them as St. Johns and others were for imposing Conditions upon the King for they no more doubted of his Restitution that might restrain him from acting beyond their pleasure But His Majesty's Rights and Prerogatives were inviolablely restored to him by the Prudence and noble Endeavours of Monk This enraged the Regicides to that height that they began now to condemn their own Precipitation and Folly accusing themselves of Madness in that that they did persecute Lambert so rashly and unseasonably to their own Destruction They now call to mind how ridiculously they had rejected the King's Gracious Letters presented them by Nevil who had accidentally received them wherein they were assured of Indignity for all their monstrous Crimes and Treasons if they yet at length would return to their Duty They therefore like Men in Despair agitated by the Flagitiousness of their Guilt resolved to vindicate their Crimes by attempting greater and to try the Matter once more by the Sword Nor was it long before an occasion presented it self Lambert who had been imprisoned in the Tower because he had refused to give bail for his good Behaviour had escaped thence and appear'd armed about Northampton Some Sectaries and several disbanded Souldiers repaired to him all the Fanaticks of the Army being upon the Wing till stay'd with the News of his Defeat This Sedition was extinguish'd in its Birth And Lambert being taken by Ingolsby without a Blow hâ—s Party was easily dispersed whilst he was returned into a more safe Custody in the Tower During this Interval of Parliaments the Council of State administer'd Affairs with much Prudence and Courage and putting out a Proclomation against all Disturbers of the Peace easily restrained the Seditious Minds of the most dissenting Monk also purging his Army by the Casheering of Fanaticks and living more familiarly with his Officers than usual reconciled the most fierce amongst them to an Acquiescence in the Resolves of the future Parliament The Disturbers of our Peace being thus suppressed or quieted the Loyal Party as if indued with new Spirits put on more chearful Countenances and shaking off their Fears with their Shackles appeared more eminently conspicuous But being traduced by their Adversaries as thirsting after Revenge and Blood they abundantly demonstrated by their Declaration their own Innocence and the Enemies Malice restifying That they would leave Vengeance to God and Justice to the Disposal of Parliament And now the City of London did also publish a Declaration whereby they endeavoured to clear themselves from the Guilt of the Regicide and Vsurpation as being actuated and oppressed by the Counsels of Despair and Violence Nor will we deny but that they contributed by the like Tumults to the Restitution as they had formerly fomented the War We have hitherto made but little mention of the Particular Actions of our King for we would not intermingle the History of the Best of Princes with that of the most Scelerate of Subjects We shall therefore deliver the Series of his Actions by themselves wherein notwithstanding will appear as Extreams do best shine by Contraries not only the Eminency of his Vertues but the Errors Impieties Rebellions Treasons Slaughters Sacriledges Pride Rapine and Infamy of his Enemies For what Mischief did they not commit and were guilty of After the King 's miraculous Escape from Worcester through a thousand Hazards he at length got safe into France being received at Paris as if sent from Heaven A pregnant Example of the Care of Providence for the Persons of Kings That Monarchy was actuated then with well-nigh the same Spirit of Division which had so lately distracted England the Parisians inveighing against the Errors of the Government and Evil Counsellors pointing particularly at Mazarin with the same Rage and Passion as the Londoners did against Strafford The Princes were grieved that a Stranger should be First Minister of State and would have him therefore removed In order to which they raised an Army obtaining Assistance from Spain that Nation being very officious in helping their Neighbours upon such like Accompts Nor did they find King Lewis unprovided but resolved to oppose them with all his Power King Charles perswaded Lewis and the Princes by his own example to peace but could not prevail tho he carried himself with that Equality that both sides were Jealous of his Conduct For the Princes refused to lay down Arms unless the Cardinal were removed And the King with the Queen-Regent his Mother would not have Laws prescribed to them by their Subjects The Princes had called the Duke of Lorrain to their Aid who also entered France with an Army but returned upon the Interposition of King Charles who had discoursed with him about his undertaking the Protection of Ireland This enraged the Princes against Charles who blamed him much and the Parisians did dare to calumniate and affront him to that Height that he was forced to retire to St. Germains Where he also for the most part continued until a League being made betwixt Cromwell and that Crown which he had opposed in vain he was compelled again to go into Exile out of his very Banishment The Duke of York had thus long served in the Armies of France with such Bravery and Fortitude particularly in the Battle of Estampes that he attracted the Eyes of all Men upon him And his behaviour in General in Court and Camp were so signal that the Duke of Longville would have bestowed his Daughter upon him the greatest Fortune in France And Marshal Turene being very Sick recommended him to his King as the fittest Person in that Great Monarchy to command his Armies But he would not stay in France after the King his Brother though he was offered to be Liuetenant-General of their Forces in Italy but leaving that inhospitable Land accepted the Invitation of Don John the Governour of the Spanish Low-Countries where he largely asserted the Glories of his former Actions The King in his passage to Germany was received at Leige with all imaginable Honour and going thence to the Spaw met his Sister the Princoss of Orange there Very many Persons of Quality as is usual at the Season but in unusal Numbers upon this Occasion were come thither out of the Neighbouring Nations as well to see this Royal Congress as to take the Waters And all of them paid His Majesty as much Reverence and Honour as if he had been their own Natural Prince or would have vyed with us who had the Happiness then to attend him in Duty and Obedience and Veneration for him He was afterwards received at Colen by the Magistrates there which the same Testimonies of good-will and Esteem Where he resolved to fix his Court for some Time as a place delectable and convenient for his Designs A while after he accompanied his Sister in her Return to Holland as far as Dusseldorp where he was magnificently received by the Duke of Newburgh and treated during his Stay with Hunting and other Royal Divertisements Being
Capell condemned by it and murthered Several Acts of State The Scots proclaim Charles II. Some Actions of the Levellers The King leaves Holland and goes by Brussels into France The Duke of Gloucester banished Continuance of the History of Ireland The King at Jersey Prince Rupert Sails from Kinsale to Portugal Loseth his Brother Prince Maurice by a Hurrycane The King at Breda Treats and Concludes with the Scots Montrosse's unfortunate End Fairfax routed and Cromwell General His Actions in Scotland The Scots barbarous Vsage of the King They are defeated at Dunbar The King crowned at Schone He enters England The Battle of Worcester The King 's miraculous Escape 109 110. BOOK II. Cromwell enters London Triumphantly Continuation of the Irish Affairs Ormond leaves Ireland and Clanrickard his Deputy there Ireton dyes of the Plague Monk takes Sterling Dundee and Subjugates Scotland The Isles of Scilly Barbadoes Garnsey Jersey and that of Man surrendered to the Regicides Their Greatness They are courted by the Neighbouring Kings and States They send a solemn Embassy into Holland Cromwell Cabals Turns out the Mock-Parliament Chooses another Is chosen Protector The Wars with the United Provinces The various Sea-Fights betwixt the Two States Cromwell makes a Peace with them and a League with France The Expedition of San Domingo and Jamaica Blake's success at Tunis and Santa Cruz. Dunkirk taken The Death of Oliver Cromwell His Character 249. BOOK III. Richard succeeds his Father in the Protectorate He is deposed by the Army The Rump restored Lambert defeats Sir George Booth Montague returns with the Fleet out of Denmark Lambert turns out the Rump Monk dissents and declares for the Rump Lambert marches against him Being deluded by Treaties he is deserted by his Army The Committee of Safety routed and the Rump yet again restored Monk marches to London Readmits the Secluded Members The Parliament dissolv'd by its own Act. An Abstract of the King's Actions and Motions abroad He is proclaimed by the Parliament Returns into England His glorious Reception The End of our Troubles 278. PART III. BOOK I. The REBELLION breaks into new Flames Some Millenaries secur'd Venner's Insurrection and End The Presbyterians stickle for new Elections Several Seditious Tumults detected and punished The Plague consumes the People The Conflagration of the City Tumults in Scotland Oate's Plot. The Parliament insist upon removing the Duke from the King's Presence and Councils It is dissolved Another Parliament call'd The Duke retires from Court A new Council chosen The Parliament refuse the King Money and insist upon the Bill of Exclusion It is also dissolved another being Summon'd A new Rebellion in Scotland The Arch-bishop of St. Andrew's inhumanly butchered The Rebels are defeated at Bothwel-Bridge The King sick He recovers The Duke returns to Court Monmouth Cabals and is outed of his Employments The Lord Stafford beheaded The Parliament dissolv'd and succeeded by another at Oxford which is likewise dismiss'd College is hang'd and Shaftsbury try'd The strange Encrease of the Fanaticks Their Insolence and Power in the City They form a Conspiracy The Council of Six The Plot to Murther the King and Duke The Providential Fire at New-Market Keeling discovers the Conspiracy Russel and Sidney are executed Monmouth absconds but upon his Submission is pardoned He again transgresses and is banished The King dyes of an Apoplexy The Duke succeeds 312. BOOK II. The Rebellion breaks out in Scotland under Argile in England under Monmouth Both are vanquished taken and executed The Final Ruin and End of the Rebellion 336. COMMENTARIES ON THE REBELLION OF England Scotland and Ireland PART I. BOOK I. The Vnion of the Kingdoms of Great Britain The State of Affairs in England The Scots Tumults and their Causes They Rebel and Arm. The King Marches against them but concludes a Peace They break it and enter England with an Army The Little Parliament call'd and dissolved The Treaty at Rippon referred to the Parliament which met in November 1640. The Preludes to their ensuing Rebellion Strafford Impeach'd and Beheaded The Fatal Act of Continuance The Scots dismissed The King follows them into Scotland The Irish Rebellion breaks out The King upon his Return is pompously received by the Londoners The King enters the House of Commons The Bishops accused of High Treason The King forced by Tumults retreats Northward Contests about the Militia His Majesty is repulsed at Hull THE Kingdoms of Great Britain being United under the Dominion of one Prince and the Animosities and Emulations which usually disorder Neighbour-Nations thereby removed gave a sudden Rise to a very great and formidable Power which could not be destroyed but by it self The Moderator of this vast Empire was JAMES VI. King of Scotland and First Monarch of Great Britain undoubted Heir to both as well by Right of Succession from Margaret the only Daughter of Edgar Atheling the last of the Saxon Princes as by that of Force derived to him from the Norman Conqueror This Wise and Learned Prince Charles I. succeeds to the Crown being gathered to his Fathers the loss which his Dominions suffered by it however great was abundantly repaired by the Succession of his Son CHARLES who being truly Heir to his Father's Greatness and Vertues as well as Scepters did excel all his Predecessors in the more severe Disquisition of what was Fit and Just so that our Tragedies will scarce find Credit with Posterity whilst the Ages to come mistrusting the Reports of such enormous Villainies will look upon our unheard-of Vicissitudes but as the Fancies of Poetry and the Decoration of Theatres For how is it possible to believe that the Best of Princes should meet with the Worst of Subjects on whom he had conferred more Graces than the whole Series of his Ancestors and that he who valued his Kingdoms and Life at a lower Rate than the Happiness of his People should by a Judicial Parricide be sacrificed to the ambitious Violence of a prevailing Faction in their Representative and that under the pretence of Usurpation and Tyranny But these things happened an everlasting Reproach to the Nation and not to be atoned for by any Resentment or Hecatombs of Victims King James left a flourishing Kingdom behind him but an empty Treasury and his Successor engaged in a War with Spain and what was worse the Parliament that oblig'd the Father to Arm abandoned the Son when they had exposed him Nor were the succeeding Parliaments more Obsequious or forward in supplying his Necessities how great soever either in recovering the Palatinate or rescuing the French Protestants though undertaken in Defence of the Reformed Religion 'T is true his Third Parliament voted him Five Subsidies but we must own also The Petition of Right that the Petition of Right being a Condescension even to Supererogation deserv'd their best Acknowledgements for raised with that Grant they that very Session questioned the Tribute of Tonnage and Poundage though perpetually enjoyed by his Predecessors Kings of England affirming
desires to the rest But in vain for Scudmore the Governour rejecting these Invitations with Contempt told them He would deliver the City to none but to the King that had entrusted him with it or to his Majesty's Commands And thus the Scots but raise is after a sharp though no long Siege of Five Weeks seeing there was no good to be done raised their Camp and marched Northwards occasioned perhaps by their Apprehension of the King's Motion from Oxford or rather affrighted with the stupendious Victories of Montross in their own Country Rosseter being commanded thither with Six Thoufand Horse The King having again left Oxford for his private Affairs there no less than his publick abroad grew by the Distractions and Divisions in his own Court daily worse marched to Ludlow with design to relieve Chester long labouring under the Pressures of a close Siege The Parliament hearing of the Kings Motion ordered the Colonels Poynts and Rosseter to observe him with orders that in case he moved towards Hereford they should act by consent with Leven but if he should go towards Bristol they should then move by Communication of Counsels with General Fairfax their Forces being joined Four Thousand all Horse follow the King close And the unhappy City of London to promote this Design of King-Catching as they called it or rather The Common-Council of London order their Members to find each a Horse to persuethe King their own Slavery made a Decree in Common-Council that every Member of it should have a Horse with Accoutrements ready to join with the rest in pursuit of the King His Majesty in the mean time hastens towards Chester and being come to Routon-Heath within Two Miles of it Rosseter falls with great Resolution upon the Royallists who received them with no less Courage The Fight was very hot wherein the Rebels were not only disordered but had been quite defeated and an entire Victory obtained but that Colonel Jones coming in that instant with near a Thousand Men from the Siege of Chester turned the Day by confirming their own Party and restoring to them the Success they despaired of before The Fight at Rowton-heath The King being overpowered with the Accession of these new-Commers lest he should be surrounded by them charged through them and not without much Slaughter on both sides recovered Chester The untimely Death of the Lord Bernard no less eminent for Courage and Loyalty than Illustrious for the Nobleness of his Extraction aggravated the King's Loss he being the Third Brother of the Duke of Lenox slain in his Majesty's Quarrel in this unnatural War The King did not stay long in Chester the Enemy growing upon him after their Victory but retired into Wales still loyal to his Interest he being a Prince however unfortunate insuperable in Afflictions and Superior to all Calamities Nor did he at all despond however harassed trusting that the same God who from small beginnings had raised him once to an Equality with his Enemies in Power might yet of his Goodness restore him in his good time He then by his indefatigable Industry and the Accession of Prince Maurice his Troops with some other scattered Remains had got a considerable Body of Horse together which he divided and delivering Fifteen Hundred of them to Digby and Langdale Digby and Langdale defeated sent them with Commands to endeavour to conduct them to Montross which if these great Men had been able to have compassed might have changed the whole Face of Affairs He had already acted to a Prodigy as will be hereafter declared but they could not reach the Borders and Confines of both Kingdoms For though they had broke Colonel Wren's Regiment of Horse and taken Eight Hundred Foot at Sherburne and Mylford they were afterwards surprised by Copely and Lilburne who being fresh fell upon their wearied Troops and defeated them Carnaby and Hutton Two Knights with some others were slain and Four Colonels together with many Inferiour Officers and Four Hundred Horse fell into the Enemies Hands The Lord Digby's Coach was also made a Prize wherein amongst other Spoils several of the King's Letters too carelesly guarded were found And these as those formerly taken at Naesby were printed with the same Malice and Impudence Nor is it to be wondred that as they began the War with Tumults Scandals and all Kinds of Barbarity so they should end it with the same Arts and the same Brutality Digby was again routed by the Scots upon Carlile-Sands and scarce saved himself by with-drawing with very few Attendants into the Isle of Man and from thence into Ireland So that this whole Party together with its Design was destroyed and vanished But to return to Fairfax into the West where the main Stress of the War was for what happened in other Provinces were rather Velitations and Encounters of Parties than formed Designs of Battels after the taking of Bristol the Enemy consulted what to undertake next Many were of Opinion they should march to the Relief of Plymouth labouring under the Evils of a very long and irksom Siege But that Town having the Sea open and the Parliamentarians abounding in shipping having the Navy at their Disposal it was thought more expedient to dislodge the Royallists out of those Garrisons which impeded the Commerce betwixt London and the Western Counties and so open a Passage for Travellers to and fro at Pleasure In order to this Barclay-Castle as nearest was first attempted This Fortress lying betwixt Glocester and Bristol did not only disturb the Commerce of both those Cities but extreamly incommoded the Country on every side with Excursions Fairfax had formerly sent some Horse to hinder their Cavalcades and now Colonel Raynsborough is ordered with Three Regiments of Foot to besiege and reduce them Which he also did having forced their Out-Works Barclay-Castle taken by Raynsborough and particularly the Steeple and Church which overlooked the Castle For Sir Charles Lucas however brave being unequal to the Enemy in Power was forced to surrender which he did considering the State of Affairs upon no contemptible Conditions In the mean Time Cromwell took the Devizes The Devizes by Cromwell without any great Opposition as also Laicock with the same Facility the Souldiers being permitted to march away with their Arms. And now Fairfax commands him with Three Regiments of Horse and Four of Foot to reduce Winchester and Basing-House the Seat of the Marquis of Winchester whilst he himself marches with the Rest of his Army Westward His Souldiers were mustered and paid and new cloathed Being come to Chard he was advertised that the Royallists had a design to break through his Army and join with the King Which seemed neither incredible nor unreasonable for that being effected the Enemy would be obliged either to divide his Forces which might expose both Parties or follow with his whole Army and so leave the Two fertile Provinces of Devonshire and Cornmall entirely in the Prince's Hands He
the main Forces of Scotland suffering well-nigh a Saguntine Famine in its Defence Nor did then quit it but upon equitable Terms for the Security of his Garrison At York also he had extorted good Conditions from their victorious Armies These things being considered Fairfax invites him also to treat with very large Offers which he seemed to hearken to requiring First permission to acquaint his Majesty and to know his Pleasure therein This being denied Commissioners were some time after appointed to treat on both sides But they could not agree for the Terms the Royallists demanded were so high that Fairfax transferred them to the Parliament by which they were rejected as incongruous and new Orders sent to the General to reduce the City with all his Power and Skill But the Treaty was after some time reassumed though no Cessation intervened neither did any Military Action happen worthy the recital and after some Disputes agreed upon being comprehended in Six and Twenty Articles Faringdon was likewise surrender'd upon the same Terms for Sir George Lisle the Governour of that Fortress being then in Oxford Oxford surrender'd Jan. 24th 1645 6. was comprehended in the Oxford-Pacification The chief of the Articles were That Oxford with the Castle Forts Works Arms Cannon and all Provisions of War should be delivered to Sir Thomas Fairfax 's Possession on the 24th of January The Duke of York received and treated according to his Dignity should be permitted to go to London with his Family and continue there with the King's Children until his Majesty should otherwise dispose of him The Princes Rupert and Maurice with their Train not exceeding Seventy Persons should in Six Months depart out of the Kingdom The Seals and Sword of State should be lock'd up in a Chest and secured in the publick Library The Governour Colonels and all other Officers and Souldiers should be permitted to march with their Horses Arms Standards flying Colours Musquets and Pistols loaden Match burning at both ends c. the usual Solace of the vanquished Fifteen Miles which way they pleased where the private Souldiers should lay down their Arms and then at their choice either return to their Homes or dispose of themselves into Foreign Service The Nobles Peers Gentlemen and all others of what Quality soever should not be obliged to compound for above Two Years Revenues of their Estates The Chancellour Masters Professors Students c. of the Vniversity should enjoy their Possessions Customs Institutions Privileges and Government without Disturbance The Citizens should also enjoy all their Immunities and Freedoms nor be burthened with a Garrison or enquartering of Souldiers but upon great Necessity The Kings Houshold-Servants shall together with all his Houshold-Stuff be conveyed to Hampton-Court where they shall continue until his Majesty shall otherwise dispose of them To conclude Immunity for what was pass'd was granted to every Individual and that no Man should be questioned for any thing done during the War or the present Siege And thus this Seat of Loyalty and Learning where the King had kept his Court during the Troubles fell with the Fate of the Kingdom whose Example and Fortune the remaining Royal Garrisons did readily follow the which to gratifie the Reader we will also mention though not without Reluctancy Wood stock Banbury Raynsborough had stormed Woodstock not without great Loss which Place notwithstanding was afterwards surrender'd to him Banbury stoop'd to the same Fate however bravely defended for a long time by Sir William Compton and signalized with several Slaughters of the Rebels Radcot was delivered by ..... Palmer and Bostol-House by another Compton But nothing was more sensible than the Loss of Newark which had been defended by the Lord Bellasis with Conduct and Valour against the united Forces of the English and Scots until delivered up to Poynts upon the King's Order now in the Scots Army Worcester and Wallingford Ragland c. Worcester held out till the Surrender of Oxford and then veil'd Wallingford submitted with the same Facility but better Conditions Ragland was kept during the whole War by the Marquess of Worcester a Man of great Parts and one who had greatly obliged the King who however Bed-rid had an active Soul which made him maintain the Place till there was not a Garrison left to go to upon the Rendition Nor did he yet part with it till Fairfax himself came to receive it The Lord Charles Somerset his second Son Commanded under him who had also signalized himself in many Rencounters during the War but all failing was forced to surrender the Marquess Sacrificing his own Liberty to the freedom of his Soldiers Pendennis involved in the same fate was forced to submit to the same necessity being delivered up by Colonel Arundel There remained yet some few Castles in North Wales which had the honour to hold out longest in this Scene of Blood Conway was taken by force by Colonel Mitton and the Archbishop of York who sacrificed the honour of his Robe and Loyalty to his Ambition and Revenge Ludlow was delivered as also Litchfield to Brereton upon Chester-Articles The Isles of Scylly ran the same fortune The Dutch had much desired the Possession of them for the convenience of Navigation and offered great Sums for them But Sir Jo. Greenville the worthy Governour now Earl of Bath prudently chose rather to deliver them to the English Rebels being not ignorant that if annexed to England they might one day return to their obedience and duty to their Natural Prince again Some time after Holt-Castle and those of Harlegh and Denbigh in which last place as also Denbigh and Harlegh the two last Scenes of this War were delivered up the Author of these Commentaries besides many other Gentlemen was besieged after long and tedious expectation of some good from the North tho' contrary to the Proverb closed the last Act of our unnatural Tragedy Omne malum ab Aquilone The Royallists being wholly subdued it pleased the Parliament the Independant Faction in the House being paramount to order Fairfax their General Massey's Forces disbanded to go and disband Massey's Forces being Five and Twenty Hundred all Horse The pretext was very plausible the easing of the publick charge of the Treasury and 't was therefore perhaps that they allowed them but six weeks Pay whereas they had many Months due to them This considerable Service being done Fairfax came to London where he was received by the Militia of the City in Arms by the Speakers of both Houses with Congratulatory Speeches and Thanks and by the Court of Aldermen and Common-Council with great Assentation and Flattery The King prosecuted by the Scots at Newcastle The King at Newcastle being no less prosecuted and afflicted by the Scots to whom he had betaken himself for Sanctuary than by the Parliament which he had escaped was yet constant to himself And to use his own words in his Divine Soliloquies Not to be compelled by any
not be cleansed of it but continues still a Monument of this horrid Impiety with this Inscription engraved Hic jacent Car. Lucas Geor. Lisle a Fairfaxio mactati Capell was reserved for the Scaffold who afterwards suffered with no less Constancy and Greatness of Mind than his illustrious Colleagues now did as we shall see in the Sequel of this History Nor was it on Land only that the Sword did rage the Sea also had its Scenes of Blood and Horror for a great part of the Navy detesting the Tyranny of their Old Masters deserted them and revolted to the Prince of Wales The Revolt of the Fleet. Batten one of their prime Leaders having been dismissed by them returned to his Duty and joined his Highness with some more Ships The Sea-men had exposed Rainsborough their Admiral and a Turbulent Leveller by putting him on shore who was afterwards slain in his Quarters by a Party from Pomfret and now embracing the King's Party with universal Consent seemed resolved to expiate their former Rebellion by a Return of Duty and to merit their Pardon by the Eminency of their Services Prince Charles with the Duke of York his Brother who lately escaped from St. James's in Womans Cloaths Prince Rupert the Earl of Brandford the Lords Hopton Willmot Willoughby Culpeper and others of Name and Quality sailed from Holland with this brave Fleet consisting of Twenty Ships of War and came into Yarmouth-Road with design to attempt every thing that was possible for the Relief of Colchester But finding the distance from that City too great and the Shore and Passages possessed by the numerous Enemy his Highness sailed to the Mouth of the Thames carrying Terror and Force with him to awe the City of London But his stay there was not long the Castles of Deal Walmer and Sandwich requiring his Assistance which he attempted by landing Five Hundred Men who though they fought with extream Gallantry were yet forced back with great loss to their Ships again The Castles after this Defeat were immediately surrendered By this time the Earl of Warwick lately made Admiral again had equipt another Fleet in the River and having joyned that of Portsmouth resolved to fight the Prince which he yet delays for the present not only terrified with the Revolt of others but in some doubt of the Fidelity of his own Men. The Prince perceiving this courted the Earl with magnificent Offers to the Return of his Duty But he perfidiously constant persisted in his Rebellion and in recompense of his Services shall see himself disgracefully outed of all Trust and his only Brother the Earl of Holland beheaded for his late Return to his Obedience Some were of Opinion that the Royallists omitted an opportunity of fighting the Sea men being high in Heart and seemingly very Loyal and the Enemy supposed to waver tho the Event afterwards proved the contrary In the mean time the Prince seeing his Land-Forces every where defeated and the adverse Fleet growing daily stronger returned into Holland giving the Command of the Fleet to Prince Rupert But many of the Ships out of an innate levity of their Sailors leaving the Prince returned to their old slavery under Warwick whilst the rest continuing in their Duty stuck close to their New Admiral whose Actions and Adventures shall be hereafter related Some other Fortresses besides those already mentioned declared for the King as N. B. Tinmouth-Castle seized upon by Major Lilburn Scarborough by the Return of Sir Matthew Boynton the Governour to his Allegiance and Pomfret possessed upon the same score by Major Morrice Tinmouth indeed was retaken by Assault the Governour losing his Life with the Place Boynton got Terms not unworthy the Defence he had made and Morrice and being lost bravely exposed himself to save his Garrison Who tho he broke thro the Camp which was the Conditions he had articled for yet was afterwards taken and murthered under colour of Justice in cold Blood The Visitation of Oxford But before we proceed further in these Occurrences it may not be impertinent to take a Review of some Transactions in the entrance of this Black Year 1648. seeing they seem to tend to those monstrous Catastrophes it ended in The first thing our pious Reformers undertook was visiting the Vniversity of Oxford They had long since garbell'd Cambridge to their Interest and will now as much as in them lyes extinguish this other Luminary by removing its Candlesticks and ejecting all the Members thereof that were any ways notable for Learning Loyalty Piety or Obedience to the Church or State as established by Law The Earl of Pembrook being made Chancellor together with several Delegates of the Factious Clergy and some of the Laiety as good Divines as himself were appointed for this Service Which was performed with all the Rigor of an Inquisition none being spared from the Reverend Heads of Colleges to the hopeful Striplings of Sixteen And yet the entrance of this Year had thus much extraordinary in it in that it contributed to the Deliverance of the Duke of York out of the Hands of those worst of Rebels The Duke of York escapes into Holland being conveyed away in a Virgin-disguise and carried into Holland by Col. Bamfeild who afterwards aspersed the Honour of this Service by undutiful Intelligences But to return whence we digressed the Army with Cromwell being absent and in Scotland several Petitions from the Country the Captains Masters and Sailers as also from the City of London were presented to the Men at Westminister requiring with more than ordinary earnestness a personal Treaty with the King This did so far work upon the Presbyterian Faction in the House very jealous and apprehensive of the Power of the Independants that they resolved for their own preservation to make a Peace with the King And The Treaty in the Isle of Wight in order thereunto forthwith recalled their Votes of Non-Address and sent Commissioners with Propositions not much unlike the former with Power to make Peace allowing Forty Days for the time of treating They indeed permitted his Majesty the attendance of several Lords of his Council and Bed-Chamber many of his Servants some of his Chaplains some Lawyers and others But they refused the Assistance of any but himself in treating Nor was it truly necessary for it presently appeared that as he was a Prince of prodigious Parts so he seemed more than humanly inspired who could singly manage so weighty an Affair against Fifteen Commissioners Persons prejudiced and of great Subtilty and with that success that he made Converts of some of his bitterest Enemies and however unwilling forced their very Reason But they having no liberty to recede or any way to remit of the Rigor of their Propositions His Majesty out of his affection to Peace granted many things above their Desires being content to divest himself of most of his Regalities for his time and trust those insatiable Men with the exercise thereof
and threw Pieces of Pipes as he walked along at his Feet And lest he might not be like his Saviour in his Sufferings he was mocked and had his Reverend Countenance defiled with Spittle which he wiped off with no other Reproaches than That Christ had suffered more for his sake He spent the Rest of his Time in preparing himself for his Last Hour however disturbed with the Questions Cavils Scoffings and Petulancy of the Enthusiastick Souldiers All which he either repressed by Arguments or eluded by neglecting them Nor did he say any thing however provoked by Arrogancies unusual to Princes or unworthy his former Magnanimity Dr. Juxton the Reverend Bishop of London was at length admitted to wait upon the King to whom by reason of his Holiness of Life and the Consolation he brought him he was exceedingly welcome But coming later than he was expected the King said to him That you are not come sooner is I know none of your Fault and now seeing these Rogues will shed my Blood you and I must consider how I may best part with it The Faction had offered some of their own Fanatick Levites whom the King had rejected as miserable Comforters He would not pray with them who had always pray'd against him but they might pray for him if they pleased Having then the Benefit of his own Chaplain he prepared himself for Death so well that he overcame the Terrors of it before it appeared Amongst these Preludes of Death some of the Prime Officers of the Army came to the King offering him certain Propositions with Promise of Life and some Shadow of Royalty if he would sign them Of these one was That the Army consisting of Forty Thousand Men should be perpetuated under the Present General and Officers and that the Council of War should be impow'red to supply Vacancies from time to time He rejects the Souldiers impious Propositions tho' to save his Life as occasion should happen and settle Taxes for the Pay of the Army to be levied by the Souldiers c. But the King having read some of these Tyrannous Proposals threw them away with much Indignation saying That he would rather become a Sacrifice for his People than thus betray their Laws Liberties Lives and Estates with the Church the Common wealth and Honour of the Crown to so intolerable a Bondage of an Armed Faction Preferring with his usual Greatness of Mind a Glorious Cross before an ignominious Life Nor did he only prefer the Public Good before his own Particular but would not expose private Friends to inevitable Danger to save himself Which abundantly appeared at his being at Bagshot where when the Lord Newburg and his Noble Lady had demonstrated to His Majesty Means whereby he might elude his bloody Keepers who led him to the Slaughter His Children come to him His instructions to thâ—m he waved their Proposals saying If I should escape they would cut you to Pieces It was some Solace to the King in his Streights that his Children were permitted to see him The Lady Elizabeth and the Duke of Gloucester very Young were only left in the Power of the Faction the Duke of York having as is already mentioned escaped their Bloody Hands To these Princes of rare Endowments and Hopes the King gave in Charge That they should consider Charles not as their Brother but as their King That they should forgive their Enemies Love one another and all of them be Obedient to their Mother He told them also what * Hooker 's Eccl. Pol. Bish Andr. Sermons Laud against Fisher Books they should read to confirm them in their Religion and giving them his Blessing dismissed them in a Deluge of Tears The Prince Elector and the Duke of Richmond had also obtained Permission to visit the King though His Majesty now intent only upon his Meditations would not admit them how dear soever to him And now the Fatal Day the 30th of January being come the King being guarded from St. James's through the Park on Foot he spake to the Souldiers to go faster saving That he now went before them to strive for a Heavenly Crown with less solicitude The King prepares for his End than he had often encouraged his Souldiers to Fight for an Earthly Diadem Being come to White-Hall he spent most of his time there in his Devotions And having received the Blessed Communion he was much raised by the reading of the History of the Passion of our Saviour described by the Evangelist St. Mathew and more particularly when he knew it was not done upon Design but prescribed by the Rubrick for the Service of the Day Being brought through the Banquetting-House to the Stage covered with Black the Block the Axe and the masqued Executioners presented themselves to his Sight Which did not so much dismay his Heart fortified with Innocence and Piety but that his Care for the Living seemed no less than his Solicitude for Dying He therefore lest he might seem to submit to the Guilt as well as the Punishment in Vindication of his Innocency demonstrated That it was not He but the Two-Houses that began the War He acknowledges God 's Justice in punishing one Unjust Sentence with another He not only forgiveth his most bitter Enemies but prayes also that God will Pardon them Being solicitous for Peace he warns them not to seek it by Conquest but to give God the King and People their due God by setling the Church the King according to Law and the People by such a Government whereby their Lives and Goods might be most their own Finally he told them He dyed the Peoples Martyr and a Christian according to the Profession of the Church of England After some short Prayers he submitted his Head to the Axe an unheard of and surprizing Example of Human Fragility It is wonderful with how much Constancy and Christian Fortitude He his Murthered he laid down his Head used to wear Crowns and with what Meekness who by all Laws Divine and Human was exempt from the Penalties of any Perhaps insulting in that he was to change this Earthly Crown however splendid yet heavy for that of Immortal Glory As he seemed to intimate in that prophetick Anagram composed by himself the Day preceding his Martyrdom CAROLUS REX Cras ero Lux. And truly as there was never any Parricide except that of our Saviour so detestable as this so never any Man was equally lamented as this best of Princes No Sex nor Age nor Order of Men was found that did not mourn this universal Loss Children how little soever sensible of the Public dissolved in Tears could hardly be appeased Those who were more advanced in Years could scarce bear their Sorrow Whilst the Weaker not able to support their Grief as Thunder-struck sunk under it And Breeding-Women laboured with Untimely Births and like her who when the Glory was departed from Israel would admit of no Consolation And truly not only his own Subjects but
the Universality of Mankind for Quae Regio in Terris nostri non plaena Doloris did lament the undeserved Fate of this Prince Nay the outragious Faction it self did blush to approve the Infamy of so flagitious an Act. The Factions disapproving the Infamy of the Regicide impute it to each other The Presbyterians to shift the Envy of it from themselves threw it upon the Independants condemning upon the Stage what they had designed in the Tyring-room But whether out of true Sentiments of Repentance or that they could act no further let them look to that being equally Regicides in their Intentions though not in the Execution The Independants said That they only put to Death a Private Man and an Enemy The King had been long since killed by the Presbyterians as being despoiled of his Prerogative whereby he excelled others of the Militia wherewith he protected his Subjests and of his Freedom of Vote whereby he made Laws They also remembred How he had been divested and robbed of his Liberty as a Commoner of the Society of his Wife as a Husband of the Conversation of his Children as a Parent of the Attendance of his Servants as a Master Yea of every Thing that might render his Life comfortable So that there was nothing left for the Independants to do but to put an end to the Calamities wherewith this Man of Sorrow had been so cruelly overwhelmed and afflicted by the Presbyterians But who ever were the Authors of this Impiety we grieve at what they did which seeing it cannot be undone we may wish that the Memory of it may perish with them who designed and perpetrated so Hellish a Mischief Nor had the Scelerates of the Faction yet satisfied their Cruelty They were inhumanly barbarous to his Dead Corps Their Inhumanities after his Death His Hair and his Blood were sold by Parcels Their Hands and Sticks were tinged with his Blood And the Block now chipt as also the Sand sprinkled with his Sacred Gore were exposed to sale Which were greedily bought but for different Ends by some as Trophies of their slain Enemy and by others as precious Reliques of their beloved Prince It is certain that Cromwell to satisfy his greedy Eyes had caused the Coffin to be opened in White-Hall and did with his Fingers search the-Wound as if he had still doubted of the effecting of his Hellish Cruelty Nor did it suffice to have raged against him living and dead they will also for as much as in them lies kill his very Fame Which they endeavoured to do by the enslaved Pen of a needy Pedagogue one Milton Salmasius indeed had writ a Defence for the King but he being a Presbyterian as the other an Independant both very good Latin if we believe the Learned Hobbs and hardly to be judged which is better and both very ill Reasoning and hardly to be judged which is worst And thus both Houses as they had often sworn with hands lift up to Heaven did make him a Great and Glorious King by changing his Fading Crown which they had interwoven with Thorns into an Immortal and Incorruptible one They made him great indeed great in Suffering in Patience His Character and great in his Martyrdom Thus fell Charles the Great and Just Monarch of sometimes Three flourishing Kingdoms A great Example if any of both Fortunes The Best of Kings The Meekest of Men. His Countenance was Comely and Majestic He was Constant Valiant Pious Eloquent of infinite Reason and Reading His Integrity was entire and no Guile found in his Mouth His publick and private Vertues were eminent He had been born for the Good of Mankind if he had not fallen amongst Monsters not Men. The best of Princes the best of Men the best Parent the best Husband the best Master Famous for Patience for Piety for Chastity for Justice and of an unshaken Fidelity towards God and Man His Greatness only rend'red him Guilty being by the Suffrages of his most bitter Enemies worthy of Empire if he had not reigned The Royal Corps being embalmed and exposed for some Days to publick View at St. James's was afterwards delivered to Mr. Herbert And Funeral one of his Servants to be translated to Windsor He had earnestly solicited to have had it deposited in Henry VII's Chappel near to the Monument of King James But they refused it lest the Place as they said might be prophaned by the Superstitious Concourse of the People He was therefore carried â—o Windsor by the Direction of the Duke of Lenox the Marquess of Hartford and the Earls of Southampton and Linsey who had got leave â—â—om the Faction for the decent Enterrment of their â—ear Lord provided the Funeral-Charges did not â—xceed Five Hundred Pounds These Sacred Reâ—â—ques being then born by the Officers of the Garriâ—on attended on by the Four Lords were laid 〈◊〉 Henry VIII's Vault It is observable that â—â—ough the Air was serene when they set out â—efore they reacht the Chappel-Door the â—â—erse of Black Velvet which covered them was all White with Snow which seemed to fall to testify their Candor and Innocence But it troubled the Assistants that the Fanatic Governour would not permit them the Use of the Common-Prayer the Bishop of London attending there to do this Last Office to his Dearest Master So that he was interred with the Sighs and Tears of his Servants And thus Lam. C. 4. V. 20. the Breath of our Nostrils the Anointed of the Lord was taken in their Pits of whom we said Vnder his Shadow we shall live among the Heathen COMMENTARIES ON THE REBELLION OF England Scotland and Ireland PART II. BOOK I. The Regicides prohibit the proclaiming of the Prince of Wales They abolish the House of Lords and the Government by Kings Choose a Councel of State Displace and Fine the Lord Mayor for refusing to publish the Act for abolishing of Monarchy Declare they will-maintain the Fundamental Laws Erect a High Court of Justice Hamilton Holland and Capell condemned by it and murthered Several Acts of State The Scots proclaim Charles II. Some Actions of the Levellers The King leaves Holland and goes by Brussels into France The Duke of Gloucester banished Continuance of the History of Ireland The King at Jersey Prince Rupert Sails from Kinsale to Portugal Loseth his Brother Prince Maurice by a Hurrycane The King at Breda Treats and Concludes with the Scots Montrosse's unfortunate End Fairfax routed and Cromwell General His Actions in Scotland The Scots barbarous Vsage of the King They are defeated at Dunbar The King crowned at Schone He enters England The Battle of Worcester The King 's miraculous Escape CHarles the Martyr being removed by a Parricide black as its Authors as is declared in our former Commentaries the Regicides endeavour with the same Fury to supplant his Son Heir of his Diadems and Vertues in order to which they immediately after his Fathers Death The Regicides prohibit the proclaiming of the
General and Lieutenant General they had their Quarters surprized and beaten up about Mid-night by Reynolds where Four Hundred of them were made Prisoners and Nine Hundred of their Horses taken The Democraticks or Levellers being thus defeated our brave Hero's march to Oxford where both of them Fairfax and Cromwell were made Doctors of Law who had themselves trampled upon all Laws both Divine and Human. After this having visited Portsmouth they return to London in Triumph where after a Thanks-giving for their late Successes they were together with their Servile Senate invited treated and regal'd by the more Servile City who again not to seem ungrateful or rather to intangle them in their Interest bestowed New-Park with all the Deer in it upon the Citizens The Regicides being now secure at home at least in Appearance began to look after Foreign Correspondence and Amities Amongst which the Friendship of the Vnited Netherlands seemed preferable by reason of their Neighbourhood of their Resemblance in Government and the Genius of the Nation Dorislawes and Ascham in their Embassies Doctor Dorislawes a Civilian as also a German by Birth was sent thither with Instructions not only to propose a strict Friendship but also a Coalition of both People But he was prevented in it being assassinated in his Lodging by one Whitford a Scot who with Ten or Twelve more having perpetrated the Fact withdrew without any Pursuit though they were afterwards colourably summon'd in by the States The reason of this Remissness was his presuming to appear as it were in the King's presence having contributed so eminently to the Ruine of his Father And thus God permitted one Injustice to be retaliated with another Nor had Ascham another of their Envoy's at Madrid better Fate being kill'd in his Inn upon his Arrival by one Sparks an English-man who though he took Sanctuary was pulled thence by the Spaniard apprehending the rising Greatness of the new Common-wealth for the Regicides had declared though they much esteemed the Amity of so great a King yet they ought and did require the punishment of so Nefarious a Parricide as they called it adding that unless Justice were immediately satisfied they did not see how the Friendship betwixt both Nations could be sincere and durable The King acknowledged at the Hague The King had continued hitherto at the Hague acknowledged and reverenced by all and though the States that they might not altogether seem to displease their Sister Common-wealth of whom they began to be jealous had dispensed with the Ceremony of Public Congratulation yet the Swede and Danish Embassadors had saluted His Majesty with the usual Testimonies of Condolence and Congratulation He was also King in Possession Scotland having proclaimed him and Ireland being upon the point of being reduced so that his Affairs calling him away he left the Hague and being attended by the Princess Royal his Sister and the Prince of Orange his Brother-in-law to whose generous Friendship he owed all Things through Rotterdam Dort and Breda Treated magnificently by the Arch-Duke being received at these Places with the noise of their Cannon and Bells and all other marks of Honour he came to Antwerpe the principal City of the Spanish Netherlands where he was magnificently entertained and presented with a rich Chariot and Eight brave Horses sent him by Arch-Duke Leopold Governour of the Low-Countries His Majesty was also Royally treated by him at Brussels from whence after some Stay being conveyed on his way to France by the Duke of Lorrain Goes into France and feasted and honoured every where with the same Grandeur as if the King of Spain had been there he came to Compeigne where the French King accompanied with a great Train of his Nobility received him with all the Testimonies of Affection and Honour and brought him thence in State to his Mother the Queen of Great Brittain then at St. Germians Whilst the King was in France the Duke of Gloucester his Brother and the Lady Elizabeth his Sister both Princes of divine Endowments and Hopes were removed from the Earl of Northumberland's Guardianship to Carisbrook Castle infamous for having been the Prison of their Martyred Father to the custody of that impure Villain Anthony Mildmay The Lady Elizabeth dyeth and the D. of Gloucester is banished where the Princess afflicted with the daily Sight of that odious Mansion and consumed with Grief and the Maladies it occasioned breathed her last being denied by those barbarous Parricides the Assistance of such Physicians as she had desired Her Brother the Duke was presently after banished out of England by the Regicides the only agreeable Thing they did in rescuing him out of their Bloody Hands by their own Act. The Kingdom being thus subdued and the Army reduced to Obedience the Mock-Parliament or Rump for Continuation of the History of Ireland it grew famous by that Title of Infamy thought Ireland now worthy their consideration They therefore Vote Eleven Regiments to be sent thither under the conduct of Cromwell with the Title of Lord Governour whereof he was very fond which he could not forbear testifying for all his Dissimulation The Fame of these Preparations immediately flew over which obliged the Irish Rebels however dissenting amongst themselves to think of uniting for their Public Safety and although the Nuntio opposed this Confederation with all his Power excommunicating the Authors of it whilst they declared him and his Party Traytors resolving to force him by Arms which they did The Popes Nuntio expelled driving him into Galloway for his security where they prest him so hard that notwithstanding the Thunder of his Excommunication he was necessitated for his personal safety to abandon his Principality and the Kingdom The Irish-Grandees thus at Liberty invite and obtain the Marquess of Ormond as is mentioned in our former Commentaries with an Assurance of an entire Obedience to his Majesty's Lieutenant He being arrived the Confederates grew formidable by the Accession of the Lord Inchequin President of Munster and the Scots in the Province of Vlster Both these had served the Parliament with much Vigor until the King and Monarchy had been destroyed in England but abhorring the sordid Tyranny of the Regicides they deserted that Party they had so unjustly followed and return to their Duty and Allegiance to their Sovereign Owen-Roe-Oneal refused to be included in the Confederacy upon pretence that sufficient Provisions had not been made for the Security of their Religion but in reality because the Confederate Delegates had foolishly denied the no extravagant Conditions which his Quality seemed to require and he had demanded The Difference was about the Command of Four Thousand Men which they were willing to grant and Six Thousand which he insisted upon which they afterwards tho too late after his conjunction with Monk and Coot and his relieving of London-derry were glad to assent to During these Traverses the Marquess of Ormond entered upon the Government The
horrid a Design discountenanced the Credit of the Relator until verified by demonstrative Arguments which gave Opportunity to the Conspirators to withdraw themselves Yet some of them were taken as Howard Essex Russel Rumsey Sidney Walcot Hone Rowse and the Lord G. but he escaped out of the hands of the Messenger The Lord Russel and Collonel Sydney were both beheaded Walcot Rowse and Hone were executed at Tyburn and others in other places suffered the punishments due to such execrable Treasons The Earl of Essex the unfortunate Son of a good Father by his own hands prevented the Kings Clemency who could not shew the utmost of his Severity against a Son of my Lord Capels Of those who fled some obtained the Kings Pardon by their ingenious Confessions as Barber Blaney Bourn How Howard Rumsey c. Nor is it unworthy of Notice that scarce any of those who were executed did dye without confessing enough to demonstrate their Crime though not their Repentance Amongst the Fugitives the most considerable were Armstrong Ayloff Burton the Two Goodenoughs Brothers Gray Holloway Norton Nizbet Row the Two Rombalds Brothers Smyth Wade Tyley and Ferguson the Shame of his Coat and Calling a Canting Teacher and more cruelly wicked than all those he had endeavoured to mislead Sir Thomas Armstrong and Holloway being intercepted the First at Leyden in Holland the other at Mevis one of our Western Plantations and brought into England were both executed according to the Merit of their Crimes The Parricide designed thus in England against His Majesty and the Duke being discovered and prevented the Conspiracy in Scotland fell also as depending on it James Stuart Monroe Melvin Cockran Bayley Castares Spence Alex. Gordon Nezbet c. were the Chief of the Party acting in all Things by Agreement with Argile This perverse Son of a wicked Father had Demanded 30000 l. of the English to buy Arms engaging himself to make a powerful Diversion in his own Country Which he also effected as we shall see hereafter having procured Supplies by other means The Duke of Monmouth youthfully rash inconstant ambitious and hurried on with the Pretense of vindicating Liberty and Religion agitated now with the Guilt of his Crimes had also withdrawn himself But being proscribed and finding but little safety in a Retreat though it his best course to implore that Clemency which he had so cruelly offended Which he did by his Letters seemingly full of Ingenuity wherein he acknowledges his Crimes of Unfaithfulness against the King and of Ingratitude to the Duke bewailing what he had done and humbly supplicating Pardon for what was past With Imprecations of Vengeance upon himself if he offended any more or violated the Promises he then made of his future Fidelity The King the mildest of Princes moved with his Submissions answered him under his own Hand in these Terms That if the Duke of Monmouth would render himself capable of his Mercy it was necessary he should surrender himself into the Hands of Secretary Jenkins and should tell His Majesty all that he knew submitting himself as to the rest entirely to his Pleasure This peremptory Declaration of the King's Will extorted other Letters from Monmouth wherein he patheticalâ—y aggravates his Sorrow and Tortures of Mind for his failings against his Majesty Confessing that being fatally circumvented by the Enchantments of others he was drawn into their Design and precipitated into those Evils the Consequences whereof he had not suspected He declares that his Crimes appeared to him with so terrible an Aspect that he would rather dye than be tormented with their stings he therefore implores the King's Grace and Pardon which he did not desire but by the Mediation of his Royal Highness He further professes That he saith this seriously and sincerely not only submitting himself for this Time to the King's Pleasure but for his whole Life Concluding That he should be the unhappiest of Men until he were raised with a grateful and mild Answer The King after this 1683. Nov. 25. not questioning the sincerity of Monmouth's Conversion admitted him to his presence Where throwing himself at his Majesty's Feet he plainly and fully acknowledged himself conscious of all the Conspiracy except the Parricide discovering many things to the King which they had hitherto been ignorant of Monmouth being by the Intervention of the Duke restored to his Majesty's Favour as formerly obtained also the Favour not to be produced as a Witness against any Body which Grace had been formerly refused to the Duke of Orleance in France and that undoubtedly was the reason that his old Associates and Friends impudently gave out that he had discovered nothing of the Conspiracy but contrarily had vindicated the Innocency of those that had so injuriously suffered The King moved with so great Arrogance and perceiving that Monmouth did continue his Society with those who seduced his unwary Youth after some Admonitions he commanded him to publish in Writing what he had declared to himself and to the Duke his Brother Nor did he refuse it writing to the King in these Terms That he was informed that it had been reported of him as if he had designed to extenuate the late Conspiracy and traduce the Testimonies against them that suffered His Majesty and the Duke knew how ingeniously he confessed all Things and that he was not conscious of the least Evil against his Majesty's Life It grieved him however that he had so greatly countenanced the said Conspiracy He would publish this for his Vindication beseeching his Majesty not to look back but that he would please to forget those Injuries which he had forgiven It should be his Care for the future to sin no more or suffer himself to be misled from his Duty Yea he would spend his whole Life to deserve that Pardon which he had granted to his most Dutiful Monmouth But these Flourishes were no less fickle than short-liv'd For the unhappy Youth being bewitcht by the Artifices of wicked Men and his own Ambition broke that Faith which he had so solemnly promised to preserve inviolable For being foolishly perswaded That the Declaration he had so lately made was a Diminution to his Honour and might rise up in Judgment against him hereafter he redemanded it from his Majesty Who tender of his Good endeavoured to divert him from so preposterous an Attempt but being more obstinately pressed he in great Anger restored it him banishing him at the same time from his Court and Presence The King did not long survive this for being intercepted by a violent Apoplectic Fit he changed his Terrestrial Crowns for one of Glory being so universally lamented by the Good and leaving so great a Desire of him behind him that our Loss was in a Manner inconsolable He was succeeded by James Duke of York who was immediately proclaimed King But he was scarce setled in his Throne when the Hydra of Rebellion lift up her Head again out of the Lake of Schism and Faction BOOK
returned to Cologn he found his Brother the Duke of Gloucester there lately arrived from France The King had been informed now he had been thrust out of England by the Regicides which they had done to save the Expence of his Maintenance and to Ship-wrack his Religion Besides it was supposed that Cromwell had designed his Removal for that some in his Council had moved his Assumption to the Crown as no ways obnoxious or prejudiced by reason of his Youth as is already mentioned 'T is scarce imaginable with what Constancy he defended his Religion however very young In so much that armed with Instructions from the Lord Hatton and Doctor Cousens he eluded the Assaults of Abbot Montague and the Marquess of Plessis the one employed by the Queen-Regent of France and the other by the Queen of England Neither the charming Pleasures of the French Court nor the Purple Dignities of the Church of Rome nor yet the extream Severities of the Queen his Mother who did not only refuse him his ordinary Sustenance but denied him the Solace of her Benediction were of strength to shake his Faith Which they yet would endeavour to force by shutting him up in the Jesuits Colledge if the King his Brother displeased with these Novelties had not sent the Marquess of Ormond to his Rescue and to bring him to Cologn to him which he did though not without Difficulty But nothing was impossible for this Great Man After this the King went to Franckfort famous for its Marts And in his Progress saluted the Queen Christina of Sweden at Koningsteyn Where after a Reception worthy Two such great Princes and some private Discourses the Duke of Gloucester and his Royal Sister did the same The Marquess of Ormond Earl of Norwich Lord Newburgh and others of His Majesty's Train being also admitted paid that great Princess the Respects due to her Highness The Queen continued her Journey to Insprug where after a splendid Reception from the Arch-Duke she made Public Profession of the Roman Religion The King leaving Franckfort with the universal Acclamations of the People and thundring of their Cannon went to Ments whither he had been invited by that Elector where his Reception was truly Royal. And after three Days Treat parting with the same Magnificence returned to Cologn Nor did his Majesty spend the Time idly whilst the Regicides triumphed in England He had already sent Embassies to all the Princes of Europe to desire their Assistance against his Rebels But with little success though the Cause were Common The French flourishing in Promises made a League with the Regicides The Spaniards though they seemed to grieve at the Murther of the King were yet the first that acknowledged and owned this rising Common-wealth The Grand Seignior corrupted with English Gold delivered Sir Henry Hyde the King's Embassadour at that Court against the Law of Nations into the Hands of the Parricides who Murthered him by cutting off his Head before the Exchange Swedeland was then in an unsetled Condition Portugal unable being attacked both by the Spaniard and Dutch in the Indies Poland was worried with her own Domestick Distractions Denmark was exhausted with the Treasure formerly lent to Charles I. Others indeed restified their good-wills by their Contributions as the Great Duke of Muscovy the Count of Oldenburg the Electors of Mentz and Brandenburg and some other Princes of Germany by the Earl of Rochester's negoriating at Ratisbone But what could this import to make a new and great War Whereas it scarce sufficed to defray the Charges of the Embassies The King then seeing no Hopes of his Restauration from abroad wisely sought a Remedy where the Wound was received from the Benevolence and Loyalty of his Subjects which the Eminence of his Vertues could not in Justice refuse him Neither was he any way wanting to himself but most intent upon all Occasions leaving nothing unattempted whereby he might raise his sinking Affairs He kept constant Correspondence with his Friends in England Caus'd great Disturbances to the Rebels on every side and exposing himself to the Danger did more than once incite the People to arm against the Usurpers He now kept his Court at Bruges in Flanders nearer hand having been invited by the Spaniards repenting their too early Compliments to the Regicides and supplied with 9000 l. per annum which Money was punctually repaid upon His Majesty's Restitution The Duke in the mean Time having recalled all the Kings Subjects in the French Service joyning them with those in the Spanish Low-Countries composed a considerable Body which he commanded with no less Honour than he had done in France although they were well nigh destroyed by the fatal Valour of the English Rebels at Mardike and the Battle of Dunkirk The Duke more illustrious by Misfortunes did not only for some time resist but retard the Progress of the Victors until oppressed by multitudes as is already said he was necessitated to comply with the Fate of the vanquished Cromwell dying soon after however a way seemed thereby to be opened to the Kings Restauration his Majesty received the News of it with remarkable Constancy and Calmness of Mind in no ways insulting though he saw his most Mortal Enemy extinguished in the Person of this Vsurper Cardinal Mazarin however averse to King Charles did at the same time congratulate the Queen his Mother upon the Hopes of her Sons Restauration since he was by the Death of that Tyrant delivered from his most implacable and successful Enemy The sudden Change in England followed by the Deposing of Richard and the Resurrection of the Rump and the other Innovations already mentioned which followed as they augmented the Hopes of the King at Home so they varied the Counsels of Princes abroad Which his Majesty applyed in as much as was possible to his own Use by Negotiations and Embassies But there being now a Treaty in Agitation betwixt France and Spain he would himself be present at it For if a Peace were concluded which was more than probable betwixt these great Princes it was but reasonable to suppose that they might spare some of their numerous Forces to assist an injured King their Ally by Blood and Common Interest And yet the King would rather reduce his Rebel-Subjects to Obedience by the Appearance of his Power than by the Use of his Forces In the mean time accompanied with the Duke of York his Brother and the Marquess of Ormond he hasted Incognito through France having saluted the Queen his Mother at Paris in his way to St. John De Luz where the Great Ministers of the Two Crowns were then in Treaty Don Louis de Haro upon Notice of the Kings Approach went to met and receive him Which he did alighting from his Horse and Embracing and kissing his Knees with as much Honour and Splendour as if he had been his Master the King of Spain The next Day his Majesty was visited by Cardinal Mazarin the other great Plenipotentiary who was