he was committed to the Governance of the Lady Cary as before is said And not long after for his better welcom into England he was on the sixth day of January next following commonly called Twelfth-day invested solemnly with the title of Duke of York by cincture of a Sword imposition of a Cap and Coronet of Gold upon his Head and by delivering unto him a Verge of Gold himself with ten others of eminent Nobility having been made Knights of the Bath with all the accustomed Ceremonies the day before 1606. In the sixth year of his Age he was taken from the charge of his Women though not from the Motherly superinspection of the Lady Cary and committed to the Pedagogy of Master Thomas Murray a Scot by Nation sufficiently qualified for that service but otherwise ill Principled in the Rites and Ceremonies in which the Church of England differed from the Kirke of Scotland 1610. Under this Tutor the young Duke advanced exceedingly in the way of good Letters the weaknesse of his lower parts which made him unapt for Exercises and feats of Activity rendring him more retired and studious and more intent upon his Book then he had been otherwise Which Prince Henry taking notice of as he the young Duke Dr. Abbot then newly made Arch-Bishop of Canterbury with many of the Nobility were waiting in the Privie-Chamber for the Kings coming out the Prince to put a jest upon him took the Arch-Bishops Square-cap out of his hand and put it on his Brothers head telling him that if he continued a good boy and followed his Book he would make him one day Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Which the child took in such disdain that he threw the Cap upon the ground and trampled it under his feet not being without much difficulty and some force taken off from that eagernesse This though at first it was not otherwise beheld then as an Act of Childish passion yet when his Brother Prince Henry dyed and that he was Heir apparent to the Crown it was taken up by many zealous Church-men for some ill Presage unto the Hierarchy of Bishops the overthrow whereof by his Act and Power did seem to be foresignified by it But in that their fears were groundlesse and their conjectures no better grounded then their fears there never being a more gracious Patron to the Church nor a more resolute Champion in behalf of the Hierarchy then he proved to be What is presaged if there were any presaging in it in reference to the Archbishops Person may be shewen hereafter 1611 1612. In the eleventh year of his Age he was made Knight of the most noble Order of the Garter and on the sixth day of November Anno 1612. he lost his Brother Prince Henry whom he immediately succeeded in the Dukedome of Cornwall with all the Royalties Rents Profits and Commodities of it according to the entail which was made thereof by King Edward the third when he conferred it upon Edward the black Prince his eldest Son The first solemn Act which he appeared in after this change of his condition was at the Funerall of Prince Henry on the 7. of Decem. following at which he attended as chief Mourner And on the 14 of February then next ensuing being Sunday and St. Valentines day he performed the Office of a Brideman a Paranymph the Grecians call him to the Princesse Elizabeth his Sister married upon that day to Frederick the Fifth Prince Elector Palatine A marriage which drew him afterwards into many cares and great expences of which more hereafter In his Childhood he was noted to be very wilful somewhat inclining to a perversenesse of disposition which might proceed from that retiredness which the imperfection of his Speech not fitting him for publick discourse and the weakness of his limbs and joynts as unfit for Action made him most delight in But now being grown both in years and state he began to shake off that retirednesse and betake himself to all manner of man-like exercises such as were Vaulting riding great Horses running at the ring shooting in crosse bowes Muskets and sometimes in great Pieces of Ordnance in which he became so perfect that he was thought to be the best Marks-man and the most comely mannager of a great Horse of any one in all three Kingdoms And as he shaked off this retirednesse so he corrected in himself the Peccancy of that humour which had grown up with it there being no man to be found of an evener temper more pliant to good Counsel or lesse wedded then he was to his own opinion 1616. On the third of November Anno 1616. He was at White-hall with all the accustomed Solemnities created Prince of Wales Earl of Chester and Flint and put into the actuall possession of all the Regalities Profits and Commodities belonging to them his Houshould being then formed and constituted and all the officers of State which belong unto him appointed to their severall places And now it was expected that he should break out into more glory then he had done formerly and take upon him as the Heir of so great an Empire But considering very wisely that the forward and enterprizing nature of his Brother Prince Henry the popularity which he affected and the great resort of young Noble-men continually unto his Court had been displeasing to his Father resolved to keep himself at a close ward and not to seem so great as he was that when time served he might appear greater then he seemed to be Old Princes do not love to have their eldest Sons too active and to tread too close upon their heels and therefore many times do enterpose the power of a favorite to keep them at the greater distance A policy much used by King James in the whole course of his Government who for that cause in the life-time of Prince Henry took Sir Robert Carr into his most especiall favour whom he first made Gentleman of his Bed-chamber and on the twenty fifth of March Anno 1611. Created Viscount Rochester and the same year made Knight of the Garter also conferring on him all the power and trust he was capable of that by the greatnesse of the one he might keep down the daring nature and confident Spirit of the other Prince Charles understood this well enough and carried himself with so much prudence that he disputed not the power of his Fathers favourites suffering all Honour Offices and other matters at the Court to be carried by them as best pleased the King Which though it was generally ascribed unto Pusillanimity and the defect of Spirit in him yet was it look'd upon as an Act of the greatest wisedom by more knowing men For had he any wayes crost the designs and Councels either of Carr then Earl of Sommerset or of the Duke of Buckingham his Fathers favourites who at that time did much out-shine him he had not only incurred the Kings displeasure but of necessity must have divided the Court and by consequence the
At first his Majesty conceived that the Bishop had made choice of that Chapter as being very agreeable to his present condition But when he understood that it was the Chapter which the Church had appointed for that day in her publick Kalendar he seemed to apprehend it with some signes of rejoycing No sooner had he done his Devotions but he is hurried to VVhite-Hall out of the Banqueting-house whereof a way was forced to a Seaffold on which he was to act the last part of his Tragedy in the sight of the people Having declared that he died a Martyr for the Lawes of this Kingdome and the Liberties of the Subjects he made a Confession of his Faith insinuating that he died a true Son of the Church of England he betook himself to his private Devotions and patiently submitted that Royal Head to an Executioner which had before been crowned with so much outward Pomp and Splendour The Members of both Houses had often promised him in their Petitions Messages and Declarations that they would make him a great and glorious King and now they were as good as their words changing his fading but painfull Crown of Thorns which they first platted for him to an immarcessible Crown of Glory At his first coming to the Crown one of his Chaplains in Ordinary and now a Bishop in this Church taking good heed unto the close contrivances of some and the seditious actings of others in his two first Parliaments thought fit to give him and his Council such an item of it as might awaken them to prevent those mischiefs which otherwise might ensue upon it And thereupon he preached before them on these words of S. Matthews Gospel viz But when the husbandmen saw the Son they said among themselves This is the heir come let us kill him and let us seize on his inheritance Mat. 21.38 In the dissecting of which Text he made such an Anatomy of the Husbandmen whom he had in hand with reference to some Plots and Practises which were then on foot and his whole discourse upon the same that he gave the King and those about him such Remembrances as might make them have an eye unto themselves and the publick safety But then withall though he carried on the matter with great care and prudence he drew so much danger on himself from some leading Members in the second Parliament who thought themselves as much concerned in the Sermon as the chief Priest and Pharisees did in the Parable that he was upon the point of leaving the Kingdome when he had news that his Majesty had dissolved the second Parliament in no small displeasure What he then preached concerning the said Husbandmen was after practised and that he then fore-signified was accomplished now Which shewes him to have been both a Priest and a Prophet if at the least the name of a Prophet may be given unto any man who foretelleth not of things to come by Divine Revelation but out of a deep insight into businesse But we return unto the King whom if we looke on in his Children the most lively Images and Representations of deceased Parents we shall find him to have been the Father of four Sons and five Daughters 1. CHARLES-JAMES born at Greenwich on Wednesday the 13. of May 1629. but died almost as soon as born having been first christened by Dr. Web one of the Chaplains in Attendance and afterwards a Bishop in Ireland 2. CHARLES Duke of Cornwall by Birth Prince of Wales in Designation and Knight of the Garter born at his Majesties house of Saint James neer VVestminster May 29. 1630. solemnly crowned King of the Scots at Edenburgh on the first day of January Anno 1650. But being invaded by an Army from England under the command of Generall Cromwell he was forced to quit that Kingdome and try his fortunes in the other so closely followed by the Army which compelled him to that Expedition he was fought with neer VVorcester on the third of September 1651. before the Earl of Darby and some others of his party here could come to aid him with their Forces In which Battel though he acted beyond the expectation of his Friends and to the great applause of his very Enemies yet it so pleased the Divine Providence that he lost the day and being miraculously preserved notwithstanding the diligent search which was made after him he passed safely over into France to the Queen his Mother Finding that Court unsafe for him he passed into Flanders accompanied with his Brother the Duke of York Anno 1654. where they have continued ever since 3. JAMES born in the same place on the 13. day of October Anno 1633. entituled Duke of York by his Majesties command at the time of his birth created so by Letters Patents bearing date at Oxford January 27. Anno 1643. and not long after made Knight of the Garter Taken prisoner at the surrendry of Oxford June 24. 1646. he was carried to his Majesties house of Saint James and there kept under a Guard with his Brother and Sister but being attired in the habit of a young Lady he was conveyed thence about two years after by one Collonel Bamfield who brought him safely into Holland and presented him a most welcome guest to the Princesse of Orange from whence he past afterwards into France to his Mother and Brother 4 HENRY born on the eighth of July designed to the Dukedome of Glocester and so commanded to be called Left by his Majesty at the House of Saint James the place of his birth at such time as he withdrew towards the North Anno 1642 he remained there till the Death of his Father and some years after and then upon the promise of an Annual pension was permitted to go into France to his Mother and the rest of the Kings Children But in the year 1654. almost as soon as his two elder Brethren had removed themselves into Flanders he found a strong practise in some of the Queens Court to seduce him to the Church of Rome whose Temptations he resisted beyond his years and thereupon was sent for by them into Flanders 5. MARY born on the fourth of November 1631. and married to Count VVilliam of Nassau Eldest Son to HENRY Prince of Orange on Sunday the second of May Anno 1641. conveyed by the Queen her Mother into Holland in February following where she stil remains Her Husband having succeeded his Father in all his Titles and Estates died young and left her the hopefull Mother of a Son now Prince of Orange 6. ELIZABETH born the twenty eighth of January 1635. survived her Father but died with hearts grief not long after 7. ANNE born the seventeenth of March 1637. died before her Father 8. KATHARINE who died almost as soon as born 9. HENRIETTA born at Exceter June the sixteenth 1644. conveyed not long after into France by the Lady Dalkeith to the Queen her Mother where she still remains It is observed of the VVolf that as
A SHORT VIEW OF THE LIFE and REIGN OF King Charles The second MONARCH OF GREAT BRITAIN From his Birth to his Burial Tacit. Hist. Lib. I. Alii diutius imperium tenuerunt Nemo tam fortiter reliquit LONDON Printed for Richard Royston at the Angel in Ivy-lane 1658. A SHORT VIEW OF THE Life and Reign of KING CHARLES The second Monarch of Great BRITAIN from his Birth to his Burial OUr Chronicles tell us of a Man in Queen Elizabeth's time that wrote the Ten Commandments the Creed the Pater-noster the Queens Name and the year of our Lord within the compasse of a Peny and gave the Queen a paire of Spectacles of such an Artificiall making that by the help thereof she did plainly and distinctly discern every Letter The contracting of the Life and Reign of King Charles in so narrow a compasse as I have limited to my self may seem to be a work of no lesse difficulty And yet I hope to do it in such a plain and perspicuous manner that every one who runs may read it without the help of any such Spectacles as our Chronicles speak of To Brevity I am injoyned and it must be my businesse to avoid all Obscurity though I am conscious to my self that I shall draw this Picture with too much shadow But I take the Pencil into my hand and thus form my lines 1600. CHARLES the third Son of James the sixth King of the Scots and of Anne his Wife Daughter of Frederick the second and Sister of Christiern the fourth Kings of Denmark was born at Dunfermeling one of the principall towns of Fife in Scotland on the nineteenth day of November Anno 1600. derived by a long descent of Royall Ancestors from Malcolm Conmor King of the Scots and the Lady Margaret his Wife Sister and sole Heir of Edgar Atheling the last surviving Prince of the English Saxons So that his Title had been good to the Crown of England though he had borrowed no part of his Claim from the Norman Conquerour Which I observe the better to encounter the extravagant follies of some men in the book called Antinormanisme and some other Pamphlets of that time in which it is affirmed that this King had no other Right to the Crown then what he claimed from that Conquest and therefore that the English Nation having got the better of him by the Sword might lawfully free themselves from that subjection which by no other Title then the Sword of the Normans had been laid upon them At his first coming into the world he was so weak and unlike to live that his Christening was dispatcht in haste without attending the performance of those solemnities which are accustomably used at the Baptisme of such Princely infants And as the name of Henry was given to the Prince his Elder Brother with reference to Henry Lord Darnlie the Father of King James by Mary Queen of Scots so was this younger Son called Charles in relation to Charles Earle of Lenox the younger Brother of that Henry and by consequence Uncle to King James 1602. Having received some measure of strength he was at the Age of two years created Duke of Albany Marquesse of Ormond Earle of Rosse and Baron of Ardmanock of which four Titles the two first and the last are wholly at the Kings disposing to be bestowed on whom he pleaseth But the Earldom of Rosse falling unto the Crown in the time of King James the third was so setled in the Crown by Act of Parliament that it is not lawfull for the King to sell alienate or dispose the same unto any other then to the second Son of Scotland 1603. On the 26. of March next following Anno 1603. King James had news by Sir Robert Cary one of the younger Sons of the Lord Hunsdon who had stole a posting journey thither that Queen Elizabeth was dead contrary to the opinion of many of his Scottish Courtiers who being wearied with the tediousnesse of their expectation did believe at last that it should never be acknowledged by the Lords of England that the Queen was dead as long as there was any old woman of that Nation left to weare good Clothes and take the name of Queen upon her For bringing which news the Duke of Albany as if he were more concerned in it then all the rest of the Kings Children as indeed he was was afterwards committed to the Governance of Sir Roberts Lady and he himself from that time forwards of principall esteem and place about him This news being seconded by that of the Proclaiming of King James for her true and lawfull Successor in the Imperiall Crown of this Realm the King prepared himself for England At what time as I have been told by some Persons of Quality a certain Laird of the Highlands though of very great Age came to his Court to take his leave of him whom he found accompanied with all his Children the young Duke being then held in his Nurses Armes His Addresse unto the King consisted of Prayers for his long life and Prosperity and those Prayers intermixt with some desires that in the midst of the Felicities and Glories of the English Court he would not be unmindfull of his Native Countrey Which having said without taking any great notice of the Prince he applyed himself wholly to the Duke whose hands he kist with such an Ardency of Affection as if he meant they should grow for ever to his lips And when the King told him that he had mistook himself in his Addresses to the infant as not being his eldest Son and Prince of Scotland he answered that he knew well enough what he did and that it was this Child in whom his Name and Memory was to be perpetuated to succeeding Ages with other Speeches of like nature Which being then either unregarded or imputed unto age and dotage were called to mind after the death of Prince Henry and then believed to have something in them of a Prophetical spirit 1603. But to proceed On the fifth day of April in the year 1603. King James began his journey for England and in the end of May the Queen accompanied with Prince Henry and the Lady Elizabeth set forwards also finding at Berwick a Noble Train of Lords and Ladies sent thither from the Court to attend her coming and wait upon her in her journey 1604. The next year order was given for bringing the young Duke to the Court of England But before such as had the Charge of him could begin their journey the young Duke was taken with a feaver Which being signified to the King he sent thither Doctor Atkins one of his Physicians who in six weeks restored him to such a degree of health as made him fit to be removed to a Warmer Aire and a more comfortable Climate On the sixteenth of July this Remove began which brought him by short and easie stages in the first week of October to Windsor Castle where the King then was by whom
the North it was thought fit they should be gratified with that blood which they so greedily thirsted after And thereupon the Archbishop being voted guilty of High Treason by the House of Commons was condemned to die in such a slender House of Lords that onely seven viz. the Earls of Kent Pembroke Salisbury and Bullingbrook the Lords North Gray and Brewes were present at the passing of the sentence of his condemnation Which being past he was brought unto the Scaffold on Tower-hill on the tenth of January where he ended his life with such a modest confidence and so much piety that his greatest enemies then present who came to behold the Execution with hearts full of joy returned back with eyes as full of tears Last of all comes another Treaty sollicited by the King consented to by the Houses with no small difficulty and that upon condition to have the Treaty held at Uxbâ—idge a Town about fifteen miles from London and more then twice as much from Oxford According unto which appointment the Commissioners met on the thirtieth of January accompanied with some Divines for debating the point of Church Government when it came in question But this Treaty proved as unsuccessefull as that at Oxford had done before the Commissioners for the Houses offering no expedient for an Accommodation nor hearkening unto such as were tendred to them in the name of the King So that there being no hope of bringing the Warre unto an end this way both parties were resolved to proceed in the other The King having wintered his Army at Oxford and the Towns adjoyning it was thought fit to send the Prince into the West to perfect the Association which had been begun in the end of the last summer and in those Countries to advance such further forces as might not onely serve for the defence of themselves but give some reasonable increase to His Mâ—jesties Army In the beginning of April he set forwards towards Bristol accompanied with the Lord Culpeper and Sir Edward Hide as his principall Counsellours and some of the chief Gentry of the West who were of most authority in their severall Countreys But before he had made himself Master of any considerable strength news câ—me of the unfortunate successe of the Baâ—tel of Nasby which much retarded his proceedings and hearing afterwards that Sir Thomas Fairfax with his victorious Army was marching towards him he quitted Somerset-shire and drew more Westward into the middle of Devonshire Bristol being taken and his Majesties affairs growing worse and worse both there and elsewhere he sent a Message unto Fairfax desiring a safe conduct for the Lord Hopton and the Lord Culpeper to go to the King and mediate with him for a Treaty with the Parliament To which after a fortnights deliberation he receives an answer the eight of November to this effect That if he would disband his Army and apply himself unto the Parliament the Generall himself in person would conduct him thither No hopes of doing good this way and lesse the other Exeter being besieged and Barnstable taken by the enemies forces he leaves his Army to the Lord Hopton and withdraws into the Dukedome of Cornwall But finding that Countrey unable to protect him long he passeth into the Isle of Scilly and from thence unto the Queen his Mother whom he found at Paris not doubting but to receive such entertainment in that Court as might be justly looked for by the eldest Son of a Daughter of France Which passages I have laid together in this place that I might follow his Majesties affairs elsewhere with the less interruption The Prince being gone for Bristoll as before is said his Majesty resolved on the approch of Summer to relieve such of his Northern Garrisons as had been left untaken the year before and from thence to bestow a visit on the associated Counties But being on his march and having stormed the Town of Leicester in his way he returned again so far as Daventry upon the news that Sir Thomas Fairfax newly made Generall in the place of Essex was sate down before Oxford Concerning which we are to know that not long after the beginning of this everlasting Parliament the Puritan Faction became subdivided into Presbyterians and Independents of which the Presbyterians at the first carryed all before them The Independents growing up by little and little and being better studied in the arts of dissimulation easily undermined the others and outed their Lord-Generall and all that commanded under him of their severall places under colour of an Ordinance for Self-denyall That done they conferred that command on Sir Thomas Fairfax a man of more Precipitation then Prudence not so fit for Counsell as Execution and better to charge on an Enemy then command an Army With him they joyned Collonel Oliver Cromwel whom they dispensed with in the point of self-denyall by the name of Lieutenant General but so that he disposed of all things as Commander in chief and left Fairfax to his old trade of Execution to which he had been accustomed The like alteration happened also in the Kings Army Collonel Sir Patrick Ruthen a man of approved valour and Fidelity being by his Majesty made Earl of Forth in Scotland was on the death of the Earl of Lindsey made the Lord Lieutenant of his Armies and the next year made Earl of Brentfort for the good service he had done in that place Having both fortunately and faithfully discharged that office for two years and more he was outed of his place by a Court-contrivement made in the favour of Prince Rupert who a little before Christmas last was declared Generallissimo of his Majesties Forces which he most ambitiously aspired unto and at last obtained notwithstanding his late defeat at Marston-Moor his squandring away so brave an army and his apparent want of Age Experience and Moderation for so great a trust By these new Generals the fortune of the War and the whole estate of the Kingdome which lay then at stake came to be decided For Fairfax hearing that the King was come back as far as Daventry which was the matter he desired made directly towards him with an intent to give him battel and at a place neer Naseby in Northamptonshire the two Armies met on Saturday the 14. of June The King had the better at the first but Prince Rupert having routed one wing of the enemies Horse followed the chace so unadvisedly that he left the foot open to the other wing who pressing hotly on them put them to an absolute rout and made themselves Masters of his Camp Carriage and Canon and amongst other things of his Majesties Cabinet in which they found many of his Letters most of them written to the Queen which were after publisht with little honour to them that did it For whereas the Athenians on the like successe had intercepted a packet of Letters from Philp King of Macedon their most bitter enemy unto severall friends all the rest of those Letters
the advice of his Privy Councel dispatcht a command to the Earl of Bristol not to deliver up the Proxie unlesse the businesse of the Palatinate were concluded also The expectation whereof not being answered by Successe a Parliament is summoned to begin on the sixteenth day of February then next following to the end that all things might be governed in this great Affair by the publick Counsel of the Kingdom Not long after the beginning whereof the Duke declared before both Houses more to the disadvantage of the Spaniard then there was just ground for how unhandsomely they had dealt with the Prince when he was in Spain how they had fed him with delaies what indignities they had put upon him and finally had sent him back not onely without the Palatinate but without a Wife leaving it to their prudent Consideration what course to follow It was thereupon voted by both Houses that his Majesty should be desired to break off all Treaties with the King of Spain and to engage himself in a war against him for the recovery of the Palatinate not otherwise to be obtained And that they might come the better to the end they aimed at they addresse themselves unto the Prince whom they assured that they would stand to him in that War to the very last expence of their lives and fortunes and he accordingly being further set on by the Duke became their instrument to perswade his Father to hearken to the Common Votes and desires of his Subjects which the King prest by their continuall importunities did at the last assent to But in the conduct of this Businesse the Prince consulted more the Dukes passion and the pleasing of the Commons in Parliament then either his own or the Regall interesse For there is nothing more unsafe for a King of England then to cast himself upon the necessity of calling Parliaments and depending on the purse of the Subject By means whereof he makes himself obnoxious to the Humour of any prevailing Member in the House of Commons and becomes lesse in Reputation both at home and abroad The Commons since the time of King James have seldome parted with a peny but they have paid themselves well for it out of the prerogative And this appeared by their proceedings in this very Parliament For though they had ingaged the King in a War with Spain and granted him three Subsidies and three Fifteens toward the beginning of that War yet would they not suffer that grant to passe into an Act of Parliament till the King had yielded to another against Concealments Insomuch as it was affirmed by Justice Dodderidge at the next Publick Assizes held in Oxford that the King by passing that Act had bought those Subsidies and Fifteens at ten years purchase Nor dealt they otherwise with this Prince then they did with his Father those very Commons who had ingaged him in the Warre and bound themselves to make good that ingagement with their lives and fortunes most shamefully deserting him in the first Parliament of his Reign and after working more and more upon his necessities till they had robbed him of the richest Jewels in the Regal Diadem 1624. But to proceed the Treaty with Spain being like to come to a Rupture it was judged necessary to counterballance the Power of that King by negotiating a Match with the Princesse Henrietta Maria the youngest Daughter of France first set on foot by the Mediation of the Earl of Holland who found that Court inclinable thereunto and afterwards concluded at the coming over of the Earl of Carlile joyned in Commission to that purpose It was reported that when she was told that the Prince of Wales had been at the Court and was gone for Spain she Answered that if he went to Spain for a Wife he might have had one nearer hand and saved himself a great part of the trouble And I have read that receiving at one time two Letters from England the one from King James and the other from the Prince she put that from King James into her Cabinet and that from Prince Charles into her Bosom Of which King James being told he was exceedingly pleased with it saying that he took it for a very good Omen that she should preserve his Name in her Memory and lodge Charles in her heart 1625. During these preparations for War and Marriage King James departed this life at Theobalds on Sunday the twenty seventh of March Anno 1625. Immediately upon whose death Prince Charles was proclaimed at the Court-Gates to be King of Great Britain France and Ireland c. The like done presently after at London and by degrees in all the other Cities and Towns of the Kingdom with infinite rejoycings and Acclamations of the People The Funeralls of the deceased King were celebrated on the seventh of May his body being brought from Somerset-House with great Magnificence to Saint Peters Church in Westminster where he was interred the King himself being principall Mourner Which though it were contrary to the Custome of his Predecessours yet he chose rather to expresse his Piety in attending the dead body of his Father to the Funerall Pile then to stand upon any such old Niceties and points of State The Funerall being past he thought it was time for him to quicken the coming over of his dearest Consort to whom he had been married on the Sunday before at the Church of Nostre-Dame in Paris the Duke of Chevereux a Prince of the House of Guise from which House King Charles derived himself by the Lady Mary of Lorain Wife to James the fifth espousing the Princesse in his Name On Trinity Sunday late at night she was brought by a Royall Fleet of Ships from Bulloign to Dover which being signified to the King who was then at Canterbury he went to her betimes the next morning and received her with great expressions of Affection professing that he would be no longer Master of himself then whilest he was a Servant to her The same day He brought her to Canterbury where he gave himself up to those Embraces to which from that time he confined himself with such a Conjugal Chastity that on the day before his death he commanded his Daughter the Princesse Elizabeth to tell her Mother that his thoughts had never straied from her and that his love should be the same to the last On the Thursday after being the sixteenth of June they came from Gravesend to White-hall in their Royal Barges attended with an infinite number of Lords Ladies and other people who could get Boats to wait upon them the Ordnance from the Ships which were then preparing for the Wars those from the Merchants Ships and the Tower of London thundering her Welcome as she past But in the heat of these Solemnities and entertainments the King forgat not the main Concernments of himself and the Kingdome and to that end began his first Parliament on Saturday the eighteenth of June which fell out not unseasonably that
to London to quit the Parliament and to betake themselves to their Protection incouraged wherewith they resolved upon their march towards London to restore those members to their Houses and those Houses to the Power and Freedom of Parliaments Upon the noise of whose Approach the Citizens who before spake big and had begun to raise an Army under the Command of the Lord Willowby of Parham sent their Petitions for a peace and gladly opened all their works between Hide-Park Corner and the Thames to make an entrance for the Army who having placed their Speakers in their severall Chaires and supprest those of the opposite party made a triumphant passage through the chief Streets of the City with Trumpets sounding Drums beating and Colours flying The King removed from one place to another was brought in the course of those Removes to Casam Lodge an House of the Lord Cravens not far from Reading where he obtained the favour of giving a meeting to his Children at Maydenhith and there they dined together the Generall willingly consenting and the Houses then not daring to make any denyall From thence he was at last brought to his own Palace of Hampton Court where being terrified with the Apprehension of some Dangers which were given out to be designed against his person by the Agitators who for a time much governed the lower part of the Army he left that place accompanied onely with two or three of his servants and put himself unfortunately into the power of Collonel Hammond in the Isle of Wight where no relief could come unto him Being secured in Carisbrook Castle Propositions are sent to him from the Houses of Parliament as had been done before at Newcastle and Holdenby-House to which he returned the same Answer now as he did before their Demands being nothing bettered and his condition nothing worse then before it was Provoked wherewith the Houses past their Votes of Non-Addresses to his Majesty and take the Government upon themselves as in the times of Vacancy and Inter-regnum in the State of Rome wherein they were confirmed by a Declaration from the Army binding themselves to stand to them in defence of those Votes During the time of these restraints he betook himself to meditation and then composed that most excellent Book entituled {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or the Pourtraiture of his sacred Majesty in his Solitudes and Sufferings The Honour of this work some mercenary Sticklers for the two Houses of Parliament have laboured to deprive him of and to transfer it to some other though they know not whom But it is well known to all that knew him that his Majesty had alwayes a fine stroke with his pen which he practised at all times of leasure and recesse from businesse from before his coming to the Crown to these last extremities By which means he became Master of a pure and elegant Stile as both his intercepted Letters and those to Mr. Henderson at New-Castle in the point of Episcopacy where he could have no other helps but what he found in himself do most clearly evidence 1648. And now the Subjects of both Kingdoms which before had joyned in Arms against him began to look upon his Estate with Commiseration and seeing they could obtain no favour or freedom for him in the way of Petition they resolved to try their fortunes in the way of Force And first a very considerable part of the Royall Navy encouraged by Captain Batten formerly Vice-Admirall to the Earl of Warwick was put into the power of the Prince of wales to be made use of for his Majesties service in that sad condition and next the Kentish who twice or thrice before had shewed their readinesse to appear in Arms on his behalf put themselves into a posture of War under the conduct of one Master Hales an Heir of great hope and expectation and after under the command of George Lord Goring Earl of Norwich The â—arl of Holland whom he had cherisht in his Bosome and who unworthily deserted him in the first beginning of his troubles repenting when it was too late of his great disloyalties began to raise some small Forces in the County of Surrey Langhern Poyer and Powel who before had served under the pay of the Houses seized on some strong Towns and Castles in South-VVales and declared against them the Castle of Pomfret was surprized by Stratagem and kept by them who had surprized it for his Majesties service And finally the Marquesse of Hamilton not long before created Duke Hamilton of Arran having raised a strong Army of Scots confederated himself with Sir Marmaduke Langdale and Sir Thomas Glenham and others of the Kings party in the North and having Garrisoned the Towns of Berwick and Carlisle past into England with his Forces under colour of restoring the King to his Crown and Liberty But these eruptions in both Kingdoms though they might give hiâ— Majesty some hopes of a better condition yet did they not take him off from looking seriously into himself and taking into Consideration those things which had formerly passed him and which might seem most to have provoked Gods displeasure against him And what they were which most particularly grated on his Conscience appeareth by the Prayer and Confession which he made for the times of his Affliction and is this that followeth viz. Almighty and most mercifull Father as it is only thy goodnesse that admits of our imperfect Prayers and the knowledge that thy mercies are infinite which can give us any hope of thy accepting or granting them so it is our bounden and necessary Duty to confesse our Sins freely unto thee and of all men living I have most need most reason so to do no man having been so much obliged by thee no man more grievously offending thee that Degree of knowledge which thou hast given me adding likewise to the guilt of my Transgressions For was it through ignorance that I suffered innocent blood to be shed by a false pretended way of Justice Or that I permitted a wrong way of thy worship to be set up in Scotland and injured the Bishops in England O no but with shame and grief I confesse that I therein followed the perswasions of worldly wisdome forsaking the Dictates of a right-informed Conscience Wherefore O Lord I have no excuse to make no hope left but the multitude of thy mercies for I know my repentance weak and my Prayers faulty Grant therefore mercifull Father so to strengthen my repentance and amend my Prayers that thou maist clear the way for Thine own mercies to which O let thy Justice at last give place putting a speedy end to my deserved Afflictions In the mean time give me Patience to endure Constancy against temptations and a Discerning Spirit to chuse what is best for thy Church and People which thou hast committed to my charge Grant this O most mercifull Father for thy Son Jesus Christs sake our onely Saviour Amen Now as the King thus