THE LIFE AND REIGNE OF King CHARLS Or the Pseudo-Martyr discovered With a late Reply to an Invective Remonstrance against the Parliament and present Government Together with some Animadversions on the strange contrariety between the late Kings publick Declarations Protestations Imprecations and his Pourtracture compared with his private Letters and other of his Expresses not hitherto taken into common Observation Istud est sapere non solùm ea quae ante Pedes videre sed futura prospicere Seneca London Printed for W. Reybold at the signe of the Unicorn in Pauls Church-yard 1651. The Preface TO write the Lives of Princes in another world and fallen through their owne frailties or by the influence of others counsells from the high pitch of Soveraignty for regality is a slippery precipice in charity may be allowed a faire and favourable memoriall but for a King falling by the high hand of Justice not for common faults and frailties incident to humane nature but presumptuous sins sins of lood perfidie cruelty rapine wilfully perpetrated in the face of God and man and without any remorse to pursue the destruction not of one but three flourishing Kingdoms such desperate and violent Princes deserve no other favour than to be set out to the life of their Tyrannous actions though in pitty to him who hath already paid his debt to Nature and his offences much of his exorbitant government and irregular motions might and doubtlesse would have been concealed more tenderly intreated and himselfe sufferered to rest where he is in the silent grave had not that madnesse of his defeated surviving party by their indefatigable instigations given frequent occasion of taking over the ashes of him who living without injury to truth and his memory it may be said that rather than to have failed in the accomplishing of his designs had it layn in in his power he would have set the World on fire It was an unhappy and no iningenious expression of him who hath written it That there were a sort of men borne to the world not so suffer it to be at rest a sentence not more true than made good in this most unhappy King had this been put in addition neither himselfe to take his owne rest and sleep as he could not quietly and peaceably like other men I am not ignorant what senslesse maxims and ridiculous principles have gotten credit in the World as undoubted Oracles indisputably to be obeyed as that de mortuis nil nisi bona but by no means to tread on the sacred Urne of Princes though living never so vicious and exorbitant as if death had bequeathed unto them a supersedeas for the covering over their faults and licencious reignes and to close them up in the Coffin of Oblivion with a ne plus ultra not to admit of the least mention that they had done amisse when many thousands of oppressed and desolated families must stand mute whilest the malicious partizans of an irregular King take a liberty to themselves to vindicate his indefensible actions and not so content but asperse and scandalise those that opposed him in his cruelties and likewise would perswade others to adore him for a Saint and an innocent martyr whose Fathers Brothers and Friends have been most barbarously slain to fulfill the lust and pleasure of one wilfull man if to speake truth in due season or to be the faithfull witnesse to convey the verity of things past to the present and after times be a crime unpardonable or an injustice done to the memory of the dead the Malignant generation of this age may on the same reason charge it as a fault on those holy and inspired pen-men of the sacred Scriptures which have recorded and left to after ages the wicked reignes of Kings leaving an everlasting staine and taint on their memories how prophane would it be to tax that holy man the meekest of men Moses for leaving to posterity the fratricide of Cayne the mockery of that wicked Cam what madnesse to accuse Samuel and the Authors of the Chronicles of the Kings of Iuda and Israel in leaving to after ages the Tyranny of Saul in murthering at once eighty of Gods priests that presumptuous sin and perfidious fact of David in plotting the death of Vriah that he might enjoy his Wife which lay in his bosome Rehoboams Tyrannies the Cruelties and Idolatries of Ieroboam who stands branded as the Sonne of Nebat which made Israel to sin with what face can it be imputed as an incharity to Tacitus Livy Florus and others of the Roman Historians for inserting in their histories the rape of Lucretia by that Tyrant Tarquin the Tyrannies of Tiberius and his privado Scianus those of Nero that Monster of Princes and the condemnation of him by the Senate To omit Forraign examples what offence in reason can be charged on Matthew Paris Hoâ—eden Sir Th. Moor Daniell and infinite others of our owne Historians for describing the vices and tyrannies of our owne Kings both ancient and moderne What injury have they committed in their Registers in setting downe that William the first of our Norman Kings was a known Bastard of Robert Duke of Normandy an usurper and from which spurious root all our Kings since his usurpation derive their deified titles and that most of his descendants ruled tyrannically and that amongst them all King Iohn was one of the most subtill persideous and bloody Princes that history hath afforded That Henry the third his sonne admitted by the indulgence of the Barons and People in hopes of his better Government proved as oppressive and bloody to the Nation as any of the rest That Richard the third in murthering his Brothers sonnes and usurping the Crowne was more wicked than the worst That Henry the seventh was the descendant of a Bastard sonne of Iohn of Gaunt begotten on Catherine Swinford another mans Wife though legitimated by act of Parliament yet had no other title to the Crowne but that of his Sword That six of his descendants and of our last Princes claym their rights to the Crowne from his spurious stock as if it had been in the fate of the English Nation to be perpetually chaind up to the irregular domination of a race of Kings transmitted from one bastardized roote to another That Henry the eighth was a most imperious and bloody prince the pattern and Idea of all Tyranny and one that neither spared any man in his wrath or woman in his lust That his daughter Queen Mary was the spurious issue begotten on Catherine of Austria his elder brother Arthurs Wife that Alecto superstitious and bloody Princesse That King Iames and our late King Charls were discendants from the same Stock of Henry of Richmond the one who most of all our Kings secretly cunningly and underhand indeavoured and laid the plot to undermine the freedoms of the english nation and King Charls to have followed the design with more plots wiles and stratagems than any of our former
made Levies either against him or the Law more than his own lawlesse Will and that the Parliament made no sooner Levies than it became them to oppose his Levies raised against them and the known Laws of the Land and that notwithstanding all those specious and umbragious Messages sent to the Parliament for Peace and Accommodation tending to no other end than to rocke the Parliament asleep and by his then frequent placentias to lull them into a slack and negligent remissnes in raising defensive arms against his Forces whilst himself by protracting of time might attract such an Army as would inable him to overpower both the Parliament and whatsoever Forces were as he sayes then in their march against him which he had no sooner drawn together but out of his confidence to have beaten the Parliaments Army to peeces not eight dayes before Edgehill fight he not onely utterly refused their Petion which would have been presented to him by the mediation of the Earl of Dorset for he had a good space before refused all accommodation but sent Rupert to the Commissary Generall who was to deliver it to tell the Earl of Essex then at Worcester that he would not receive any more Petitions from him or any of the Parliament Rebels of them all A known truth to many yet living and some of them sitting at present in Parliament whereby it manifestly appears that all his former and many Missives under the umbrage of Peace were mere dalliances both to mock the Parliament and to cosen the people into a belief of his reality and good meaning when he meant nothing more than to bob the Parliament by cunning and secret fraud untill he might ruine them by plaine and open force and then to pursue those naturalized appetites and arbitrary designes of his which so long before he had cherished in his heart which neither his Honour Reason and his Conscience whereof so often he talks could prevail with him to disgorge untill their over-growth inforced him to an untimely vomit 'T is most true that they which look on the first face of things and heed only the outside of objects without an intentive eye on their in-sides are easily deceived but such as will narrowly looke into all his Expresses compared with his deeds shall doutlesse soon finde that this unhappy King was one of the deepest and boldest dissemblers of any one Prince which the last Century hath produced and I am prone to beleeve that he took too much of the patterne of Lews th' eleventh of France who was wont to say that he desired to leave his Sonne no other Learning than Qui nescit dissimulare nescit regnare he that knows not to dissemble knowes not how to play the King and it hath been feared and by those which wisht him well that he was too much verst in the principles of Machiavill having in his life time practised and since his death left behind him so many eevidences thereof that many of the best heads have been induced to beleve that he came not behind any of the ITALIAN Polititians of this age But to take all these his three Messages together considered by any discreet man as their purport tends to one and the selfesame end and the time when they were sent to the parliament all of them whilst he was most busie and sedulously studious how and where to raise Forces both at home and abroad and it evidently shews that his intent in all his specious overtures of peace were to no other end than to befool the People and Parliament which he then began to know would not be cosened as having had sufficient experience of him practise indeed he might as he failed not to continue to delude the vulgar beleef and to keep in with the people but he then found there was no good to be done on a Court of Parliament for he perceived they meant not further to trust him than they saw him and to have yeelded to a treaty circumscribed with such large conditions and so unequally ballanced as so admit of such as he should send to treat with them out of Parliament which not unlikely would have been of those that had both deserted the Parliament and falsified their faith which to have indempnified and all other Delinquents as had repaired unto his assistance otherwise no peace with him what effects could a Treaty produce so much upbraided by his party on the Parliament for refusing it other than mockery when himself knew as well as themselves that they would not yeeld unto such a motion neither himself goe lesse than to take off all the Delinquents with impunity against all reason law and the antient president of all former Parliaments that alone being the greatest breach of privilege that ever was offered to a Court of Parliament and such a destructive project to the essence and being of Parliaments as in the future took away all power and privilege from them and necessarily conferr'd it on his own usurped Prerogative his negative claim being no more and scarce so much to enable him to doe in the future as he listed when as every vulgar spirit knowes it for Law that the King cannot neither ever durst any of our Kings rescue one Prisoner at the Bar out of the hands of Justice in any of the inferiour Courts of the Kingdome 'T is true that Henry of Monmouth being a rude Prince though after a tollerable King came openly and with violence to the Kings Bench in Westminster Hall and rescued Poynes his Servant arraigned for robbing and taking away the Kings Treasure at the Bar but the story tells us that the Judges laid the Prince by the heels for his pains and his Father the King thankt them for it much lesse then that this King should presume to rescue so many viperous Delinquents out of the justice of the great Judicature of the Nation which all of common reading know have acted sundry times in such a power as to depose severall of his Ancestors for their Tyrannies and hanged many of their chiefe Instruments Presidents which with good reason he might have more timely remembred and not have stood with his Sword in his hand to inforce so unjust senslesse and unreasonable a Proposition for a Treaty Observations on the Kings Pourtracture THe Kings Book which hath flown abroad and throughout the Kingdom as it were between the wings of Mercury and hath so much taken in the opinion of the vulgar beliefe and esteemed to be such an impregnable rampier incirculating his innocency that it hath been thought not assaultable I confesse at the first sight thereof it took for a while as his protestations formerly had done in many apprehensions but on a second consideration of the title The Kings Image with the dresse that is bestowed upon his Effigies in a posture of devotion in imitation of David in his ejaculations to Heaven surely I could not beleeve that such a peece of vanity was of the Kings designment
and further affirm for a piece of a miracle that somewhat before Gods just judgements overtook him though not without a long conflict he acknowledged himself guilty of all the War and not without intreaties to a noble Person on the first motion for a Treaty in the I sle of Wight That the Parliament would forbear to charge all the guilt of the blood spilt throughout the Kingdomes on his only score and on that condition he should not be so uncivill as to impute the least guilt thereof on them they were his own words for that was a feare which much troubled him would be charged upon him and well he might fear it when his own Conscience was a witnesse against him but in the mean time suffer me to ask you how shall Almighty God be satisfied for so much bloud causlesly and willfully spilt throughout three Kingdoms whose wrath cannot be appeased neither the Land be cleansed untill expiation be made for the bloud of one man by the shedding of his blood which was the murtherer surely then we cannot determine what accompt Almighty God will yet require at their hands which have been principall actors with the King in this bloody tragedy though some of them as he hath done have paid their debts to Nature and not a few by way of Composition yet they also have just cause to fear that there is an accompt not yet cleared which will be call'd upon This I shall adde by the way of Question how and by what Fate this most unfortunate Prince came to be so overpowred with the Inchantments of a Woman betwixt whom and himselfe it is well known a good space after their Inter-marriage there were many jarres and continued fallings out and yet at last she alone to become his Oracle for the leading on of all his designes In so much as he durst not offend her in the least punctilio or to transact any thing of never so little moment without her good liking and approbation and so much to dote on her as not to permit the Prince to stir a foot or to undertake anything but by her only direction such an absolute power and command had this Queene gained over him and his affections we may put the Quaerie farther why otherwise than by her Counsell he first took away the Prince from his Guardians and not long after the Duke of Yorke and to send them beyond Sea unlesse it were out of an apprehension that in imitation of former Presidents this Parliament might Crowne the one or the other Brother instead of the Father who had been so disastrous to the Nation as divers old presidents of the like nature might probably induce him to suspect out of his own guiltinesse of his misgovernment as for instance the dethroning of Edw. the second by the Parliament for his misgovernment and bloody reigne and the advancing in his life time of his Son Edward the third as also the deposing of Richard the second for his Tyranny and the Parliaments setting up of Rullingbrooke his Cosen German in his room Presidents which doubtlesse hee deeply apprehended and feared which to prevent 't is most probable he sent them out of the Kingdome though to his own and the utter undoing of those Innocent Princes which he had so far engaged in his bloody quarrell that they became dyed in the same colour with their willfull Father I shall now present you with a proof of the former assertion out of the Kings own Letter to the Prince from Newcastle Number 28. 1646. viz. Charls This is rather to tell you where I am in health than at this time to direct you in any thing I having so fully wrote to your Mother what I would have you to doe whom I command you to obey in every thing except Religion concerning which I am confident she will not trouble you and see you goes not any whither without hers or my particular directions Observation Here you may evidently see by what Star not only himself and all his affairs were guided but that his Sonne must be tied up not to do any thing or move but by his Mothers or his owne particular directions a very strange obligation laid on a Sonne to be bound to such an absolute obedience as necessarily conduced to his utter undoing when as no man knowes whether a Wife and a Mother which had such a latitude of power over the Father and the Sonne would not be tampering with a Prince even in the point of Religion of so tender years as rendred him fit for any impression and to be indoctrinated with such principles as well concerning Religion as others best suitable to her own designes But I beseeeh you judge of the following texts and tell me whether they suite not with this most unhappy Kings disposition the wayes whereinto the inflexibility of his nature lead him to perseverance in pursuance of his own destruction He that speaks unrighteous things cannot be hid neither shall vengeance when it is punished passe by him For inquisition shall be made into the Counsells of the ungodly and the sound of his words shall come unto the Lord for the manifestation of his wicked deede Wisd. 1. 8. 9. A Sinfull man will not be reproved but sendeth an exeuse according to his will A man of Counsell will be considerate but a strange and a proud man it not daunted with fear even when of himselfe he hath done without Counsell Eccles. 32. 17. 18. But I have now little more to addresse unto you yet more than I would had not your provocations amounting to a plaine challenge invited me to answer your many virulent complaints wherein I have inserted very little more than what you may find expresly laid downe either in the Kings owne Letters or Declarations and with no other comments as to the Observations but such as necessarily arise out of the expressee themselves neither to any other ends as to the first part of my Reply but for the clearing of truth and to shew out unto you both the constitution of our late most unhappy King and the manner and condition of all other Kings I could have sent you more and God knows more terrible bloody and barbarous but this is enough though I say not to convince you for that would be no other than lavare Aethiopem but to let you know how much you have been mistaken in the late King a Prince doubtlesse which was much too dark for every ones understanding and too hard for most of his Councel of State whom he trusted with the mannagery of his greatest both designs and secrets though it be most true that how tenacious and close soever he was in carrying on that arbitrary worke to inslave the Nation yet God in his mercy would not that they should be so secretly hidden but that he had appointed a time when they should be revealed and manifested to the World as we all know they were at Naseby and elsewhere according to