to which On Sunday the 23. of October 1642. for they thought it better to rob God of his Sabbath than lose an opportunity of murthering their Soveraign the Earl of Essex and Parliament-Army powring in from all quarters of the Kingdom upon him had compassed him in on all sides and before the King could put his men in Battel-Array many of whom being young Country fellows had no better armes than clubs and staves in their hands cut out of the hedges and put his two young Sons the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York in the guard of a Troop of horse at the further end of the field and had finished a short prayer a bullet of the Earl of Essex's Cannon grazed at his heels as he was kneeling at his prayers on the side of a bank for Blague a villain in in the Kings Army having a great pension allowed him for it had given notice in what part of the field the King stood that they might the better know how to shoot at him But God having a greater care of his Anointed than of their Rebellious pretences so ordered the hands of those that fought for the King as the Earl of Essex was so loaden with Victories as he left five of his men for one of Kings dead behind him lost his Baggage and Artillery retired back to Warwick and left the King to bless God in the field where he supped with such victuals as the more loyal and better natur'd neighbours sent him when the worser sort refused to do it and lying there all night sent warrants out the next day to the neighbour Parishes to bury the dead drew off his Ordnance and marched to Banbury and yet he could not forget to pity those were at such paines and hazard the day before to murther Him but before he went out of the field sent Sir William Leâ—neve Clarencieux King of Armes to Warwick whither the Earl of Essex was fled with a Proclamation of pardon to all that would lay down armes which though they scornfully received and the Herald threatned to be hanged if he did not depart the sooner cannot perswade Him from sending a Declaration or Message to the Parliament to offer them all that could be requested by Subjects but all the use they made of it was to make the City of London believe they were in greater danger than ever if they sent them not more moneys and recruited the Earl of Essex his broken Army and to cosen and put the people on the more to seek their own misery a day of Thanksgiving was publiquely kept for the great Victory obtained against the King And Stephen Marshall a Factious bloody Minister though he confessed he was so carried on in the crowd of those that fled from the battel as he knew not where he was till he came to a Market-Town which was some miles from Edge-hill where the Battel was fought preaches to the people too little believing the Word of God and too much believing him that to his knowledge there was not above 200. men lost on the Parliaments side that he picked up bullets in his black velvet cap and that a very small supply would now serve to reduce the King and bring him to his Parliament And here ye may see Janus Temple wide open though the doors of it were not lift off the hinges or broken open at once but pickt open by those either knew not the misery of the War or knowing it will prove to be the more guilty promoters of it That we may the better therefore find out though the matter of Fact already represented may be evidence enough of it self who it was that let out the fury and rage of War upon us we shall consider CHAP. II. Whether a Prince or other Magistrate labouring to suppress or punish a Rebellion of the People be tied to those rules are necessary for the justifying of a War if it were made between equals WAr was first brought in by necessity where the determining of controversies between two strange Princes of equal Power could not be had because they have no superiour A Rebel therefore cannot properly be called an enemy for Hostis nomen notat aequalitatem and when any such Arms are borne against Rebels it is not to be called a War but an Exercise of Jurisdiction upon trayterous and dissoyal Persons atque est ratio manifesta saith Albericus Gentilis qui enim jure judex est superior non jure cogitur ad subeundas partes partis aequalis non est bellum cum latronibus praedonibus aut piratis quanquam magnos habeant excercitus proinde nec ulla cum illis belli jura saith Besoldus The Romans who were so exact and curious in their publick denouncing of War and sending Ambassadors before they made War against any other Nation did not do it in cases of Rebellion and defection and therefore Fidenatibus Campanis non denunciant Romani And Cicero that was of opinion that nullum bellum justum haberi videtur nisi nunciatum nisi indictum nisi repetitis rebus stood not upon those solemnities in the Cataline conspiracy for the rules of justifying a War against an enemy or equals as demanding restitution denunciation and the like are not requisite in that of punishing Rebels Pompey justifies tbe War maintained by the Senate against Caesar not then their Soveraign with neque enim vocari praelia justa decent c. Cicero did not think it convenient to send Ambassadors to Anthony nor intreat him by faire words but that it was meet to inforce him by arms to raise his siege from Mutina for he said They had not to do with Hambal an enemy to the Commonwealth but with a rebellious Citizen The resisting of the Kings Authority when the Sheriff of a County goes with the posse Comitatus to execute it was never yet so much as called a War but Rebellion and Insurrection or Commotion were the best terms bestowed upon it such attempts are not called Wars but Robberies of which the Law taketh no other care of but to punish them The haste that all our Kings and Princes in England have made in suppressing Rebellions as that of the Barons Wars by Henry the 3. and his sending his Sonne the Prince to besiege Warren Earl of Surrey in his Castle of Rygate for affronting the Kings Justices saying That he would hold his Lands by the Sword That which Rich. 2. made to suppress Wat. Tiler H. 6. Jack Cade H. 8. Ket and the Norfolk Rebels and Queen Elizabeth to suppress the Earls of Northumber-land and Westmerland may tell us that they understood it no otherwise than all the Kings and Magistrates of the world have ever practised it by the Laws of England if Englishmen that are Traytors go into France and confederate with Altens or Frenchmen and come afterwards and make a War in England and be taken prisoners the strangers may be ransomed
ordered by the then Juncto sitting in Parliament that all publick Writings should be issued out under a new Test and Stile and a new great Seale should be made and the old one broken that the Inscription and Stamp of the Coin shall be altered also It was Enacted and Proclaimed that none upon pain of high Treason should presume to declare and publickly promote Charles Stuart Prince of Wales eldest Son of the late King or any of the rest of his Children to be King of England Nevertheless there was not wanting those who ventured their lives and fortunes in asserting the Title of his Majesty to the Crown of England to which end this following Proclamation was Printed and dispersed in severall places of London We the Noble men Judges Knights Lawyers Gentlemen Free-holders Merchants Citizens Yeomen Seamen and Free men of England do according to our Allegiance and Covenant by these presents heartily joyfully and unanimously acknowledge and Proclaim the most Illustrious Charles Prince of Wales next Heir apparent to his Father King Charls whose late wicked murther and all consents there unto we from our souls abominate to be by hereditary birth right and lawfull succession rightfull and undoubted King of Great Brittain c. And we will constantly and sincerely in our severall places and callings defend and maintain his Royall person Crown and Dignity with our Lives and Estates against all opposers whom we hereby declare to be enemies to his Majesty and Kingdomes in Testimony whereof we have caused these to be published throughout all Counties and Corporations of this Realm the 1. day of February In the first year of his Majesties Raign But so totally was the Kings party suppressed in all parts of the Kingdom that the Proclamation was of none essect none daring to appear for the Royal Interest Yet his Majesties greatest hopes and expectations were from Ireland where the severall factions united together Proclaim him King and bend all their whole strength against the Interest of the Common-Wealth of England and in a short time became so formidable and prevail so much as the possessed all the strong Holds of that Country Dublin and London-Derry are excepted both were straitly besieged the former by a gallant Army of 22000 men under the Marquesse of Ormond the latter by a party of the Irish Rebells Hee had likewise adjoining to the Territories of England the Islands of Scilly Jersy and Man which places served as a retreat for that small Fleet that was left him being the remainder of those Ships which had deserted the Parliaments Navy and revolted unto him This while his affairs in Ireland were at the height they began as suddenly to decline for there being about 3000 Horse and Foot safely landed at Dublin as the forlorn of a greater body they were joyned with what other forces they then could make all which did not make above 9000. at the most were commanded by Colonell Mich. Jones who sallying forth of Dublin did not onely raise the seige but also utterly routed the whole Army the Marquesse of Ormond himselfe hardly escapeing about 2000 were slain in the place and in the pursuite some thousands were taken prisoners as like wise all their Ordinaces Ammunition Carriages and Provision The siege of London-Derry was also raised by a resolute sally of Sir Charls Coot forcing Sir Rob. Stewart and Col. Merven to retire immediately upon this success not to give the Royall party any time to recover strength All disturbances being quieted in England The Levellers at Burford being suppressed by Generall Fairfax Oliver Cromwell then Lievetenant Generall of the Parliaments Army landed with a powerfull Army about the midst of August 1649. invested with the Title and Authority of Lord Governour or Lievetenant of Ireland presently after him followed his son in law Major Generall Ireton with about 40. Sail of Ships soon after Drogheda was taken by Storme not without some difficulty and loss and that hee might terrify other Garrisons that should stand out put Sir Arthur Aston all that were in the Town to the Sword which was about 3000. Then followed the taking of a number of considerable Towns and Castles in all parts of Ireland Besides severall Field-battells gained over the Lord Inohiqueen the Lord Ards and Clanduboys with Lievetenant Generall Farrell and others of his Majesties party by the Lord Broghill Sir Charles Coote Collonell Venables Zanchy Reynolds and Hewson so that in lesse then a years time Ireland was subdued to the power of the English Common-Wealth Much about this time hapned a generall defection of the English Plantations from their obedience to the Parliament viz. Virginia and the Caryb Islands publickly own the Royall Interest whereupon all Traffique and Commerce is prohibited thorow which means they are driven to great streits and presently after by a Fleet of Ships from England under the Command of Sir George Ascue they are brought unto conformity The King having Constituted Prince Rupert Admirall of his Fleet did much harm to the English Coasts and takes many rich prizes was at last blockt up in the Harbour of Kings Sale the Town presently after taken by Cromwell The Prince is forced to leave three of his Ships behind he had enough to do to get clear off with the rest at length he arrived at Lisbon the imperiall City of the King of Portugall and craved his protection which was not denied them which was the occasion of a great Contest between that King and the State of England other designes were set on foot by his Majesties Loyall Subjects for the obtaining of his Right The first was of James Graham Earl of Montross for the raising of what force he cold in Holland and else where to invade Scotland The 2. was the procuring a Treaty betwixt his Majesty and the Scots to give more life to these undertakings Ambassadors were dispatcht to Spain Italy Denmarke Sweden and Russia c. In the name of CHARLES the Second King of Great Britain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith The effect of whose Embassies were little else but Complements pleas and excuses for neither men nor mony could be got Montrosse According to his Majesties instructions having got together very considerable supplies of men and monies at length lands in the North of Scotland where he had not long been but Colonell Straughan Colonell Kerr Colonell Mountgomry and Lievetenant Colonell Hackets Troop and another amounting to 230 approach and give battel whereas Montrosse was at least 1200. and their Chief-Leaders such resolute and expert souldiers unlesse struck with fear of Lesley's great Army coming against them however so great was the defeat that the whole body of Montrosse was engaged in the battle There escaped not above 100 from being either taken or slain amongst the prisoners ners were S. Joh. Vrry Major General of Montrosses Army the L. Fendraught Col. Grey Lievetenant Colonell Stewart with a great number of other considerable Officers
King The Lord Jermyn made Governour of the Island under whom Sir George Carteret was constituted Deputy Governour Guernsey being possessed by the Parliaments forces a Declaration was sent thither inviting the Governour and people to submit to his Majesties obedience But this invitation did little avail By this time the severall Transactions that were between his Majesty his Kingdom of Scotland had brought forth a Treaty at Breda in the Netherlands a Town of speciall note belonging to the Prince of Orange And Master Windram Lord of Libeton is sent Commissioner from the States of Scotland to Treat with his Majesty who being safely arrived presents his Royall Majesty with the desires and offers of the States of Scotland which were to this effect 1. That hee would sign the solemn League and Covenant 2. That he would pass divers Acts of the Parliament of Scotland 3. That he would put away all Papists from about him and let none but known Protestants be of his Counsell That he would give a speedy answer to their desires Besides this his Majesty hath great hopes of raising a sufficient force in England among the friends to his Royall Interest Upon this design severall are sent from Jersey into the West of England amongst whom two Principal men Sir John Berkley and Col. Slingsby who went up and down to their confederates earnestly stirring them up to take up Arms for his Majesty but these were discovered by a Country fellow and are taken by Cap. Rochwich and are sent Prisoners to Truro in Cornwall After many consultations and gracious condiscentions of his Majesty The Treaty is at last concluded and now the Kingdom of Scotland make great preparations for his reception to this end two rich houses in Edinburgh are richly furnished and the Parliament take into consideration the nominating of Officers for his house About the beginning of June 1650. his Majesty hasts from Breda to the Hague Thence to Scheveling where he took Shiping and at last in despight of fowâ— weather and the English King Fishers that lay there to intercept him he landed at Spey in the North of Scotland In the mean time the Parliament of Scotland bend their consultations for the raising of an Army for the use of his Majesty the Earl of Leven is made Generall of the Foot and Holborun Major General David Lasley Lievtenant Generall of the Horse Mountgomery Major Generall The Supream command of the whole Army is reserved for the Kings most excellent Majesty himself whom at his Arrivall they entertained with high complements and much acclamation and seemed to congratulate his coming with much demonstrations of joy and affection And on the 15. July following solemnly proclaim him King at Edinburgh Crosse About this time the English send a complaint to the King of Spain about the death of one Ascam who wassent thither as Agent from our new Common-wealth who the first night he came to Madrid sitting at dinner with his Interpreter Segnior Riba six black Devills in the shape of men knockt at the door had easy access and being entred Master Ascham rose up to salute them whereupon the formost stabbed him in the head his interpreter endeavouring to escape was also stabbed in the belly The Republick of England receiving good intelligence that his Majesty and the Kingdom of Scotland were agreed After a serious and solemn debate Voted that Thomas Lord Fairfax with an Army under his command should march Northwards But that noble and truly valiant Commander could not be entreated to fight against his sacred Majesty and our Brethren of Scotland and hereupon laid down his Commission Which was forthwith conferred upon the Archest of Traitors Oliver Cromwell who presently after arrived out of Ireland leaving Ireton his son in Law as Lord Deputy in his room Accordingly Orders were issued forth for the speedy advance of the Army in Scotland who had no sooner taken their march but the Scots take the Alarm and send two or three papers to Sir Arthur Hasilrig then Governour of Newcastle to expostulate the case about the sudden approach of the English Army alledging the Covenant or large Treaty of Union betwixt the two Kingdoms and other circumstances of the like nature but all proved fruitless The Parliament then publish a declaration shewing the reason of their Armies advance towards Scotland The English Army is now at last at Dunbar where the Scots have the English at a great disadvantage nevertheless the Generall and his Officers finding the Army unfit for further delays resolved the next morning to fall upon the Scots who being imbattlled by break of day the word of the English was the Lord of Hostes and that of the Scotts was the Covenant after an hours dispute the Scots were wholly routed there was slain 3000 the Lord Libberton Colonell Lumsden mortally wounded 1000. taken together with Sir James Lumsden Lievtenant Generall of the Foot And about 260 other Officers 200 Colours 15000 Armes and 30. pieces of Ordnance At London was apprehended condemned and executed Colonell Eusebius Andrews who being taken with a Commission from his Majesty was beheaded at Tower Hill September 8. That most excellent Princesse Elizabeth daughter to our late Soveraign dyed at Carisbrook Castle in the Isle of Wight Upon these sad disasters his Majesty went secretly away to the North of Scotland upon which the Committee of Estates are much troubled chiefly for that they feared hee would join with Middleton they send Major Generall Mountgomery with a party of Horse to endeavour by earnest supplications to bring him back to Saint Johnstons which at the first he utterly refuseth but at last condescended to retire with Montgomery about the later end of October the Prince of Orange departed this life whose death was much lamented by his most gracious Majesty having received from him many high Testimonies of friendship and good will about ten days after the Princesse of Orange was delivered of a Son which did in part mitigate her griefe for the Princes death After three months siege the Castle of Edinburgh was surrendred up to Cromwell December 24. 1650. with all the Ordnances Armes Magazine and furniture of War thereunto belonging Notwithstanding the hard fortune his Majesties forces hitherto had undergone severall designes were set on foot At this time there was one Benson executed at Tiburn for acting by virtue of a Commission from his Majesty upon the same account there rose a great number in the County of Norfolk but were soon dispersed and taken About this time Sir Henry Hide being Commissionated by his Majesty Ambassador to the grand senior at Constantinople stood in competition with Sir Thomas Bendish whereupon they had a hearing before the Vizier Bassa The result whereof was that Sir Thomas Bendish should dispose of Sir Henry Hide as he thought good who was straight way sent to Smyrna thence into England and there condemned and executed as a Traytor before the Royall Exchange London The War
miseries of a civil War but all endeavours proved in effectuall for the French King persisted in his resolutions not to give way to the banishment of the Cardinal hereupon the Duke of Lorraine was sent for with his Army to come and joyn with the Princes the Duke having been tampered with by the contrary party and having advantageous termes desisted hereupon aâ— generall report was spread that his Majesty of England had drawn over the Duke to the Kings party because they were often together this coming to the peoples ears so incensed them not onely against the Duke for his perfidiousness But also against his Majesty and the Queen his mother the fury of the people increased so much that the King was forced for his own preservation to retire from the Louver to St Jermans the Queen his mother received many affronts as she passedin her Coach from the Louver to the Nunnery at Chaliot where she kept her Refidence his Majesty now treateth with Lorraine for the recovery of his kingdom of Ireland out of the hand of the English Republick to this end several Articles are agreed unto by the Lord Taffe agent for the King and the Duke amongst other things it was concluded that the Duke should be vested with the power and title of Protector Royall of Ireland But the Duke having not strength enough for this great enterprise this businesse takes no effect his Majesty having stayed at Saint Jermans till the heat of the popular fury was over returned again to the Louvre During his abode there his ilustrious Brother the Duke of Glocester who for a long time had bin under the custody of the English Juncto and at length dismissed and sent into Holland to his sister was from thence attended into France by Sir Marmaduke Langdale and Sir Richard Grenvile and he was honorably received at Paris by the French King Queen-Mother and the rest of the Grandee during his Majesties abode here arrived Mrs. Jane Lane who had so miraculously preserved the King after the fight at Worcester he being exceedingly glad to hear this news immediately sends some persons of quality with Coaches to conduct her to Paris where being come they rejoyce in each others presence let us now a little cast our eyes into England where Cromwell and the Council at White-Hall having usurped the Regall authority carry all by force before them about the latter end of February several persons of quality are carried to the Tower for being Loyal to his Majesty but because nothing of moment could be proved against them they are set at liberty Cromwell being desirous to strengthen himself in the Tyrannical Reigning over his Majesties subjects bethinks himself of making peace with forein States and Princes to that end presently patches up a very disadvantageous peace with the Dutch presently after concludes a peace also with Christina Queen of Sweden a a little before the resignation of her Crown to her Couzen Carolus Gustavus In May following several persons are charged with high Treason for endeavouring to take away the Protectors life seize upon the Tower and proclaim his Majesty King of Great Brittain a High Court of Justice is erected Col. Gerard Peter Vowel School-master and Somerset Fox are condemned to die the last is reprieved for his ample confessions Col. Gerrard was beheaded at Tower hill and Vowel hanged at Charing-Cross on the same day Don Pantalaon Sa Brother to the Portugal Ambassadour was beheaded for engaging in a quarrel on the New Exchange where one Mr. Greneway was slain His Sacred Majesty having now remained in the Court of France about two or three years sometimes being lifted up high with hopes of regaining his three kingdoms other times being cast down with fears sollicitates the States of Holland again to own his Royall interest but they having made a peace with Oliver onely complement him with a letter full of civility and now that which troubled his Majesty most was this the French Court notwithstanding all means used to the contrary by the King of England his mother and other friends prepare to send over an Ambassadour into England hereupon his sacred yet still suffering Majesty leaves that kingdom having taken his farewell of the King and other great ones from whom he received many Complements and Apologies being accompanied with his brother the Duke of York his Couzens Prince Rubert and Prince Edward Palatine to Chatilion a house belonging to the Prince of Conde where they stayed a while to confider how to dispose of themselves to th' best advantage his Majesty with Prince Rupert resolves for Germany having before sent the Lord Wilmot before Ambassadour to the Emperor to negotiate in his behalf Prince Edward took his journey to Burbone the Duke of York remaining in France till after the peace with England is concluded being Lieutenant General of the French Army the young Duke of Glooester after his Brother was gone into Germany by reason of the Queen his Mother and some others of the Catholique Religion was placed in the Colledge of the Jesuits there to have been bred up in the Romish Religion Intelligence thereof being soon brought to his Majesty he being not a little displeased soon takes order for his remove which was exactly performed Oliver according to one Article in his Government called a Parliament to meet at Westminster Sept. 3. 1654. William Lenthal master of the Roll being chosen Speaker at their first sitting they begin to question the lawfulness of the power by which they were called this highly Offended Oliver Protector and made him resolve to put a Period to their sitting so when they had sat about 5 mouths he dissolved them soon after the dissolution of the Parliament the Court was allarmed with news of a great rising in Shropshire Montgomryshire Wiltshire Nottinghamshire Northumberland and Yorkshire in the behalf of his Royal Majesty Sir Henry Littleton Sir John Packington and Major Wildman are secured and sent Prisoners to the Tower Sunday 11. March a Party about 200. enter Salisbury seize upon Horses take away Commissions from the Judges as they were going there circuit and march towards Cornwal they are met with by Captain Vnton Crook and after a sharp dispute totally routed their chief Captains were taken viz. Penruddock Jones and Grove Sir Joseph Wagstaffe made a shift to escape shortly after Penruddock and Grove were beheaded at Exon and Jones was repreived several other risings in other parts of this Kingdom but were all suppressed and now Cromwel prepares a very great Fleet but for what end none knew but some principal Commanders In the mean time the King of Spain sends over as Extraordinary Ambassador the Marquis of Leda who was here conplemented by our new Court but finding which way things went after a short stay returns to his own Country presently after his departure this great Fleet steer there course towards Hispaniola one of the fairest Islands belonging to the American Dominions of the King of Spain at
THE Royall Martyr OR KING CHARLES The FIRST no Man of BLOOD but A MARTYR for His PEOPLE Being a brief Account of His Actions from the beginnings of the late unhappy Warrs untill He was basely Butchered to the Odium of Religion and scorn of all Nations before his Pallace at White-Hall Jan. 30. 1648. To which is Added A Short History of His Royall MAJESTY Charles the Second KING of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. Third Monarch of Great Brittain In all his Sufferings and Solitudes more then CONQUERER Rom. 8. Salus Populi Salus Regis â—ondon Printed for Henry Bell and are to be sold by most Book sellers 1660 TO THE KINGS Most Excellent Majesty Dread Soveraign THe occasion of these few lines is neither to renew your sorrow nor stir up your Majesty to revenge I know you have learned a better lesson from our blessed Lord and Saviour to forgive your enemies neither is it my design to plead for that which I even tremble to write viz. Regicide I know the world expects some should be made examples of Justice God forbid that blood-guiltiness especially of our King should go unpunisht But that Justice mercy might kiss each other These ensuing lines were writ in the midst of your and our sufferings the onely end both in writing and publishing was to Vindicate your Royal Father our Dread Soveraign of blessed memory thereby to make a more easie passage for your most Excellent Majesty to ascend unto the Royall throne of your famous Progenitors And now seeing God at last by his wonderfull and most miraculous Providence hath brought your Sacred Majesty to your just Rights Dominions I make bold in all humility to prostitute both my self and this small Tract at your Royall Feet beseeching your Clemency to accept of this small Mite of my Loyalty begging your gracious pardon for my great presumption beseeching Almighty Jehovah the God of your Fathers to redouble in you your Fathers Graces and Vertues recompence to your Majesty for all your unparalelled sufferrings patience in the perfect obedience and affection of all your Subjests establish your Royall Throne here on Earth and at last give you a Crown of Glory in the highest heavens so prays Your Majesties Loyall Humble and most obedient Subject W. H. B. King Charles the First no Man of BLOOD But a Martyr for his PEOPLE THat there hath been now eighteen years spent in Civill Warrs aboundance of Blood shed and more Ruine and misery brought upon the Kingdom by it then all the severall Changes Conquests and Civill Warrs it hath endured from the time of Brute or the first Inhabitants of it every mans wofull experience some onely excepted who have been gainers by it will easily assent unto No marvell therefore that many of those who if all they alledge for themselves that they were not the cause of it could be granted to be true might either have hindred or lessned it would now put the blame of so horrid a business from themselves and lay it upon any they can perswade to bear it And that the Conquerours who would bind their King in Chains and their Princes with Fetters of Iron and think they have a Commission from heaven to do it the guilt of it being necessarily either to be charged upon the Conquerours or Conquered are not willing to have their Triumphant Chairs and the glories as they are made believe that hang upon their shoulders defiled with it but do all they can to load their Captives with it But howsoever though the success and power of an Army hath frighted it so far out of question as to charge it upon the King and take away his life for it by making those that must of necessity be guilty of the fact if he should have been as in all reason he ought to have been acquitted of it the only Judges of him It may well become the judgement and conscience of every man that will be but either a good Subject or a Christian not to lend out his Soul and Salvation so much on trust as to take those that are parties and the most ignorant sort of mens words for it but enter into a most serious examination of the matter of Fact it selfe and by tracing out the foot-steps of Truth see what a conclusion may be drawn out of it In pursuance whereof for I hope the Originall of this Sea of Blood will not prove so unsearchable as the head of Nile we shall enquire first of all who raised the fears and jealousies Secondly represent and set down the truth of the matter of Fact and proceedings betwixt the King and Parliament from the tumultuous and seditious coming of the people to the Parlament and White-Hall untill the 25 of August 1642. when he set up his Standard at Nottingham and from the setting up of his Standard untill the 13 of September 1642. when the Parlament by their many Acts of Hostility and a Negative and Churlish answer to his propositions might well have put him out of hope of any good to be obtained from them by messages of peace sent unto them Thirdly whether a Prince or other Magistrate labouring to suppress or punish a rebellion of the People be tyed to those rules are necessary to the justifying of a War if it were made between equals Fourthly suppose the War to be made with a neighbour Prince or between equalls whether the King or Parlament were in the defensive or justifiable part of it Fifthly whether the Parlament in their pretended Magistracy have not taken lesser occasions to punish or provide against insurrections treasons and rebellions as they are pleased to call them Sixthly who most desired Peace and offered fairliest for it Seventhly who laboured to shorten the War and who to lengthen it Eightly whether the conditions proffered by the King would not have been more profitable for the People if they had been accepted and what the Kingdom and People have got instead of it CHAP. I. Who first of all Raised the Fears and Jealousies THe desiring of a guard for a Parlament because of a tale rather then a plot That the Earl of Crawford had a purpose to take away the Marquis of Hamiltons life in Scotland the refusing of a legall guard offered by the King and his Protestation to be as careful of their safety as the safety of his Wife and Children The dream of a Taylor lying in a ditch in Finsbury fields of this and the other good Lord and Common-wealths men to be taken away The trayning of Horses under ground and a plague plaister or rather a clout taken from a galled Horse back sent into the House of Commons to Mr. Pym. A design of the Inhabitants of Covent Garden to murther the City of London News from France Italy Spain and Denmark of Armies ready to come for England and a supposition or feaverish fancy that the King intended to introduce Popery alter
People and the Parliament to quarrell for as they were much behind in thankfulness for what they had got of him already Or if any other causes or provocations should be imagined as misusing the Parliaments Messengers or the like we know the King unlesse it were by his patience and often Messages for peace was guilty of no provocations but on the contrary though hee had all manner of scornes and reproaches cast upon him and his messengers evil entreated by them could never be brought to return or retaliate it to any of theirs But nothing as yet serving to excuse them It will not be amiss to examine the causes as they are set down by themselves to justifie their war and so we may well suppose there are no other A war against the King for safety of his own Person was needless and then it comes within that rule of war and law of Nations Ne leves sint causae beâ—li not to make a warre unnecessary for the King would look to that himself and as they were his Subjects they as well as every honest Subject were bound to defend and assist him but not whether he would or no and in such a way of defence as would tend to his ruâ—ne rather then his safety For â—urely should any stranger of another Kingdom or Nation have casually passed by Edge-hill when the Kings and the Parliaments 〈◊〉 were in fight and have been told that the King shot at them for the safety of his own Person and that they also shot against hiâ— for the safety of his own Person and being aâ—ked which of the two parties hee believe did really or most of all intend the safety of it we cannot tell how to think any man such a stranger to nature reason or understanding as to think the King should not fight as the Dictates of nature perswaded him to or that the King could tell how to fight against those that fought for him or that if he should be so hugely mistaken in that one year or Battell he should be in severall â—â—her years and Battells after To 〈…〉 the deâ—ence of the Religion establishâ—d as they made also the people believe that was as needless when the King offered to do every thing might help to promote it and they are so little also to be credited in that pretence as we know they did all they could from the beginning to ruine it took away Episcopacy the hedge and bounds of it brought in Presbytery to preach up and aid their Rebellion and when their own turnes were served encouraged Conventicles and Tub Preachers to â—ud down the Presbytery And being demanded at the Treaty at Vxbridge by the Kings Commissioners what Religion they would have the King to establish were so unprovided of an answer as they could not resolve what to nominate nor in any of their propositions afterwards sent to the King though often urged and complained oâ— oy the Scottish Commissioners could ever find the way to doe it but have now set up an Independent extemporary enthusiastick kind of worshiping God if there were any such thing in it or rather a religious Chaos or gallimaufry of all manner of heresie errours blasphemies and opinions put together not any of the owners of which we can be confident will subscribe to that opinion that Wars may be made for Religion or that Conscience ought to be forced by it As for the restrictive part of the Lawes to keep the people in subjection we can very well perswade our selves no such War was ever made yet in the world nor any people ever found that would engage in a War for that they obeyed but against their wills And for that part of the law that gives them the Kings protection priviledges immunities and certainties of deciding controversies which are more fitly to be called the Liberâ—ies of tbe people than to have 45. of the house of Commons or a Faction to make daily and hourly Lawes and Religion and Government and vote their estates in and out to pay an Army to force their obedience to it if we had not outlived the Parliaments disguises and pretences saw them now tearing up by the roots that there may be no hope of their growing up again and setting up their own as well as the ignorant and illiterate fancies of Mechanicks and Souldiers in stead of them we might have said that also had been needless when the King had done abundantly enough already and offered to grant any thing more could in reason be demanded of him And as touching their priviledges of Parliament they that understand but any thing of the Lawes of England or have but looked into the Records and Journals of Parliament can tell that all priviledges of Parliament as King James said were at first bestowed upon them by the Kings and Princes of this Kingdom That priviledges of Parliament extended not to Treason or Felony or breach of the Peace That 32 Hen. 6. Sir Thomas Thorp Speaker of the House of Commons being arrested in execution in the time of the prorogation of the Parliament the Commons demanded he might be set at liberty according to their priviledges wherupon the Judges being asked their Councel therein made answer That general supersedeas of Parliament there was none but special supersedeas there was in which case of special supersedeas every member of the House of Com-of Commons ought to enjoy the same unles in causes of Treason Felony or breach of the Peace or for a CondeÌ„mnation before the Parliament After which answer it was determined that the said Sir Thomas Thorp should lie in execution and the Commons were required on the behalf of the King to choose a new Speaker which they did and presented to the King accordingly That Queen Elizabeth was assured by her Judges that she might commit any of her Parliament during the Parliament for any offence committed against her Crown and Dignity and they shewed her precedents for it and that primo tertio Caroli Regis upon search of precedents in the several great cases of the Earls of Arundel and Bristol very much insisted and stood upon the House of Peers in Parliament allowed of the exception of Treason Felony and breach of the Peace For indeed it is as impossible to think there can be any priviledge to commit Treason as to think that a King should priviledge all his Nobility and every one of his Subjects that could get to be elected into the House of Commons in Parliament to commit Treason and to take away his life in the time of Parliament whensoever their revenge or malice or interest should finde the opportunity to do it or that if it could be so any King or Prince would ever call or summon a Parliament to expose himself to such a latitude of danger or give them leave to sit as long as they would to breed it or that priviledges of Treason can be consistent with the name or being of a Parliament to
and lawful had he not cause enough to deny and they none at all to ask that he should by Act of Parliament consent to make all those to be Traytors that took his part their Blood and Posterities attainted and their Estates forfeited when as some of the Parliaments own Members were heard to say when those Propositions were sent to him That if he yeelded unto them He was the unworthiest man living and not fit to be a King For certainly if the Laws of God and man and the understanding of all mankind be not changed there was never a juster more defensive unwilling and necessitated Warre than that of the Kings part since man came out of Paradise And if such a War should not be lawfull after so many provocations and necessities for the defence of himself and his People and so many after-generations this War of the Parliament and the curse of it is like to ruine and leave in slavery under what censure and opinion may that of Abraham with Chederlaomer the King of Elam and Tidal King of the Nations be when he fought with them to rescue his brother Lot and his goods and was blessed by Melchisedec the Priest of the most high God for doing of it Or of the War which the Tribes of Israel made against the Tribe of Benjamin and the men of Gibeah for committing lewdnesse and folly in Israel that of David to rescue his Wives that were carried away captive by the Amalekites or to fetch home the Ark of God from the Philistines that which Ahab made with Benhadad the King of Syria who was not half so tyrannical in his Propositions as the Parliament were approved of in Sacred Story or that which was made by Judas Machabeus and his Brethren to rescue the decayed estate of the people of the Jews or that which was used to be made by the heathen pro aris focis were never yet so much as suspected to be unlawfull How shall this of the Kings be condemned that had as much as Abraham David Ahab against Benhadad Judas Machabeus and the tribes of Israel or those heathens that made it pro aris focis put them altogether to warrant it Or by what reason or Law is any man by the Laws of England excused for killing a man in his own defence when he is necessitated or hindred by a Wall or a Water that he can go no farther or for killing thieves that come to assault or rob him in his house or castle If the King shall be hunted from his house through all the parts and corners of his Kingdom for his Life and not onely for his Life but his Honour and not onely for his Life and Honour but his Conscience and yet must never draw his Sword or seek to defend himself or have any body else to do it for him Or how have all the Kings Princes and Magistrates of the world hitherto governed and defended themselves and their people or shall ever be able to give an account of the people committed to their charge if they may not be at liberty to make a legal use of the sword power and reason God hath given them Or how can those State-riddles like those of Sphinx only made to destroy men with all that they fought for the King and Parliament as is alledged in many of their Orders and Declarations and that the War was a Rebellion raised against the King and Parliament as is expressed in the Ordinance of Parliament for association of the Counties of Pembroke Cardigan and Carmarthen be ever understood by any rules of sence or reason if he were on the offensive part of the War and had begun it against them But if any shall be so in love with the sense of the House of Commons as to be out of their owne senses and thinke that though there be no manner of evidence or proof to be had for love or money that the Parliament were constrained to defend themselves by a War yet the Kings admitting of the Preamble of the Parliaments Propositions presented to him at the Isle of Wight that the Parliament was necessitated to take up Arms in their just and lawfull defence makeâ— him who must needs be best acquainted with his own actions to be so clearly guilty of all the blood hath been shed in these Wars as it puts to silence all that can be now alledged or said in his behalf They that made the Preamble and placed it in limine and threshold of the Treaty on purpose to catch and insnare him for either he must have denied it at the very beginning and entrance into the Treaty and leave hiâ— Kingdomes and People to wallow in the blood and misery their Parliament Idols had brought them to and have all the blame laid upon him for hindring a Peace he had so much longed and laboured for or put himself and all his Loyal Subjects that helped to defend him under the burden of those Sins and Shames the Parliament themselves had all the right to can tell their undone and deluded Proselytes how much the King stuck at it how unwilling he was to break off the Treaty and was unwilling to wrong his own Innocency and that when the Parliament Commissioners had not any thing either in Law or Truth or Reason or Argument to perswade him to yield unto it but laid it onely as a case of necessity before him though there was no such preamble at the Treaties of Oxford and Uxbridge nor any such necessity at those times insisted upon that unlesse he would take the guilt upon himself his too Houses of Parliament and the people had engaged with them must necessarily bee guilty of Treason and could not have any security from the guilt and punishment The King be â—â—aning himself and People that must be thus shut out from any hopes of peace intreated some expedient or medium might be found out to reconcile the difference But Cains sins being greater then could bee forgiven him unless Abel can be brought to say he killed Cain they that could afterward find an expedient for 21 of their great Council of State that refused to subscribe to the lawfulnesse of murdering the King after it was done could finde none at all for the King to purchase a peace for the People though many kinds of ways and expedients as allowing him to make the like preamble to his own Proposition or the like might have been easily contrived and thought upon For the truth was the Independent party desired no Peace at all and the Presbyterians desired it onely to get into their hands the Kings Power and Authority and lay the guilt of all the blood they had shed for it upon him and both of them were so well content to have him allow of the preamble as the latter thought himself safe and out of controversie if the King took the blood upon him and the former that it would prove no small
of Officers in their Remonstrance of the 16 November 1648. made to the Parliament call the putting down of Monarchy and the establishing of their unjust ends the publick interest originally contended for on the Parliaments part and the Declaration and Votes of those that call themselves the Commons of England in Parliament assembled 1 January 1648. affirm the bringing of Delinquents to punishment which if they had been Delinquents is certainly a part of the Kingly Office the main if not the onely end of making this War And in another place thereof acknowledges the rooting out of Episcopacy and bringing Delinquents to punishment to be the onely motives that induced them to undertake this War And though Achan will neither confess nor be brought to punishment till the wrath and never-failing judgement of God shall bring them and their sons and their daughters and their successes and the Asses that follow them to be consumed in the field of Achor and the Fig-leaves which they have patched together to palliate and hide their nakednesse cannot keep out the eyes and understanding of a ruined Nation bleeding under the burden of their iniquity but whether ever confessed or never will be as plain as the most infallible demonstration they were never necessitated to make a War but were so far from the Justification of a defensive War as that they were altogether in the offensive For beside all that hath been said to prove them guilty of the blood and misery of this Nation who can think or be believed if he should be so mad as to say it That they were forced to make a War for that was none of their own or to take away tenures in Capite which was a principal Flower of his Crown or for a Reformation of Religion was already the envie and ambition of the best of the Reformed Churches or to commit Sacriledge and abolish Episcopacy which at the least was of Apostolical institution or to preserve the Statute of 25 E. 3. concerning what was Treason when they themselves committed most of the Treasons were mentioned in it and more than their forefathers and the makers of that Statute ever thought on But that we may do all the right we can to them have done so much wrong and the better carry on our judgements to a certain conclusion of that which God and all good and just men know to be true enough it will not we hope be impertinent in this our search and disquisition of the truth to proceed to the enquiry CHAP. V. Whether the Parliament in their pretended Magistracy have not taken lesler occasion to punish or provide against Insurrections Treasons and Rebellions as they are pleased to call them ALl in the neighbourhood of their Proceedings that know but any thing of them can tell it The Parliament have not been wanting to their own preservations and purposes in the exercise of the greatest jealousie vigilancy terror and authority over those they could get within their jurisdiction Witnesse Edward Archer who was whipt and punished almost to death for speaking but his ill wishes to the Earl of Essex when he was marching out of London with their Army against the King the imprisonment of their own Members for speaking against the Sense and Cabal of the House of Commons men and women old and young shut up under Decks ready to be stifled a ship-board upon suspition that they affected the King hanging of the two Bristol Merchants Master Bourchier and Master Yeomans for an endeavour to deliver to deliver up Bristol putting Colonel Essex out of the Government of that Town upon suspition of favouring the enterprise hanging of Master Tomkins and Master Chaloner for a purpose to force the delivery up of some factious men to Justice banishing Master Waller an eminent Member of the house of Commons for the contrivance of it searching the houses of forraign Ambassadors and intercepting and opening their Letters beheading Sir Alexander Cary for an intention to deliver up Plimouth and Sir John Hotham who adventured first of all to set up their authority and was magnified and almost adored for it for an intention only to deliver up Hull to the King executing of his son for joyning with his father in it hanging Master Kniveton one of the Kings Messengers but for bringing his Majesties Proclamation to London for the adjourning of the Term being a greater mis-usage then Davids Messengers received from King Ammon imprisoning starving and undoing of any that durst but own the King or send or bring any Message from him or his party or that did but give any aid or assistance to him to which their Oaths and Consciences and the jugling Covenant they themselves took and forced upon them did oblige them shooting and cannonading of the Queen when she came but to aid her husband and chasing and shooting after her at Sea a year after when she was going back into France from him sequestring wives and mothers that did but relieve their husbands and childrens wants when they returned out of the Kings service putting thousands of the Orthodox Ministers out of their Benefices and livelihoods for using the Common-Prayer-Book preaching true Doctrine and obedience to the King or praying for him at the same time when they pretended liberty of Conscience and prescription of Religion voting the Prince a Traitor for wishing well or being in company with his Father for he was too young to do any thing else for him and making or rather supposing charges of High Treason against those that either fought for the King or counselled him how to defend himself for but obeying the known Lawes they themselves made the world believe they made some part of the War for ordering all to die without mercy that did but harbour the King when he fled in a disguise before their Armies condemning men by a Court Martial after the War was ended and shooting them to death but for words or intentions And if this and many things more might be said of it be not enough what means so many Sequestrations and the bleating and lowing of mens Sheep and Oxen taken away from them since the Warre was ended but for words spoken either for the King or against them husbands and fathers undone for what their wives or children did without their privity the Mayor of London and divers Aldermen imprisoned but upon a suspicion of joyning with the Scots or something in pursuance of the Covenant they forced them to take or else would have undone them for refusing of it Garrisons and Armies with free-quartering and Taxes kept up after the War was ended and the people like sheep devoured to maintain them so much complaining in our streets and taking away the fifth part of many men in whole Counties as Essex Kent c. for joyning with some of the Kings Forces or for being forced to send provisions to them when they took up Arms some in pursuance of the Covenant and others of them to deliver the King
out of prison and causing the Souldiers not onely to cut and kill divers of the County of Surrey in the very act of Petitioning the Parliament for a Treaty of Peace with the King and sequester many of them for putting their hands to it with disabling the Citizens of London for bearing any office in the City or Common wealth for but putting their hands to the petition for the Treaty though Cromwel himself had not long before set on som to petition for it and the ruine undoing of 2 parts of 3 in the Kingdome very many of whom did nothing actually in the Wars but were onely sacrificed to their pretended reasons and jealousies of State do sufficiently proclame and remain the woful Registers to after-generations of this lamentable assertion If the King could have gotten but so much leave of his mercy and a tenderheartednesse to his people as to have used but the five-hundredth part of the Parliaments jealousies and sharp and merciless authority in the managing of this Warre so much of his Kingdomes and people had not been undone and ruined nor the Parliament put to so much labour to coyn faults and scandals against him nor to wrest the Lawes to non-sense and the Scriptures to Blasphemy to justifie their most horrid act of murthering him but for seeking to preserve the Lawes and Liberties of his people who are now clearly cheated out of them And here our misery tells us we must leave them and in the next place shall remember for indeed it is so plain it needs no enquiry CHAP. VI. Who most desired Peace and offered fairliest for it TH'bundant satisfaction the King had offered them from his first summoning of the late Parliament to their dissolving of themselves by dissolving him who gave them all their Life and Being That which he did and all which he would have done so many Declarations Answers and Messages penned by himself intending as much as his words could signifie and were believed and understood by all at that time that were not interessed or engaged against him and by many of the eagrest of them also that had no hand or look't to have any profit in the murthering of him for a Trial of a King without either warrant or colour of Scripture or the Lawes of the Kingdome or the consent of the major part of the people if that could have authorized it cannot nay will not by all the world and after-ages be otherwise interpreted unlesse we shall say Ravillac might have justified his killing Henry the Fourth of France if he had but had the wit to have framed or fancied a Supreme Court of Justice and have Sentenced him before he had done it will be as pillars and lasting Monuments of this Truth The King was the onely desirer of Peace and laboured and tugged harder for it than ever Prince or King Heathen or Christian fince Almighty God did his first dayes work did ever doe with Superiors Equals or Subjects and it will be no wrong certainly to David whose sufferings are so much remembred in all Christian Churches complaining so bitterly that he sought peace with those that refused it and in the mean time prepared for War against him To say the King did suffer more and offer more and oftner for peace than ever he did for any thing is extant or appearing to us for surely so many Messages of Peace as one and twenty in two years space from the 5. of December 1645. to the 25. of Decem. 1647. sent to the Parliament after so many affronts and discouragements must needs excuse him that offered all could be imagined to be for the good and safety of his people and condemn those that not onely from time to time refused it but adhered so much to their first intentions as all the blood and ruine of the people could not perswade them to depart with the least punctillio of it though the King before the Isle of Wight-Treaty offered so much for the Olive-branch as to part with the Militia for term of his life and in a manner to un-king himself and was afterwards content to doe all that his Coronation-Oath Honour and Conscience could possibly permit him to do and to purchase a peace for his people was content to have born the shame reproach of what his enemies were onely guilty of insomuch as the Lord Say himself and most of his ever-craving never safe enough Disciples confessed the King had offered so much as nothing more could be demanded of him They therefore that can but tell how to divide or put a difference betwixt white and black night and day and the plainest contraries must needs also acknowledge the King offered all and the Parliament refused all The King was willing to part almost with every thing and the Parliament would never part with any thing The King was willing for the good of his people to give away almost every thing of his own but the Parliament would never yield to part with any thing was not their own And thus may the account be quickly cast up between the King and Parliament who would have saved the people from misery and who was most unwilling to make an end of it But that we may not too hastily give the sentence to try the businesse aâ— they use to do at the Councel of War or the new invented way of Justice sitting with their Will or the Sword onely in one hand and no Ballance at all in the other We shall in the next place examine CHAP. VII Who laboured to shorten the War and who to lengthen it THe odds was so great betwixt what the Parliament laboured to get and the King to keepe as that which sways the balance in most mens actions will be argument enough to conclude they were more likely to lose by a peace than a war therefore the more willing to continue it and if their own Interests would not put them so far upon it their vain-glory and ambition would be forward enough to perswade them to it and if not that the success of their arms or miscalled providence would make them look as experience tells us they did upon any tenders of peace as Alexander the Great did upon Darius his offer oâ— half his Kingdom and if not that their feares and jealousies now grown greater by wronging of the King than ever they were when they suspected him could never think it safe to let an inraged Lion into his Denne they had so long kept out of it But the King could not fight for his own but he must adventure the undoing of his own and could not but know that so much as was lost of his Subjects would be so much lost of a King and therefore doth all he can to preserve a People had no minde to preserve themselves and before He had gathered up the Bayes He won at Edge-hill sends a Proclamation of pardon to those that the day before did all they could to kill him and in
the Steward or an appeal may take a way the inconvenience of it A way of government worse then to be subject to the rule of so many fools for they might perchance doe that would be just or so many Knaves who but in playing the Knaves one with another or for reward might sometimes do that which was right or Mad-men which at intervals might do something which was reasonable worse then for every subject of England to be put to play at dice for his life or estate or any thing else he should crave a Justice to get or keep for then he might by skill or chance obtain something In fine worse then any example or way of Government the world hath as yet produced and can have nothing worse but Hell it self The Parliament and priviledges of it are destroyed and every mans life and estate in no better a condition then at the pleasure of the next pretenders to it All the Charters and Liberties of Cities and Corporate Towns Corporations of Trade and Companies of Merchants made void all the Merchandise Trade and Manufacture of the Kingdom laid open and in common to every one that will intrude upon it all that is in the Law concerning our Lives Estates Liberties and Religion made void and dependant upon the Arbitrary Independent power all that is in the Law concerning Navigation the Kings Protection of his people certainty of Customes Trade and Entercourse Leagues and Correspondencies with Forrain Princes expired or annihilated and all that our Fore-fathers have obtained by way of Lawes and Settlement and certainty of Estate are now at dispose of our vote-mongers who in stead of a most pious and gracious King governing by known Lawes have set us up 43. or 50. Kings and ten times as many more Knaves and Fools who will govern by no Law but such as they shall call Lawes and make themselves can be accusers witnesses and Judges at one and the same time and if need be condemn and take away mens Estates first and try them after two or three yeares Petitioning for it a bondage slavery in the general more then ever any of our Ancestors tasted of For the Romans whose Justice and Morality at home and Vertue and Temperance abroad made them free enough from Tyranny did but make them as Tributaries The Picts made but temporary incursions and a wall could be made against them The Saxons and Danes brought us good Lawes and William the Conquerour was content to restore them And all that succeeded him since understood a government by Lawes to be their own as well as the peoples security but this which they have now brought upon us and would keep us under is a misery beyond that was suffered under the 30. Tyrants of Athens Spartan Ephori or Romes Decemvirat for there were something of Lawes and Rules to govern by The Children of Israel in the Egyptian slavery had a property in their goods and cattel and were at liberty to serve a better God then that of their Masters and though they had their burdens doubled upon them were not kill'd imprisoned or sequestred for petitioning against the sense of Pharaoh The Jewes in Captivity had so much liberty of Conscience allowed to them as to play upon their Harps and sing the Songs of Sion in a strange Land The frozen Russians though so dull and ignorant as when they are asked any matter of State or difficulty make answer God and the great Duke knoweth breath not under so Arbitrary lawlesse a government The Grecians had not their Lawes Religion and Liberties as we have all at once taken from them nor can the sufferings of them or any other vassals of the Ottoman Port or those that live under the Crim Tartar equal the one half of our English slavery Into which we had never fallen or come at all or so long groaned under had we but served God and the King as we ought to have done and not wrâ—sted the sense as well as the plain words of the Scripture and the Lawes of the Land to enable the sons of Zerviah to be too hard for us and bring all manner of mischief confusion and wickednesse upon us more then Romes and Constantinoples Antichrist ever brought upon a people and from which the King had delivered us if we had not Cursed Reviled Prayed Contributed and Fought against him for endeavouring to Protect us How gracious then was he who endured the heat of the day and cold of the night to preserve a great deal more for us then Nabals sheep could amount unto yet being worse used then ever David was for it could not tell how so much as to threaten to doe that which David had so great a mind to doe but fought as long as he could to Protect them would not so much as defend themselves but did all they could to ruine those that defended him And how much was he beyond Codrus the Athenian King the Roman Curtius or Decii if all that the Ancients wrote of them were true who sacrificed themselves but not their Estates and Posterity to preserve the Publique and how good beyond example or the credit of any History who made himself a Martyr for his peoples lives and liberties and endured so many deaths and suffered more indignities then all the Kings of England put together have ever endured to preserve a people have for a great part of them either by Rebellion or an accursed Newtrality helped to ruine him and when he knew whatsoever Conditions or Propositions he should be forced to yield unto would by the Law of God as well as the Civil and Common Law the Lawes of Nature and Nations and the dictates of every common mans reason and apprehension have been void in the very making of them and could not have reached to his Posterity and that if he would but have surrendred up his people and gone along with their new Masters in their Arbitrary and Tyrannical government as some of his last words upon the Scaffold plainly intimate and sided with 20. or 30. of the Faction and delivered up the sheep to the Wolves he might no doubt have had a good part of the Fleece to his own share or but wirh Sampson have pleased himself with revenge and delivered up a people to Slavery were at so much expence of Treasure and Blood and their own Soules to bring their Soveraign to it might have worn the Title of a King and played the wanton with Sardanapalus in the company and delight of women pleased his palat with Vitellius his pride if he had any with Bassianus his cruelty if he could ever have been guilty of it with Commodus and with Childerick the lazy King of France in a Chariot deck't with garlands whilst others governed for him been at certain times of the year onely exhibited to the people and like the Minotaure of Creete wallowed in the labyrinth of Parliament Priviledges and devoured his people did notwithstanding refuse to
doe any thing might help himself either to purchase his own quiet or so great a Liberty and would neither for any good might come to himself or any evil might be cast upon him and his Posterity be perswaded or threatned from the protection of his people who if he had not taken more care for them then they did for themselves must if he had yielded to all the Parliament-propositions for then they might have imagined mischief by a Law have from time to time been engaged in any Warre their Task-masters had a mind to put them upon must have been excised plundred sequestred ruined and undone sworn and forsworn constrained to swear to doe a thing to day and the next day swear not all to doe it The son set to kill his Father and brothers forced to fight one against another and have all their Holy-dayes turned to Thanksgiving-dayes that they are undone or Fasting-dayes that they may be undone soon enough And if at any time that thing they call a Parliament should think it fit to make a Directory to the Alchoran and to order every man to turn Turk and the King as their Henry Scobel or Town-Clerk but subscribe it their Spiritual as well as their Temporal Estate and their Soules as well as their Bodies must be voted and forced to it And now let the people that have tasted too much of such a kind of happinesse and are like to continue in it as long as their misery-makers can by any help of the Devil or his Angels hold them to it consider whether they or their fore-fathers though some have thought themselves to have wit enough to adventure to call them fooles were the wiser whether they that setled the Government and were contented with it or they that pulled it in pieces and whether the tearing up of the fundamental Lawes of Monarchy Peerage Parliament and Magna Charta even since this day the King was murthered for defending of them which every one but themselves desired to uphold be not enough besides the Scottish combination and the plots to ruine Monarchy and the King and his Posterity before the five Members and Kimbolton had so for engaged themselves in it to inform them if nothing else had been demonstrated unto them That the King did all he could to preserve the Lawes Religion and Liberties of the people which divers pieces of his coin will help to perpetuate the truth as well as the memory of and the Parliament all they could to destroy them And that as he actually endeavoured to defend them so have they as actually undone and destroyed them And let the greatest search of History can be made or time it self be Judge if ever any war was more made in the defensive or upon juster grounds or greater necessities or if ever any King before fought for the Liberties of those he was to govern and for Lawes to restrain himself withal or if it were possible for him to suffer so much in any mans opinion as to have it thought to be unlawful or that he was a murtherer of his people for seeking to Protect them How shall any King or Magistrate be able to bear or use the Sword when they themselves shall be in continual danger to be beaten with it King Edward the second of England was not murthered for the blood that was shed in the Barons Wars though some of them had drawn their swords but in performance of his fathers will to take away his favourite Gavestion from him King Rich. 2. in those many devised Articles charged against him was not deposed for the blood was shed in Wat Tilers Commotion nor Hen. 6. publickly accused for that of Jack Cades Rebellion and the most bloody differences of the White and Red-Roses nor Queen Elizabeth for all that was spilt in reducing Ireland when her favourite the Earl of Essex made it to be the more by his practises with Tyrone nor for the blood of Hacket who pretended to be Christ nor of Penry and other Sectaries lesser Incendiaries than Burton Prynne and Bastwick for disturbing the Common-wealth the great Henry of France was not endeavoured by his Catholick Subjects to be brought to trial for shedding so much of their blood to reduce them to his obedience nor by his Protestant Subjects after he was turned Catholick for spending so much of their blood to another purpose than they intended it Nor have the stout-hearted Germans though many of them great and almost free Princes in their late Peace and Accord made betwixt the Swedes and the Emperour thought it any way reasonable or necessary to demand reparation for those millions of men women and children houses and estates were ruined and spoiled by a thirty years War to reduce the Bohemians and Prince Elector Palatine to their obedience For what rules or bounds shall be put to every mans particular fancy or corrupted interest if they shall be at Liberty to question and call to account the authority God hath placed over them Shall the son condemn or punish the Father for his own disobedience the Wife her Husband for her own act of Adultery or the Servant the Master for his own unfaithfulnesse or can there be any thing in the Reason or understanding of man to perswade him to think the King was justly accused for the shedding of his blood which the accusers themselves were only guilty of And Bradshaw himself like the Jewes high Priest confessing a truth against his will in the word he gave instead of reason for murthering the King against the will and good liking of nine parts in every ten of the Commons of England could make his Masters that call themselves the Parliament of England to be no better then the Tribum plebis of Rome and the Ephori of Sparta the former of which for manifold mischiefes and inconveniences were abrogated and laid aside and never more thought fit to be used and the latter not being half so bad as our new state Gipsies killed and made away to restore the People again to their Liberties But the opinion and Judgement of the Learned Lord Chief Justice Popham who then little thought his grand-child Colonell Popham should joyn with those that sate with their Hats on their Heads and directed the murther of their Soveraign and if he were now living would sure enough have hanged him for it and those other learned Judges in the case and Tryall of the Earl of Essex in the Raign of Queen Elizabeth That an intent to hurt the Soveraign Prince as well as the act of it was Treason And that the Laws of England do interpret every act of Rebellion or Treason to aim at the death or deposing of the Prince For that Rebells by their good will never suffer that King or Prince to live or Raign that understands their purposes and may revenge them agreeable to that of the Civil Law That they that go about to give Law to their Prince will never suffer him to recover
Damer in Com. Darby Shoomaker Humphrey Browne of Whitsundine in Com. Rutland Yeoman David Evans of Abergeveny in Com. Monmouth Smith Robert Holmes of Robert Williams of Samuel Woorden of Lineham in Com. Wilts Gent. Thomas Read of Maidstone in Com. Kent Gent. George Cornwall of Aston in Com. He. reford Forgeman William Jones of Uske in Com. Monmouth Husbandman Arthur Young Citizen and Barber-Chirurgion of London Diogenes Edwards of Carston in Com. Salop Butcher John Bennet of Harwood in Com. Ebor. Glover William Cutbert of Patrington in Holderness in Com Ebor. Gent. Richard Price of London Serivener Henry Gouch of Grays-Inn Gent. The true manner of proceeding to take off the Kings Head according to the Sentence given as aforesaid SIr Hardress Waller Colonel Harrison Commissary General Ireton Colonel Dean and Colonel Okey were appointed to consider of the Time and Place for the Execution of the King according to his Sentence given by the pretended High Court of Justice Painted-Chamber Monday January the 29th 1648. UPon Report made from the Committee for considering of the Time and Place of the Executing of the Judgment against the King that the said Committee have Resolved That the open street before Whitehal is a fitting place And the said Committee conceive it fit That the King be there executed the cuorrow the King having already notice thereof The Court approved thereof and ordered a Warrant to be drawn to that purpose which Warrant was accordingly drawn and agreed to and Ordered to be ingrossed which was done and signed and sealed accordingly as followeth At the High Court of Justice for the Trying and Judging Charles Stuart King of England Jan. 29. 1648. VVHereas Charles Siuart king of England is and standeth Convicted Attainted and Condemned of High Treason and other Crimes and Sentence on Saturday last was pronounced against him by this Court to be put to Death by the severing his head from his body of which Sentence Execution yet remaineth to be done These are therefore to will and require you to see the said Sentence Executed in the open street before White-hall upon the morrow being the 30. day of this instant Moneth of January between the hours of Ten in the morning and Five in the afternoon of the same day with full ef fect and for so doing this shall be your sufficient Warrant and these are to require all Officers and Soldiers and other the good People of England to bee assistant unto you in this service Given under our hands and Seals To Colonel Francis Hacker Col. Huncks and Lievtenant Colonel Phray and to every of them Sealed and Subscribed by John Bradshaw President Thomas Gray Oliver Cromwell Edward Whaley John Okey John Danvers Mich. Livesey John Bourcher Henry Ireton Tho. Maleverer Jo. Blackston Jo. Hutchison William Goffe Tho. Pride Henry Smith Vincent Potter William Constable Rich. Ingoldsby William Cawley John Barkstead Isaac Ewer Val. Walton Peter Temple Tho. Harrison Joh. Hewson Pet. Pelham Richard Dean Robert Titchburn Hump. Edwards Dan. Blagrave Owen Roe Will. Purifoye Adrian Scroop James Temple Aug. Garland Edmon Ludlow Hen. Martin Jo. Alured Robert Lilburn Will. Say Anthony Stapley Gregory Norton Tho. Chaloner Tho Wogan Simon Meyne Tho. Horton Jo. Jones Jo. Moore Hadress Waller Gilbert Millington Ch. Fleetwood Jo. Venn Greg. Clement Jo Downs Tho. Wait. Tho Scot. John Carew Miles Corbet In all Fifty eight Ordered That the Scaffold on which the King is to be executed be covered with black The warrant for executing the King being accordingly delivered to those parties to whom the same was directed Execution was done upon him according to the Tenour thereof about two of the clock in the afternoon of the said 30th of January 1648. The fatall day of the said Execution being Tuesday January the 30. 1648. HIs Majesty continued in prayer all the morning and receive the Sacrament just at Ten of the Clock before noon he was conveyed on foot from St. James's Palace to Whitehall guarded by a Regiment of foot Souldiers part before part behind with Colours flying and Drums beating his private guard of Partizans about him and Dr. Juxon Bishop of London next to him on one side and Colonell Tomlinson on the other being come to Whitehall he continued in his Cabinet Chamber at his devotions refusing to dine only about 12 a clock he eat a bit of bread and drank a glasse of Claret Wine from thence he was conveyed into the Banquetting house and the great window inlarged out of which he ascends the Scaffold the rails being hung round and the floor covered with black His Executioners disguised with Vizards yet was his Majesty not affrighted He shewed more care of the people living then of himself dying for looking upon the people whom the thick guards of Souldiers kept a great distance off and seeing he could not be heard by them omitting probably what hee purposed to have spoken to them therefore turning to the Officers and actors by him he delivered himself in a short but excellent Speech which being ended he meekly went to prayers and after some heavenly discourse between him and the Bishop having prepared himself he lifted up his eyes to heaven mildly praying to himself he stooped down to the block as to a prayer-desk most humbly bowed his generous Neck to God to be cut off by the Vizarded Executioner which was suddainly done at one blow Thus fell King Charles and thus all Britian with him A SHORT HISTORY OF His Royall Majesty our most Gracious SOVERAIGN Charles the Second KING of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. Third Monarch of Great Brittain London Printed by Henry Bell and are to be sold by most Book-sellers 1660. A Short HISTORY OF His Royall Majesty King CHARLES the Second c HAving I hope sufficiently cleared his late Royall majesty from that execrable sin of blood-guiltinesse to every one that is not wilfully blind I shall now crave leave to give the Reader a short account of the Life and hitherto sorrowfull Raign of our most Gracious and Dread Soveraign Charles the Second King of England Scotland France and Ireland Defendeâ—â— of the Faith c. No sooner was this mighty Prince barbarously butchered before his own doors to the astonishment and griefe of the greatest part of his Subjects throughout his Dominions And the three Lords Hamilton Capel and Holland which had taken up Arms in his late Majesties defence but now Monarchy the darling of the people together with the House of Peers is voted chargeable unnecessary and useless and the Government changed into a Free State neither did this mutation happen for want of such as by a lineall discent and according to the usage of this Nation might pretend a Title to the Crown for there was a plentifull issue of his late Majesty both male and female then surviving but from the aspiring greatness of some who had wrested the power into their own hands to this end it was
the beginning of December General Blake himself engaging with the whole Fleet of the Dutch came of with the worst loosing the Garland and Bonaventure and some other Ships About the ending of February the Dutch were miserably overthrown by the English between Portland and the Ifle of Wight In the mean time arrived an Extraordinary Ambassador from the King of Portugal to the Parliament which after many Addresses and Treaties concludes a peace with Obligation to satisfy the English Marchants From France also the English were courted by two partyes by an Agent from the King of France desiring a release of those Ships taken going to the reliefe of Dunkirk by 4. Deputies from the Prince of Conde craving aid against the Cardinal and his Creatures who had straitly besieged the City of Bourdeaux but they both proved ineffectual And now happened a very strange Alteration in the Scene of Affairs in England Cromwel whose ambition was now ripe and who knew he might take a very fit opportunity to usurp that that power he had so long gaped for the people of these Nations being weary of the actions of this Parliament and there dilatory proceedings and apparent intentions of perpetuating themselfs and to defraud the people of their ancient and undoubted Liberties of equal and successive representatives * entered the Parliament-House attended with some of his principal Officers and there delivered certain reasons why a Period ought to be put to that Parliament which was presently done the Speaker with the rest of the Members some by force some through fear and some murmuring departed the House the better to satisfy the wiser sort of people Cromwel and his Officers publish a large Declaration shewing the reasons of his dissolving that Parliament Thus that part of the Parliament who had basely murdered their King and Usurped an Authority over these Nations are turned out of Doors to the scorne and derision of the whole Nation by their Servant Oliver Cromwel Thus that part of the House of Commons which then sat afterwards better known by the name of the Rump being dissolved their power was wholly devolved into the hands of their aspiring General who least the Magistrates and other publique Ministers of the nation should be startled at this so suddain change This following Declaration was published WHere as the Parliament being dissolved persons of approved fidelity and honesty are according to the late Declar-tion of the 22 of April last to be called from the severall parts of this Commonwealth to the supreme Authority and although effectuall proceedings are and have been had for perfecting those resolutions yet some convenient time being required for the assembling those persons it hath been sound necessary for the preventing the mischiefs and inconveniences which may arise in the mean while to the publickaffairs that a Councill of State be constituted to take care of and intend the peace and safety and present management of the affairs of the Commonwealth which being settled acoordingly the same is hereby declared and published to the end all persons way take notice hereof and in their severall places and stations demean themselves peaceably giving obedience to the Laws of the Nation as heretofore and in the exercise and administration whereof as endeavours shall be used that no oppression or wrong be done to the people so a strict account will be required of all such as shall do any thing to endanger the publick peace and quiet upon any pretence whatsoever O. CROMWELL Aprill 30. 1653. These domestick Revolutions did in some measure heighten the spirits of the Dutch for they thought some eminent distractions and commotions would certainly ensue thereupon June 2. The English Fleet being at Anchor without the South-head of the Gober discover about 100 sail of Dutch men of Warre lying two Leagues to Lee-ward the English presently made sail after them after a sharp dispute they take of the Dutch 11. men of war two water-hoyes 6. Captaynes 1500 prisoners and sunck 6. men of War more had not the night prevented the rest of the Dutch-Fleet would in all probabillity have been cut off in this engagement General Dean one of our Admiralls was slain In the mean time Cromwell and his Confederates consult on fit persons on whom the Legislative power of the Nation should be committed to which end the grand Tyrant issueth out warrants under his own hand to a certain number of persons chosen by himself whom he thought would serve his interest to appear at the Counsell Chamber at White-Hall July 4. 1653. Where being accordingly met Cromwell being attended with several Officers of the Army maketh them a short speech and delivereth unto them a writing under his hand and Seal impowering them to be the supreme Legislative Authority of the three Nations from thence they repair to the Parliament house and choose for their Speaker Mr Rouse they begin to debate what they shall call themselves at last they conclude to call themselves the Parliament having sat about four moneths their consultations are chiefly for the taking away of Tythes at last it was moved by some of them that their further sitting would not prove for the peace of the Nation therefore they attend the General and according to command resigned their power into his hands again who presently after assumes to himself the Title of Lord Protector of the Common-wealth of England Scotland and Ireland takes unto himself a Council of twenty one persons by whose assistance all things are carried on during the intervals of Parliament Things being thus translated in England his Royal Majesty not having any further means left him for the regaining of his dominions is constrained to take up his Residence in the kingdom of France where notwithstanding his low condition he lived with great honour and respect with the King Queen and Nobles of France During his abode here in this Court a match was propounded to him viZ. the Duke of Orleances daughter as likewise to his illustrious Brother the noble Duke of York the Duke of Longevills daughter But the troublesome estate of the kingdom of France and his Royal Majesties ill posture of affairs in his own kingdoms soon put a period to this transaction Whilest these things were in agitation happened a difference betwixt the the Prince of Conde and Cardinal MaZarine most of the Princes of the blood side with the first the King of France who now was newly come to age to sway the Scepter with the latter the cause of the quarrel was Cardinal MaZarine his inordinate power and other grand miscarriages of state the people also generally murmure against him the Princes and Parliament of Paris and Bourdeaux are against him as also the Duke of Louraine then in service of the Spaniard things arrived at such a height that nothing but a Civil war was likely to ensue to compose and end these differances his sacred Majesty of England useth his utmost endeavours telling them from his own experience the
lâ—st the English land in the Island of Hispanola without any opposition and seeing no enemy near them think themselves sole Masters of the Indies They having marched a many miles through the woods are ready to perish with faintness and for want of water and now the Spanish Negros fall upon them and miserably kill them with little resistance drive them out of the Iland the remainder of those that escaped this Buchery possess themselves of Jamaica now G. Blake with a little better success being come before Tunis demands reparation for the losses sustained from Turkish Pyrates but being answer'd in scorn by the Dye of Tunis fired 9. Ships and came off with little loss but much glory to himself notwithstanding the former ill successes of the Royal party are sent to the Tower upon suspition of Treason The Lord Willonby of Parham and the Lord Newport The Illustrious Duke of Glocester having staid for some times with his sister the Princess Royall â—â— at Hague was now resolved to go to his Brother Our most gracious King then at Cullen being come thither with his Sister they stay till after the Fair at Franckfort to which place they made a progresse of State and pleasure being attended with the Marquesse of Ormond Lord Goring Lord Newburrough and Lady Stanhop c. As they passed through every Princes Country they were complemented by their Chief Officers of state and saluted by all the great Guns from all their Towers and Castles in an especiall manner The Prince Elector of Ments sent his grand Marshall to invite them to his Court whereupon the Lord Newburrough was sent back to desire to excuse them at present promising to wait upon them at his return being arrived at Franckfort and hearing that Queen Christiana of Swedn was coming that was in her journy to Italy his sacred Majesty sent one of his Lords to her signifying his desire to wait upon her at what place her Majesty should be pleased to Nominate the place appointed for this Interview was Collingsteen a Village near Frankfort where his Royall Majesty was received by her with much respect he had Private conference with her about half an hour then the Duke of Glocester and then the Lords that attended his Majesty Lord Jermyn and other English Lords Takes his Journey to Flaunders where at that time our dread Soveraign did reside at the Kind invitation of Don John of Austria then Governour of the Low-Countries let us now leave our King a little and look a while into his dominions where Cromwell notwithstanding his ill success in the last Parliament through his necessities is compelled to call another to meet at Westminster 17 September where the Navy Commanded by General Mountague lying to intercept the Spanish plate coming from the West Indies obtained a great victory over the Spaniard near Cadize six hundred thousand pieces of eight taken besides many ships fired and many other rich prizes taken This Parliament being met on the day appointed petition and advise Cromwell to take upon him the name and Title of King which his tender conscience could not swallow because he was affraid of some of his aspiring Officers and now a desperate attempt against the life of Oliver is found out and one Miles Sindercomb is apprehended and presently after tried and condemned to be hanged drawn sty As they came from Frankfort the Elector of Mentz renewed his civilities provided all manner of Accommodations for them as they passed thorow his Territories meeting them himselfe a great part of the way he brought them to one of his Pallaces where he entertained them after a sumptuous and splendid manner for two or three days after which they returned to Collen four Burgo Masters being appointed to wait on them and welcome them homâ— About the beginning of November 1656. A peace is concluded by Cromwell with the French the principall condition of this Treaty was the exclusion of our Royall Soveraign with all his relations and adherents out of the King of France his Dominions The thrice Noble Heroick and truly Valiant Duke of Yorke notwithstanding his great Command in the King of France his Army which was Lievetenant Generall is now advertized to depart the Kingdome by a prefixed time which act the French may perhaps hereafter have cause enough to rue which now being come he takes his leave of the King and Court of France being attended by the and quartered but he on the day appointed for his execution saves them that labour by making away himself by snuffing up some poysonous powder into his head whereupon it was ordered that he should be dragged naked at a Horses heels from the Tower to the scaffold on Tower hill and there buried having an Iron stake thrust into his belly c. In April 1657. several fifth Monarchy-men are apprehended for having a design to subvert this grand Tyrant and his Government Major General Harrinson Lawson and others are apprehended but nothing could positively be proved against them Now according to conditions of agreement betwixt England and France the French King desires Auxiliary forces from England to help him in his Wars against the Spaniard in Flanders which was readily granted by Cromwel 6000. Foot are accordingly sent over under the command of Col. Reynolds who are no sooner landed but suddenly they take the strong Fort of Mardike After Cromwel had given his final answer that he could not accept of the Title of King he was by the Parliament instated Lord Protector in a most solemne manner June 26. Cromwel having now as he thought setled his Throne bethinks himself of advancing his nearest friends and relations to that end he sends for his eldest Son Richard out of the Country to enure him to a Court life and that he might have some insight into State affairs designing him for succession in the Protectorship which the University of Oxford fore-seeing send their Proctors to elect him their Chancellor in which honour he was solemnly installed at Whitehall His Second Son Henry he created Lord Lieutenant of Ireland his two youngest Daughters he matched the eldest to Mr. Robert Rich Grand-child to the then Earl of Warwick The younger to the Lord Faulconbridge the Nuptials of them both was celebrated with much Splendor at Whitehal Hampton Court scarse was the mirth of these solemnities over but the Court is allarmed with the death of Gen. Blake Vice-Admiral Badiley and Lieutenant General Brain presently after Col. Reynolds and his Company were cast away by Goodwin Sands coming from Flanders The Parliament so called having adjourned themselves from the 6 th of June untill the 20 th of January following and now those other Members were admitted who formerly were excluded There is also another House of Parliament so called chosen by Cromwel consisting most part of Officers of the Army with some of the old Nobility this latter being as it were a House of Peers But this other House would not down with the House
of Commons whereupon in a great rage perceiving his right as he supposed to be infringed notwithstanding all diswasions to the contrary he leaving his Council hasts to the Parliament-House swearing by the Living God he would dissolve them which accordingly was done about the latter end of the year dyed his Son in Law Mr. Robert Rich and not long after his Grand-father the Earl of Warwick And now about the 12 th of March a terrible plot is discovered the City of London was to be fired and the Tower and Mows fiered and all the Souldiers about the City sacrifized to the fury of the Royal interest and therefore he presently sends for the Lord Major Aldermen and common Council of the City of London to warne them of the approaching danger tells them how the Marquess of Ormond had lately been in London for 3. weeks together promoting the affairs of his Master that our most dread Soveraign lay ready with 8000. men quartered on the Sea Coasts of Flanders and 22. hyred Ships to transport them thereupon he recommended unto their care the setling of the Militia upon the many persons were apprehended an high Court of Justice erected Dr. Hewet Sir Henry Slingsby and Mr. Mordant were brought to tryal Sir Henry and the Doctor were both condemned to loose their heads on Tower-Hill and 6. others of meaner sort were adjudged to be hanged drawn and quartered great endeavours were used the Ministers of London Petition for the Doctors life and many great persons for the Knight but all avail nothing About the month of June 1658. arrived an ominous Whale in the River of Thames which was taken at Greenwich and found to be 58. foot in length and every way proportionable In Flanders successes came in with a full Garriâ—â— presently after the taking of Mardike Fort Dunkirk was straitly besieged by the joynt Forces of the English and French and after a sharp battle the Marquis of Leda Governour of Dunkirk being now more streitly then ever environed both by Land and Seas resolved upon a desperate sally in which he was mortally wounded and shortly after dyed the Governours death wrought so upon the besieged that on the 25 th day of June Dunkirk was surrendered into the hands of the French and afterwards consigned to the English August 6. Dyed Mrs. Elizabeth Claypoole a Daughter to Oliver Cromwel not long after her dyed the Earl of Mulgrave one of the privy Counsellors to his Highnes so called And now cometh death it self to act his part on this our noble Tyrant Cromwel himself must also dye who by force and fraud had from a mean beginning raised himself to the arbitrary Government of these 3. Kingdomes And that which is very remarkable on the same day on which he had gained two such signal victories against his Majesties forces viz. at Dunbar and Worcester viz. September 3. the night that ushered in the day of his death there arose such a horrible tempest the like hath hardly been seen in our age Trees both of a large and smaller size are torn out of the earth by the roots Having as he thought certainly secured the government of these three Kingdomes to himself being at the point of death he nominates for his successor his eldest son Richard who the next day after his Fathers death was in the presence of old Olivers privy Councill and the chief Officers of the Army Proclaimed Lord Protector of England Scotland and Ireland and had addresses unto him from most parts of the 3. Nations professing their zeal and affection to his government which how little they availed him time hath since sufficiently shewed us And now after the Advancement of Richard to the supream power and dignity of these Nations Principall care is taken for the enterment of his Fathers Corps with all the solemnity and state accustomed at Kings and Princes Funeralls and to this end search is made into old Records to see what was expended at the Funeral of King James of happy memory that the same nay much more cost might be bestowed on this his Corps being now enbalmed and wrapt in Lead was conveyed from Whitehal to Somerset-House there tolye in regal pompe and State a Spectacle for all Commers and now his Funeral pompe being ended great preparations there are for the sending out of naval supplyes to the King of Sweden But now want of moneys and other necessities of State enforce Richard and his Councel to summon a Parliament which accordingly meet Jan. 27. This Parliament consisted as the other in his Fathers time did of two Houses the Commons and the other House which now was called the Upper-house and now the great thing under debate was the Recognition of the Government and now the Protectorians and the Commonwealths-men for so the House was devided spend there time in large Speeches till on a sudden Behold A Remarkable and an unexpected change which was occasioned through some ambitious Spirits of some in the Army and particularly Major General Lambert who thought to make himself Lord Protector of the 3 Nations as his Master Cromwel had done before him joynes with his silly kindred Fleetwood Disborow and others and partly out of fear enforce Richard to dissolve the Parliament then sitting And so suffered himself to be devested of that power and authority which he was invested in returning to the condition of a private Person was now honest Dick again And now all men were in a maze wondring into what hands the chief power would next be devolved the generality of the people did now again according to their bounden duty not only desire but endeavour that his Sacred Majesty our most dread Soveraign might be introduced into his own Kingdoms full well knowing there could be no settlement without his Royal person But now the Members of the old Parliament and the Counsel of Officers of the Army meet and it was agreed that those Members of the old Parliament who sat in 1653. and were interrupted by their late aspiring General from sitting should be invited to their freedome and right of sitting and the exercise of their trust by a Declaration presented from the Army to the old Speaker William Lenthal and several of the Members at the Rolls in Chancery-lane This Juncto being thus Re-called from the grave of Ignominy and reproach for they were the very scorne of the people Being the Men that Murthered our Royal Soveraign and basely enslaved the people for so many years on the 7. of May they began to set again and first they appoint a Committee to attend Richard Cromwel to know his mind concerning his acquiescence in the present Government they receive from him a writing to this effect that he could freely acquiesce in the present Government that he held himself obliged as he expected from it so to demean himself peaceably under it Not long after they send for his Brother Henry who had ruled in Ireland under the title of Lord Lieutenant who
and sworn to see the Law executed had not the Sword nor his Authority committed to him in vain And if he had had no manner of just cause of fear either in his own Person or Authority or no cause given him in re laesae Majestatis the imprisoning of his Subjects and plundering and taking away their estates from them long before he had either armed himself or had wherewithal to doe it had been cause as sufficient as to cause a Hue and Cry to be made after a Fâ—lon or raise the posse Comitatus to bring him to Justice and might by the same reason doe it in the case of more and by the same reason he might do it by the help of one nothing can hinder but by the same reason he might doe it by the help of more When Nathan came to David with a parable and told him of the rich man that had taken the poor mans only sheep he that understood wel enough the duty of a King was exceeding wroth against the man and said As sure as the Lord liveth this man shall surely die And can any man think that the King when he saw so much Sedition and Treason among the people countenanced cherished tumults grow up into outrages outrages to parties and warlike assemblies propositions made to bring in Horse and Money to maintain an Army against Him and many of his Subjects daily imprisoned sequestred undone or killed can be blamed if he had a great deal sooner gone about to defend both himself and his people For who saith St. Jerom did â—ver rest quietly sleeping neer a viper Est lex una perpetua salutem omni ratione defendere haec ratio doctis necessitas Barbarts mos gen ibus feris natura ipsa praescripsit haec non scripta sed nata lex saith Tully that great master of morality Reason Necessity Custom and Nature it self have made self-preservation to be warrantable Nemo exponere se debet pericuâ—is sed obviâ—m offensioni eisudum â—non mâ—do quae est in actu sed quae est in potentia ad actum â—ustus metus justum facit bellum say the Civil Lawes and where there was not nuda cogitatio or a bare intention onely to ruine the King but so much over and over again acted as might well occasion more than a fear and apprehension in him of what hath since been brought to pass against him no man certainly without much blindness or partiality can think it to be a fault in him to seek to defend himself when the Parliament did not only long before he raised any forces to defend himself but at the same time when he was doing of it make the people believe his Person was in so much danger as they must needs take up Arms to defend Him And how much more warrantable then must it be in the Kings case when it was not only an endeavour to defend himself but all those that have been since slain and undone and ruined for want of power enough to do it Defence is by the Civil Lawyers said to be either necessary profitable or honest Nec distingui vult Baldus sive se sua suosve defendat sive prope sive posita longè A man is said to defend himself when it is but his own goods estate or people whether neer or further off Necessaria defensio ejus est factum ad necessariam defensionem contra quem veniat armatus inimicus ejus contra quem inimicus se paravit It must needs be a necessary defence against whom an armed Enemy is either marching or preparing Vtilis defensio quum nos movemus bellum verentes ne ipsi bello petamur when we make a war to prevent or be before-hand when war or mischief is threatned or likely to come upon us for as Nicephorus the Historian saith He that will live out of danger must occurrere malis impendentibus atnevertere nec est cunctandum aut expectandum c. meet and take away growing evils and turn them another way and not to dâ—lay and be slack in it Honesta defensio quae citra metum ullum periculi nostri nulla utilitate quaesita tantum in gratiam aliorum suscipitur When for no fear of danger to our selves and for no consideration of profit to our selves but meerly in favour or help of others the war is undertaken Wherefore certainly when the King may be justly said to tarry too long before he made the second and third kinds of defences either to prevent the danger and fury of a War against himself or to help those that suffered and were undone in seeking to defend himself and was so overmuch in love with Peace as he utterly lost it and could never again recover it and was so much mistaken in the love and religion of his Subjects and Parliament promises and the impossibilities of such horrid proceedings against him as all his three Kingdomes were in a flame of War and strong Combinations made by two of them and the Pulpit every where flaming Seditious exhortations against him his Navy Magazines Ports Revenues Mint strongest Towns and places seized on Armies marching against him and he onely and a few friends and followers pend up in a corner had an enemy and a strong Town at his back ready every day to surprize him and several Armies marching and in action before and round about him before he granted out any Commission for War or had or could make any preparation for it and had so many to help and defend besides himself it would be too much injury and too great a violence to all manner of reason and understanding to deny him a Justification upon the first sort of defences if the two latter will not reach it for the first cannot by any interpretation goe without For haec est necessit as saith Baldus quae bellum justificat quum in extremo loco ad bellum confugitur Or if with Grotius we look upon it another way and make the Justice of War to consist 1. in defensione 2. in recuperatione rerum 3. in pâ—uitione The King before ever he went to demand Hull or before ever he desired a guard of the County of York had cause enough and enough to doe it and it would be hard if a great deal less then that should not be able to deliver him from the censure or blame of an offensive or unnecessary War When that which was made by David upon the children of Ammon and that of the late glorious King of Sweden against the Emperour of Germany the former for misusing the latter for encroaching upon him and not receiving his Ambassadors found warrant and necessity enough to doe it But what could the King doe more in his endeavours and waiting for a Peace or less in his preparations or making of a War when the least or one of the hundred provocations or causes we dare say plainly here set down
in the matter of fact hath hitherto among the wisest Princes and Commonwealths in the World been reputed a just and warrantable cause of War Homicide by the Lawes of England shall be excused with a fe defendendo when the assaulted hath but simply defended himself or retired in his own defence so far till by some water or wall he be hindred from going any further Death and destruction marching towards the King Hull fortified and kept behind him and all manner of necessitie compassing him in on every side could then doe no less then rouze him up to make his own defence and he must be as much without his senses as care of his own preservation if he should not then think it to be high time to make ready to defend himself and necessity enough to excuse him for any thing should be done in order to it The Parliament and He as this case stood could not be both at one and the same time in the defensive part For they had all the Money Arms Ammunition and strength of the Kingdom in their hands and multitudes of deluded people to assist them and so hunted and pursued from place to place as it was come to be a saying and a by-word among the apprentices and new levied men at London they would goe a King-catching and were not likely therefore to be guilty of so much patience as the King who was so much in love with peace and so thirsted after it as that and his often sending Messages and Propositions for it would not suffer him to make use of any victories or advantages God had given him Twice did he suffer the Earl of Essex to attempt to force him from Oxford and Sir Thomas Fairfax once to beleager him when he had Power enough to have made London or the associate Counties the Seat of the War and it would be something strange that he who when he had raised forces against his Scottish Rebels and found himself in the Head of so gallant an Army as he had much adoe to keep them from fighting and his enemies so ridiculously weak as he might have subdued them but with looking upon them but a fortnight longer could not be perswaded to draw a Sword against them would now begin an offensive warre without any power or strength at all against those that had before-hand ingrossed it or what policy or wisedome could it be in him to begin a War without Money or Men or Armes to goe through with it or to refuse the assistance of his Catholique Subjects and Forrain Friends and Forces or to spend so much time in Messages and offers of Peace to give them time and ability to disarm him and arm themselves if he had not utterly abhorred a War and as cordially affected peace as he offered fair enough for it Or if we could but tell how to say that the King did begin the War when what he did was but to preserve his Regality and the Militia and Protection of his people which the Parliament in express terms as well as by Petitioning for it acknowledged it to be his Own being but that which every private man that had but money or friends would not neglect to do Did he any more in seeking to preserve his Regality then to defend and keep himself from a breach of trust they fought to make him break Or did he any more then seek to defend himself against those did all they could to force him to break it or could there be a greater perjury or breach of trust in the Kingly office than to put the Sword which God had given him into the hands of mad-men or fools or such as would kill and slay and undo their fellow-subjects with it or to deliver up the protection of his people into the hands of a few of their ambitious fellow-subjects did as much break their own trust to those they represented in asking of it as the King would havedone if he had granted it or why shall it not be accounted an inculpata tutela in the King to preserve and defend that by a War the Laws of God and Man his Coronation-Oath Honour and Conscience and a duty to Himself and his Posterity as well as to his people would not permit him to stand still and suffer to be taken away from him But if the King by any manner of construction could be blamed or censured for denying to grant the Militia which was the first pretence of beginning of the War by those that sought to take it from him for till the besieging of Hull the 16. of July 1642. after many other affronts attempts of as high a nature put upon him the most malicious interpretation of the matter of Fact cannot find him so much as at all to have defended himself as to have done any one act of War or so much as like it who shall be in the fault for all that was done after when he offered to condiscend to all that might be profitable for his people in the matter of Religion Lawes and Liberties Or was it not a just cause of War to defend himself and his people against those would notwithstanding all he could doe and offer make a War against him because he would not contrary to his Oath Magna Charta and so many other Laws he had sworn to observe betray or deliver up his people into their hands to be governed or rather undone by a greater latitude of Arbitrary power then the great Turk or Crim Tartar ever exercised upon their enslaved people and put the education and marriage of his own Children out of his power was never sought to be taken out of the hand of any Father who was not a fool or a mad-man nor yielded to by any who would have the credit to be accounted 〈◊〉 wise or because he would not denude himself of the power of conferring honours or vilifie or discredit his great and lesser Seals and the Authority of them from which many mens Estates and Honours and the whole current of the Justice of the Kingdome had their original and refused to perjure himself by abolishing Episcopacy which Magna Charta and some dozens of other laws bound him to preserve Or if that be not enough to justifie him in his own defence had he not cause enough to deny and they little enough to ask Liberty of Conscience and practice to Anabaptists Blasphemers of God denieâ—s of the Trinity Scriptures and Deity of Christ when the Parliament themselves had taken a Covenant to root them out and made as many of the people as they could force to take it with them or had he not cause enough to deny to set up the Presbyterian Authority would not even have taken away his own Authority but have done the like also with the Lawes and Liberties of the Nation and the ruling part of that they now call the Parliament utterly abhor or if all that could not make the War be made to be defensive
advantage or colour to take away his Life for confessing himself guilty of it by allowing of the preamble in this unparallel'd demand never before stood upon By Subjects to their Prince or Conquerours to their Captives Nero himself was so far short of it as though he had cunning enough when he set Rome on fire to lay the fault upon the Christians had not Villany enough to torture and seek to draw them to a confession that they did it The King after Protestation that he could not without manifest injury to the Truth and a violation of his Honour and Conscience take upon him a guilt could no way be charged upon him or those that appeared in his defence was yet for peace sake and his peoples sake content to say It will be a great self-denial to take this supposition of a guilt upon my selfe and a Christian vertue to undergoe any affliction that may be for the good of my People and I am confident those that have adventured so much for me will be content to share with me for so good a purpose in the suffering for it I shall therefore conditionally consent to the Preamble so as there follow a conclusion upon the whole matter in Treaty and Propositions betwixt us otherwise it is but sub modo and conditional as it is alwaies to be understood in this Treaty that nothing agreed in part betwixt us shall be binding unless there be a conclusion upon the whole And here let the Truth be judge if the King did not abundantly endeavour to save his People and if the Parliament had not need of a Justification when they used all manner of force and shifts to have the King take the fault upon him they therefore that shall consider that the King was a close prisoner robbed and bereaved of all he had but his Honour and Conscience and a great measure of knowledge and understanding and the hearts of his Loyal Subjects was debarred of all friends and comforts pent up and used with all manner of hardship and extremities and every day like to be murdered that conditions adimpleri debent priusquam sequatur effectus are but inserted or added in casum incertum qui potest tendere ad esse aut non esse and depend on subsequencies or following effects which not hapning or coming to be performed according to the intent of the conditions makes them to vanish and expire as if there no such matter at all had been acknowledged or expressed in them That Cooke his accuser who when he comes to be hanged for it will never be able to prove that the People substituted or gave him warrant for to accuse him And Bradshaw who sate higher in the pageant of Justice and the rest of his fellow-murderers took the Kings conditional consenting to the Preamble to be so little for their purpose as they never so much as mentioned it must not onely acquit him of any confession or guilt to be inferred from his conditional yeelding to that Ambuscado Preamble but dissolve into wonder and admiration that he who in his Royal Meditations and Conference with death upon the Parliaments Votes of non address and his closer imprisonment at Carisbrook-Castle had clearness of Conscience enough to say for as for his judgement we hope it cannot be suspected when Mr. Carill the Independent and Mr. Vines a Presbyterian Minister could say he was a second Solomon and the Parliaments Commissioners at the Isle of Wight report him to be the master of the greatest wisdome and understanding That he had the feast of a good Conscience and the brazen wall of a judicious integrity and Conscience doubted not but his Innocency would finde God to be his protector rejoyced in the comfort of imitating Christs example in suffering for Righteousness sake and thanked God he could pray for them that God would not impute his Blood to them further than to convince them what need they had of Christs Blood to wash their Souls from the guilt of shedding His And was afterwards in the face and view of Death and his Murderers heard to say upon the Scaffold He never did begin a War with the two Houses of Parliament and called God to his witness to whom he was shortly to make an account he never intended to incroach upon their priviledges but they began upon him It was the Militia they began upon though they confest it was his and that any that would looke into the date of their Commissions and his might clearly see that they began these unhappy troubles and hoped God would clear him of it Could be so much more than a man and so great a protector of his People as not onely to be content to be robbed and dispoiled of all that he had for their sakes but to save the Lives and Estates of his People when there was no other way to do it deliver up himself so as a Peace and Agreement might have followed upon the Treaty to the unjust Censure of Robbing and Spoiling those that had robbed and undone him But now that we have hunted this Parliament Proteus through all his disguises of Parliament priviledges and pretences and are lamentably assured a great and accursed thing is committed in our Israel and the anger of the Lord is kindled against us it may be labour well bestowed though here is sure enough already said and prov'd that the King was in the defensive and justifiable part of the War to send into Achan's tent and search and see what is there to be found concerning this matter and here we finde the Lord Say the Lord Brooks and their complices had not long before the King had summoned them to that which is now called the Parliament settled and conveyed their estates to prevent any dangers might happen upon their intended enterprises Peard the pragmatique Parliament-man was heard to say a little before this holy War began to break out That the Government of the Kingdom would within a year or two be altered A little before the second Scottish Invasion Hinderson the Scotch firebrand confesses the Covenanters of both Kingdoms were unanimously agreed to bring the King to their lure before they laid down Arms the joint Declaration of both Kingdoms in January 1643. professes they will never lay down Armes till the pretended reformation be accomplished many Declarations and Remonstrances of the Parliament if they may be so called and the Army mention the original power and Soveraignty to be in the people the common Rights and Freedome of the Nation and the opportunities God hath put into their hands An Ordinance of Parliament 20 October 1645. concerning Rules and Directions for Triers and Judges of the ability of Elders declare it was the wonderfull providence of God in calling them which he never did by force of Arms Hypocrisie Treason Rebellion and usurping of Regal Authority to the great and difficult work of reformation and purging the Church The Lord Fairfax and his General Council