and a Regiment of the train-bands of Foot to be for a guard unto him caused the oath of Allegiance to be administred unto them But the Parliament thereupon Vote that it appeared the King seduced by wicked Counsell intended to make a war against them and til then if their own Votes should be true must acquitt him from any thing more then an intention as they call it to do it And whosoever should assist him are Traitors by the fundamentall Laws of the Kingdom The Earl of Essex Lord Chamberlain of the Kings Houshould and all other of the Kings Houshould Servants forbid to go to him and the Kings putting some of them out and others in their places Voted to be an injury to the Parliament Messengers were sent for the apprehending of some Earls and Barons about him and some of his Bed-Chamber as if they had been Fellons The Lord Keepers going to him with the great Seal when he sent for him Voted to be a breach of priviledge and pursued with a warrant directed to all Mayors Bayliffs to apprehend him Cause the Kings Rents and Revenues to be brought in to them and forbid any to be paid him Many of his Officers and Servants put out of their places for being Loyall unto him and those that were ill affected to him put in their Rooms and many of his own Servants tempted and procured by rewards and maintenance to tarry with them and be false and active against him The twenty sixt day of May 1642. a Declaration is sent to the King but printed and published before he could receive it That Whatsoever they should Vote is not by Law to bee questioned either by the King or Subjects No precedent can limit or bound their proceedings A Parliament may dispose of any thing wherein the King or peopl have any right The Soveraign power resides in both Houses of Parlament The King hath no Negative voyce The levying of Warre against the personall commands of the King though accompanied with his presence is not a levying of Warre against the King but a levying War against his Laws and authority which they have power to Declare is levying of War against the King Treason cannot be committed against his person otherwise then as he was intrusted They have power to judge whether he discharge his trust or not that if they should follow the highest precedents of other Parliaments Paterns there would be no cause to complain of want of modesty or duty in them and that it belonged only to them to judge of the Law 27 Of May The King by his Proclamation forbids all his Subjects and trayned bands of the Kingdom to Rise March or Muster But the Parliament on the same day Command all Sheriffs Justices of the Peace and Constables within one hundred 50 miles of York to seize and make stay of all Armes and Amunition going thither And Declaring the said Proclamation to bee voyd in Law Command all men to Rise Muster and March and not to Muster or March by any other Authority or Commission and the Sheriffs of all Counties the morrow after Commanded with the posse Comitatus to suppress any of the Kings Subjects that should be drawn thither by his Command Secure and seize upon the Magazines of the Counties Protect all that are Delinquents against him make all to be Delinquents that attend him and censure and put out of the House of Peers nine Lords at once for obeying the Kings summons and going to him 3 June 1642. The King summoning the Ministers Gentry and Free-holders of the County of York declared to them the reasons of providing himselfe a guard and that he had no intention to make a War and the morrow after forbad the Lord Willoughby of Parham to Muster and train the County of Lincolne who under colour of an Ordinance of Parlament for the Militia had began to do it 10. June 1642. The Parlament by a Declaration signifying That the King intended to make a War against his Parlament invited the Citizens of London and all others well affected as they pleased to miscall them within eighty miles of the City to bring money and plate into the Guild-Hall London and to subscribe for Men Horses and Arms to maintain the Protestant Religion the Kings Person and Authority free course of Justice Laws of the Land and priviledges of Parlament and the morrow after send 19 propositions to the King That the great affairs of the Kingdom and Militia may be mannaged by consent and approbation of Parlament all the great Officers of Estate Privy Councell Ambassadors and Ministers of State and Judges to be chosen by them that the Government Education and Marriage of the Kings Children be by their consent and approbation and all the Forts and Castles of the Kingdome under the Command and Custody of such as they should approve of and that no Peers to be made hereafter should sit or vote in Parliament without the consent of Parliament with several other demands which if the King should have granted would at once in effect not onely have undone and put his subjects out of his protection but have deposed both himself and his posterity and then they would proceed to regulate his Revenue and deliver up the Town of Hull into such hands as the King by consent and approbation of Parliament should appoint But the King having the same day before those goodly demands came to his hands being a greater breach of his former priviledges then his demanding of the five Members and Kimbolton it it had not been lawfull for him so to doe could be of theirs granted a Commission of Array for the County of Leicester to the Earl of Huntington and by a letter sent along with it directed it for the present onely to Muster and Array the Trained Bands And 13. June 1642. Declared to the Lords attending him at York That he would not engage them in any War against the Parliament unless it were for his necessary defence whereupon the L. Keeper Littleton who a little before had either been affrighted or seduced by the Parliament to vote their new Militia The Duke of Richmond Marquess Hartford Earl of Salisbury Lord Gray of Ruthen now Earl of Kent and divers Earls and Barons engaged not to obey any Order or Ordinance concerning the Militia had not the Royal assent to it And fourteenth of June 1642. Being informed That the Parliament endeavoured to borrow great summs of money of the City of London and that there was great labour used to perswade his Subjects to furnish horse and money upon pretence of providing a guard for the Parliament By his letter to the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Sheriffs of London disavowing any purpose of making a War declared That He had not the least thought of raising or using of Forces unless he should be compelled to doe it for his own defence and forbiddeth therefore the lending of money or raising
battell of Naseby insomuch as their fellow Rebells the Scotch Commissioners did heavily complain of it were at severall times trifled away and spent before any propositions could be made ready though those which they sent to Oxford Uxbridge New-castle and Hampton Court were but substantially and materially the same with their nineteen Propositions which they made unto the King before the Earl of Essex was made their General and in all the Treaties made Propositions for themselves and the Soveraignty and great offices and places of the Kingdome but would neither for Gods sake or their Kings sake or their Oaths or Conscientes sak or the Peoples sake or Peace sake which the People petitioned and hungred and thirsted for alter or abate one Jota or tittle of them but were so unwilling to have any peace at all as six or seven Messengers or Trumpeters could come from the King before they could be at leisure or so mannerly as to answer one of them but this or that Message from the King was received and read and laid by till a week or when they would after and the Kings Commissioners in the Treaties must forget their due titles of Earles Lords or Knights because the King had made them so since the beginning of the War or else must be neither Treaty nor Peace there At Uxbridge the time of the Treaty limited for 20. days and at New-Castle for 10. and though the King and his Commissioners at Uxbridge almost petioned for a cessation in the interim of that which was at Oxford it could not be granted nor have a few dayes added to it and if the King could in honor and conscience have granted all the other parts of the Propositions must grant them an act not only to consiscate the Estates of his Friends and those that took up armes to save his Life and Estate but to take away their Lives also and not only that but to condemn of high Treason attaint their blood when they that fought against them were only guiltâ— a thing so unfitting and unusually stood upon as it was never asked in any treaty or pacification among the civilized or mor barbarous heathen and amounts to more then Adonibezeks causing the thumbs and great toes of his captive Kings to be cut off and making them to gather the Crumbs from under his table or Benhadads demand of Ahabs silver and gold his wives and Children and whatsoever was pleasant in his eyes which the Elders and people of Israel perswaded Ahab not to consent unto but was a thing purposely contrived and stood upon to hinder a peace was not to be asked or granted by any that could but intitle themselves to the least part of reason or humanity a demand Bajazet would not leave his Iron-Cage to yield unto a thing nature it selfe would abhor and the worst of Villains and Reprobates rather loose their lives then yield to would never be demanded by any nor granted by any but his Equalls And if their desiring of a War more then a peace and to keep the King out of his own had not been the onely cause of such unnaturall and barbarous propositions it may well be wondred why they that have made to themselves for we cannot believe they have found any law or warrant to ground it upon a power to take away the Kings life upon a colour or pretence of an unread as well as unheard of piece of Justice should need to strive so hard with the King to give them a power to do that they are now so bufie to do of themselves and as if they had been afraid all this would not be enough to keep the doors of Janus or the Devill open for fear lest the King should trouble them with any more offers or Messages of Peace a vote must be made in February 1647. that it should be treason in any man to bring or receive any more Messages from him without consent of Parliament But suppose that which is not that the Parliament could have but found any thing but some what like a cause or justification of a War against their Soveraign for notwithstanding all their hypocriticall pretences so as it was at first intended and so it hath been proved to be ever since to whom their Masters the People we mean as to the house of Commons had sent them to consult with not to make a War against him they might have remembred that saying of Cicero if they had found nothing in the Book of God and their own Consciences to perswade them to it That duâ— sunt genera decertandi unum per disceptationem alterum per vim ad hoc confugiendum non est si uti superiori licebit There are other wayes to come by pretended rights than by a War and we ought never to make use of a War which is the worst of all remedies if we may obtain it by a better Hen. 2. King of England was made a Judge between the Kings of Castile and Navarre The Rebellious Barons of England in the Reign of King Hen. 3. referred their controversies to the decision of the King of France and his Parliament at Paris And the blood of this Kingdome which ran so plentifully in those unhappy differences was by that meanes onely stopped Charles the 4. Emperor was made a Judge of the differences betwixt the English and the French Kings For as Albericus Gentilis saith well Intelligendum eos qui diffugiunt genus hoc decertandi per disceptationem ad alterum quod est per vim currunt illico eos a justitia ab humanitate a probis exemplis refugere ruere in arma volentes qui subire judicium nullius velint They that rush into a War without assaying all other just meanes of deciding the controversie for which it is made and will judge onely according to their own will and opinion doe turn their backs to Justice Humanity and all good Examples And in that also the Parliament will be found faulty For the French King and the Estates of the united Provinces did by more than one Request and Embassy severally and earnestly mediate to make an accord betwixt the King and his Parliament and desired to have all things in difference left to their Arbitrement but their Ambassadors returned home again with a report how much they found the King inclined to it and how satisfactorily he had offered and how much the Parliament was averse to their interposition and altogether refused it But we have tarried long enough among the Parliament party from thence therefore for it is time to leave the company of so much wickedness we shall remove to the Kings party and yet that may cause a Sequestration and examine for a fuller satisfaction of that which by the rule of contraries is clear enough already if he were not on the defensive and more justifiable part of the business The King as he was Defensor Protector subditorum suorum
Religion and take away the Laws and Liberties of the People and many other the like seditious delusions the People so much as their misery will give them leave have now found out the way to laugh at either came from the Parlament party or were cherished and turned into advantages by them For they had found the way and lost nothing by it to be ever jealous of the King And whil'st he did all he could to shew them that there was no cause for it they who were jealous without a cause could be so cunning as to make all the hast they could to weaken him and strengthen themselvs by such kind of artifices But he that could not choose but take notice that there were secret ties and combinations betwixt his English and Scortish Subjects the latter of whom the Earl of Essex and Sir Thomas Fairfax themselves understood to be no better then Rebells and therefore served in places of Command in his Majesties Army against them That Sir Arthur Haselrig had brought in a Bill in Parlament to take the Militia by Sea and Land away from him saw himselfe not long after by a printed Remonstrance or Declaration made to the People of all they could but imagine to be errors in his Government arraigned and little less then deposed The Bishops and divers great Lords driven from the Parlament by tumults Was inforced to keep his gates at Whitehall shut and procure divers Captains and Commanders to lodge there and to allow them a Table to be a guard for him and had been fully informed of many Traiterous Speeches used by some seditious Mechanicks of London as that it was pity he should Raign and that The Prince would make a better King was yet so far from being jealous or solicitous to defend himselfe by the Sword and power which God had intrusted him with as when he had need and reason enough to do it he still granted them that he might not seem to deny what might but seem to be for the good of his people every thing they could reasonably ask of him or he could but reasonably tell how to part with though he could not be ignorant but an ill use might be made of them against himself As the putting down of the Star-Chamber and high Commission Court the Courts of Honour and of the North and Welch Marches Commissions for the making of Gun-powder allowing them approbation or nomination of the Lievtenant of the Tower and did all and more then all his predecessors put together to remove their jealousies And when that would not do it He stood still and saw the game plaid on further many Tumults raised many Libells and scandalous Pamphlets publickly printed against his person and Government and when he complained of it in Parlament so little care was taken to redress it as that the peoples coming to Westminster in a Tumultuous manner set on and invited by Pennington and Ven two of the most active Mechanick Sectaries of the House of Commons it was excused and called a liberty of Petitioning And as for the Libells and Pamphlets the Licensing of Books before they should be printed and all other restraint of the Printing Press were taken away and complaints being made against Pamphlets and seditious Books some of the Members of the house of Commons were heard to say the work would not be done without them and complaints being also made to Mr. Pym against some wicked men which were ill affected to the Government He answered It was not now a time to discourage their friends but to make use of them And here being as many Jealousies and fears as could possibly be raised or fancied without a ground on the one side against all the endeavours could be used on the other side to remove them We shall in the next place take a view of the matter of Fact that followed upon them and bring before you CHAP. II. The Proceedings betwixt the King and the Parlament from the Tumultuous and Seditious coming of the People to the Parlament and White-Hall till the 13. of September 1642. being 18. days after the King had set up his Standard at Nottingham WHen all the King could do to bring the Parlament to a better understanding of him did as they were pleased to make their advantage of it but make them seem to be the more unsatisfied that they might the better mis-represent him to the People and petition out of his hands as much power as they could tell how to perswade him to grant them and that he had proofs enough of what hath been since written in the blood and hearts of his People that the five Members and Kimbolton intended to root out Him and His Posterity subvert the Laws and alter the Religion and Covernment of the Kingdom and had therefore sent his Serjeant at Arms to demand their persons and Justice to be done upon them instead of obedience to it an order was made That every man might rescue them and apprehend the Serjeant at Arms for doing it which Parlament Records would blush at And Queen Elizabeth who was wont to answer her better composed Parlaments upon lesser occasions with a Cavete ne patientiam Principis laedatis and caused Parry a Doctor of the Civill Laws and a Member of the house of Commons by the judgement and advice of as sage and learned a privy Councill and Judges as any Prince in Christendom ever had to be hang'd drawn and quartered for Treason in the old Palace of Westminster when the Parlament was sitting would have wondred at And 4. of January 1641. desiring onely to bring them to a Legall tryall and examination went in person to demand them and found that his own peaceable behaviour and fewer attendants then the two Speakers of the Parlament had afterwards when they brought a whole Army at their heels to charge and fright away eleven of their fellow members had all manner of evil constructions put upon it and that the Houses of Parlament had adjourned into London and occasioned such a sedition amongst the people as all the train bands of London must guard them by Land when there was no need of it and many Boats and Lighters armed with Sea-men and murdering pieces by water and that unless he should have adventured the mischief and murder hath been since committed upon him by those which at that time intended as much as they have done since it was high time to think of his own safety and of so many others were concerned in it having left London but the day before upon a greater cause of fear then the Speakers of both Houses of Parlament in July 1647. to go to the Army retires with the Prince his Son whom the Parlament laboured to seize and take into their custody in his company towards York 8. January 1641. A Committee of the House of Commons sitting in London resolved upon the question That the Actions of the City of London for the
defence of the Parlament were according to Law and if any man should arrest or trouble any of them for it he is declared to be an enemy to the Common-wealth And when the King to quiet the Parlament 12. January 1641 was pleased to signifie that for the present he would wave his proceedings against the five Members and Kimbolton and assures the Parlament that upon all occasions he will be as carefull of their Priviledges as of his Life or his Crown Yet the next day after they Declared the Lord Digby's coming to Kingstone upon Thames but with a Coach and six horses in it to be in a Warlike manner and disturbance of the Common-wealth and take occasion thereupon to order the Sheriffs of all Counties in England and Wales with the assistance of the Justices of Peace and trayned bands of the severall Counties to suppress any unlawfull Assemblies and to secure the said Counties and all the Magazines in them 14 January 1641. The King by a second Message professeth to them he never had the least intention of violating the least priviledge of Parlament and in case any doubt of breach of Priviledges remain will be willing to clear that and assert those by any reasonable way his Parlament shall advise him to But the design must have been laid by or miscarried if that should have been taken for a satisfaction and therefore to make a quarrell which needed not they Order the morrow after a Charge and Impeachment to be made ready against Sir Edward Herbert the Kings Attorney Generall for bringing into the House of Peers the third of that instant January by the Kings direction a Charge or accusation against Kimbolton and the five Members c. In February 1641. Seize upon the Tower of London the great Magazine and Store-house of the Kingdom and set some of the train-bands of London commanded by Major Generall Skippon to guard it 1. March 1641. Petition for the Militia and tell him If he would not grant it they would settle and dispose of it without him And the morrow after resolved upon the Question That the Kingdom be forthwith put in a posture of defence in such a way as was already agreed upon by both Houses of Parlament and order the Earl of Northumberland Lord high-Admirall to Rig and send to Sea his Majesties Navy and notwithstanding that the King 4 March 1641. by his Letter directed to the Lord Keeper Littleton had signified that he would wholly desist from any proceedings against the five Members and Kimbolton Sir John Hotham a Member of the House of Commons who before the the King had accused the five Members and Kimbolton had by Order of Parliament seized upon the Town of Hull the only fortified place of strength in the Kingdom and made a Garison of it summoned and forced in many of the trayned Souldiers of the County of York to help him to guard it And the eight of March 1641. before the King could get to York it was voted That whatsoever the two Houses of Parliament should Vote or Declare to be Law the people were bound to obey And when not long after the King offered to go in person to suppress the Irish Rebellion That was Voted to be against the Law and an encouragement to the Rebells and they Declare that whosoever shall assist him in his voyage thither should be taken for an enemy to the Common-wealth And 15 of March 1641. Resolved upon the Question that the severall Commissions granted under the great Seal to the Lievtenants of severall Counties were illegall and void and that whosoever should execute any power over the Militia by colour of any such Commission without consent of both Houses of Parliament should be accounted a disturber of the Peace of the Kindom Aprill 1642. Sir John Hotham seizeth the Kings Magazine at Hull and when the King went with a small attendance to demand an entrance into the Town denies him though he had then no Order to do it Notwithstanding all which the 28 of April 1642. they Vote That what he had done was in obedience to the commands of both Houses of Parliament and that the Kings proclaiming him to be a Traytor was a high breach of priviledge of Parliament And Ordered all Sheriffs and Officers to assist their Committees sent down with those their Votes to Sir John Hotham In the mean time the Pulpits flame with seditious invectives against the King and incitements to rebellion and the people running headlong into it had all manner of countenance and encouragement unto it but those Ministers that preached obedience and sought to prevent it were sure to be imprisoned and put out of their places for it Sir Henry Ludlow could be heard to say in the House of Commons that the King was not worthy to Reign in England And Henry Martin That the Kingly Office was forfeitable and the happiness of the Kingdom did not depend upon him and his Progeny And though the King demanded Justice of them were neither punished nor put out of the House Nor so much as questioned or blamed for it The Militia the principall part of the Kings regality without which it was impossible either to be a King or to govern and the Sword which God had given him and his Ancestors for more then a thousand years together had enjoyed and none in the Barons wars nor any Rebellion of the Kingdom since the very being or essence of it durst ever heretofore presume to ask for must now be wrestled for and taken away from him The Commissions of Array being the old legall way by which the Kings of England had a power to raise and levy men for the defence of themselves and the Kingdom Voted to be illegall The passage at Sea defended against him and his Navy kept from him by the Earle of Warwick whilst the King all this while contenting himselfe to be meerly passive and only busying himself in givinganswers to some Parliament Messages and Declarations and to wooe and intreat them out of this distemper cannot be proved to have done any one action like a War or to have so much as an intention to do it unless they can make his demanding an entrance into Hull with about twenty of his Followers unarmed in his Company and undertaking to return and leave the Governor in possession of it to be otherwise then it ought to be 5. Of May 1642. The King being informed that Sir John Hotham sent out warrants to Constables to raise the trained bands of Yorkshire writes his letter to the Sheriff of that County to forbid the trained bands and commands them to repair to their dwelling houses 12 Of May 1642. Perceiving himselfe every where endangered and a most horrid Rebellion framing against him and Sir John Hotham so neer him at Hull as within a days journey of him he moves the County of York for a troop of Horse consisting of the prime Gentry of that County
Ordinance out of the Tower of London to fortifie the Castle of Warwick And 9. July 1642. Order That in case the Earl of Northampton should come into that County with a Commission of Array they should raise the Militia to suppress him And that the Common Counsell of London should consider of a way for the speedy raising of the 10000 Foot and that they should be listed and put in pay within four days after 11. July 1642. The King sends to the Parlament to cause the Town of Hull to be delivered unto him and desires to have their answer by the 15 of that month and as then had used no force against it But the morrow after before that message could come unto them they resolve upon the Question That an Army shall be forthwith raised for the defence of the Kings person and both houses of Parlament and those who have obeyed their Orders and Commands in preserving the true Religion the Laws Liberties and the Peace of the Kingdom and that they would live and dye with the Earl of Essex whom they nominate Generall in that cause And 12. July 1642. Declare that they will protect all that shal be imployed in their assistance and Militia And 16 July 1642. Petition the King to forbear any preparations or actiōs of War and to dismiss his extraordinary guards to come nearer to them and hearken to their advice but before the Petition could be answered wherein the King offered when the Town of Hull should bee delivered to Him he would no longer have an Army before it and should be assured that the some pretence which took Hull from him may not put a Garison into Newcastle into which after the Parlaments surprise of Hull He was inforced to place a Governour and a small Garrison He would also remove that Garrison and so as his Magazine and Navy might be delivered unto him all Armies and Levies made by the Parlament laid down the pretended Ordinance for the Militia disavowed and the Parlament adjourned to a secure place he would lay down Arms and repair to them and desired all differences might be freely debated in a Parlamentary way whereby the Law might recover its due reverence the Subject his just Liberty Parlaments their ful vigour and estimation and the whole Kingdom a blessed Peace and Prosperity and requiring their answer by the 27. of that July promised til then not to make any attempt of force upon Hull had armed their General with power against him given him a Commission to kill and slay all that should oppose him in the execution of it and chosen their General of the Horse 8. August 1642. Upon information that some of the Town of Portsmouth had revolted to Colonell Goring being but sent thither with a message from the King and Declared for his Majestie Order forces to be sent thither speedily to beleaguer it by Land and the Earle of Warwick to send thither 5. Ships of the Navy to prevent any forraign forces coming to their assistance and upon Intelligence that the Earle of Northampton appeared with great strength at Banbury to hinder the Lo. Brooks for carrying the picces of Ordnance to Warwick Ordered 5000 Horse and Foot to be sent to assist him 9. August 1642. Upon information that the Marquis of Hartford and divers others were in Somerset-shire demanding obedience to the Kings Commission of Array to have the Magazine of the Connty to be delivered unto them Gave power to the Earl of Essex their Lord Generall the Lord Brook and others to apprehend the Marquis of Hartford and Earl of Northampton and their complices and to kill and slay all that should oppose them And the day following gave the Earle of Stamford a Commission to raise forces for the Suppressing of any should attempt for the King in Leicester-shire or the adjacent Counties And on the eleventh of August 1642. Upon the Kings Proclamation two days before declaring the Earl of Essex and all that should adhere unto him in the levying of Forces and not come in and yield to His Majesty within six days to be Travtors◠vote the said Proclamation to be against the fundamental Laws of the Kingdom Declare their resolutions to maintain and assist the Earl of Essex and resolve to spend no more time in Declarations and Petitions but to endeavour by raising of Forces to suppress the Kings Party though all that the Kings loyal Subjects did at that time for Him was but to execute the Commission of Array in the old legal way of the Militia and within a day or two after ordered the Earl of Essex their Lord General to set forth with his Army of Horse upon the Monday following but not so much as an Answer would be afforded to the Kings Message sent from Hull where whilst He with patience and hope forbore any action or attempt of force according to His promise Sir John Hotham sallied out in the night and murdered many of his fellow-subjects 12 Angust 1642. The King though He might well understand the great leavies of Men and Arms ready to march against Him by a Declaration published to all his Subjects assures them as in the presence of God That all the Acts passed by Him in this parliament should be as equally observed as those which most of all concerned His own interest and rights and that his quarrel was not against the Parliament but particular men and therefore desired That the Lord Kimbolton Mr. Hollis Sir Hen Ludlow Sir Arthur Hasilrig Mr. Strode Mr. Martin Mr. Hampden Alderman Pennington and Captain Venne might be delivered into the hands of Justice to be tried by their Peers according to the known Laws of the Land and against the Earls of Essex Warwick Stamford Lord Brooks Sir John Hotham Major General Skippon and those who should exercise the Militia by vertue of the Ordinance he would cause Indictments to be drawn of high Treason upon the Statute of 25 Edw. 3. and if they submit to trial and plead the Ordinance would rest satisfied if they should be acquitted But when this produced as little effect as all other endeavours He had used for peace He that saw the Hydra in the mud and slime of Sedition in its Embrio birth and growth and finds him now erected ready to devour him must now though very unwilling to cast off His beloved Robe of Peace forsake an abused patience and believe no more in the hopes of other remedies had so often deceived Him but if He will give any account to the Watchman of Israel of the People committed to his charge or to the people of his protection of them or any manner of satisfaction to his own judgment and discretion betake Himself to the Sword which God had intrusted Him with and therefore makes the best use He could of those few friends were about Him and with the money which the Queen had not long before borrowed and the small supplies He had obtained of His
and the names of the refusers to be certified Mr. May one of the Pages to the King comes to the Lords House in Parlîament with a Message from Him bearing date but two dayes before That although He had used all wayes and me anes to prevent the present distractions and dangers of the Kingdome all his labours have been fruitless that not so much as a Treaty earnestly desired by him can be obtained though he disclaimed all his Proclamations and Declarations and the erecting of his Standard as against his Parliament unless he should denude himself of all force to defend him from a visible strength marching against him That now he had nothing left in his power but to express the deep sense he had of the publick misery of the Kingdome and to apply himself to a necessary defence wherein he wholly relied upon the providence of God and the affection of his good People and was so far from put ting them out of his protection as when the Parliament should desire a Treaty he would piously remember whose blood is to be spilt in this quarrel and cheerfully embrace it But this must also leave them as it sound them in their ungodly purposes for the morrow after being the 14. day of September 1642. Mr. Hampden one of the sive Members by this time a Colonel of the Army brings letters to the House of Commons from the Parliaments Lord General that he was at Northampton in a very good posture and that great numbers of the Countrey thereabouts came in daily unto him and offered to march under him and that so soon as all his forces that are about London shal come up unto him which he desires may be hastened he intended to advance towards his Majesty and it was the same day voted That all things sealed by the Kings Seal since it was carried away by the Lord Keeper Littleton should be Null and of no force in the Law and that a new Seal should be provided The King therefore seeing what he must trust to 19. September 1642. being at Wellington in Shrop-shire in the head of such small forces and friends as he could get together for the Parlament that very day had received letters That the King but the week before having a muster at Nottingham there appeared but about 3000 foot and 2000. horse and 1500 dragoona and thaâ— a great part of his men were not provided with arms made his Protestation and promise as in the presence of Almighty God and as He hoped for his blessing and protection to maintain to the utmost of his power the true reformed Protestant Religion established in the Church of England and that he desired to govern by the known Laws of the Land and that the Liberty and property of the Subject should bee preserved with the same care as his own just rights and to observe inviolably the Laws consented to by him in this Parlament and promised as in the sight of Almighty God if He would please by his blessing upon that Army raised for his necessary defence to preserve him from that rebellion to maintain the just priviledges and freedom of Parlament and govern by the known Laws of the Land In the mean while if this time of War and the necessity and straights he was driven to should beget any violation of them he hoped it would be imputed by God and man to the Authors of the War and not to him who had so earnestly desired and laboured for the peace of the Kingdome and preservation thereof and that when He should fail in any of those particulars He would exâ—est no aid or relief from any man or protection from Heaven And now that the stage of War seems to be made ready and the Parliament party being the better furnished had not seldome shewed themselves and made severall traverses over it for indeed the King having so many necessities upon him and so out of power and provision for it might in that regard only if He had not been so unwilling to have any hurtcome to his people by his own defending of himself be backward unwillingly drawn unto it we may do well to stand by and observe who cometh first to act upon it 22. Of September 1642. The Earl of Essex writeth from Warwick that he was upon his march after the King and before the 6. of October following had written to the County of Warwick with all speed to raise their Trained bands and Voluntiers to resist his Forces if they should come that way and to the three Counties of Northampton Leicester and Derby to gather head and resist him if he should retire into those parts and by all that can bee judged of a matter of fact so truly and faithfully represented must needs be acknowledged to have great advantages of the King by the City and Tower of London Navy Shipping Armes Ammunition the Kings Magazine all the strong Towns of the Kingdom most of the Kingdoms plate and money the Parliaments credit and high esteem which at that time the people Idolized the fiery Zeal of a seditious Clergy to preach the people into a Rebellion and the people head-longly running into the witchcraft of it When the King on the other side had little more to help him theâ— the Laws and Religion of the Land which at that time every man began to â—iâ—construe and pull in pieces had neither men horse arms ammunition ships places of strength nor money not any of his party or followers after the Parliament had as it were proclamed a War against him could come single or in small numbers through any Town or Village but were either openly assaulted or secretly betrayed no man could advenâ—ure to serve or own him but must expose himself and his Estate to be ruined either by the Parliament or people or such as for malice or profit would inform against him All the gains and places of preferment were on the Parliaments part and nothing but losses and misfortunes on the Kings No man was afraid to goe openly to the Parliaments side and no man duâ—st openly so much as take acquaintance of his Sâ—veraign but if he had done a quarter of 〈◊〉 which Ziba did to David when he 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 â—â—â—ves of bread or old Barzillâ—◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Gutite when he went along with him when hiâ— Son Absalom rebelled against him They should never have escaped so well as they did but have been sure to be undone and sequestred for it So much of the affections of the people had the Parliament cosened and stoln from them so much profit and preferment had they to perswade it and so much power to enforce those that otherwise had not a mind to it to fight against him Who thus every way encompassed about with dangers and like a Partridge hunted upon the Mountains marcheth from Shrewsbury towards Banbury perswading and picking up what help and assistance his better sort of Subjects durst adventure to afford him in the way
and sworn to see the Law executed had not the Sword nor his Authority committed to him in vain And if he had had no manner of just cause of fear either in his own Person or Authority or no cause given him in re laesae Majestatis the imprisoning of his Subjects and plundering and taking away their estates from them long before he had either armed himself or had wherewithal to doe it had been cause as sufficient as to cause a Hue and Cry to be made after a Fâ—lon or raise the posse Comitatus to bring him to Justice and might by the same reason doe it in the case of more and by the same reason he might do it by the help of one nothing can hinder but by the same reason he might doe it by the help of more When Nathan came to David with a parable and told him of the rich man that had taken the poor mans only sheep he that understood wel enough the duty of a King was exceeding wroth against the man and said As sure as the Lord liveth this man shall surely die And can any man think that the King when he saw so much Sedition and Treason among the people countenanced cherished tumults grow up into outrages outrages to parties and warlike assemblies propositions made to bring in Horse and Money to maintain an Army against Him and many of his Subjects daily imprisoned sequestred undone or killed can be blamed if he had a great deal sooner gone about to defend both himself and his people For who saith St. Jerom did â—ver rest quietly sleeping neer a viper Est lex una perpetua salutem omni ratione defendere haec ratio doctis necessitas Barbarts mos gen ibus feris natura ipsa praescripsit haec non scripta sed nata lex saith Tully that great master of morality Reason Necessity Custom and Nature it self have made self-preservation to be warrantable Nemo exponere se debet pericuâ—is sed obviâ—m offensioni eisudum â—non mâ—do quae est in actu sed quae est in potentia ad actum â—ustus metus justum facit bellum say the Civil Lawes and where there was not nuda cogitatio or a bare intention onely to ruine the King but so much over and over again acted as might well occasion more than a fear and apprehension in him of what hath since been brought to pass against him no man certainly without much blindness or partiality can think it to be a fault in him to seek to defend himself when the Parliament did not only long before he raised any forces to defend himself but at the same time when he was doing of it make the people believe his Person was in so much danger as they must needs take up Arms to defend Him And how much more warrantable then must it be in the Kings case when it was not only an endeavour to defend himself but all those that have been since slain and undone and ruined for want of power enough to do it Defence is by the Civil Lawyers said to be either necessary profitable or honest Nec distingui vult Baldus sive se sua suosve defendat sive prope sive posita longè A man is said to defend himself when it is but his own goods estate or people whether neer or further off Necessaria defensio ejus est factum ad necessariam defensionem contra quem veniat armatus inimicus ejus contra quem inimicus se paravit It must needs be a necessary defence against whom an armed Enemy is either marching or preparing Vtilis defensio quum nos movemus bellum verentes ne ipsi bello petamur when we make a war to prevent or be before-hand when war or mischief is threatned or likely to come upon us for as Nicephorus the Historian saith He that will live out of danger must occurrere malis impendentibus atnevertere nec est cunctandum aut expectandum c. meet and take away growing evils and turn them another way and not to dâ—lay and be slack in it Honesta defensio quae citra metum ullum periculi nostri nulla utilitate quaesita tantum in gratiam aliorum suscipitur When for no fear of danger to our selves and for no consideration of profit to our selves but meerly in favour or help of others the war is undertaken Wherefore certainly when the King may be justly said to tarry too long before he made the second and third kinds of defences either to prevent the danger and fury of a War against himself or to help those that suffered and were undone in seeking to defend himself and was so overmuch in love with Peace as he utterly lost it and could never again recover it and was so much mistaken in the love and religion of his Subjects and Parliament promises and the impossibilities of such horrid proceedings against him as all his three Kingdomes were in a flame of War and strong Combinations made by two of them and the Pulpit every where flaming Seditious exhortations against him his Navy Magazines Ports Revenues Mint strongest Towns and places seized on Armies marching against him and he onely and a few friends and followers pend up in a corner had an enemy and a strong Town at his back ready every day to surprize him and several Armies marching and in action before and round about him before he granted out any Commission for War or had or could make any preparation for it and had so many to help and defend besides himself it would be too much injury and too great a violence to all manner of reason and understanding to deny him a Justification upon the first sort of defences if the two latter will not reach it for the first cannot by any interpretation goe without For haec est necessit as saith Baldus quae bellum justificat quum in extremo loco ad bellum confugitur Or if with Grotius we look upon it another way and make the Justice of War to consist 1. in defensione 2. in recuperatione rerum 3. in pâ—uitione The King before ever he went to demand Hull or before ever he desired a guard of the County of York had cause enough and enough to doe it and it would be hard if a great deal less then that should not be able to deliver him from the censure or blame of an offensive or unnecessary War When that which was made by David upon the children of Ammon and that of the late glorious King of Sweden against the Emperour of Germany the former for misusing the latter for encroaching upon him and not receiving his Ambassadors found warrant and necessity enough to doe it But what could the King doe more in his endeavours and waiting for a Peace or less in his preparations or making of a War when the least or one of the hundred provocations or causes we dare say plainly here set down
and lawful had he not cause enough to deny and they none at all to ask that he should by Act of Parliament consent to make all those to be Traytors that took his part their Blood and Posterities attainted and their Estates forfeited when as some of the Parliaments own Members were heard to say when those Propositions were sent to him That if he yeelded unto them He was the unworthiest man living and not fit to be a King For certainly if the Laws of God and man and the understanding of all mankind be not changed there was never a juster more defensive unwilling and necessitated Warre than that of the Kings part since man came out of Paradise And if such a War should not be lawfull after so many provocations and necessities for the defence of himself and his People and so many after-generations this War of the Parliament and the curse of it is like to ruine and leave in slavery under what censure and opinion may that of Abraham with Chederlaomer the King of Elam and Tidal King of the Nations be when he fought with them to rescue his brother Lot and his goods and was blessed by Melchisedec the Priest of the most high God for doing of it Or of the War which the Tribes of Israel made against the Tribe of Benjamin and the men of Gibeah for committing lewdnesse and folly in Israel that of David to rescue his Wives that were carried away captive by the Amalekites or to fetch home the Ark of God from the Philistines that which Ahab made with Benhadad the King of Syria who was not half so tyrannical in his Propositions as the Parliament were approved of in Sacred Story or that which was made by Judas Machabeus and his Brethren to rescue the decayed estate of the people of the Jews or that which was used to be made by the heathen pro aris focis were never yet so much as suspected to be unlawfull How shall this of the Kings be condemned that had as much as Abraham David Ahab against Benhadad Judas Machabeus and the tribes of Israel or those heathens that made it pro aris focis put them altogether to warrant it Or by what reason or Law is any man by the Laws of England excused for killing a man in his own defence when he is necessitated or hindred by a Wall or a Water that he can go no farther or for killing thieves that come to assault or rob him in his house or castle If the King shall be hunted from his house through all the parts and corners of his Kingdom for his Life and not onely for his Life but his Honour and not onely for his Life and Honour but his Conscience and yet must never draw his Sword or seek to defend himself or have any body else to do it for him Or how have all the Kings Princes and Magistrates of the world hitherto governed and defended themselves and their people or shall ever be able to give an account of the people committed to their charge if they may not be at liberty to make a legal use of the sword power and reason God hath given them Or how can those State-riddles like those of Sphinx only made to destroy men with all that they fought for the King and Parliament as is alledged in many of their Orders and Declarations and that the War was a Rebellion raised against the King and Parliament as is expressed in the Ordinance of Parliament for association of the Counties of Pembroke Cardigan and Carmarthen be ever understood by any rules of sence or reason if he were on the offensive part of the War and had begun it against them But if any shall be so in love with the sense of the House of Commons as to be out of their owne senses and thinke that though there be no manner of evidence or proof to be had for love or money that the Parliament were constrained to defend themselves by a War yet the Kings admitting of the Preamble of the Parliaments Propositions presented to him at the Isle of Wight that the Parliament was necessitated to take up Arms in their just and lawfull defence makeâ— him who must needs be best acquainted with his own actions to be so clearly guilty of all the blood hath been shed in these Wars as it puts to silence all that can be now alledged or said in his behalf They that made the Preamble and placed it in limine and threshold of the Treaty on purpose to catch and insnare him for either he must have denied it at the very beginning and entrance into the Treaty and leave hiâ— Kingdomes and People to wallow in the blood and misery their Parliament Idols had brought them to and have all the blame laid upon him for hindring a Peace he had so much longed and laboured for or put himself and all his Loyal Subjects that helped to defend him under the burden of those Sins and Shames the Parliament themselves had all the right to can tell their undone and deluded Proselytes how much the King stuck at it how unwilling he was to break off the Treaty and was unwilling to wrong his own Innocency and that when the Parliament Commissioners had not any thing either in Law or Truth or Reason or Argument to perswade him to yield unto it but laid it onely as a case of necessity before him though there was no such preamble at the Treaties of Oxford and Uxbridge nor any such necessity at those times insisted upon that unlesse he would take the guilt upon himself his too Houses of Parliament and the people had engaged with them must necessarily bee guilty of Treason and could not have any security from the guilt and punishment The King be â—â—aning himself and People that must be thus shut out from any hopes of peace intreated some expedient or medium might be found out to reconcile the difference But Cains sins being greater then could bee forgiven him unless Abel can be brought to say he killed Cain they that could afterward find an expedient for 21 of their great Council of State that refused to subscribe to the lawfulnesse of murdering the King after it was done could finde none at all for the King to purchase a peace for the People though many kinds of ways and expedients as allowing him to make the like preamble to his own Proposition or the like might have been easily contrived and thought upon For the truth was the Independent party desired no Peace at all and the Presbyterians desired it onely to get into their hands the Kings Power and Authority and lay the guilt of all the blood they had shed for it upon him and both of them were so well content to have him allow of the preamble as the latter thought himself safe and out of controversie if the King took the blood upon him and the former that it would prove no small
advantage or colour to take away his Life for confessing himself guilty of it by allowing of the preamble in this unparallel'd demand never before stood upon By Subjects to their Prince or Conquerours to their Captives Nero himself was so far short of it as though he had cunning enough when he set Rome on fire to lay the fault upon the Christians had not Villany enough to torture and seek to draw them to a confession that they did it The King after Protestation that he could not without manifest injury to the Truth and a violation of his Honour and Conscience take upon him a guilt could no way be charged upon him or those that appeared in his defence was yet for peace sake and his peoples sake content to say It will be a great self-denial to take this supposition of a guilt upon my selfe and a Christian vertue to undergoe any affliction that may be for the good of my People and I am confident those that have adventured so much for me will be content to share with me for so good a purpose in the suffering for it I shall therefore conditionally consent to the Preamble so as there follow a conclusion upon the whole matter in Treaty and Propositions betwixt us otherwise it is but sub modo and conditional as it is alwaies to be understood in this Treaty that nothing agreed in part betwixt us shall be binding unless there be a conclusion upon the whole And here let the Truth be judge if the King did not abundantly endeavour to save his People and if the Parliament had not need of a Justification when they used all manner of force and shifts to have the King take the fault upon him they therefore that shall consider that the King was a close prisoner robbed and bereaved of all he had but his Honour and Conscience and a great measure of knowledge and understanding and the hearts of his Loyal Subjects was debarred of all friends and comforts pent up and used with all manner of hardship and extremities and every day like to be murdered that conditions adimpleri debent priusquam sequatur effectus are but inserted or added in casum incertum qui potest tendere ad esse aut non esse and depend on subsequencies or following effects which not hapning or coming to be performed according to the intent of the conditions makes them to vanish and expire as if there no such matter at all had been acknowledged or expressed in them That Cooke his accuser who when he comes to be hanged for it will never be able to prove that the People substituted or gave him warrant for to accuse him And Bradshaw who sate higher in the pageant of Justice and the rest of his fellow-murderers took the Kings conditional consenting to the Preamble to be so little for their purpose as they never so much as mentioned it must not onely acquit him of any confession or guilt to be inferred from his conditional yeelding to that Ambuscado Preamble but dissolve into wonder and admiration that he who in his Royal Meditations and Conference with death upon the Parliaments Votes of non address and his closer imprisonment at Carisbrook-Castle had clearness of Conscience enough to say for as for his judgement we hope it cannot be suspected when Mr. Carill the Independent and Mr. Vines a Presbyterian Minister could say he was a second Solomon and the Parliaments Commissioners at the Isle of Wight report him to be the master of the greatest wisdome and understanding That he had the feast of a good Conscience and the brazen wall of a judicious integrity and Conscience doubted not but his Innocency would finde God to be his protector rejoyced in the comfort of imitating Christs example in suffering for Righteousness sake and thanked God he could pray for them that God would not impute his Blood to them further than to convince them what need they had of Christs Blood to wash their Souls from the guilt of shedding His And was afterwards in the face and view of Death and his Murderers heard to say upon the Scaffold He never did begin a War with the two Houses of Parliament and called God to his witness to whom he was shortly to make an account he never intended to incroach upon their priviledges but they began upon him It was the Militia they began upon though they confest it was his and that any that would looke into the date of their Commissions and his might clearly see that they began these unhappy troubles and hoped God would clear him of it Could be so much more than a man and so great a protector of his People as not onely to be content to be robbed and dispoiled of all that he had for their sakes but to save the Lives and Estates of his People when there was no other way to do it deliver up himself so as a Peace and Agreement might have followed upon the Treaty to the unjust Censure of Robbing and Spoiling those that had robbed and undone him But now that we have hunted this Parliament Proteus through all his disguises of Parliament priviledges and pretences and are lamentably assured a great and accursed thing is committed in our Israel and the anger of the Lord is kindled against us it may be labour well bestowed though here is sure enough already said and prov'd that the King was in the defensive and justifiable part of the War to send into Achan's tent and search and see what is there to be found concerning this matter and here we finde the Lord Say the Lord Brooks and their complices had not long before the King had summoned them to that which is now called the Parliament settled and conveyed their estates to prevent any dangers might happen upon their intended enterprises Peard the pragmatique Parliament-man was heard to say a little before this holy War began to break out That the Government of the Kingdom would within a year or two be altered A little before the second Scottish Invasion Hinderson the Scotch firebrand confesses the Covenanters of both Kingdoms were unanimously agreed to bring the King to their lure before they laid down Arms the joint Declaration of both Kingdoms in January 1643. professes they will never lay down Armes till the pretended reformation be accomplished many Declarations and Remonstrances of the Parliament if they may be so called and the Army mention the original power and Soveraignty to be in the people the common Rights and Freedome of the Nation and the opportunities God hath put into their hands An Ordinance of Parliament 20 October 1645. concerning Rules and Directions for Triers and Judges of the ability of Elders declare it was the wonderfull providence of God in calling them which he never did by force of Arms Hypocrisie Treason Rebellion and usurping of Regal Authority to the great and difficult work of reformation and purging the Church The Lord Fairfax and his General Council
the beginning of December General Blake himself engaging with the whole Fleet of the Dutch came of with the worst loosing the Garland and Bonaventure and some other Ships About the ending of February the Dutch were miserably overthrown by the English between Portland and the Ifle of Wight In the mean time arrived an Extraordinary Ambassador from the King of Portugal to the Parliament which after many Addresses and Treaties concludes a peace with Obligation to satisfy the English Marchants From France also the English were courted by two partyes by an Agent from the King of France desiring a release of those Ships taken going to the reliefe of Dunkirk by 4. Deputies from the Prince of Conde craving aid against the Cardinal and his Creatures who had straitly besieged the City of Bourdeaux but they both proved ineffectual And now happened a very strange Alteration in the Scene of Affairs in England Cromwel whose ambition was now ripe and who knew he might take a very fit opportunity to usurp that that power he had so long gaped for the people of these Nations being weary of the actions of this Parliament and there dilatory proceedings and apparent intentions of perpetuating themselfs and to defraud the people of their ancient and undoubted Liberties of equal and successive representatives * entered the Parliament-House attended with some of his principal Officers and there delivered certain reasons why a Period ought to be put to that Parliament which was presently done the Speaker with the rest of the Members some by force some through fear and some murmuring departed the House the better to satisfy the wiser sort of people Cromwel and his Officers publish a large Declaration shewing the reasons of his dissolving that Parliament Thus that part of the Parliament who had basely murdered their King and Usurped an Authority over these Nations are turned out of Doors to the scorne and derision of the whole Nation by their Servant Oliver Cromwel Thus that part of the House of Commons which then sat afterwards better known by the name of the Rump being dissolved their power was wholly devolved into the hands of their aspiring General who least the Magistrates and other publique Ministers of the nation should be startled at this so suddain change This following Declaration was published WHere as the Parliament being dissolved persons of approved fidelity and honesty are according to the late Declar-tion of the 22 of April last to be called from the severall parts of this Commonwealth to the supreme Authority and although effectuall proceedings are and have been had for perfecting those resolutions yet some convenient time being required for the assembling those persons it hath been sound necessary for the preventing the mischiefs and inconveniences which may arise in the mean while to the publickaffairs that a Councill of State be constituted to take care of and intend the peace and safety and present management of the affairs of the Commonwealth which being settled acoordingly the same is hereby declared and published to the end all persons way take notice hereof and in their severall places and stations demean themselves peaceably giving obedience to the Laws of the Nation as heretofore and in the exercise and administration whereof as endeavours shall be used that no oppression or wrong be done to the people so a strict account will be required of all such as shall do any thing to endanger the publick peace and quiet upon any pretence whatsoever O. CROMWELL Aprill 30. 1653. These domestick Revolutions did in some measure heighten the spirits of the Dutch for they thought some eminent distractions and commotions would certainly ensue thereupon June 2. The English Fleet being at Anchor without the South-head of the Gober discover about 100 sail of Dutch men of Warre lying two Leagues to Lee-ward the English presently made sail after them after a sharp dispute they take of the Dutch 11. men of war two water-hoyes 6. Captaynes 1500 prisoners and sunck 6. men of War more had not the night prevented the rest of the Dutch-Fleet would in all probabillity have been cut off in this engagement General Dean one of our Admiralls was slain In the mean time Cromwell and his Confederates consult on fit persons on whom the Legislative power of the Nation should be committed to which end the grand Tyrant issueth out warrants under his own hand to a certain number of persons chosen by himself whom he thought would serve his interest to appear at the Counsell Chamber at White-Hall July 4. 1653. Where being accordingly met Cromwell being attended with several Officers of the Army maketh them a short speech and delivereth unto them a writing under his hand and Seal impowering them to be the supreme Legislative Authority of the three Nations from thence they repair to the Parliament house and choose for their Speaker Mr Rouse they begin to debate what they shall call themselves at last they conclude to call themselves the Parliament having sat about four moneths their consultations are chiefly for the taking away of Tythes at last it was moved by some of them that their further sitting would not prove for the peace of the Nation therefore they attend the General and according to command resigned their power into his hands again who presently after assumes to himself the Title of Lord Protector of the Common-wealth of England Scotland and Ireland takes unto himself a Council of twenty one persons by whose assistance all things are carried on during the intervals of Parliament Things being thus translated in England his Royal Majesty not having any further means left him for the regaining of his dominions is constrained to take up his Residence in the kingdom of France where notwithstanding his low condition he lived with great honour and respect with the King Queen and Nobles of France During his abode here in this Court a match was propounded to him viZ. the Duke of Orleances daughter as likewise to his illustrious Brother the noble Duke of York the Duke of Longevills daughter But the troublesome estate of the kingdom of France and his Royal Majesties ill posture of affairs in his own kingdoms soon put a period to this transaction Whilest these things were in agitation happened a difference betwixt the the Prince of Conde and Cardinal MaZarine most of the Princes of the blood side with the first the King of France who now was newly come to age to sway the Scepter with the latter the cause of the quarrel was Cardinal MaZarine his inordinate power and other grand miscarriages of state the people also generally murmure against him the Princes and Parliament of Paris and Bourdeaux are against him as also the Duke of Louraine then in service of the Spaniard things arrived at such a height that nothing but a Civil war was likely to ensue to compose and end these differances his sacred Majesty of England useth his utmost endeavours telling them from his own experience the
miseries of a civil War but all endeavours proved in effectuall for the French King persisted in his resolutions not to give way to the banishment of the Cardinal hereupon the Duke of Lorraine was sent for with his Army to come and joyn with the Princes the Duke having been tampered with by the contrary party and having advantageous termes desisted hereupon aâ— generall report was spread that his Majesty of England had drawn over the Duke to the Kings party because they were often together this coming to the peoples ears so incensed them not onely against the Duke for his perfidiousness But also against his Majesty and the Queen his mother the fury of the people increased so much that the King was forced for his own preservation to retire from the Louver to St Jermans the Queen his mother received many affronts as she passedin her Coach from the Louver to the Nunnery at Chaliot where she kept her Refidence his Majesty now treateth with Lorraine for the recovery of his kingdom of Ireland out of the hand of the English Republick to this end several Articles are agreed unto by the Lord Taffe agent for the King and the Duke amongst other things it was concluded that the Duke should be vested with the power and title of Protector Royall of Ireland But the Duke having not strength enough for this great enterprise this businesse takes no effect his Majesty having stayed at Saint Jermans till the heat of the popular fury was over returned again to the Louvre During his abode there his ilustrious Brother the Duke of Glocester who for a long time had bin under the custody of the English Juncto and at length dismissed and sent into Holland to his sister was from thence attended into France by Sir Marmaduke Langdale and Sir Richard Grenvile and he was honorably received at Paris by the French King Queen-Mother and the rest of the Grandee during his Majesties abode here arrived Mrs. Jane Lane who had so miraculously preserved the King after the fight at Worcester he being exceedingly glad to hear this news immediately sends some persons of quality with Coaches to conduct her to Paris where being come they rejoyce in each others presence let us now a little cast our eyes into England where Cromwell and the Council at White-Hall having usurped the Regall authority carry all by force before them about the latter end of February several persons of quality are carried to the Tower for being Loyal to his Majesty but because nothing of moment could be proved against them they are set at liberty Cromwell being desirous to strengthen himself in the Tyrannical Reigning over his Majesties subjects bethinks himself of making peace with forein States and Princes to that end presently patches up a very disadvantageous peace with the Dutch presently after concludes a peace also with Christina Queen of Sweden a a little before the resignation of her Crown to her Couzen Carolus Gustavus In May following several persons are charged with high Treason for endeavouring to take away the Protectors life seize upon the Tower and proclaim his Majesty King of Great Brittain a High Court of Justice is erected Col. Gerard Peter Vowel School-master and Somerset Fox are condemned to die the last is reprieved for his ample confessions Col. Gerrard was beheaded at Tower hill and Vowel hanged at Charing-Cross on the same day Don Pantalaon Sa Brother to the Portugal Ambassadour was beheaded for engaging in a quarrel on the New Exchange where one Mr. Greneway was slain His Sacred Majesty having now remained in the Court of France about two or three years sometimes being lifted up high with hopes of regaining his three kingdoms other times being cast down with fears sollicitates the States of Holland again to own his Royall interest but they having made a peace with Oliver onely complement him with a letter full of civility and now that which troubled his Majesty most was this the French Court notwithstanding all means used to the contrary by the King of England his mother and other friends prepare to send over an Ambassadour into England hereupon his sacred yet still suffering Majesty leaves that kingdom having taken his farewell of the King and other great ones from whom he received many Complements and Apologies being accompanied with his brother the Duke of York his Couzens Prince Rubert and Prince Edward Palatine to Chatilion a house belonging to the Prince of Conde where they stayed a while to confider how to dispose of themselves to th' best advantage his Majesty with Prince Rupert resolves for Germany having before sent the Lord Wilmot before Ambassadour to the Emperor to negotiate in his behalf Prince Edward took his journey to Burbone the Duke of York remaining in France till after the peace with England is concluded being Lieutenant General of the French Army the young Duke of Glooester after his Brother was gone into Germany by reason of the Queen his Mother and some others of the Catholique Religion was placed in the Colledge of the Jesuits there to have been bred up in the Romish Religion Intelligence thereof being soon brought to his Majesty he being not a little displeased soon takes order for his remove which was exactly performed Oliver according to one Article in his Government called a Parliament to meet at Westminster Sept. 3. 1654. William Lenthal master of the Roll being chosen Speaker at their first sitting they begin to question the lawfulness of the power by which they were called this highly Offended Oliver Protector and made him resolve to put a Period to their sitting so when they had sat about 5 mouths he dissolved them soon after the dissolution of the Parliament the Court was allarmed with news of a great rising in Shropshire Montgomryshire Wiltshire Nottinghamshire Northumberland and Yorkshire in the behalf of his Royal Majesty Sir Henry Littleton Sir John Packington and Major Wildman are secured and sent Prisoners to the Tower Sunday 11. March a Party about 200. enter Salisbury seize upon Horses take away Commissions from the Judges as they were going there circuit and march towards Cornwal they are met with by Captain Vnton Crook and after a sharp dispute totally routed their chief Captains were taken viz. Penruddock Jones and Grove Sir Joseph Wagstaffe made a shift to escape shortly after Penruddock and Grove were beheaded at Exon and Jones was repreived several other risings in other parts of this Kingdom but were all suppressed and now Cromwel prepares a very great Fleet but for what end none knew but some principal Commanders In the mean time the King of Spain sends over as Extraordinary Ambassador the Marquis of Leda who was here conplemented by our new Court but finding which way things went after a short stay returns to his own Country presently after his departure this great Fleet steer there course towards Hispaniola one of the fairest Islands belonging to the American Dominions of the King of Spain at
came over and submitted to their good pleasure And now the cunning Rump the better that they might secure themselfs take into their own hands the absolute command of the whole Army consâ—stituting the Speaker General in the name of the Parliament appointing the several Officers to receive now Comissions from them and now the foundations of government being thus overturn'd there appeared a generall discontent throughout the whole Kingdome in the end a Secret combination was laid for a generall rising in all Counties Sir George Booth in Cheshire and Middleton in Shropshlre raised a considerable Army in the defence of King and Parliament Other Counties failing to come into their assistance Sir George Booth and his party are totally routed by Lambert himselfe taken in a disguised â—abit and was sent Prisoner to the Tower of London This successe revived his antient credit with the Army and now he begins to plot their destruction whose lately had taken him into favour and that he might the better bring about his own ambitious designes 13 October 1659. he forced them to a dissolution 〈◊〉 keeping their Speaker and the rest of their Members from the House Thus was those once flourishing Kingdomes â—urried into changes of Government and Aâ—archiâ—â—â—â— confusions by mean persons who only studied to advance their own base ends and interests Fleetwood and Lambert and the rest of the Officers of the Army have now the sole authority of the Nations and because they have the longest Sword make their wil their Law but a little to satisfie the people that they might think themselvs not under the power of the sword these Officers chose a certain number of choice persons fit for their own turn to whom they give full authority over the people and Christen them a Committee of Safety This Goverment is the scorn and derision of the whole Nation and now though the Rump had hung its tail betwixt it's legs for about 3. months In December it began to wag it while the safety of the Committee of Safety was marched into the North under its Father Lambert the churlish Rump stole into the House again by night seven times a Devil worse then before where now they ride triumphant make whâ—â— Laws they list send their Jâ—â—â—â—ary 〈◊〉 coats into the City take away the Citizens money pretending it was gathered for the King they fill the prisons about London with those persons that are for a full and a free Parliament But yet the eyes of all the good are fixed upon our renowned Generall Monck who is ordered to march up to London with what force he thinks fit in the way he was courted with addresses from the Gentry in every County Being come to Lond. he was received with much joy now instead of being their Moses to deliver them from their Egyptian bondage he was suspected to be worse then Pharaoh himself On Thursday Feb. 9. 1659. by Commandment from the Rump he enters the City with his whole Army imprisons many of the Common Counsell Diggs up their posts breaks down the Gates of the City and none dares open their mouth This being done Saturday 11 of February 1659. a day never to be forgotten The Noble Generall enters the City with his Army refusing to obey the Rumps Command and shortly after admitts the Secluded Members of the House of Commons which were kept out by the Army 1648 Those Gentlemen take their places provide for the safety of the Nation and at last disolve themselves Issue out Writs for a free and full Parliament to meet at Westminster Aprill 25. 1660 But to return to his Majestie in Flanders of whose Itineracy life I have given you some small account already May the first the Parliament consisting of Lords and Commons in their Coachs assisted with divers Noblemen Gentlemen Citizens Souldiers c. Proclaimed his Sacred Majesty King of England Scotland and Ireland Defendor of the Faith at Westminister and London in great pomp and solemnity this being done they send Commissioners to his Royal Majesty then at Breda to acquaint his Majesty what his Parliament in Eâ—g had done entreating his Majesty to make what hast conveniently he can to his Parliament the City of London also send their Commissioners to wait on his Majesty The Ministers also of London send their Deputies to congratulate him his Majesty conferred the honour of Knight hood on the Citizens with the Lord Gerrards Sword The States General during his Majesties abode with them entertained him with as great expressions of joy as it he had been theirs not Englands Soveraign they had several times audience of his Majesty who delivered themselves in French and his Majesty answered them in the same language The States of Holland supped bare with his Majesty where they supped his Majesty sat at the upper end of the Table the Queen of Bohemia on the right hand the Princess Royal on the left the Duke of York at the right hand of the side of the Table the Duke of Glocester at the left hand and next him the Prince of Orange one of the Courses was served up all in Gold which was afterward presented to his Majesty valued at 60000. l. they also gave him a Bed which cost 7000 l. and Table linnen to the value of 1000. and 600000. Guldens the Illustrious Duke of York as high Admiral of England gives order to the Fleet for his Majesties Reception and Transportation of his retinue His Sacred Majesty the Queen of Bohemia the Princess Royal the most Illustrious Duke of York and Duke of Glocester and Prince of Orange went aboard General Montague in the good ship formerly called the Naseby but now christened by his Majesty the Royal Charles Where after Re-past the Queen of Bohemia the Princess Royal and the Prince of Orange having taken leave of his Majesty they set sail for England the Duke of York in the Lond. the Duke of Glocester in the James Not long after they arrived at Dover where he was received with great demonstrations of joy the General so soon as ever he saw his Majesty fell on his knees but his Majesty taking him up and kissing him and embracing him all parties were well satisfied His Majesty put on the George on his Excellency the Lord General Monck the Duke of York and Glocester put on his Garter he also made him one of the Lords of his honourable Privy Councel and Master of his Horse On Tuesday May 29. 1660. being the same day of the week on which his Royal Father was murdered and the same day of the month on which he was born being just 30. years age the same day it also pleased God to bring him in peace to the enjoyment of his Crown and Dignities Never was any Prince received with more Triumphs All the streets being richly hanged with Tapestry and a lane made by the Militia Forces to London Bridge from London Bridge to Temple Bar by the Trained bands on the one side and the several Companies in their Liveryes and the streamers of each Company on the other side in their Railes from Temple Barr to Westminster by the Militia forces and Regiments of the Army Thus was his Majesty conducted to his Royal Pallace at Whitehal the solemnity of the day was concluded with infinite of Bonfires among the rest a very costly one was made in Westminster where the Effiges of old Oliver Cromwel that grand Traytor was set upon a high post with the Arms of the Commonwealth which having been exposed a while to publick view with Torches lighted that every one might the better take notice of them were at last burnt together And thus having traced his most Sacred Majesty even from his lowest condition through all his sufferings persecutions We shall now leave him invested with his Royal Crown and Dignity and pray long may his Majesty live a support to his friends a Terrour to his Enemies an Honour to his Nation an Example to Kings of Piety Justice Prudence and Power that this Prophetical saying may be verifyed in his Majesty King Charles the II. shall be greater then ever was the greatest of that Name God save the King FINIS Camden Annalls Eliz. 99. 103. Ibidem p. 391. 394. 395. Vide the vote in M. Vicars Book entituled God in the moun p. 78 Collect. of Parl. and Decl. and Kings Mes and Decl. p. 50. Ibid. 51. Ibid. 52. Ibid. 53. Ibid. 77. 78. Vide the Petition of some Holderness men to the King 6. July 164â— Ibid. 153. Ibm. 169. 170. Collect. Par. Decl. 183 Ibm. 29. Ibidem p. 297. 298 Ibid. 301. Ibid. 305. Collect. of Par. Mes and Dec. 370. 370. Ibm. 346. 348. Ibid. 349. 350. Ibid. 350. Ibid. 356. 357. Collect. Par. Decl. 373. 374. Ibid. 376. Ibid. 442. Ibid. 449. Ibid. 450. Ibid. 453. Ibid. 459. Ibid. 452. Ibid. 457. Ibid. 457. Ibid. 465. 483. Ihm. 614. Alber. Gentil 223. Besoldus in dissert de â—ure Belli 77 78. Lib. Alber. 23. Lucan li. 2. Cicero Phiâ— lipic 5. 2 Sam 15. 2 Sam. 20. Bodm page 736. H. Grotius de jure paâ—is belli Collect. of MessR â— mon st and Declar. 15. Iom 45. c. Besoldus in dissert philolog p. 58. Besoldus dissert pâ—î log pa 88. Can. quid culpatur 23. Da. D. Bocer de bâ—llâ— cap. 5. Besoldus de juribus Majestati cap. 6. 7 Edw. 1. Besoldus Ibid. 95. Du. picart observat decad 10. colle 2. Facius axiom bell 10. Cic. 1. de offic Jov. lib. 1. Polidor 13. 20. Albericus Gentilis Cap. 3. Jerom. Ep. 47. Cicero pro Milone Baldus 3. consid 485 confid 3 Alberic Genti lib. 1. Dec. 25. Bald. 5. Cons pa. 439. Gen. 14. Judg. 20. 1 Sam. 30. 2 Sam. 6. 1 Reg. 20 1 Macc. 3. v. 43. 8 June 1644. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cap. 28. History of the Marque Montrosse his actions in Scotland Weavers Funcral Monu ments pag. 605. The government of the Kindoms â— changed K. Proclain Ireland Marquess of Ormonds Army defeated be Siege of Lon. -Derry raised by Sir Charles Coot Crom-lands with an Army in Ireland Prince Ruperts fleet blockt up at Kings sale Sentence in Parliament Treaty concluded Preparat for his Maj. His Maje proclaimed K. Edinbur Cross Edinburgh Castle sur to the Eâ—gl * Whereof but three suffered