in Scotland hoping for as great advantages as their former Wickedness had yielded contrary to all Obligations which the King's Goodness had laid on them and their free and Voluntary Execrations as was that of Alexander Lesley who lifting up his arms and hands to Heaven wished they might rot to his body before he died if ever he should heave them up hereafter or draw his sword against so gude a King drew that People once more into Rebellion against their Prince and to make them more eager and think the Enterprise easie they first raised a report that the King was deserted by most of His Nobility The Parliament at Oxford having by a Letter moved the Earl of Essex to endeavour Peace did also declare against this Invasion of the Scots by another Letter sent to them in which also they acquaint them with the falsness of their officious Lie and shew how inconsiderable a Number of Lords were with those that invited them in The King Himself writes also to put them in mind of their several Ingagements to be Quiet But with an Insolencie fit for most perjured Souls they Commanded the Letters to be burned by the hand of the Hangman A more secret falshood He also found in the Marquess Hamilton whose Treasons now came to be more suspected For His Majesty having written to him to use all his Power and Interest to keep his Country-men at home which had not been difficult for one of his Grandeur in that unquiet Nation he by some secret Arts doth more inflame them and to cover his Perfidiousness flies from Scotland to Oxford as seeking a shelter for his Loyalty but indeed to be a Spy in the King's Counsels But his Treasons had out-stripp'd him and his Brother the Earl of Lanerick who came with him therefore they were both forbidden the Court. Lanerick not willing to tarry till a further Discovery gets out of Oxford flies to those at London and by them was imployed in the Scotch Army which made Hamilton's Treachery more evident and he was sent Prisoner to Pendennis Castle But the dishonour of that Nation was in a great measure repaired by the Gallantry and Faithfulness of the Marquess Montross who being commission'd by the King with an incredible Industry by small numbers of men won many Battels and overthrew well-formed Armies and had not the Fate of his Master which was to be betrayed by those He trusted been likewise common to him he had forced that Nation to Justice and Quiet But e're Montross could get his Commission the Scots were entred England whose coming that it might be less odious to the People who now grew cold in their zeal to the Cause and saw themselves deluded into so continued dangers the Faction make use of such frauds as should make the People either think them necessary assistances or might divert their thoughts from apprehending the Miseries they brought with them to this Nation therefore they invent new Slanders of the King and His Party That His Majesty did intend to translate Monarchy into a Tyranny that He would seise upon all their Estates who had any way opposed Him and make their persons Slaves that there was no hope of Pardon from Him who was so merciless that He would take away all their Liberties and Privileges as forfeited destroy the Protestant Religion and introduce Popery which at Oxford He did practise Himself and that all men must be forced to go to Mass As for His Party they set them out to be such Monsters that the lower sort of People doubted whether the Cavaliers had the shapes of men For sad Relations were printed and published of their inhumanity and barbarous murders that they did feast upon the Flesh of Men and that they fed their Dogs and their Horses with the same Diet to make them more fierce for the blood of the Godly Party that no mans house was so poor and mean that a Cavalier would think beneath his rapine Thus they wrought upon the melancholy spirits of some by fear For those of a morose and cholerick temper they had proper divertisements they permitted to them a tumultuary Reformation to pull down the Pictures and Images of Christ the Virgin Mary and the Saints which with great Solemnity they committed to the flames that they might suffer as it were another Martyrdom All Crosses though set up for Ornament and Use in the Streets of London and other places they pulled down they invade the Churches and there deface what their Humour or Rapine would call Superstition pull down the Organs tear the Surplices and all this was suffered to please the Rabble who delight in violences and such ostentations of their fury and to make them in something or other guilty that they might despair of Pardon For others who were to be wrought upon by Religion they entertain them with Fasts publick Thanksgivings for slight Victories and solemn Spiritual meetings as they called them where whatsoever the Faction dictated was commended by the Speakers to their unwary hearers as the Oracles of Heaven and being thus wrapp'd up in those true delights which accompany the Worship of God they were securely swallowed by them as Poison when it is offered in a Sacramental Chalice To please their Ministers whom hitherto they had used as their Properties and Instruments of their Arts Presbytery is set up that they also might have an Imaginary Empire but it was not intended they should exercise it For the pretensions of that to a Divine Right did so terrifie them who were resolved against all Government that was not subject unto or dependent on theirs that they presently raised all the other Sects Independents Erastians who for the most part were Lawyers that could not endure to hear of any Thunderbolts of Excommunication but what was heated in their own forges Anabaptists Seekers and Atheists of which there were many sprung up who seeing how Religion was abused to carnal and unjust Ends began first to despise that and afterwards to deny God to write and declaim against this new Politie as the most severe and absolute Tyranny under the Sun and the tenth Persecution But this seeming modesty of admitting a Church-Government served their ends for the present till they could acquire a greater strength in confidence of which they might slight the Terrours of the Law and the Anathema's of the Church The Liturgy also was abolished under pretence of a Spiritual Liberty for it was accused of putting a restraint upon the Spirit
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 understanding 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 unto Me and as they are the Conditions of a Treaty ye will conclude that the same Spirit which hath still been able to frustrate all My sincere and constant endeavours for Peace hath had a powerfull influence on this Message For though I was ready to grant the substance and comply with what they seem to desire yet as they had framed it I could not agree thereunto without deeply wounding My Conscience and Honour and betraying the Trust reposed in Me by abandoning My People to the Arbitrary and Unlimited Power of the two Houses for ever for the levying and maintaining of Land or Sea Forces without distinction of quality or limitation for Money taxes And if I could have passed them in terms how unheard-of a Condition were it for a Treaty to grant beforehand the most considerable part of the subject matter How ineffectual were that debate like to prove wherein the most potent Party had nothing of moment left to ask and the other nothing more to give so consequently how hopeless of mutual compliance without which a settlement is impossible Besides if after My Concessions the two Houses should insist on those things from which I cannot depart how desperate would the condition of these Kingdoms be when the most proper and approved remedy should become ineffectual Being therefore fully resolved that I could neither in Conscience Honour or Prudence pass those Four Bills I only endeavoured to make the Reasons and Justice of my Denial appear to all the World as they do to me intending to give as little dis-satisfaction to the two Houses of Parliament without betraying My own Cause as the matter would bear I was desirous to give My Answer of the 28. of December last to the Commissioners sealed as I had done others heretofore and sometimes at the desire of the Commissioners chiefly because when My Messages or Answers were publickly known before they were read in the Houses prejudicial interpretations were forced on them much differing and sometimes contrary to My meaning For example My Answer from Hampton-Court was accused of dividing the two Nations because I promised to give satisfaction to the Scots in all things concerning that Kingdom And this last suffers in a contrary sense by making Me intend to interest Scotland in the Laws of this Kingdom than which nothing was nor is further from My thoughts because I took notice of the Scots Commissioners protesting against the Bills and Propositions as contrary to the Interests and Engagements of the two 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 concern'd in the Bill for the Militia and in several other Propositions and My silence might with some Justice have seemed to approve of it But the Commissioners refusing to receive My Answer sealed I upon the engagement of their and the 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 of My Answer notwithstanding his beforesaid Engagement or afterwards by the two Houses as the Governour affirms in confining Me within the circuit of this Castle I appeal to God and the World whether My said Answer deserved the reply of such proceedings besides the unlawfulness for Subjects to imprison their King That by the permission of Almighty God I am reduced to this sad condition as I no way repine so I am not without hope but that the same God will in due time convert these Afflictions into My advantage In the mean time I am confident to bear these crosses with Patience and a great Equality of Mind But by what means or occasion I am come to this Relapse in My Affairs I am utterly to seek especially when I consider that I have sacrificed to My two Houses of Parliament for the Peace of the Kingdom all but what is much more dear to Me than My Life My Conscience and Honour desiring nothing more than to perform it in the most proper and natural way a Personal Treaty But that which makes Me most at a loss is the remembring My signal compliance with the Army and their Interests and of what importance My compliance was to them and their often-repeated Professions and Ingagements for my just Rights in general at Newmarket and S. Albans and their particular explanation of those generals by their voted and re-voted Proposals which I had reason to understand should be the utmost extremity would be expected from Me and that in some things therein I should be eased herein appealing to the Consciences of some of the chiefest Officers in the Army if what I have said be not punctually true and how I have failed of their expectations or My professions to them I challenge them and the whole World to produce the least colour of Reason And now I would know what it is that is desired Is it Peace I have shewed the way being both willing and desirous to perform my part in it which is a just compliance with all chief Interests Is it Plenty and Happiness They are the inseparable effects of Peace Is it Security I who wish that all men would forgive and forget like Me have offered the Militia for My time Is it Liberty of Conscience He who wants it is most ready to give it Is it the right administration of Justice Officers of trust are committed to the choice of My two Houses of Parliament Is it frequent Parliaments I have legally fully concurr'd therewith Is it the Arrears of the Army Upon a settlement they will certainly be paid with much ease but before there will be found much difficulty if not impossibility in it Thus all the World cannot but see My real and unwearied endeavours for Peace the which by the grace of God I shall neither repent Me of nor ever be slackned in notwithstanding My past present or future sufferings But if I may not be heard let every one judge who it is that obstructs the good I would or might do What is it that men are afraid to hear from Me It cannot be Reason at least none will declare themselves so unreasonable as to confess it and it can less be impertinent or unreasonable Discourses for thereby peradventure I might more justifie this My Restraint than the