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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A32015	A part of the late King's answer to the humble petition and advice of both Houses of Parliament sent unto His Majesty with nineteen propositions the second of June, 1642 printed at the request and charge of Sir Francis Nethersole knight, for the setling [sic] of the mindes of all the good people of this kingdom in the love of the ancient legal form of government, whosoever may become the governor thereof ; with two letters of the said Sir Francis Nethersole, one already printed before his project for an equitable and lasting peace, and the other a written letter therewith sent to divers persons, never before printed.	Charles I, King of England, 1600-1649.; Nethersole, Francis, Sir, 1587-1659.	1659 (1659)	Wing C2536; ESTC R29200	8,404	17

A Part of the Late King's ANSWER To the Humble PETITION and ADVICE Of Both Houses of Parliament Sent unto his Majesty with nineteen Propositions the second of June 1642. My Son fear thou THE LORD AND THE KING and meddle not with them that are given to change For their calamity shall rise suddenly and who knoweth the ruine of THEM BOTH Prov. 24.21 22. Him that saith to the wicked thou art righteous him shall the people curse Nations shall abhor him Prov. 24.24 Printed at the Request and Charge of Sir Francis Nethersole Knight for the setling of the mindes of all the good people of this Kingdom in the love of the ancient Legal form of Government whosoever may become the Governor thereof With two Letters of the said Sir Francis Nethersole one already printed before his Project for an equitable and lasting Peace and the other a written Letter therewith sent to divers persons never before Printed Printed in the Year 1659. A part of the late Kings Answer to the humble Petition and Advice of both Houses of Parliament sent unto his Majesty with nineteen Propositions the second of June 1642. WE suppose these Demands by this time to appear such as the Demanders cannot be supposed to have any such reall fear of us as hath been long pretended they are too much in the style not onely of equals but of Conquerours and as little to be intended for removing of jealousies for which end they are said to be asked and that is not as Merchants ask at first much more then they will take but as most necessary to effect it which if they be God help this poor Kingdom and those who are in the hands of such persons whose jealousies nothing else will remove which indeed is such a way as if here being differences and suits between two persons where of one would have from the other several parcels of his ancient Land he should propose to him by way of accommodation that he would quit to him all those in question with the rest of his Estate as the most necessarie and effectuall means to remove all those suits and differences But we call God to witness that as for our Subjects sake these Rights are vested in us so for their sakes as well as for our own We are resolved not to quit them nor to subvert though in a Parliamentary way the ancient equal happy well-poised and never-enough commended Constitution of the Government of this Kingdome nor to make our Self of a King of England a Duke of Venice and this of a Kingdome a Republique There being three kinds of Government amongst men Absolute Monarchie Aristocracy and Democracy and all these having their particular conveniences and inconveniencies The experience and wisdome of your Ancestors hath so moulded this out of a mixture of these as to give to this Kingdome as far as humane prudence can provide the conveniencies of all three without the inconveniencies of any one as long as the Balance hangs even betweene the three Estates and they run joyntlie on in their proper Chanel begetting Verdure and Fertility in the Meadows on both sides and the overflowing of either on either side raise no deluge or Inundation The ill of absolute Monarchie is Tyranny the ill of Aristocracy is Faction and Division the ills of Democracy are Tumults Violence and Licentiousnesse The good of Monarchie is the uniting a Nation under one Head to resist invasion from abroad and Insurrection at home The good of Aristocracie is the Conjunction of Counsel in the ablest persons of a State for the publick benefit The good of Democracie is Liberty and the Courage and Industrie which Libertie begets In this Kingdome the Laws are joyntlie made by a King by a House of Peeres and by a House of Commons chosen by the People all having free Votes and particular Priviledges The Government according to these Laws is trusted to the King Power of Treaties of War and Peace of making Peers of choosing Officers and Councellours for State Judges for Law Commanders for Forts and Castles giving Commissions for raising men to make Warre abroad or to prevent or provide against Invasions or Insurrections at home benefit of Confiscations power of pardoning and some more of the like kinde are placed in the King And this kinde of regulated Monarchie having this power to preserve that Authoritie without which it would be disabled to preserve the Laws in their Force and the Subjects in their liberties and proprieties is intended to draw to him such a respect and relation from the great Ones as may hinder the ills of Division and Faction and such a fear and reverence from the people as may hinder tumults violence and licentiousness Again that the Prince may not make use of this high and perpetual power to the hurt of those for whose good he hath it and make use of the name of Publick necessitie for the gain of his private Favourites and Followers to the detriment of his people the House of Commons an excellent Conserver of Libertie but never intended for any share in Government or the chusing of them that should governe is solely intrusted with the first Propositions concerning Leavies of Money● which is the sinews as well of Peace as War and the impeaching of those who for their own ends though countenanced by any surreptitiously gotten Command of the King have violated that Law which he is bound When he knows it to protect and to the protection of which they were bound to advise him at least not to serve him in the contrary And the Lords being trusted with a Judicatory power are an excellent Screen and Bank between the Prince and People to assist each against any incroachments of the other and by just judgements to preserve that Law which ought he to be the Rule of every one of the three For the better enabling them in this beyond the examples of any of our Ancestors We were willingly contented to oblige our self both to call a Parliament every three years and not to dissolve it in fifty dayes and for the present exigent the better to raise money and avoid the pressure no less grievous to us then them our People must have suffered by a longer continuance of so vast a Charge as two great Armies and for their greater certaintie of having sufficient time to remedie the inconveniencies arisen during so long an absence of Parliaments and for the punishment of the Causers and Ministers of them We yeelded up our Right of dissolving this Parliament expecting an extraordinary moderation from it in gratitude for so unexampled a Grace and little looking that any Malignant Party should have been encouraged or enabled to have perswaded them first to countenance the injustices and indignities we have endured and then by a new way of Satisfaction for what was taken from us to demand of us at once to Confirme what was so taken and to give up almost all the rest Since therefore the power

Legally placed in both Houses is more then sufficient to prevent and restrain the power of Tyranny and without the power which is now asked from us We shall not be able to discharge that Trust which is the end of Monarchie since this would be a total Subversion of the Fundamental Laws and that excellent Constitution of this Kingdome which hath made this Nation so many years both Famous and happie to a great degree of Envie since to the power of punishing which is already in your hands according to Law if the power of preferring be added we shall have nothing left for us but to look on since the incroaching of one of these Estates upon the power of the other is unhappy in the effects both to them and all the rest since this power of at most a joynt Government in us with our Counsellors or rather our Guardians will return us to the worst kinde of Minority and make us despicable both at home and abroad and beget eternal Factions and Dissentions as distructive to publick Happinesse as Warre both in the chosen and the Houses that chuse them and the people who chuse the Chusers since so new a power will undoubtedly intoxicate persons who were not born to it and beget not onely Divisions among them as equal but in them contempt of us as become an equal to them and insolence and injustice towards our people as now so much their inferiours which will be the more grievous unto them as suffering from those who were so lately of a nearer degree to themselves and being to have redress only from those that placed them and fearing they may be enclined to preserve what they have made both out of kindness and policy since all great changes are extreamly inconvenient and almost infallibly beget yet greater changes which beget yet greater inconveniences Since as great an one in the Church must follow this of the Kingdome Since the second Estate would in all probabilitie follow the fate of the First and by some of the same turbulent spirits jealousies would be soone raised against them and the like Propositions for reconciliation of Differences would be then sent to them as they now have joyned to send to us till all power being vested in the House of Commons and their number making them incapable of transacting Affairs of State with the necessary Secrecie and expedition those being retrusted to some close Committee at last the common people who in the mean time must be flattered and to whom Licence must be given in all their wild humours how contrary soever to established Law on their own real Good discover this Arcanum imperii That all this was done by them but not for them grow weary of journy-work and set up for themselves call Parity and Independence Liberty devoure that Estate which had devoured the rest Destroy all Rights and Proprieties all distinctions of Families and Merit And by this meanes this splendid and excellently distinguished form of Government end in a dark equal Chaos of confusion and the long Line of our many noble Ancestors in a Jack Cade or a Wat Tyler For all these Reasons to all these demands our Answer is Nolumus Leges Angliae mutari But this we promise that we will be as careful of preserving the Lawes in what is supposed to concerne wholly our Subjects as in what most concernes our Self For indeed we professe to believe that the preservation of every Law concerns us those of obedience being nor secure when those of protection are violated And we being most of any injuried in the least violation of that by which we enjoy the highest Rights and greatest Benefits and are therefore obliged to defend no lesse by our interest then by our duty and hope that no jealousies to the contrary shall be any longer nourished in any of our good people by the subtil insinuations and secret practices of men who for private ends are disaffected to our honour and safety and the peace and prosperity of our People And to shew you that no just indignation at so reproachful offers shall make us refuse to grant what is probable to conduce to the good of our good People because of the ill company it comes 〈◊〉 We will search carefully in this heap of unreasonable demands for so much as we may complying with our conscience and the duty of our Trust assent unto and shall accordingly agree to it Minute of a written LETTER sent to many with the Printed one and Project for an equitable and lasting Peace July 1648. SIR I Send you here with a project the designe whereof is to unite all them of what opinion or party soever in Church or State that are of this judgement That the later of them cannot be rendred more happy by any Vtopian alteration then it may be by making sufficient provision for the continuance of the well experimented government thereof within the ancient bounds as it and they are already established by the known Law of the Land nor the former like ever to be settled again in any Government till this be agreed upon on all sides That if it be the duty of the Civil Magistrate to make any Laws concerning Ecclesiastical Policy then it is sinne because Treason in this and I think in all other States for any man of any opinion by force of Arms to attempt the Reformation of the Laws in being how contrary soever to the institution of Jesus Christ or to the advancement of his Kingdome they may think those Lawes to be Of which judgement in both points you are conceived to be That is all the reason of this addresse to you and of this further request that you would be pleased to put other copies sent herewith into the hands of wise men of your acquaintance and of the same mind with you upon the termes mentioned in the conclusion of the prefixed Letter and to do me the honour to vonchsafe me your self and to procure me from them such an answer thereunto as I have had the presumption for the matter to prescribe because I best know my own end in desiring it being no other but that I may imploy it to the facilitating of a safe and well-grounded peace which is the earnest longing of all good men I know not why you or they or any honest man should be shie of doing me this favour for fear of any danger Yet because the times are indeed very queazie I send you hear with such a direction for the conveyance of your Answer to me that if you keep your own counsel it will be impossible for man to finde you out without my discovering you which I do hereby engage the faith of a Gentleman never to do without your leave and perchance you may take that for some security when I shall have told you that I have often written this sentence of my own making in the Books of many of my friends of divers Nations Maximum ad vitam

adjumentum intemerata fides And that though this hand be unknown to you yet he is not that maketh use of it to subscribe himself as in truth he is Sir Your most humble and faithful servant P. D. A Letter sent to divers prudent persons of all sorts SIR I Humbly pray you to take the paines to peruse first the Declaration of the Lords and Commons Assembled in Parliament of the fourth and his Majesties of the twelfth of August 1642. After them the Considerations Dedicated to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the City in the yeare 1642. Comparing the second sheet thereof with a part of the Declaration of the Army of the 14. of June 1647. from those words But because neither the granting of this alone c. to these we desire that the right and freedome of the people to represent c. And in the last place the Project I send you with this built upon the same foundation which was first layed in the Considerations and which the Army once thought firme enough to support their hopes of common and equall right and freedom to themselves and to all the freeborn people of this Land at as much leisure as you may obtain from your many other great occasions and with as much attention as you may think fit to bestow upon a piece of no more worth bearing these thoughts in your minde while you are reading it 1. Whether it had not been honourable for the King and his Party safe for the Parliament and theirs and equitable for both to have made a Peace upon the termes therein designed at the time of the writing thereof which was upon the first newes of the Scots resolution to come into England the second time and from a desire to have kept them out then by agreeing among our selves 2. Whether under favour and with all humbleness be it written it had not been more conducible to the Reformation and establishment of Religion in the Kingdomes of England and Ireland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the Word of God which ought to be the onely rule thereof and to the extirpation of Popery Superstition Heresie Schisme Prophaneness and whatsoever may be found contrary to sound Doctrine and the power of godliness And to the preservation and defence of the Kings Majesties person and authority of the rights and liberties of the Parliament of England and the liberties and publick weale of this Kingdom for the King and all the subjects thereof at that time to have come to a peace among themselves upon the said designed terms then to have continued the War by calling in strangers to their respective assistance upon the terms practised by one side and in probability designed by the other 3. Whether it may not be thought more expedient for the two Houses of the Parliament of England and the whole people thereof to come to an agreement with his Majesty upon the same terms at this time notwithstanding the great alteration of affairs in their favor since the Project was designed then either to engage in a new War against the Scots with such a division among Englishmen as will be an indubitable consequent if not an antecedent thereof or to admit them to be Umpires in the affairs of England as they will become if the differences between his Majesty and his English Subjects should by Gods mercy come to an Accommodation upon their third as those between his Majesty and the Scots did upon their first bringing an Army into this Kingdom 4. Wheather any and what exception can be taken to the justice or equitableness of any particular Article of the Project even at this time without having respect to this practicableness thereof whereof perhaps there may be lesse doubt ere long though I yet see no other sufficient ground for it but this that methinks the tyde is turning Such are the revolutions of humane affairs And lastly in case any of the said Articles shall be judged though neither unjust now unequal yet impracticable as things now stand wheather the said Project may not be reduced to fit the present conjuncture of affairs with some additions abatements or alterations and what alterations abatements or additions may be found just and reasonable for the two Houses of Parliament to insist upon for his Majesty to yeeld unto in respect of the change present state of affairs Secondly to passe your censure and let me know your sense upon all the aforesaid particulars with the freedom a freeman of this Kingdom for whom I conceive it to be lawfull with due submission to those in authority to confer together in a private way about the best means to recover and maintain a lasting Peace in the Realm especially at a time when there is cause of fear that it may be yet longer discontinued by the coming in of strangers in Arms which is once more our condition at the present And in particular How you conceive the Militia may be settled so as may be honourable for the King and yet safe for his Parliament and Kingdom of England according as is designed in the Project Upon the recept of which favour from you I do hereby engage myself to make you a return of my thoughts upon the fifth and last Article and by way of Advance do now let you know that to the three first I should make a short Answer in the Affirmative to the fourth in the Negative In the last place I do here promise you to keep your Answer to my self only if you shall so require me or if I shall publish it with your leave yet never to discover your name if you shall command me to conceal it In exchange of which promise I must crave one from you to suffer no copy to be taken in writing nor any new impression to be made either of the Project or of this Letter until I may find the season opportune for the Publication of them which I do not as yet And for that reason though I send you them in Print to ease the trouble of transcribing I have made sure to have all the Copies in my own keeping And so I remain Sir Your most humble servant P.D. Dated Junii 1648. the Climacterical year of this Kingdome POSCRIPT SIR UPon second thoughts I find it necessary for me to give you a brief account why I did not publish this Project when it was first designed nor in all the long time sit hence elapsed and yet have thoughts of doing it now You may therefore please to understand that my purpose at first was to have printed two Copies thereof the one at London the other at Oxford to avoid the great prejudice of being reputed partial But before I could effect this it came to my knowledge that the writer of the Considerations had found means to have them put into the hands of certain persons of prime quality and credit in both places and had found that the corner-stone of his Considerations and of my Project borrowed from him was rejected by some of too great power on both sides as he foresaw foretold it was like to be This made me give over my purpose at that time And from that time the Design lay by me as a neglected and uselesse piece till the Army having gotten the King into their power was upon their march from Newmarket with an intention as was voiced to have brought his Majesty up to London without more ado The apprehension I then had that this might prove very dangerous to the Common-wealth to the prosperity whereof and of his Majesty if I know my own heart it beareth with an equal pulse stirred me so far that I was once more determined to have published my conceipt what and no more was needful to be transacted before his Majesties return to his Palace at Westminster and to that end had sent this simple Project to a Licencer In this nick of time forth came the Armies Declaration of the 14. of June 1647. Wherein finding the maine of what I had ever thought very expedient if not altogether necessary to be mainly insisted on by Sir Thomas Fairfax and his Officers and souldiers I was much rejoyced to see the work whereunto I desired to have contributed my weak endeavours to be taken into abler hands and there I left it Whether his excellency and his chief Officers for the opinion of his common souldiers and their Agitators is to be of no regard be since fallen from what they 〈◊〉 declared to be their deliberate and determinate judgement I leave him and them to give an account to God and the World I am sure 't is commonly believed that they only made shew of being of the mind at large ●●pressed in the fore mentioned Declaration to ingratiate themselves with the Kingdom till by that means they had quietly gotten all the strength thereof into their own and their parties hands And that they are at present the most averse of any other to a Personal Treatie at London On the other side it is too manifest that the generality of the City and Countrey are perhaps too violent for his Majesty coming thither without engaging his Royal word to pass the three Preparatory Bills apprehended like to be of hard digestion to his Majesty and it is further apprehended that the two Houses of Parliament may also happen to be divided upon this point Perchance a middle way may be found as faire and safe as either of the former and not impassable either with his Majesty or with the two Houses This induced me now to submit my conceipt to censure of wiser men And if for the ground-work it shall be so happy as to receive any measure of approbation from any considerable number of such as your self it is not impossible that I may be thereby emboldened to expose it to the eye of the people which I conceive to be sharper then the sight of any one or of any few of the wisest men of the land Sir I crave your pardon for this addition to your trouble and remain as before and ever FINIS