your intention to subvert the fundemental Laws of the Land for the great Bulwarks of the peoples Liberty is the Parliament of England and to subvert and root up that which your aim hath been to do would certainly at one blow have confounded the Liberties and the properties of England Truly Sir It makes me call to minde I cannot forbeare to express it for Sir we must deal plainly with you according to the merits of your Cause for so is our commission It makes me I say to call to minde what I have read of a great Romane Emperor a great Roman tyrant may I call him Caligula by name who wished that the people of Rome had but one Neck that at one blow he might cut it off Your proceedings have been something like to this the people of England have been are no where else to be represented but in Parliament and could you have but confounded that you had at one blow cut off the neck of England But God hath reserved better things for us and hath been pleased to breake your Forces and to overthrow your designes and to bring your person in to custody that you might be answerable unto Justice Sir we know very well that it is a question which hath been much pressed by your side By what Presidents we shall proceed Truly Sir for Presidents I shall not at this present make any long discourse on that subject howsoever I shall acquaint them that it is no new thing to cite Presidents almost out of all Nations where the people when power hath been in their hands have not sticked to call their Kings to an account and where a change of Government hath ensued upon the occasion of the Tyranny and misgovernment of those that have been placed over the people I will not waste time to mention France or Spain or the Empire of Germany or any other Countrey Volumnes may be written of it But truey Sir that President of the Kingdom of Arragon hath by some of us been thought upon The Justice of Arragon is as a man tanquam in medio positus it is placed between the people of that Countrey and the King of Spain so that if wrong be done by the King of Arragon the Justice of Arragon hath power to reform that wrong and he is acknowledged the Kings Superiour and bring the grand prisoner of the Priviledges and Liberties of the people he hath prosecuted against the Kings for their misgovernment Sir What the Tribunes were heretofore to Rome and what the Ephori were to the State of Lacedemon we sufficiently know they were as the Parliament of England to the English State and though Rome seemed to have lost her Liberty when once the Emperours were constituted yet you shall find some exemplary Acts of Justice even done by the Senate of Rome on the great Tyrant of his time Nero who was by them condemned and adjudged unto death But why Sir should I make mention of these Forreign Histories and Examples unto you If we shall look but over the Tweed we shall finde Examples enough in your Native Kingdom of Scotland If we look on your first King Forgusius he was an elective King he died and left two Sons both in their minority The elder brother afterwards giving small hopes to the people that he would govern them well so because he endeavoured to have supplanted his Uncle who was chosen by the people to govern them in his minority he was rejected by the people for it and the younger Brother was chosen c. Sir I will not take upon me to express what your Histories do at large declare you know very well that you are the hundred and nineth King of Scotland to mention all the Kings which the people of that Kingdome according to their power and Priviledge have made bold to deal withall either to banish imprison or put to death would be too long a story for this time and place Reges say your own Authors we created Kings at first Leges c. we imposed Laws upon them and as they were chosen by the suffrages of the people at the first so upon the same occasion by the same suffrages they may be taken down again and of this I may be bold to say that no Kingdom in the World hath yielded a more plentifull experience than your Native Kingdom of Scotland on the deposition and the punishment of their transgressing Kings I need not go far for an Example your Grand-mother was set aside and your Father an Infant Crown'd This State hath done the like in England The Parliament and people of England have made bold to call their King to an account therein frequent Examples of it in the Saxons time the time before the Conquest and since the Conquest there have not wanted some Presidents King Edward the second King Richard the second were so dealt with by the Parliament and were both deposed and deprived and truly Sir whosoever shall look into their stories shall not finde the Articles that are charged upon them to come near to the height and the Capitalnesse of the crimes that are laid to your charge nothing near Sir you were pleased the other day to alledge your descent and I did not contradict it but take all together if you go higher than the Conquest you shall find that for almost a thousand years these thinge have been and if you come down since the Conquest you are the four and twentieth King from William called the Conquerour and you shall find one half of them to come meerly from the State and not meerly upon the point of Descent This were easie to be instanced The time must not be lost that way I shall only represent what a grave and learned Judge said in his time who was well known unto you the words are since printed for posterity That although there were such a thing as a Descent many times yet the Kings of England ever held the greatest assurance of their Titles when it was declared by Parliament And Sir your Oath and the manner of your Coronation doth plainly shew that the Kings of England although it 's true by the Law the next person in bloud is designed yet if there were a just cause to refuse him the people of England might do it For there is a Contract and a bargain made betwixt the King and his people and your Oath is taken and certainly Sir the Bond is reciprocall for as you are Leige Lord so are they Leige Subjects and we know very well that Legantis est duplex the one is a Bond of perfection that is due from the Soveraign the other is a Bond of Subjection which is due from the Subject for if this Bond be once broken farewell Soveraignty â—ubjectio trahit c. These things may not be denyed for I speak it the rather and I pray God it may work upon your heart that you may be sensible of your miscarriages for whether you have been as you
ought to be a Protector of England or a destroyer of England let all England judge or all the world that hath beheld it and though Sir you have it by inheritance in the way that is spoken of yet it cannot be denyed but your Office is an Office of Trust and indeed an Office of the highest Trust that can be lodged in any single person For as you were the grand Administrator of Justice and others were but as your Delegates to see it executed through your Dominions If your great Office were to do Justice and preserve your people from wrong if instead of executing Justice you will be the grand and publick disturber of the peace surely this is contrary to your Office and your Trust Now Sir if it be an Office of Inheritance as you speak of your Title by descent let all men understand that great Offices are seizable and forfeitable as if you had it but for a year or for your life It will therefore much concern you to take into your serious consideration your great miscarriages in this nature Truly Sir I shall not in this place undertake to give you the particulars of the many miscarriages of your Reign whatsoever they have been they are notoriously known It had been happy for the Kingdome and for your self also if they had not been so much known and so much felt as they are every where complained on and reported Sir that we are now upon by the command of the highest Court hath been and is to bring you to your Triall and to judge you for these great offences of yours Sir the Charge hath called you Tyrant a Traytor a Murtherer and a publike Enemy to the Common-wealth Sir it had been well if these terms might rightly and justly have been omitted nay if any one of them all King Ha! President Truly we have been told Rex est qui bene regit Tyrannus qui populum opprimit and if that be the definition of a Tyrant then see if you come short of it in your Actions and whether not the highest Tyrant by that way of arbitrary Government which you sought to introduce and were putting upon the people Examine with your self if that were not as high an act of Tyranny as any of your predecessours were guilty of yea many degrees beyond it Sir the Term Traytor cannot be spared we shall easily conclude that it doth enforce and denote a breach of Trust and it must be supposed to be done by a superior and therefore as the people of England might have incurred that term if they had been truly guilty of it as to the definition of the Law so on the other side when you did break you Trust to the Kingdom you did break your Trust to your superior For the Kingdom is that for which you were trusted And therefore when you are called to an account for this breach of trust you are called to account by your superior Minimus Majorem in judicium vocat And Sir the people of England cannot be so wanting to themselves whom God hath dealt miraculously and gloriously for they having both power and their great enemy in their hand but they must proceed to Justice to themselves and to you For Sir the Court could heartily desire that you would lay your hand upon your heart and consider what you have done amiss and that you would endeavour to make your peace with God Truly Sir These are two high Crimes Tyranny and Treason There is a third if those had not been and that is Murder which is laid to your charge also All the bloody murders that have been committed since the Division twixt you and your people must be laid to your charge Sir It is a hainous and a crying sin and truly Sir If any man will ask us what punishment is due unto a murtherer let Gods Law let mans Law speak I will presume you are so well read in the holy Scripture as that you know God himself hath said concerning the shedding of mans blood Gen. 9. and Numb 35. will tell you what the punishment is and this Court in the behalf of the Kingdome are sensible of that innocent blood that hath been shed and the Land indeed stands still defiled with that blood and as the Text hath it It can no way be cleansed but by the shedding of the blood of him who shed that blood Sir We know no dispensation from this blood in the Commandment Thou shalt do no Murther we do not know but that it extends to Kings as well as to the meanest peasants the meanest of the people the Command is universal Sir Gods Law forbids it mans Law forbids it nor do we know that there is any manner of exception not even in mans Laws for the punishment of Murther in you T is true that in the Case of Kings every private hand is not to put forth its self to this work for their reformation or punishment but the people represented having power in their hands were there but one willfull Act of murder by you committed have power to convent you and to punish you for it The weight Sir then lying upon you in all these respects that have been spoken for your Tyranny Treason Breach of trust and the murders that have been committed surely it would drive you into a sad consideration concerning your eternall estate I know it cannot be acceptable to you to heare any such things as these mentioned from this Court for so do we call our selves and justifie our selves to be a Court and a High Court of Justice authorized by the highest and solemnest Court of the Kingdome as hath been often already said And although you have indeavoured what lay in you to discourt us yet we do take knowledge of our selves to be such a Court as can administer justice to you as wee are bound in duty to it Sir all I shall say before the reading of the Sentence is but this The Court doth heartily desire that you will seriously consider of those Evills that you stand guilty of You said well the other day you wished us to have God before our eyes Truly Sir I hope all of us have so that God whom we acknowledge to be King of Kings and Lord of Lords that God with whom there is no respect of persons that God who is the avenger of Innocent blood that God have we before our eyes that God who bestowes a Curse upon them who is in the case of guilty malefactors that deserve death do withhold their hands from shedding of blood Sir that God we have before our eyes and were it not that the Conscience of our duty hath called us into this place and this imployment you should have had no appearance of a Court here But Sir we must preferre our respect unto God and to the Kingdom above any respects whatsoever and although at this present many of us if not all of us are severely threatned by some of your party what
The Oglio of Traytors Including the Illegal Tryall of his late MAIESTY With a Catalogue of their names that sat as Judges and consented to the Judgment With his MAJESTIES Reasons against their usurped power and his late speech To which is now added the severall depositions of the pretended Witnesses as it is Printed in the French Coppy With the whole proceedings against Colonel J. Penruddock of Compton in Wilts and his speech before he dyed As also the speech of that resolved Gentleman Mr. Hugh Grove of Chissenbury Esquire who was beheaded the same day not before Printed London Printed by T. M. for William Shears at the Bible in Bedford street The First Dayes Proceeding of the High Court of Justice c. THe Triall and the Execution of the last King of England being still as much the wonder as the discourse of Christendome I shall endeavour to represent it to you with the exactest faithfullnesse that can possibly be desired and although others have gone before me on the same subject by the benifit of time I doubt not but that I shall exceed them by the advantage of truth In the Supream Tribunall of Justice sitting at Whitehall in Westminster Serjeant Bradshaw being President and about seventy other persons elected to be his Judges being present the Cryer of the Court having proclaimed his O yes to invite the people to attention silence was commanded and the Ordinance of the Commans in Parliament in reference to the Examination of the King was read and the Court was summoned all the Members thereof â—â—â—sing as they were called The King came into the Court his head covered Serjeant Dendy being remarkable by the Authority of his Mace did usher him in Colonel Hatcher and about thirty Officers and Gentlemen did attend him as his Guard The Court being sat the Lord President Bradshaw speak thus unto him Charles Stuart King of England the Commons of England assembled in Parliament being touched with the sense of the Calamities which have happned to this Nation and of the innocent bloud spilt of which you are accused to be the Author have both according to their office which they ow to God this Nation and themselves according to the power fundamental faith intrusted with them by the people Constituted this Supream Court of Justice before which you are now brought to hear your Charge on which this Court will proceed Mr. Crook the Solliciter Generall Sir In the Name of the Commons of England and of all the people thereof I do charge Charles Stuart here present as guilty of Treason and other great defaults and in the name of the Commons of England I require that his charge may be read unto him The King Stay alittle L. President Sir the Court hath given order that the Charge shall be read If you have any thing afterwards to plead for your self you may be heard Hereupon the Charge was read THat the said Charles Stuart being admitted King of England and therein trusted with a limmitted Power to govern by and according to the Laws of the Land and not otherwise And by his trust Oath and Office being obliged to use the Power committed to him For the good and benefit of the People and for the preservation of Kights and Libirâ—ies yet neverthelesse out of a wicked Designe to erect and uphold in himselfe and unlimited and Tyrannical power to rule according to his Will and to overthrow the Rights and liberties of the people Yea to take away and make void the foundations thereof and all the redress and remedy of misgovernment which by the fundamental constitutions of this Kingdome were reserved on the peoples behalfe in the right and power of frequent and successive Parliaments or nationall meetings in Councel he the said Charles Stuart for accomplishment of such his designes and for the protecting of himself and his adherents in his and their wicked practises to the same ends hath traterously and maliciously leavied war against the present Parliament and the people therein represented Particularly upon or about the thirtieth day of June in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred forty and two at Beverly in the County of York and upon or about the 30. day of July in the year aforesaid in the County of the City of York and upon or about the 24. day of August in the same year at the County of the town of Nottingham when and were he set up his Standard of war And also on or about the twenty third â—ay of October in the same year at Edghill and Kenton field in the County of Warwick and upon or aboue the thirtieth day of November in thet same year at Brainchford in the County of Midalesex And upon or about the thirtieth day of August in the year of our Lord One thousand six hundred forty and three at Cavesham bridge neer Reading in the County of Berks and upon or about the thirtieth day of October in the year last mentioned at or neer the City of Gloster and upon or about the thirtieth day of November in the year last mentioned at Newbury in the County of Berks And upon or about the one thirtieth day of July in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred forty and four at Cropredybridge in the County of Oxon And upon or about the thirtieth day of September in the year last mentioned at Boamin and other places near adjacent in the County of Cornwall And upon or about the thirtieth day of November in the year last mentioned at Newbery aforesaid and upon or about the eighth day of June in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred forty and five at the Town of Leicester And also upon the fourteenth day of the same month in the same year at Naseby field in the County of Norhampton At which severall times and places or most of them and at many other places in the Land at severall other times within the year afore mentioned And in the year of our Lord One thousand six hundred forty and six he the said Charles Stuart hath caused and procured many thousands of the Free-people of the nation to be slain and by Divisions parties and insurrections within this land by invasions from Forragine parts endeavoured and procured by him and by many other evill wayes and meanes He the said Charles Stuart hath not onely maintained carried on the said War both by land and sea during the year before mentioned but also hath renewed or caused to be renewed the said war against the Parliament and good people of this Nation in this present year One thousand six hundred fourty and eight in the Counties of Kent Essex Surry Sussex Middlesex and many other Counties and places in England and Wales and also by sea and particularly he the said Charles Stuart hath for that purpose given Commission to his Son the Prince and others whereby besides multitudes of other persons many such as were by the Parliament intrusted
their consideration how to proceed against you In the mean time they who brought you hither shall return you back again The Court desireth to be satisfied whether this be all the Answer that you will give them or not King I desire that you would resolve me and all the world in this one particular Give me leave to acquaint you that it is a thing of no small importance which you go about I am sworn to keep the peace according to the duty which I ow to God and to my Land and I will here perform it to the last breath of my Body you shall therefore do well first to satisfie God and afterwards the Land by what Authority you do this If you do it by an usurped Authority you cannot defend it God who sitteth in the Heavens will call you and all those who have conferred this power on you to give him an account of it Satisfie me in this and I shall answer you for otherwise I should betray the Faith committed to me and the liberties of my people Wherefore consider of it and I shall be willing to answer you For I do profess it is as great a sin to resist a lawfull Authority as to submit unto a Tyrannicall or any other unlawfull authority wherefore resolve me in this particular and you shall receive my Answer L. President Bradshaw The Court expecteth that you should give them a final Answer and will adjourn untill Munday next If you cannot satisfie your self although we tell you our Authority our Authority will satisfie our selves And it is according to the Authority of God and and the Kingdome and the Peace of which you speak shall be preserved in the Administration of Justice and that is our present work King I give you this for my Answer you have not shewn me any lawfull Authority which may satisfie any reasonable man L. President Bradshaw It is only your apprehension we are fully satisfied who are your Judges King It is not my apprehension nor yours which ought to determine this L. President Bradshaw The Court hath heard you and disposed of you accordingly as their discretions have thought expedient The Court adjourneth to the Painted Chamber untill Munday at ten of the clock in the morning and from thence hither Something that was ominous ought not to be passed by in silence when the Charge was read against the King the silver head of his staff did full off which he much did wonder at and observing no man so officious to assist him he stooping towards the ground did take it up himself As the King returned looking on the Court he said I fear not thee meaning the Sword As he came down the staires the people who were in the Hall cryed out some of them God save the King but the greater part Justice Justice The second dayes proceeding against the King January 22 c. THe Cryer having thrice pronounced his Oyes and silence commanded after that the Judges were called and every one did particulary answer to his Name Silence was again commanded under pain of imprisonment and the Captain of the Guards was ordered to apprehended any that should endeavour to make a tumult At the commanding of the King into the Court there was a great shout and the Court commanded the Captain of the Guards to apprehend and imprison those who should make either a noise or tumult The Court being sat the Sollicitor turning to the President said May it Please your Lordship my Lord President In the former Court on Saturday in the Name of the Commons of England I exhibited and offered to this Tribunal the charg of high Treasons and other grievous crimes against the Prisoner with which I did charge him In the Name of the People of England and his charge was read and his Answer demanded My Lord It pleased him at that time tâ— return no answer at all but instead of answering he questioned the Authority of the High Court My most humble motion to this High Court in the Name of the people of the Kingdome of England is that the prisoner may be compelled to give a positive answer either by way of Confession or Negation which if he shal refuse that the subject of his Charge may be taken for granted the Court proceed acording to iustice L. President Sir you may remember that on the last convention of this Court the cause was expounded to you for which you were brought hither and you heard the charge against you read it being a charge of High Treason and other grievous crimes against the Kingdom of England you heard likewise that it was required in the Name of the people that you should answer to your charge that there should be a proceeding thereon as should be agreable unto Justice you were then pleased to move some scruples concerning the authority of this Court and you desired to be satisfied in your knowledge by what authority you were brought hither you severall times did propound your questions and it was often answered to you that it was by authority of the Commons of England assembled in Parliament who did iudge it requisite to call you to an account for the great and greivous crimes of which you are accused After that the Court did take into their serious consideration those things which you objected and they are fully satisfied in their authority and do conceive it requisite that you should admit it they therefore require that you give a positive and a particular Answer to the charge exhibited against you they do expect that you should either confesse or deny it If you shall deny it it will be proved in the behalfe of the Kingdome the whole world doth approve of their Authority So that the Kingdome is satisfied and you ought thereby to be satisfied your self you ought not therefore to waste time but to give your positive answer King It is true that when I was last here I moved that question and indeed if if it where onely my businesse in particular I should have satisfied my selfe with that protestation I then interposed against the lawfulnesse of this Court and that a King cannot be judged by any superiour jurisdiction on earth but my on interests are not only involved in it but the liberties also of the people of England and pretend what you will I doe indeavor more for their liberties than any whatsoever For if Power without laws can make laws change the Fundamentall laws of the Kingdome I know not what subject in England can be secure of his life or of any thing which he doth call his own Wherefore when I came hither I expected particular reasons that I might understand by what law and what Authority you would proceed against me I should then perceive what most especially I have to say unto you for the affirmative is to be proved which seldome the Negative is capable of but because I cannot perswade you thus I will give you my Reason as briefly as
most humbly bowed his generious Neck to Go to be cut off by the Vizarded Executioner which was sudainly done at one blow Thus fell King Charles the I. and thus all Britan with him His Majesties Reasons against the pretended Jurisdiction of the High Court of Justice which he hath in tended to have given there on Munday Jan. 26. 1649. Faithfully transcribed from the original coppy of the King SInce I have already made my Protestation not onely against the illegality of this pretended Court but that no power on earth can justly call me who am your King into question as a Delinquent I would no longer have opened my mouth on this Argument but have referred my self to those things which I then spoke if this onely concerned my own particular But the duty which I ow to God to preserve the true liberty of my people doth not permit me at this time I should be silent for how can any free born Subject of England call his life or any thing he doth possess his own if power without law can daily make new and abrogate the old and Fundamentall Laws of this Land which I judge to be the present case Wherefore when I was brought hither I expected that you would have studied to satisfie me in those Fundamentals which do hinder me from puting in my Answer to the pretended charge but since I do observe that nothing which I can alledge can perswade you to it although negatives are not so naturally proved as affirmatives yet I have thought good to declear unto you the Reasons for which I am confident you are not in a capacity to judge me nor the vilest man in England for without showing my Reasons I will not as you be so unreasonable importunate as to exact either belief or obedience from my Subjects Here was I restrained and not suffered to speak any more of Reasons there is no just Processe against any man which deriveth not its authority either from the Law of God or from the municipall Laws of the Land Now I am most sure that the Processe at this day made against me cannot be confirmed by the law of God for on the contrary the necessity of obedience is cleerely confirmed and streightly commanded in the old and new Testament which if it be denyed I am prepared presently to prove it and as for the question now in agitation it is said there Where the word of a King is there is power and who can say unto him what doest thou Eccles 8. v. 4. Then as to the Laws of the land I am as confident that no learned Lawyer will affirm that any charge can be brought against the King since they all go forth under his name and it is one of their axioms that the King cannot do any injury Moreover the law on which you do ground your processe is either old or new if it be old shew that law unto me if it be new tell me what Authority established by the Fundamentall laws of this land did give it birth and when but how the House of Commons can erect a Tribunall of Justice which was never one it self as all Lawyers will confesse with me I leave it to God and to the world to judge and it will seeme most strange to any who ever have heard of the laws of England how they can pretend to make laws without either the King or the House of Peers Neverthelesse it be admited but not granted that a Commission from the people of England is able to confirm your pretended power yet I see nothing that you can show for it for I am confident that you never asked that question of the 10th man in the Kingdome in this method you do a most apparent injury even to the poorest ploughman if you ask not his consent neither can you pretend any coluor to this your pretended Commission if you have not the concurring voyces of at least the greatest part of this Nation of every degree and quality which you are so far from obtaining that I am confident you never so much as sought it You see then that I do not onely speake for my own Right as I am your King but also for the true liberty of all my subjects which confisteth not in dividing the power of Government but in living under such laws and such a Government as may grant them the best security of their lives and the propriety of their goods In this I ought not to be forgetfull neither do I forget the priviledges of both Houses of Parliament which these proceedings do not onely violate but give an occasion of the greatest breaking of the publick faith and such I believe as the like was never heard of before with which I will not at all charge both Houses for the pretended crime which they impose upon me are far before the Treaty at Newport in which when I assented to and did conclude as much as possibly lay in my power and did justly expect the assent of both Houses I was suddenly taken from thence and carried a way as a prisoner and against my will I was hurried hither and since I came to this Court I cannot with all my Indeavours defend the ancient laws and liberties of this Kingdome together with my just priviledges and as much as I can possiblely discern the upper House which is the House of Lords is totally excluded And as for the House of Commons it is to much known that the greater part of them are either imprisoned or affrighted from fitting so that if I had no other Cause this was sufficient enough to make me Protest against the authority of your pretended Tribunall Besides all these things the peace of the Kingdome is not the least part of my cares and what hope can there be of establishing it as long as power reigneth without the Rule of the law changing the whole frame of the Government under which this Kingdome hath flourished these many ages neither will I speak what is likely to follow if these unlawfull proceedings shall yet continue against me for I believe the Commons of England will give you no thankes for this change especially when they shall call into their mindes how happily they heretofore have lived in the Reigns of Queen Elizabeth and of the King my Father and in my own Reign before the beginnings of these unhappy tumults and they will have a just cause to doubt if they shall be so happy in any new Government In that time it will most evidently appeare that I onely took up Armes to defend the Fundamentall Lawes of this kingdome against those who opposed my power and totally would have subverted the antient Government Having so briefly declared my Reasons to you for which I could nor submit to your pretended Authority without violation of the Trust which God hath committed to me for the safety and liberty of my people I expect from you either clear Reasons to convince my Judgment by demonstrating to me
and imployed for the safety of the Nation being by him and his agents corrupted to the betraying of their Trust and revolting from the Parliament have had entertainment and commission for the continuing and renewing of war and hostility against the said Parliament and people as aforesaid By which cruel and unnaturall wars by him the said Charles Stuart levied continued and renewed as aforesaid much innocent bloud of the Free-people of this nation hath been spilt many families have been undone the publick treasury wasted and exhausted trade obstructed miserablely decayed vast expence and damage to the Nation incurred and many parts of the land spoiled some of them even to desolation And for further prosecution of his said evill designs he the said Charles Stuart doth still continue his Commissions to the said Prince and other Rebels and Revolters both English and Forraginers and to the Earl of Ormand and to the Irish Rebles and Revolters associated with him from whom further invasions upon this Land are thretned upon the procurment and on the behalfe of the said Charles Stuart All which wicked designes wars and evill practises of him The said Charles Stuart have been and are carried on for the advancing and upholding of the personall Interest of Will and Power and pretended Prerogative to himself and family against the publique intrest Common Right Liberty Justice and peace of the people of this Nation by and for whom he was entrusted as aforesaid By all which it appeareth that he the said Charles Stuart hath been and is the occasioner author and contriver of the said unnatural cruel and bloudy wars and therein guilty of all the treasons murthers rapines burning spoils desolations damage and mischief to this Nation acted or committed in the said wars or occasioned thereby And the said John Cook by protestation saveing on the behalf of the people of England the liberty of exhibiting at any time hereafter any other Charge against him the said Charles Stuart and also of the replying to the Answers which the said Charles Stuart shall make to the premises or any of them or any other Charge that shall be so exhibited doth for the said treasons crim's on the behalf of the said people of England impeach the said Charles Stuart as a Tyrant Tration Murtherer and a publick an implacable enemy to the Common-wealth of England And pray That the said Charles Stuart King of England may be put to answer all and every the premises that such proceedings examminations tryals sentence and Judgement may be there aupon had or shall be agreable to Justice The King was often times observed to smile in indignation during the reading of the Charge espacially at the words Tyrant TRATOR MURDERER and publick enemy to the Common-wealth The full Proceedings of the High Court of Justice against King Charls I. In Westminster Hall on Saturday the 20. of Ianuary 1648. L. President Bradshaw SIR You have now heard the Charge read containing such matters as do appear therein you have observed that in the Conclusion thereof It is required of the Court in the Name of the Commons of England that you answer to your charge which the Court doth expect The King I would be satisfied by what power I am called hither It is not long since that I was in the Isle of Wight How I came thither the story is longer than I conceive fitting in this place to declare But I there entered upon a Treaty with both Houses of Parliament with as much publick faith as its possible to be obtained from any people in the World I there treated with a number of honourable Lords and Gentlemen and I treated honestly and faithfully with them I cannot say but they dealt very ingenuously with me and we proceeded so far that the Treaty was even concluded Now I would understand by what Authority I mean lawfull I am brought hither There are many unlawfull Authorities in the world as Thieves and Plunderers in the high-wayes I would know by what authority I was taken from thence and carried from place to place I know not where When I have understood the lawfulnesse of the Authority I will make my Answer In the mean time remember that I am your King your lawfull King and weigh well with your selves what sins you heap on your own heads and the anger and judgements of God which you will bring upon this land I say seriously weigh it before you further do proceed from one sin to a greater Therefore declare unto me by what lawfull Authority I sit here and I will not refuse to Answer you In the mean time I will not betray my trust I have a trust committed to me by God by an ancient and lawfull succession I will not betray that by answering to a new and an unlawfull Authority wherefore satisfie me in this and you shall hear further from me L President Bradshaw If you had but pleased to observe what the Court did suggest unto you when you first came hither you had understood by what Authority you were brought hither which Authority doth require of you in the Name of the People of England by whom you are elected King than you make answer to them King No Sir I deny that L. President Bradshaw If you do not acknowledge the Authority of the Court they ought to proceed against you King I tell them that England was never an elective Kingdom but hereditary for almost these two thousand years Therefore declare unto me by what Authority I am brought hither I labour more for the liberty of my people than any of you who pretend to be my Judges and therefore I say declare unto me by what lawfull Authority I am placed here and I will answer you otherwise I shall make no answer at all L. President Bradshaw Sir how well you have administred the power committed to you is sufficiently known The method of your Answering is to put Interrogatories to the Court which doth not become you in this Condition Twice or thrice it hath been represented to you King There is present here a Gentleman Lieutenant Colonel Cobbet demand of him if he did not bring me from the Isle of Wight by force I come not hither to submit my self in this Court I will do as much for the Priviledges of the House of Commons rightly understood as any other I see not here the House of Lords which is able to constitute a Parliament and the King ought to be the Super-intendent there Is this to bring the King to his Parliament Is this to bring the publick Treaty to an end by the publick Faith of the world Either shew me your Authority established by the Scriptures which are the Word of God or confirmed by the constitutions of the Kingdom and I will answer you L. President Bradshaw Sir you have propounded a question and an answer hath been rendred but if you will not answer to what they do propound the Court will take it into
decline it since I say If that which I shall propound be not for the peace of the Kingdome and the Liberty of the subject then the shame is mine Now I desire that you will take this into your consideration if you will I will withdraw President Sir This is not altogether new that you have offered unto us I say it is not altogether new unto us although it be the first time that in person you have offered it to the Court Sir you say you do not decline the Jurisdiction of the Court. King Not in this that I have said President I understand you well enough Sir Nevertheless that which you have propounded seems to be contrary to that which you have said for the Court are ready to proceed to sentence It is not as you say that they will not hear their King For they have been ready to hear you they have patiently waited your pleasure for three Court daies together to hear what you would answer to the peoples charge against you to which you have not vouchsafed to give any answer at all Sir this doth tend to a further delay and truly Sir Such delays as these neither may the Kingdom nor Justice admit You have had the advantage of three several dayes to have offered in this kind what you were pleased to have propounded to the Lords and Commons This Court is founded upon the Authority of the Commons of England in whom resteth the Supream Jurisdiction That which you now tender to the Court is to be tried by another Jurisdiction a co-ordinate Jurisdiction I know very well how you have expressed your self and that notwithstanding what you would propound to the Lords and Commons yet neverthesess you would proceed on here I did hear you say so but Sir That which you would offer there whatsoever it be must needs be in delay of Justice here so as if this Court be resolved and prepared for the sentence they are bound in Justice not to grant that which you so much desire but Sir according to your desire and because you shall know the full pleasure of the Court upon that which you have moved the Court shall withdraw for a time King Shall I withdraw President Sir you shall know the the pleasure of the Court presently The Court withdraws for half an hour into the Court of Wards Serjeant at Arms the Court gives you command that the prisoner withdraw and that about half an hour hence the prisoner be returned again The time being expired the Court returned and the Lord President commanded the Serjeant at Arms to send for his prisoner The King being come attended with his Guard The Lord President said unto him Sir you were pleased to make a motion here to the Court concerning the desire you had to propound something to the Lord◠and Commons in the Painted Chamber for the peace of the Kingdome Sir you did in effect receive an Answer before the Court adjourned Truely Sir their adjournment and withdrawing was pro formâ tantum for it did not seem to them that there was any difficulty in the thing they have considered of what you moved and have considered of their own Authority which is grounded as it hath been often said upon the Supream Authority of the Commons of England Assembled in Parliament The Court doth act according to their Commission Sir I have received an express Order from the Court to acquaint you that they have been too much delayed by you already and that this which you have now offered hath occasioned some little further delay they are Judges appointed by the highest Judges and Judges are no more to delay than they are to deny Justice they are good words in the old Charter of England Nulli negabimus nulli vendemus nulli deferremus justitiam There must be no delay but Sir the Truth is and so every man here observes it that you have much delayed them by your contempt and default for which long since they might have proceeded to judgement against you therefore notwithstanding what you have offered they are resolved to proceed to punishment and to judgement and this is their unanimous resolution King Sir I see it is in vain for me to dispute I am no Sceptick to doubt or to deny the power that you have I do know that you have power enough Sir I confess I do believe it would have been advantagious to the peace of the Kingdom if you would have been pleased to take the pains to shew the lawfulness of your power As for this delay which I have desired I do confesse it is a delay but it is a delay that is important for the peace of the Kingdom It is not my person that I look on alone It is the welfare of the Kingdom the peace of the Kingdome It is an old saying that we should think on long but perform great matters suddenly Therefore Sir I do say again I do put at your doors all the inconveniences of a hasty sentence I have been here now a full week this day eight dayes was the day in which I made in this place my first appearance The short respite but of a day or two longer may give peace unto the Nation whereas an hasty jugdement may bring such a perpetual trouble and inconvenience upon it that is the Child unborn may repent it And therefore once more out of the duty I owe to God and to my Country I do desire that I may be heard by the Lords and Commons in the painted Chamber or any other place that you will appoint me President Sir you have been already answered to what you have moved it being the same motion which you made before for which you have had the resolution and the judgement of the Court in it and the Court would now be satisfied from you whether you have any more to say for your selfe then you have yet said before they proceed to sentence King I say this Sir that if you will but hear me and give me this delay I doubt not but I shall give some satisfaction to all that are present and to my people that are absent and therefore I require you as you will answer it at the dreadfull day of Judgement that you will once again take it into your consideration President Sir I have received instructions from the Court. King Well Sir President If this must be reinforced or any thing of this nature your answer must be the same as it was before and they will proceed to sentence if you have no more to say King Sir I have nothing more to say onely I desire that this may be entred what I have said President The Court Sir then hath something else to say to you which although I know will be very unwelcom yet notwithstanding they are resolved to discharge their duty Sir you have spoken very well of a precious thing that you call a peace and it were much to be wished that God had put it
into your heart that you had as effectually endeavoured and studied the peace of the Kingdome as in words you seem to pretend but as the other day it was represented to you that actions must expound intentions Your actions have been clean contrary and truly Sir it doth appear very plainly to the Court that you have gone upon very erroneous principles This Kingdom hath felt it to their smart and it will be no comfort to you to think of it for Sir you have been heard to let fall such language as if you had not been subject to the Law or that the Law had not been your Superiour The Court is very sensible of it I hope so are all the understanding people of England That the Law is your Superiour you ought to have ruled according to the law you ought to have done so and your pretence hath been that you have done so But Sir the question is who shall be the expositors of the Law whether you and your party out of the Courts of Justice shall take upon you to expound the Law Or whether the Courts of Justice shall be the expounders themselves Nay this Sovereign and high Court of Justice the Parliament of England who may well be obliged to be the highest expounders of the Law since they are the Sole makers of it Sir for you to set your selfe with your single judgement or for those who adhere unto you to set themselves against the highest Court of Justice there is no Law for it Sir as the Law is your superior so truly there is something that is Superiour to the Law which is the Parent or Author of the Law and that is the people of England For as they are those who at first as other Countries have done did chuse unto themselves this form of Government that Justice might be administred and the peace preserved so they gave Laws unto their Governors according to which they were to govern and if those Laws should have proved inconvenient or prejudicial to the publick they had power in them reserved to themselves to alter as they should finde cause It is very true what some of your side have alleadged Rex non habet parem in regno This Court will affirm the same in some sense that whilest King you have not your Peer for you are major singulis but they will aver again that you are minor universis and the same Author tels you that in exhibitione juris you have no power but they are quasi minimus This we know to be Law Rex haebt superiorem Deum legem etiam Curiam and so sayes the same Author and he makes bold to proceed further Debent ei fraenum ponere they ought to bridle him We know very well the stories of old we cannot be ignorant of those Wars that were called the Barons Wars when the Noblity of the Land did stand out for the Liberty and the property of the Subject and would not suffer the Kings that did invade their Liberties to play the Tryants but did call them to an account for it and did fraenum ponere But Sir If the Nobility of the Land do forbear to do their duty now and are not so mindfull of their own Honour and the Kingdomes good as the Barons of England of old have been certainly the Commons of England will not be unmindefull of what is requisite for their preservation and their safety Justitiae fruendi causa Reges constituti sunt By this we learn that the end of having Kings or Governours is for their enjoying of Justice that is the end Now Sir If the King will go contrary to that end or if any Governour will go contrary to the end of his government he must understand that he is but an Officer in trust and that he ought to discharge that trust and order is to be taken for the animadversion and punishment of such an offending Governour Sir This is not a Law of yesterday since the time of the division betwixt you and the Parliament but it is a Law of old And we know very well both the Authors and the Authorities that acquaint us what the Law was in that point on the election of Kings when they took their Oath to be true unto the people and if they did not observe it there were those remedies instituted which are called Parliaments The Parliaments were they that were to adjudge the very words of the Authors the plainness and wrongs done by the King and Queen or by their Children such wrongs eespecially when the people could have no where else a remedy Sir this is the Case of the people of Eugland they could not have their remedy else where but in Parliament Sir Parliaments were instituted for that intent it was their main end that the grievances of the people might be redressed and truly if the Kings of England had been rightly mindefull of themselves they were never more in Majestie or State than in the time of the Parliament but how forgetfull some have been Histories have informed us and we our selves have a miserable a lamentable and a sad experence of it Sir by the old Laws of England I speake these things the rather to you because you were pleased to affirme the other day that you had as much knowledge in the Law as most Gentlemen of England It is very well Sir and truly Sir it is very sit for the Gentlemen of England to understand the Laws under which they must live and by which they must be governed And then Sir the Scripture sayes they that know their Ma-Masters will and do it not you know what follows the Law is your Master the acts of Parliament the Parliaments were anciently to be kept twice in the year as we find in our old Author that the Subject upon any occasion might have a remedie and a redress for his grievance Afterwards by severall Acts of Parliament in the dayes of your predecessor Edward the third they were to be but once a year What the Intermission of Parliaments in your times hath produced is very well known and the sad consequences of it as also what in the interim instead of Parliaments there hath been by you by a high and arbitrary hand introduced upon the people But when God by his Providence had so far brought it about that you could no longer decline the calling of a Parliament a Parliament was called where it may appear what your ends were against your ancient and Native Kingdom of Scotl but this Parliament of Engl. not serving your turn against them you were pleased to dissolve it Not long after another great necessitie occasioned the calling of this Parliament and what your designes and indeavours all along have been for the crushing and confounding of it hath been most notorious to the whole Kingdom And truly Sir in that you did strike at all it had been a sure way to have brought about that which this Charge doth lay upon you
I could tell you of some souldiers which are turned out of his troup for defending those conditions of ours but let that pass and hence forward instead of life liberty and estate which were the Articles agreed upon let drawing hanging and quartring bear the Denomination of Captain Crooks Articles However I thank the Protectour for granting me this honourable Death I should now give you an accompt of my Faith But truly gentlemen this poor Nation is rent into so many several opinions that it is impossible for me to give you mine without displeasing some of you However if any be so criticall as to inquire of what Faith I die I shall refer him to the Apostles Athanasius and the Nicene Creed and to the testimony of this Reverend gentleman Dr. Short to whom I have unbosomed my self and if this do not satisfie look in the thirty nine Articles of the Catholick Church of England to them I have subscribed and do own them as authentick Having now given you an account concerning my self I hold my selfe obliged in duty to some of my friends to take off a suspicion which lyes upon them I mean as to some persons of Honour which upon my examination I was charged to have held correspondency with The Marquesse of Hartford the Marquesse of Winchester and my Lord of Pembrook were the persons nominated to me I did then acquit them and do now second it with this protestation That I never held any correspondence with either or any of them in relation to this particular businesse or indeed to any thing which concerned the Protectour or his Government As for the Marquesse of Winchester I saw him some twelve years since and not later and if I should see him here present I believe I should not know him And for the Earle of Pembrook he was not a man likely to whom I should discover my thoughts because he is a man of a contrary judgment I was examined likwise concerning my Brother Freke my Cousin Hastings Mr Dorrington and others It is probable their estates may make them lyable to this my condition but I do here so far acquit them as to give the world this farther protestation that I am confident they are as innocent in this businesse as the youngest child here I have no more to say to you now but to let you know that I am in charity with all men I thank God I both can and do forgive my greatest persecutors and all that ever had any hand in my death I have offered the Protectour as good security for my future demeanour as I suppose he could have expected if he had thought fit to have given me my life certainly I should not have been so ungratefull as to have imployed it against him I do humbely submit to Gods pleasure knowing that the issues of life and death are in his hand My bloud is but a small sacrifice if it had been saved I am so much a Gentleman as to have given thanks to him that had preserved it and so much a Christian as to forgive them which take it But seeing God by his providence hath called me to lay it down I willingly submit to it though terrible to nature but blessed be my Saviour who hath taking out the sting so that I look upon it without terrour Death is a debt and a due debt and it hath pleased God to make me so good a Husband that I am come to pay it before it is due I am not a shamed of the cause for which I die but rather rejoyce that I am thought worthy to suffer in the defence cause of Gods true Church my lawfull King the liberty of the subject and Priviliege of Parliaments Therefore I hope none of mine alliance friends will be ashamed of it it is so far from pulling down my Family that I look upon it as the raising it one story higher Neither was I so prodigall of nature as to throw away my life but have used though none but honourable and honest means to preserve it These unhappy times indeed have been very fatall to my family two of my Brothers already slain and my self going to the slaughter it is Gods will and I humbly submit to that providence I must render an acknowledgment of the great civilities that I have received from this City of Exon and some persons of quality and for their plentiful provision made for the prisoners I thank Mr. Sheriff for his favour towards us in particular to my self and I desire him to present my due respects to the Protectour and though he had no mercy for my self yet that he would have respect to my family I am now striping off my cloaths to fight a duell with death I conceive no other duell lawfull but my Saviour hath puld out the sting of this mine enemy by making himself a sacrifice for me And truly I do not think that man deserving one drop of his bloud that will not spend all for him in so good a cause The truth is Gentlemen in this age Treason is an Individuum vagum like the wind in the Gospell it bloweth where it listeth So now treason is what they please and lighteth upon whom they will Indeed no man except he will be a Traitour can avoid this Censure of Treason I know not to what end it may come but I pray God my own and my brothers bloud that is now to die with me may be the last upon this score Now Gentlemen you may see what a condition you are in without a King you have no law to protect you no rule to walk by when you performe your duty to God your King and Countrey you displease the Arbitrary power now set up I cannot call it government I shall leave you to peruse my triall and there you shall see what a condition this poor Nation is brought into and no question will be utterly destroyed if not restored by Loyal Subjects to its old and glorious Government I Pray God he lay not his Judgement upon England for their sluggishnesse in doing their duty and readiness to put their hands in their bosomes or rather taking part with the Enemy of Truth The Lord open their eyes that they may be no longer lead or drawn into such snares else the Child unborn will curse the day of their Parents birth God Almighty preserve my lawful King Charles the second from the hands of his Enemies and breake down the wall of Pride and Rebellion which so long hath kept him from his just Rights God perserve his Royal Mother and all his Majesties Royall Brethren and incline their hearts to seek after him God incline the hearts of all true English men to stand up as one Man to bring in the King and Redeem themselves and this poor Kingdome out of its more then Egyptian slavery As I have now put off these garments of cloth so I hope I have put off my garments of sin and have put on the