BEATAM AETERNAM CLARIOR E TENEBRIS CELI SPECTO ASPERAM AT LEVEM CHRISTI TRACTO In verbo tuo Spes mea MUNDI CALCO SPLENDIDAM AT GRAVEM Alij diutius Imperium tenuerunt nemo tam fortiter reliquit Tacit. Histor Liâ—â— 2. c. 47. p. 417 THE HISTORY OF THE Rebellions IN England Scotland and Ireland WHEREIN The most Material Passages Sieges Battles Policies and Stratagems of WAR are impartially Related on both Sides FROM The YEAR 1640. To the Beheading of the Duke of Monmouth in 1685. In Three Parts By Sir ROGER MANLEY Kt. late Governour of Land-Guard-Fort Quaeque ipse Miserima vidi LONDON Printed for L. Meredith at the Angel in Amen-Corner and T. Newborough at the Golden Ball in St. Paul's Church Yard MDCXCI THE PUBLISHER TO THE READER IN regard the Reputation of Histories is generally raised on the Worth of their Authors I thought it convenient to acquaint the World That the Compiler of This was a Gentleman of known Integrity bred in the Church of England for whose Cause joined with that of the Royal Family he was a valiant and zealous Champion having been Personally engaged in the most considerable Battles which his Royal Master King Charles I. fought against his Rebellious Subjects You are not therefore here to expect the Reversion of other Mens Labors no borrow'd Fragments or Scraps of Records no patch'd or imperfect Collections but an entire uniform History with great Impartiality and for the most Part of his own certain Knowledge Yet to free him from Suspicion of any Mistake in these Memoirs it is sufficient to observe That he collected them in those Troublesome Times whose Iniquity would not admit the Publication of them which he reserv'd till there was a clear Stage for Truth to appear on And having surviv'd this Great Rebellion for many Years he has added to the History of that an Account of all the Remarkable Transactions with the Conspiracies Insurrections and Tumults that happ'ned in the Reign of King Charles II. And concludes with the Invasion and Overthrow of the Duke of Monmouth in the West I shall say no more but that this Gentleman dying soon after he had finished these Commentaries the Publication of them was entrusted with me Which I did very readily undertake since I had the Honour to know the Author so well that his very Name was a sufficient Recommendation of the Work And all honest Men that knew Sir Roger Manley were very desirous of a History from his Hand whose Pen was aâ—â—oyal and Just as his Sword Reader honour the Memory of this brave Man and think not ill of the Publisher who like a faithful Executor presents thee with this his last Legacy And if thou take my Pains in good part 't is all the Acknowledgment I expect from thee Adieu THE CONTENTS PART I. BOOK I. THE Vnion of the Kingdoms of Great Britain The State of Affairs in England The Scots Tumults and their Causes They Rebel and Arm. The King Marches against them but concludes a Peace They break it and enter England with an Army The Little Parliament call'd and dissolved The Treaty at Rippon referred to the Parliament which met in November 1640. The Preludes to their ensuing Rebellion Strafford Impeach'd and Beheaded The Fatal Act of Continuance The Scots dismissed The King follows them into Scotland The Irish Rebellion breaks out The King upon his Return is pompously received by the Londoners The King enters the House of Commons The Bishops accused of High Treason The King forced by Tumults retreats Northward Contests about the Militia His Majesty is repulsed at Hull p. 1. BOOK II. The King attempts Hull in vain Propositions sent to his Majesty to York Most of the Lords and many of the Commons repair to his Majesty He erects his Standard at Nottingham and raises an Army Essex the Rebels General at Worcester at Keynton The famous Battle of Edge-hill Fight at Branford The King fortifies Oxford Some Actions in other Provinces The Queen lands at Burlington Goes to Oxford The Battle of Lansdowne Of Rownday Downe The Siege and Relief of Glocester The great Battle of Newbury The Parliament invite the Scots to their Succour They enter England The Siege of York The fatal Battle of Marston Moor. The Fights at Brandon Heath and Copedry-bridge Essex defeated in the West The second Battle of Newbury Alexander Carew and the Two Hothams beheaded Mac-Mahon and Macquier executed The Archbishop of Canterbury martyr'd The Treaty at Uxbridge Essex discarded and Sir Thomas Fairfax made General in his Place 38. BOOK III. The Continuation of the Irish Rebellion The Lords of the Pale side with the Rebels Their Model of Government The Cruelty of the English in Ireland Ormond makes first a Cessation then a Peace with the Irish Delivers Dublin to the English The King vindicated from any Correspondence with the Irish Rebels Fairfax marches Westward recalled besieges Oxford The King relieves Chester Takes Leicester The Fatal Battel of Naesby described The King's Cabinet taken and published Fairfax relieves Taunton The Fight at Langport He takes Bridgwater Sherburne and Bristol The King's Travels and Labours The Scots besiege Hereford They quit it The Fight at Rowton-Heath Digby and Langdale defeated in the North. Barclay-Castle the Devizes and Tiverton taken Cromwell takes Winchester and Basing-House by Assault The Fight at Torrington The Prince passes into France The Lord Hopton disbands his Army Distructions at Newark The King returns to Oxford The Lord Ashley defeated 84. BOOK IV. The King leaves Oxford and goes to the Scots Army Hereford is surprized and Chester surrender'd Oxford besieged and taken The other Royal Garrisons follow Massey's Forces disbanded Contests with the Scots Their barbarous Vsage of the King They sell him He is imprisoned in Holmbey-House The History of the Scots Rebellion and valorous Actions of Montross Independency triumphant The Army mutinies and seize upon the King at Holmbey They court him but deal treacherously with him He flies to the Isle of Wight 122. BOOK V. The King in the Isle of Wight His Message for Peace The Four Dethroning Bills The Votes of Non-address Cap. Burleigh attempts the King's Delivery Rolfe his Life The King appeals to the People They rise in several Parts of the Kingdom Are suppressed Pembroke taken The Scots defeated and Hamilton a Prisoner Colchester surrendered The Treaty in the Isle of Wight broken by the Army They seize upon the King Garble the Parliament The perjur'd Remains of the Commons assume the Supream Power Constitute a pretended Court of High Justice Arraign Condemn and Murther their King His End and Elogy 169. PART II. BOOK I. The Regicides prohibit the proclaiming of the Prince of Wales They abolish the House of Lords and the Government by Kings Choose a Councel of State Displace and Fine the Lord Mayor for refusing to publish the Act for abolishing of Monarchy Declare they will maintain the Fundamental Laws Erect a High Court of Justice Hamilton Holland and
Capell condemned by it and murthered Several Acts of State The Scots proclaim Charles II. Some Actions of the Levellers The King leaves Holland and goes by Brussels into France The Duke of Gloucester banished Continuance of the History of Ireland The King at Jersey Prince Rupert Sails from Kinsale to Portugal Loseth his Brother Prince Maurice by a Hurrycane The King at Breda Treats and Concludes with the Scots Montrosse's unfortunate End Fairfax routed and Cromwell General His Actions in Scotland The Scots barbarous Vsage of the King They are defeated at Dunbar The King crowned at Schone He enters England The Battle of Worcester The King 's miraculous Escape 109 110. BOOK II. Cromwell enters London Triumphantly Continuation of the Irish Affairs Ormond leaves Ireland and Clanrickard his Deputy there Ireton dyes of the Plague Monk takes Sterling Dundee and Subjugates Scotland The Isles of Scilly Barbadoes Garnsey Jersey and that of Man surrendered to the Regicides Their Greatness They are courted by the Neighbouring Kings and States They send a solemn Embassy into Holland Cromwell Cabals Turns out the mock-Mock-Parliament Chooses another Is chosen Protector The Wars with the United Provinces The various Sea-Fights betwixt the Two States Cromwell makes a Peace with them and a League with France The Expedition of San Domingo and Jamaica Blake's success at Tunis and Santa Cruz. Dunkirk taken The Death of Oliver Cromwell His Character 249. BOOK III. Richard succeeds his Father in the Protectorate He is deposed by the Army The Rump restored Lambert defeats Sir George Booth Montague returns with the Fleet out of Denmark Lambert turns out the Rump Monk dissents and declares for the Rump Lambert marches against him Being deluded by Treaties he is deserted by his Army The Committee of Safety routed and the Rump yet again restored Monk marches to London Readmits the Secluded Members The Parliament dissolv'd by its own Act. An Abstract of the King's Actions and Motions abroad He is proclaimed by the Parliament Returns into England His glorious Reception The End of our Troubles 278. PART III. BOOK I. The REBELLION breaks into new Flames Some Millenaries secur'd Venner's Insurrection and End The Presbyterians stickle for new Elections Several Seditious Tumults detected and punished The Plague consumes the People The Conflagration of the City Tumults in Scotland Oate's Plot. The Parliament insist upon removing the Duke from the King's Presence and Councils It is dissolved Another Parliament call'd The Duke retires from Court A new Council chosen The Parliament refuse the King Money and insist upon the Bill of Exclusion It is also dissolved another being Summon'd A new Rebellion in Scotland The Arch-bishop of St. Andrew's inhumanly butchered The Rebels are defeated at Bothwel-Bridge The King sick He recovers The Duke returns to Court Monmouth Cabals and is outed of his Employments The Lord Stafford beheaded The Parliament dissolv'd and succeeded by another at Oxford which is likewise dismiss'd College is hang'd and Shaftsbury try'd The strange Encrease of the Fanaticks Their Insolence and Power in the City They form a Conspiracy The Council of Six The Plot to Murther the King and Duke The Providential Fire at New-Market Keeling discovers the Conspiracy Russel and Sidney are executed Monmouth absconds but upon his Submission is pardoned He again transgresses and is banished The King dyes of an Apoplexy The Duke succeeds 312. BOOK II. The Rebellion breaks out in Scotland under Argile in England under Monmouth Both are vanquished taken and executed The Final Ruin and End of the Rebellion 336. COMMENTARIES ON THE REBELLION OF England Scotland and Ireland PART I. BOOK I. The Vnion of the Kingdoms of Great Britain The State of Affairs in England The Scots Tumults and their Causes They Rebel and Arm. The King Marches against them but concludes a Peace They break it and enter England with an Army The Little Parliament call'd and dissolved The Treaty at Rippon referred to the Parliament which met in November 1640. The Preludes to their ensuing Rebellion Strafford Impeach'd and Beheaded The Fatal Act of Continuance The Scots dismissed The King follows them into Scotland The Irish Rebellion breaks out The King upon his Return is pompously received by the Londoners The King enters the House of Commons The Bishops accused of High Treason The King forced by Tumults retreats Northward Contests about the Militia His Majesty is repulsed at Hull THE Kingdoms of Great Britain being United under the Dominion of one Prince and the Animosities and Emulations which usually disorder Neighbour-Nations thereby removed gave a sudden Rise to a very great and formidable Power which could not be destroyed but by it self The Moderator of this vast Empire was JAMES VI. King of Scotland and First Monarch of Great Britain undoubted Heir to both as well by Right of Succession from Margaret the only Daughter of Edgar Atheling the last of the Saxon Princes as by that of Force derived to him from the Norman Conqueror This Wise and Learned Prince Charles I. succeeds to the Crown being gathered to his Fathers the loss which his Dominions suffered by it however great was abundantly repaired by the Succession of his Son CHARLES who being truly Heir to his Father's Greatness and Vertues as well as Scepters did excel all his Predecessors in the more severe Disquisition of what was Fit and Just so that our Tragedies will scarce find Credit with Posterity whilst the Ages to come mistrusting the Reports of such enormous Villainies will look upon our unheard-of Vicissitudes but as the Fancies of Poetry and the Decoration of Theatres For how is it possible to believe that the Best of Princes should meet with the Worst of Subjects on whom he had conferred more Graces than the whole Series of his Ancestors and that he who valued his Kingdoms and Life at a lower Rate than the Happiness of his People should by a Judicial Parricide be sacrificed to the ambitious Violence of a prevailing Faction in their Representative and that under the pretence of Usurpation and Tyranny But these things happened an everlasting Reproach to the Nation and not to be atoned for by any Resentment or Hecatombs of Victims King James left a flourishing Kingdom behind him but an empty Treasury and his Successor engaged in a War with Spain and what was worse the Parliament that oblig'd the Father to Arm abandoned the Son when they had exposed him Nor were the succeeding Parliaments more Obsequious or forward in supplying his Necessities how great soever either in recovering the Palatinate or rescuing the French Protestants though undertaken in Defence of the Reformed Religion 'T is true his Third Parliament voted him Five Subsidies but we must own also The Petition of Right that the Petition of Right being a Condescension even to Supererogation deserv'd their best Acknowledgements for raised with that Grant they that very Session questioned the Tribute of Tonnage and Poundage though perpetually enjoyed by his Predecessors Kings of England affirming
but fell unlamented by Reason of their Inconstancy Of the Hothams I have made some mention already And of Carew I will add this not unworthy to be noted which happened at the Tryal of the Earl of Strafford Sir Bevil Greenville a Person never to be mentioned but with Honour at the passing the Bill of Attainder said to Sir Alexander sitting then next him and both serving for Cornwall Sir pray let it not be said That any Member of our County should have a Hand in this Ominous Affair and therefore pray vote against this Bill But the other instantly replied If I were sure to be the next Man that should suffer upon the same Scaffold and with the same Axe I would give my Consent to the passing of it And wee have seen how truly and how circumstantially exact he foretold his own Fate Archbishop Laud murthered January 10. William Laud Archbishop of Canterbury followed next more truly lamented of all good Men. They had abolished the Book of Common-Prayer and the Liturgy as Preludes to his Fate and Function But not daring to hazard his Tryal by a Common-Jury for no Law could condemn him nor by the Peers as equally dubious he then was voted Guilty in the Commons House the Lords by an inauspicious Compliance sitting with them The Scots had formerly declared him an Incendiary and a publick Enemy upon which Accompt he had been thus long kept in Prison And now they demand his Life as a grateful Retribution for their Assistance which was also sacrificed to their Ambition and Fears Thus the Covenant betwixt both Nations was to be cemented with Episcopal Blood This Great Pillar of our Church as he had been eminent in his Life for Vertue was no less remarkable at his Death for his Piety He preached his own Funeral Sermon upon the Scaffold and that with a Countenance no less serene than his Mind which he was going to offer up to his Creator and far from that seeming Weakness as he then Prophesied which appeared in him when the Illustrious Strafford going that same way called to him for his Benediction Generous Spirits being no less affected for their Friends Sufferings and sometimes more than their own And thus fell this Good Man and Good Bishop by the nefarious Ambition of Pretended-Reformed Christians We must acknowledge that the Bishops fell by the Envy of the Presbyterians who stirr'd up the People against them as too seemingly imperious Not that they would have their Power abrogated for That they pretended to themselves being resolved to assert that of Archbishops in their National and that of Bishops in their Provincial Synods whilst every Individual Presbyter should exercise more than Prelatick Jurisdiction in his own Classis The publick Severity requiring more Blood the Lord Macquire and Macmahon Two Irish Noblemen Chief Contrivers in the Bloody Conspiracy in Ireland deservedly suffered the Gallows though not proportionable to their abominable Contrivance And yet these especially Macquire had been tampered with to accuse the King as an Abettor in this nefarious Rebellion which he yet generously enough disowned upon his Death Fortune as yet or rather Providence had not decided the Quarrel The War was unhappily prolonged and there appeared some Hopes of composing our Troubles by Treaty and particularly in that of Vxbridge The Treaty of Uxbridge The King as is already mentioned after his routing of Waller at Copredy-bridge and defeating of Essex at Lestithiel had sent Messages to the Parliament with offers of Peace which he now again renews from Oxford no less graciously than affectionately inviting them to comply with him in restoring these harassed Kingdoms to their former Tranquillity But it proved fruitless and all the King's Concessions how indulgent soever could effect nothing For the Demands of the Faction were so high and their Propositions so unreasonable that the King could not assent to them without ruining his Conscience as a Christian and his Majesty as a Prince For these modest Men did require The Extirpation of Hierarchy by the Abolition of Episcopacy and the Liturgy and the Introduction of Presbyters and the Directory in their stead They would divest the King of all his Power both Military and Civil And did press That the Nobles and such as had been true to their Duty should be delivered over to their Justice that is to Death to Imprisonment and Exile Which appeared so Inhumane and Tyrannical that it is abhorring to Sense and Reason whilst these nefarious Conspirators do not think that the King hath done enough in pardoning his Enemies unless he also betray his Friends By this it appeared how inclinable they were to Peace As also by their sudden breaking of the Treaty contrary to the King and his Commissioners Desires they did demonstrate that they were resolved to permit the Decision of the Cause to the Sword and to perpetuate themselves thereby in their Usurped Tyranny Shrewsbury surprized About this Time Major General Mitton surprized Shrewsbury betrayed to him being of very great Detriment to the King Scarborough and Weymouth were also taken which happening presently after the Treaty the Houses ordered a Day of publick Thanksgiving for these great Victories as being Evidences from Heaven of their Sincerity Sir Thomas Middleton had formerly beaten Colonel Marrow from the Siege of Oswestry Nor was he less fortunate at Montgomery He had surprized the Castle by Intelligence which by reason of the Consequence of its Situation being an Entry into North-Wales was again Besieged by the Lord Byron General of those Countries But Middleton with the Assistance of Brereton Meldrum and Sir William Fairfax with their conjoined Forces relieved the Place and after a sharp Fight The Fight at Montgomery routed the Cavaliers Fortune seemed at first to favour the juster Side by forcing away the Enemies Horse but changing the Rebels carried the Day The slain of the Royallists were at least Three Hundred and no fewer wounded though the Enemy scarce lost a Hundred except Fairfax and Symons And now Essex a no less Victory to the Independents as also the Earls of Denbigh Manchester and Warwick and the rest of the Chief Officers lay down their Arms resting Inglorious and only not neglected especially Essex who denied to give Peace to the Kingdom Essex discarded though invited to it by the King himself when it was in his Power And now retiring from Business he languished away the Residue of his Days in Discontent and an irksome Retreat BOOK III. The Continuation of the Irish Rebellion The Lords of the. Pale side with the Rebels Their Model of Government The Cruelty of the English in Ireland Ormond makes first a Cessation then a Peace with the Irish Delivers Dublin to the English The King vindicated from any Correspondence with the Irish Rebels Fairfax marches Westward recalled besieges Oxford The King relieves Chester Takes Leicester The Fatal Battel of Naesby described The King's Cabinet taken and published Fairfax relieves Taunton The
things interpreting their own Promises in a contrary Sence In the mean time the Parliament Vote That the King should be convoyed to Richmond under the Guard of Colonel Rosseter which was also consented to by Fairfax until the Army required That the King should come no nearer London than the Houses would suffer their Camp to be Cromwell who had obtained his End having the Parliament in his Pocket began now to neglect the King whom he had seemingly adored and courted with the charming Promises of his Restitution He did not wait upon him as usual and nauseating his Conversation wished him gone He had formerly deliberated with his Cabal how to destroy him and had once design'd to have him murthered in the Scotch Camp to satisfie his Revenge and at once to throw the odium of the Fact upon them he equally hated But it now seems sufficient to terrifie him with apparent dangers Designs upon the King's Life reserving his final ruine till they gained more Authority by rendring him more odious to the People as averse from Peace Which having obtained his fall would seem less pitied being also perpetrated by a Parliamentary Judicial Act as most plausible Nor was the King ignorant of these rebellious Scelerates designed Villainies having been not obscurely informed of Cromwell's perfidious dealings with him by some whom the Eminence of his Vertues had gained amongst these black Conspirators Neither were his Friends wanting in their wishes and endeavours for his safety Amongst whom we with gratitude applaud the offers of the Scots Commissioners for the Earls of Lauderdale and Lannerick meeting his Majesty as he was Hunting near Nonsuch and but slenderly guarded they having at that time Fifty Horse of their Train with them told his Majesty That they were come thither on design to deliver him out of his Captivity And therefore humbly desired That he would be pleased not to omit this opportunity to save himself out of their too visible perfidious Hands But His Majesty answered That he had passed his Royal Word not to leave the Army without acquainting the Chief Officers and therefore would not violate his Promise to save his Life Some time after he told the said Commissioners That he was now discharged from his Word and after many Propositions about his retreat he seemed much pleased with that of Barwick as then ungarrisoned and in the Confines of both Kingdoms But that was also waved by reason of the violent motion of the Agitators a rumour being also at the same time spread at Court that they had conspired against his Life which was not only conveyed to him by his Friends as believing it but also by Colonel Whaley his Guardian who told him That moved with duty and affection he could not forbear to beseech his Majesty to save himself by a timely Retreat affirming That this also was the Sense of the Chief Officers of the Army who were very imwilling to be Spectators of what they could not at present help His Majesty withdraws from Hampton-Court With these Artifices this best of Princes being circumvented privately withdrew himself from Hampton-Court which by the removing of the Centinels was not difficult Having passed the River in a Boat he found Ashburnham Legge and Barclay on the other side with Horses He had designed to go to London where he also had a Lodging provided for him but upon a Consideration that the Citizens being obnoxious to the Soldiery were not to be trusted and that Ashburnham perswaded the contrary leaving the City they after much Toil and the Errors incident to travelling in a dark and tempestuous Night came to the Sea-side near Southhampton Where not finding a Ship as they expected to transport them to Jersey the King asked Whither they purposed to carry him Ashburnham replied To the Isle of Wight for he had great confidence in Colonel Hammond the Governour Brother to Doctor Hammond the King's Chaplain The King replied That he would not enter into the Island unless he first had assurance from the Governour both of his Liberty and Security from danger Ashburnham therefore and Barclay were sent to propose these Conditions To whom Hammond dear to Cromwell and sent as is supposed to command the Island for that purpose answered That he would provide for the King's Security from danger but could not dispose of his Liberty but with the Army and Parliaments Knowledge Our Delegates having advanced beyond a Retreat were necessitated through fear to accept of the Condition and so brought Hammond with them to the Countess of Southhampton's House near Tichfield where the King privately lay He was no sooner come and His Majesty acquainted with the Terms but clapping his Hand upon his Heart he said too Prophetically alass I am now undone Whereupon his Attendants bursting out into Tears and Expressions of Violence would instantly have kill'd Hammond But His Majesty absolutely forbad it who would not purchase his own Safety at the clandestine Destruction of a most bitter Enemy And so he delivered himself into his Custody and those Toils which the nefarious Cunning of his Adversaries had long since laid for him BOOK V. The King in the Isle of Wight His Message for Peace The four Dethroning Bills The Votes of Non-address Cap. Burleigh attempts the King's Delivery Rolfe his Life The King appeals to the People They rise in several Parts of the Kingdom Are suppressed Pembroke taken The Scots defeated and Hamilton a Prisoner Colchester surrendered The Treaty in the Isle of Wight broken by the Army They seize upon the King Garble the Parliament The perjur'd Remains of the Commons assume the Supream Power Constitute a pretended Court of High Justice Arraign Condemn and Murther their King His End and Elogy THE King upon his Departure from Hampton-Court had left upon his Table amongst other things a Letter to the Parliament The Contents thereof were That Liberty being desired by all Men and no less necessary for King's than others and that he had long suffered the irkesomness of a Prison under hopes of Peace He now finding the contrary and the inconstancy of the Army had withdrawn himself And yet wherever he should be he would use all his Power for the procuring of it and hinder further effusion of Blood Finally if it should be permitted him to be heard with Honour Liberty and Freedom he would quickly break through this Cloud of Retirement and demonstrate himself truly to be the Father of his Country Being arrived in the Island The King's Message for Peace he again earnestly presses the Parliament for what he had so often desired Peace and having sent them Concessions beyond their Hopes and Desires he yet invites them to a Treaty though with the same Success And yet lest these pious Patriots might seem too averse from that they had pretended to the Peace of the Nation they send the old Propositions to him but accompanied with four preliminary Articles Which how unjust soever they require him to assent
Parliament he should call Moreover there were some other Malecontents who by reason of their Disaffection had been denied such Titles and Honours as they pretended to at his Majesties Coronation who all joyned together and because there are no Pretences more specious than those of Religion nor more charming Bates to ensnare the Vulgar it was thought most proper to be insisted on Nor was it long before the Depravedness of the times furnished them with Opportunities to manifest their Resentments The pious King was pleased to send the Liturgy and Book of Common-Prayers signed with the Blood of the first Reformers of our Church The King sends the Liturgy into Scotland to the Kirk of Scotland for he desired to unite in the same Opinion in Spirituals those People who were subject to the same Empire in Temporals King JAMES had formerly proposed the same thing to his Countrymen at Aberdeen who willingly assented to it and having framed it there and adapted it to the Church of Scotland it was sent into England where it lay till by the Advice of the Privy Council at Edenburgh and perswasion of some others nearer him though very unseasonably his Majesty returned it to them with Command to have it used in all the Churches and Chapels of Scotland This Advice however laudable was ill timed for the growing Factions took thence an Occasion to rebel and 't is scarce credible with what contumacious Fury the Presbyterians who would sooner sin against Religion its self than its Rites did oppose it crying out that the King introduced Superstition and prophane Forms of Worship into the Church Rumours were also spread abroad by the dissatisfied Nobles before-mentioned who abhorred nothing equal with the Restitution of what they had usurped as also by others of the Cabal who longed for a Change of reducing Scotland into a Province So that the People thinking their Civil as well as Sacred Liberty were in danger became obnoxious to the Artifices of every Faction And this occasioned the Sedition of Edenburgh and the zealous Madness of the Rabble against the Liturgy The Sedition of Edenburgh Jul. 23. 1637. The Dean that officiated as also the Bishop who should have preached had much to do to escape with their Lives their wild Auditors throwing their Books Stools and whatever else their Fury could seize on at their Heads Nor did they stick here for the prime Conspirators who had thus infatuated the lowest of the People and incensed them against the Liturgy engaged them also the better sort now consorting with them in a Covenant under pretext of vindicating their Religion to abolish it and gaping after the Church-Revenues to extirpate the Hierarchy of Bishops Moreover they took up Arms being instigated thereto by the Puritans of England whom they had cajoled with a Declaration as they call'd it to vindicate their Actions and Intentions and renouncing their Duty and Allegiance they seized upon the King's Castles and Revenues for their Use and Support in the War Having raised an Army but distrusting their own Strength they courted Assistance from the French and writing an humble Letter to Lewis XIII of that Name implored the Assistance of a foreign Prince The Scots implore Assistance from the French King Car. Richlieu against their own whom they had so cruelly offended And thus a great Mystery was discovered teaching the World how to extirpate the Religion of Rome by consulting with a Roman Cardinal and by joining Forces with a Catholick Monarch The King had sent Duke Hamilton to allay these Troubles but he acted so remissly that he seemed rather to encourage than suppress their fury which is no wonder if what is reported of him be true that their first Motions had been secretly directed by his Counsels The King therefore incited by the Insolence of his Subjects resolved Mar. 27-1639 The King marches towards Scotland seeing his clemency was neglected to chastise them by force and raising a great Army marches towards Scotland But there was nothing performed in this Expedition worthy such extraordinary Preparations For many both of the Nobility and Gentry would hardly be perswaded to invade Scotland which likewise cooled the Soldiers Nor is it to be wondered at since their chief Officers as Essex who was Lieutenant-General and Holland General of the Horse with others proved afterwards to be the prime Heads of the Rebellion in England They had forgot the Animosities of old betwixt these Neighbour-Nations fearing as had been suggested to them That Scotland being conquered the Forces that served to subdue it might in process of Time be made use of to enslave England But the remoteness of this Project renders it very Chimerical However the King warned by the Perfidy of his own Men Makes Peace was necessitated to consent to a Peace with the Rebels upon no equal Terms Which he the rather did as being sensible That nothing can happen more pernicious to a Prince than Civil Discord But the Scots quickly violated the Peace they had procured for they did not disband according to the Articles of the Treaty but kept all their Officers in pay Neither did they demolish the Fortifications of Leith as they should have done but adding Infidelity to their Rebellion did also publish a Libel entituled Conditions of his Majesty's Treaty with his Subjects of Scotland which for its Falseness by inserting Articles never assented to was burnt by the hands of the Common Hangman The Scots break it and invade England High with their late Success and looking upon the King's Indulgence as an Argument of his Easiness not his Goodness being also instigated to it by the English Puritans they arm a Second Time and sleighting the Sanctions of the Treaty rush into England and unexpectedly possess the Towns of New-Castle and Durham They had sent their Declaration before them intimating That what they undertook was for the Glory of God and that their Arms were onely Defensive and not intended against England but against the Canterbury Faction and to endeavour to unite both Nations in one as to Religion The King seeing his Clemency abused and his Authority prostituted by the Rebels in Scotland and to repress the Insolency of his Subjects who had by Leagues Oaths and the Seisure of his Castles and Forts and the like conspired against him and also that the Decrees of Parliament might not be rescinded by those of the Assembly nor the Three States be mutilated by the abolishing of Episcopacy seriously resolved to vindicate his offended Majesty and reduce his so often Rebelling Subjects to their Duty again The Little Parliament He therefore summon'd a Parliament to meet at London which he had deferred for some Years past to give those boisterous Spirits leasure to cool And now he acquaints them with the Invasion of the Scots and their Indignities towards him and very earnestly demands Moneys of them to carry on the War assuring them that if they would liberally comply with his
save that the Commissioners were forced to confess That the King for The King 's rare Wisdom they were commanded by their Masters to treat with no Body but his Majesty alone did excel in Sharpness of Wit in most accurate Vnderstanding of Things and in Quickness of Judgment That he also heard the contrary Objections and Arguments with unimitable Patience Unhappy only in this That he attributed more to the Advice of others than his own Opinion The Parliament had long since seized upon all the King's Castles Forts Arms Governments Ships Revenues Treasure and Ornament But to shew their Intentions for Peace they Denounce War with an Oath declaring They will not lay down Arms as long as the King had an Army under whose Protection Papists that is Royallists and such who were obnoxious to the Law might find Sanctuary Nay they came to that pitch of Boldness that they presumed by their own Authority to summon a National-Synod Where rejecting the ancient Forms of Councils they impower this composed of Presbyterian and Independant Clero-Layicks to establish Religion and the Forms for Government in the Church They also falsified the Great Seal by making another instead of that which was with the King and use it publickly Thus this Pacifick Tribe seeks for Peace and immolates to injured Majesty by rendering as much as in them lay the Differences irreconcileable But this Counterfeiting of the Great Seal was voted Treason by the Parliament at Oxford some time after The Earl of Newcastle in the North During these Traverses the Earl of New-Castle raised an Army in the North to whom the Earl of Cumberland joined himself On the other Side the Two Fairfaxes Father and Son were for the Parliament The first material Encounter they had was at Tadcaster where the Rebels were beaten the Royallists having forced them out of Town after which they also took Bradford But the Fairfaxes being afterwards recruited they took Leeds and Colonel Cholmley and Boynton routted and took Colonel Slingsby at Gisburg The Younger Fairfax gained also a notable Victory at Wakefield against part of Newcastle's Army but he did not enjoy the Sweets of it long for his Forces were afterwards quite broken by the Marquiss's who over-spreading the Country with his Power Victorious and having received great Stores of Arms Cannon and other Military Utensils with the Colonels Goring and King from Holland drove the Rebels quite out of the Field and shut up the Lord Fairfax Besiegeth Hull and his Remnants in Hull where he besieged him This was a fatal Oversight for if he had carried the War into the associated Eastern Counties humanely spoke he had not only added those Rich Provinces to his Victories but by intercepting the Contributions of Money and Men which those Rich Countries perpetually furnished the Rebels with put an End to the War it self and that without Blood The Queen Lands at Burlington Early in the Spring the Queen landed at Burlington with many Officers and Commanders of Note as also great Stores of Arms and Provisions for War In this Place and in her Quarters her Majesty underwent no less hazard than at Sea for an English Man of War coming then into the Bay fired into the Town with so much Fury that she was forced to abandon her Lodging and seek for shelter behind the Hedges But being received magnificently by Newcastle and with Honours due to so great a Princess she was attended by him to York Goes to York into which City she entered in Triumph her self being the most pompous part of the Show The Earl of Montross eminent for his Youth and Nobility and of high Esteem in his Country having deserted the Covenanters because he found them designing to Ruine the Church and Monarchy came accompanied with the Lord Ogelby and One hundred and Twenty Horse to wait upon the Queen at York where he informed her Majesty of the Covenanters Preparations in Scotland and that they would in a very little Time Invade England with a great Army Hamilton came thither also to salute the Queen and with his known Arts refuting Montross's Assertions prayed her to give no Credit to One so Young and Vain which she unhappily inclined to Sir Hugh Cholmley Governour of Scarborough with Three hundred Men came also in at the same Time returning to his Obedience to his Sovereign Which the Two Hothams seemed also to attempt though unfortunately so dangerous Rebellion is that it often Ruines those who would return to their Duty again The Marquiss of Hartford having Command of the Western Counties and assisted by the Lord Pawlet Sir Ralph Hopton Sir Bevil Greenville Sir John Stowell and others all eminent for Courage and Loyalty performed many great Actions On the other Side Major General Chudley and the Earl of Stamford were very Active But Hopton not to be named without an Epithet of Honour harassed these in several Encounters He routed Chudley at Lanceston beat him at Chafford and defeated both him and Stamford in a great Fight at Stratton Hopton defeats the Rebels at Stratton He took here One thousand and Seven hundred Prisoners besides many slain Thirteen Brass Cannon Seventy Barrels of Powder c. This Victory restored the Neighbouring Provinces to their Duty to the King and Hopton himself for his eminent Services was created Baron of Stratton where he had fought so bravely The Rebel-Chieftains fled to Exeter where they were besieged and forced afterwards to surrender to Prince Maurice Hopton after his Victory marched into Somersetshire encountring Sir William Waller a famed Champion of the Rebellion Fights Waller at Landsdowne at Landsdowne near Bath The Fight was brave contested with equal Valour and Obstinateness and continued till late in the Night The Enemy at length drew off into the Town leaving lighted Matches in the Hedges and Walls to amuse the Royallists behind them The Enemies greatest Loss was in their Foot and ours in that of the Noble Sir Bevil Greenville who with a Stand of Pikes had sustained the reiterated Charges of the Roundheads and repelled them He was a Person of no less Loyalty than Courage which made him equally lamented by the Brave as well as the Good The Rebels Loss was greater than ours as well in Officers as Souldiers though abundantly compensated by the Death of the said Greenville and the blowing up of our Powder fired as was believed by One of the Prisoners The General himself was much endangered being hurt by the Flame of it the which together with the Want it occasioned obliged him to shut himself up in the Devizes until he could be recruited with new Stores Waller intent upon Opportunities followed him close and block'd him up in the said Town where they were forced to use their Bed-cords for want of Match But the Siege lasted not long for the King admonish'd by the Danger these brave Men were in sent the Lord Willmott to whom was joined Prince Maurice the Earl of Carnarven
unwilling to leave Bridgewater behind him It was therefore resolved in a Council of War to attack and to loose no time to attempt it by Assault The Town seated on the Banks of Severne and divided into Two by a Branch of it was very strong The Moat though deep was but narrow not exceeding Thirty Foot in Breadth which was filled with the Flood every Tide The Circuit of the Place was not large being defended by Eighteen Hundred Soldiers Forty Guns mounted upon the Walls with great Stores of other Military Provisions But the Rebels fierce with their former Victories and slighting all this cast Lots for the Posts they were to attempt But first they summon the Citizens to a Surrender with Threats of all the Extremities of War in case of Refusal Colonel Edmond Windham the Governour no less brave than Loyal returning the Messenger with Scorn prepared for Defence Which so irritated the Enemy that planting their Cannon they also ran floating Bridges into the Graft which was not difficult by reason of its narrowness and storming the Walls with great Violence notwithstanding their utmost Resistance mounted them and beating the besieged from their Bullwarks seize their Cannon and turn them upon the other Town whilst the rest forcing the Gate and cutting down the Draw-bridge opened a Passage for their Horse to enter at And thus this part of the Town it being as is said divided by a Chanel was taken as also Five Hundred of the Defendants in it Nor did this terrisie the Governour who refusing another Invitation to surrender consumed with Fire from Granadoes and glowing Bullets that Portion of the. Town which the Enemy had possest Fairfax having provided all things for another Assault sent a Trumpet to the Governour and that he might add the Fame of Clemency to that of his Success he signified to him That seeing he was resolved to maintain the Fortress he would notwithstanding making War against Men only and being loath to involve the Innocent with the Guilty permit the Women and Children Liberty to go where they pleased Upon publishing hereof the Governour 's Lady and some other of that Sex accepting this unexpected Gallantry went out Who were no sooner departed but the Enemy thundred upon the Town with their Mortar-pieces Cannon Fireballs and incessant Showers of small Shot that the Buildings were all in a Flame The Citizens and Souldiers astonished with this unusual Tempest sent Mr. Elliot who had formerly carried the Great Seal from London to York by the Governour 's Consent to Fairfax with Conditions of Peace But he rejecting all mention of Treaties with the Governour and Garrison fiercely replied That since they had destroyed so sine a Town by their Obstinacy they should immediately surrender themselves to the pleasure of the Parliament upon Quarter for Life only Which was done Bridgwater taken July 23. the Souldiers remaining Prisoners of War but the Townsmen permitted their former Immunities The City of Bath terrified with the Fate of Bridgewater tamely surrender'd it self to the Colonels Rich and Okey but Sherburne was defended more nobly Sir Lewis Dives a Man of Courage and Honour was Governour of the Castle Who rejecting Fairfax's Summons and Offer of fair Quarter replied That he would sooner lose his Life than his Fame especially in such a Cause And he bravely defended himself and the Place until it was ruined by Approaches by Mines and by a Breach made in the Wall capable of Ten Men abreast with the Rubbage whereof the Moat was filled and levelled so that after much Resistance it was taken by Assault Sherburne taken Many brave Men fell into the Enemies Hands at least Four Hundred Amongst whom were Colonel Thornhill Sir Jo. Wallot and others Nor did they slay Sir Lewis Dives nor Mr. Strangeways who being Members of Parliament were reserved for more exemplary Punishment Sherburne being taken they were at a stand what to undertake next Some advised their March Westward to hinder Goring's recruiting of his Army which was broken at Langport which he might easily do by new Levies in the Provinces of Devonshire and Cornwall being countenanced by the Prince of Wales and by the Addition of Greenville Barkley and the rest of the King's Generals They also demonstrated how the Plague was in Bristol which might endanger the whole Army if they moved that way by the Infection But others perswaded the taking of Bristol lest Prince Rupert who was Governour with Five Thousand brave Souldiers should draw the wavering Club-Men to his Party and having the Severne open invite and obtain Auxiliaries from Ireland and Wales and consequently form a formidable Army a-new in the very Bowels of the Kingdom which would not only render him terrible to the Parliament but troublesome to them also if he should exclude their Forces whilst they were in the remote Counties of the West from all Commerce with London by Land and disturb their Rear whilst they had Goring in the Van. They further remonstrated of what Moment that City was to the Royallists as being their chief Port and great in shipping and Wealth Bristol being preferred for these Reasons Ireton was sent with Two Thousand Horse to hinder the Excursions of the Garrison and to oppose the firing of the Neighbouring Villages and Buildings And yet Bedminster and Clifton and some other houses nearest were burnt The whole Army being advanced all the Avenues were stopped up Bristol besieged and the City entirely closed by the taking of Potsheard Point and the obstructing of the Severne by Seven of their Men of War Nor did the Rebels fix their Quarters and Stations about this great Town without vigorous Interruption being obstructed in their Approaches by the continual Sallies of the besieged though with mutual Slaughter But the Multitude prevailed for the Club-Men of whom the Rebels doubted before now Rebels themselves joined with the other Rebels so that the Defendants being shut up within their Works they were also summoned to a Surrender by a Trumpeter The Prince demanded Permission to send to the King to know his Pleasure which was denied under pretence of Delay The Trumpet sent again was notwithstanding his Orders to return that Evening not dispatch'd till next Morning and then returned with a Draught of Conditions from the Prince above the supposed State of a vanquished Enemy Fairfax perusing them and finding some things doubtful in them and others not to be granted but by the Parliament it self he proposed that Commissioners on both sides should meet with power to conclude sending with all a Scheme of what was in his Power to grant But the Messenger being delayed and bringing but a dilatory Answer he was commanded in Anger suddenly to return and tell the Prince That unless he would immediately accept of what had been offered all that had been hitherto done should pass for nothing The Trumpet returning again later than ordered carried with him an Answer not unlike the former The Prince desired to procrastinate the
therefore lay in the Field all Night and forced the advancing Royallists to retreat over the Isca Goring had fallen into the Enemies Quarters near Chard with Success having slain some and taken about Sixty But Tiverton by Fairfax Fairfax closely pursuing them took Tiverton as also the Castle and Church by storm occasioned by a casual Shot which broke the Chain of the Draw-bridge by which Accident the Passage was immediately seized Sir Gilbert Gerard the Governour and the whole Garrison being made Prisoners The Winter being far advanced and the Robels wearied with so many Toils thought it neither fit nor safe to attempt the Royallists further or besiege Exeter well fortified and strengthened with a Garrison of Five Thousand Men. They therefore resolve to block up the City at a Distance and raising some Redoubts and Skonses upon the River Clyssa within Command of each other though Three Miles from the City put Guards into them whereby they might with no great Force extreamly disturb the Communication betwixt the Town and Country They might have done the same on the other side of the Isca and so at once have shut up the Garrison from all Commerce with the adjacent Neighbourhood which they also afterward did Cromwell having possessed himself of the City of Winchester without Opposition Cromwell takes Winchester battered the Castle with Six Cannon and made a Breach in the Walls Which being observed by the Lord Ogle the Governour who thinking every Defence in this declining State of Affairs superfluous beat a Parley And being admitted to treat having compounded for the Security of his Garrison he surrender'd this Fortress however furnished with all kinds of Military Provisions for a long Siege But the Marquis fell by a nobler however more unhappy Destiny for Cromwell having battered his Works assaulted them with Four Battalions and passing the Moat and Ramparts brake down the Gates and so however bravely opposed forced his Passage into the House and became Master of it and Basing House The Marquis Sir Robert Peak with others of Quality with immense Spoils were the Reward of the victorious There were a hundred slain a Girle of a masculine Courage being found amongst the stript And thus this Fortress of Loyalty having baffled very many Attempts of the Rebels for its Reduction hitherto fell now by the uncontrouled Fortune of Cromwell And being first pillaged was afterwards burnt to the Ground out of spite rather than any advantage to the Conquerours Langford fearing the like Fate prevented it by a timely Surrender And now the Passages being cleared betwixt London and the more distant Provinces of the West Cromwell rejoins his Forces to Fairfax's Army The Prince sends to Fairfax about Peace During these Traverses the Prince of Wales had sent to Fairfax his Desires for a safe Conduct for the Lords Hopton and Culpeper to go to the King with design to endeavour to compose the Differences betwixt his Majesty and the Two Houses But Fairfax returned Answer That it not being of his Province to treat of Peace he had sent his Highness's Letters to the Parliament from whom an Answer was to be expected Goring having sent the Colonels Scroop and Philips had attempted the same before proposing That by the united Force of both Armies they should compel both King and Parliament to an Accomodation The like Conjunction of Forces had formerly been motioned to Essex which was then rejected by him as now by his Successor All hopes of Peace being vanished the Prince sollicitous for Exeter draws his Army consisting of about Seven Thousand to Okehampton His Highness had been informed that the Rebels Forces were very much diminished by Death and Diseases which gave him room to hope for some favourable Occasion to attempt upon them But being suddenly after assured that they were daily furnished with new Levies Fairfax surprizes Three of Wentworth's Regiments at Bovey and fresh Supplies which was true he changed his mind and with-drew his Forces to a greater Distance But the Enemy advancing surprized Three of Wentworth's Regiments at Bovey The Troopers except Fifty and a Major who were taken escaped by Favour of the Night but they left near Four Hundred Horses behind them Fairfax was careful to advertise Plymouth of his Advance and the Royallists Retreat which was also relieved by the drawing off of the Besiegers This Place had been very long blocked up by Land and having been often bravely attempted by Sir Richard Greenville did defend it self with no less Bravery For the Sea always open and the Rebels Masters of it they could not be forced Dartmouth was the next Trophy of the Conquerours Dartmouth taken which they took by Assault without the Loss of scarce one single Man though the Town was strengthened with a Hundred pieces of Ordnance Nor was the Slaughter greater on the Defendants side Sir Hugh Pollard the Governour the Earl of Newport Seymour Denham and about Eight Hundred being taken Prisoners .... Carey and his Officers upon the Delivery of a Fort which he guarded was permitted his Liberty and the Souldiers had also leave to retire every Man to his own Home The Cornish-men who they were many had each Two Shillings allowed for their Journey not absurdly bestowed to tempt the rest of their Countrymen who were now the only considerable part of the King's Forces The Rebels marched thence to Totnes and afterwards returned to the Siege of Exeter Sir Hardres Waller had commanded there and now it is resolved to attempt the forcing of the Place it having hitherto been but block'd up with Forts and Redoubts They therefore commanded Ladders to be brought out of the Country for an Assault until upon fresh intelligence of the Prince's Preparations and Design to relieve the Besieged they again leaving Waller with Three Regiments of Foot and one of Horse to continue the Blockade moved with the Rest of the Army to meet the Royallists The Lord Hopton commanded the King's Forces For the Lord Goring being gone for France and having entrusted his own Troops to the Lord Wentworth's Conduct the Government of the whole was devolved upon this excellent Personage Who now had with Three Thousand Horse and Four Thousand Foot possessed himself of Torrington with a Resolution to defend the Town and to hazard there the Extremity of War Fairfax being advertised of all this by his Spies quickens his March and to give the Royallists no time to fortifie themselves made all imaginable haste Hopton had lined the neighbouring Avenues with Musqueteers which he again quitted upon the Enemies Advance who also possessed the said Places Where they fix'd their Station by reason of the Darkness until a Noise in the Town creating an Opinion that the Royallists were dislodging obliged them to send a Party to see what was the matter These Discoverers being received with a Volley of Shot were seconded by a Reserve and they again by a Third and Fourth Party so that Supplies being successively sent
the City with his Troops whilst he himself followed with the main Army in order to a formal Siege This obliged the King to think of a Retreat He had attempted all ways of Peace and invited those barbarous Tyrants at Westminster to it though neglected by near Twenty Messages They refused a Pass for the Duke of Lenox with Propositions though the King had in vain conjured their Assent they being then as they said themselves upon others to be sent to his Majesty They also flatly refuse the Scots Commissioners who pressed for a Treaty pretending to great interruption in their Affairs by the delays and difficulties the joint Councils of both Kingdoms produced And therefore vote That the King's Answer shall be desired to their Propositions without Treaty And being indeed weary of the Scots they also voted That they do intend to carry on the War of Ireland with the Forces of England and that the Scots Forces should be called away The Parliament design to gratifie their Grandees In their Debate about the Propositions to be sent the King they think it time to gratifie their Grandees and in order to it Vote That Sir Thomas Fairfax be made a Baron with Five Thousand Pound per Annum settled upon him and that his Father be made an Earl Cromwel a Baron and two Thousand five Hundred Pound per Annum Northumberland Essex Warwick Pembroke Dukes Salisbury Manchester Marquesses Roberts Say Willouby of Taram Wharton Howard Earls Sir William Waller a Baron Hazelrigg Stapelton Barons each Two Thousand Pound per An. Vane a Baron Brown fifteen hundred Pounds per An. and Skippon a Thousand Pound Thus they were dividing the spoil whilst the good King offered provided they would suffer his Friends to live securely at home whatever the most nefarious of Criminals could desire to wit An Act of Oblivion for what is past the Fruition of all they had acquired Accession to Offices and Dignities And because they might have no colour or pretence for Jealousies and Suspicions he would immediately disband all his Forces and would not only return to his Parliament but also ratifie whatever they should judge necessary for restoring his afflicted Kingdoms to their former Tranquillity But all this was absolutely refused by these modest Men who at length laying the Veil of Hypocrisie aside did not blush to declare to the whole World That there was nothing less in their thoughts than what they had so often solemnly declared promised protested vowed and sworn to perform which was To rescue the King out of the hands of Evil Counsellors and to bring him back to his Parliament Nay now they take care by Proclamation that he shall not come and command their Militia-Officers in case he attempted it to secure his Person and detain all his followers Prisoners The King perceiving himself in such unusuall streights this potent Monarch of three Kingdoms and sometimes Supream Arbitrator of Peace and War knows not now where to lay his Head Heu faciles dare summa Deos eademque tueri Difficiles He therefore reassumes his Thoughts of a Retreat Being rejected by the Parliament The King leaves Oxford and goes to the Scots Army he had a design to throw himself into the Arms of the Army but being refused by these also he puts himself into disguise And accompanied only with two Attendants Ashburnham of his Bed-Chamber and Hudson a Divine he left Oxford and conveyed himself to the Scots Army then at the Siege of Newark Monsieur Montrueil the French Resident then in the Scotch Camp had stipulated for security and equitable conditions for his Majesty who upon that confidence and the assurance he had entertained of his Countrymen's Loyalty as he wrote to the Marquess of Ormond Lord Lieutenant of Ireland he cast himself into their Protection May 1646. Some thought he was gone into Wales still true however oppressed to his Interests Others that he was withdrawn into Scotland to the renowned Montross and not a few were of opinion that he was conceal'd in the City Which the Parliament so far believed that they declared by beat of Drum and sound of Trumpet That what Person soever shall harbour or conceal or know of the harbouring or concealing of the King's Person and shall not reveal it immediately to the Speakers of both Houses shall be proceeded against as a Traytor to the Commonwealth forfeit his Estate and die without Mercy A while after contrary to the opinion of all Men he was rumoured to be in the Scottish Camp which was also signified to the Grandees at Westminster by the Commander in chief of the Scots Army The pretended Parliament as soon as they were informed of the King's Departure and were assured of his being in the Scotch Army desire and require of the Scotch Commissioners at London and of the Scots General in the Camp That they would deliver his Majesty into their Hands to be secured in Windsor-Castle until the Parliament should otherwise dispose of him Moreover they barbarously Vote That the King by going to the Scots Army He goes with the Army to Newcastle did prolong the War against the Parliament and foment the Discord betwixt the Two Nations But the Scots not ignorant of the value of their purchase gave no Ear to their Dear Brethren but breaking up with their Army a Rumour being spread that Cromwell was advancing towards them with all his Horse marched in haste to Newcastle with the King affirming That as his Majesty came to their Camp of his own Accord so he followed it with the same Liberty the Army neither perswading nor opposing him And this was a place garrisoned with their own Soldiery and near the Confines of their own Country The Royallists being as is related shut up in their Fortresses and languishing with the despair of Relief some of them taking occasion from their adverse Fortune surrender'd upon demand Whilst others defended themselves till they were forced as Col. Stanhop at Shelford or famished out as the Heroick Countess of Darby at Lathome-House which she had kept two Years against all the Insults of the Rebels But the Fate of Hereford was more dismal which having baffled and beat the Scots from her Walls was not able to prevent the surprizal of a less considerable Enemy The Colonels Morgan and Birch with Two Thousand Men drawn out of Gloucester and other neighbouring Garrisons by the favour of an obscure Night and a quick March accomplished the Enterprize For having sent Six choice Souldiers with a Lieutenant who pretended to be a Constable all in Country-Habits Hereford miserably surprized early to the Gate the said fictitious Constable calling to the Guard told them That he was come thither with his Men according to the Governour 's Command to break the Ice in the Moat expecting only till the Bridge was let down Being admitted with their Rural Instruments which they carried for show they immediately making use of the Arms they had under their
not be cleansed of it but continues still a Monument of this horrid Impiety with this Inscription engraved Hic jacent Car. Lucas Geor. Lisle a Fairfaxio mactati Capell was reserved for the Scaffold who afterwards suffered with no less Constancy and Greatness of Mind than his illustrious Colleagues now did as we shall see in the Sequel of this History Nor was it on Land only that the Sword did rage the Sea also had its Scenes of Blood and Horror for a great part of the Navy detesting the Tyranny of their Old Masters deserted them and revolted to the Prince of Wales The Revolt of the Fleet. Batten one of their prime Leaders having been dismissed by them returned to his Duty and joined his Highness with some more Ships The Sea-men had exposed Rainsborough their Admiral and a Turbulent Leveller by putting him on shore who was afterwards slain in his Quarters by a Party from Pomfret and now embracing the King's Party with universal Consent seemed resolved to expiate their former Rebellion by a Return of Duty and to merit their Pardon by the Eminency of their Services Prince Charles with the Duke of York his Brother who lately escaped from St. James's in Womans Cloaths Prince Rupert the Earl of Brandford the Lords Hopton Willmot Willoughby Culpeper and others of Name and Quality sailed from Holland with this brave Fleet consisting of Twenty Ships of War and came into Yarmouth-Road with design to attempt every thing that was possible for the Relief of Colchester But finding the distance from that City too great and the Shore and Passages possessed by the numerous Enemy his Highness sailed to the Mouth of the Thames carrying Terror and Force with him to awe the City of London But his stay there was not long the Castles of Deal Walmer and Sandwich requiring his Assistance which he attempted by landing Five Hundred Men who though they fought with extream Gallantry were yet forced back with great loss to their Ships again The Castles after this Defeat were immediately surrendered By this time the Earl of Warwick lately made Admiral again had equipt another Fleet in the River and having joyned that of Portsmouth resolved to fight the Prince which he yet delays for the present not only terrified with the Revolt of others but in some doubt of the Fidelity of his own Men. The Prince perceiving this courted the Earl with magnificent Offers to the Return of his Duty But he perfidiously constant persisted in his Rebellion and in recompense of his Services shall see himself disgracefully outed of all Trust and his only Brother the Earl of Holland beheaded for his late Return to his Obedience Some were of Opinion that the Royallists omitted an opportunity of fighting the Sea men being high in Heart and seemingly very Loyal and the Enemy supposed to waver tho the Event afterwards proved the contrary In the mean time the Prince seeing his Land-Forces every where defeated and the adverse Fleet growing daily stronger returned into Holland giving the Command of the Fleet to Prince Rupert But many of the Ships out of an innate levity of their Sailors leaving the Prince returned to their old slavery under Warwick whilst the rest continuing in their Duty stuck close to their New Admiral whose Actions and Adventures shall be hereafter related Some other Fortresses besides those already mentioned declared for the King as N. B. Tinmouth-Castle seized upon by Major Lilburn Scarborough by the Return of Sir Matthew Boynton the Governour to his Allegiance and Pomfret possessed upon the same score by Major Morrice Tinmouth indeed was retaken by Assault the Governour losing his Life with the Place Boynton got Terms not unworthy the Defence he had made and Morrice and being lost bravely exposed himself to save his Garrison Who tho he broke thro the Camp which was the Conditions he had articled for yet was afterwards taken and murthered under colour of Justice in cold Blood The Visitation of Oxford But before we proceed further in these Occurrences it may not be impertinent to take a Review of some Transactions in the entrance of this Black Year 1648. seeing they seem to tend to those monstrous Catastrophes it ended in The first thing our pious Reformers undertook was visiting the Vniversity of Oxford They had long since garbell'd Cambridge to their Interest and will now as much as in them lyes extinguish this other Luminary by removing its Candlesticks and ejecting all the Members thereof that were any ways notable for Learning Loyalty Piety or Obedience to the Church or State as established by Law The Earl of Pembrook being made Chancellor together with several Delegates of the Factious Clergy and some of the Laiety as good Divines as himself were appointed for this Service Which was performed with all the Rigor of an Inquisition none being spared from the Reverend Heads of Colleges to the hopeful Striplings of Sixteen And yet the entrance of this Year had thus much extraordinary in it in that it contributed to the Deliverance of the Duke of York out of the Hands of those worst of Rebels The Duke of York escapes into Holland being conveyed away in a Virgin-disguise and carried into Holland by Col. Bamfeild who afterwards aspersed the Honour of this Service by undutiful Intelligences But to return whence we digressed the Army with Cromwell being absent and in Scotland several Petitions from the Country the Captains Masters and Sailers as also from the City of London were presented to the Men at Westminister requiring with more than ordinary earnestness a personal Treaty with the King This did so far work upon the Presbyterian Faction in the House very jealous and apprehensive of the Power of the Independants that they resolved for their own preservation to make a Peace with the King And The Treaty in the Isle of Wight in order thereunto forthwith recalled their Votes of Non-Address and sent Commissioners with Propositions not much unlike the former with Power to make Peace allowing Forty Days for the time of treating They indeed permitted his Majesty the attendance of several Lords of his Council and Bed-Chamber many of his Servants some of his Chaplains some Lawyers and others But they refused the Assistance of any but himself in treating Nor was it truly necessary for it presently appeared that as he was a Prince of prodigious Parts so he seemed more than humanly inspired who could singly manage so weighty an Affair against Fifteen Commissioners Persons prejudiced and of great Subtilty and with that success that he made Converts of some of his bitterest Enemies and however unwilling forced their very Reason But they having no liberty to recede or any way to remit of the Rigor of their Propositions His Majesty out of his affection to Peace granted many things above their Desires being content to divest himself of most of his Regalities for his time and trust those insatiable Men with the exercise thereof
as appears by his Concessions And now the Hopes of Peace and a Happy Accommodation seemed at â—and which had also been effected if the Parliament had not wretchedly lost too much time in frivolous disputations of no weight Whereby it appeared as formerly at Vxbridge that they never designed that this Treaty should take any effect nor that they would be satisfied with Part who had already devoured the Whole in their thoughts The Army who seemed to acquiesce in the Pleasure of their Superiors whilst engaged in War did dare now the Royallists being every where supprest changing their Principles with their Success plainly to dissent And to declare openly to the whole World That nothing would satisfy but the Destruction of the King and the Subversion of Monarchy In order hereunto a fierce Petition was presented from the City against the Treaty which was also seconded from Oxfordshire New-Castle York c. and in particular Ireton's Regiment insisted upon the same demanding That the same fault may have the same punishment in the Person of King or Lord as in the Person of the meanest Commoner A Prelude to the designed Regicide They had formerly designed the Murther of the King by the Ministry of that Villain Rolfe as is already mentioned but now fierce with their Victories they will themselves destroy him To this purpose they emit a Remonstrance The Armies Remonstrance execrable as it's Authors Cromwell and Ireton which was presented to the Commons House by Col. Eure and Seven other Scelerates like himself In this they furiously declaim against the Restitution of the King or any Accomodation with him requiring That he as the Capital Enemy should be brought to judgment That the Prince and Duke of York should be summoned in by a day That the Parliament should constitute a Government for the future and fixing a Period to their own Session should take care for Annual or Biennial Parliaments and the like stuff which they offered in their own Names and as the Agreement of the People They were grown now to that insolence that their modest General writ to the Committee of the Army for Money or he should be forced to receive that is take it out of the Collectors and the Receivers hands where he could find it if speedy course be not taken to supply him Which however high it appeared or unbeseeming in the General was connived at And now again the Army declare That they can see in the Majority of those trusted with the Affairs of the Kingdom nothing less than a treacherous or corrupt Neglect of and Apostacy from the publick Trust reposed in them and therefore they appeal from them to God and the People In order to this the Army marches towards the City and in contempt of the Parliament's Order who commanded their stay advance sending a Declaration before them wherein They accuse the Members of Folly of Infidelity and Inconstancy threatning They would come to Westminster where they would further act as God should inspire them And thus the Parliament after successes above their desires are agitated and tormented with the Mutinies of their own Army They had indeed declared the seditious and mutinying Souldiers Enemies but now by a desponding Compliance they Vote them their Pay and the Officers their Arrears and also that the Declaration against the Army be rased out of the Journal of the House They further as also the Citizens of London and the Counties began to make all their â—pplications to the General especially Cromwell â—nd the Army The Parliament seemed now â—eglected whilst the Army triumph and all Men are affraid of doing any thing that may â—isplease them The King hurried to Hurst Castle During these traverses and the Treaty at Newport not yet finished the King by command from Fairfax was by Col. Eure hurried to Hurst-Castle a place Infamous for Cold and the Insalubrity of the Air. At parting from the Isle the Parliament-Commissioners coming to take their leave of him he gave them his Answer unsealed and having acquainted them with the Condition of the Times he told them He had parted with All how dear soever to him except wherein his Conscience was dissatisfied And finally added That he had reason to believe that this would be the last time of their enterview But that blessed be God he had made his Peace with him and should without fear undergo what he should be pleased to suffer Men to do unto him As for them they could not but know that in his fall and ruin they saw their own and that also near to them He prayed God to send them better friends than he had found He was fully informed of the whole Plot and Carriage against him and his But that nothing so much afflicted him as the sense and feeling he had of the Sufferings of his Subjects and the Miseries that hung over his Three Kingdoms drawn upon them by those who upon pretences of good violently pursue their own Interests and Ends. Fairfax by so much the more wicked in that he witlesly acted for others brought the Army equally Rebels to the Parliament now as they had been to the King before to London and in Contempt of the Treaty impudently took up his Quarters at White Hall And yet the pretended Parliament that had hitherto rejected as well the King's Concessions as his Demands in contemplation of the Armies Insolence The Parliament Vote his Concessions satisfactory voted His Majesty's Answer to the Propositions of both Houses to be Satisfactory But this was too late for theâ—e double Rebels were so furiously enraged thereat that they immediately demanded by writing from the Parliament That the late accused Members and such other who favoured the Scots the King or the Personal Treaty should be excluded the Houses Nor were they pleased to stay for an Answer but besetting the Senate they seize upon One and Forty of them whom they imprison and seclude a Hundred and Sixty more leaving none to sit but such who were mancipated to Cromwell and the Faction The Common-Council was purged with the same Ingredients from the Army the vacancies being supplied with Plebeian fanaticks whereof any Forty should be a Quorum and Superior to the Mayor These petitioning with the same fury against the King as the Agitators had done involved the City in the Guilt of the Regicide as well as the Rebellion The Government being thus changed from one Tyranny to another the Supream Power which the Presbyterians had so long hunted for was surprized by the Independants Who to shew their Authority dissannul whatever the Presbyterians had voted concerning the Treaty or their secluded Colleagues And some time after divers of the Lords how degenerate did so far compliment Fairfax upon his Proceedings that they let him know They would wave their Titles and Priviledges in case they should be judged burthen-some to the Common-wealth or the Peoples Liberties Things being thus disposed and the Obstacles that might hinder their
Prince Maurice lost in a Hurricane after many Hazards and Adventures Prince Maurice being separated from his Brother in that Tempestuous Ocean perished in a Hurricane The immature Fate of this Royal Youth was justly lamented by the Good and Brave for being no less eminent for Fortitude Gentleness Greatness of Mind and all other Vertues than Illustrious for his Birth he was snatcht away leaving his Fame to his Posterity and to us his Contemporaries the Desire of him The King being come to Breda met the Scots-Commissioners who attended his Majesty some Miles out of Town The first Congress was fair but the Disceptations and Arguings in the Treaty long and sharp The main Disputes were about the Covenant the Directory and the Catechism And tho the said Covenant did naturally regard the People not the Sovereign yet the Commissioners instigated by the English Presbyters did so obstinately adhere to them The Treaty at Breda that they refused to grant the King that Liberty in Holy Things which they challenged to themselves But to sweeten him they promise if he would consent to their Demands that they would not only restore him to the Scottish Throne but assist him in the Recovery of the rest of his Dominions and to bring to condign punishment the execrable Murtherers of his Royal Father His Majesty readily consented to the Civil Part of their Proposals remitting all Things to the Determinations of Parliament but stuck at the other until overcome by the Perswasions of the Prince of Orange and the greatest part of his Council as also by the Desperateness of his Affairs ruined both by Sea and Land he tho very unwillingly at length yielded And now the Treaty was upon Conclusion when the unfortunate Defeat and Death of Montrosse had like to have quite broke it off Those who were averse to any Agreement with the Scots took Occasion hence to disswade his Majesty from having any Commerce with them daily inculcating to him That this perfidious Nation had no other thoughts but of his Ruine because they had in the very time of Treaty so inhumanly murthered his Lieutenant But no Man did more affectionately bewail the immature and cruel End of this excellent Personage than the King himself who did not cease to expostulate the Injury done him in it by so barbarous an Act of Hostility even then whilst they pretended to Peace But Time and the Necessity of his Affairs did somewhat allay his Resentments so that the Treaty being at length happily concluded Concluded he and the Commissioners embarking at Scheveling with Young Trompe sailed towards Scotland Whilst His Majesty is upon the Ocean it will not be impertinent to be more particular in the sad History of the Illustrious Montrosse Our former Commentaries have noted those Actions of Glory he had performed in Scotland with the Lustre whereof he appeated so eminent in the Courts of Foreign Princes that his Exile seemed rather a Progress than Banishment until the Commands of the King obliged him again to arm and invade his Ungrateful Country The last Scene of Montrosse's Actions This was done by his Majesty with Design that by the known Valour of the General he might force his untractable Country-men to more Equal Terms But the Event proved unsuccessful Scotland was then full of Armed Men and their Forces intire whereas he had scarce Seven Hundred Souldiers with him when he landed Nay the Inhabitants either wearied with the War or terrify'd with the noise of Foreigners came but slowly in to him notwithstanding his known Valour and Conduct but forsaking their Dwellings fled with their Fears about them and filled the Country with the Apprehension of this Pretended Invasion Hereupon Lesley was sent with the Army to suppress this new Enemy who was also defeated by Straugham sent before with a Party of Three Hundred Horse and being betrayed by the Laird of Aston one he had entrusted with his Safety was taken and murthered with all the dire Circumstances of Enraged Malice and his Quarters sent to the Four principal Cities of the Kingdom to be fixt over their Chief Gates It is strange with what Firmness of Soul and unshaken Constancy he heard this dreadful Sentence saying only That he took it for greater Honour to have his Head fixt upon the Prison Gate in such a Cause than to have his Picture in the King's Bed-Chamber And lest his Loyalty should be forgotten they had highly honoured him in designing lasting Monuments to Four of the Chiefest Cities to bear up his Memorial to all Posterity wishing he had had flesh enough to have sent a piece to every City in Christendom to Witness his Loyalty to his King and Country Being ready to mount the Scaffold they put a Rope over his shoulders with his Declaration and History fastned to it which he wore with the same Calmness as formerly affirming That he embraced that with no less Alacrity than he had done the Garter when he was admitted of that most Honourable Order by his present Majesty He further asked these Barbarians Whether they had any more Dishonour to put upon him And thus ended this renowned Marquess not unjustly paralell'd to the great Captains of Antiquity if he had not fallen in the Untimely Prosecution of a most Just Cause The King having escaped the Dangers at Sea and eluded the Snares laid for him by the English landed having been convoy'd by Three Men of War lent him by the Prince of Orange at Spey in the North of Scotland where being received by a Noble Train of Attendants and welcomed by the grateful Acclamations of the People as he passed he came to Edinburgh His reception there from the Parliament and Committees of the Kirk was honourable and with all the Appearance of Affection and Loyalty July 15 1650. the People congratulating his happy arrival with continual and perhaps more sincere Shouts of Joy And now the Second Time he was proclaimed King of Scotland England and Ireland tho his Coronation was deferred as yet by reason of the pressing Difficulties of the War The English Parricides were not ignorant of these Triumphs and Preparations of their Neighbours and were also informed of their promises to restore the King They had Intelligence of what was transacted in Scotland by their Friends there and of what was done at Court by their Spies and Hirelings about the King They therefore to prevent a War at their own Doors resolve to transfer it to the Enemy as well to prevent their Invasion of England as to remove into another Country the Calamities that attend Camps and Armies But Fairfax could not be perswaded to bear Arms against the Scots their Brethren and sworn Confederates his Aversion to it being much fortified by his Wife and the Presbyterian Teachers Nor was the Mock Parliament much concerned at his Refusal for thinking they had done enough in having sent a Committee to perswade him they conferred the Generalate upon Cromwell lately called out
and being unequel to those Veteranes after a sharp Fight he was defeated by them And however he escaped their present Fury by Flight he was afterwards taken in the Battel of Worcester and being brought to Chester was there notwithstanding the Quarter given him beheaded by the Regicides finishing his Course with no less Gallantry than he had lived with Glory The King upon his Entry into England was ploclaimed by a Herald at Arms King of ENGLAND SCOTLAND FRANCE and IRELAND which was also done in all the chief Towns as he passed along and was now repeated at Worcester with greater Pomp and Splendour He had by Letters and Messages in his March invited several of the Rebel-Commanders and Governours to the return of their Duty but in vain He had also desired the same of the Mayor and Common-Council of London but with the same success There were however several Noble Persons who came in to him as the Lord Talbot Packington Howard Broughton and others with about Two Thousand private Souldiers The rest kept back either surprized with the sudden Advance of the King and consequently unprovided or terrified with the Cruelty of the Rump and so durst not appear or averse to the Scots now unseasonably mindful of the former Injuries received from them and would not come The King had been advised and it was his own Opinion to march from Warrington directly to London which in probability ought to have been done if the Army had not been so much wearied with their former Toyles and Labours They therefore came to Worcester a Place convenient enough where having recovered and repaired their Strength they might either expect or promote the War Hither Cromwell came Six Days after with the conjoyned Forces of the Party amounting to near Sixty Thousand Souldiers and Trained-Bands and having beaten Massey from Vpton-Bridge approached the Town The Rebels having passed the Rivers Severne and Tame upon Bridges and Boats advance towards the Walls however very bravely opposed by the Scots out of the Hedges and Ditches in their way But the Royallists being out-numbered were forced to retreat towards the City The Rebels having repulsed and wounded Montgomery at Powick Cromwell advancing drew up near ..... Wood. The King with Forbes's Foot a small Body of Horse for Lesley with Two Thousand more stood a loof of and did not approach and some English Voluntiers charged the Van of the Enemy with so much intrepid Bravery that he not only repelled them but took their Cannon which yet he could not keep by reason of their numerous Reserves and Supplies incessantly relieving each other Insomuch that the King having performed all the Parts of a Great Commander by rallying his broken Troops and embodying his scattered Foot and encouraging them by his Example and Presence in their renewed Encounters being over-pow'red by the adverse Legions Duke Hamilton who kept close to him being also wounded of which Hurt he shortly died he was forced to retreat towards the City which he entered on Foot at Sudbury-Gate being then obstructed by a laden Waggon overthrown in the Passage Nor did he long stay there but mounting another Horse when he saw all was lost and that the Enemy entered on all sides he at length slipping away in the Croud escaped out of the City The Royal-Fort defended by Col. Drummund with Fifteen Hundred Men was taken by Assault where all were put to the Sword The slaughter in the City was not less barbarous the Citizens and Souldiers being promiscuously slain all being filled wiâ—h Rapine and Murther There fell as well without as within the Walls where the Slaughter was greatest Three Thousand Five Hundred and the Prisoners were above Six Thousand most of the English escaping by the Benefit of their Tongue Duke Hamilton having his Thigh broken died there and amongst the Prisoners of most Note were the Earls of Derby Cleveland Lauderdale Rothes Carnworth Kelley as also Packington Greves Fanshaw the King's Secretary and many other Noble Persons taken in their Flight It is a Wonder that the King escaped the Diligence of his Pursuers but the Means by which he escaped doubles the Miracle Five Poor Brethren by Name Pendrills with Francis Yates married to their Sister and Three Females their Companions who concealed conducted and nourisht him justly merited the Glory not only of saving a Citizen as they had done before in the Person of the Earl of Derby whom they had formerly secured but of preserving their Prince No Threats of Punishments or Death nor the offer of a Thousand Pounds to those who discovered him would prevail with these however needy Plebeians whose Loyalty surmounted both their Hopes and their Fears The King having spent several Days in this miserable Solitude passed through many Hands of both Sexes and Religions Men and Women of the Middle and Lowest Sort. And by many Accidents and Spottings of Fortune wandering as it were in a Cloud for the space of Two Months he at length going on Board a small Collier and not unknown to the Master at Bright-hemston in Sussex was conveyed together with the Lord Wilmott his Achates and Companion in Dangers into France reserved by Divine Providence for the Glories that attended his Restitution At Rohan he discovered himself to some English Merchants where he changed his Apparel and went the next Day to Paris where his Fame arriving before him he was met in the way by the Queen his Mother and the Duke of Orleance with a great Train of Nobility Thus convoyed he was brought to Court where he was received with the Applause of all Men and the particular Congratulations of the French King and all the Peers of that Kingdom BOOK II. Cromwell enters London Triumphantly Continuation of the Irish Affairs Ormond leaves Ireland and Clanrickard his Deputy there Ireton dyes of the Plague Monk takes Sterling Dundee and Subjugates Scotland The Isles of Scilly Barbadoes Garnsey Jersey and that of Man surrendered to the Regicides Their Greatness They are courted by the Neighbouring Kings and States They send a solemn Embassy into Holland Cromwell cabals Turns out the mock-Mock-Parliament Chooses another Is chosen Protector The Wars with the United Provinces The various Sea-Fights betwixt the Two States Cromwell makes a Peace with them and a League with France The Expedition of San Domingo and Jamaica Blake's success at Tunis and Santa Cruz. Dunkirk taken The Death of Oliver Cromwell His Character THE Scotch Army being defeated at Worcester and Lesley Midleton and the other Chief Officers who fled with the Horse taken Cromwell having sent his Prisoners before him entered London the Westminster and City Senates and Grandees receiving him with all imaginable Honour and Flatteries And now the Common-wealth having overcome all their Enemies exceedingly gloried in their Acquisitions Ireland was also subdued the remaining Natives being transported into Connaught But of these Tumults it will be expedient to treat more particularly Ireton having been left by his Father-in-law to command in Ireland as
against the King and the Government and Blasphemy against God daring to say That if they were deceived or misled God had deceived them Thus no less wickedly than foolishly charging God with their Fancies and Delusions year 1661 The King having dissolved his First Parliament which he had honoured with the Title of the Healing Parliament had summon'd another 'T is remarkable with what Industry the Presbyterians stickled in the Elections to choose Members of their own Faction Tho to no purpose for the People now freed from the Impostures of the Godly using their own Liberty in giving their Voices and not forgetful of the Tyranny of the Disciplinarians did openly reject them which mainly contributed to the Settlement of the Peace and Religion of the Kingdom So that this Parliament by their endeavours to restore the Commonwealth to its antient Splendor so far irritated those Wasps of Independency and Presbytery that they did dare to buz after a New Change The Champions of the late Anarchy were the principal in this Conspiracy But being detected before they broke out the * Barebone Moyer Salmon c. chief of them being apprehended the design vanished without doing any great harm except to the Contrivers of it year 1662 About the end of this Year the Novellists were again suspected to hatch new Designs which gained Credit so far that the City Train'd-Bands kept extraordinary Guards all the following Summer But the Plot being discovered by the Confession of one of the Actors in it was also expiated by the Execution of Philips Tongue Gibs and Stubs for High-Treason They had conceived a new Form of Government their most secret Councils being actuated by a Juncto of Six Ludlow the Regicide was designed to be their General having devoted the King the Duke and the present Government to Destruction and to surrogate a new Domination of Enthusiasticks in their Place Nor were the Fanaticks deterred with these Severities against so many Criminals The Poyson diffused and the Factions uniting closer amongst themselves contrive how to lay the Foundation of a New War Their Consciences were so exagitated with their former Guilt that their Fear of Punishment obliged them to move in Contempt of the King's Mercy as well as his Justice The executed Regicides were represented to the People as Martyrs and their last Speeches upon the Gallows were obtruded as the Oracles of expiring Saints The Pulpits thundred Curses and Terrors and the Streets crowded with Libels One amongst the rest that magnified the Example of Ehud who kill'd the King of Moab by Surprise was timely supprest as it was peeping Abroad year 1663. May 21. The unquiet Faction were still acting or contriving and now they lay the Scene further off They designed to intercept the Castle of Dublin together with the Lord Lieutenant the Duke of Ormond in the Desguise of Labourers whilst others were appointed to seize the Tower of London and White-Hall and others again to surprise the Passages of the Severne Trent and Tine by possessing themselves of Nottingham Gloucester and New-Castle All the Rable of Sectaries were engaged in this Conspiracy some of Cromwell's Old Souldiers as also the Assertors of the Long Parliament how dissenting soever amongst themselves yet agreeing like Herod and Pilate to ruin the Government and crucify the Lord 's Anointed But this as the rest of their Conspiracies vanisht in Smoke Fifteen of them confronted and convicted of this Black Treason being executed some at Leeds in York shire some at York who dyed not only in their Impenitency but with strange contempt of Death it self London the Old Forge of Rebellion had also its Pseudo-Martyrs a Printer being hanged for publishing Seditious Pasquils and others Pillory'd for the same Crimes Preludes to the designed Attempts of these bold Enthusiasticks year 1664 And yet they continue their Endeavours by false Rumors to separate the King from his Friends and by the same Arts more strictly to unite theirs amongst themselves They would begin a New Rebellion by the intercepting of Carlile In order to which some of them met at Kirby-Stevens but being fewer in Number than were expected they again dispersed themselves Three only being taken who having been also engaged in the former Conspiracy were executed as Travtors at Appelby Their Names were Waller Weatherhead and Petty fit to be inserted in the Martyrology of these Perjur'd Saints In the following Years these Domestick Evils broke out with new Violence taking rise from our Distractions occasioned by the War with the Dutch and the Plague raging amongst us to which it may be presumed the Negligence of our Inferiour Magistrates did so much contribute The Sword the Pestilence and Fire which well-nigh consumed the City as if they mockt at the publick Calamities were made use of to enrage the very Madness of the People exagitating their Consternations with fictitious Stories and Prophesies and not obscurely pointing at our Chief Magistrates and Governours as the Authors and Causes of all these Calamities This subtile and contagious Spirit of Rebellion creeping into the Minds of Men did at length infect with its Poison the very Parliament it self which will too evidently appear by the Sequel In the mean time Eight of the late Vsurper's Veteranes were hanged at Tyburn for contriving to murther the King and subvert the Common-wealth One Alexander furnished these Wretches with Money and Advice for the carrying on of their Wickedness but they deferred the executing of their Designs till the Third of December following for having erected a Scheme they fancied that would be a Fortunate Day a Planet averse to Monarchy being then predominant year 1666 The Scourges of War and Pestilence were followed by a terrible Conflagration in London Where however Thirteen Thousand Houses were consumed with the Fire the Sacrifice could not expiate their former Rebellion and their not opposing the Murther of their Sovereign which some of them had encouraged all permitted The Tumults in Scotland were carryed on with the same Licentiousness and Contempt of Authority Sir James Turner for his more severe Prosecution of the Laws against Dissenters as was pretended was barbarously used by them to the endangering of his Life For being violently taken out of his Bed at Dunfreese he was by the wild Rabble dragg'd naked into the Market-Place hardly escaping their Fury by the Perswasion of some of the more moderate amongst them Nor were they contemptible for Numbers being by the Accession of the Multitude encreased to Sixteen Hundred so that they durst march in a Body towards Edenburgh But being at Glencarne and fought by the Royallists they were broke and routed Five Hundred of them were slain upon the place and One Hundred taken whereof some of them being affixt to the Gallows for the Terror of others the rest were pardoned by the King's Clemency year 1678 But now the Factious have new Matter to work upon the Odium of conspiring being thrown upon the Papists All Things were quiet at Home Our Wars
usually attributed to his Counsellours with the usual Reflections upon himself But the Misfortunes and what Errors were committed ought truly to be laid at their Doors which they were not ignorant of seeing the Parliament absolutely denied to supply the Necessities of the Crown both at Home and Abroad whereby things often miscarried The Parliament publish their Remonstrance and Money was sometimes raised by extraordinary Ways But the King informed of their Design and not ignorant of the Force of ingenious Calumny had desired them not to emit the said Remonstrance not that he feared the Truth but that he apprehended the Poison of plausible Malice But these modest Men refused to comply in so small a matter with their King which produced an Answer from his Majesty no less just and reasonable to all Men of Sense than that monstrous Libel was fertile of falsity and imposture The Commons to gain Credit to the Terrors wherewith they had exagitated the People and lest they should have the least Suspicion of hazard to the Service of God 1641. Frame the Protestation had in May framed a Protestation and Oath without acquainting the King or House of Lords with it which rendered it ipso facto illegal which was swallowed by most Men none of the Lower House nor scarce any of the Upper refusing it and afterwards imposed upon the whole Kingdom which generally took it without observing the Poison hid under it This Protestation appeared very plausible at first sight promising to defend Religion according to Law and the King according to Religion if it had not administred occasion to those fictitious Bug-bears of Fears and Jealousies or planed and ushered the way to that rebellious Confederation called the Covenant betwixt these perfidious Wretches and their no less perfidious Brethren the Scots The Faction also in process of time explaining this Protestation affirmed their meaning to be That by the true Reformed Protestant Religion expressed in the Doctrine of the Church of England against all Popery and Popish Innovations contrary to the same Doctrine is meant only the publick Doctrine professed in the Church so far as it is opposite to Popery and Popish Innovation and that the said words are not to extend to the maintaining of any Form of Worship Discipline or Government nor of any Rites or Ceremonies of the said Church of England so that upon the Matter it seems manifest that the Hierarchy of Bishops and the Liturgy were plainly designed for Extirpation The other Arts whereby the Bell-weathers of the Faction daily incensed the People were the feigning and then themselves detecting of Plots and Conspiracies and imaginary Designs wherewith they strangely troubled and afrighted the giddy Rabble who by an implicit Credulity believed all that was told them to the prejudice of the King or his Friends whom they stigmatized with the odious Characters of Papists and Malignants Nor was it an Artifice of less Cunning in them to procure Subscriptions from the unthinking Crowd to occasional Petitions of their own framing pretending Grievances and Dangers and demanding Remedies against them as in publick Calamities On the other side the King hitherto patient seeing his Clemency more and more abused by the Contumacy of his Adversaries resolved to punish these Disturbers of the Publick Peace And being informed that some Members of Parliament had private Meeting and Caballing with the Scots who also had countenanced the late Tumults he gave Warrants to seize their Papers and secure their Persons but they being withdrawn he caused One of the Vpper House and Five of the Lower to be accused of High-Treason His Majesty had had Advertisement of their Caballing when he was in Scotland but had forbore them hitherto upon hope that his Indulgence might have laid the Storms these Men had raised but finding the contrary he caused them to be Impeach'd by his Attorney General Sir Ed. Herbert and sent a Sergeant at Arms to demand them of the House which they were so far from complying with that they immediately voted That no Person whatsoever should offer to Arrest or Detain any Member of that House without Order from the House But they had forgot their own Resolves in Sir George Ratcliff's Case who being a Member of the Parliament in Ireland had it determined against him That no Privilege of Parliament there nor here should reach to Protect him in Case of High-Treason The King therefore entring their House in Person The King enters the House of Commons required they should be delivered to the Law The Crimes objected against them were That amongst other Things they had endeavoured to subvert the Laws had invited Foreigners the Scots to Invade the Kingdom that they had raised Tumults and Seditions and had alienated the Subjects Affections from their King But these Traytors having private Notice of the Design against them by one of the * Countess of Carlisle Court Ladies withdrew themselves into Westminster-Hall where hiding themselves that Night they in the Morning fled into the City from whence they in a few Days returned with no less Pomp than Impudence 'T is scarce credible with what Bitterness the seditious calumniating Spirits in the Commons House traduced this Act of the King 's They cryed out Their Privileges were destroyed and that never such Violence had been offered to so great a Court by any of his Predecessors Not considering That there is no Sanctuary for Rebellion which was the present Case and they themselves will hereafter turn out the whole Body of the House During these Traverses the tumultuous Uproars being encouraged by the Puritans grew daily more licentious insomuch that a Preaching Iron-monger dared to throw a Libel intituled To your Tents O Israel into his Majesty's Coach the Multitude bellowing without ceasing Privileges of Parliament Privileges of Parliament The Parliament hereupon transfer their Session into the City their Adjournment being to keep up the Belief that they did not Sit in Safety and to countenance the Attempt upon the Militia which they now were designing where infusing into the People gave them also a false Alarm by their Emissaries who running through the Streets of the City at dead time of the Night cryed terribly A terrible Alarm in the City That the King was coming with an Army of Papists to destroy them which wrought so effectually that the Inhabitants raised with the Horrour of the imaginary Danger took Arms and in an instant got into a Body of no less than Fourty Thousand Men whilst the Women also filled the Streets with Benches Stools Tubs c. to hinder the Passage of the Horse and provided scalding Water to throw upon them The Non-appearance of these Souldiers in the Air could not undeceive the People being kept warm with successive hourly Discoveries of Plots and Dangers so that the Parliament which was returned guarded by great Numbers from London to Westminster as it were in Triumph importuned the King again for Guards and that under the
Command of Essex pretending Danger from I know not what Ambushes and Conspiracies But the King though he shewed the Vanity of these imaginary Terrors and offered his own Person Bayl for their Security was not heard Nay he offered them Two Hundred of the City Militia under the Command of the Lord Chamberlain whose Province it was to take care of the Parliament which they rejected ordering Two Companies under Skippon a Slave to the Faction to attend them whilst an infinite Number of the enraged Rabble as it were assaulting Whitehall and Westminster crying No Bishop Down with Antichrist c. forced the King's Friends who would have entered the House to retire And these Fellows being for the most part such whose Domestick Affairs were either inconsiderable or desperate and consequently as usual most busie and most concerned for the Publick exclude and force away the Bishops knowing them to be immoveable in their Loyalty and Obedience to the King and Government Twelve Bishops committed to the Tower And when this Sacred Order had protested against this Violence the Houses enraged at it sent Twelve of them whom they had voted Guilty of High-Treason to the Tower whereby they secured themselves from their Votes destroying afterwards as much as in them lay their very Function Nor did these Miscreants forbear to vomit their Gall against the Sacred Person of the King himself by villainous and licentious Speeches some of them crying out That he was the Traytor others That the Young Prince would govern better and a prime Leader yell'd out That the King was not fit to live Insomuch that his Majesty perceiving their unbridled Rage which was cherished by those Sons of Violence in the Houses and having though in vain attempted all ways to appease their Fury he removed with his Queen and Children to Hampton-Court After some Stay there his Majesty and the Queen went to Dover with the Princess Mary married some Time since to the Prince of Orange from whence the Queen passed into Holland The Queen goes to Holland under Pretext of conveying her Daughter to her Husband but truly to secure her Person which was not meanly threatned upon Account of her Religion and Conjugal Affection At Canterbury being every where importuned by Messages from the Parliament he was perswaded though much against his Will to Sign a Bill for taking away the Bishops Votes in Parliament But no Concession could satisfie Unreasonable Men insomuch that his Majesty being returned to Greenwich he went thence with the Prince and Duke of York to Theobalds and so Northwards This Conduct as it happened proved Fatal to the King And some prudent Men did then wonder that his Majesty would leave the City the Seat of his Kingdom which had been also that of his Predecessors filled with Multitudes of his Friends abounding in Riches and all Military Provisions and the only proper place both for Peace and War The King leaves Whitehall and withdraw himself into the Country where all these Advantages were wanting But the Terrors wherewith his Followers and particularly the Royal Family were agitated and the Apprehensions his Majesty had entertained upon their Account as also the Hopes that these Animosities and Heats in the Lower House might cool in Time seem to excuse his Retreat Nor was the King so abandoned by his People but that many honest and brave Men as well of their own Accord as very many more by Gurney the Lord Mayor's Procurement mingled themselves with the Rabble with design to defend the King 's Sacred Person from the Insults and Violence of the Crowd if they should presume to attempt any thing against him Nay the whole Society of Grays-Inn which shewed That the Law as well as Reason was for him coming to Whitehall in order offered themselves to guard his Majesty which seasonable profession of Duty drew from the King both his Acknowledgements and Thanks though he otherwise waved the offer supposing those popular Heats and Insurrections might be best allayed by removing and yielding and lest also he might be thought to meditate a War But the Parliament to add Credit at least Colour to the Terrors they had imbued the People with gave Power to the Sheriffs and Justices of Peace in the Counties to suppress all seditious and suspected Assemblies and seize upon all Arms and Instruments of War and secure the same Amongst other terrible Triflings it was affirmed That the Lord Digby and Colonel Lunsford had appeared in Arms at Kingstone with great Numbers though their Cavalry amounted but to a hired Coach with Six Horses which they ordered to be suppressed and the Colonel was taken and sent to the Tower After this they follow the King to Royston with an insolent Petition and goes Northward wherein they demanded the Tower the Fortresses and Militia of the Kingdom to be delivered to them But these being inseparable Flowers of the Crown were not to be parted with to any and his Majesty being again pressed to it continued immoveable telling them in short That their Fears and Doubts and Jealousies which he looked upon as wild and irregular were such as he would take time to satisfie the World of but that his own were not trivial occasioned by the many scandalous Pamphlets seditious Sermons sundry publick Tumults hitherto uninquired into and unpunished But the Faction seeing the Constancy of the King formed a Declaration wherein after a nauseous Enumeration of Grievances Fears and Jealousies they again peremptorily demand the disposal of the Militia and being again refused resolved to extort it from their King with all their Force Nor was it absurd in them for being conscious of their Crimes and Deserts they could not imagine how to secure themselves from the Punishment due to their Guilt but by asserting the Power of the Sword in their own Hands They therefore passed their Ordinance for the Militia though with solemn protesting That they had not the least Intention or Purpose of any War with the King but how falsly which made it swallowed the easier They then seized upon the Fleet The Parliament arm and the King is excluded at Hull appointing the Earl of Warwick their Admiral and possessed themselves of Hull lest the King should secure the Magazine there by whose Governour his Majesty when he would have entered the Town was shut out by an unheard-of Insolence and manifest Disobedience And this is that Hotham the unhappy Monument of improsperous Infidelity who falling from one Inconstancy to another suffered at length Punishment together with his Eldest Son who to aggravate his Misery was executed before him due to so flagitious a Crime being beheaded by those for whose Sake he had so desperately rebelled The Dye of War being thus cast at Hull the Parties flew out into open Action but lest they should not pretend Justice the Cause was defended on both Sides with Declarations Apologies and other publick Writings which because they are extant I will only add That
Holland under pretence of conducting as is already observed her Daughter the Lady Mary to the Prince of Orange her Husband for which pious and just Fact tho they formerly looked upon it as a Scandal when it was rumoured that they had a Design to accuse her she was proclaimed Traytor by these barbarous and worst of Rebels Some were of Opinion that the Faction was not ignorant of the Conveyance of this Treasure but connived at it upon a Supposition that the King upon the Confidence of it might be more refractary to their Demands and consequently engage in a War against them which they mainly desired as the plausiblest way to ruine him His Majesty notwithstanding the Accession of his Friends and Power desired the Ways of Peace not War Earl of Southampton Earl of Dorset But all his Messages and gracious Offers though sent to them by the Principal Nobles about him were rejected with Scorn and Insolence For the impetuous Faction in the House having a great Army on Foot and abundance of Treasure would hearken to no Accommodation This obliged his Majesty to intend his Safety the more so that levying Soldiers in the Counties he passed he daily increased even beyond Expectation For having made a solemn Protestation at the head of his Men at Wellington The King 's solemn Protestation viz. That he would defend the Protestant Religion as by Law established The Laws of the Land and the Liberty and Property of the Subject his Numbers visibly augmented Passing through Chester into Wales having made a Pathetick Speech to the Inhabitants thereof and gained entirely upon their Affections naturally inclined to serve their Prince he went thence to Shrewsbury where the Country being assembled by his Order he at the Head of them made this following Oration which for its Excellency and that it contains the Ground and the Truth of the Quarrel I thought fit to insert here Gentlemen and Speech to the Gentry and Inhabitants near Shrews-bury IT is some Benefit to me from the Insolence and Misfortunes which have driven me about that they have brought me to so good a part of my Kingdom and to so faithful a part of my People I hope neither you nor I shall repent in coming hither I will do my part that you may not and of you I was confident before I came The Residence of an Army is not usually pleasant to any Place and mine may carry more Fear with it since it may be thought robb'd and spoiled of all my own and such Terror used to fright and keep all men from supplying of me I must only live upon the Aid and Relief of my People But be not afraid I would to God my poor Subjects suffered no more by the Insolence and Violence of that Army raised against me though they have made themselves wanton even with Plenty than you shall do by mine and yet I fear I cannot prevent all Disorders I will do my best and this I promise you no man shall be a loser by me if I can help it I have sent hither for a Mint I will melt down all my own Plate and expose all my Lands to Sale or Mortgage that if it be possible I may not bring the least pressure upon you In the mean time I have summoned you hither to do that for me and your selves for the Maintenance of your Religion and the Laws of the Land by which you enjoy all that you have which other men do against us Do not suffer so good a Cause to be lost for want of supplying me with that which will be taken from you by those who pursue me with this violence And whilst these ill men sacrifice their Money Plate and utmost Industry to destroy the Commonwealth be you no less liberal to preserve it Assure your selves if it please God to bless me with Success I shall remember the Assistance that every particular man here gives me to his Advantage However it will hereafter how furiously soever the minds of men are now possest be Honour and Comfort to you that with some Charge and Trouble to your selves you did your part to support the King and preserve the Kingdom With this Speech and the Majesty and Reverence of his Person the People as it were inspired listed themselves by Troops in this Sacred Warfare so that the King being in a little time become Master of considerable and formidable Forces dared to provoke that Enemy whom he had hitherto avoided Essex goes to his Army Essex was waited upon in great State by the Parliament-Members out of Town and with quick Marches hastens to Northampton the Rendezvous of his Army consisting of Fourteen Thousand Men high and confident seeing they were to combat fresh and for the most part undisciplined Soldiers Amongst other Instructions Essex had received a Petition from his Masters to be presented to the King wherein they desire That his Majesty would desert his Followers who were REBELS and TRAYTORS and suffer them to be suppressed by the Earl of Essex But his Majesty abominating so sinful a Thought The King marches towards London leaving Shrewsbury marched with Six Thousand Foot Three Thousand brave Horse and Two Thousand Dragoons towards London This unexpected Motion of the King perplexed the City and Senate not a little before disordered with the Success of Prince Rupert who had broke and destroyed a Wing of their Horse near Worcester and kill'd Sands the Colonel Both Houses therefore to obviate the Danger from the King's Army and lest he should attempt the City where it was supposed the Parliament might easiest be suppress'd exhort the City-Militia to stand upon their Guard to watch to raise such Fortifications as could suddenly be made to make Batteries for their Cannon dig Trenches and set up Courts of Guard for the Souldiers omitting nothing for their Defence against the King's feared Approach They also sent Ten Companies to secure Windsor whilst they Imprison such of their Citizens as were suspected to Favour the King's Party Essex in the mean Time came to Worcester quitted by the Royallists where he continued whilst the King passed by without giving his Majesty any Interruption But the Rebels followed close in his Rear which he perceiving turned short upon them lest he should be enclosed betwixt the Rebels and the Rebellious City of London This occasioned that memorable Battel the first of these Unhappy Wars which was fought in the Vale of Red-Horse not absurdly called so considering the streams of Blood which were spill'd there that Day The Parties fought with equal Courage and Fortune though both pretended to the Victory which had been infallibly the King 's and the Rebellion stifled in its Infancy if the Right Wing of our Horse had not pursued the Enemy farther than they ought to have done But God who was not pleased that our Sins should be expiated at a Common Rate determined otherwise The Battel of Edge-Hill Oct. 23. 1642. The Royallists
for haste by the Bell-Rope and taking Horse ran away with his Troop for which Crime he had been cashier'd had it not been for the powerful Mediation of his Friends I mention this of this so famous Chieftain in the following Wars to shew how the Temperature of Body and Mind may by Use and Ambition be entirely altered The King takes Banbury-Castle c. The King continued his March having the Town and Castle of Banbury surrendred to him in his Way the Two Regiments of Foot and Troop of Horse which Garrisoned there putting themselves under his Majesty's Protection and Pay Broughton the Lord Say's House was also delivered and now the King with many Prisoners and Captive-Colonels entred triumphantly into Oxford Enters triumphantly into Oxford But he did not stay long there for Prince Rupert with a great Body of Horse swiftly moving up and down the Country infested all the Ways and Avenues to London on that Side and the King following with the rest of the Army assaulted and forced Brentford Hollis and Hamden's Regiments with part of the Lord Brookes's routed at Brentford breaking Two of the Enemies best Regiments there taking Eleven Colours and Thirteen Pieces of Ordnance which were sunk by reason of their Encumbrance in the adjoining River Many were slain and drowned and Five Hundred were made Prisoners but the King gave these their Liberty upon their Engagement never to bear Arms again against his Majesty But the Parliament loth to lose so many brave Men ordered Stephen Marshall a fierce Presbyterian Minister to absolve them from the Religion of their Oaths which he did with a more than Pontifical Authority The Consternation this blow occasioned filled the City with Terror They shut their Shops immediately upon the News and mustering their Trained-Bands and Auxiliaries joining with such Forces of their Army as were nearest Essex drew them all up in Battalia upon Turnham-Green Essex at Turnham-Green Three Thousand who lay at Kingston were also sent for for which their General was after blamed for abandoning so considerable a Post which might have distressed the King if made good For his Majesty having Intelligence of the numerous Strength of the Rebels and indeed wanting Bullets for a Skirmish lest he might be surrounded by them retreating over Kingston-Bridge abandoned as is said broke it down after him and having garrisoned Redding in his Way returned triumphantly to Oxford Whilst these Things were a-doing the City and the Two Houses apprehending the King's Advance had sent for Essex to whom they had given Five Thousand Pound as an Acknowledgment for his great Services at Edge-hill to hasten to their Succour But the King being gone the Citizens returned to their Labours and the Essexians to recruit their shatter'd Regiments with new Levies The King being come to Oxford The King returns to Oxford and Fortifies it and finding it a Place very commodious to make his head Quarters of it being in the Heart of the Kingdom and not far from London commanded it to be Fortified which the Rebels had seasonably omitted to do and surrounded with a deep Moat and Bulworks according to the Modern Practice which was done with all imaginable Diligence and Haste In the mean Time the War was carried on in other Provinces of the Kingdom with no less Courage and Vigour Not only the Towns and Counties but most of the best Families divided in their Opinions many engaging according to their Interest but most according as they affected the Parties But the various Battels Fights Velitations Sieges and the like as they deserve no Triumphs happening in a Civil War so they merit a better Description than is yet extant for they were for the most part eminent for Courage famous for Conduct and by so much the more severe in their Actings by how much the Parties were the more excited with the Opinion of doing well I do not therefore design to relate the whole War as being above my Force I will leave that Province to the Writers of Histories and content my self to describe the Chief Actions of it and those Things I my self for the most part saw but with designed Brevity Whilst the Armies were in their Winter-Quarters they were not so idle but that many Horse-Skirmishes Excursions Velitations Beating-up of Quarters and the like Feats of War were daily practised and that with various Success The King's Affairs had hitherto succeeded well considering his Circumstances although he never received any Advantage without Sorrow seeing it was gained from his Subjects And hence it was that as often as his Arms were Successful his Thoughts were intent upon Peace pressing and inviting the obdurate Faction to it by reiterated Letters and Messages though to no purpose for those Puritans relying upon the Assistance of their Brethren the Scots were wholly averse from it They had indeed formerly sent Propositions to the King at York but more severe than any Denunciation of War Several fruitless Attempts for Peace The Chief were That the Chief Officers of State should be of their naming and the Militia by Sea and Land at their disposing That the King should disband his Forces abandon his Friends and not dispose of his Children but by their Consent His Majesty did not refuse an Answer to these Demands although they seemed rather Impositions of Slavery than Peace which he sent by the Marquis of Hartford and the Earl of Southampton Two Eminent Noble-men with Command to deliver it in the House of Lords But being refused Admission they returned without having effected any thing Neither were the Mediation of the French and Dutch though offered by both how sincerely I know not accepted by the Houses who answered That they could not suffer that any Foreign Prince or State especially the French should interpose in their Affairs And to shew how little they valued the Monsieur his Coach was stopped and searched for Letters as he was passing to Oxford his Complaint of that Insolence being slurred over with a faint Excuse The Parliament would admit of the Scots their Brethren in Iniquity whom the King did justly reject as equally Rebels They had indeed formerly after the Battel of Edge-hill upon the King 's Advance with his victorious Army towards London apprehending his Approach sent Two Lords and Three Commoners to stay him under Pretence of treating which when they could not they seemed in Revenge upon his Majesty's Retreat to resolve to treat no more though afterwards upon the Instance of some of the more moderate amongst them they again sent Twelve Delegates to Oxford with Demands rather than Propositions the Chief whereof were Jan. 30. 1642. That his Majesty should Disband his Army Return to the Parliament Abolish Episcopacy Abandon the Militia to their Disposal c. The King on the other Side demanded His Revenues his Magazines his Cities Navies Fortresses c. and that whatever they had done contrary to Law should be Abrogated But nothing was concluded
in Order Essex marches to the Relief of Glocester Essex mustered his Army the Members of both Houses being present upon Hounsley-Heath which did not exceed Ten Thousand Men too weak for the Expedition they were designed but being much reinforced by the City-Auxiliaries and Trained-Bands marched that Night to Colebroke and so forward Glocester seated upon the Banks of Severne was with the Addition of some Works and the River esteemed strong Colonel Massey an active and vigilant Commander was Governour strengthened with Two Regiments of Foot and Two Troops of Horse who however vigorously attacked did no less vigorously oppose Force to Force Sallies to Assaults and Countermines to the Mines from without But in truth neither understood the Methods of besieging or defending as yet that Part of War being but in its Infancy amongst us But we must allow the Defensive to have carried it here seeing they held it out until the Arrival of their Succours The King being advertized of the Enemies Advance sent Prince Rupert with all the Horse to retard their March which he did by continual Excursions Velitations and forcing of Posts and Quarters At Stow in the Wowld the Prince drawing all his Horse in one continued Line upon the Side of the Hill made a very great Appearance On the contrary the Rebels march up the Ascent in Battalia Lieutenant Colonel Bayly with the City-Regiments were in the Left-Wing and Colonel Harvey with his Regiment of Horse and Two of Foot being some-what advanced in the Right the Prince sent a strong Party with orders to endeavour to get betwixt them and Home which being perceived Three Regiments more were presently sent to his Assistance the which with the Thunder of their Cannon obliged the Royallists after some skirmishing to retire to their Body which being composed only of Horse did also give way to this great Army which advanced upon them The King preferring the Blessings of Peace before the Triumphs of Victory sent a Trumpeter with Propositions to Essex who answered crudely enough That he had Orders to relieve Glocester not to treat which he also did the King rising from the Siege at his Approach and passing the River with a Resolution to fight the Rebels upon their return And this seemed another Omission The Siege of Glocester raised for if the King had fought them before they reached the Town he had probably either beaten them or impeded their Progress both or either of which would infallibly have obliged them to surrender Essex having relieved the Town his next Care was to preserve his Army especially the Londoners the Chief Strength of it which he in a great Manner did by his Surprizal of Cirencester where he found Store of Provisions which he much wanted The Royallists obstructing the Enemy in their Return upon every Occasion fell into their Rear upon Auburne Chase with all their Horse forcing it up to their Main Body They charged them a second Time with the same Success but having no Foot by the Advance of their Enemies and the Night they retreated with little loss save that of de Vieuville a French Marquiss The Rebels lost many as well slain as taken The next Morning the King's Army being drawn up near Newbury having the River on their Right-Hand expected the Rebels there The Battel of Newbury There was a little Hill Five Hundred Paces from the Town which the Cavaliers had possessed and fortified with Guns Essex perceiving it and having no other way to pass he himself with his own Regiment and C. Barclay and Holborne's Brigades attacks it bravely being as bravely received by the Royallists Stapleton with his own Regiment and that of the General 's Guards charging the Earl of Carnarven was repulsed but the Earl pursuing too far was kill'd by a Shot in the Head of his own Men a Person no less remarkable for his Fortitude and Fidelity to the King than for the Nobleness of his Extraction Prince Rupert valiantly charging the Right-Wing of the Rebels who were rallied again did again disorder them driving them to the Entry of the Lane by which they were come But the Cavaliers were forced to make as much hast back having been saluted with a Volley of Shot from the adverse Foot posted there and not without loss The King 's Right and the Enemies Left-Wing being hindred by Hedges and Inclosures fought only by small Parties and light Skirmishes Nor had the Foot though they fought stoutly any signal Advantages of each other the Earl of Brentford on the King's side and Major General Skippon on the Rebels behaving themselves with equal Courage and Vigilancy The Royallists had taken some Field-pieces which they were forced to quit again with loss The approaching Evening put an end to this bloody Contest and the King's Army rallied and drew up again as at first in the Field where they had fought with design to renew the Combat in the Morning which yet they did not being content to send Major General Harvey who had lately deserted them with a strong Party of Horse and Foot to fall in their Rear They had also stood in Arms all Night not retreating before the Morning at which time they were close followed and charged their Rear-guard commanded by Stapleton being forced up to their Foot with considerable Loss There were slain on the King's Side many eminent Persons as the Earls of Carnarven and Sunderland the Wise Lord Faukland and Colonel Morgan with others The Rebels also lost many but of no great Quality being most Plebeians And this was the End of the famous Expedition of Glocester wherein Essex and his Party had gained much Honour if they had not fought against their King Nor did the Royallists behave themselves less Valiantly though more Commendably as having the Better Cause The Rebel Parliament invite the Scots to their Aid The Men at Westminster being heightned with this Appearance of Success which carried more Noise with it by reason of the Loss on the King's Side of so many Noblemen whereas they had but few to expose they yet prudently considering the Equality of the Balance not over-confident in their own Strength invited the Presbyterian Scots to their Assistance and to oblige them the more strictly to their Party being not to be gained by the ordinary Stipend of Mercenaries they mutually oblige themselves by a Solemn League and Covenant contrary to all Laws Humane and Divine to extirpate Episcopacy and the Liturgy and to obtrude in their Places the Scottish Ecclesiastical Discipline built upon the Basis of Rebellion and Tumult Moreover Archbishop Laud retained hitherto in the nauseousness of a Prison was now as Strafford had been formerly to be immolated a Sacrifice to the Malice of these Hirelings and the Revenues of the Church to be divided amongst these Sacrilegious Confederates as will shortly appear This best of Princes might have expected better Things from the Scots as being his Countrymen as well as Subjects Nay he had heaped
so many Graces upon them upon his being in Scotland having refused them nothing they had demanded of him that their Parliament taken with so great Indulgence had decreed That if any whosoever should levy Men or take up Arms upon any Pretence whatsoever except by the King 's Express Order he should be guilty of damnable Treason Nay they profess farther upon Oath That in Case the King's Person should at any Time be endangered they would defend his Majesty's Cause and Honour as they were in Duty bound with their Lives and Fortunes When the King was at Edinbrough he had advanced Two very Ingrateful Persons to great Honour Lesley he made an Earl and Hamilton a Duke The First exstasied with the Greatness of the Favour protested solemnly perjured Wretch That he would never bear Arms more against his Majesty And the other if we may believe publick Fame betrayed all his Master's Counsels to his Enemies but perfidiously concealed Theirs though a Privy Counsellor from his King It may not be unworthy Notice to declare what farther happened at the same Time There was a great Noise rumour'd A pretended Conspiracy against Hamilton and Argyle of a Conspiracy against the Lives of Hamilton and Argyle with some others contrived by the Earl of Crawford and his Party This Report however fictitious and imaginary gained such Credit that the King himself was not obscurely reflected upon Which his righteous Soul took in such Scorn that he could not forbear to tell Hamilton when as the Custom is he delivered him his Patent in Parliament whereby he was created Duke That he did not deserve to be suspected by him who could not choose but remember That at that very Time when he was accused to him of High-Treason he suffered him that very Night to lie in his Bed-Chamber After this the Wars growing Hot in England the King advertised his Privy-Council in That Kingdom of the State of his Affairs in This demanding their Advice and Aid who returned an Answer full of Duty and Loyalty but with a Resolution to perform nothing they had promised For the Business being known at London they of Westminster caressed their lately acknowledged Brethren so effectually that they did not scruple to declare That they would act nothing against the Parliament no not in Favour of the King himself which they also perfidiously faithful did perform Nay more these Ungrateful Wretches forgetful of their Honour and Allegiance invade England with a Great Army causing that Fatal Change in the Kings Affairs till then very Prosperous that cost him his Life and them their Liberty to those whose Encrease they had so obstinately pursued The King perceiving how furiously the prevailing Faction did drive on and that it daily received Strength from London resolved to remove the Parliament to Oxford which he did by publick Proclamation where most of the Lords and amongst them the Earls of Holland Bedford and Clare who were lately come in to the King tho' they left him again with the same Levity and near Two Hundred of the Commons met at a Day The rest in Scorn of their Duty continued at Westminster until they were outed thence by their own Servants The first Business that the Parliament at Oxford undertook was to admonish the Scots by Letters That they should not hostilely Invade England it being no less than High-Treason to attempt it But this as also the King's Dissuasory Message was to no purpose Nay they were so rudely impudent that they caused a Letter writ to them and Signed by all the Lords to be Burnt by the Hands of the Common-Hangman The Scots enter England March 1. They therefore Invade England the Year being far spent with Eighteen thousand Foot Two thousand Horse and One thousand Dragoons and passing the River Tine send their Declaration before them pretending That they designed nothing but the Reformation of Religion the King's Honour and the Peace of the Kingdom The King extreamly surprized with this Invasion having been still kept up with a Belief that the Scots would not enter England finding himself deluded committed Duke Hamilton and his Brother Lanerick who were newly posted out of Scotland as afrighted with the News they brought to Prison The former being accused of several other Treasons also Hamilton sent to Pendennis-Castle was afterwards sent to Pendennis-Castle His Brother escaped to London and so to Scotland which he lately abandoned as unsafe whereof he was Secretary though the Court-Signet had been taken from him But to march with the Scots into England where the Parliament had long since seized upon the King's Castles Forts Arms Ships Revenues Treasure Ornaments c. they now to Complement their new Allies urge their impious Covenant so far that the Subject must either forfeit his Faith or Estate But Religion was always pretended and all their Undertakings veiled with the Masque of Godliness They divest her of her Ornaments under pretence of dressing her and with Impious Hands prophane her Monuments transferred to us from our pious Ancestors who sealed the Faith we own with their Bloods Their zealous Fury extends to our Churches destroying whatever was in them either Reverend for Antiquity or to be Esteemed for its Artifice They turn Temples into Stables and the House of Prayer into a Den of sacrilegious Impurity Amongst other Acts and Triumphs of their Reformation they demolished Charing and Cheapside-Crosses eminent for their Beauty and the Artificiousness of their Structure converting the Superstitious Metals they were composed of to their own Use It may not be from the Purpose to relate a Story of ludicrous as well as impudent Boldness Harry Martin H. Martin Inspects the Regalia who had said in the House That the Felicity of the Nation did not consist in the Family of the Stuarts for which he then to palliate the Impudence had been confined was ordered to Survey the Regalia which he did for breaking the Iron Chest wherein they were kept he took out of it the Crown Sceptre and Vestments belonging to Edward the Confessor wherewith the Kings of England had since been always inaugurated saying though falsly with a scornful Laughter There will be no more Vse of these Trifles With the same unmannerly Impudence he caused George Withers a pitiful Poet then present to be dressed in those Royal Vestments who being also Crowned walked at first stately up and down but afterward putting himself into a Thousand Mimick Postures endeavoured to expose those Sacred Ornaments to the Contempt and Derision of the By-standers These afterwards as also the Robes and Plate belonging to the Church were sold Nor could they be perswaded to leave one Silver Cup to be used at the Communion affirming with barbarous Sacrilege That a wooden Dish would serve the Turn Nor is it any wonder That these Sacred Vtensils were thus abused when the Sacred Function of Ministers was so Inhumanely treated of whom a Hundred and Fifteen in the City and Suburbs were for their
Colonel Delbier and Colonel Tompson who were wounded Nor did Waller insult long for his Forces being joined to Essex's both were designed to besiege Oxford The King having Notice of the Enemies Intentions sent the Queen toward the West and himself having left a strong Garrison in the City with Three thousand Horse and Four thousand Foot marched towards Worcester The Two Generals follow the King with Two distinct Camps but meeting again at Burford Essex joining Massey to Waller sent them a King-catching as they termed it whilst he himself moves with his Army into the West to subdue those Counties By this means they were both defeated for the King slipping by Waller returned with quick Marches to Burford where he met his Cannon and Ammunition from Oxford and afterwards encountring Waller at Copredy-Bridge Eleven thousand strong overcame him Copredy-Bridge Fight June 20. The Enemy had possessed themselves of a Hill from whence watching the Royallists Motion they bravely attempted them in their Passage of the Bridge but being as bravely recieved by the Earls of Northampton and Cleveland who commanded the Rear they were beaten and routed The Rebels lost their Cannon near a Thousand wounded and slain besides several of their Officers Waller being ruined the King hastens after Essex and came with his Army to Liskard Eight Miles from Lestithiel where the Rebels lay Encamped Essex had taken Taunton and Weymouth in his Way and being advanced near Exeter the Queen who was brought to Bed in that City of the Princess Henrietta sent a Trumpet to him to desire him to forbear from Hostility for some little time till she was recovered but she was denied A while after she sending again to him for a Pass to go to the Bath was brutishly refused with this Answer That Essex his Rudeness to the Queen if she would go to London where she might be furnished with every Thing necessary for her Health he would send her a Convoy adding he knew no other way Whilst Essex was upon his March it was sharply contested at a Council of War Whether he should proceed in his Journey Westward or return and fight the King who was not far off lest if he continued his March he might when he came into the Straits of Cornwall be inclosed betwixt him and Prince Maurice then in those Parts And this was the Opinion of the wisest part of the Council but did not prevail for the Lord Roberts was earnest to advance and relieve Plymouth which had been a long Time besieged which done he sheweth them Cornwall where they might quickly be recruited by means of his Dependants and Friends and obtain an easie Victory of Prince Maurice who would be in no competent Condition to oppose them And this Opinion the worst by the Sequel carried it The Royallists fierce with their late Victory demanded to be brought to the Enemy But the King though not without commending their Ardor thinking to gain a bloodless Victory commanded all the Passages and Avenues to the Camp to be shut up The King himself who joined Prince Maurice near Exeter lay at Boconnock sending Sir Richard Greenville to Bodmin and Sir Jacob Ashly to Hule Goring with Horse and Sir William Basset with Fifteen Hundred Foot were sent Westward with strict Orders to stop and cut off all manner of Provisions from the Besieged so that the Enemy reduced to great Wants and Distress were willing to treat which was no less willingly assented to by his Majesty to whom no Victory was more grateful than when he overcame his Enemies by their own Consent The Horse commanded by Balfore He leaves his Camp to the King's Mercy and flies Essex defeated Sept. 1. under pretence of Skirmishing and drawing out to Fight broke through the Intervals of our Quarters and came safely to Saltash and thence to Plymouth leaving their Foot and Cannon to Mercy The General himself with Roberts and some others secured themselves likewise taking Boat at Foy for Plymouth But yet he could not escape the Obloquy of some who wond'red that so great a General should leave so brave an Army in such certain Danger though others excused him he having thereby conserved himself and his Chief Officers and Souldiers for the Service of the Commonwealth But all Men blamed Waller Manchester and especially Middleton because they seemed to loyter when they should have made all imaginable Haste to his Assistance The Foot being thus abandoned sent Commissioners to the King to treat about the Surrender of the Camp which was easily assented to Quarter being granted to all and their Swords and Pistols to all above the Degree of Corporals There were found in the Camp Forty Brass Pieces of Ordnance Two hundred Barrels of Powder and Arms for Nine thousand Men. Several Hundreds of the Foot took Arms with the Victorious and the rest had Liberty to go where they pleased upon Condition they should serve no more against the King But these as well as they of Brandford broke their Words violating their Promises with the same perfidious Levity for being come to Basing they were again armed And it was observed that none fought so eagerly against the King as those very Fellows An usual Testimony of their Gratitude The King raised with no Success but in order to Peace did now again from Tavestock as he had formerly done from Evesham court the Two Houses by a Message to them earnestly desiring they would appoint some Commissioners to treat but all to no purpose His Majesty had likewise invited Essex when besieged at Lestithiel very graciously to join Forces with him that so they might jointly procure what they both so earnestly contended for the Peace and Happiness of the Kingdom Wherein also he should lay an Eternal Obligation upon his King and if any should oppose their Pious Endeavours they would render them happy whether they would or not But he wretchedly neglected this amicable Summons affirming That his Orders were to fight not to treat Essex being strengthened by the Accession of his old Foot by several City-Regiments by Manchester's Army as also other Forces under the Commands of Waller Browne and other Chiefs of the Party grew suddenly so numerous that he again attempted the King at Newbury He had designed before any more Action to repair to the Parliament and give them an Account of the Misfortune of his Expedition as also to excuse it But they perceiving his Design writ to him that they were satisfied that nothing happened by any Omission of his and therefore being assured of his Fidelity and Courage they desire him not to despond but chearfully to prosecute the War adding further that he should endeavour with all his Power to hinder the King's Return to Oxford and rather hazard a Battel than suffer him to pass thither which he also did and it was fought on both Sides with equal Conduct and Bravery until the Night parted them The second Battel of Newbury The King had possest himself
with most of his Garrison did such Execution upon them that he pursued them to Dundalk which he also took by Assault forcing O Neal to pass the River for his Security For all this the Enemies by the general Defection of the Nation grew so numerous that they threatned Dublin and filling the Villages and Country round extreamly obstructed their Markets and Commerce by their Cavalcades There were no less than Twenty Thousand reckoned in this Province of Lemster but they wanted Skill and Military Conduct so that they waged War with Numbers not Understanding Whilst the English who were but few and had received no great Assistance out of England did not only oppose but dared to provoke them beating routing killing and destroying them in well-nigh all the Encounters they had with them for being well armed well led and well disciplin'd they easily vanquished so effeminate and so unknowing and Enemy The Cruelty of the English in Ireland But as the Brittish were more brave so they were no less cruel than the Irish revenging the Barbarousness of their Adversaries with equal Inhumanity For they destroyed many Thousands of them ruining with Fire and Sword and pillaging all they met with reducing a well planted most fertile Country into a Solitary Desart whereby they did not only destroy the Natives but created to themselves irreparable Mischief and Desolation by ruining that which they should have subsisted with Hence grew those Wants upon them which they had occasioned and were now forced to combat a stronger Enemy than they had yet encountred as Hunger want of Pay Clothes and all other Nutriments of War Which they had in vain expected from the Parliament its self now Rebellious and so far from assisting them Their Necessities that they themselves seized upon the Money designed for Ireland taking a Hundred Thousand Pounds of it at once and employing those Regiments raised for that Service under the Lord Wharton to fight their own King as they did at Edge-hill in that unnatural Rebellion Seeing this they earnestly petitioned his Majesty for their Discharge or to be transferred to any other Warfare where they might contend with any Enemy but Hunger Ormond makes a Cessation with the Irish The King being thus daily sollicited by the pressing Miseries of his Subjects and seeing no other way to relieve or deliver them commanded the Earl of Ormond to make a Cessation with the Irish for a Year which he did and to send Three Thousand of the Protestant Army into England leaving the Garrison well provided to assist him to oppose the Rebellious Scots who then invaded him This Cessation was variously censured according to the Interest or Inclination of Parties Such who disapproved it cried out against the Transportation of the Soldiery pretending It would expose the Protestants that remained and be of too much Advantage to the Rebels But others more discerning and equal were of Opinion That it is always better to save a Citizen than destroy an Enemy It was the prime Interest of a Prince to preserve himself Ireland was not so formidable but when England was quiet it might be reclaimed by fair Means or by foul There was more Danger from the Puritans who threatned Ruine to Religion and Monarchy The Parliamentarians and Scots-Irish refused to be included in this Truce being supported with Money and Supplies out of England which was denied the Royallists by reason of their unshaken Fidelity to their King which neither the Threats nor Allurements of the now English Rebels could blemish or overcome Ormond now Marquess and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland improved this Cessation with much Prudence and Industry by a continued Treaty into a Peace which being proclaimed at Dublin and Kilkenny Then a. Peace he followed thither with Fourteen Hundred Men where he was received by the Supreme Council with due Respect and State who also surrendred the Government which they had thus long managed into his Hands But this Calm did not last long most of the Chief Towns and Great Officers as Preston and Owen Roe O Neal with others dissenting The Archbishop of Firme the Popes Nuntio not only protested against this Peace but adding the Thunder of Excommunication renewed the War with more violence than ever Ormond ran no small Hazard of being intercepted in his Retreat to Dublin where he was given for lost and therefore received with very extraordinary Joy by the People year 1646 The War had been continued betwixt the Dissenting Brittains and the Irish ever since the Cessation with various Fortune But now thinking that a fair Opportunity did present it self by the Absence of the English Army for the Conquest of the whole Kingdom they join all their Forces together and raised with some late Successes for Owen Roe O Neal had defeated Monroe and his Scots in Vlster slain above Five Hundred of his Men taken Five Field-pieces all his Baggage and Five Thousand Arms they besiege Dublin by Land The Nuntio dissents and besieges Dublin which was also block'd up by the Parliament-Ships now equally Rebels which lay before the Haven The Lord Lieutenant unable to resist so many Enemies and destitute of all hopes of Relief Ormond unable to preserve it delivers it to the English acquainted his Majesty with the present State of Affairs who seeing it impossible to defend the Place commanded him to deliver it rather into the Hands of the Parliamentarians than the Irish An irrefragable Testimony against the black Calumnies of the English Rebels who did not cease to accuse his Majesty of Intelligence with the Irish But it will not seem very strange to Posterity that the Miscreants of the Faction should endeavour to assassinate the Fame of this glorious Sufferer when they had already usurped his Authority and that all the steps they made tended to the martyrizing of his Person 'T is true their Brethren of Ireland pretended That they were owned and authorised by his Majesty and to amuse and engage the silly Crowd shewed them a fictitious Commission with a Great Seal affixed to it belonging to a Patent of the Lord Caulefield which Sir Phelim O Neal took together with the said Lord in the Castle of Charlemont Which he afterwards confessed at his Tryal and being urged further by the Judges to declare Why he did so deceive the People He repsied That no Man could blame him to use all Means whatsoever to promote that Cause he had so far engaged in Although this Sir Phelim had been the principal and bloodiest of all the Rebels yet before Sentence he was offered his Liberty and his Estate if he would prove he had had such a Commission from the King But he generously answered He could not and That he would not further burthen his Conscience by unjust calumniating the King The King vindicated from any Correspondence with the Rebels Being upon the Gallows and ready to be turned off one Peake and another came posting to the Place and crying
requiring That the Treaty with the King might be renewed and the Army paid off and disbanded But their reception was very rude being beaten and plundered and slain by their Guards Insomuch that the Kentish-men having likewise framed a Petition for Peace upon the like usage by a Party of Horse and being threatned to have two harged out of each Parish that were Promoters of it and the rest sequestered they threw away their Paper and betook them to their Arms. The first appearance of an Insurrection broke out in the City of London being accidental not upon the King's Accompt The Parliament had piously voted down Holy-days abrogating all the Festivals of the Church having appointed one Day in every Month in lieu of them for Publik Recreations The Apprentices as usually had met in some Numbers in Moor-Fields on the 9th of April to play and divert themselves But this being Sunday moved the Zeal of some precize Schismatical Officers of the Trained-Bands who with their Guards would force them away but were themselves routed by the Boys with Stones and Clubs who also took their Colours from them and in a Childish Bravery marching into the Streets frighted Warner the then Mayor into his House and taking away a Drake from his Door Planted it at Lud-Gate nearest the Foe the Army then about White-Hall But Fairfax on the Morrow following ent'ring with some Regiments of Horse and Foot at Alders-Gate easily dispersed them though then numerous no Person of Quality undertaking their Conduct The Fame of this tumultuous Insurrection or rather Riot was quickly noised throughout the Kingdom which although strangled in its Infancy seemed to animate the oppressed populace to follow the Example whereby they might redeem themselves and Liberties from their impending slavery The Welch were the first that took up Arms under the Conduct of Major General Laughorn The Welch in Armes and the Collonels Poyer and Powell all Three formerly stiff Assertors of the Parliaments Jurisdiction But now being to be disbanded by Orders of the Council of War of the Army they refuse to obey And the better to secure themselves declare for the King acting by Commission and Powers from the then Prince of Wales Laughorn grew suddenly by the accession of Major General Stradling and others of the King's Party to a considerable Army esteemed Eight Thousand strong which rendered him Master of the Town and Castles of Pembroke and Tenby Sir Nicholas Kemish at the same time surprized Chepstow Castle and Sir John Owen another eminent Cavalier in North wales defeated and took the High-Sheriff of Caernarvan So that all Wales seemed at once to shake off that cruel Yoak they laboured under Nor were the preparatives for a War of the Kentish-men less considerable For As also the Kentishmen Rendezvouzing near Rochester they chose the Earl of Norwich then upon the place to be their General Very many Apprentices and reformed Officers and Souldiers flocked from London daily to them Insomuch that the Juncto terrified with the apprehension of what might happen restored to the City their Militia which they feared otherwise might be extorted from them hoping by this Confidence to render them more addicted to their interest Which also happened not upon sentiments of generosity but to manifest their aversness to oppressed Monarchy even then when it was in their Power to restore it Skippon being also readmitted to the Command of their Forces the Communication with Kent was interrupted by placing Guards upon the Passages of the River But the Clouds that threatned the fiercest storm gathered in the North where Sir Marmaduke Langdale Sir Charles Lucas and others having surprized the strong Town of Berwick Berwick and Carlile surprized and Sir Phillip Musgrave and Sir Thomas Glenham that of Carlile and raised considerable Forces to joyn with the Scots now ready to enter England seemed no less able than willing to effect what they pretended the King's Restitution Though it be true that the Scots-Declaration had so many untoward Restrictions in it that nothing but the Frank Loyalty of the Royallists could joyn with them Upon the first noise of the Scots arming many English repaired into Scotland which obliged them at Westminster by their Deputies to require the delivery of the chief of them as Incendiaries They named particularly Wogan who carried a Troop thither with Sir Thomas Glenham and others But the Scots refused it seeing it was not stipulated in the Treaties betwixt both Nations They not judging those to be Incendiaries between the Two Kingdoms but only between the King and England These Revolts and Preparations for a new War did strangely disquiet the pretended Parliament who thereupon reviving their Votes of 1642. declare That it appears that the King seduced by wicked Counsel though then a close Prisoner intends to make War against the Parliament Cromwell being dispatcht against the Welch with great Forces the Kentish Expedition was not thought unworthy Fairfax's Conduct He therefore marches with Six Thousand Foot and Two Thousand Horse against the Cavaliers who being fatally divided whilst they Fight singly by Parties they are all overcome Fifteen Hundred stout Men were sent to Maidstone Fairfax defeats the Kentish-men to oppose their Enemies Passage there who fought with so much Valour that after they had been beaten from the Avenues and Hedges they kept that Town firing from the Houses and Leads about the space of Six Hours with great slaughter of the Enemy So that it is believed if the Earl of Norwich had come up with the rest of the Army to their Assistance the Rebels might have been defeated that Day But he dividing his Forces sent half of them to Dover and himself marched with the rest to Black-heath and being denied a Passage through the City which had been promised him he Ferries and Swims his small Army over to the Isle of Doggs From thence he moved to Mild-end-Green But seeing none come out of London to his relief as he expected he himself with only Five Hundred the rest being upon the obstinacy of the Citizens slipt from him joyned with the Essexians at Bow under the Command of Sir Charles Lucas They all stay'd here some time to favour any Loyal Attempt that might be made at London until warned by the approach of Fairfax who having dispatcht Rich and Barkstead with their Regiments to reduce those Castles which the Kentish had taken towards the Downs had passed the Thames at Graves-End they were also forced to dislodge And marching further into the Country seized store of Arms and Ammunition in the Earl of Warwick's House at Lees and having surprized the Parliament-Committee at Chelmsford went thence to Colchester where the brave Lord Capell joyned them with some Horse And all of them received the Van of Fairfax's Army with such Gallantry at the Towns-end that they forced them to retire to their main Body with considerable Loss They had designed to march further if they had not been so
in writing against the Jurisdiction of the Court But it was not permitted the President saying He would admit nothing against the Parliament from which there was no appeal And so the King was remitted and the Court Adjourned Three Days after the King was again brought before this Impious Court where He desired the President cloathed now in Scarlet suitable to the Bloody Design of the Day to be heard a Word hoping to give no occasion of interruption But the President refused him saying The Court must be first heard And thereupon told the Auditors how the Prisoner had been several times convented and brought before the Court to make Answer to a Charge of Treason and other Crimes Which he not only refused to do but took upon him to offer Reasonings and Debates against the Authority of the Court and the Highest Court that constituted them to try and judge him which being considered as also his Contumacy and the Probability of the Fact they had resolved to pronounce Sentence against him But the Prisoner desiring to be first heard the Court was content to hear him provided he said nothing against the Authority thereof The King then said Since they would hear nothing of Debate concerning what he thought most material for the Peace of the Kingdom he would wave it only tell them That all Things had been taken from him this many a Day but what he valued dearer than his Life his Conscience and his Honour And if he had respect to his Life more than the Peace of the Kingdoms and the Liberty of the Subject certainly he would have made a Particular Defence for himself whereby he might have at least delayed an ugly Sentence which he believed would pass upon him And therefore if his Zeal to his Country had not overborn the Care that he had of his own Preservation he should have gone another Way to Work He conceived That a hasty Sentence once passed might be sooner repented of than recalled And the same desire that he had for the Peace of the Kingdom and the Liberty of the Subject more than his own particular did make him now at last desire that having something to to say that concerns both he might be heard in the Painted-Chamber before the Lords and Commons This delay could not be prejudical to them whatsoever he said If Reason it would be worth the Hearing if otherwise those who heard him might judge He therefore conjured them as they loved what they pretended the Liberty of the Subject and Peace of the Kingdom that they would grant him a Hearing before Sentence past If not he did protest that so fair shews of Liberty and Peace were but meer shews and not otherwise and that they would not hear their King This being heard however the President had said That it was but a new Delay and a farther declining the Jurisdiction of the Court yet there were some amongst the Judges who would reason the Business in Private And lest they might seem to dissent amongst themselves they withdrew into the Court of Wards Where after some sharp Contests They Vote That what the King had tendered tended to delay Several of the Judges were of a contrary Opinion desiring to know what the King would say to them But it was voted by the major part in the Negative whereupon some of them exagitated with the Terrors of their Consciences went away in discontent The rest being returned into the Court the President in a very long nauseous Speech ripping up all the Misfortunes and Errors committed in the Government imputed them to the King He further affirmed That Kings were inferiour to the People and to the Laws producing Examples of some Kings of England deposed from the Government which happened by Parliaments no less impious than this and more particularly in Scotland where of 109 Kings near half were removed by untimely Ends. This tedious and hated Speech being ended and the Charge read the Sentence followed in these Terms He is condemned That Charles Stuart as a Tyrant Traytor Murtherer and Public Enemy shall be put to Death by severing his Head from his Body It may not be from the purpose to mention some particular Passages that intervened extraordinarily at the various Sessions of this Court. The King behaved himself with that Firmness of Mind Wisdom and Majesty that he did nothing that was not truly Royal cluding their Epithites of Tyrant and Traytor with Smiles Casualties that happened during his Tryal Some time after the Head of his Cane falling off he was himself forced to take it up not one amongst so many Barbarians offering at so small a Civility and perceiving the By-standers seemed to look upon it as sinistrous he said That was nothing The Second Day the King offered his Reasons in Writing against the Jurisdiction of the Court but was not permitted The Third Day of Meeting the General 's Wife whilst he impiously commanded the equal impious Army ventur'd to disturb the Court when they were baiting the King calling out That was a Lye Adding That the Tenth part of the People she might have said the Hundredth were not of that Opinion but that it was done by the Artifice of that Traytor Cromwell She also blamed the Subjects Irreverence to their King Insomuch that the Souldiery had much to do to silence her though Axtel called her Whore and others moved upon that occasion I cannot tell Whether this may not in some sort Parallel that of Pilates Wife But what I was seriously told by one that was present of Bradshaw's Wife comes nearer She the Morning of the Day that the King was Sentenced rushing into her Husbands Chamber fell upon her Knees at his Feet and dissolved into Tears and Sighs besought her Husband That he would have nothing to do with His Majesty nor Sentence this Earthly King for fear of the dreadful Sentence of the King of Heaven You have no Child said he and why should you do so monstrous an Act to Favour others But Bradshaw bidding her get about her business added I confess he hath done me no Harm nor will I do him any but what the Law commands The Sentence being pronounced his bloody Murtherers Seventy Two of them being present stood up thereby expressing their Assent The King delivered to the Souldiers who abuse and mock him After which His Majesty was hurried away by his Guards the Souldiers instigated by Axtel and Peters crying as he went along Execution Execution as the Jews had done formerly to their Saviour Crucifie him Crucifie him To these the King no less immoveable in Adversity than Prosperity replied Alas poor Souls for a piece of Money they would do so by their own Commanders Which also happened upon the Restauration of Charles II. when some of these Miscreants cryed out for Justice against the King's Judges with no less Violence and Clamour There were amongst these Wretches some who puffed Tobacco the Smell whereof was odious to him in his Face
the Enemies Progress But Cromwell being abundantly furnished with Recruits and Provisions out of England the Winter drawing to an End takes the Field and having possessed himself of some Neighbouring Garrisons forced Goram betrayed by the Sedition of the Souldiers causing Hammond the Governour with some of his chief Officers to be shot to Death in Cold Blood This done he marched with his victorious Troops to Kilkenny Kilkenny besieged and surrendered This City the Nursery of the late Rebellion and the Residence of the Supream Council was by the Diligence of Castle-haven well provided with Defendants and Provisions Nor were they wanting in a generous Defence having repelled the Enemies Assaults with Slaughter of them But all Hopes of relief vanishing Collonel-Butler the Governour at length surrendered it upon reasonable Conditions Clonmell ran the same Fortune though Hugh Oneal who commanded there having beaten off the reiterated Assaults of the Enemy and slain above Two Thousand of their Men was necessitated through want of Powder to quit the place which he did with so much Secresie that the Enemy ignorant of it gave very good Conditions to the Towns men next Morning The Bishop of Rosse with Four Thousand Foot and Three Hundred Horse attempted to The Bishop of Rosse taken and hanged relieve it but unhappily being routed and taken by the Lord Broghill who without any Respect or Reverence to his Character caused him to be hanged up The Bishop of Cloger runs the same fate Emir Mac Mahon Bishop of Cloger who succeeded Oneal in the Command of the Vlster Army ran the same Fate for being overcome by Coot and Venables who had joyned him with Two Regiments of Foot and one of Horse of Cromwell's Army he was also hanged Coot with the same Facility over-ran Vlster routing both Scots and Irish that opposed them and rendering himself Master of their Garrisons on all sides Cromwell returns into England It is now Time to sail back into England where Cromwell is likewise hastening leaving his Son-in Law Ireton in Ireland to finish what he had so prosperously carried on and put an End to the Reliques of that War whilst he himself is destined to new Empires and new Triumphs Nor was there indeed any thing of moment done by the Mock-Parlâ—ament without his Consent or in his Absence save that the Regalia and the Revenues of the Church were exposed to Sail and a nefaricus Tribunal of Mock-Justice erected as well to terrifie as enslave the People During these Traverses the Scots apprehending the Changes of the Presbyterians in England were glad to look back towards their own King whom they had so cruelly offended They knew it would be no difficult Business to raise an Army by the Influence of his Name and Title Nor were they mistaken tho taking Advantage of his Necessities they would impose upon him The Scots send Windram to the King and therefore demand amongst other Things That he should take the Covenant ratify the Decrees of the late Parliament revoke his Commission to Montrosse drive Papists from his Court and Presence renounce his Negative Voice in Parliament and name a place in the Vnited Provinces where they might further treat of all Things These Propositions were sent by Windram of Liberton to his Majesty who was then at Jersey whither he was retired out of France upon the little Prospect of Relief from that Court as also to be nearer England where the Levellers were stirring and near Ireland now wholly except Dublin and London-derry at his Devotion The Confederates had earnestly desired his Presence amongst them and 't is not doubted if he had gone thither but that he would have been absolute Master of the Kingdom Others were of another Opinion urging that if he miscarried in Ireland he would also loose the Hopes he had conceived of the Protestants in England and Scotland As if a Sovereign Prince were not permitted to make use of his own Subjects of what Religion soever they were for his Service and Defence especially they being willing to assist him and he satisfied in their Loyalty But when the News of the Overthrow at Dublin came the Scots demands were taken into Consideration Some of the Council seemed to reject all kind of Commerce with that People affirming That as they had sold and betrayed the Father so when their Fear and Covetousness prompted them they would serve the Son and therefore there was no Faith to be given to such Perfidious Men. But others more moderate in their Councils advised the King by no means to omit the Opportunity which so fairly offered it self but immediately to close with the Scots for that Kingdom being recovered his Attempts upon the other would be less difficult The Queen-Mother was also of this Opinion He is returned with a satisfactory Answer and so was Montrosse who offered now to go into Banishment as Strafford formerly to Death voluntarily rather than interrupt so Hopeful a Peace The King at length perswaded tho not without Repugnancy dispatcht Windram back into Scotland with no unpleasing Answer and Assurance that he would do every thing for the Good of his People appointing moreover Breda a Town in Brabant for the Place of Treaty commanding and desiring the Committee of Estates to send Commissioners thither to meet him on the 5th of March following year 1649 Windram being sent into Scotland the King left the Island as well upon Accompt of the Regicides Preparations to invade it as of his being at Breda by the Time appointed for the Treaty Whilst the King is in his way it may be proper to say somewhat of the Royal Fleet under the Command of Prince Rupert The Rebels being too strong for him he was necessitated to shelter himself in the Haven of Kinsale where he had long been shut up by them And now Cromwell approaching the City with his victorious Army to besiege it by Land he was forced to adventure to Sea and did break through the Enemies Fleet with the Loss of Three of his Ships and directing his Course for Lisbone he entred the River Tagus with full Sail where he found not only a friendly Reception but Protection also from that Prince The Rigicides irritated with this Civility declare War against the Author of it and sending Blake with a Fleet blockt up the Mouth of the River extreamly interrupting the Traffick of Portugal by seizing their Ships in their Return home He lay long there but not being able to oblige that King by Intreaties or Force to abandon the Prince he at length his Provisions being spent was constrained to go seek for more The Prince taking the Opportunity of his Removal put to Sea and sailing towards Malaga took and burnt several English Vessels but Blake pursuing him mastered and seized the Roe-buck a good Man of War and forced Five more upon the Rocks and Shore The Prince escaped this Misfortune tho reserved for a greater for being forced into the Western Islands
Strangers presuming that being annexed to the Kingdom of England they might by that means be one Day together with it restored to the Crown again He therefore upon very honourable Conditions surrenders that Post he could not preserve longer having the King's Permission for it and will in the close of this History grow eminently illustrious for his Services in the Restauration of his Sacred Majesty About that Time the Island of Barbadoes the Richest of our Western Plantations was surrendered to Sir George Ayscue He had for some Months hovered with a Fleet about those Coasts until the Inhabitants destracted with their Intestine Dissensions obliged the Lord Willoughby the Governour to deliver it up which he did upon very good Terms for himself and the Islanders being also followed by the Subjection of the rest of our Occidental Colonies The Rebels had long since been Masters of Garnsey except the Castle situate in the Sea and defended for several Years being relieved by shipping from France and the Neighbouring Isles by Roger Burges the Governour which at length all being lost he likewise quitted stipulating some Months Pay for his Garrison and Permission to depart Col. Haynes a Principal Tribune amongst the Rebels with Two Regiments of Foot and Four Troops of Horse having slain ..... a brave Man at his landing the rest upon the fall of their Leader running away left him the Possession of Jersey There were Two Castles in it almost impregnable but that nothing is so where fear is predominant Mont Orgueil made no Resistance And Castle Elizabeth surrounded with Rocks and the Ocean and consequently inaccessible tho it held out some considerable Time followed the Fate of the Island Sir George Cartaret the Governour having obtained Conditions for himself to pass into France and Impunity for the Islanders that returned to their Houses Finally the Isle of Man hitherto kept by the Noble Countess of Derby who had so bravely defended Lathome House against the Insults of the Rebels closed this Fatal Roll by so much the more illustrious as being the last who fell in Defence of her King and Country After so many Victorious and uninterrupted Successes the Common-wealth grew eminently high enjoying Peace and the quiet Fruition of their Usurped Tyranny The Regicides were not only feared at Home but formidable to their Neighbours And yet one thing seemed still necessary to establish their Government which was to reconcile the King's Party to them But this being not only difficult but impossible with such who preferred their Loyalty and Honour before all things and particularly so sordid a Compliance the Enemy upon consideration of it had several bloody Consults about their Extirpation and Massacre The business was long debated in a Council of War and carried in the Negative as too Cruel but by Two Voices And now what they cannot effect by Severity they will endeavour to compass by fair Means An Amnesty or Act of Oblivion tho with many intricate Exceptions is published which gave hopes to such who lived quietly and peaceably of being in time admitted to Publick Employments in the Common-wealth Nor was it absurd in them to pretend to a continuance of their Usurpation by allaying the Heats and Hate of all Parties But this precaution proved fruitless for an unexpected Adversary of their own hatching starting up amongst themselves did as suddenly suppress them In the mean Time the New Common-wealth as they were great at Home so they were formidable Abroad being acknowledged by all courted by some and looked upon as very considerable by such who affected them least The Spaniard French Portugal Suedes Vnited Provinces and others saluted this Rising State with Embassies being also resaluted in form especially by the Dutch by reason of their Parallel Beginnings and manner of Government St. Johns and Strickland were deputed with great Pomp not only to offer them Peace but to invite them to a Coalition or Incorporating of the Two Nations in One But these Embassadors not having been received with such Warmness as they expected by the States but also used with all manner of Indignities by the Royollists and such who favoured the King they returned home without effecting what they came for fraught with rage and scorn against their Rival-Sister Which afterwards broke out into a most cruel and lasting War as we shall see hereafter Cromwel after the Victory at Worcester as if endued with another Spirit seemed to arrogate the Supreme Power to himself which appeared by his offering to knight Lambert and Fleetwood in the Field of Battle which he had also done if he had not been disswaded by some of his Confidents The War being now ended and he at leisure he reassumed his Thoughts which he had always indulged of his future Greatness He had for as much as in him lay rendered the Parliament odious to the People as the Authors of Bloodshed in Time of Peace and the only Authors of all their Grievances And as he had incited the Agitators to Murther the King he now again stirs them up with the Charms of Promises to persecute this hated Juncto They therefore accuse the Members of it with Covetousness Tyranny and a Design of perpetuating themselves in their Empire They tell how they had arrogated to themselves their Friends and Dependants all the Honours Commands and Lucrative Employments of the Kingdom They therefore whose Arms were not Mercenary but taken up in Defence of their Common Liberty and who would not lay them down till they had obtained the ends they strove for did how ever threatned require That the Parliament should at length put a Period to their Session and let another more equal Representative be chosen in their Place The Commanders hoped perhaps to be elected in their Rooms And some undoubtedly had a regard to Liberty that the People might not still be subjected to the same Masters The Senators were not a little perplexed with these Novelties the Army especially mutinying to that Height that some of the Common Souldiers did impudently dare to draw their Swords upon their Lords with Threats and Insultings Nay the Citizens of London sometimes their best Friends who had so often promised and protested to live and dye with them actuated with the same Spirit of Sedition do now question their Integrity blame their Conduct and disown their Proceedings Things being at this pass Cromwel having convened the Chief Officers of the Army and several of the pretended Members of the Juncto in the Speaker's House declaimed highly against the present State of Affairs demonstrating that there was no Good to be hoped or expected from a Parliament so constituted as being corrupt and designing to perpetuate it self He added somewhat of a mixt and well tempered Monarchy which how ever magnified by the Lawyers who were present as most consonant to the Laws and Genius of the Nation was highly opposed by the Officers who were more than Monarchs in their Commands and Governments Some had proposed to elect
with his Ships of War and fights retreating The Third day the Battle being renewed the Dutch after a stout Conflict got away by Favour of the Darkness having lost Eleven of their Men of War and Thirty of the Merchant Ships The English lost the Sampson but saved her Men as also the Captains Mildmay and Ball commanding the Triumph and Vanguard and Blake himself was wounded in his Thigh The slaughter on both sides especially the Enemies was very great Tromp gained great Honour and that deservedly for saving his Fleet justly attributing the Cause of his Retreat to his Care for his Merchants which he convoy'd The Hollanders admonished by their Losses write to the Rump for a Reconciliation but seeing the other Provinces had not concurred their Letters were rejected But what the Dutch lost in the Channel seemed to be compensated by their Victory in the Tyrrehenian Sea off of Leghorn where Van Galen defeated Appelton taking and sinking Fire Men of War He had formerly taken the Phenix at Porta Longona which was afterwards recovered by Cox sometime her Lieunant who in the Night under the Notion of Fisher-men clapt her on Board with a Hundred Men in Three Boats forcing Young Tromp who commanded her to save himself out of the Cabin Window and brought her to Naples The Danes favouring the Dutch had detained an English Fleet in the Sound loaden with Masts Pitch Tar Hemp and other Naval Provisions which the English mainly wanted Nor would they release them although pressed to it by Captain Ball with a great Fleet of War year 1653 In the Beginning of this Year 1653. Cromwell as is mentioned had dislodged the Rump assuming to himself the Supream Authority over these Nations And now the Dutch proposing to themselves much Advantage by this Change and as they supposed unsetled state of Affairs prepare a great Fleet consisting of Fourscore brave Ships of Force Wherewith Tromp sailing out of the Texel made Northwards to meet their French Merchant Fleet coming round Ireland and Great Brittain for fear of the English who obstructed the Passage through the Channel These being sent Home in safety Tromp sailed to Dover which Town he battered with his whole Fleet a whole Day The English in the mean Time under the Command of Monk and Dean sailing along the Coasts of Scotland Denmark and the Belgick Strands carried no less Terror with them June 2. The Coasts having been thus allarm'd on both Sides both Fleets came in Sight of each other and engaged The Fight as usual was brave and bloody Dean was slain by a Cannon Bullet from the first Broad-side but the Dutch in Revenge were so ill treated that the Night coming on they retired towards Dunkirk securing themselves from the Enemies greatest Ships betwixt those known Sands The next Morning the English augmented by the Accession of Blake with Eighteen Ships renewed the Fight and after a sharp Encounter force the Dutch to flye notwithstanding Tromp who put himself at the foremost of them his Endeavours to the contrary The Belgians lost at least Fifteen of their Ships sunk and taken the Dammage the English suffered being very inconsiderable The Conquerours raised with their Success besieged the Havens and Ports of Holland and Zealand to their very great Detriment for the Ships homeward bound ignorant of what had happened fell into the Hands of the Besiegers and those within durst not venture out The Dutch finding the Inequality of the Party send Embassadours into England to treat of Peace where whilst they are disputing about the Conditions the Fleets again meet not far from the Texel This Naval Battel seemed to exceed all the other in Fierceness and Slaughter though nothing memorable happened that or the following Day by reason of the Tempestuousness of the Weather On the Third Day July 31. being the 31st of July the Fleets from the Texel and Zealand being joyned Tromp and De Witt made up to the English who bearing off at Sea by reason of the Sholes and a Lee-shore quickly tackt upon them and receiving their Attack with equal Fortitude and Fierceness at length repelled them The Fight dured from Six in the Morning till Noon Nor did the Party seem unequal until Tromp was slain being shot in the Breast with a Musket Bullet And thus fell this great Man to be mentioned with Honour for the Glory of his Achievements and his skill in Naval Affairs He finished his Course with no less Reputation than he had continued it seeing he died in Defence of his Country and that the War which he had begun expired with him The Admiral being dead the Valour of his Men vanished with him who unequal to the English in Perseverance fled before them with much Disorder and Loss towards the Texel Nor were they much pressed in their Retreat for Monk however successful bought his Victory dear being necessitated to return into England to repair his Breaches and Losses He had Six of his Captains slain and as many wounded and Two of his Ships lost Pen and Lawson did particularly signalize themselves What the Enemy suffered was not known save that Five of their Captains were made Prisoners and scarce Ninty of One Hundred and Twenty Ships they had fought with escaped into the Texel A day of Thanksgiving was appointed in England for this Victory the Chief Officers and Captains of the Fleet being honoured with Gold-Chains and Medals as Marks of their Valour and good Service Opdam a Person of Honour and of the Nobility which is conspicuous in Holland succeeded Tromp in the Command of the Fleet. And now both Republicks weary of the War seemed desirous of Peace which was also concluded betwixt them upon Conditions honourable enough for the English if the Protector too solicitous for the future had not too much apprehended the Young Prince of Orange then in his Nurses Arms. The Danes were included in the Treaty the Price of the detained Ships being paid by the States Peace was likewise concluded with the King of Portugal as also with the Sweeds by splendid Embassies from both Sides A more strickt League was also made with the French and all upon his own Terms For he forced the Dutch and Portuguese to pay the Charges of the War Nor would he conclude with the French without inserting an Article their King being then under Age That France should upon Demand assist him with Ten Thousand Men to establish his Authority against the King against the People and against the Defections of his own Army which he had reason to apprehend Nay they valued the Friendship and Favour of this Usurper at that Rate that they forced King Charles by an unheard of President upon his Demand to leave that Kingdom banishing him out of his very Exile against the Law of Nations which allows Sanctuary to the distressed and against the Rights of Blood and Hospitality Cromwell being offended with Spain or perhaps in Consequence of the League with France Proclaims War against that
began not only to neglect his Equals but to despise his Superiors also But the Army was first to be gained which he endeavoured to do by the usual Charms of Ambition attributing to them the Glories of their Atchievements and the Honour of the late Success He also distributed amongst them the Thousand Pounds which these nefarious Senators had bestowed on him affirming that Presents of that kind were no less due to them by whose Fortitude Great Actions were performed than to him by whose Conduct they were effected With these Arts he rendered the Souldiers not only favourable but subservient to his Designs Whilst he is thus employed he received Letters from the Senate who began to suspect him of ambitious Intreagues but very obligingly writ to invite him to Town which he instantly obeyed being secure in the Souldiers affection and that he might give no Shadow of Distrust by his Delay A Petition from the rest of the Commanders to the Parliament followed the General wherein they required That Fleetwood and Lambert should have the Chief Command and Generalship of the Army The Parliament who had conferred that Province upon their Speaker who had also hitherto commissioned these very Officers startled at so unusual a Demand and fancying if they yielded they were undone Vote That to have any more General-Officers in the Army than are already settled by the Parliament was unnecessary burthensom and dangerous to the Common-wealth But the Souldiers persisting in their arrogant Demands this Vote was followed by another declaring That it should be Treason for any Person or Persons to levy Money without the consent of Parliament By this means these States thought and reasonably enough to render the Souldiers for the future more obedient to them from whom they were to expect their Stipend and Rewards This done they animated perhaps more with Choler than Counsel casheer Lambert as Chief of the Conspiracy and Eight more of the boldest Tribunes of his Party transferring the Chief Command of the Army upon Seven of their own Tribe viz. Fleetwood Monk Hazelrig Ludlow Walton Morley and Overton But the disbanded Officers disdaining to be thus used armed with Revenge and Ambition flew with their Regiments to Westminister filling the Avenues of the Court with their Souldiers resolving to hinder the sitting of the Members The Parliament on the other side loth to dislodge solicited the rest of the Army to their Assistance and had them Being drawn up on both sides they yet past no further than Threats being pacified by the Care and Authority of the Council of State But Lambert gained his desir'd end in hindering the Speaker to go to the House and sending him Home without his Pretorian Troop which had attended him thither and more like a Captive than a General or an Imperial Speaker The Independant Faction being thus divided the Civil Part of it was forced to truckle to the Military and now in Contempt of the Authority of their Senate Fleetwood no great Souldier but a valiant Holder-forth by Suffrage of the Council of Officers was made General and Lambert Lieutenant General to whose Artifice the other was obnoxious They also erected a Council of State or Committee of Safety consisting of Three and Twenty Commissioners most Officers to whom the Supreme Care of the Laws and Government were at present committed with Instructions to introduce a new Form of a Common-wealth The State being thus settled Lambert endeavours by a Declaration to calm the Minds of Men distracted with so many Novelties with the Show and Assurance or their Liberties both Sacred and Civil and sending some of his * Colbet Barrow Confidents into Scotland and Ireland attempts all ways to draw those Armies to his Party But without Success for Ireland being addicted to the Rump continued faithful to them And Monk did dare openly to dissent from the new Modellers Part also of the Fleet under their Vice-Admiral Lawson did sharply demand the Restitution of the Parliament and Portsmouth a strong Sea Town revolted from our Novelists The Committee of Safety being in these Streights provide with their utmost Care Remedies for so many Evils Lambert is sent with a great Army consisting of Twelve Thousand Men against Monk and Forces were likewise sent to reduce Portsmouth the Fleet being invited by Messages and Promises to return to their Obedience But these precautions proved every where fruitless for the Fleet blocking up the Mouth of the Thames persisted in their Obstinacy The Parlamentarians at Portsmouth were grown formidable by the Accession of those that besieged them who had revolted to them and Ireland following the Example of the other Dissenters declared for the Parliament But the greatest Danger that threatned them appeared in the North for Monk in his Letters to Fleetwood did dare to disapprove the Actions of the Army requiring the immediate Restitution of the Parliament And mustering his Army having turn'd out such of his Officers as favoured the contrary Party he marched Southwards and seizes the strong Town of Berwick The Committee of Safety startled with Monk's Proceedings send Embassadors to him to treat of Peace and a mutual Correspondence betwixt them giving out at the same time Commissions and Orders for new Levies being resolved if the Treaty did not succeed to vindicate their Power by Arms. Lambert as is said was marched towards the Confines of the Kingdom with his Army the Committee omitting no Industry whereby they might divert this growing storm in the North. Monk also revolving the Danger and Greatness of his Enterprize will do nothing rashly He apprehended the English Army as brave and numerous and therefore resolves to protract and delay Time His Friends also out of England had assured him that the New Government there was odious to the Nation which would also for want of Money and Council if he delay'd a little fall by its own Weight Moved with these Reasons and the Backwardness of his own Preparations he seems less averse to Peace than formerly and sending Three Delegates to the Committee of Safety magnifies his Desires of an Accomodation These Embassadors met Lambert at York and satisfying him abundantly of the peaceable Inclinations of the Scottish Army wrought so with him that he prohibited the further Advance of his Forces Monk having thus lull'd his Adversaries summons a Convention of the Scots Nobility from whom not obscurely informed or presuming of his Intentions he obtained Contributions for his Army for a Year before-hand allowing them in return Liberty to arm themselves for their Defence In the mean time a Pacification was agreed upon at London betwixt Commissioners of both sides where amongst other things the Name and Family and Royal Title of the Stuarts was wholly excluded a Tyrannous Stratarchy or Club-law being introduced under the Vail of a Free State Monk having received the Articles agreed upon recalls his Commissioners And casting Wilks the principal of them into Prison for exceeding his Orders refuses to ratify the Treaty and
them as St. Johns and others were for imposing Conditions upon the King for they no more doubted of his Restitution that might restrain him from acting beyond their pleasure But His Majesty's Rights and Prerogatives were inviolablely restored to him by the Prudence and noble Endeavours of Monk This enraged the Regicides to that height that they began now to condemn their own Precipitation and Folly accusing themselves of Madness in that that they did persecute Lambert so rashly and unseasonably to their own Destruction They now call to mind how ridiculously they had rejected the King's Gracious Letters presented them by Nevil who had accidentally received them wherein they were assured of Indignity for all their monstrous Crimes and Treasons if they yet at length would return to their Duty They therefore like Men in Despair agitated by the Flagitiousness of their Guilt resolved to vindicate their Crimes by attempting greater and to try the Matter once more by the Sword Nor was it long before an occasion presented it self Lambert who had been imprisoned in the Tower because he had refused to give bail for his good Behaviour had escaped thence and appear'd armed about Northampton Some Sectaries and several disbanded Souldiers repaired to him all the Fanaticks of the Army being upon the Wing till stay'd with the News of his Defeat This Sedition was extinguish'd in its Birth And Lambert being taken by Ingolsby without a Blow hâ—s Party was easily dispersed whilst he was returned into a more safe Custody in the Tower During this Interval of Parliaments the Council of State administer'd Affairs with much Prudence and Courage and putting out a Proclomation against all Disturbers of the Peace easily restrained the Seditious Minds of the most dissenting Monk also purging his Army by the Casheering of Fanaticks and living more familiarly with his Officers than usual reconciled the most fierce amongst them to an Acquiescence in the Resolves of the future Parliament The Disturbers of our Peace being thus suppressed or quieted the Loyal Party as if indued with new Spirits put on more chearful Countenances and shaking off their Fears with their Shackles appeared more eminently conspicuous But being traduced by their Adversaries as thirsting after Revenge and Blood they abundantly demonstrated by their Declaration their own Innocence and the Enemies Malice restifying That they would leave Vengeance to God and Justice to the Disposal of Parliament And now the City of London did also publish a Declaration whereby they endeavoured to clear themselves from the Guilt of the Regicide and Vsurpation as being actuated and oppressed by the Counsels of Despair and Violence Nor will we deny but that they contributed by the like Tumults to the Restitution as they had formerly fomented the War We have hitherto made but little mention of the Particular Actions of our King for we would not intermingle the History of the Best of Princes with that of the most Scelerate of Subjects We shall therefore deliver the Series of his Actions by themselves wherein notwithstanding will appear as Extreams do best shine by Contraries not only the Eminency of his Vertues but the Errors Impieties Rebellions Treasons Slaughters Sacriledges Pride Rapine and Infamy of his Enemies For what Mischief did they not commit and were guilty of After the King 's miraculous Escape from Worcester through a thousand Hazards he at length got safe into France being received at Paris as if sent from Heaven A pregnant Example of the Care of Providence for the Persons of Kings That Monarchy was actuated then with well-nigh the same Spirit of Division which had so lately distracted England the Parisians inveighing against the Errors of the Government and Evil Counsellors pointing particularly at Mazarin with the same Rage and Passion as the Londoners did against Strafford The Princes were grieved that a Stranger should be First Minister of State and would have him therefore removed In order to which they raised an Army obtaining Assistance from Spain that Nation being very officious in helping their Neighbours upon such like Accompts Nor did they find King Lewis unprovided but resolved to oppose them with all his Power King Charles perswaded Lewis and the Princes by his own example to peace but could not prevail tho he carried himself with that Equality that both sides were Jealous of his Conduct For the Princes refused to lay down Arms unless the Cardinal were removed And the King with the Queen-Regent his Mother would not have Laws prescribed to them by their Subjects The Princes had called the Duke of Lorrain to their Aid who also entered France with an Army but returned upon the Interposition of King Charles who had discoursed with him about his undertaking the Protection of Ireland This enraged the Princes against Charles who blamed him much and the Parisians did dare to calumniate and affront him to that Height that he was forced to retire to St. Germains Where he also for the most part continued until a League being made betwixt Cromwell and that Crown which he had opposed in vain he was compelled again to go into Exile out of his very Banishment The Duke of York had thus long served in the Armies of France with such Bravery and Fortitude particularly in the Battle of Estampes that he attracted the Eyes of all Men upon him And his behaviour in General in Court and Camp were so signal that the Duke of Longville would have bestowed his Daughter upon him the greatest Fortune in France And Marshal Turene being very Sick recommended him to his King as the fittest Person in that Great Monarchy to command his Armies But he would not stay in France after the King his Brother though he was offered to be Liuetenant-General of their Forces in Italy but leaving that inhospitable Land accepted the Invitation of Don John the Governour of the Spanish Low-Countries where he largely asserted the Glories of his former Actions The King in his passage to Germany was received at Leige with all imaginable Honour and going thence to the Spaw met his Sister the Princoss of Orange there Very many Persons of Quality as is usual at the Season but in unusal Numbers upon this Occasion were come thither out of the Neighbouring Nations as well to see this Royal Congress as to take the Waters And all of them paid His Majesty as much Reverence and Honour as if he had been their own Natural Prince or would have vyed with us who had the Happiness then to attend him in Duty and Obedience and Veneration for him He was afterwards received at Colen by the Magistrates there which the same Testimonies of good-will and Esteem Where he resolved to fix his Court for some Time as a place delectable and convenient for his Designs A while after he accompanied his Sister in her Return to Holland as far as Dusseldorp where he was magnificently received by the Duke of Newburgh and treated during his Stay with Hunting and other Royal Divertisements Being
returned to Cologn he found his Brother the Duke of Gloucester there lately arrived from France The King had been informed now he had been thrust out of England by the Regicides which they had done to save the Expence of his Maintenance and to Ship-wrack his Religion Besides it was supposed that Cromwell had designed his Removal for that some in his Council had moved his Assumption to the Crown as no ways obnoxious or prejudiced by reason of his Youth as is already mentioned 'T is scarce imaginable with what Constancy he defended his Religion however very young In so much that armed with Instructions from the Lord Hatton and Doctor Cousens he eluded the Assaults of Abbot Montague and the Marquess of Plessis the one employed by the Queen-Regent of France and the other by the Queen of England Neither the charming Pleasures of the French Court nor the Purple Dignities of the Church of Rome nor yet the extream Severities of the Queen his Mother who did not only refuse him his ordinary Sustenance but denied him the Solace of her Benediction were of strength to shake his Faith Which they yet would endeavour to force by shutting him up in the Jesuits Colledge if the King his Brother displeased with these Novelties had not sent the Marquess of Ormond to his Rescue and to bring him to Cologn to him which he did though not without Difficulty But nothing was impossible for this Great Man After this the King went to Franckfort famous for its Marts And in his Progress saluted the Queen Christina of Sweden at Koningsteyn Where after a Reception worthy Two such great Princes and some private Discourses the Duke of Gloucester and his Royal Sister did the same The Marquess of Ormond Earl of Norwich Lord Newburgh and others of His Majesty's Train being also admitted paid that great Princess the Respects due to her Highness The Queen continued her Journey to Insprug where after a splendid Reception from the Arch-Duke she made Public Profession of the Roman Religion The King leaving Franckfort with the universal Acclamations of the People and thundring of their Cannon went to Ments whither he had been invited by that Elector where his Reception was truly Royal. And after three Days Treat parting with the same Magnificence returned to Cologn Nor did his Majesty spend the Time idly whilst the Regicides triumphed in England He had already sent Embassies to all the Princes of Europe to desire their Assistance against his Rebels But with little success though the Cause were Common The French flourishing in Promises made a League with the Regicides The Spaniards though they seemed to grieve at the Murther of the King were yet the first that acknowledged and owned this rising Common-wealth The Grand Seignior corrupted with English Gold delivered Sir Henry Hyde the King's Embassadour at that Court against the Law of Nations into the Hands of the Parricides who Murthered him by cutting off his Head before the Exchange Swedeland was then in an unsetled Condition Portugal unable being attacked both by the Spaniard and Dutch in the Indies Poland was worried with her own Domestick Distractions Denmark was exhausted with the Treasure formerly lent to Charles I. Others indeed restified their good-wills by their Contributions as the Great Duke of Muscovy the Count of Oldenburg the Electors of Mentz and Brandenburg and some other Princes of Germany by the Earl of Rochester's negoriating at Ratisbone But what could this import to make a new and great War Whereas it scarce sufficed to defray the Charges of the Embassies The King then seeing no Hopes of his Restauration from abroad wisely sought a Remedy where the Wound was received from the Benevolence and Loyalty of his Subjects which the Eminence of his Vertues could not in Justice refuse him Neither was he any way wanting to himself but most intent upon all Occasions leaving nothing unattempted whereby he might raise his sinking Affairs He kept constant Correspondence with his Friends in England Caus'd great Disturbances to the Rebels on every side and exposing himself to the Danger did more than once incite the People to arm against the Usurpers He now kept his Court at Bruges in Flanders nearer hand having been invited by the Spaniards repenting their too early Compliments to the Regicides and supplied with 9000 l. per annum which Money was punctually repaid upon His Majesty's Restitution The Duke in the mean Time having recalled all the Kings Subjects in the French Service joyning them with those in the Spanish Low-Countries composed a considerable Body which he commanded with no less Honour than he had done in France although they were well nigh destroyed by the fatal Valour of the English Rebels at Mardike and the Battle of Dunkirk The Duke more illustrious by Misfortunes did not only for some time resist but retard the Progress of the Victors until oppressed by multitudes as is already said he was necessitated to comply with the Fate of the vanquished Cromwell dying soon after however a way seemed thereby to be opened to the Kings Restauration his Majesty received the News of it with remarkable Constancy and Calmness of Mind in no ways insulting though he saw his most Mortal Enemy extinguished in the Person of this Vsurper Cardinal Mazarin however averse to King Charles did at the same time congratulate the Queen his Mother upon the Hopes of her Sons Restauration since he was by the Death of that Tyrant delivered from his most implacable and successful Enemy The sudden Change in England followed by the Deposing of Richard and the Resurrection of the Rump and the other Innovations already mentioned which followed as they augmented the Hopes of the King at Home so they varied the Counsels of Princes abroad Which his Majesty applyed in as much as was possible to his own Use by Negotiations and Embassies But there being now a Treaty in Agitation betwixt France and Spain he would himself be present at it For if a Peace were concluded which was more than probable betwixt these great Princes it was but reasonable to suppose that they might spare some of their numerous Forces to assist an injured King their Ally by Blood and Common Interest And yet the King would rather reduce his Rebel-Subjects to Obedience by the Appearance of his Power than by the Use of his Forces In the mean time accompanied with the Duke of York his Brother and the Marquess of Ormond he hasted Incognito through France having saluted the Queen his Mother at Paris in his way to St. John De Luz where the Great Ministers of the Two Crowns were then in Treaty Don Louis de Haro upon Notice of the Kings Approach went to met and receive him Which he did alighting from his Horse and Embracing and kissing his Knees with as much Honour and Splendour as if he had been his Master the King of Spain The next Day his Majesty was visited by Cardinal Mazarin the other great Plenipotentiary who was
courtly though reserved And yet the King behaved himself with so much charming Prudence to both these Ministers and gained so much upon them that he not only defeated the Designs of Lockhart the Regicides Embassadour then there but having obtained an Assurance of being assisted by the Forces of the Two Crowns for his Restitution he was dismissed with the same Honours he had been received At Paris in his Return he was splendidly treated by the Duke of Orleance as King of England and acknowledged such by all Men none now doubting of his sudden Restauration From thence he came to Brussels entering into that City publickly and with a Pomp worthy his Grandeur where he also was magnificently caressed and where he designed to continue until the Dissolution of the Parliament Whilst these things were in Agitation the Distractions and Risings in England were various the Impatience of the Royal Party to restore their Prince precipitating them as usually into great Inconveniencies And yet they got to a Head in Cheshire under Sir George Booth as is already mentioned and the King himself was in private about St. Malos attending some favourable Occasion to transport him into England These Risings especially Booth's were lookt upon as formidable it being supposed that Monk was intermingled with them But they being supprest every where the King returned again to Brussels in expectation of the event of the Pacification concluded betwixt the Two Crowns He had not continued long there when being informed of the Differences betwixt the Army and Rump his Hopes being raised thereby he took also a Resolution not to be wanting in himself He had tryed the ways of War and had also attempted the perfidious Fidelity of his Enemies but with no Success He will therefore put himself upon other Counsels And seeing Monk commanded the Rebels in Scotland in Chief he will enquire into the Secret of his Intentions and Mind The King had found him a sharp Enemy but Noble free from Calumnies and Revilings nor any way distained with the inexpiable Guilt of the Regicide In the former Wars he had served King Charles I. but being taken and perhaps neglected he preferred Liberty before Confinement and the Management of Arms to the clinking of Shackles It was therefore thought expedient to attempt him under these Circumstances and endeavour to reclaim him with the Charms and Honour of being the Deliverer of his Country and King the Church and State Sir John Greenvill eminent for his Loyalty and of kin to Monk was employed to manage this important Secret Who in order to it having gained Mr. Nicolas Monk a Minister the General 's Brother on whom as Patron he had bestowed a very considerable Benefice he sent him into Scotland with Commission in the King's Name to offer him any Conditions he should please to Demand But Monk wisely suspicious under pretence of the incertain Vicissitudes of Affairs answered ambiguously neither openly declaring his sentiments nor wholly concealing them He also having exacted an Oath of secresie from his Brother sent him back with his Daughter which was the Pretext for his coming into Scotland as also a Message to the Members outed by Lambert to assure them of his Fidelity to the Parliament These Gentlemen raised with these Hopes presumed all things upon that Accompt and was a plausible Vail for him in the modelling and forming his Army according to his Designs But Greenvill being not well satisfied with the Parson's Declaration acquainted the King with it Who notwithstanding the Abstruseness of it drew no ill Augury thence commanding Greenvil to attend the General when he came to London and make all imaginable Enquiry of what Intentions he was towards His Majesty's Restitution And this he happily performed being admitted by the Assistance of Mr. Morrice a great Confident of Monk's and afterwards Secretary of State to the King The Enterview was in Morrice his Chamber where no Body but themselves being present Greenvill delivered Monk the King's Letters To which after Twice reading of them he answered That he would not only comply with the King's Desires but also restore him without Conditions or any the least Diminution of his Royal Authority Neither would he think of any Terms for himself humbly submitting that to the King's Pleasure when he returned Greenvill ecstasi'd with the Joy of his Success desired Letters to the King to testifie so great a Secret but he replied That he would commit nothing to Writing nor send any Body to the King besides himself whom he had found so faithful and secret He hoped His Majesty would Pardon what was past professing That he always had a Veneration for the King and now upon this first Occasion would testifie his Obedience to him with the Hazard of his Life and Fortune Greenvill overjoyed with this happy Conclusion hastened to acquaint the King with it at Brussels who was infinitely pleased with Monk's generous Actings especially having received Letters out of England from some Friends there desiring him to accept of the Isle of Wights Conditions they being the best they could at present procure him But Greenvill was by Advice of Sir Edward Hyde then made Chancellour and the Marquess of Ormond presently returned into England with a Commission for Monk as General of all the Forces in the Three Kingdoms and a Letter all writ with the King 's own Hand full of gracious Expressions and Acknowledgments for so great a Benefit Greenvill had also other Letters which we shall mention in their Place And lest he might himself return empty after he had been so signally meritorious the King honoured him with a Warrant for an Earldom and 3000 l. a Year Whilst these things were in Agitation the English observing that the Treaty betwixt France and Spain upon the Borders would end in a Peace shewed themselves likewise not averse to it especially considering the vast Commerce they always had with the Spanish Countries Hence followed a spontaneous Cessation from Arms. But the King would not expect the Event of it for fear of being imposed upon here as he had been in France and therefore removed his Court to Breda belonging to his Sister the Princess of Orange The sudden Change in England occasioned Changes of Councils And now it was supposed that the King should take shipping from Calais or some Part in Flanders having been earnestly invited thereto from both France and Spain But to content both he accepted of neither but continued at Breda cluding thereby the Arts of both Princes the French Designs as well as those of the Spanish longing for the return of Jamaica and Dunkirk to their Obedience The King then being secure at Breda was saluted there by Deputies from the States-General where he was also magnificently treated by the Publick The Parliament being now met consisting of Two Houses free and full in their Numbers their first Care was to give Publick Thanks to God for rescuing their Country from Usurpation and Tyranny and the next to thank
being husht up by the Treaty of Breda The Plague did devour our People no more its Poison being extinct And the City lately of Wood was now by the King's Munificence rebuilt of Brick and Stone When one Titus Oates who had had his Education and Orders in the Reformea Church of England being afterwards reconciled to that of Rome passed over first into Flanders and thence into Spain Where under pretence of Religion and his Zeal for it he gained so much Favour with the Priests and Jesuits that he had Opportunities as he pretended to penetrate into their most secret Councils This new Proselyte changing Parties again returned into England where he informs the King of a Design of the Papists against his Life against the Reformed Religion and the present Government And naming several Lords as Bellasis Powis Peters Arundel Castelmain Stafford and other Men of Quality as prime Conspirators in this Treason gained so much Credit with the Parliament that the accused were all imprisoned the Papists commanded to remove Ten Miles from the City and all of them to be cashier'd out of all Employments both Military and Civil The mysterious Death of Godfrey inflamed the Parliaments Credulity to Vote That there was a Plot execrable and Hellish as they termed it Insomuch as the King at their instant Desires past a Bill to disable all Popish Peers or other Members so affected to fit in either Houses of Parliament Offering further to comply with any Expedient they should propose for the Security of the Protestant Religion so as they tended not to impeach the Right of Succession Coleman Ireland Pickering Groves Fenwick Whitebread Langhorn Staley Green Berry and Hill condemned by the Testimony of Oates and others of his Associates solemnly attested their Innocence at their Death Nor did so great Effusion of Blood suffice to remove the Jealousies they had of the Papists so that the Houses of Parliament to whom the King had granted all things for the security of Religion not contented with these Concessions proceeded so far as to press the King to remove the Duke of York from his Presence and Councils To this they added the Imprisonment of his Secretary Williamson without his Knowledge Which did so far irritate his Majesty that he dissolved this Parliament after it had continued Seventeen Years Fanaticism which had lurk'd for some Time under a Protestant Mask and infused its Contagion into the Parliament began now under Pretence of Godliness to appear more openly The King having dissolved the Parliament as is said had summon'd another from which he hoped for more good than he had hitherto experimented And lest the Presence of his Brother might prove any Obstacle he commanded him to retire until the Heat of the Faction did a little cool Which he obeyed without Repugnancy that he might in no wise occasion any the least Dissension betwixt the King his Brother and the Parliament But the King's Indulgence and the Duke's Observance were equally valu'd Nor could all his Concessions with those Limitations not meddle with the Succession or his Prerogatives satisfy their Contumacy year 1679 Nay he had dismissed his Privy Council as being ill look'd upon by the Parliament surrogating others in their rooms not so obnoxious to the Faction making the Earl of Shaftsbury President But all this was to no purpose for the Parliament omitting those Things which they were to have treated of and postponing the King's Demands of Subsidies they again attacked the Duke of York absent then in Flanders the Commons voting his Exclusion from the Succession But the King seeing the contumacious Animosity of the Party and not obscurely perceiving that he himself was aimed at through the Duke's Sides July 10. Octob. 17. dissolving this present Parliament commanded another to convene in October following Whilst these things are in Agitation in England the Tumults in Scotland flew higher Dr. Sharp the Arch-bishop of St. Andrews was most inhumanly murthered in his Coach by a Party of the barbarous Covenanters Which done the Rebellion they designed was by the Concourse of those Multitudes that flockt together suddainly formed into a considerable Army consisting of Sixteen Hundred Horse and above Four Thousand Foot Nor were the Royallists less active the King having sent the Duke of Monmouth thither as General who joying with the Scots Nobility they raised such a Force that fighting the Rebels at Bothwel-Bridge chey defeated them The Slaughter was not great for the Enemies Horse not being prest or pursued by the Connivance if not Command of Monmouth for he himself had other Designs as it afterwards appeared retreated in a Body at least Twelve Miles from the Place they had fought in and separating there dispersed themselves some of the Foot being slain A few of the Prisoners were punished for their improsperous Treason After this the King fell sick of a Fever at Windsor which was so violent that the Physitians despaired of his Recovery Upon News whereof the Duke hastened from Brussels to Court But it seemed otherwise good to the Almighty who was pleased to prolong his Life until he could leave the Kingdom agitated at present with so many Distractions settled and composed to his Successor Being restored to his Health the Joy of it was celebrated by the Universality at least the Good Part of the Nation the City also sending their Lord Mayor and Aldermen with a great Train with Thirty Coaches and a Troop of a Hundred Horse for their Convoy to Windsor to congratulate his Hapyy Recovery But Monmouth however illegitimate blinded with Ambition and not content with those great Honours and Places he enjoyed aspired to the Crown it self inviting and alluring with the Baits of Employments and Rewards some of the most interested to his Party But this caballing was discovered to the King by the Earl of Oxford who abhorring the Treason preferr'd his Loyalty before all the Offers of Ambition and Greatness The King being justly incensed against the Ingratitude and Vanity of the Pretender divested him of all those Dignities and Offices which he enjoyed and banished him the Kingdom Moreover to prevent the Chymerical Delusions which the Report of his being married or contracted to the said Duke's Mother might occasion his Majesty by repeated Declarations publickly emitted as also by Writings under his own Hand declared Vpon the Faith of a Christian and the Word of a King that he never Married nor gave any Contract to any Woman whatsoever but to Queen Katharine his Wife This the King did with so much Solemnity to prevent the Peoples being abused by these false and malitious Reports and lest the Factious might thereby mislead them to disturb the Publick Peace or violate the Rights of Succession Whereby also the vain Pretences of Monmouth and the ridiculous Machinations of the Seditious might be disappointed The Parliament 1679. 1680. which the King had summoned to meet in October being delayed by several Motogatives did not come together before the October
II. The Rebellion breaks out in Scotland under Argile in England under Monmouth Both are vanquished taken and executed The Final Ruin and End of the Rebellion ARchibald Campbel Earl of Argile and Son to the late Marquess of that Name who had been beheaded for his Treasons and Rebellion treading in his Fathers steps out went him in adding Ingratitude to his Infidelity For being restored in Blood by the King's Clemency as also to the Dignities and Honours of his Family except the Title of Marquess he forfeited all again by his Caballing and Endeavours to disturb the Publick Peace Which being discovered and he forced to Baâ—ishment by his own Fears he now joyning with Monmouth both Heads of Factions the one in Scotland the other in England both exiled for conspiring the Destruction of the Government and both upon that Accompt looked upon as the Idols of their Parties he now again together with the other contracting their Fury into a last Push being at that time both in Holland resolve with United Councils and the whole Force of their Factions to attempt the Disturbance if not the Ruin of the yet unsetled as they fancied Government of the King To this End they make great Provision of Arms and Ammunition being assisted and furnished very nobly as they said by several good Protestants most Dutch I suppose And having hired several Ships for their Transport they with their Friends and some few Souldiers sailed Argile towards Scotland and Monmouth towards England The Scot was first ready May 2. and setting Sail from the Vlye in Three Ships notwithstanding an Arrest which the States had sent for the searching of them he touched at Orkney where having sent his Secretary and Chyrurgeon on shore to try the Temper of the Inhabitants who seized upon hem he Sailed thence for the West of Scotland and landed at Dunstafnage in Lorne a ruinous Castle May 13. sometime belonging to himself and put a Garrison therein His first Care was to put forth a Manifesto in his own Name and some of his Party had emitted a very large Declaration of Six Sheets of Paper to invite their Country-men and all other well affected Protestants to joyn with them with the old Cant To engage with them for the maintenance of Religion in its Purity and the due Administration of the Laws of their Native Country in Opposition to Arbitrary Government Tyranny Popery and Prelacy against a Persecuting Tyrant and an Apostate Party for so they call the King and his Loyal Subjects Their Colors were Blew and their Motto Pro Deo Patria But these Rebellious Declarations and pretended Protestants found other Entertainment in England being not only marked by the Infamy of Treason but a Vote passed in the House of Commons That they will stand by and assist his Majesty with their Lives and Fortunes against the pretended Earl of Argile and his Adherents and all Rebels and Traitors and all other whatsoever that shall assist him or any of them c. Nor was the Parliament of Scotland less vigorous in their Voting and Acting against the Rebels who however encreased by the Accession of Malignants and Schismatics could not amount to the Number of a just Army Nor did they effect any thing proportionable to the Noise they made for being unequal to the Royallists they were forced to sculk from one Island to another to avoid them Which they easily did by help of their Shipping and Boats until the Arrival of some Vessels of War sent by his Majesty as the Falcon and Mermaid and some other Frigats which shortly after happened Argile having Intelligence of the approach of his Majesty's Ships quitted the Island of Boot and went over to Cowal one of the Divisions of Argile-shire bringing his Vessels and Boats into Loch-fine towards Inverary where they were also blockt up by the King's Ships lying in the Mouth of the said Loch In the mean time Argile having brought his Ships under the Castle of Ellengregg gave out he would fight the Marquess of Athol who lay about Inverary though his Design was to avoid it his Men not finding the People to come in in such Numbers as were promised daily deserting him Nor could his Ships detained by contrary Winds get into Loch-fine but were so discouraged upon the Advancement of the King's-Fisher and Faulcon to the entrance of Lochrowan where they lay that they began to fortifie the said Castle of Ellengregg and a Rock that lies near to it in a little Island for securing their Ships This being done Argile having put his Cannon Arms and Ammunition into the Castle leaving One Hundred and Fifty Men for the Defence of it and his Ships marched away towards the Head of Loch fine and returning thence after an untoward Reception by the Marquess of Athol's Men passed Loch-long marching towards Lenox in Dunbartonshire The same Day his Majesty's Ships came up to the Castle with a Resolution to batter it and to destroy their Ships but upon the firing of the first Gun Two Men came off in a Boat with a White Flag and told them They might save their Labour for there were none to oppose them all the Rebels being fled Whereupon they sent a Boat on Shore and finding it to be so took Possession of the Castle Ships and Boats with Five Thousand Arms Five Hundred Barrels of Powder with Ball and other Stores in Proportion besides the Cannon some whereof were mounted and others sunk but recoverable The Rebels had a Design to blow up the Powder but it was prevented Whilst this was a doing the Argilians marched by the Head of Gaviloch towards the Fords of the River Levin betwixt Loch-Lomand and the Town of Dunbarton The Earl of Dunbarton General of his Majesty's Forces in Scotland was then with the Army at Glascow where having notice that the Rebels had passed the River Levin above Dunbarton Jun. 17 he marched very early in the Morning after them they taking their Way towards Sterling and overtook them in the Parish of Killerne The Horse and Dragoons kept up the Rebels till the Foot arrived But they were posted in so strong a Ground that it being late in the Evening it was not thought fit then to attack them So the King's Army stood in Battle-Array all night as well to prevent Surprisals as to be ready so soon as Day-light appeared to fall upon them But the Rebels with great silence marched off in the Night undiscerned by the Royallists towards the River Clyde which they swam with their Horses wafting their Foot in Boats and so goâ— without any considerable Opposition into Reufrew The King's Army missing the Rebels in the Morning marched with all Diligence to Glascow and thence Dunbarton with his Horse and Dragoons hasted after them leaving the Foot to follow with what speed they could make At Reufrew Sir John Cockram undertook to provide Guides to carry his Friends safe into Galloway but they mistaking the way carried them into a
Finally he hoped to live to shew how Zealous he should ever be for his Majesty's Service And could he say but one word in this Letter he would be convinced of it but it was of that Consequence that he durst not do it and therefore he beg'd once more that he might speak with him For then he would be convinced he should ever be his Majesty's most humble and dutiful Monmouth Being brought to the Tower he did not long survive his Misfortunes July 14. 1685. For being Attainted of High-Treason by An Act of Parliament he was beheaded on a Scaffold for that purpose erected on Tower-Hill He had delivered this following Paper before he mounted the last Stage of his Life referring himself to it in all the Discourses he held upon the Scaffold Which I thought fit to subjoyn I Declare that the Title of King was forced upon me and that it was very much contrary to my Opinion when I was Proclaimed For the Satisfaction of the World I do declare that the late King told me he was never Married to my Mother Having said this I hope that the King who is now will not let my Children suffer on this Accompt And to this I put my Hand this 15th day of July 1685. Monmouth His Actions sufficiently declare his Character And his Body being inhumed by Order in the Chappel of the Tower put an End to his Chimerical Principality and this REBELLION FINIS Books Printed for Thomas Newborough at the Golden-Ball in St. Paul's Church-Yard SEveral Chyrurgical Treatises by R. Wiseman Serjeant Surgeon to his Majesty Fol. New Travels of Monsieur Thevenot into the Levant viz. Into Turkey Persia and the East-Indies Fol. A New and Easy Method to the Art of Dialling Containing all Horizontals all upright Reflecting Dyals and Dyals without Centres Nocturnal and upright Declining Dyals without knowing the Declination of the Plane 2. The most natural and easie way of describing the Currelines of the Sun's Declination on any Plane By Thomas Strode Esq Quarto A New History of China containing a Description of the Politick Government Towns Manners and Customs of the People c. Octavo Geographia Vniversalis the Present State of the World giving an account of the several Religions Customs and Riches of each People the Strength and Government of each Policy and State The curious and most remarkable things in every Region c. By the Sieur Duval Geographer to his Majesty Octavo The Muses Farewel to Slavery Or a Collection of Poems Satyrs and Songs By the Eminent Wits of the Nation the Second Edition Octavo Books Printed for and Sold by Luke Meredith at the Angel in Amen-Corner Books written by the Reverend Dr. Patrick THE Christian's Sacrifice A Treatise shewing the Necessity End and Manner of receiving the Holy Communion together with suitable Prayers and Meditations for every Month in the Year and the principal Festivals in memory of our blessed Saviour In Four Parts The Third Edition corrected The devout Christian instructed how to pray and give thanks to God Or a Book of Devotions for Families and particular Persons in most of the concerns of human life The Second Edition in Twelves An Advice to a Friend The Fourth Edition in Twelves A Friendly Debate between a Conformist and a Nonconformist in Octavo Two parts Jesus and the Resurrection justified by Witnesses in Heaven and in Earth in Two Parts in Octavo new The Glorious Epiphany with the devout Christian's Love to it in Octavo new The Book of Job Paraphras'd in Octavo new The whole Book of Psalms Paraphrased in Octavo Two Volumes The Proverbs of Solomon Paraphrased with Arguments to each Chapter which supply the place of Commenting A Paraphrase upon the Books of Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon with Arguments to each Chapter and Annotations thereupon in 8. The Truth of Christian Religion in Six Books written in Latin by Hugo Grotius and now Translated into English with the Addition of a Seventh Book against the present Roman Church in Octavo Search the Scriptures A Treatise shewing that all Christians ought to read the Holy Books with directions to them therein In Three Parts A Treatise of Repentance and of Fasting especially of the Lent Fast In Three Parts A Discourse concerning Prayer especially of frequenting the Daily publick Prayers In Two Parts A Book for Beginners or a Help to Young Communicants that they may be fitted for the Holy Communion and receive it with profit Books written by Jer. Taylor D. D. and late Lord Bishop of Down and Connor DVctor Dubitantium or the Rule of Conscience in Five Books in Folio The Great Exemplar or the Life and Death of the Holy Jesus in Folio with Figures suitable to every Story engrav'd in Copper whereunto is added the Lives and Martyrdoms of the Apostles by W. Cave D. D. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a Collection of Polemical Discourses addressed against the Enemies of the Church of England both Papists and Fanaticks in large Fol. the Third Edition The Rules and Exercises of holy Living and holy Dying the Eleventh Edition newly Printed in Octavo A Collection of Sermons Fol. The Golden Grove a Choice Manual containing what is to believed practised and desired or prayed for the Prayers being fitted to the several days of the Week also Festival Hymns according to the manner of the Ancient Church Books written by the Reverend J. Goodman D.D. THE Penitent pardoned or a Discourse of the Nature of Sin and the Efficacy of Repentance under the Parable of the Prodigal Son A Winter Evening Conference between Neighbours in Three Parts The Old Religion demonstrated in its Principles and described in the Life and Practice thereof A Serious and Compassionate Enquiry into the Causes of the present Neglect and Contempt of the Protestant Religion and Church of England with several seasonable Considerations offered to all English Protestants tending to perswade them to a Compliance with and Conformity to the Religion and Government of this Church as it is Established by the Laws of the Kingdom A Centry of Select Psalms and Portions of the Psalms of David especially those of Praise turn'd into Meter and fitted to the usual Tunes in Parish Churches for the use of the Charter-House London by J. Patrick Preacher there in Octavo new The Sinner impleaded in his own Court wherein are represented the great Discouragements from Sinning which the Sinner receiveth from Sin it self To which is added the signal Diagnostick whereby we are to judge of our own Affections and as well of our present as future State By Tho. Pierce D. D. Dean of Sarum and Domestick Chaplain to King Charles the Second the Fourth Edition in Quarto Go in peace containing some brief Directions for young Ministers in their Visitations of the Sick Useful for the People in their state both of Health and Sickness In Twelves new The Practical Christian in Four Parts Or a Book of Devotions and Meditations Also with Meditations and Psalms upon the Four last things 1. Death 2. Judgment 3. Hell 4. Heaven By R. Sherlock D. D. Rector of Winwick Octavo The Life and Death of King Charles the First By R. Perenchief D. D. Octavo Bishop Cozen 's Devotions in Twelves Les Provinciales The Mystery of Jesuitism discovered in certain Letters written upon occasion of the present Differences at Sorbonne between the Jansenists and Molinists displaying the pernicious Maxims of the late Casuists with Additionals in Octavo Bishop Taylor 's Opuscula The measures of Friendship with five Letters to Persons changed and tempted to a change in their Religion To which is now added his moral Demonstration proving that the Religion of Jesus Christ is from God Price bound 1 s. Twelves The Countess of Morton's daily Exercise or a Book of Prayers and Rules how to spend the time in the Service and Pleasure of Almighty God the Thirteenth Edition 24. THE END