wherein He acquitted Himself with a Bravery equal to His Dignity And on the Sunday following attending his Father to the Sermon at St Paul's Cross and to the Service in the Quire He shewed as much humble Devotion there as he had manifested Princely Gallantry in his Justs admired and applauded by the People for His accomplishments in the Arts both of War and Peace That he could behave Himself humbly towards his God and bravely towards His Enemy pleased with the hardiness of His Body and ravished with His more generous Mind that the pleasures of the Court had not softned one to sloth nor the supreamest Fortune debauched the other to Impiety Anno 1622. Confident in these and other evidences of a wise conduct the King without acquainting his Council sends the Prince into Spain there to contract a Marriage with the Infanta and as a part of the Portion to recover the Palatinate which His Sisters Husband had lost and was by the Emperour canteld to the Duke of Bavaria and the King of Spain And herein He was to combae all the Artists of State in that Court the practices of tha Church and put an issue to that Treaty wherein the Lord Digby though much conversant in the Intrigues of that Council had been long cajoled To that place He was to pass Incognito accompanied only with the Marquess of Buckingham Mr. Endymion Porter and Mr. Francis Cottington through France where to satisfie His Curioâ—â—râ— and shew Himself to Love He attempted and enjoyed a view of the Court at Paris and there received the first Impression of that Excellent Princess who was by Heaven destined to His chast embraces Satisfied with that sight no lesser enjoyments of any pleasure in that great Kingdom nor Vanity of Youth which is hardly curbed when it is allyed to power could tempt His stay or a discovery of His Greatness but with a speed answerable to an active body and mind He out-stripped the French Posts which were sent to stop Him although that King had intelligence of His being within his Dominions immediately after their departure from the Louvre The certain news of His safe arrival at Madrid drew after Him from hene a Princely Train and raised the Censures of the World upon the King As being too forgetful of the Inhospitality of Princes to each other who when either Design Tempests or Necessity have driven their Rivals in Majesty upon their Coasts without a Caution they let them not part without some tribute to their Interest and a fresh example of this was in the King 's own Mother who seeking refuge in England with her Sister Queen Elizabeth from a Storm at home did lose both her Liberty and Life This none daring to mind the King of his Jester Archee made him sensible by telling him He came to change Caps with him Why said the King Because replied Archee Thou hast sent the Prince into Spain from whence He is never like to return But said the King what wilt thou say when thou seest Him come back again Marry says the Jester I will take off the Fools Cap which I now put upon thy Head for sending Him tither and put it on the King of Spain 's for letting Him return This so awakened the King's apprehension of the Prince's danger that it drove him into an exceeding Melancholy from which he was never free till he was assured of the Prince's return to his own Dominions which was his Fleet in the Sea and that was not long after For notwithstanding the contrasts of his two prime Ministers there Buckingham and Bristol which were sufficient to amaze an ordinary prudence and disturb the counsels of so young a beginning in the Mysteries of Empire and the Arts of experienced Conclaves the impetuous attempts of the Spanish Clergy either for a Change of His Religion or a Toleration of theirs the Spleen of Olivares whom Buckingham had exsaperated He so dexterously managed the Treaty of Marriage that all the Articles and Circumstances were solemnly sworn to by both Kings By a Civil Letter to the Pope which His Enemies Malice afterwards took as an occasion of Slander He procured a civil return with the grant of a Dispensation baffled the hopes of their Clergy by His Constancy in his own Profession and vindicated it from the odious aspersions of their Priests by causing our Liturgie to be translated into the Spanish Tongue and by His generous miene enthralled the Infanta for whom He had exposed His Liberty Yet having an insight into the practices of that Court that they would not put the Restitution of the Palatinate into the consideration of the Portion but reserve it as a Supersoetation of the Spanish Love and as an opportunity for the Infanta to reconcile the English Spirits who were heated by the late Wars into an hatred of the Spaniards and that this was but to lengthen out the Treaty till they had wholly brought the Palatinate under their power He conformed His mind to the resolves of His Father who said he would never marry his Son with a Portion of His only Sisters Tears and therefore inclined to a rupture But concealing His Purpose and dissembling His Knowledge of their Designs He consulted His own Safety and Return which his Fathers Letters commanded which he so prudently acquired that the King of Spain parted from Him with all those endearments with which departing Friends ceremoniate their Farewels having satisfied Him by a Proxie left with the Earl of Bristol to be delivered when the Dispensation was come Which as soon as He was safe on Ship-board by a private express he commanded him to keep in his hands till further Order Anno 1623. His Return to England which was in October 1623. was entertain'd with so much Joy and Thanksgiving as if He had been the happy Genius of the whole Nation and His entrance into London was as a Triumph for His Wisdom their Bonefires lengthened out the day and their Bells by uncessant ringing forbad sleep to those eyes which were refreshed with His sight Nor could the People by age or sickness he confined at home but despising the prescriptions of their Physicians went to meet Him as restored Health When He had given the King an account of His Voyage and the Spanish Counsels not to restore the Palatinate a Parliament was Summoned which was so zealous of the Honour of the Prince that both Houses Voted an Address to his Majesty that he would no longer Treat but begin a War with Spain and desiring the Prince's Mediation who was always ready to gratifie the Nation therein to His Father they assured Him they would stand by Him with their Lives and Fortunes but yet when the War with the Crown descended unto him they shamefully deserted Him in the beginning of His Reign When neither a Wise nor Peace was any longer to be expected from Spain both were sought for from France by a Marriage with Henrietta Maria the youngest Daughter of Henry the IV.
His Mind for His Affections were temperate He was of a most healthful Constitution and after the infirmities of His Childhood was never sick Once He had the small Pox but the Malignity of it was so small that it altered not His Stomach nor put Him to the abstinence of one Meal neither did it detain Him above a fortnight under the Care of His Physicians He was the Father of Four Sons and Five Daughters His Children 1. Charles James born at Greenwich on Wednesday May 13. 1628. but died almost as soon as born having been first Christned 2. Charles Duke of Cornwall and Prince of Wales born at Saint James's May 29. 1630. whom after a fellowship in the Sufferings of His Father some brave but unsuccessful attempts to recover the Rights of His Inheritance and twelve years various fortune abroad God was pleased by a wonderful Providence without blood or ruine to conduct to His Native Throne and make Him the Restorer of Peace to a People wearied and wasted almost to a Desolation by several changes of Government and Variety of reproachful Usurpers that they became the Scorn of Neighbouring Nations and the miserable Example of a disquiet Community so torn in pieces by Factions in the State and Schisms in the Church each party mutually armed to suppress its contrary and destroy the publick that it was impossible for them to re-unite or consent in common to seek the benefits of Society until they had submitted to Him as to the common Soul to be governed by Him in the paths of Justice He is now and long may He be so our Dread Sovereign CHARLES II. 3. James born in the same place Octob. 13. Anno 1633. entituled Duke of York by His Majesty's Command at His Birth and afterwards so Created He was a Companion of His Brother in Exile spending His time abroad both in the French and Spanish Camps with Glory and returned with Him into England 4. Henry Duke of Gloucester born in the same place July 8. 1639. who after the Death of His Father was by the Parricides permitted to go beyond Sea to His Mother with the promise of an Annual Pension which they never intended to pay A very hopeful Prince who resisted the strong practices of some in the Queen's Court to seduce Him to the Church of Rome which His Brother hearing sent for Him into Flanders and He also attended Him to His Throne but not long after died of the Small Pox Sept. 13. Anno 1660. 5. Mary born on Novemb. 4. Anno 1631. married to Count William of Nassau Eldest Son to Henry Prince of Orange by whom she was left a Widow and a short time after the Mother of the now Prince of Orange and coming over to visit her Brothers and the place of her Nativity she died also of the Small Pox Decemb. 24. Anno 1660. 6. Elizabeth born Jan. 28. Anno 1635. who survived her Father but lived not to see the Restoring the Royal Family dying at Carisbrook the place of her Father's Captivity being removed thither by the Murtherers that the place might raise a grief to end her Days 7. Anne born March 17. Anno 1637. died before her Father 8. Katharine who died almost as soon as born 9. Henrietta born at Exeter June 16. Anno 1644. in the midst of the Wars conveyed not long after by the Lady Dalkeith into France to her Mother and is now marryed to the Duke of Anjou only Brother to the King of France Having left this Issue He died in the forty ninth year of His Age and 23. of His Reign having lived Much rather than Long and left so many great and difficult Examples as will busie Good Princes to imitate and Bad ones to wonder at A man in Office and mind like to that Spiritual Being which the more men understand the more they Admire and Love and that may be said of Him which was said of that Excellent Roman who sought Glory by Vertue Homo Virtuti simillimus per omnia Ingenio Diis quà m Hominibus propior Qui nunquam quam rectè fecit ut rectè facere videretur sed quia aliter facere non poterat Cuique id solum visum est Rationem habere quod haberet Justitiam Omnibus humanis vitiis Immunis semper in Potestate sua Fortunam habuit Vell. Paterc lib. 2. M. S. Sanctissimi Regis Martyris CAROLI Primi Siste Viator Luge Obmutesce Mirare Memento CAROLI ILLIUS Nominis pariter insignissimae Pietatis PRIMI MAGNAE BRITANNIAE ILLIUS Qui Rebellium Perfidiâ primò deceptus Dein Perfidorum Rabie percussus Inconcussus tamen LEGUM FIDEI DEFENSOR Schismaticorum Tyrannidi succubuit Anno Salutis Humanae MDCXLVIII Servitutis Britannicae Primo Felicitatis Suae Primo Coronâ Terrestri spoliatus Coelesti donatus Sed Sileant periturae Tabellae Perlege RELIQUIAS verè Sacras CAROLINAS In Queis Ipsa Sui Iconem Aere perenniorem vivaciùs exprimit ' ΕΙΚΩ'ΠΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΗ ' CAROLI Primi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epitaphium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 SIstas sacrilegum Pedem Viator Nè forsan temeres sacros sepulchri Augusti Cineres Repôstus hîc est In Terrae Gremio Decor Stupórque Humani Generis Senex Infans Prudens scilicet Innocéns que Princeps Regni Praesidium Ruina Regni Vitâ Praesidium Ruina Morte Quem Regem potiùs Patrém ve dicam O Patrem priùs deinde Regem Regem quippe Suî Patrémque Regni Hic Donúmque Dei DeÃque Cura Quem Vitáque refert refértque Morte Ringente Satanâ Canente Coelo Diro in Pegmate Gloriae Theatro Et Christi Cruce Victor Securi Baptistae emicuit Ruina Felix Quâ Divum Carolus secutus Agnum Et postliminio domum vocatus Primaevae Patriae fit Inquilinus Sic Lucis priùs Hesperus Cadentis Resplendet modò Phosphorus Reversae Epitaphium Hic Vindex Fidei sacer Vetustae Cui par est nihil nihil secundum Naturae Typus absolutioris Fortunae Domitor ferendo suae Qui quantum Calicis bibit tremendi Tantundem sibi Gloriae reportat Regum Maximus unicúsque Regum In quo Res minima est fuisse Regem Solus qui superâ locatus Arce Vel Vitâ poterit frui priore Quum sint Relliquiae Cadaver Umbra Tam sacri Capitis vel ipsa sacra Ipsis Eulogiis coinquinata Quaeque ipsum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prophanat Sistas sacrilegum Pedem Viator Tho. Pierce D. D. Coll. Magd. apud Oxon. Praeses An EPITAPH upon KING CHARLES SO falls that stately Cedar while it stood That was the only glory of the Wood Great Charles thou earthly God celestial Ma Whose life like others though it were a span Yet in that span was comprehended more Than Earth hath waters or the Ocean shore Thy heavenly virtues Angels should rehearse It is a theam too high for humane Verse He that would know thee right then let him 〈◊〉 Vpon thy rare incomparable Book And read it o're and o're which if he do Hee 'l find thee King and Priest and Prophet too And sadly see our loss and though in vain With fruitless wishes call thee back again Nor shall oblivion sit upon thy Herse Though there were neither Monument nor Verse Thy Suff'rings and thy Death let no man name It was thy Glory but the Kingdoms Shame J.H. ΜΑ'ΡΤΥΣ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ΚΑ'ΡΟΛΟΣ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THE CONTENTS Anno MDC KIng CHARLES His Lineage and Birth Page 1. MDCII A presage of His Succession to the Crown p. 3. MDCIV. He is Created Duke of York His proficiency in his Studies p. 4. MDCXII His Succession in the Dukedom of Cornwall His Juvenile Exercises p. 5. MDCXVI He is Created Prince of Wales p. 7. MDCXVIII The Death of Queen Anne His great improvement in Theological Controversies p. 9. MDCXXII His Journey into Spain and the success of it p. 11. MDCXXIII His Return The Proposal of a Match with France p. 15. MDCXXV King James his death His Succession in the Kingdom The State of it at his first coming to it His Coronation p. 16. MDCXXVII The Expedition to the Isle of Rhee Assistance afforded to Rochel p. 25. MDCXXX The Birth of Prince CHARLES p. 31. MDCXXXII Tumults in Ireland Lord Strafford sent Deputy thither p. 34 MDCXXXIII His Journey into Scotland and Corenation there p. 35. MDCXXXIV The business of Ship-money p. 38. MDCXXXVII Troubles began in Scotland and upon what pretence p. 43. MDCXXXIX An agreement made with the Scots p. 47. MDCXL An Army raised against the Scots A Parliament called p. 49. MDCXLI The Arraignment and Execution of the Earl of Strafford The Factious Designs of the Zealots in the Parliament p. 54. The Rebellion in Ireland p. 69. The Queens departure out of England p. 87. The Kings withdrawment from London p. 90. His repulse at Hull by Hotham p. 94. Armies raised on both sides p. 105. The Battel at Edge-hill p. 111. MDCXLIII The Queens return into England The Kings Successes p. 114. MDCXLIV The Kings Victories over the Rebels p. 122. The Tryal and Execution of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury p. 127. His Character p. 130. MDCXLV The Battle at Naseby and its ill influence upon the Kings Party p. 137. MDCXLVI The Kings withdrawment to the Scottish Army p. 144. MDCXLVII The King removed from Holmby to Hampton-Court His flight into the Isle of Wight p. 150. MDCXLVIII The Treaty in the Isle of Wight p. 178. A Court Erected for the Tryal of the King p. 194. His Tryal and Carriage there p. 208. His Martyrdom and Burial p. 218. His Incomparable Book p. 225. His Character His Religion p. 229. His Justice p. 241. His Clemency p. 244. His Fortitude p. 247. His Patience p. 252. His Humility p. 256. His choice of Ministers of State p. 259. His Affection to his People p. 260. His obliging Converse p. 263. His Fidelity p. 264. His Charity p. 267. His Temperance p. 268. His Frugality ibid. His Intellectual abilities p. 271. His skill in all Arts. p. 273. His Eloquence p. 275. His Political Prudence ibid. The censure of his Fortune p. 278. A presage of His Fall and the future State of the Royal Family p. 280. His Recreations p. 281. The features of his Body p. 283. His Children p. 284. His Epitaph p. 287. His Epitaph by Doctor Pierce p. 290. Another Epitaph by J. H. p. 292. THE END
season Attend me by the Law of God and reason They dare impeach and punish for high Treason 9 Next at the Clergy do their Furies frown Pious Episcopacy must go down They will destroy the Crosier and the Crown free'd 10 Church-men are chain'd and Schismaticks are Mechanicks preach and Holy Fathers bleed The Crown is crucified with the Creed 11 The Church of England doth all faction foster The Pulpit is usurpt by each Impostor Ex tempore excludes the Pater Noster 12 The Presbyter and Independant Seed Springs with broad-blades to make Religion bleed Herod and Pontius Pilate are agreed 13. The Corner-stone's misplac't by every Pavier With such a bloody method and behaviour Their Ancestors did crucifie our Saviour 14 My Royal Consort from whose fruitful Womb So many Princes legally have come Is forc't in Pilgrimage to seek a Tomb. 15 Great Britains Heir is forced into France Whilest on his father's head his foes advance Poor Child He weeps out his Inheritance 16 With my own Power my Majesty they wound In the King's name the K. himself 's uncrown'd So doth the dust destroy the Diamond 17 With Propositions daily they enchant My Peoples ears such as do Reason daunt And the Almighty will not let me Grant 18 They promise to erect my Royal Stem To make me Great t' advance my Diadem If I will first fall down and worship them 19 But for refusal they devour my Thrones Distress my Children and destroy my bones I fear they 'l force me to make bread of stones 20 My Life they prize at such a slender rate That in my absence they draw bills of hate To prove the King a Traytor to the State 21 Felons obtain more priviledge that I They are allow'd to answer e're they dye 'T is death for Me to ask the reason Why. 22 But Sacred Saviour with thy words I woo Thee to forgive and not be bitter to Such as thou know'st do not know what they do 23 For since they from their Lord are so disjointed As to contemn those Edicts he appointed How can they prize the Power of his Anointed 24 Augment my Patience nullifie my hate Preserve my Issue and inspire my Mate Yet though We perish bless this Church and State THE LIFE OF Charles I. CHARLES I. King of Great Britain France and Ireland was the Son of James VI. King of Scots and Anne his Wife a Daughter of Denmark By His Father descended to him all the Rights together with their blood of all our Ancient both Saxon and Norman Kings to this Empire For the Lady Margaret Sister and sole Heir of Edgar Atheling the last surviving Prince of the English Saxons being married to Malcolme Conmor King of Scots conveyed to his Line the Saxon and Margaret Daughter of Henry VII married to James IV. did bring the Norman Titles and Blood From this Imperial Extract He received not more Honour than He gave to it For the blood that was derived to Him elaborated through so many Royal veins He delivered to Posterity more maturated for Glory and by a constant practice of Goodness more habituated for Vertue He was born at Dunfermeling one of the principal Towns of Fife in Scotland on November 19. Anno 1600. in so much weakness that His Baptism was hastened without the usual Ceremonies wherewith such Royal Infants are admitted into the Church Providence seeming to consecrate Him to Sufferings from the Womb and to accustom Him to the exchange of the strictures of Greatness for clouds of Tears There was no observation nor augury made at His Birth concerning the sequel of His Life or course of Fortune which are usually related of such whose lives have different occurrences from those in others of the same state Either the fear of His Death made those about Him less observant of any Circumstances which curious minds would have formed into a Prediction He appearing like a Star that rises so near the point of his setting that it was thought there would be no time for calculation Or He being at distance by His Birth from the Succession to the Crown Prince Henry then having the first hopes made men less solicitous to enquire of His future state on whom being born to a private Condition the Fate of the Kingdom did not depend But in the third year of His Age when King James was preparing himself to remove to the English Throne a certain Laird of the Highlands though of very great age came to the Court to take his leave of him whom he found accompanied with all his Children After his address full of affectionate and sage Advice to which his gray hairs gave authority to the King his next application was to Duke CHARLES Anno 1602. for in the second year of His Age He was created Duke of Albany Marquess of Ormond Earl of Ross and Baron of Ardmanock whose hands he kiss'd with so great an ardencie of affection that he seemed forgetful of a separation The King to correct his supposed mistake advised him to a more present observance of Prince Henry as the Heir of his Crown of whom he had taken little notice The old Laird answered that he knew well enough what he did and that It was this Child who was then in His Nurses arms who should convey his name and memory to the succeeding ages This then was conceived dotage but the event gave it the credit of a Prophecie and confirmed that opinion That some long-experienced souls in the world before their dislodging arrive to the height of prophetick Spirits Anno 1603. When he was three years old He was committed to the Care and Governance of Sir Robert Cary's Lady as a reward for being the first Messenger of Queen Elizabeth's death whose long life had worn the expectation of the Scotish Nobility into a suspicion that the Lords of England would never acknowledge her to be dead as long as there was any old Woman of that Nation that could wear good cloaths and personate the Majesty of a Queen Anno 1604. In the fourth year after He had wrestled with a Feaver He was brought in October to the English Court at Windsor where on January 6. following having the day before been made Knight of the Bath He was invested with the title of Duke of York and in the sixth year Anno 1606 was committed to the Pedagogy of Mr. Thomas Murray a person well qualified to that Office though a favourer of Presbytery Under this Tutor and confined to a retiredness by the present weakness of His body He was so diligent and studious that He far advanced in all that kind of Learning which is necessary for a Prince without which even their natural Endowments seem rough and unpleasant in despight of the splendour 〈◊〉 their fortune His proficiency in Letters was so eminent that Prince Henry taking notice of it to put a jest upon Him one day put the Cap of the Archbishop Abbot who was then with the Prince and the Duke and
days than the Duke had done in so many months before But in the mean while Rochel was barricadoed to an impossibility of Relief Therefore the Earl of Lindsey who commanded the Forces after some gallant yet fruitless attempts returned to England and the Rochellers to the Obedience of the French King As Providence had removed the great Object of the Popular hate and as was pretended the chief obstruction of the Subjects Love to their King the Duke of Buckingham so the King himself labours to remove all other occasions of quarrel before the next Session He restores Archbishop Abbot who for his remisness in the Discipline of the Church had been suspended from his Office and was therefore the Darling of the Commons because in disgrace with the King so contrary are the affections of a corrupted State to those of their Governours to the administration of it again Dr. Potter the great Calvinist was made Bishop of Carlisie Mr. Mountague's Book of Appello Caesarem was called in Proclamations were issued out against Papists Sir Thomas Wentworth an active Leader of the Commons was towards the beginning of this Session as Sir John Savil had been at the end of the last called up into the Lord's House being made Viscount Wentworth and Lord President of the North. But the Honours of these Persons whose parts the King who well understood men thought worthy of his Favour and Employment seeming the rewards of Sedition and the spoils of destructive Counsels the Demagogues were more eager in the pursuit of that which these had attained unto by the like Arts. And therefore despising all the King 's obliging practices in the next Sessions they assumed a power of reforming Church and State called the Customers into question for Levying Tonnage and Poundage made now their Invectives as they formerly did against the Duke against the Lord Treasurer Weston so that it appeared that not the persons of men but the King's trust of them was the object of their Envy and His Favour though never so Vertuous marked them out for Ruine And upon these points they raised the heat to such a degree that fearing they should be dissolved ere they had time to vent their passions they began a Violence upon their own Body an example which lasted longer than their Cause and at last produced the overthrow of all their Priviledges They lockt the Doors of the House kept the Key thereof in one of their own Pockets held the Speaker by strong hand in the Chair till they had thundered out their Votes like dreadful Anathemaes against those that should Levy and which was more ranting against such as should willingly pay the Tonnage and Poundage This Force the King went with His Guard of Pensioners to remove which they hearing adjourned the House and the King in the House of Lords declaring the Injustice of those Vipers who destroyed their own Liberties dissolved the Parliament While the winds of Sedition raged thus furiously at home more gentle gales came from abroad The French King's designs upon other places required Peace from us and therefore the Signiorie of Venice by her Ambassadors was moved to procure an Accord betwixt Charles and Lewis which the King accepted And not long after Anno 1629 the Spaniard pressed with equal necessities desired Amity which was also granted The King being thus freed from his domestick Embroilments and foreign Enmities soon made the World see His Skill in the Arts of Empire and rendred Himself abroad more considerable than any of His Predecessors And He was more glorious in the eyes of the good and more satisfied in His own breast by confirming Peace with Prudence than if He had finished Wars with destroying Arms. So that His Scepter was the Caduceus to arbitrate the differences of the Potentates of Europe His Subjects likewise tasted the sweetness of a Reign which Heaven did indulge with all its favours but only that of valuing their Happiness While other Nations weltred in blood His people enjoyed a profound Peace and that Plenty which the freedom of Commerce brings along with it The Dutch and Easterlings used London as the surest Bank to preserve and increase their Trading The Spanish Bullion was here Coined which advantaged the King's Mint and encreased the Wealth of the Merchants who returned most of that Money in our native Commodities While He dispensed these Blessings to the People Heaven was liberal to Him in giving Him a Son to inherit his Dominions May 29. Anno 1630. which was so great matter of rejoycing to the People of uncorrupted minds that Heaven seemed also concerned in the Exultation kindling another Fire more than Ordinary making a Star to be seen the same day at noon From which most men presaged that that Prince should be of high Undertakings and of no common glory among Kings which hath since been confirmed by the miraculous preservation of Him and Heaven seemed to conduct Him to the Throne For this great blessing the King gave publick Thanks to the Author of it Almighty God as St. Paul's Church and God was pleased in a return to those thanks with a numerous Issue afterwards to increase this Happiness For neither Armies nor Navies are such sure props of Empire as Children are Time Fortune private Lusts or Errors may take off or change Friends But those that Nature hath united must have the same Interest especially in Royal Families in whose Prosperities sirangers may have a part but their Adversities will be sure to crush their nearest Allies Prospering thus in Peace at home a small time assisted His frugality to get such a Treasure and gave Him leasure to form such Counsels as might curb the Insolence of His Enemies abroad He confederated with other Princes to give a check to the Austrian Greatness assisting by His Treasure Arms and Counsel the King of Sweden to deliver the oppressed German States from the Imperial Oppressions And when Gustavus's fortune made him insolent and he would impose unequal Conditions upon the Paltsgrave the King's Brother-in-Law He necessitated him not withstanding his Victories to more easie Articles The next year was notorious for two Trials one of the Lord Audley Earl of Castlehaven who being accused by all the abused parts of his Family of a prodigious wickedness and unnatural uncleanness was by the King submitted to a tryal by his Peers and by them being found Guilty was Condemned and his Nobility could be no patronage for his Crimes but in the King's eyes they appeared more horrid because they polluted that Order and was afterwards executed The other was of a tryal of Combat at a Marshal's Court betwixt Donnold Lord Rey a Scotish High-lander and David Ramsey a Scottish Courtier The first accused the last to have solicited him to a Confederacy with the Marquess Hamilton who was then Commander of some Forces in assistance of the King of Sweden in which Ramsey said all Scotland was engaged but three and that their friends had gotten provision of Arms
and Powder out of England that the Court was extremely corrupted and that the matters of Church and State were so out of frame as must tend to a Change There were no Witnesses and the Defendant denying what the Appellant affirmed the Tryal was thought must be by Duel In order to which the King grants a Commission for a Court-Marshal where though the presumptions of Ramsey's guilt were more heightned yet the King hinders any further process by Combat which is doubted whether it be lawful either thinking none so foolish as to strive for Empire which He found so full of Trouble or knowing that Magistracy being the sole Gift of Heaven it was vain to commit a crime in hope of enjoying it or in fear of losing it which was the Principle upon which Excellent Princes have neglected the diligent Inquisition of Conspiracies and fatally continues Hamilton in that favour as did enable him afterwards more falsly to act that Treason of which he was then accused Anno 1632. Some Tumults in Ireland shewed a defect in that Government which made the King send over as Deputy thither the Lord Wentworth a most accomplished Person in affairs of Rule of great Abilities equal to a Minister of State The King 's choice of him he soon justified by reducing that tumultuary people to such a condition of Peace and security as it had never been since its first annexion to this Crown and made it pay for the Charges of its own Government which before was deducted out of the English Treasury their Peace and Laws now opening accesses for Plenty This enjoyment of Peace and Plenty through all the King's Dominions made him mindful of employing some fruits of it to the Honour of that God that caused it and not to let so great a Prosperity wholly corrupt the minds of men to a neglect of Religion which is usual He shewed His own Zeal for the Ornaments of it and spent part of His Treasure towards the repair of St. Paul's Church and by His Example Admonitions and Commands drew many of His Subjects to a Contribution for it and had restored it to its primitive lustre and firmness adorned it to a magnificence equal with the Structure which is supposed the goodliest in the Christian World had not the Malice of His Enemies forced Him to Arms mingled His Morter with the blood of innocent people and sacrilegiously diverted all the Treasure and Materials gathered for this pious design to maintain an impious and unjust War and afterwards to dishonour His Cares for Religion they barbarously made it a Stable for their Horse and Quarters for their unhallowed Foot Anno 1633. Some Reasons of State drew the King from London May 13. to receive the Imperial Crown of Scotland Himself professed that He had no great Stomach to the Journey nor delight in the Nation being a Race of men that under the Scheme of an honest animosity and specious plain dealing were most persidious A full Character of their great Movers Yet as he had been nobly treated all along His Journey by the English Nobility so was He there magnificently received and crowned at Edinburgh June 10. But the King soon found all those Caresses false For the Nobility and Laick Patrons could not concoct His Revocation though legal and innocent of such things as had been stolen from the Crown during His Father's Minority with a Commission for Surrendry of Superiorities and Tithes to be retaken from the King by the present Occupants who could as then pretend no other Title than the unjust usurpation of their Ancestors on such conditions as might bring some Profit to the Crown to which they justly belonged some Augmentation to the Clergy and far more ease and benefit to the Common People whom by advantage of those illegal Tenures they oppressed with a most bitter Vassalage This Act of His Majesty being so full of equity and publick good those whose greatness was builded upon Injustice did not bare-facedly oppose it but endeavoured to hinder that and all the other designs of Peace and Order by opposing in the Parliament next after the Coronation the Act of Ratification of all those Laws which King James had made in that Nation for the better regulating the affairs of that Church both as to the Government and Worship of it This was highly opposed by such as were sensible of their diminution by a legal restitution of their unrighteous Possessions And although the King carried it by the major part of Voices yet to prevent their own fires with the publick Ruine they did most assiduously slander it among the People as the abetting of Popery and the betraying their Spiritual Liberty to the Romish yoke These Calumnies received more credit by the King's Order for a more Decent and Reverend Worship of God at his Royal Chappl at Edinburgh conformably to the English Usage Their noise grew louder by the Consent of their party of Malecontents in England who also took advantage to diffuse their poison from the King's Book of Sports which King JAMES had in his time published in Lancashire and was now ratified by King CHARLES for a more universal Observance The Occasion of which was the Apostasie of many to Popery whose Doctrines and Practices are more indulgent to the licentious through the rigid opinion of some Preachers who equall'd all Recreations on the Sabbath as they call'd it to the most prodigious transgressions On the contrary some of the Ignorant Teachers had perverted many to downright Judaism by the consequence of so strict an Observance of the Sabbath And some over-busie Justices of Peace had suppressed all the Ancient Feasts of the Dedications of Churches The King therefore intended by this edict to obstruct the success of the Enemies on both sides and to free His People from the yoke of this Superstition But such is the weakness of Humane Prudence that the Remedies it applies to one Inconvenience are pregnant of another and whereas the generality of men seldom do good but as necessitated by Law when Liberty is indulged all things are soon filled with Disorder and Confusion And so it happened in this that the Vulgar abusing the King's Liberty which was no more than is granted in other Protestant Churches and committing many undecencies made many well-temper'd Spirits too capable and credulous of those importunate Calumnies of the Faction that His Majesty was not well-affected to Religion Anno 1634. The boldness of the Pickeroons Turks and Dunkirk-Pirates infesting our Coasts damaging our Traffique the usurpation of the Holland Fishers on the King's Dominion in the narrow Seas and His Right disputed in a Tract by the Learned Grotius call the King 's next Cares for His own Honour and the People's Safety But the Remedy appeared exceeding difficult the furnishing of a Navy for so honourable an undertaking being too heavy a burden for His Exchequer which although not emptied by any luxuriant Feasts nor profusely wasted on some prodigal and unthrifty Favourite nor
lavished on ambitious designs from all which destructions of Treasure no King was more free was but just sufficient for ordinary and necessary Expences of State and Majesty And though it was most just for Him to expect the Peoples Contribution to their own Safety who were never richer than now nor had they ever more Security for their riches than they now had by His Concessions of Liberty yet knowing how powerful the Faction always was to disturb the Counsels of Parliament He feared that from their Proceedings the Common Enemies would be incouraged as formerly to higher Insolencies and the envious Demagogues would contemn their own safety to ruine His Honour He also accounted it a great unhappiness to be necessitated to maintain His State by extraordinary ways and therefore refused to renew Privy Seals and Loans the use of which He debarred Himself of in granting the Petition of Right Therefore consults His Attorney-General Noy whether the Prerogative had yet any thing left to save an unwilling people Noy acquaints Him with Ancient Precedents of raising a Tax upon the Nation for setting forth a Novie in case of danger and assures Him of the Legality of the way in proceeding by Writs to that effect Which Counsel being embraced there were Writs directed to the several Counties for such a Contribution that in the whole might build furnish and maintain 47 Ships for the safety of the Kingdom And by these the King soon secured and calmed the Seas but the Faction endeavoured to raise a Tempest at Land Anno 1635. They complained of Invasions on their Spiritual Liberties because the Bishops endeavoured in these years to reduce the Ceremonies of the Church to their primitive Observance of which a long Prosperity had made men negligent and time had done that to the Spiritual Body which it doth to the Natural daily amassed those Corruptions which at length will stand in need of cure Therefore when they took this proper Method of reforming a corrupted State in bringing things back to their Original Institution both His Majesty and they were defamed with designs of Popery This Tax of Ship-money was pretended a breach to their Civil Liberties and contrary to Law because not laid by a Parliament Therefore those who sought the People's favour to alter the present Government by seeming the singular Patrons of their Rights refused to pay the Tax Anno 1636. and stood it out to a Tryal at Law The Just Prince declined not the Tryal and permitted Monarchy and Liberty to plead at the same Bar. All the Judges of the Land did justifie by their Subseriptions that it was legal for the King to levy such a Tax and their Subscriptions were enrolled in all the Courts of Westminster-Hall And when it came to be argued in the Exchequer-Chamber ten of them absolutely declared for it only two Crooke and Hutton openly dissented from that opinion to which they had formerly subscribed not without the ignominy of Levity unbeseeming their places And as the King was thus victorious in the Law so was He at Sea and having curbed the Pirates He also reduced the Hollanders to a precarious use of His Seas Amidst all these Difficulties and Calumnies the King hitherto had so governed that sober men could not pray for nor Heaven grant in Mercy to a People any greater Happiness than what his Reign did afford The British Empire never more flourished with Magnificent Edifices the Trade of the Nation had brought the wealth of the Indies home to our doors Learning and all good Sciences were so cherished that they grew to Admiration and many Arts of the Ancients buried and forgotten by time were revived again No Subjects under the Sun richer and which was the effect of that none prouder Security increased the Husband-mans stock and Justice preserved his Life none being condemned as to Life but by the lawful Verdict of those of an equal Condition the Jury of his Peers The poor might reverence but needed not Fear the Great and the Great though he might despise yet could not injure his more obscure Neighbour And all things were so administred that they seemed to conspire to the Publick good except that they made our Happiness too much the cause of all Civil Commotions and brought our Felicity to that height that by the necessity of humane nature which hath placed all things in motion it must necessarily decline And God provoked by our sins did no longer restrain and obstruct the arts and fury of some wicked men who contemning their present certain enjoyments hoped for more wicked acquisitions in publick Troubles to overwhelm every part of the King's Dominions with a deluge of Blood and Misery and to commence that War which as it was horrid with much slaughter so it was memorable with the Experiences of His Majesties Vertues Confusions like Winds from every Coast at once assaulting and trying His Righteous Soul The first Storm arose from the North and the flame first broke out in Scotland where those Lords who feared they should lose their spoils of Religion and Majesty took all occasions to hasten the publick Misery which at last most heavily lay upon their Country the hands they had strengthened and instructed to fight against their Prince laying a more unsupportable slavery upon them than their most impious Slanders could form in the imaginations of the credulous that they might fear from the King by calumniating the King's Government raising fears of Tyranny and Idolatry forming and spreading seditious Libels The Author or at least the Abettor of one of which was found to be the Lord Balmerino a Traytor by nature being the Son of one who had before merited death for his Treasons to King James yet found that mercy from him as the Son now did from King Charles to have his Life and Estate continued after condemnation Yet this perfidious man interpreted the Kings Clemency for his own Vertue and he that had dared such a Crime could not be changed by the Pardon of it and as if he had rather received an Injury than Life he was the most active in the approaching Rebellion Anno 1637. For the Rabble that delights in Tumults were fitted by this and other Boutefeus for any occasion of contemning the King's Authority though His designs that were thus displeasing to the Nobless were evidently for the benefit of the Populacy and at last took fire from the Liturgy something differing from ours lest a full consent might argue a dependency upon the Church of England which some Scotish Bishops had composed and presented to the King for the use of their Church which the King who was desirous that those who were united under His Command might not be divided in Worship confirmed and appointed to be first read July 13. at Edinburgh a City always pregnant with suspicions and false rumors But it was entertained with all the instruments of fury that were present to a debauched multitude for they flung cudgels and sticks at
Promotions But the Laity that in the House had not time to declame against His Majesties Proceedings did it without doors for being dispersed to their homes they filled all places with suspicious Rumours and high Discontents and in Southwark there was an open Mutiny began which was not pacified without much danger and the Execution of the principal Leaders The King thus betrayed defamed and deserted by those who should have considered that in His Honour their Safety was embarqued though He had no less cause to fear secret Conspiracies at Home which were more dangerous because obscure than the Scots publick Hostility yet vigorously prosecuted His undertaking and raised a sufficient Army but could not do it with equal speed to His Enemies who had soon re-united their dispersed Forces and incouraged by the Faction with whom they held intelligence in England contented not themselves to stand upon the defence but invaded us and advanced so far before all the King's Army could be gathered together that they gave a defeat to a Party of it ere the Rear could be brought up by the Earl of Strafford who was appointed General or the King could come to encourage them with His Presence He was no sooner arrived at His Army but there followed Him from some English Lords a Petition conformable to the Scotch Remonstrance which they called the Intentions of the Army So that His Majesty might justly fear some attempts in the South while He was thus defending Himself from the Northern injuries The King answered the Petitioners That before their Petition came He had resolved to summon all the Peers to consult what would be most for the Safety of the Nation and His own Honour Who accordingly met Sept. 24. Where it was determined that a Parliament should be called to meet Nov. 3. and in the mean time a cessation should be made with the Scots with whom some Commissioners from the Parliament should Treat Novemb. 3. Began that fatal Parliament which was so transported by the Arts of some unquiet persons that they dishonoured the name and hopes of a Parliament ingulfed the Nation in a Sea of Blood ruined the King and betrayed all their own Priviledges and the People's Liberty into the power of a Phanatick and perfidious Army And although His Majesty could not hope to find them moderate yet He endeavoured to make them so telling them at their meeting that He was resolved to put Himself freely upon the Affections of His English Subjects that He would satisfie all their just Grievances and not leave to malice it self a shadow to doubt of His desire to make this a glorious and flourishing Kingdom He commended to their care the chasing out of the Rebels the Provisions of His own Army and the Relief of the oppressed Northern Counties But the Malignity of some few and the Ignorance of more employed that Assembly in other matters First in purging their House of all such as they conceived would not comply with their destructive enterprises and for such men they either sound some fault with their Elections or made them Criminals in some publick Grievance though others of a deeper guilt they kept among them that their Offences might make them obnoxious to their power and obsequious to their commands Then with composed Harangues they declaimed upon the publick Grievances and reckoned up casual Misfortunes amongst designed Abuses of Government every way raising up Contumelies against the present Power and that which was fullest of Detraction and Envy was applauded as most pregnant with Liberty Thus pretending several Injuries had been done to the People they raised the Multitude to hopes of an unimaginable Liberty and a discontent with the present Government After this they set free all the Martyrs of Sedition that for their malignant Libels had been imprisoned and three of them were conducted through London with such a company of people adorned with Rosemary and Bays as it seemed a Triumph over Justice and those Tribunals that sentenced them Then they fell upon all the chief Ministers of State they impeached the Earl of Strafford Lord Lieutenant of Ireland after him the Archbishop of Canterbury the Lord Finch Keeper of the Great Seal the Judges that according to their Oath had determined Ship-money legal and others some of which fled those that were found were clapt in Prison so that the King was soon despoiled of those that were able or faithful to give Him Counsel and others terrified in their Ministery to Him While the Factious thus led the House their Partisans without by their Instructions formed Petitions against the Government in Church and State to which they seduced the ignorant Rabble in the City and several Counties to subscribe and in a tumultuous manner to present them to their Patriots Who being animated by the success of their Arts fell to draw up a Bill for Triennial Parliaments wherein the Power of calling that great Council of the Nation was upon refusal of the King and the neglect of others devolved upon Constables Which profanation of Majesty though the King disswaded them from yet they persisted in and He passed it Anno 1641. After five Months time for so long a space they took to rake up Matter and Witnesses to justifie their accusation and to give leisure to the Court for Overtures of gainful Offices to the great Sticklers against him which not appearing the Earl of Strafford is brought to his Trial in Westminster-Hall before the Lords as his Judges the King Queen and Prince sitting behind a Curtain in an adjoining Gallery and round about the Court stood the Commons His Accusers and Witnesses were English Scotch and Irish and indeed so brave a Person could not be ruined but by the pretended hatred of the whole Empire The English were such as envied his Vertues and greatness in the King's Favour The Scotch because they knew his Prudence able to counter-work their Frauds discover their impudent Cheats and his wise management to overthrow their Force The Irish hatred arose from his just and necessary Severity in his Government whereby he had reduced them from so great a Barbarousness that was impatient of Peace to a Civility that was fertile of Plenty and by Artifices Husbandry and Commerce had rendred that tumultuary Nation so rich that they were now able to repay to the English Treasury those great Debts which their former Troubles and Commotions had contracted Although those of this Nation were Papists and sworn Enemies both of the English name and State and were even then practising and meditating their Rebellion which they hoped more easie when so wise a Governour was removed and so prone enough of themselves to the Crime yet were they much caressed by the Faction that these in the name of the whole Kingdom should press the Earl with envy to the Grave His Charge consisted of Twenty eight Articles that their number might cover their want of Evidence To all which the Lieutenant whose Patience was not overcome nor
affected silence Then prodigious Calumnies which none but souls prone to any wickedness could believe of so Great a man were formed of the King and such suspicions raised of Him and His Friends as might force them to some Injuries which hitherto they forbore and by securing themselves increase the Publick fears For Slanders do rather provoke most men than amend them and the provoked think more of their safety than to adjust their actions against their malicious Slanderers And when the minds of men were made thus solicitous concerning Dangers from the King to make them more pliable and ductile there was represented to them an inevitable anger of Heaven against the present state of things both in Church and State testified by many Prodigies that were related and portentuous Presages of Ruine Certain Prophecies for a credulity to which the English Vulgar are infamous from unknown Oracles are divulged which enigmatically describe the King as a Monster and from such a Prince must proceed a change of Government Some vain persons also that gave themselves up to the Imposture of Astrology were hired to terrifie the people with the unsignificant Conjunctions of Stars and from them to foretel ruines to the better part of the World and an imminent destruction on men of the Long Robe and Alterations of States These were done to temper the minds of men by superstition for a guidance of their Ministers who being conceived to be the Ambassadours of Heaven were supposed to have it in their Commission to declare the Conditions of War and Peace and these either through the same weakness capable of the like terrors with the Vulgar or which is more to be abhorred corrupted as some were by the Caresses and gainful hopes that the Faction baited them with did justifie their fears and increase them by applying some obscure Prophecies in Scripture to the present Times and People compared the pretended Corruptions of our Church with the Idolatries of Israel and whatsoever was condemned in the Holy Records was parallel'd with the things they disliked here and all the Curses that God poured upon His irreconcileable and obdurate enemies were denounced against such as differ'd from them or would not joyn with the Faction To make these Harangues more efficacious the Authors of them received the Reverence of the Demagogues who despising questioning and exposing to Affronts such sober Divines as would have cured the madness of the People appropriated to such Teachers the Titles of Saints Faithful Ministers Precious men and they on the other side made a return of Epithets to their Masters of the Servants of the Most High such as were to do the Work of the Lord That by their Counsels men were to expect new Heavens and a new Earth that they were men that should prepare the Kingdom for Jesus Christ and lay the Foundations of the Empire of the Saints which was to last a Thousand years To make the Cry yet louder they permitted all Sects and Heresies a Licence of publick profession which hitherto Discipline the Care of the Common Peace and Religion had confined to secret corners and permitted the Office of Teaching to every bold and ignorant undertaker so that at last the dregs of the People usurped that Dignity and Women who had parted with the natural modesty of their Sex would not only speak but also rule in the Church All these in gratitude for their Licentiousness still perswaded to their hearers the admiration of the Authors of it and bitterly inveighted against those whom the Care both of the Souls and Fortunes of men would excite to repress them in many of their Raptures denouncing Wo and Judgment to the lawful Governours in Church and State While all these Methods of Ruine were preparing her the same anger of God the same madness of men raised up another Tempest in Ireland For the Popish Lords and Priest of Ireland who were the prime composers of the Tragedies there were incouraged by the Success of the Scots who by a prosperous Rebellion as the Historian of those Troubles writes had procured for themselves such large Privileges to an imitation which the present Jealonsies in England where mutual Contrasts would employ all their force upon one another promised to be secure And they had an happy opportunity by the Vacancy in Government through the slaughter of the Earl of Strafford with whom the Irish Lords while they prosecuted him in England had removed all those other inferiour Magistrates that were most skilful in the affairs of that Kingdom by accusing to the Faction some of them of Treason and others of an inclination to the Earl and had got preferred to their charges such as were either altogether unacquainted with the Genius of that People or favourers of the Conspiracy A strength they had also ready for those 8000 which had been listed for the Scotish Expedition were unseasonably disbanded and the King in foresight they might cause some mischief in their own Country and therefore promised 4000 of them to the King of Spain yet would not the Parliament consent to their departure because as the Irish Lords suggested it would displease the King of France and when the King promised to send as many to the French Camp that likewise was not relished The Common Souldiers of that Army being thus made useless and therefore like men of their employment most fierce when they were to be dismissed from the dangers of War were easily drawn into the Rebellion although very few of their Officers were polluted with the Crime The Irish Lords and Priests being allured by these our Vices and these several opportunities began their Rebellion Octob. 23. The Irish throughout that whole Kingdom on a sudden invading the unprovided English that were scattered among them despoiling them of their Estates Goods and many thousands of their Lives without any respect of Sex Age Kindred or Friendship and made them as so many Sacrifices to their bloody Superstition They missed but a little to have surprised Dublin But their Conspiracy being detected there and in some few other places the English name and interest was preserved in that Kingdom till they could receive Succours from hence The King had the first intelligence of it in its very beginnings in Scotland and thereupon sent Sir James Stuart to the Lords of the Privy Council in Ireland to acquaint them with His Knowledge and Instructions and to carry all that Money that His present Stores could supply Besides He moves the Parliament of Scotland as being nearest to a speedy help who decline their Aids because Ireland was dependent upon the Crown of England At the same time also He sends post to the Parliament of England who less regard it the Faction applauding their forturne that new Troubles were arisen to molest the King and that the Royal Power being thus assaulted in all three Nations there must shortly arise so many new Common-wealths Besides that it yielded fresh matter of reproach to His Majesty
Vices and Vanities He scorned a private Treasure and his Kindred were rather relieved than raised to any greatness by him In his Election of Friends he was determinated to the Good and Wise and such as had both Parts and Desires to profit the Church had his closest Embraces if otherwise it happened their frauds not his choice deserved the blame Both Papists and Sectaries were equally his Enemies one party feared and the other hated his Vertues Some censured him of too much Heat and a Zeal for Discipline above the Patience of the Times But his greatest unhappiness was that he lived in a Factious Age and Corrupt State and under such a Prince whose Vertues not admitting an immediate approach for Accusations was to be wounded in those whom He did Caresse But when Faction and Malice are worn out by time Posterity shall ingrave him in the Albe of the Most Excellent Prelates the most indulgent Fathers of the Church and the most injured Martyrs His blood was accompanied with some tears that fell from those Eyes which expected a pleasure at his Death and it had been followed with a more general mourning had not the Publick Miseries and present fears of Ruine exacted all the Stock of Grief for other objects About this time the Faction clove into two Sects the Presbyterian and Independent which hitherto had been united under one name of Patriots or Godly had joyntly conspired War and disturbed the Peace and by various Arts had acted all their lusts under the name and Authority of Parliament For they would either early in the morning before the House was full or late at night when those whose cares were most for the Publick were absent being assured of the Speaker propose and Vote what served for their Design If any thing contrary to it was about to be resolved in a full Assembly they by multitude of Scruples would so disturb the Debates that the determination was deferr'd to a desired Opportunity But if these failed then would they surprise the House with another Vote that should weaken and hinder the Execution of the former When the most conscientious were too numerous for them then would they make necessities to send the less pliant to their wills into the Country Thus the Lesser but more industrious Party did circumvent the Greater that were not so wary nor diligent While they thus joyntly contrive the Publick Ruine they had gotten themselves into the most considerable and profitable Offices of the Kingdom But the Presbyterians having the advantage in Number and Power and the dissension in their Opinions growing still higher by the Animosities of the inferiour and obscurer parts of their Sects there was neither Faith nor Love among them but what Fear and Necessity did force them unto The Independents who comprehended all the several herds of Hereticks Anabaptists Seekers Millenaries c. though they were the Disciples of the other yet excelled their Masters in Art and Industry had their private Junto's and meetings apart to mould their Projects and assign to each of their Confidents their several Scenes and Methods and by proper Applications to mens several humours had exceedingly encreased their strength in the Multitude only they wanted the Power of the Sword and the most useful Offices to perfect their Empire This they effected by those very practices they had learned from the Presbyterians and by procuring the Ordinance of Self-denial as they called it they turned out Essex whom they had before secretly caused to be suspected and who had neither glory in his War nor security or quiet in his Peace from his Generalship and with him also the other Leaders that were favourers of the Presbytery under pretence that it was not fit that any Members of Parliament should be encouraged to a continuance of the War by enjoying the profitable and powerful Offices in the Army to which they would now give a new Module Having by this Artifice displaced those whose Power they feared they brought in as many Candidates of their own Sect as they could to be Colonels and Sir Thomas Fairfax was appointed General This Man both Parties did the more easily consent in because he was known to be of sufficient Personal Valour and of no private Designs obstinate by a natural Melancholy rather than pertinacious in any Interest and rather free from Baseness than ambitious of Vain-glory by all these Qualities they supposed he would be obedient to the Resolves of his Masters But the Independents that were better informed of his ductile Spirit and how easily he might be imposed upon by a Species of Religion got the great Patron of all the wildest and most unreasonable Sectaries Oliver Cromwell at first to be admitted into his Counsels and aftewards to be the Director of all his actions under the title of Lieutenant General For although he likewise by the Self-denying Ordinance was made incapable of any Office in the Army being a Member of the Parliament yet those Troops of Fanaticks whom he had amassed and formerly led under the Command of the Lord Grey of Wark and the Earl of Manchester both which he had cast off were instructed to refuse the Conduct of any one but him He was therefore permitted by the Parliament as the General desired for a time to continue in the Army but he never left it till he had changed that ruined the Parliament and turned out the General that thus was the Author of his unlawful Power For this Man having a long time been poor and necessitous the Patrimony that was left him being profusely spent and nothing remaining but the Instruments of his Crimes a bloody and fierce nature a greedy soul full of bold and unjust hopes yet able to conceal them with a profession of Modesty a contempt of Religion and Friendship yet highly pretending to both till he had smote under the fifth rib those credulous hearts that trusted him he was fitted for the most impious enterprises for vexed by a pressing and tedious poverty he resolved to indeavour the utmost distance from such a Condition though by the greatest wickedness therefore used the Power he had now gotten to overthrow the whole State and establish himself in an absolute and unsupportable Tyranny which is the common issue of assaulting a Just and Lawful Prince with Arms. With these Tragedies and Changes was the Winter spent at London while the King at Oxford waits for the Issue of the Treaty at Vxbridge which as all other Consultations for Peace was vain and fruitless For the Faction would always obstruct those endeavours by their proper Methods If the Condition of their affairs were prosperous then would they make their Demands like Impositions on conquered Slaves detesting to supplicate that the acquisitions of their Swords and Blood should be confirmed by a worsted Enemy In a more humble fortune they would deprecate their drooping Party not then to think of a Reconciliation which their unprosperous Arms must necessarily render harder than their hopes
Justice and the reciprocal motions of the Popular heat that the very same Parliament that first stirr'd up this way of tumultuary Petitions against the King now complained that the Honour and Safety of Parliaments was indangered by Petitions But all their Tyranny upon the complaining Nation prevailed nothing but to provoke them to a higher Indignation and more frequent Petitions And when they perceived they dealt with men obstinate to their own Interests which were not to be gained but by the Publick ruine they fly from Prayers to Arms and intitle their just War For the Liberty of King and People And in several places as in Kent Essex Suffolk Norfolk Cornwall York-shire Wales and at last in Surry multitudes take Arms for this Righteous Cause The Navy also fall off and setting Rainsbrough their levelling Admiral on Shore seventeen Ships deliver themselves up to the Prince of Wales The Scots likewise by an Order of their own Parliament send into England to recover the Liberty and Majesty of the King an Army under Hamilton But all was in vain God had decreed other Triumphs for His Majesty and to translate Him to another Kingdom For the English being but tumultuarily raised having no train of Artillery or Ammunition considerable were soon supprest by a veterane Army provided with all necessaries The Scots either through weakness or wickedness of their Commanders who made so disorderly a march that their Van and Rear were forty miles asunder were easily worsted by Cromwell who surprised their main Body and Hamilton was taken Prisoner Cromwell follows the scattered Parties into Scotland where they were likewise assaulted by Argyle a domestick Enemy and forced to submit those Arms the Parliament had put into their hands to the Faction of that false Earl who calls another Parliament from which all were excluded that in the former Voted for the King's Delivery and all the Orders of that Convention made void Cromwell had the Publick Thanks and the private Faith of Argyle to endeavour as opportunity permitted the extirpation of Monarchy out of Scotland The Navy also deserts the Prince being corrupted by the Earl of Warwick who was appointed for this Service and when he had ingloriously bought off their Faith to their lawful Prince himself was ignominiously cashiered by the Conspirators These great disappointments and overthrws of just Enterprises men variously attributed to different Causes Some to the Perfidiousness others to the Weakness of those that managed them as also to the Treachery of some Presbyterians who in hatred to the Army first incouraged and then in Jealousie of the Royallists basely deserted them For the Rabbies of the Kirk cursed Hamilton in the beginning of his Enterprise Another sort thought them unhappy because the greatest part of the Undertakers were such that formerly had either fought against the King or else had betrayed Him and God would not now bless their unexpiated Arms. And some to the Fate of the Kingdom which God had decreed to give over to numerous and impious Tyrants because of their unthankfulness and impatience under so Incomparable a Prince But while these things were managed by the Army that were now at a distance and Cromwell's Terrors were greater in Scotland than here the less guilty Parliament-men seriously considering how impatient the People who in London and other places had gotten innumerable Subscriptions to a Petition for a Personal Treaty now were of those Injuries that were done to their Sovereign how hateful themselves grew because they had betrayed and inslaved their own Privileges together with the Liberties of the Subject to an insatiable and Phanatick Army and how an evident Ruine attended even their Conquests of Him whom it was unlawful to assault did at last though too late contrary to the clamours of their Factious and Democratick Members Repeal those Votes which they had formerly made of No more Addresses to the King This being passed in both Houses they afterwards with a strong Consent Vote a Treaty with the King in Honour Freedom and Safety The Factious Party in the Parliament found themselves too few and weak to oppose this impetuous tendency of the Two Houses and whole Kingdom to Peace But yet they endeavoured to frustrate the labours of their more since Members and to baffle the People's just desires of it by imposing many unequal Conditions and obstructive restrictions For they procured that the Treaty should be in the Isle of Wight and not at London that it should be by Commissioners and not immediately with the two Houses as was Petitioned The Propositions that were sent to be Treated were the same which had before been offered to the King at Hampton-Court and were then rejected by Him and also condemned by the Army it self as too unjust The Commissioners were so streightned in Power that it was not lawful for them to soften any one of the Conditions of Peace not to alter the Preface or change the Order of the Propositions nor to debate a Subsequent till the Precedent were agreed on They could conclude nothing they were only to propose the Demands urge Reasons for the Royal Assent receive the King's Answer and refer all in writing to the Parliament whose slow Resolves and the delays of sending were supposed would consume that narrow measure of time which was appointed to debate so many and so different things for they were limited to forty days The Commissioners they sent were Five of the Lord's House and Twelve of the Commoners and with them some of their Presbyterian Ministers who were to press importunately for their Church Government to elude the King's Arguments for Episcopacy and only to impose not to dispute their own With all these upon so many several and different Propositions some relating to the Law of the Land others to Reason of State and some to the practice of the Apostolical Primitive Churches the King was to deal without publick assistance For though He was permitted the Ministery of some Officers of State Counsellours and Divines yet were they but of private advice and to stand behind the Curtain He only Himself was to speak in the Debate and singly to manage matters of Policy with their most exercised Statists and the points of Divinity with their best-studied Divines The Vulgar to whom the Arts of these men were not so obvious were much pleased with the Name of a Treaty and now hoped to exchange their Servitude under so many importunate Tyrants for the moderate and easie Government of one Lawful King Others that had a clearer insight and observed with what difficulties it was burthened hoped for no benefit from it Because that if His Majesty should not Consent as they believed He would not then He would be the object of the popular impatience And if He should Consent He that now was thought to be most injuriously dealt with would then be conceived not to deserve the Pity even of His Friends nor could He gain any other thing by His Concessions than to be
from the safest Arts of Empire it was in the neglect of a just Severity on Seditious persons whom the Laws had condemned to die And in the War it was known how often His Lenity had clipped the wings of Victory But it appeared that these men as they had broken all Rights of Peace so they would also those of Conquest and destroy that which their Arms pretended to save How little credit their Accusation found appeared by the endeavours of all Parties to preserve the King's Person from Danger and the Nation from the guilt of His Blood For while they were thus engaged to perpetrate their intended Mischiefs all Parties declare against it The Presbyterian Ministers almost all those of London and very many out of the several Counties and some though few also of the Independents did in their Sermons and Conferences as also by Monitory Letters Petitions Protestations and Remonstrances publickly divulged adjure the Assassinates not to draw so great a guilt upon themselves and the whole Nation by that Murther For it was contrary to those numerous and fearful Obligations of their many Oaths to the Publick and Private Faith which was exprest in their Protestations and many Declarations to the Laws of the Land those of Nature and Nations and the Commands of Scripture That is was to the dishonour of our Religion and against the publick good of the Kingdom But all was fruitless for they had lost their Ministerial Authority by serving the Faction so long till they needed not their Assistance and despised their admonitions Besides the very same Principles they preached to kindle the War were now beat back into their faces and made use of against them to adjust the Murther The People also contemned them for their short-sightedness in that they would be the heady and indiscreet Instruments of such men and in such practices as must of necessity at last ruine them and all Ministers as well as the King and Bishops The Scots also by their Commissioners declare and protest against it The States of Holland by their Ambassadors if they were faithful in their trust did intercede and deprecate it as most destructive to the Protestant Interest Some of the most eminent of the Nobility as the Earl of Southampton the Duke of Richmond the Marquess of Hertford the Earl of Lindsey and others neglect no ways either by Prayers or Ransom to save the King Yea they offered themselves as being the prime Ministers of the King's Commands as Hostages for Him and if the Conspirators must needs be fed with blood to suffer in His stead for whatsoever He had done amiss The Prince piously assaies all ways and means to deliver His Father from the danger For besides the States Ambassadours whom He had procured both He and the Prince of Orange did daily send as Agents the Kindred Relations and Allies of Cromwell Ireton and the other Conspirators with full power to propose any Conditions make any Promises and use all Threatnings to divert them if it were possible from their intended Cruelty or at least to gain some time before the Execution But all was in vain for no Conditions of Peace could please them who were possessed with unlawful and immoderate desires their Ambition that is more impetuous than all other affections had swallowed the hopes of Empire therefore they would remove the King to enthrone themselves Some thought that their despair of Pardon had hardened them to a greater Inhumanity for if after all these attempts they continued the King's Life they must beg their own which they knew Justice would not and they resolved Mercy should not give for this is reckoned among the benefits which we hate to receive and Men are usually ashamed to confess they deserved death Whatsoever it was that truly made them thus cruel they publickly pretended no other Motive than the Calls and Ducts of Providence and the Impulses of the Blessed Spirit To carry on this Cheat Hugh Peters the Pulpit-Buffoon of a luxuriant Speech skill'd to move the Rabble by mimical Gestures Impudent and Prodigal of his own and others fame Ignominious from his Youth for then suffering the contumely of Discipline being publickly whipt at Cambridge he was ever after an Enemy to Government and therefore leagued himself with unquiet Sectaries preaches before these fictitious Judges upon that Text Psal 149.8 To bind their Kings in chains and their Nobles in fetters of Iron He assures them undoubtedly that this was prophesied of them that they were the Saints related to in that Scripture that they should judge the Kings of the Earth often calling them in his profane Harangue the Saint-Judges Then he professed that he had for a certain found upon a strict Scrutiny that there were in the Army 5000 Saints no less holy than those that now in Heaven conversed with God Afterwards kneeling in his Pulpit weeping and lifting up his hands he earnestly begs them in the name of the People of England that they would execute Justice upon that Wretch CHARLES and would not let Benhadad escape in Safety Then he inveighs against Monarchy and wrests the Parable of Jotham to his purpose wherein when the Trees would chuse a King the Vine and the Olive refused the Dignity but the Bramble received the Empire and he compared Monarchy to the Bramble And all the while of contriving and executing this Murther he preached to the Souldiers and in some places about the City bitterly and contemptuously railing against the King Others also of the Congregational perswasion acted their parts in this Tragedy but more closely and not so much in the face of the Sun The Conspirators taking heat from their infamous Preachers whom they themselves had first kindled and somewhat doubting that these several strong Applications from all Parties to save the King and the Universal Discontents might take some advantage from their delay with more speed hasten the Assassination In order to which they send a Serjeant of Arms with a guard of Horse lest the People should stone him for his Employment into Westminster-Hall and other places in London to summon all that could lay any crime to the King 's charge to come and give in their evidence against Him Having proclaimed their wicked purposes and dress'd up a Tribunal at the upper end of Westminster-Hall with all the shapes of terrour where the President with his abject and bloody Assistants were placed thither afterwards they bring this most Excellent Monarch whom having despoiled of three Great Kingdoms they now determined also to deprive of Life Into which Scene the King enter'd with a generous Miene shewing no signs of discomposure nor any thing beneath His former Majesty but as if He were to combate for Glory the Monsters of Mankind He undauntedly took the Seat which was set for Him with scorn looking upon the fictitious Judges and with pity upon the People who crouding in the great Gates of the Hall being flung open did bewail in Him the frailty of our
Warwick who had much of His Trust and Affections in the Isle of Wight a poor ragged Old Man and told him he was a very honest fellow and had been His best Company for two months together He would have those about Him converse rather with Himself than with His Majesty and with them would He mingle Discourses as One of the People none made an end of speaking till His own Modesty not Pride in the King thought it was enough and He never did contradict any man without this mollifying Preface By your favour Sir His discourse as it was familiar so it was directed to raise those that heard it to a nearer approach to Himself by perfection for He did not proudly scoff at but gently laboured to mend the defects of His Subjects When Doctor Hammond had in some degree lost the Manage of His Voice His Majesty shewed him his Infirmity and taught him to amend it which that Excellent Person often mentioned as an instance of a Gracious Condescension of Majesty When Noble Youths came to take their leaves of Him before they went to foreign travel He would not let them go without His Instructions of which this was one My Lord Keep alwayes the best Company and be sure never to be Idle Thus He would confer the Vertues as well as the Titles of Nobility He laboured to keep them as Majesty had made them and that that blood might not be tainted in them which was honoured in their Ancestors Nor did He desire that they should be otherwise than He directed as Tyrants and weak Princes will commend those Vertues which they are afraid of for they dread or envy their Subjects Parts and Abilities Aristotle observes that a Tyrant cares not to hear his Vassals speak any thing that is either Grave or Generous and it is reckoned among the Usurpations of such Monsters that they would have the opinion to be the Only Wise and Gallant Plato indangered his Life when he conversed with the Sicilian Tyrant because he was thought to understand more than his Host It was observed of Cromwell by one of his confident Teachers that in the time of his Tyranny he loved no man that spoke Sense and had several Artifices to disparage it among his Slaves that attended him and he would highly extol those Pulpit-Speakers that had most Canting and least Reason But the King thought it the Honour of Principality to rule over Excellent Persons and affected to be Great only by being Better and to raise their Spirits would stoop with His own Of these He always chose the most accomplished that He knew to be His Ministers of State and closest Confidents His Choice of Ministers of State for as the fortune of Princes stands in need of many Friends which are the surest supports of Empire so He would always seek the Best and those He thought fittest for His Employments which a bad or weak King would hate or fear Therefore He had always the finest Pens and ablest Heads in His Cause and Persons likewise of Integrity in His Service for the Archbishop and Earl of Strafford that were clamoured against as the greatest Criminals were not guilty enough even by those accusations which they were loaded with and yet not proved to receive the Censure of the Law but were to be condemned in an unaccustomed way of spilling English blood When some discovered their Abilities even by opposing His Counsels He preferr'd the Publick Benefit which might be by their Endowments to His private Injuries He would either buy them off to His Service by some Place of Trust or win them to His Friendship unless He saw them to be such whose Natures were corrupted by their Designs for He had a most excellent Sagacity in discerning the Spirits of men or they were such who polluted their parts by prostituting Religion to some base ends the injuries of which He could never neglect and such He neither conceived Honourable in a Court nor hoped they would ever be faithful and quiet in a Community Among these Purchaces were reckoned the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland the Lord Falkland and others now living whose Perfections honoured His Judgment and justified His Choice He had no Favorite as a Minister of Pleasures to gratifie whose Lusts and Vanities He might be sollicited to do things contrary to the benefit of the Community His Affection to His People but all were Instruments of Government and must be able to serve the Publick whom He took to serve Himself For no Prince was ever more affectionate of His People than He was nor did He think His Interest separate from theirs Those nice distinctions and cautious limits of Prerogative and Liberty which the Faction invented to enjealous the People with were all indistinctly comprised by Him in an Uniform and Constant care of a just Government none dared to advise Him to attempt at a power His Predecessors had parted with or the Laws had concluded Him from For He told the Lords when He purged the Earl of Strafford from the Accusation of Sir Henry Vane that he had advised His Majesty to make use of some Irish to reduce this Kingdom on which though it had but a single and various testimony the Faction built their Practices against His Life I think no body durst ever be so impudent as to move Me to it for if they had I should have made them such an Example and put such a mark upon them that all Posterity should know My Intentions by it For My Intention was ever to govern by the Law and not otherwise He thought He could not be happy unless His People were so as we found our selves miserable when He was not prosperous Therefore He parted with so much of His Prerogative to buy our Peace and purchase our Content He sought their Love by affecting them the only way of gaining it because that Passion only is free and impatient of Command Nor was He ever more pleased than in the enjoyment of it When His Third Parliament granted five Subsidies and it was told Him that there was not One Voice dissenting it is said He wept for joy and it had been happy for the People if the King had always had such cause of Tears and His Eyes had been always wet with the same Contests for Liberty could never have been more unseasonable than under this Prince for He never denied His Subjects the removal of any just Grievance yea He parted sometimes through their own importunity deluded by the Faction with that which should have kept them Free And when He made such Concessions which tended to the prejudice of those that desired it He would say to some about Him that He would never have granted these things but that He hoped they would see the Inconvenience of that power which they begg'd from Him yet themselves could not manage and return it to its proper place before it became their Ruine He was far from the ambition of Ill Princes to seek
for He never sed to Luxury but Health His Temperance His strong Constitution required large Meals but His Vertue took care they should not be gluttonous for He delighted not in Sawces or Artifices to please the Palate and raise the Lust but all was sincere and solid and therefore He never was subject to a Surfeit He always mingled Water with His Wine which He never drank pure but when He eat Venison and He was so nice in observing the bounds of Sobriety that most times Himself would measure and mingle both together He did usually at every Meal drink one Glass of Beer another of Wine and a third of Water and seldom drank between His Meals These though Ordinary Vertues were yet eminent in Him since they could not be corrupted by the Power nor the Flatteries of Fortune And they are therefore mentioned to gratifie Posterity for men are curious to know all even the minute Passages of Great and Vertuous Persons Being free from Incontinency and Intemperance the gulphs of Treasure and Drayners of the Largest Exchequer His Frugality He had no other Vice to exhaust the Publick Stock and so necessitate Him to fill it up by Oppressions but He would by Frugality make His Revenue sufficient for the Majesty of the Crown and the Necessities of the State His own Nature indeed inclined Him to Magnificence but the Vices of others did instruct Him to moderate Expences For He had found the Treasury low and the Debts great in His beginnings He was assaulted with two expensive Wars from the two great Potentates of Europe and the Faction had obstructed the usual way of Supplies by Parliaments Therefore He was to find a Mine in Vertue and by sparing from Vanities make provisions for necessary and glorious Enterprises which He did effect for in that short time of Peace which He enjoyed He satisfied all the Publick Debts so furnished and increased His Navy that it was the most considerable in the whole World supported His Consederate the King of Sweden and by Money inabled him for the Victories of Germany and so fill'd His own Treasury that it was able of it self to bear the weight of the first Scotch Expedition without the Aids of the Subject who were never more able to contribute to their own safety nor ever had more reason the swellings of that Nation breaking all the Banks and Fences of their Liberty and Happiness But the King would let them see that as by His Government He had made them rich He would also keep them so by His Frugality But those whose first care was to make Him necessitous and the next odious did brand it with the name of Covetousness which was as False as malicious For He never spared when Just Designs call'd for Expences and was magnificent in Noble Undertakings as in the Repair of Paul's He was always Grateful although those men who measured their Services not by their Duties or their Merits but by their Expectations from His Fortune thought Him not Liberal He chose rather not to burthen His People by Subsidies than load particular Servants with unequal Bounties For Good Princes chuse to be loved rather for their Benefits to the Community than for those to private persons And it may be Vanity and Ostentation but not Liberality when the gifts of the Prince are not proportioned to the Common Necessity His sparings were like those of Indulgent Fathers that His Subjects as Children might have the more He never like subtle and rapacious Kings made or pretended a Necessity for Taxes but was troubled when He found it The Contributions of Parliament He esteemed not the increase of His peculiar Treasure but the Provisions for the Common Safety of which He would rather be accounted a Steward than a Lord. When Faction and Sedition so deluded the People that they could not see the preservation of the whole consisted in contributing some small part He freely parted with His own Inheritance to preserve intire to them the price of their Sweat and Labour As He had these Moral Vertues which are both the signatures of Majesty His Intellectual Abilities and the Ornaments of a Royal Spirit so He was no less compleat in the Intellectual His Understanding was as Comprehensive as His Just Power and He was Master of more sorts of Knowledge than He was of Nations How much He knew of the Mysteries and Controversies of Divinity was evident in His Discourses and Papers with Henderson and those at the Isle of Wight where He singly Disputed for Episcopacy one whole day against Fifteen Commissioners and their Four Chaplains the most experienced and subtle members of all the Opposite Party with so much Acuteness and Felicity that even His Opposers admired Him He so dexterously managed His Discourse with the Ministers that He made it evident they perswaded Him to that which they themselves judged unlawful and had condemned as Sacriledge when they pretended to satisfie the Scruples of His Conscience and to assure Him He might safely alienate the Church-Lands And the Commissioners sensible how unequal their Ministers were to discourse with Him for ever after silenced them and permitted no Disputes but by Papers At that time He exceeded the opinion of His friends about Him One of them said in astonishment that Certainly God had inspired Him Another that His Majesty was to a Wonder improved by His Privacies and Afflictions But a third that had had the Honour of a nearer Service assured them that the King was never less only He had now the opportunity of appearing in His full Magnitude In the Law of the Land He was as knowing as Himself said to the Parricides yet was no boaster of His own Parts as any Gentleman in England who did not profess the Publick Practice of it especially those Parts of it which concerned the Commerce between King and People In that Art which is peculiar to Princes Reason of State He knew as much as the most prosperous Contemporary Kings or their most exercised Ministers yet scorned to follow those Rules of it which lead from the Paths of Justice The Reserves that other Princes used in their Leagues and Contracts to colour the breaches of Faith and those inglorious and dark Intrigues of subtle Politicians He did perfectly abhor but His Letters Declarations Speeches Meditations are full of that Political Wisdom which is consistent with Christianity He had so quick an Insight into these Mysteries and so early arrived to the Knowledge of it that when He was young and had just gotten out of the Court and Power of Spain He censured the weakness of that Mysterious Council For He was no sooner on Shipboard but the first words He spake were I discovered two Errors in those great Masters of Policy One that they would use Me so Ill and another that after such Vsage they permitted Me to Depart As those former parts of Knowledge did inable Him to know Men and how to manage their different
those that are molested by it and a total Overthrow whose common Consequent is Contempt but by so various and such wicked Arts and was judged by all men though He wanted yet to deserve Prosperity as to humane judgment which as some think is the truest Happiness To these Doubts there appears no Resolution so obvious as that into the Pleasure of the Divine Majesty who provoked by our sins which had profaned his Mercies and abused the Peace and Plenty he gave us would chastise us by the scourge of Civil War the corrective of too much felicity and taking away the best of Kings leave us to the Pride and Violence of the basest of men And that it was a wrath directed against us was apparent because the misfortunes and fall of that Incomparable Prince opened upon us an avenue for all those miseries that a Community is obnoxious unto in the want of a lawful Government while the Almighty secured the Glory of the King even in His Sufferings provided for the Support and Honour of the Royal Family in its lowest Estate and miraculously preserved the Chief of it from innumerable dangers and made us to see afterwards in the Series of his Providences that he had not withdrawn his loving-kindness from the House of King CHARLES by restoring it to its primitive Grandeur And this he was pleased to signifie to the King by a Passage that appeared little less than a Miracle For while He was at Oxford and the Earl of Southampton now Lord High-Treasurer of England a Person of unquestionable Honour and Veracity A Presage of His Fall and the future State of the Royal Family of an eminent Integrity above the Flattery of Princes who doth attest this Occurrence as Gentleman of the Bed-chamber lay one Night in the same Chamber with Him the Wax Mortar which according to Custom the King always had in His Chamber was in the night as they both conceived and took notice of it fully extinguished But my Lord rising in the Morning found it lighted and said to the KING Sir this Mortar now burns very clearly at which they both exceedingly wondred as fully concluding it had been out in the Night and they could not imagine how any of the Grooms or any other could possibly light it the Door being locked with a Spring within This busying the wonder of both for the present the King afterwards when He saw the Malice of His Enemies press hard upon His Life and Ruine reflecting upon this Occurrence drew it into this Presage That though God would permit His Light to be extinguished for a time yet He would at last light it again which was verified in the Event for though God suffered the Faction to spill His blood yet after many years of Troubles and when he had permitted those Monsters to bring us to the brinks of destruction he restored His Son to the Crown in as much Splendour and Greatness as any of His Predecessors As His Abilities for the Publick Administration of Government were all apt to raise Admiration His Recreations so His Recreations and Privacies gave a Delight to such as communicated in the sight of them and there needed no more to beget an Honour of Him than to behold Him in His Diversions which were all serious and there was no part of His time which either wanted benefit or deserved not Commendation In His younger dayes His pleasures were in Riding and sometimes in breaking the great Horse and He did it so gracefully that He deserved that Statue of Brass which did represent Him on Horse-back Besides this He delighted in Hunting an active and stirring Exercise to accustom Him to toils and harden that body whose mind abhorred the softness of Luxury and Ease which Vicious Princes think a part of Power and the Rewards of Publick Cares but He used this as the way whereby the Antient Heroes were habituated to Labours and by contending with some beasts in Strength and others in Swiftness first to rout then to chase their flying Enemies When the season of the year did not permit this sport then Tennis Gough Bowls were the ways of His Diversions and in all these He was wonderfully active and excellent His softer pleasures were Books and of His time spent in these there were many Monuments In His Library at Saint James's there was kept a Collection of His of the excellent Sayings of Authors written with His own hand and in his Youth presented to His Father King JAMES and there is yet extant in the hands of a Worthy Person His Extracts written with His own hand out of My Lord of Canterbury's Book against Fisher of all the Arguments against the Papists digested into so excellent a Method that He gave Light and Strength to them even while He did epitomise them into a sheet or two of Paper The same Care and Pains He had bestowed in reading the most Judicious Hooker and the Learned Works of Bishop Andrews out of all which He had gathered whatsoever was excellent in them and fitted them for His ready use When He was tired with Reading then He applyed Himself to Discourse wherein He both benefited Himself and others and He was good at the Relation of a Story or telling of an Occurrence When these were tedious by continuance He would either play at Chess or please Himself with His Pictures of which He had many choice pieces of the best Masters as Titian Rafael Tintoret and others with which He had adorned His most frequented Palaces as also with most antique pieces of Sculpture so that to those that had travelled it seemed that Italy was Translated to His Court. As His Spirit was thus accomplished so His Body had its Elegancies His Stature was of a just height The Features of His Body rather decent than tall His Body erect and not enclining to a Corpulency nor meager till His Afflictions wrought too strongly upon it to a Leanness His Limbs exactly proportioned His Face full of Majesty and His Brow large and Fair His Eyes so quick and piercing that they went farther than the Superficies of men and searched their more Inward parts for at the first sight He would pass a judgment upon the frame of a Man's Spirit and Faculties and He was not often mistaken having a strange happiness in Physiognomy and by reason of this He would remember any one He had seen but once many years after His Complexion was enclining to a Paleness His Hair a brown which He wore of a moderate length ending in gentle and easie curles upon His left side He indulged one Lock to a greater length in the youthful part of His Life His Beard He wore picqued but after the Faction had passed those Votes of No Addresses He permitted it to grow neglectedly and to cover more of His face His Gestures had nothing of affectation but full of Majestick Gravity His motions were speedy and His gate fast which shewed the Alacrity and Vigour of