His Mind for His Affections were temperate He was of a most healthful Constitution and after the infirmities of His Childhood was never sick Once He had the small Pox but the Malignity of it was so small that it altered not His Stomach nor put Him to the abstinence of one Meal neither did it detain Him above a fortnight under the Care of His Physicians He was the Father of Four Sons and Five Daughters His Children 1. Charles James born at Greenwich on Wednesday May 13. 1628. but died almost as soon as born having been first Christned 2. Charles Duke of Cornwall and Prince of Wales born at Saint James's May 29. 1630. whom after a fellowship in the Sufferings of His Father some brave but unsuccessful attempts to recover the Rights of His Inheritance and twelve years various fortune abroad God was pleased by a wonderful Providence without blood or ruine to conduct to His Native Throne and make Him the Restorer of Peace to a People wearied and wasted almost to a Desolation by several changes of Government and Variety of reproachful Usurpers that they became the Scorn of Neighbouring Nations and the miserable Example of a disquiet Community so torn in pieces by Factions in the State and Schisms in the Church each party mutually armed to suppress its contrary and destroy the publick that it was impossible for them to re-unite or consent in common to seek the benefits of Society until they had submitted to Him as to the common Soul to be governed by Him in the paths of Justice He is now and long may He be so our Dread Sovereign CHARLES II. 3. James born in the same place Octob. 13. Anno 1633. entituled Duke of York by His Majesty's Command at His Birth and afterwards so Created He was a Companion of His Brother in Exile spending His time abroad both in the French and Spanish Camps with Glory and returned with Him into England 4. Henry Duke of Gloucester born in the same place July 8. 1639. who after the Death of His Father was by the Parricides permitted to go beyond Sea to His Mother with the promise of an Annual Pension which they never intended to pay A very hopeful Prince who resisted the strong practices of some in the Queen's Court to seduce Him to the Church of Rome which His Brother hearing sent for Him into Flanders and He also attended Him to His Throne but not long after died of the Small Pox Sept. 13. Anno 1660. 5. Mary born on Novemb. 4. Anno 1631. married to Count William of Nassau Eldest Son to Henry Prince of Orange by whom she was left a Widow and a short time after the Mother of the now Prince of Orange and coming over to visit her Brothers and the place of her Nativity she died also of the Small Pox Decemb. 24. Anno 1660. 6. Elizabeth born Jan. 28. Anno 1635. who survived her Father but lived not to see the Restoring the Royal Family dying at Carisbrook the place of her Father's Captivity being removed thither by the Murtherers that the place might raise a grief to end her Days 7. Anne born March 17. Anno 1637. died before her Father 8. Katharine who died almost as soon as born 9. Henrietta born at Exeter June 16. Anno 1644. in the midst of the Wars conveyed not long after by the Lady Dalkeith into France to her Mother and is now marryed to the Duke of Anjou only Brother to the King of France Having left this Issue He died in the forty ninth year of His Age and 23. of His Reign having lived Much rather than Long and left so many great and difficult Examples as will busie Good Princes to imitate and Bad ones to wonder at A man in Office and mind like to that Spiritual Being which the more men understand the more they Admire and Love and that may be said of Him which was said of that Excellent Roman who sought Glory by Vertue Homo Virtuti simillimus per omnia Ingenio Diis quà m Hominibus propior Qui nunquam quam rectè fecit ut rectè facere videretur sed quia aliter facere non poterat Cuique id solum visum est Rationem habere quod haberet Justitiam Omnibus humanis vitiis Immunis semper in Potestate sua Fortunam habuit Vell. Paterc lib. 2. M. S. Sanctissimi Regis Martyris CAROLI Primi Siste Viator Luge Obmutesce Mirare Memento CAROLI ILLIUS Nominis pariter insignissimae Pietatis PRIMI MAGNAE BRITANNIAE ILLIUS Qui Rebellium Perfidiâ primò deceptus Dein Perfidorum Rabie percussus Inconcussus tamen LEGUM FIDEI DEFENSOR Schismaticorum Tyrannidi succubuit Anno Salutis Humanae MDCXLVIII Servitutis Britannicae Primo Felicitatis Suae Primo Coronâ Terrestri spoliatus Coelesti donatus Sed Sileant periturae Tabellae Perlege RELIQUIAS verè Sacras CAROLINAS In Queis Ipsa Sui Iconem Aere perenniorem vivaciùs exprimit ' ΕΙΚΩ'ΠΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΗ ' CAROLI Primi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epitaphium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 SIstas sacrilegum Pedem Viator Nè forsan temeres sacros sepulchri Augusti Cineres Repôstus hîc est In Terrae Gremio Decor Stupórque Humani Generis Senex Infans Prudens scilicet Innocéns que Princeps Regni Praesidium Ruina Regni Vitâ Praesidium Ruina Morte Quem Regem potiùs Patrém ve dicam O Patrem priùs deinde Regem Regem quippe Suî Patrémque Regni Hic Donúmque Dei DeÃque Cura Quem Vitáque refert refértque Morte Ringente Satanâ Canente Coelo Diro in Pegmate Gloriae Theatro Et Christi Cruce Victor Securi Baptistae emicuit Ruina Felix Quâ Divum Carolus secutus Agnum Et postliminio domum vocatus Primaevae Patriae fit Inquilinus Sic Lucis priùs Hesperus Cadentis Resplendet modò Phosphorus Reversae Epitaphium Hic Vindex Fidei sacer Vetustae Cui par est nihil nihil secundum Naturae Typus absolutioris Fortunae Domitor ferendo suae Qui quantum Calicis bibit tremendi Tantundem sibi Gloriae reportat Regum Maximus unicúsque Regum In quo Res minima est fuisse Regem Solus qui superâ locatus Arce Vel Vitâ poterit frui priore Quum sint Relliquiae Cadaver Umbra Tam sacri Capitis vel ipsa sacra Ipsis Eulogiis coinquinata Quaeque ipsum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prophanat Sistas sacrilegum Pedem Viator Tho. Pierce D. D. Coll. Magd. apud Oxon. Praeses An EPITAPH upon KING CHARLES SO falls that stately Cedar while it stood That was the only glory of the Wood Great Charles thou earthly God celestial Ma Whose life like others though it were a span Yet in that span was comprehended more Than Earth hath waters or the Ocean shore Thy heavenly virtues Angels should rehearse It is a theam too high for humane Verse He that would know thee right then let him 〈◊〉 Vpon thy rare incomparable Book And read it o're and o're which if he do Hee 'l find thee King and Priest and Prophet too And sadly see our loss and though in vain With fruitless wishes call thee back again Nor shall oblivion sit upon thy Herse Though there were neither Monument nor Verse Thy Suff'rings and thy Death let no man name It was thy Glory but the Kingdoms Shame J.H. ΜΑ'ΡΤΥΣ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ΚΑ'ΡΟΛΟΣ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THE CONTENTS Anno MDC KIng CHARLES His Lineage and Birth Page 1. MDCII A presage of His Succession to the Crown p. 3. MDCIV. He is Created Duke of York His proficiency in his Studies p. 4. MDCXII His Succession in the Dukedom of Cornwall His Juvenile Exercises p. 5. MDCXVI He is Created Prince of Wales p. 7. MDCXVIII The Death of Queen Anne His great improvement in Theological Controversies p. 9. MDCXXII His Journey into Spain and the success of it p. 11. MDCXXIII His Return The Proposal of a Match with France p. 15. MDCXXV King James his death His Succession in the Kingdom The State of it at his first coming to it His Coronation p. 16. MDCXXVII The Expedition to the Isle of Rhee Assistance afforded to Rochel p. 25. MDCXXX The Birth of Prince CHARLES p. 31. MDCXXXII Tumults in Ireland Lord Strafford sent Deputy thither p. 34 MDCXXXIII His Journey into Scotland and Corenation there p. 35. MDCXXXIV The business of Ship-money p. 38. MDCXXXVII Troubles began in Scotland and upon what pretence p. 43. MDCXXXIX An agreement made with the Scots p. 47. MDCXL An Army raised against the Scots A Parliament called p. 49. MDCXLI The Arraignment and Execution of the Earl of Strafford The Factious Designs of the Zealots in the Parliament p. 54. The Rebellion in Ireland p. 69. The Queens departure out of England p. 87. The Kings withdrawment from London p. 90. His repulse at Hull by Hotham p. 94. Armies raised on both sides p. 105. The Battel at Edge-hill p. 111. MDCXLIII The Queens return into England The Kings Successes p. 114. MDCXLIV The Kings Victories over the Rebels p. 122. The Tryal and Execution of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury p. 127. His Character p. 130. MDCXLV The Battle at Naseby and its ill influence upon the Kings Party p. 137. MDCXLVI The Kings withdrawment to the Scottish Army p. 144. MDCXLVII The King removed from Holmby to Hampton-Court His flight into the Isle of Wight p. 150. MDCXLVIII The Treaty in the Isle of Wight p. 178. A Court Erected for the Tryal of the King p. 194. His Tryal and Carriage there p. 208. His Martyrdom and Burial p. 218. His Incomparable Book p. 225. His Character His Religion p. 229. His Justice p. 241. His Clemency p. 244. His Fortitude p. 247. His Patience p. 252. His Humility p. 256. His choice of Ministers of State p. 259. His Affection to his People p. 260. His obliging Converse p. 263. His Fidelity p. 264. His Charity p. 267. His Temperance p. 268. His Frugality ibid. His Intellectual abilities p. 271. His skill in all Arts. p. 273. His Eloquence p. 275. His Political Prudence ibid. The censure of his Fortune p. 278. A presage of His Fall and the future State of the Royal Family p. 280. His Recreations p. 281. The features of his Body p. 283. His Children p. 284. His Epitaph p. 287. His Epitaph by Doctor Pierce p. 290. Another Epitaph by J. H. p. 292. THE END
season Attend me by the Law of God and reason They dare impeach and punish for high Treason 9 Next at the Clergy do their Furies frown Pious Episcopacy must go down They will destroy the Crosier and the Crown free'd 10 Church-men are chain'd and Schismaticks are Mechanicks preach and Holy Fathers bleed The Crown is crucified with the Creed 11 The Church of England doth all faction foster The Pulpit is usurpt by each Impostor Ex tempore excludes the Pater Noster 12 The Presbyter and Independant Seed Springs with broad-blades to make Religion bleed Herod and Pontius Pilate are agreed 13. The Corner-stone's misplac't by every Pavier With such a bloody method and behaviour Their Ancestors did crucifie our Saviour 14 My Royal Consort from whose fruitful Womb So many Princes legally have come Is forc't in Pilgrimage to seek a Tomb. 15 Great Britains Heir is forced into France Whilest on his father's head his foes advance Poor Child He weeps out his Inheritance 16 With my own Power my Majesty they wound In the King's name the K. himself 's uncrown'd So doth the dust destroy the Diamond 17 With Propositions daily they enchant My Peoples ears such as do Reason daunt And the Almighty will not let me Grant 18 They promise to erect my Royal Stem To make me Great t' advance my Diadem If I will first fall down and worship them 19 But for refusal they devour my Thrones Distress my Children and destroy my bones I fear they 'l force me to make bread of stones 20 My Life they prize at such a slender rate That in my absence they draw bills of hate To prove the King a Traytor to the State 21 Felons obtain more priviledge that I They are allow'd to answer e're they dye 'T is death for Me to ask the reason Why. 22 But Sacred Saviour with thy words I woo Thee to forgive and not be bitter to Such as thou know'st do not know what they do 23 For since they from their Lord are so disjointed As to contemn those Edicts he appointed How can they prize the Power of his Anointed 24 Augment my Patience nullifie my hate Preserve my Issue and inspire my Mate Yet though We perish bless this Church and State THE LIFE OF Charles I. CHARLES I. King of Great Britain France and Ireland was the Son of James VI. King of Scots and Anne his Wife a Daughter of Denmark By His Father descended to him all the Rights together with their blood of all our Ancient both Saxon and Norman Kings to this Empire For the Lady Margaret Sister and sole Heir of Edgar Atheling the last surviving Prince of the English Saxons being married to Malcolme Conmor King of Scots conveyed to his Line the Saxon and Margaret Daughter of Henry VII married to James IV. did bring the Norman Titles and Blood From this Imperial Extract He received not more Honour than He gave to it For the blood that was derived to Him elaborated through so many Royal veins He delivered to Posterity more maturated for Glory and by a constant practice of Goodness more habituated for Vertue He was born at Dunfermeling one of the principal Towns of Fife in Scotland on November 19. Anno 1600. in so much weakness that His Baptism was hastened without the usual Ceremonies wherewith such Royal Infants are admitted into the Church Providence seeming to consecrate Him to Sufferings from the Womb and to accustom Him to the exchange of the strictures of Greatness for clouds of Tears There was no observation nor augury made at His Birth concerning the sequel of His Life or course of Fortune which are usually related of such whose lives have different occurrences from those in others of the same state Either the fear of His Death made those about Him less observant of any Circumstances which curious minds would have formed into a Prediction He appearing like a Star that rises so near the point of his setting that it was thought there would be no time for calculation Or He being at distance by His Birth from the Succession to the Crown Prince Henry then having the first hopes made men less solicitous to enquire of His future state on whom being born to a private Condition the Fate of the Kingdom did not depend But in the third year of His Age when King James was preparing himself to remove to the English Throne a certain Laird of the Highlands though of very great age came to the Court to take his leave of him whom he found accompanied with all his Children After his address full of affectionate and sage Advice to which his gray hairs gave authority to the King his next application was to Duke CHARLES Anno 1602. for in the second year of His Age He was created Duke of Albany Marquess of Ormond Earl of Ross and Baron of Ardmanock whose hands he kiss'd with so great an ardencie of affection that he seemed forgetful of a separation The King to correct his supposed mistake advised him to a more present observance of Prince Henry as the Heir of his Crown of whom he had taken little notice The old Laird answered that he knew well enough what he did and that It was this Child who was then in His Nurses arms who should convey his name and memory to the succeeding ages This then was conceived dotage but the event gave it the credit of a Prophecie and confirmed that opinion That some long-experienced souls in the world before their dislodging arrive to the height of prophetick Spirits Anno 1603. When he was three years old He was committed to the Care and Governance of Sir Robert Cary's Lady as a reward for being the first Messenger of Queen Elizabeth's death whose long life had worn the expectation of the Scotish Nobility into a suspicion that the Lords of England would never acknowledge her to be dead as long as there was any old Woman of that Nation that could wear good cloaths and personate the Majesty of a Queen Anno 1604. In the fourth year after He had wrestled with a Feaver He was brought in October to the English Court at Windsor where on January 6. following having the day before been made Knight of the Bath He was invested with the title of Duke of York and in the sixth year Anno 1606 was committed to the Pedagogy of Mr. Thomas Murray a person well qualified to that Office though a favourer of Presbytery Under this Tutor and confined to a retiredness by the present weakness of His body He was so diligent and studious that He far advanced in all that kind of Learning which is necessary for a Prince without which even their natural Endowments seem rough and unpleasant in despight of the splendour 〈◊〉 their fortune His proficiency in Letters was so eminent that Prince Henry taking notice of it to put a jest upon Him one day put the Cap of the Archbishop Abbot who was then with the Prince and the Duke and
other of the Nobility waiting in the Privy Chamber for the King 's coming out on his Brothers head adding that If he continued a good Boy and followed His Book he would make Him one day Archbishop of Canterbury Which the Child took in such disdain that He threw the Cap on the ground and trampled it under His feet with so much eagerness that he could hardly be restrained Which Passion was afterwards taken by some overcurious as a presage of the ruine of Episcopacy by his Power But the event shewed it was not ominous to the Order but to the Person of the Archbishop whom in 〈◊〉 Reign He suspended from the administration of His Office Anno 1611 In His eleventh year He was made Knight of the Garter and in the twelfth Prince Henry dying November 6. 1612. He succeeded him in the Dukedom of Cornwal and the Regalities thereof and attended his Funeral as chief Mourner on Decemb. 7. On the 14. of February following He performed the Office of Brideman to the Princess Elizabeth His Sister who on that day was married to Frederick V. Prince Elector Palatine the gayeties of which day were afterwards attended with many fatal Cares and Expences His Childhood was blemished with a supposed Obstinacy for the weakness of His body inclining Him to retirements and the imperfections of His speech rendring discourse tedious and unpleasant He was suspected to be somewhat perverse But more age and strength fitting Him for manlike Exercises and the Publick hopes inviting him from His Privacies He delivered the World of such fears for applying himself to action He grew so perfect in Vaulting riding the great Horse running at the Ring shooting in Cross-bows Muskets and sometimes in great Pieces of Ordnance that if Principality had been to be the reward of Excellency in those Arts He would have had a Title to the Crown this way also being thought the best Marks-man and most graceful Manager of the great Horse in the three Kingdoms His tenacious humor he left with his retirements none being more desirous of good counsel nor any more obsequious when He found it yea too distrustful of His own Judgment which the issue of things proved always best when it was followed Anno 1616. When he was sixteen years old on Novemb. 3. He was created Prince of Wales Earl of Chester and Flint the Revenues thereof being assigned to maintain His Court which was then formed for Him And being thus advanced in Years and State it was expected that He should no longer retain the Modesty which the shades of His Privacy had accustomed Him unto but now appear as the immediate Instrument of Empire and that by Him the Favours and Honours of the Court should be derived to others But though Providence had changed all about yet it had changed nothing within Him and He thought it glory enough to be great without the diminution of others for he still permitted the Ministry of State to His Fathers Favourites which gave occasion of discourse to the Speculativi Some thought He did it to avoid the Jealousies of the Old King which were conceived to have been somewhat raised by the popularity of Prince Henry whose breast was full of forward Hopes For Young Princes are deemed of an impatient Ambition and old ones to be too nice and tender of their Power in which though they are contented with a Successor as they must have yet are afraid of a Partner And it was supposed that therefore K. James had raised Car and Buckingham like Comets to dim the lustre of these rising Stars But these were mistaken in the nature of the King who was enclined to contract a private friendship The Duke of Lenox and the Earl of Arran in Scotland and was prodigal to the objects of it before ever he had Sons to diver his Love or raise his Fears Some that at a distance looked upon the Prince's actions ascribed them to a Narrowness of Mind and an Incapacity of Greatness while others better acquainted with the frame of His Spirit knew His prudent Modesty inclined Him to learn the Methods of Commanding by the practice of Obedience and that being of a peaceful Soul He affected not to embroil the Court and from thence the Kingdom in Factions the effects of impotent minds which He knew were dangerous to a State and destructive to that Prince who gives birth unto them that therefore He chose to wait for a certain though delayed Grandeur rather than by the Compendious way of Contrasts get a precocious Power and leave too pregnant an Example of Ruine Others conceived it the Prudence of the Father with which the Son complied who knew the true use of Favourites was to make them the objects of the People's impatience the sinks to receive the curses and anger of the Vulgar the hatred of the querulous and the envy of unsatisfied ambition which He would rather have fall upon Servants that his Son might ascend the Throne free and unburthened with the discontents of any This was the rather believed because He could dispense Honours where and when He pleased as he did to some of His own Houshold as Sir Robert Cary was made Lord Cary of Lepington Sir Thomas Howard Viscount Andover and Sir John Vaughan Lord of Molingar in Ireland Anno 1618. The evenness of His Spirit was discovered in the loss of his Mother whose death presaged as some thought by that notorious Comet which appeared Novemb 18. before happened on March 2. Anno 1618. which he bewailed with a just measure of Grief without any affected Sorrows though She was most affectionate to Him above all her other Children and at her Funeral He would be chief Mourner The Death of the Queeu was not long after followed with a sharp Sickness of the King wherein his Life seeming in danger the consequences of his Death began to be lamented Dr. Andrews then Bishop of Ely bewailed the sad condition fo the Church if God should at that time determine the days of the King The Prince being then only conversant with Scotch men which made up the greatest part of his Family and were ill-affected to the Government and Worship of the Church of England Of this the King became so sensible that he made a Vow If God should please to restore his health he would so instruct the Prince in the Controversies of Religion as should secure His affections to the present establishment Which he did with so much success as he assured the Chaplains who were to wait on the Prince in Spain that He was able to moderate in any emergent disputations which yet he charged them to decline if possible At which they smiling he earnestly added That CHARLES should manage a point in Controversie with the best-studied Divine of them all Anno 1619. In his 19. Year on March 24. which was he Anniversary of King James's coming to the Crown of England He performed a Justing at White-Hall together with several of the Nobility
of the Lords where the Popish Lords and Bishops had the greatest Power and there it stuck whose names they desired to know and in this they were so earnest that they would not willingly withdraw whilest it was debated and then they had leave to depart with this Answer That the House of Commons had already endeavoured Relief from the Lords in their Requests and shall so continue till Redress be obtained Such Petitions as these were likewise from the several Classes of the inferiour Tradesmen about London as Porters Watermen and the like and that nothing of testifying an universal Importunity might be left unattempted Women were perswaded to present Petitions to the same effect While the Faction thus boasted in the success of their Arts Good men grieved to see these daily Infamies of the supreme Council of the Nation all whose Secrets were published to the lowest and weakest part of the People and they who clamoured it as a breach of their Priviledge that the King took notice of their Debates now made them the Subjects of Discourse in every Shop and all the corners of the Street where the good and bad were equally censured and the Honour and Life of every Senator exposed to the Verdict of the Rabble No Magistrate did dare to do his Office and all things tended to a manifest Confusion So that many sober Persons did leave the Kingdom as unsafe where Factions were more powerful than the Laws And Just Persons chose rather to hear than to see the Miseries and Reproaches of their Country On the other side to make the King more plyable they tempt Him by danger in His most beloved Part the Queen concerning whom they caused a Rumour that they did intend to impeach Her of High Treason This Rumour made the deeper Impression because they had raised most prodigious Slanden which are the first Marks for destruction of Princes on Her and when they had removed all other Counsellors from the King She was famed to be the Rock upon which all hopes of Peace and Safety were split That She comanded no less His Counsel than Affections and that His Weakness was so great as not to consent to or enterprize any thing which She did not first approve That She had perverted Him to Her Religion and formed designs of overthrowing the Protestant Profession These and many other of a portentuous falshood were scattered among the Vulgar who are alwayes most prone to believe the Worst of Great Persons and the uncontrolled Licence of reporting such Calumnies is conceived the first Dawning of Liberty But the Parliament taking notice of the Report sent somne of their House to purge themselves from it as an unjust Scandal cast upon them To which the Queen midly answers That there was a general Report thereof but She never saw any Articles in writing and having no certain Author for either She gave little credit thereto nor will She believe they would lay any Aspersion upon Her who hath been very unapt to misconstrue the Actions of any One person and much more the Proceedings of Parliament and shall at all times wish an Happy Vnderstanding between the King and His People But the King knowing how usual it was for the Faction by Tumults and other Practices to transport the Parliament from their just Intentions in other things and that they might do so in this resolved to send Her into Holland under colour of accompanying their Eldest Daughter newly married to the Prince of Orange but in truth to secure Her so that by the fears of Her danger who was so dear unto Him He might not be forced to any thing contray to His Honour and Conscience and that Her Affections and Relation to Him might not betray Her Life to the Malice of His Enemies With Her He also sent all the Jewels of the Crown that they might not be the spoils of the Faction but the means of the support of Her Dignity in foreign parts if His Necessities afterwards should not permit Him to provide for Her otherwise Which yet She did not so employ but reserved them for a supply of Ammunition and Arms when His Adversaries had forced Him to a necessary Defence It was said that the Faction knew of this conveyance and might have prevented it but that they thought it for their greater advantage that this Treasure should be so managed that the King in confidence of that assistance might take up Arms to which they were resolved at last to drive Him For they thought their Cause would be better in War than Peace because their present Deliberations were in the sense of the Law actual Rebellions and a longer time would discover those Impostures by which they had deluded the People who would soon leave them as many now did begin to repent of their Madness to the Vengeance which was due to their practices unless they were more firmly united by a communion of guilt in an open assaulting their Lawful Prince The King hastens the security of the Queen and accompanies Her as far as Dover there to take his farewel of Her a business almost as irksome as death to be separated from a Wife of so great Affections and eminent Endowments and that which made it the more bitter was that the same cause which forced Her Separation from Him set Her at a greater distance from His Religion the only thing wherein their Souls were not united even the Barbarity of His Enemies who professed it yet were so irreconcileable to Vertue that they hated Her for Her Example of Love and Loyalty to Him While He was committing Her to the mercy of the Winds and waves that She might escape the Cruelty of more unquiet and faithless men they prosecute Him with their distasteful Addresses and at Canterbury present Him with a Bill for taking away Bishops Votes in Parliament Which having been cast out of the House of Peers several times before ought not by the Course and Order of Parliament to have been admitted again the same Session But the Faction had now used their accustomed Engine a Tumult and it was then passed by the Lords and brought hither together with some obscure Threats that if it were not signed the Queen should not be suffered to depart By such impious Violences did they make way for that which they call'd Reformation This His Majesty signs though after it made a part of His penitential Confessions to God in hopes that that Bill being once consented to the Fury of the Faction which with so great Violence pursued an absolute Destruction of the Ecclesiastical Government would be abated as having advanced so far in their design to weaken the King's Power in that House by the loss of so many Voices which would have been always on that side where Equity and Conscience did most appear But He soon found the Demagogues had not so much Ingenuity as to be compounded with and they made this but a step to the over throw of that which He designed
Justice and the reciprocal motions of the Popular heat that the very same Parliament that first stirr'd up this way of tumultuary Petitions against the King now complained that the Honour and Safety of Parliaments was indangered by Petitions But all their Tyranny upon the complaining Nation prevailed nothing but to provoke them to a higher Indignation and more frequent Petitions And when they perceived they dealt with men obstinate to their own Interests which were not to be gained but by the Publick ruine they fly from Prayers to Arms and intitle their just War For the Liberty of King and People And in several places as in Kent Essex Suffolk Norfolk Cornwall York-shire Wales and at last in Surry multitudes take Arms for this Righteous Cause The Navy also fall off and setting Rainsbrough their levelling Admiral on Shore seventeen Ships deliver themselves up to the Prince of Wales The Scots likewise by an Order of their own Parliament send into England to recover the Liberty and Majesty of the King an Army under Hamilton But all was in vain God had decreed other Triumphs for His Majesty and to translate Him to another Kingdom For the English being but tumultuarily raised having no train of Artillery or Ammunition considerable were soon supprest by a veterane Army provided with all necessaries The Scots either through weakness or wickedness of their Commanders who made so disorderly a march that their Van and Rear were forty miles asunder were easily worsted by Cromwell who surprised their main Body and Hamilton was taken Prisoner Cromwell follows the scattered Parties into Scotland where they were likewise assaulted by Argyle a domestick Enemy and forced to submit those Arms the Parliament had put into their hands to the Faction of that false Earl who calls another Parliament from which all were excluded that in the former Voted for the King's Delivery and all the Orders of that Convention made void Cromwell had the Publick Thanks and the private Faith of Argyle to endeavour as opportunity permitted the extirpation of Monarchy out of Scotland The Navy also deserts the Prince being corrupted by the Earl of Warwick who was appointed for this Service and when he had ingloriously bought off their Faith to their lawful Prince himself was ignominiously cashiered by the Conspirators These great disappointments and overthrws of just Enterprises men variously attributed to different Causes Some to the Perfidiousness others to the Weakness of those that managed them as also to the Treachery of some Presbyterians who in hatred to the Army first incouraged and then in Jealousie of the Royallists basely deserted them For the Rabbies of the Kirk cursed Hamilton in the beginning of his Enterprise Another sort thought them unhappy because the greatest part of the Undertakers were such that formerly had either fought against the King or else had betrayed Him and God would not now bless their unexpiated Arms. And some to the Fate of the Kingdom which God had decreed to give over to numerous and impious Tyrants because of their unthankfulness and impatience under so Incomparable a Prince But while these things were managed by the Army that were now at a distance and Cromwell's Terrors were greater in Scotland than here the less guilty Parliament-men seriously considering how impatient the People who in London and other places had gotten innumerable Subscriptions to a Petition for a Personal Treaty now were of those Injuries that were done to their Sovereign how hateful themselves grew because they had betrayed and inslaved their own Privileges together with the Liberties of the Subject to an insatiable and Phanatick Army and how an evident Ruine attended even their Conquests of Him whom it was unlawful to assault did at last though too late contrary to the clamours of their Factious and Democratick Members Repeal those Votes which they had formerly made of No more Addresses to the King This being passed in both Houses they afterwards with a strong Consent Vote a Treaty with the King in Honour Freedom and Safety The Factious Party in the Parliament found themselves too few and weak to oppose this impetuous tendency of the Two Houses and whole Kingdom to Peace But yet they endeavoured to frustrate the labours of their more since Members and to baffle the People's just desires of it by imposing many unequal Conditions and obstructive restrictions For they procured that the Treaty should be in the Isle of Wight and not at London that it should be by Commissioners and not immediately with the two Houses as was Petitioned The Propositions that were sent to be Treated were the same which had before been offered to the King at Hampton-Court and were then rejected by Him and also condemned by the Army it self as too unjust The Commissioners were so streightned in Power that it was not lawful for them to soften any one of the Conditions of Peace not to alter the Preface or change the Order of the Propositions nor to debate a Subsequent till the Precedent were agreed on They could conclude nothing they were only to propose the Demands urge Reasons for the Royal Assent receive the King's Answer and refer all in writing to the Parliament whose slow Resolves and the delays of sending were supposed would consume that narrow measure of time which was appointed to debate so many and so different things for they were limited to forty days The Commissioners they sent were Five of the Lord's House and Twelve of the Commoners and with them some of their Presbyterian Ministers who were to press importunately for their Church Government to elude the King's Arguments for Episcopacy and only to impose not to dispute their own With all these upon so many several and different Propositions some relating to the Law of the Land others to Reason of State and some to the practice of the Apostolical Primitive Churches the King was to deal without publick assistance For though He was permitted the Ministery of some Officers of State Counsellours and Divines yet were they but of private advice and to stand behind the Curtain He only Himself was to speak in the Debate and singly to manage matters of Policy with their most exercised Statists and the points of Divinity with their best-studied Divines The Vulgar to whom the Arts of these men were not so obvious were much pleased with the Name of a Treaty and now hoped to exchange their Servitude under so many importunate Tyrants for the moderate and easie Government of one Lawful King Others that had a clearer insight and observed with what difficulties it was burthened hoped for no benefit from it Because that if His Majesty should not Consent as they believed He would not then He would be the object of the popular impatience And if He should Consent He that now was thought to be most injuriously dealt with would then be conceived not to deserve the Pity even of His Friends nor could He gain any other thing by His Concessions than to be
wherein He acquitted Himself with a Bravery equal to His Dignity And on the Sunday following attending his Father to the Sermon at St Paul's Cross and to the Service in the Quire He shewed as much humble Devotion there as he had manifested Princely Gallantry in his Justs admired and applauded by the People for His accomplishments in the Arts both of War and Peace That he could behave Himself humbly towards his God and bravely towards His Enemy pleased with the hardiness of His Body and ravished with His more generous Mind that the pleasures of the Court had not softned one to sloth nor the supreamest Fortune debauched the other to Impiety Anno 1622. Confident in these and other evidences of a wise conduct the King without acquainting his Council sends the Prince into Spain there to contract a Marriage with the Infanta and as a part of the Portion to recover the Palatinate which His Sisters Husband had lost and was by the Emperour canteld to the Duke of Bavaria and the King of Spain And herein He was to combae all the Artists of State in that Court the practices of tha Church and put an issue to that Treaty wherein the Lord Digby though much conversant in the Intrigues of that Council had been long cajoled To that place He was to pass Incognito accompanied only with the Marquess of Buckingham Mr. Endymion Porter and Mr. Francis Cottington through France where to satisfie His Curioâ—â—râ— and shew Himself to Love He attempted and enjoyed a view of the Court at Paris and there received the first Impression of that Excellent Princess who was by Heaven destined to His chast embraces Satisfied with that sight no lesser enjoyments of any pleasure in that great Kingdom nor Vanity of Youth which is hardly curbed when it is allyed to power could tempt His stay or a discovery of His Greatness but with a speed answerable to an active body and mind He out-stripped the French Posts which were sent to stop Him although that King had intelligence of His being within his Dominions immediately after their departure from the Louvre The certain news of His safe arrival at Madrid drew after Him from hene a Princely Train and raised the Censures of the World upon the King As being too forgetful of the Inhospitality of Princes to each other who when either Design Tempests or Necessity have driven their Rivals in Majesty upon their Coasts without a Caution they let them not part without some tribute to their Interest and a fresh example of this was in the King 's own Mother who seeking refuge in England with her Sister Queen Elizabeth from a Storm at home did lose both her Liberty and Life This none daring to mind the King of his Jester Archee made him sensible by telling him He came to change Caps with him Why said the King Because replied Archee Thou hast sent the Prince into Spain from whence He is never like to return But said the King what wilt thou say when thou seest Him come back again Marry says the Jester I will take off the Fools Cap which I now put upon thy Head for sending Him tither and put it on the King of Spain 's for letting Him return This so awakened the King's apprehension of the Prince's danger that it drove him into an exceeding Melancholy from which he was never free till he was assured of the Prince's return to his own Dominions which was his Fleet in the Sea and that was not long after For notwithstanding the contrasts of his two prime Ministers there Buckingham and Bristol which were sufficient to amaze an ordinary prudence and disturb the counsels of so young a beginning in the Mysteries of Empire and the Arts of experienced Conclaves the impetuous attempts of the Spanish Clergy either for a Change of His Religion or a Toleration of theirs the Spleen of Olivares whom Buckingham had exsaperated He so dexterously managed the Treaty of Marriage that all the Articles and Circumstances were solemnly sworn to by both Kings By a Civil Letter to the Pope which His Enemies Malice afterwards took as an occasion of Slander He procured a civil return with the grant of a Dispensation baffled the hopes of their Clergy by His Constancy in his own Profession and vindicated it from the odious aspersions of their Priests by causing our Liturgie to be translated into the Spanish Tongue and by His generous miene enthralled the Infanta for whom He had exposed His Liberty Yet having an insight into the practices of that Court that they would not put the Restitution of the Palatinate into the consideration of the Portion but reserve it as a Supersoetation of the Spanish Love and as an opportunity for the Infanta to reconcile the English Spirits who were heated by the late Wars into an hatred of the Spaniards and that this was but to lengthen out the Treaty till they had wholly brought the Palatinate under their power He conformed His mind to the resolves of His Father who said he would never marry his Son with a Portion of His only Sisters Tears and therefore inclined to a rupture But concealing His Purpose and dissembling His Knowledge of their Designs He consulted His own Safety and Return which his Fathers Letters commanded which he so prudently acquired that the King of Spain parted from Him with all those endearments with which departing Friends ceremoniate their Farewels having satisfied Him by a Proxie left with the Earl of Bristol to be delivered when the Dispensation was come Which as soon as He was safe on Ship-board by a private express he commanded him to keep in his hands till further Order Anno 1623. His Return to England which was in October 1623. was entertain'd with so much Joy and Thanksgiving as if He had been the happy Genius of the whole Nation and His entrance into London was as a Triumph for His Wisdom their Bonefires lengthened out the day and their Bells by uncessant ringing forbad sleep to those eyes which were refreshed with His sight Nor could the People by age or sickness he confined at home but despising the prescriptions of their Physicians went to meet Him as restored Health When He had given the King an account of His Voyage and the Spanish Counsels not to restore the Palatinate a Parliament was Summoned which was so zealous of the Honour of the Prince that both Houses Voted an Address to his Majesty that he would no longer Treat but begin a War with Spain and desiring the Prince's Mediation who was always ready to gratifie the Nation therein to His Father they assured Him they would stand by Him with their Lives and Fortunes but yet when the War with the Crown descended unto him they shamefully deserted Him in the beginning of His Reign When neither a Wise nor Peace was any longer to be expected from Spain both were sought for from France by a Marriage with Henrietta Maria the youngest Daughter of Henry the IV.
The Love of whom the Prince had received by the Eye and She of Him by the Ear. For having formerly received impressions from the Relations of His Gallantry when She was told of His passing through Paris She answered as it is reported That if he went to Spain for a Wife He might have had one nearer hand and saved Himself a great part of the labour Anno 1625. In the midst of these Preparations for War and Love King James died at Theobalds Sunday March 27. Anno 1625. and Prince CHARLES was immediately proclaimed at the Court-Gate King of Great Britain France and Ireland and so throughout all the Three Kingdoms with infinite Rejoycings The People expecting all the benefits of the happiest Government under Him whose private and youthful part of Life had been so spent that it had nothing in it to be excused and where the eager inquisitors for matter of Reproach met with no satisfaction An Argument of a solid Virtue that could hold out against all the Vices of Youth that are rendred more impetuous by Flatteries and Plenty which are continually resident in great Courts For had any debauchery polluted His earlier days it had been published by those who in scarcity of just Accusations did invent unimaginable Calumnies Nor could it have been hid for in a great Fortune nothing is concealed but Curiosity opens the Closets and Bed-chambers especially of Princes and discovers their closest retirements exposing all their actions to Fame and Censure Nor did the King deceive their hopes they being the happiest People under the Sun while He was undisturbed in the administration of Justice His first publick Act was the Celebrating His Fathers Funeral wherea He Himself was Chief Mourner contrary to the Practice of His Royal Predecessors and not conformable to the Ceremonies of State Either preferring Piety to an unnatural Grandeur or urged by some secret Decree of Providence that in all the ruines of His Family He should drink the greatest draught of Tears or His Spirit presaging the Troubles of the Throne He would hallow the Ascent to it by a pious act of Grief When He had pay'd that debt to His deceased Father He next provided for posterity and therefore hastened the coming over of his dearest Consort whom the Duke of Chevereux had in His Name espoused at the Church of Nostre-Dame in Paris and He receiving Her at Dover the next day after Trinity-Sunday at Canterbury began His Conjugal Embraces A Lady of most excellent Endowments who assumed to Her self nothing in His Good Fortune but the Joy and in His Evil bore an equal share for She reverenced Him not His Greatness Thus having dispatched the affairs of His Family He applies Himself to those of His Kingdoms which too much Felicity had made unmanageable by a moderate Government And He seemed not so much to ascend a Throne as enter upon a Theatre to wrestle with all the difficulties of a corrupted State whose long Peace had softned almost all the Nobless into Court pleasures and made the Commons insolent by a great plenty The Rites and Discipline of Religion had been blotted out by a long and uninterrupted Prosperity and Factions crept from the Church into the Senate which were made use of by those that endeavoured the alteration of Go\vernment and the Resolves of that Council were the dictates of some heady Demagogues who fed the Vulgar with hopes of Novelty under the name of Liberty so that the King could not endure their Vices nor they His Vertues whence came all the Obstructions to His Designs for Glory and the Publick Good The Treasury had been exhausted to satiate the unquiet and greedy Scots and the People were taught not to supply it unless they were bribed with the blood of some Minister of State or some more advantages fo Licentiousness Each of these single would have ennobled the Care of an Ordinary Prudence to have weathered out but when all these conspired with the traiterous Projects of men of unbounded and unlawful hopes they took from Him His Peace and that which the World calls Happiness but yet they made Him Great and affording Exercises for His most excellent Abilities rendred Him Glorious The different states of these Difficulties when like Clouds they were gathering together and when they descended in showres of Blood divide the King's Reign into two parts The first could not be esteemed days of Peace but an Immunity from Civil War The other was when He was concluded by that Fatal Necessity either to part with his Dignity and expose His Subjects to the injuries of numerous Tyrants or else to exceed the calmer temper of His peaceful Soul and make use of those necessary Arms whereby He might hope to divert if possible the Ruine of Church and State which he saw in projection In the first Part He had no Wars at home but what was in the Houses of Parliament which though their first Institution designed for the production of just Counsels and assistances of Government yet through the just Indignation of Heaven and the practices of some unquiet and seditious persons became the wombs wherein were first conceived and formed those monstrous Confusions which destroyed their own Liberty caused our Miseries and the King's Afflictions His first Parliament began June 18. At the opening of which the King acquainted them with the necessity of Supplies for the War with Spain which they importunately had through His Mediation engaged His Father in and made it as hereditary to him as the Crown His Eloquence gave powerful Reasons for speedy and large summs of Money did also audit to them the several disbursements relating both to the Army and Navy that He might remove all Jealousies of Misimployment and give them notice how well He understood the Office He had newly entred upon and how to be a faithful Steward of the Publick Treasure But the Projectors of the alteration of Government brought into Debate two Petitions one for Religion the other for Grievances formed in King James's time which delayed the Succours and increased the Necessities which at last they answered but with two Subsidies too poor a stock o furnish an Army with yet was kindly accepted in expectation of more at the next Session For the Infection seizing upon London the Parliament was adjourned till August when they were to meet at Oxford and at that time He passed such Acts as were presented to Him At the next Session He gave a complying and satisfactory answer to all their Petitions and expected a Retribution in larger Subsidies towards the Spanish War But instead of these there were high and furious debates of Grievances consultations to form and publish Remonstrances Accusations of the Duke of Buckingham Which the King esteeming as reproaches of His Government and assaults upon Monarchy dissolves that Assembly hoping to find one of a less cholerick complexion after His Coronation This inauspicious Meeting drew after it another Mischief the Miscarriage of the Designs upon Spain