him If he would not grant it they would settle and dispose it without him And the morrow after Resolve 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 Parliament and Order the Earl of Northumberland Lord High-Admiral 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 King had accused the five Members and Kimbolton k had by Order of Parliament seized upon the Town of Hull the onely fortified place of strength in the Kingdom and made a Garison of it summoned and forced in many of the trained Soldiers of the County of York to help him to guard it Eighth 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 suppresse the Irish Rebellion That was Voted to be against the Law and an encouragement to the Rebels and they Declared that whosoever should assist him in his Voyage thither should be taken for an enemy to the Common-weale And 15 of March 1641. Resolved upon the Question That the several Commissions granted under the great Seal to the Lieutenants of the several Counties were illegal 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 Kingdom l April 1642. Sir John Hotham seizeth the Kings Magazine at Hull and when the King went but 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 breath of Priviledge of Parliament And Ordered All Sheriffs and Difficers 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 maner 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 m That the King was not worthy to Reign in England And Henry s Marten That the Kingly Office waâ— 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 principal 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 legal 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 illegal The passage at Sea defended against him and his Navy kept from him by the Earl of Warwick whilest the King all this while contenting himself to be meerly passive and only busying himself in giving answers to some Parliament Messages Declarations 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 n That Sir John Hotham sent out Warrants to Constables to raise the Trained bands of York-shire writes His Letter to the Sheriff of that Country to forbid the Trained bands and commands them to repair to their dwelling houses 12. of May 1642. Perceiving himself every where endangered and a most horrid Rebellion framing against Him and Sir John Hotham so near Him at Hull as within a dayes journey of Him moves the o Country of York for a Troop of horse consisting of the prime Gentry of that Country and a Regiment of the Trained 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 p That it appeared the King seduced by wicked Councel intended to make a war against them and till then if their own Votes should be true must acquite Him from any thing more then an intention as they call it to do it And that whosoever should assist him are Lraytors by the fundamental Laws of the Kingdom The Earl of Essex Lord-Chamberlain of the Kings houshold and all other of the Kings houshold 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 some Earls and Barons about Him and some of His Bed-Chamber as if they had been Felons 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 and Bayliffs to apprehend him Caused 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 Loyal 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 sixth day of May 1642. A Declaration is sent to the King but printed and published before he could receive it That q Whatsoever they should Vote is not by Law to be 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 People have any right The Soveraign power resides in both Houses of Parliament The King hath no Negative voice The levying of War against the Personal commands of the King though accompanied with His presence is not a levying of War against the King but a levying War against His Laws and Authority which they have power to
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 Gunpowder allowing them approbation or nomination of the Lievetenant 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 stood still and saw the game plaid on further Many Tumults raised many Libels and Scandalous Pamphlets publiquely printed against His Person and Government and when he complained of it in Parliament so little care was taken to redress it as that the Peoples coming to Westminster in a Tumultuous maner 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 Libels and Pamphlets the licensing of Books before they should be printed and all other restraint of the printing presses 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 Parliament from the Tumultuous and Seditious coming of the People to the Parliament and White-Hall till the 13. of September 1642. being 18 dayes after the King had set up His Standard at Nottingham WHen all the King could do to bring the Parliament 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 enow 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 Government of the Kingdom and had therefore sent His Serjeant at Arms to demand their persons and Justice to be done upon them In stead of obedience to it an order was made a That every man might rescue them and apprehend the Serjeant at Arms for doing it which Parliament Records would blush at And Queen Elizabeth who was wont to answer her better composed Parliaments upon lesser occasions with a b Cavete ne patientiam Principis laedatis caused Parry a Doctor of the Civil Laws and a Member of the House of Commons by the judgement and advice of as sage and learned a privy Council and Judges as any Prince in Christendom ever had to be hanged drawn and quartered for Treason in the c old Palace of Westminster when the Parliament was sitting would have wondred at And 4 January 1641. desiring only to bring them to a legal tryal and examination went in Person to demand them and found that his own peaceable behaviour and fewer attendants then the two Speakers of the Parliament had afterwards when they brought a whole Army at their heels to charge and fright away eleven of their fellow Members had all maner of evil constructions put upon it and that the Houses of Parliament had adjourned into London and occasioned such a sedition amongst the People as all the Trained 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 unlesse 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 Parliament in July 1647. to go to the Army retires with the Prince His Son whom the Parliament laboured to seise 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 d That the actions of the City of London for the defence of the Parliament 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 Parliament 12 Jan. 1641. was pleased to signifie that for the present he would waive his proceedings against the five Members and Kimbolton and assures the Parliament that upon all occasions He will be as careful of their Priviledges as of His Life or His Crown Yet the next day after they Declared the Lord Digby's coming to Kingston upon Thames but with a Coach and six horses in it e to be in a Warlike maner and disturbance of the Common-wealth and take occasion thereupon to order the Sheriffes of all Counties in England and Wales with the assistance of the Justices of Peace and trayned bands of the several Counties f to suppresse any unlawful assemblies and to secure the said Counties and all the Magazines in them 14 January 1641. g The King by a second Message professeth to them he never had the least intention of violating the least priviledge of Parliament and in case any doubt of breach of Priviledges remain will be willing to clear that and assert those by any reasonable way His Parliament 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 quarrel which needed not they Order the morrow after a Charge and Impeachment to be made ready h against Sir Edward Herbert the Kings Attorney General for bringing into the House of Peers the third of that instant January by the Kings direction a Charge or Accusation against Kimbolton and five Members c. i In February 1641. Seize upon the Tower of London the great Magazine and Store-house of the Kingdom and set some of the trained bands of London commanded by Major General Skippon to guard it 1. March 1641. Petition for the Militia and tell
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 onely to them to Judge of the Law r 27 of May The King by His Proclamation forbids all His Subjects and Trained bands of the Kingdom to Rise March or Muster But the Parliament on the same day Commanded all Sheriffs Justices of Peace Constables within one hundred and fifty miles of York to seize and make stay of all Arms and Ammunition going thither And Declaring the said Proclamation to be void in Law s 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 suppresse any of the Kings Subjects that should be drawn thither by His command secure and seize upon the Magazines of the Counties protected all that were Delinquents against Him make all to be Delinquents that attended him and put out of the House of Peers nine Lords at once for obeying the Kings summons and going to Him t 3. June 1642. The King summoning the Ministery Gentry and Free-holders of the County of York declared to them the reasons of providing himself a guard and u that he had no intention to make a War and the morrow after forbad the Lord Willough by of Parham to Muster and Trayn the County of Lincoln who under colour of an Ordinance of Parliament for the Militia had begun to do it x 10 June 1642. The Parliament by a Declaration signifying That the King intended to make a War against His Parliament invited the Citizens of London and all others well affected as they pleased to miscall them within 80 miles of the City to bring money or 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 Parliament and the morrow after send 19. propositions to the King That the great affairs of the Kingdom and Militia may be managed by consent and approbation of Parliament all the great officers of Estate Privy Councel Ambassadors and Ministers of State and Judges 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 Kingdom put 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 y with several other demands which if the King should have granted would at once in effect not only 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 Royal Priviledges then His demanding of the five Members and Kimbolton if it had not been Lawful for him so to do could be of theirs z granted a Commission of array for the County of Lecester 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 a 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 Lord keeper Littleton who a little before had either been affrighted or seduced by the Parliament to vote their new Militia The Duke of Richmond Marquis 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 which had not the Royal assent to it 14 June 1642. Being informed b That the Parliament endeavoured to borrow great sums 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 do it for His own defence forbiddeth therefore the lending of money or raising of horses Within two days after the Lord Keeper Duke of Richmond Marquis Hartford Earl of Salisbury Lord Gray of Ruthen with 17 Earls and 14. Barons the Lord Chief-Justice Bancks and sundry others of eminent quality and reputation attest His Majesties Declaration and profession that He had no intention to make a War but abhorred it and c That they perceived no Councels or preparations tending to any such design and send it with His Majesties Declaration to the Parliament In the mean time the Committee of Parliament appointed to make the propositions to the City of London for the raising of horse viz. 15 June 1642. Made report to the House of Commons That the Citizens did very cheerfully accept the same there being for indeed there had been some design and resolution a year before concerning the melting of plate to raise monies already great store of plate and monies brought into Guild-Hall for that purpose and an Ordinance of Parliament was made for the Earl of Warwick to be Lord Admiral and keep the Navy though the King had commanded him upon pain of Treason to deliver up the Ships to Him And the Lord Brook sent down into Warwich-shire to settle the Militia 17 June 1642. A Committee of both Houses was appointed to go to the City of London to inquire what store of Horse Monies and Plate were already raised upon the Propositions 18 June 1642. The King by His Proclamation Disclaiming any intention to make War against His Parliament forbiddeth all levies of Forces without His Majesties expresse pleasure signified under His Great Seal And 20 June 1642. Informing all His Subjects by His Proclamation of the Lawfulness of His Commissions of Array d That besides many other Warrants and Authorities of the Law Judge Hutton and Judge Crooke in their arguments against the Ship-money agreed them to be Lawful and the Earl of Essex himself had in the
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 Parliament 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. dragoons and that a great part of His men were not provided with Arms made His protestation and promise as in the presence of x 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 be preserved with the same care as His own just rights and to observe inviolably the Laws consented to by Him in this Parliament 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 Parliament and govern by the known Laws of the Land In the mean while if this time of War and the great necessity and straights He was driven to should be get 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 Kingdom and preservation thereof and that when He should fail in any of those particulars He would expect no aid or relief from any man nor 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 seldom shewed themselves and made several 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 onely if He had not been so unwilling to have any hurt come to his people by his own defending of himself be backward and 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 Darby to gather head and resist him if he should retire into those parts and by all that can be judged of a matter of fact so truely 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 Magazines 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-long running into the witchcraft of it When the King on the other side had little more to help him then the Laws and Religion of the Land which at that time every man began to mis-construe and pull in pieces had neither ammunition ships places of strength nor money nor any of his party or followers after the Parliament had as it were proclaimed 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 adventure 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 mis-fortunes on the Kings No man was afraid to go openly to the Parliaments side and no man durst openly so much as take acquaintance of his Soveraign but if he had done a quarter of that which Ziba did to David when he brought him the 200. loaves of bread or old Barzillai or Ittai the Gittise when he went along with him when his 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 cousened 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 minde 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 to which On Sunday the 23. of October 1642. for they thought it better to rob God of his Sabbath then lose an opportunity of murdering their Soveraign The Earl of Essex and Parliament army powring in from all quarters of the kingdom upon him had at Edge-hill compassed Him in on all sides and before the King could put His men in battel Array many of whom being young country fellows had no better Arms then Clubs and Staves in their hands cut out of the hedges and put His two young Sons the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York in the guard of a troop of horse at the further end of the field and had finished a short prayer a bullet of the Earl of Essex's Canon grazed at His heels as He was kneeling at His prayers on the side of a bank for Blague a villain in the Kings Army having a great Pension allowed Him for it had given notice in what part of the field the King stood that they might the better know how to shoot at him But God having a greater care of his Anointed then of their Rebellious pretences so ordered the hands of those that fought for the King as the Earl of Essex was so loaden with Victories as he left five of His men for one of the Kings dead behinde him lost his babbage and Artillery retired back to Warwick and left the King to bless God in the field where He supped with such Victuals as the more Loyal and better natured neighbours sent him when the worser sort refused to do it and lying there all night sent warrants out the next day to the neighbour Parishes to bury the dead drew off His Ordinance and marched to Banbury and yet he could not forget to pity those which were at such pains and hazard the
take away his life if he should confess himself guilty of it by allowing of the preamble In this unparallel'd demand never before stood upon by Subjects to their Prince or Conquerors to their Captives Nero himself was so far short of as though he had cunning enough when he set Rome on fire to lay the fault upon the Christians he had not Villany enough to torture and seek to draw them to a confession that they had done it The King therefore after Protestation that He could not without a manifest injury to the Truth and a violation of His Honour and Conscience take upon Him a guilt which 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 self and a Christian virtue to undergo 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 always 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 endeavor to save His people and if the Parliament had not need of a justification when they used all maner of force and shifts to have the King take the fault upon Him Wherefore they that shall consider that the King was a close prisoner robbed and bereaved of all that 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 penned up and used with all maner of hardship and extremities and every day like to be murdered that conditions adimpleri debent priusquam sequatur effectus and are but inserted or added in casum incertum qui potest tendere ad esse aut non esse and depend on subsequences or following effects which not happening or coming to be performed according to the intent of the conditions makes them to vanish and expire as if that no such matter at all had been acknowledged or expressed in them That Cook his accuser who when he comes to be hanged for it will never be able to prove that the people substistuted or gave him warrant for to accuse Him And Bradshaw who sat 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 only acquit him of any Confession or guilt to be inferred from his conditional yielding 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 addresse and his closer imprisonment at Carisbrooke-Castle had clearness of Conscience enough to say for as for his judgement we hope it cannot be suspected when Mr. Caril the Independent and Mr. Vines a Presbyterian Minister could say He was a second Solomon and the Parliaments Commissioners at the Isle of Wight reported him to be the master of the greatest wisdom and understanding That He had q the feast of a good conscience and the brazen wall of a judicious integrity conscience doubted not but His Innocency would finde God to be His Protector rejoyced in the comfort of imitating Christs example in suffering for Righteousnesse sake and thanked God He could pray for them that God would not impute His Blood to them further then 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 when such a Prince and such a Christian cannot be thought to dissemble 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 look 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 then a man and so great a Protector of His people as not onely to be content to be robbed and despoiled of all that He had for their sakes but to save the lives liberties 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 that a great accursed thing is committed in our Israel and that the anger of the Lord is kindled against us it may be labour well bestowed though here is sure enough already said and proved that the King was in the defensive and justifiable part of the War to send into Achans tent and search and see what is there to be found concerning this matter and there we finde that the Lord Brooke and his 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 which 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 r Hinderson the Scotch firebrand confesses that the Covenanters of both Kingdoms were unanimously agreed to bring the King to their lure before they laid down Arms the joynt Declaration of both Kingdoms in January 1643. professes they will never say down Arms 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 Freedom of the Nation and the opportunities God had put into their hands An Ordinance of Parliament 20. October 1645. concerning rules and directions for Tryers and Judges of the ability of Elders declares it was the wonderful providence of God in calling them which He never did by force of Arms Hypocrisie Treason Rebellion and usurping of
it 192 CHAP. VIII VVHether the conditions offered by the King would not have been more profitable if they had been accepted and what the people have got instead of them 205 ERRATA Which escaped the Press PAg. 120. l. 15. read their for they p. 118. l. 20. Saxon for Sixon p. 122. l. 22. interfere a. KING CHARLES The first No Man of Blood BUT A Martyr for his People THat there hath been now almost seven years spent in Civil Wars abundance of Blood-shed and more Ruine and Misery brought upon the Kingdom by it then all the several Changes Conquests and Civil Wars it hath endured from the time of Brute or the first Inhabitants of it every mans woful experience some onely excepted who have been gainers by it will easily assent unto No mervail therefore that many of those who if all they alledge for themselves that they were not the cause of it could be granted to be true might either have hindred or lessened it would now put the blame of so horrid a business from themselves and lay it upon any they can perswade to bear it And that the Conquerours who would binde their Kings in Chains and their Princes with fetters of Iron and think they have a Commission from Heaven to do it the guilt of it being necessarily either to be charged upon the Conquerors or conquered are not willing to have their triumphant Chayres and the glories as they are made believe that hang upon their shoulders defiled with it but do all they can to load their Captives with it But howsoever though the successe and power of an Army hath frighted it so far out of question as to charge it upon the King and take away his life for it by making those that must of necessity be guilty of the fact if He should have been as in all reason He ought to have been acquited of it the onely Judges of him It may well become the judgement and conscience of every man that will be but either a good Subject or a Christian not to lend out his Soul and Salvation so much on trust as to take those that are parties and the most ignorant sort of mens words for it but to enter into a most serious examination of the matter of Fact it self and by tracing out the footsteps of Truth see what a conclusion may be drawn out of it In pursuance whereof for I hope the original of this Sea of blood will not prove so unsearchable as the head of Nile we shall enquire who first of all raised the Feares and Jealousies Secondly represent set down the truth of the matter of Fact and proceedings betwixt the King and Parliament from the tumultuous and seditious coming of the People to the Parliament and Whitehall until the 25. Aug. 1642. when he set up his Standard at Nottingham and from the setting up of his Standard until the 13 Septemb. 1642. when the Parliament by their many acts of hostility and a negative and churlish answer to his propositions might well have put him out of hope of any good to be obtained from them by messages of Peace sent unto them Thirdly whether a Prince or other Magistrate labouring to suppresse or punish a rebellion of the People be tied to those rules are necessary to the justifying of a war if it were made between equals Fourthly suppose the war to be made with a neighbour Prince or between equals whether the King or Parliament were in the defensive or justifiable part of it Fifthly whether the Parliament in their pretended magistracy have not taken lesser occasions to punish or provide against insurrections treasons and rebellions as they are pleased to call them Sixthly who most desired Peace and offered fairliest for it Seventhly who laboured to shorten the War and who to lengthen it Eightly whether the Conditions proffered by the King would not have been more profitable for the People if they had been accepted and what the Kingdom and People have got in stead of it CHAP. I. Who first of all Raised the Fears and Jealousies THe desiring of a guard for the Parliament because of a tale rather then a plot That the Earl of Crawford had a purpose to take away the Marquis of Hamiltons life in Scotland the refusing of a legal guard offered by the King and His protestation to be as careful of their safety as of the safety of His Wife and Children The dream of a Taylor lying in a ditch in Finsbury fields of this and the other good Lord and Common-wealths-men to be taken away The training of horses under ground and a plague-plaister or rather a clout taken from a galled horse-back sent into the House of Commons to Mr. Pym A designe of the Inhabitants of Covent-Garden to murther the City of London News from France Italy Spain and Denmark of Armies ready to come for England and a supposition or feaverish fancy That the King intended to introduce Popery and alter 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 Parliament 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 whilest 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 haste they could to weaken Him and strengthen themselves 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 Scottish subjects the latter of whom the Earl of Essex and Sir Thomas Fairfax themselves understood to be no better then Rebels and therefore served in places of Command in His Majesties Army against them That Sir Arthur Haselrig had brought in a Bill in Parliament to take the Militia by Sea and Land away from him saw himself not long after by a printed Remonstrance or Declaration made to the People of all they could but imagine to be errours in his government arraigned and little lesse then deposed The Bishops and divers great Lords driven from the Parliament by Tumults Was inforced to keep his gates at White-hall 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 Trayterous Speeches used by some seditious mechaniques of London as that It was pitty He should raigne and that The Prince would make a better King was yet so far from being jealous or solicitous to defend himself 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
might be delivered unto Him all Armies and Levies made by the Parliament laid down the pretended Ordinance for the Militia disavowed and the Parliament adjourned to a secure place He would lay down Armes and repair to them and desired all differences might be freely debated in a Parliamentary way whereby the Law might recover its due reverence the Subject his just Liberty Parliaments their full vigour and estimation and the whole Kingdom a blessed Peace and prosperity and requiring their answer by the 27. of that July promised till then not to make any attempt of force upon Hull they 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 Collonel Goring being but sent thither with a message from the King and Declared for His Majesty Order Forces to be sent thither speedily to beleaguer it by Land and the Earl of Warwick to send thither 5. Ships of the Navy to prevent any Forraign forces coming to their assistance and upon Intelligence that the Earl of Northampton appeared with great strength at Banbury to hinder the Lord Brooks carrying the pieces of Ordinance 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 and to have the Magazine of the County to be delivered unto them Gave power to the Earl of Essex their Lord-General 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 Earl of Stamford a Commission to raise forces for the suppressing of any that should attempt for the King in Leicester-shire or the adjacent Counties And on the eleventh of August 1642. Upon the Kings Proclamation two dayes 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 6. dayes to be Traytors p 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 whilest 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. August 1642. The King though he might well understand the great leavies of Men and Armes 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 Henry Ludlow Sir Arthur Haslerig Mr. Strode Mr. Martin Mr. Hampden Alderman Pennington and Capt. Venne might be delivered into the hands of Iustice to be tried by their Peeres according to the known Laws of the Land and against the Earles of Essex Warwick Stamford Lord Brook 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 acquited 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 Embryo 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 which had so often deceived Him but if He will give any account to the Watch-man of Israel of the People committed to his Charge or to the People of his protection of them or any maner of satisfaction to his own judgement and discretion betake himselfe 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 servants and friends about Him who pawned and engaged their Plate Jewels and Lands for Him with those Lords and Gentlemen that willingly offered to bear him company in His troubles provides what men arms He could in his way towards Nottingham where He intended to set up His Standard But the Parliament about the 23. of August 1642. having received some information that He intended to set up His Standard at Nottingham Declare q That now it appears to all the world that there is good ground of their fears and jealousies which if ever there had been any as there was no cause at all of any more then that some of them meaning to murder or ruine Him they were often afraid He should take notice of it and seek to defend himself there was by their own confession till this time no manifest or certain ground appearing that He intended to defend himself against the Parliament and therefore Order That all that shall suffer in their Estates by any forces raised by the King without consent of Parliament shall have full reparation of their damages out of the Estates of the Actors and out of the Estates of all such Persons in any part of the Kingdom who should persist to serve the King in this War against the Parliament and That it should be Lawful for any number of persons to ioyn and defend themselves and that the Earl of Essex their General should grant out Commissions for levying and conducting forces into the Northern parts And Sir John Hotham the Governor of Hull assist them and Command also the Sheriffs of the County of York and the adjacent Counties with the power of the Counties and Trained bands to aide them and to seize upon all that shall execute the Commission of Array for His Majesty who thus sufficiently beset by those that intended what since
forget their due titles of Earls Lords or Knights because the King had made them so since the beginning of the War or else there must be neither Treaty nor Peace At Uxbridge the time of the Treaty limited for 20. days and at Newcastle for 10. and though the King and His Commissioners at Uxbridge almost petitioned for a cessation in the interim of that Treaty as they had done before in that which was at Oxford it could not be granted nor have a few days 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 onely to confiscate the Estates of His Friends and those that took Arms to save his Life and Estate but to take away their Lives also and not only that but to condemn them of high Treason and attaint their blood when they fought against them which were onely guilty of it a thing so unfitting unusually stood upon as it was never asked in any treaty or pacification among the civilized or more 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 else 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 and was not to be asked or granted by any that could but entitle 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 self would abhor and the worst of villains and reprobates rather lose their lives then yield to would never be demanded by any but a Devil nor granted by any but his Equals And if their desiring of a War more then a peace and to keep the King out of his own had not been the only cause of such unnatural 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 which they are now so busie to do of themselves and as if they had been afraid all this would not be enough to keep the doores of Janus or the Devil open for fear lest the King should trouble them with any more offers or Messages for 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 somewhat like a cause or justification of a war against their Soveraign for notwithstanding all their hypocritical pretences so it was at first intended and so it hath 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 z duo sunt genera decertandi unum per disceptationem alterum per vim ad hoc confugiendum non est si uti superiori licebit There are other ways to come by pretended rights then 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 betwixt the Kings of Castile and Navarre a The Rebellious Barons of England in the raign 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 Kingdom which ran so plentifully in those unhappy differences was by that means only stopped Charles b the 4. Emperor was made a Judge of the differences betwixt the English and the French Kings For as Albericus Gentilis saith well c Intelligendum est eos qui diffugiunt genus hoc decertandi per disceptationem ad alterum quod est per vim currunt ilico 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 means of deciding the controversie for which it is made and will judge onely according to their own will and opinion do 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 States of the United Provinces did by more then 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 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 partie 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 and sworn to see the Law executed had not the sword nor his authority committed to him in vain And if he had no maner 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 plundring and taking away their Estates from them long before He had either armed himself or had wherewithal to do it had been cause as sufficient as to cause a Hue and Cry to be made after a fellon or raise the posse Comitatus to bring Him to Justice and might by the same reason do 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 do 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 onely Sheep he that understood well enough the duty of a King was exceeding wroth against the man and said As sure
as the Lord liveth this man shall surely dye And can any man think that the King when He saw so much Sedition and Treason among the People countenanced and 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 d saith St. Jerom. did ever rest quietly sleeping near a viper lex una perpetua salutem omni ratione defendere haec ratio doctis necessitas Barbaris mos gentibus feris natura ipsa prescripsit haec non scripta sed nata lex saith e Tully that great master of morality Reason Necessity Custom and Nature it self have made self-preservation to be warrantable Nemo exponere se debet periculis obviam offensioni eundum non modo quae est in actu sed quae est in potentia ad actum justus metus justum facit bellum say the Civil Laws 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 then 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 onely 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 f Nec distingui vult Baldus sive se sua suosve defendat sive prope sive posita longe A man is said to defend himself when it is but his own Goods Estate or People whether near or further of 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 Utilis 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 autevertere nec est cunctandum aut expectandum c. meet and take away growing evils and turn them another way and not to delay and be slack in it Honesta defensio quae citra metum ullum periculi nostri nulla utilitate quaesita tantum in gratiam aliorum suscipitur g 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 him and was so over much 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 seeming impossibilities of such horrid proceedings against Him as all His three Kingdoms were in a flame of war and strong Combinations made by two of them and the Pulpits every where flaming Seditious exhortations against Him His Navy Magazines Ports Revenues Mint strongest Towns and Places seised on Armies marching against Him and He only 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 maner of reason and understanding to deny Him a Justification upon the first sort of defences if the second would not reach it for the first cannot by any interpretation go without it For h haec est necessitas 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 First in defensione Secondly in recuperatione rerum Thirdly in punitione 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 do 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 Emperor of Germany the former for misusing the latter for encroaching upon Him and not receiving His Ambassadors found warrant and necessity enough to do it But what could the King do 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 in the matter of fact hath hitherto among the wisest Princes and Common-wealths in the World been reputed a just and warrantable cause of war Homicide by the Laws of England shall be excused with a se defendendo when the assaulted hath but simply defended himself or retired in his own defence so far till by some Water or Wall he be hindred from going any further Death and destruction marching towards the King Hull fortified and kept behind him and all maner of necessities compassing him in on every side could then do no less then rouse him up to make his own defence and he must be as much without his sences as care of his own preservation if he should not then think it to be high time to make ready to defend himself and necessity enough to excuse him for any thing should be done in order to it The Parliament and he as this case stood could not be both at one and the same time in the defensive part for they had all
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 if the k War which the Tribes of Israel made against the Tribe of Benjamin and the men of Gibeah for committing lewdness and folly in Israel that of l David to rescue his wives that were carried away captive by the Amalekites or m to fetch home the Ark of God from the Philistines that which n 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 Maccabeus 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 unlawful How shall this of the kings be condemned that had as much as Abraham David Ahab against Benhadad o Judas Maccabeus and the tribes of Israel or those heathens that made it pro aris focis put them all together 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 to it or for killing theeves 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 only for his Life but his Honour and not only 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 which God hath given them Or how can those State riddles like those of Sphinx only made to destroy men withal that they fought for the King and Parliament as is alledged in many of their Orders and Declarations and that the war on the Kings part was a Rebellion raised against the King and Parliament as is expressed in the p Ordinance of Parliament for association of the Counties of Pembroke Cardigan and Caermarthen be ever understood by any rules of sense or reason if he had been as he was not on the offensive part of the war and had begun it against them Or how the Earl of Essex and Sir Thomas Fairfax could as there was Law and reason enough to perswade them to it believe that the war made by the King against the Scots wherein they served and took command under him was lawful and that a War in his own defence against the forces of the Parliament wherein they were shortly after successively one after the other Generals and Commanders against him should be unlawful or that they which seised the Town and Magazine of Hull and first began the war against the King who only defended himself and the people committed to his charge can possibly be understood to have done it in their own defence or that what they did could in the means and way which they used or took unto it and the sad and dire effects and consequences of it receive any other interpretation then that they began made a war against the King upon a colour only and pretence that they made it for him But if any shall be so in love with the sense of the House of Commons as to be out of their own senses and think that though there be no maner 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 lawful defence makes him who must needs be best acquainted with his own actions to be so clearly guilty of all the blood that 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 the 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 his Kingdoms and people to wallow in the blood and misery which their Parliament Idols had brought them to have all the blame laid upon him for hindring a Peace which 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 which 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 Truth Reason or Argument to perswade him to yield unto it but laid it only as a case of necessity before him though there was no such preamble at the Treaties of Oxford and Uxbridg nor any such necessity at those times insisted upon that unless he would take the guilt upon himself his two Houses of Parliament and the People had engaged with them must necessarily be guilty of Treason and could not have any security from the guilt and punishment of it The King bemoaning 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 differences But Cains sins being greater then could be forgiven him unless Abel can be brought to say he killed Cain they that could afterward finde an expedient for 21. of their great Councel of State that refused to subscribe to the lawfulness 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 a preamble to his own propositions that the war made by Him was made in his own defence or the like might have been easily contrived and thought upon For the truth was the Independent party desired no Peace at all the Presbyterian desired it only to get into their hands the Kings Power Authority lay the guilt of all the blood they had shed for it upon Him 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