up the Foundation of a Government which the people were to consent to which consent or Agreement of the People should be above Law That in the Agreement a day should be set for the Dissolution of the Parliament and this to be drawn up in a Remonstrance from the Army This was incouraged by Major general Harrison who urgged there could be no safety for them nor the Nation but by the cutting off the Kings Head and the thorowly purging at least if not the Dissolving the Parliament Upon this the Army now wholly at Cromwell's Devotion sends up a Petition to the Commons for Justice to be done on the King as a Capital Offender That the Prince of Wales and Duke of York be Summon'd by a Day and if they come not in to be declared incapable of the Succession and Government and if they come in to be proceeded against for Satisfaction That the Revenues of the Crown be sequestred That publick Justice might be done against the Actors in the late Wars against the Parliament That they may be paid their Arrears and the Country eased of free Quarters and lastly that a Period be put to this Parliament and care taken for the Electing of future Parliaments and that no King be admitted for the future The Army Entring the City The Rump dreggs of y e house of Commons Sitting after y e Army had turnd y e good members out Oliver seeking God whilâ— the King is murthered by his order Bradshaw the Taylor and y e Hangman keeper of the Libertyes of England This force being put upon the House and new moulded driving away all that were not for their turn besides many others for fear absented themselves the rest who afterwards obtained the name of Rump or Rumpers being the Relicks of a greater Body met again and submitting to the Power of the Army to please them Vote That no Message be received from the King on pain of Treason That the General should take Care of his Person and that a Charge of High Treason should be drawn up against him Having now fully concluded to destroy him Thus have we briefly drawn to your View the first Lineaments of an Arbitrary Government and Tyrannical Usurpation in very short Draughts shewing however the ways and means whereby these Men or Junto of Usurpers came by their Power and Authority overthrowing the very Foundation of our Ancient and most glorious Monarchy under the Notion of Liberty and setting up a Tyrannical Democracy or rather Oligarchy under the Regiment of a few selected Fellows who called themselves the Parliament and the Representatives of the Nation and in whom they pretend all Right of Power and Magistracy was to be placed The very shadow of all legal Power was now gone and this unparallel'd force put upon the Parliament in excluding the Major part of their Members by the Arbitrary will of Oliver Cromwel and his Mâ—â—midons contrary to all Law and Right took from them the very Name of a Parliament But they care not for that they shadow their impious Acts under that venerable Denomination and having now as they thought got into the Kingly throne by the power of the Army and the Sword imagined they should keep it when all this while not having the Command of the Army but being ridden by the general Officers thereof who designed as soon as they had done their work to pay them their Wages by dismissing them were but as the Cats foot made use of by the Monkey for the raking the Chesnut out of the Fire the benefit of which they intended to take themselves and this was the Murthering of their lawful Soverain whom they had deposed which was the next main Design driven on by the Independent Army and their Dromidaries this Junto of Men. We have seen these Men grown up into full Strength of Arbitrariness and got into the Throne of their Soveraign we will now proceed to Trace them by their Steps in the Exercise of this their Tyrannical Usurpation which we shall find to be according to the same unlawful Progress and to be of the same bloody Complexion for it is a certain Maxim That what Power is got by unlawful means must be kept by the same unlawful ways notwithstanding the specious pretences of Liberty and setling the Kingdom This Junto of Men being met and Voted as we have declared That no more Address should be made to the King nor any Message received from him they take Care in the next place having got into the Saddle to keep it and to make the World believe they had a right to it if they could for now an Ordinance was drawn up that the Lords and Commons of England do declare That by the Fundamental Laws of the Land it is Treason in the King of England to levy War against the Parliament This preparative in making the King a Transgressor and in placing the Supream Power in the People whose Representatives they were was in Order to their Design of Murthering the King This being sent up to the Lords who denyed to consent to it the Commons grow very angry and finding the Lords to be yet an Obstacle to their bloody Intentions they Vote That all Members of Committees should Act in any Ordinance by them made without the Lords Concurrance the People having by God the full power Originally in themselves and therefore what ever they enact is Law which passed Nemine Contradicente The Army still continuing their Guards upon the House keeping out any of those Members were not of their Party and imprisoning them they had much â—doe to make an House and sometimes it was Noon 〈◊〉 they could get forty men together without which iâ— could not be an House so very Scrupulous were these grand Hypocrites to keep up a Face of Authority in these minute Circumstances who in the great Fundamentals had broke in two all Bonds Obligations Oaths and Laws The Army now the Lords of all Garrison Black-Fryars and St. Paul's turning the house of God into a Stable and defiling it with Dung robbing divers Halls which they call'd borrowing of several sums of Money by their Saint-like Prerogative accounting the rest Egyptians In the mean time the secluded Members still imprisoned put forth a Declaration against this most horrid violence of the Army done to their Persons and to the Fundamental Laws of the Land the Rights of the People and the priviledges of Parliament this was dated 11 th December 1648. This being complained of to the House both Lords and Commons put forth a Declaration against it wherein they declare That the Declaration put forth by those Members of the House of Commons Excluded the House in which was these Words viz That all Acts Ordinances Votes and Proceedings of the House of Commons made since the 6 th of December or hereafter to be made duering the restraint and forcible Seclusion from the House and the Continuance of the Armies force upon it are no way Obligatory but
having made way for the most horrid and Bloody design that ever was heard of the Motion is made in this usurping House to proceed to the Trâ—al of the King as a Capital Offender When the grand Impostor Cromwell stood up and said That if any man moved this upon Design he should think him the greatest Traytor in the World but since Providence and Necessity had cast them upon it he should pray to God to bless their Councells And so on the 28 th of December 1648. Thomas Scot brought in the Ordinance for the Tryal of the King being read and Committed three several times and all the Commissioners names inserted Consisting of divers Gentlemen and Soldiers This Ordinance being pass'd the Junto they send it up to the Lords House by the Lord Grey of Grooby together with their Vote formerly made Viz. Resolved c. That the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament do declare and adjudge That by the Fundamental Laws of the Realm it is Treason in the King of England for the time to come to levy War against the Parliament and Kingdom of England The house of Lords debate the matter and first the Declaratory Vote against which the Earls of Manchester and Northumberland with others spake and declared There was none nor could be any such Fundamental Law in England whereby the King could be a Traytor by leaving War against his People and that thus to declare Treason by an Ordinance when no law was extant to judge it by was most unreasonable Upon which the Lords cast out this Ordinance and Vote and adjourned themselves for seven days This proceeding of the Lords gave them no small trouble and stirr'd up the wrath of some of the Zealots who threatned to hang a Pad-lock on the Lords door and sending up to search their journal Book they found the Lords had made these two Votes That they do not Concur to the said declaratory Vote And Secondly That they rejected the Ordinance for the Tryal of the King Upon which these men resolving to be rid of the Lords as well as of King they Vote That they should Act without them as well they might according to their own Law That all Authority was sounded in the People and that they being the Representatives of the People all Authority lay in them Some of them were for Impeaching the Lords for favouring the grand Delinquent of the Land as they called the King And now to make all sure on their sides that they may Act legally On the 4 th of January they Vote That the People are under God the Original of all just Power That the Commons of England in Parliament assembled being chosen by and representing the People have the Supreme Power of this Nation That whatsoever is declared or Enacted for Law by the House of Commons assembled in Parliament hath the force of Law This makes clear Work and by this our Arbitrary Usurpers may do what they will and cut off their Kings Head according to their own Position legally what need of Kings Lords Laws Rights Liberties Properties or fundamental Government when the Arbitrary Consciences of such men may serve instead of all and conclude thereby all the People of England tho they declare against it and tho opposed by the King or House of Peers And thus notwithstanding the rejection of the Lords these Commons pass their Ordinance and declaratory Vote by the name of An Act of Parliament of the House of Commons which was never before heard of for the Tryal of Charles Stewart King of England This being objected to Hugh Peters that there was no President or Example for the Tryal of a King by a judicial Court he Prophanely applyed That there was never any President before the Virgin Mary of a Womans conceiving and bringing forth a Child without accompanying with a Man therefore they might walk without President for this was an Age to make Examples and Presidents There was yet one thing that passed these men which they had not foreseen which was That it was a very improper thing to make use of the Kings Seal wherein he is styled King of England c. by the Grace of God to seal a Commission against him for his Tryal They were now in hast and could not stay for a new one which they had not as yet thought on therefore it was concluded the Commissioners should proceed upon the Ordinance without any Commission under Seal and that every Commissioner should set his own Hand and Seal to the Instruments of their Proceedings All things being now in a readiness for the Tryal The King is taken from Hurst Castle and brought to Winchester thence to Farnham thence to Winsor and thence to St. James on the 19 th day of January And they had caused for the greater Solemnity of the Business their Serjeant Dandy who was appointed Serjeant at Arms to the Commissioners for the Tryal of his Majesty to proclaim it openly in Westminster-Hall with his Mace on Horse back with six Trumpets and several Officers attending all bare That the Commissioners were to sit to morrow and that all those who had any thing to say against Charles Stewart King of England might be heard This was done in like manner in Cheap-side and at the Royal Exchange The same day the House Voted their great Seal to be broken and ordered a new one to be made Upon this Mr. Prin sends to the Junto a Memento of their unpresidented Proceedings Complaining of the force and Violence put upon their fellow Members warning them from Acting Consulting or ordaining any Act or Ordinance without Concurrence of their fellow-Members being Arbitrary and against Law and that the secluded Members not only declared against such Proceedings but more especially against this horrid Act of theirs for the Tryal of the King shewing them That by the common Law and by the Statute of 25. Ed. 3. and all other Acts concerning Treason it is high Treason for any man to Compass or Contrive the Death of the King or his eldest Son tho never Executed That they were also bound to the Contrary by their Oath of Allâ—giance from which no Power could absolve them That they had in above an hundred Declarations and Ordinances in the name of the Parliament professed That they never intended the least hurt injury or Violence to the Kings person his Crown Dignity or Posterity with several other things very pressing and full as may be seen at large in the printed Paper but all was in vain for they were resolved on the Business tho they could give no kind of colourable Reason for their Actings This Memento was seconded with a Declaration and Protestation signed the 19 th of January by the said Prin and Clement Walker another of the secluded Members which ran very much after the same Tenure and absolutely Protesting against the Junto's Actings and Proceedings declared against the illegal Act of Erecting an high Court of Justice and usurping a Power against
of Clouts or in Show or a meer Duke of Venice Then their own Declaration printed and published shewed how well Arbitrariness thrived when they owned That their Votes were not to be questioned either by King or People That no Precedents could bound their proceedings That the Soveraign Power resides in the two Horses That the King hath no negative Voyce That a levying War against the personal Commands of the King tho he were present is not a levying War against the King but that a levying War against his Laws and Authority is levying War against the King which was levying War against them That Treason could not be committed against the person of the King otherwise then he was intrusted That they had power to judge of his Actions and whether he discharged his trust or not and that they were only judges of the Law Their Arbitrary putting to death of Yeomans and Boucher at Bristol and others at London for endeavouring to shew their Royalty to their King and Acting against them and their illegal Authority Voting and making a new Seal and breaking all the Kings old Seals Privy Signets of the King's bench Exchequer Court of Wards Admiralty c. Beheading of several persons by a Court martial against Law and Equity Putting Arch-Bishop Laud to Death after four years Imprisonment Their taking the Scotch solemn League and Covenant for the Extirpation of Episcopacy and the alteration of Religion â—sâ—â—blished by Law contrâ—ry to Law and according to their own illegal and Arbitrary proceedings With many more Acts of the same nature which plainly declared to all the World how far they had deviated from their first more plausible Pretexts But all this while I say by the Kings great Concession in yielding to pass that Act which wrought him so much Mischief they seemed to have a shadow of Power from the King and acted as an House tho contrary to the King the Laws of the Land the Liberty of the Subject and against Equity Conscience and Religion But now after the King had been delivered up to them from the Scots and that they had subdued all his Forces and Garrisons Ragland Castle in Wales being the last that held out for his Majesty then they shewed their power more manifestly and that their Intentions were to usurp the Regal Authority altogether having thus far tasted the sweetness of it and thrived in their Rebellion On the 4 th of June 1647. a Party of Horse under Cornet Joyce seized the King at Holdenby where he was under restraint by the Parliaments order and Carried him away to the Army and thence by them brought to Hampton Court about the middle of August where both the Parliament and Army make to him their several unjust Proposals after the insolent manner of Victors which the King could in no ways grant being contrary to his Conscience his Crown and Dignity At the same time the Independant Officers of the Army kept their chief Cabals at Putnâ—y where it was proposed among them That it was not safe for them nor the Kingdom to grant any Power to the King That it was not for them to set up a Power which God had determined to pull down That the power of Kings was grown a burthen to the Nation and that the reason of all their Distractions in their Counsels was from their Compliance to save that man of Bood and to uphold the Tyranny which God by their many Successes had declared against Where also Major General Harrison made a speech pressing them to the taking off the King Who having notice of these wicked Agitators Actions makes his escape from Hampton Court leaving a Letter behind him intending to get over to the Islâ— of Jersey but being in the Isle of Wight he put himself under the Protection of Collonel Hammond a Parliament man and Governour there who sending â—otice thereof to the Parliament they Vote That he should be continued in the Castle of Cowes That no Malignants shall stay in the Island That no Delinquent or Forreigner should be permitted to come to him without the Parliaments leave That five Thousand pounds should be advanced for his Accommodation and That tâ—eâ— would consider who should attend his Person In the mean time the Independent party of the Army cause a Mutiny which tho quelled by the Industry of Cromwel and his Son-in-Law Ireton yet it caused them to alter their Councels and to joyn with them against the Parliament and all accommodation whatsoever with the King The King sends a Letter to the Parliament from the Isle of Wight dated November 18. 1647. superscribed to the Speaker of the House of Lords to be communicated to the House of Commons In which he granted for Peace-sake the setling of Presâ—ytery for three years And the Militia in the hands of the Parliament during his Reign with a Proviso by Patent that then it should return again to his Successors And also that they should have the Choice of his Privy Councellors and desired earnestly to have with them a personal treaty in London After a long debate upon this Letter the Commissioners of Scotland also pâ—â—ssing them to comply with the Kings just desires on the 26 th of November they concluded That four Previous Acts should be drawn up and sent to the King to which if he would sign they Voted That they then would admit of a personal Treaty with him These unreasonable Proposals drawn into form of Acts were these First an Act for raising settling and maintaining Forces by Sea and Land c. In which they fully and wholly divested the King of the Militia his 〈◊〉 and Successors for ever and gave an unlimitted power to the two houses to raise what Forces they please for Land or Sea and of what persons they please and what Money they please to maintain them The second was that all Declarations Oaths Proclamations against the Parliament might be recalled or against all or any that adhered to them The third an Act that those Peers that were made after the great Seal was carried away from the Parliament might be made uncapable of sitting in the house of Peers And lastly That Power may be given to the two Houses to adjourn themselves as they think fit By these you may easily perceive to what height they were come of all unreasonableness These were presented to the King at Carisbrook Castle in the Isle of Wight on the 24 th of December 1647 by the Earl of Denby the Lord Mountague Lisle Goodwin Bunkley and Kemp Commissioners from both Houses of Parliament The King it may well be thought having no desire to dethrone himself and enslave his Subjects refused the Bills and desired to Treat personally sending them his reasons in Writing Whereupon Sr. Tho. wroth moves the House That the King who had Acted like a Mad man should be secured in some inland Castle with sure Guards That Articles of Impeachment should be drawn up against him That he should be wholly lay'd by
blast so dishonest an attempt I shall not determine but Englishmen never received such a foil and by so few enemies since they wore the name for having lost near a thousand Men by an handful of Spaniards Negro's and Molatto's they were fain to retreat and losing all hopes of getting the Spanish Gold most shamefully return to their Ships and that they might be said to doe something they set upon Jamaica and take it and which we have kept ever since Venables after his return was frowned upon by Oliver and for a while sent to the Tower but afterwards was released The Hopes of this Gold had made Oliver King it very much being served with much State and Ceremony He had his Halberdeers in garded grey Coats over whom Strickland was Captain His Lord Chamberlain who was Sir Gilbert Pickering Two Masters of Requests Mr. Bacon and Mr. Sadler and the Master of his Horse his Son Cleypool and all other Officers of Honour both to his own Person and his Wives who very finically acted the Princess White-Hall and Hampton-Court he had saved from sale for his own convenience The baffle at St. Domingo and the loss of his hopes of his Gold made him now project some other ways to fill his Cofers to maintain his Greatness his merry devil left him and he began daily to grow more austere and tyrannical being full of fears and jealousies as he had reason for he had not only the Royal party against him whom he kept under with much cruelty but the Commonwealths-men of his own party and the Fifth-Monarchy-men countenanced by Harison were highly displeased with him and began to Conspire against him He therefore lays Harison and Rich aside and not long after he Committed them with Carew and Courtney into several remote Castles Overton was seized in Scotland with Bramstone Holmes and other Officers who were cashiered fined and good security taken for their good behaviour Overton was sent to the Tower and his Regiment given to Col. Morgan Okey's Regiment also was taken from him and given to another Joyce had the confidence to upbraid his Highness to his face but escaped unpunished Cromwell saying he was a Mad-man About this time he began to interest himself for the Protestants abroad and to be their Protector The Protestant Subjects of the Duke of Savoy in the Vallies of Piedmont having been cruelly treated by that Prince for their Religion Cromwell sends to make application in their behalf but his Messengers being slighted he caused Contributions for their relief to be made throughout England and Viner and Pack were made Treasurers for the Money by which means a considerable summ was Collected but what share they had of it is not known The Spanish War now Commenced apace Cromwell resolving not to hearken to Peace nor to the restitution of three Ships he had taken of the King of Spain's before he had declared War pretending them Hambourgers and Confiscating them being laden with pieces of Eight to the sum of Four hundred thousand pounds Sterling which was minted in the Tower though the Spanish Ambassador Alâ—nso de Cardenas protested against it and did all he could to hinder the injustice which was returned on our Merchants by that Kings seizing on their effects in Spain and by the loss of 1500 English Ships great and small taken from us in this War as appeared afterwards according to the report made in Richard's Parliament This sum of money being spent he had with his Privadoes thought of another way of recruit which like their Usurpation was the most Barbarous and Arbitrary as ever was heard of See now what was become of the Liberties of English men when he following the Example of the Grand Seignior set over the Land a company of Bashaws with the same power under a new title of Major-Generals He had Canton'd England and Wales into 11 Provinces joyning the Counties together for the convenience of this Turkish sway over every one of which he appointed a Governour or Bashaw called by him a Major-General The Names of these Tyrannick Princes were Kelsy Goff Desborow Fleetwood Skippon Whaly Butler Berry Worsley Lambert and Barkstead who was also Lieutenant of the Tower These in their respective Principalities lived like petty Princes or Bashawes domineering and lording it over both Nobility and Gentry and according to the Command and Order of their Grand Seignior Oliver Cromwell which was then esteemed Law all the poor Cavaliers that is all such who had served in the Wars for King Charles the first and also all those that had declared themselves for his Son King Charles the second our now Sovereign were by these Bashaws to be decimated that is the tenth part of their Estates were to be taken from them besides banish'd from London and within 20 miles of the same disarm'd and prohibited to be Elected into any Parliament And as for the Clergy they were turned out of their Livings and kept from all other way of livelihood unless they would work with their hands so that many were ready to starve for they were prohibited any Cure or to be Chaplains to any or to keep School The power of these Decimators was great and boundless Oppressing Robbing Spoyling and Decimating whom they pleased according to their own Arbitrary Will for none durst say Why do you thus They kept a Roll of all persons within their Precincts and if they suspected any to favour the King he was called to account by these Military-Lords and Caution taken by them to keep them from acting against the State binding them to reveal all Plots that should come to their knowledge and made them engage the like for their servants They also hindred them from their disports and prohibited all Horse-races Cock-fighting Bull-baiting or any thing that should cause a Concourse of People and those who refused were presently imprisoned and decimated so that the free people of England were become as absolute Slaves as those living under the Turkish Government where none can call any thing his own By this means the Usurper easily informed himself of the value of all the Estates in England and of the behaviour and affection of every Person of Quality throughout the Kingdom Such vast Powers were given to these Major-Generals that there was nothing they might not doe and indeed did not doe they using it to the full And for this purpose these Major-Generals had an office in Fleetstreet in London as other Courts had where their Recognances were enter'd and all other concerns and dependances belonging to them recorded or register'd Of some they took yearly the 10 th penny of others they took a sum of money for Composition usually at three years purchase which many were willing to pay who had money rather than to be continually troubled with them And now the year 1656 Commencing which by the Instrument was a Parliamentary-year in July Oliver issues out his Writs for his second Parliament to sit on the 17 th of September
following But in the mean time Rear-Admiral Stainer with six other Ships of the English Fleet met with the Spanish Fleet near Cadiz returning from the West Indies with Plate where he sunk several of them with great treasure and took others which he brought away with two Millions of pieces of Eight which amounts to 400000 pounds Sterling There were several Noble men and Dons of Spain taken Prisoners whom Cromwell treated handsomely and after a little while generously sent them home without Ransom And now on the 17 th of September 1656 the appointed time for the Meeting of the Parliament those who were Elected met and chose for their Speaker Sir Thomas Widdrington The Major-Generals had a great hand in chusing this Parliament who by their Arbitrary Power and Authority caused whom they pleased to be chosen and it was thought it was one of Cromwell's policies to Constitute them for that end wanting a Parliament that might give him money And also by their most tyrannical sway they had rendred themselves so odious to the Royalists that they desired rather any other Government should be than these Bashaw's and it was indeed thought to be one of Cromwell's policies in their Constitution that their tyranny might cause his Iron yoke alone to sit more easie about their necks for he gave them up to the Parliament who abolish'd them His design of making himself King and of wearing the Imperial Crown and of becoming a legal Monarch and of transmitting it to his posterity now plainly was manifested though God did not see it good to let the Iniquity of the Nation run on so far as to disinherit the right line having in his Wisedom resolved to continue it to the posterity of Chaâ—les the Martyr for though Cromwell knew he had more Power and greater Dominion and was more absolute than any King of England yet the glorious Title of King and the wearing of a Crown was the desire of his ambitious soul not that it could add more to his Power but he imagined that by that means he should be accounted more legal for that the Crown takes away all attaint and that perhaps he might be able to transmit it to his posterity and make it hereditary in his own line He knew his tyrannick Usurpation was against all the Laws of the Land and that he could hold what he had got no longer than the Army pleased to stick to him who like an head-strong beast was grown so skittish he had much adoe to master it but by setling the Crown on his own head he thought to reduce every thing to its old channel the race of the Stuarts only changed for that of Cromwells and for this end he now began all he could to court the Nobility and Gentry of the Royal Party after he had sufficiently humbled and crush'd them and made them poor all to sweeten them against his assuming the Crown having got as he hop'd a Parliament for his purpose for none were admitted into this Parliament after their Elections but such as the Council allowed of and many persons that Oliver durst not trust were in this Parliament and that he thought not fit to sit till some Laws were first made for the strengthning his Authority and carrying on of his design There was therefore a Recognition of his Highness Government by a single person placed ready with a Guard of Red-coats to be signed before any of the Members went into the House and such as refused to sign it were dismissed and not suffered to sit by which means near 200 at the first were excluded those that sat taking no notice of this most horrid force And now let those who so much stand up for Law and Justice and cry out upon Arbitrary Rule tell me if ever a greater could be acted upon the Liberties of the People in denying them their freedoms in the sitting of their Representatives in Parliament and if any of the most Arbitrary Kings of England ever did or durst attempt the like But what might not and what did not this Tyrant and Usurper doe At first this Parliament went on very smoothly and to the content of their Protectorian Master the first thing was they made a Vote declaring his War with Spain to be just and honourable with a resolution of assisting him in it Then as a Grand step for him to Mount the Throne they make an Act for the renouncing the title of â—harles Stuart and the whole line of King James unto the Crown of England Scotland and Ireland seconded with another for the securing his Highness Person and the continuance of the Nations peace which was bound up in it And this last Act was made by reason of a Plot then discovered against his Person by one Syndercomb or rather a Contrivance of his Secretary Thurlo's to further his designs This Syndercomb was a Leveller or Fifth-Monarchy-man and disbanded by Monk in Scotland who being a resolute fellow and disgusted was drawn in by two of Thurlo's Creatures one Cecil and Toop of Cromwell's Life-guard who pretending a Male-contentedness easily drew him in to a design of Murthering the Tyrant there being about that time a book printed and published with the name Allen to it a disbanded Leveller called Killing no Murther which with notable Arguments proved the Lawfulness of Killing Cromwell as an Usurper and Tyrant which book almost scared him out of his wits and made him ever after afraid of every strange face that came near him and made him betake himself to these artifices to affright assassinates by his severity Syndercomb being thus trepann'd and drawn in by his Instruments had prepared a Blunderbuss and had placed it to shoot him in his Coach going to Hampton-Court and if that failed he was to have fired White-Hall by placing a Basket of combustible matter in the Chapel with a train all which is discovered Syndercomb and his Companions seized the Life-guard men confess the Plot and are pardoned Syndercomb is tryed for it at the upper Bench-bar as they then called it and convicted by the Witness of his fellow Conspirators he was Condemn'd to be Hang'd Drawn and Quarter'd at Tyhurn but before his Execution he was found dead and poysoned in the Tower by himself as the Inquest of the Coroner found it though by others suspected to be a fineness of Thurlo's however as a felo de se he was drawn at an Horses tail to Tower-hill and there put into the ground under the Scaffold and a Stake driven thorow his Body This occasioned the Act to be hastned for his Highness preservation and a thanksgiving Voted for this great delivery the Parliament attending him at White-Hall in the Banqueting-house where a Congratulatory Oration upon this occasion was made to him The next day the time being very convenient Alderman Pack started a motion that for the better and more sure settlement of the Nation the Protector might be desired to assume the stile and title of King as the most
and Blake are Admirals for the English to whom afterwards General Monk was joyned and for that end sent for out of Scotland he having quieted all things there The Dutch knowing the English laid claim to the Dominion of the narrow Seas as their just Right and Due had Commanded their Captains not to acknowledge their Soveraignty by denying to strike their Flag at the meeting of the English Ships in their own Seas an Affront they knew would never be put up by the English but ever was and ever will be disputed and revenged upon this Quarrel the War began Captain Young who commanded some of the English Frigots seeing some Dutch Ships returning from the Streights commanded their Admiral to strike his Flag who did so but their Vice-Admiral being likewise bid to do the same absolutely refused but after four or five Broad-sides was forced to take it down and so they parted their Embassadors being yet in Treaty and in England Captain Young was unwilling to Prosecute the business any farther lest they should attribute to him the beginning of the War which thus first began But not long after they fell to it in Earnest It shall not be my Task to give you a particular of this War it being besides my Business in which the English shewed great Courage and Bravery and in all Histories the like not to be parallel'd and therefore I shall not altogether pass it over in silence but briefly touch upon it for the Satisfaction of the Reader who cannot but be pleased at their Success as English-men tho otherwise Rebels to their King and Countrey The first Engagement between the two Fleets of the two States was on 19 th of May 1652 off of Dover Road Tromp having forty two Ships Blake but fifteen Frigots but after the fight was begun Captain Bourn came to his Assistance with eight Ships more this fight lasted from two of the Clock till Night the English getting the better having not one Ship disabled tho they had on both sides Exchanged above two Thousand Cannon shot one of Dutch Ships was Sunk and another taken the next Morning Van-Trump sailed for Zealand The Holland Embassadors were yet in London and dis-avow Tromp's Action in disputing the Flag as Rash and without Orders or knowledge of their Masters and desired a Restitution of their Ship but the people were so inflamed at the Relation of Tromp's Cariage that the Embassadors were fain to be Guarded to keep them safe from the Peoples rage And upon this the Holland States dispatch away an extraordinary Embassador Myn Heer-Paw to endeavour to make up the Breach and to Excuse the rashness of their Admiral The Parliament hereupon Voted that The States General should Pay the Charges they had been at and the Losses sustained upon this Occasion Secondly That this being Paid there should be a Restitution on either side of Ships and Goods taken Thirdly That a League should be made between the two States These Votes were sent to the Dutch Embassadors and they Communicated them to their Masters who liking them not immediately recalled their Embassadors and began Vigorously to prosecute the War Admiral Blake with seventy Ships sails to the Orkney Islands to disturb their Busses fishing upon our Coasts and Sr. George Ascue coming from the Barbadoes with fifteen Ships is recruited and fitted for a reserve In the mean time Tromp gets to Sea with a hundred and twenty Ships and endeavours to engage with Blake but a Storm preventing them they were forced both Home Blake carrying with him about nine hundred Prisoners which he had taken and six men of War which he took Guarding their Busses This was the first Action after War was declared The second Engagement between these two States was on the 16 th of August following off of Plimouth between Sr. George Ascue who had forty sail and De Ruyter who had a Fleet of fifty men of War and was conveying thorow the Channel their Merchant men which were about fifty sail more Sr. George engaged the Dutch with nine of his foremost Ships and Charged thorow their Fleet the Dutch had the Weather-gage and night coming on and the rest of the Fleet not coming up Sr. George Ascue drew off and sailed for Plymouth and the Dutch into the French Ports to repair their Ships Sr. George had the better of it and had the whole Fleet engaged it was thought he might have had an entire Victory This was so represented to the Rump to his disadvantage that they laid him aside and never after would employ him in their Service but then General Monk was sent for and Voted by the Junto to be joyned in Commission with Blake and Dean This was the second fight with the Dutch in this War About this time Blake lighting on the French at Calis took seven of their Ships and assisting the Spaniards besieging Dunkirk was a cause of the surrender of the Town by the Service he did On the 28 th of October was a Third fight between the English and the Dutch Van-Tromp upon some discontent having laid down his Commission they made Wit Wittens Admiral to whom they joyned De Ruiter Blake had taken from the Dutch five west India Ships of great Value and six Steights men Valued at 200000 l. which losses enraged the Dutch and put them into Fury to fight Pen was Vice-Admiral and Bourn Rear-Admiral of the English Fleet who began this Battel great Courage being shown on both sides the Rear Admiral of the Dutch was taken two of their Ships sunk and a Third blown up the English getting the better Wittens got off with his Fleet much shatter'd and Torn being pursued within twelve Leagues of the Maze and Blake returns into the Downs Victorious having made the Dutch run for it The Dutch much troubled at this mis-fortune perswade Van-Tromp to accept of the Command knowing him to be an able Seaman who at last yielded to their Desires and hopes to gain honour against the English with eighty men of War and ten fire Ships he comes to the back of the Godwin Blake had with him now not above forty sail yet with them resolves to give Battel and seeking his Enemy began a most furious and obstinate incounter on the 29 th of November 1652. which lasted from two in the Morning till six at Night Blake in the Tryumph with two more of his Ships were ingaged at one time with twenty of the best Ships of the Dutch Van-Tromp and De Ruyter were much shattered one of their Flag ships was blown up but the Dutch over-powering them got the Victory and had not Night favoured the retreat of the English Fleet they had endanger'd the whole The Garland and Bona-venture were taken by the Dutch three sunk and one burnt Van-Trump kept the Sea and took some inconsiderable Prizes which pufft him up with so much Vanity as to cause him hang a Broom at his main top Mast saying he would sweep the Seas of the English