Independents of the Army to gain the whole and absolute power of rule into their hands having printed and published several Declarations Remonstrances Manifestos and Proposals besides Petitions of their own framing whereunto they got subscriptions in many places insinuating to the people their willingness to redress publick Greivances to be the Restorers of Peace the Laws and Liberties of the Subject to be setlers of Religion maintainers of the priviledges of Parliament Callers to accompt of all Committees Sequestrators Treasurers c. and to be their deliverers from Excise and other Taxes but above all preservers of all true Interests Restorers of the King to his just Rights and Prerogatives with Honour Freedom and Safty to his person without which they professed there could be no setled peace or happiness in this Nation And in pursuance of their undertakings having made Addresses to His Majesty with more tolerable overtures than any that he could obtain from the Members sitting at Westminster they after a while made private proposals to him sutable meerly to their own Interests but wholy derogatory to his Regal power the Religion established by Law as also to the Liberties and Properties of the Subject Whereunto when they saw that the King could not with his Conscience and Honour assent they enterteined new designs against his Person and Government ushering them in by the help of a Levelling-party who in pursuance thereof obtruded clamourous Petitions against any farther Treaty with His Majesty and demanded exemplary Justice from the Members at Westminster against him which through the influence that the Army had on them considering how the Houses had been garbled were entertain'd with Thanks Hence was it that when those Propositions of 13. Nov. anno 1647. were brought into the House from His Majesty whereby he pressed them so earnestly for a personal Treaty the four Dethroning Bills were sent to him to be first signed before they would admit thereof And upon his refusal to yield unto them those Destructive Votes of no more Addresses to him were passed The miserable condition of his Majesty and in him of all his loyal Subjects being therefore thus evidently seen by most men who beheld nothing but slavery and oppression thenceforth to be their portion did so awaken them that from Essex there came a Petition by many thousands to the Members at Westminster for a personal Treaty with the King as the most proper means to a well grounded peace After that another from Surrey a multitude of that County accompanying it to Westminster Which relisht so ill with the Grandees that they sent the Guards to beat them away whereupon divers were wounded and some slain Nor had the Kentish-men better success for having by their Grand Jury in the name of the whole Shire fram'd a petition for peace the Committee of that County being jealous that the people would take Heart thereat prohibited the same by printed papers published in all the Churches branding it to be seditious and tumultuous saying that they would hang up two in every Parish that were promoters of it and sequester the rest And when the people seeing themselves opposed in that their modest way of Application resolved of farther consideration therein by a general meeting and to come arm'd for their own defence a party of Horse was first sent in amongst them and afterwards the whole Army under the Command of their General Fairfax whereupon some of them fled into Essex where Sir Charles Lucas and divers of that County joyned with them as also the Lord Capell at Colchester with some Horse which necessitating the rest for their own defence to make to Sandwich and some Castles on the coast thereabouts the Army advanc't after slew and took divers of them prisoners and sequestred the estates of all that desired peace Weever a hot-headed Independent having mov'd in the House of Commons that all Kent might be sequestred because they had rebell'd and all Essex because they would rebel But notwithstanding the strength of their Army and severity against those who did not submit to their oppressive power the Scots having rays'd an Army which was then ready to march into England in pursuance of the ends of the Covenant as hath been observed there were many others in sundry parts of the Nation as well Presbytereans as Royalists discerning no better fruits to themselves of those successes which the Independents then had than oppression and slavery boldly made attempts in order to the rescue of His Majesty out of their cruel hands and to free the whole Kingdome from their farther Tyranny Of these the first was by Sir Nicholas Kemish who got with some forces into Chepstow-castle The next was that of the valiant Sir Marmaduke Langdale who shortly after surprized the strong town of Barwick After this Col. Laughorn Poyer and Powell having raysed eight thousand men in Pembrokeshire secured Lenvy-castle with the town and castle of Pembroke and declared in those parts for the settlement of the King and Kingdome Sir Philip Musgrave also upon the like fair hopes took Carlisse About the same time likewise part of the royal Navy consisting of twenty great Ships of War under the command of their Vice-Admiral Batten revolted and came in to the Prince in Yarmouth road Pontfrait-castle being within few days after surprized by the Royalists and the Earl of Holland with the Lord Francis Villers in Arms with two thousand men near Kingston upon Thames And to make the expectation more secure Duke Hamilton with a powerfull Army of the Scots entring England published a Declaration consisting of these heads 1. That the King should be brought to London to treat in person with the two Houses of Parliament 2. That all those who had a hand in or contrived the carrying of the King from Holdenby should be condignly punished 3. That the English Army should be disbanded 4. That Presbytery should be settled 5. And that the Members of Parliament which were forcibly secluded from the House should be re-seated there After which within few days Major Lilburne Brother to Iohn Governour of Tinemouth-castle in the Bishoprick of Durham declared for the King But the fruits of all these fair hopes were soon blasted for as that Castle was shortly after storm'd by Sir Arthur Haslerig and Lilburne with his men put to the Sword So was Chepstow-castle by Col. Eure and Sir Nicholas Kemish kill'd in cold bloud The Earl of Holland also with the Lord Francis Villers were encountred by Colonel Rich Major Gibbons and Sir Michael Livesey totally routed the Lord Francis Villers slain the Earl himself pursued to St. Ives in Huntingdon-shire and there taken Laughorne Poyer and Powell were likewise defeated by Cromwell and Colonel Horton And Sir Iohn Owen who was in Arms about that time in Northwales vanquisht by Major General Mitton The Navy also brought in by Batten fell off to the Earl of Warwick Duke
occasion'd by the fears of the People without any consent of his That his Intentions were ever most Inclin'd to Loyalty and all due Obedience desiring nothing but that Evil Councillers might be removed and due care taken for the securing of Religion And though says my Author his Actions were for the most part quite contrary to his Professions yet the colour of Religion was so lively and plausible he knowing so well how to demean himself that the People generally believed him still a Loyal Subject to the King and that all he did was only out of Zeal to Religion and an Ardent desire for promoting the publick good of the Kingdom When things were in this State there followed the face of an accommodation betwixt the King and the Leaguers and for the composing of all differences another Parliament was convened at Bloys 16. Oct. 1588. In the Election of Members to assist at it though both parts laboured to have such chosen as were their own dependents yet those of the League prevailed by much above the Kings Party For the Commons being vexed with their pressing Grievances their end being mainly to shake off that Burthen did willingly adhere to the Kings Enemies who promised and professed an earnest desire of easing the People of their unsupportable burthen by Taxes and Contributions In this Parliament all the States took a Solemn Oath or Protestation for defence of Religion with the Kings Person and Authority Which Oath they ordered to be taken by all the Subjects of the Kingdom Notwithstanding all which Obligations whereby the Leaguers bound themselves to abandon their former Practises and to apply themselves to a sincere obedience of the King yet did they not remit any thing of their former Machinations For not only the Duke of Guise aspired to obtain the express Title of Lieutenant General which he could not before accomplish though he had the Power but the rest ceased not to tamper with the States that the Government migt be reformed in such a manner as that the King should have no share left him in it but the bare name and shadow of a Prince the whole Power to be transferred to this Duke and his Dependents of the League Nay the very number of the States which equaliz'd ours in the House of Commons engaging themselves in the Interests of the Faction did contend and squable for the same ends with them without any regard of their so many and Solemn Oaths in evident contempt of the Person Name and Majesty of the King The Commons in this Parliament notwithstanding they had resolv'd upon a War with the Huguenots which must needs be expensive Yet demanded from the King a moderation of Taxes and diminution of new Impositions which like that of Ship-money amounted to two Millions of Crowns yearly as also the Reformation of many Offices erected about the Customes and the total abolishing of some other Grievances They declared the King of Navarr who was next Heir to the Crown incapable of Inheriting and Sollicited the King to make a new Decree upon it unto which they would have him swear as a Fundamental Law After many other Plots and Practises in this Factious Parliament when business was now fully ripe and the Duke of Guise having sufficiently canvassed and prepared the States both in general and particular Grown now secure and bold upon confidence of former Experience he began to bring his Plot upon the Stage of being made Lieutenant-general at the Request and by the Authority of the Parliament which was the last end of his present hopes But those hopes were quickly frustrate by His untimely Death After which his Brother the Duke of Maine took up Arms to Prosecute that design of the League And though the King wrote kind Letters to him yet were they of no force to make him hearken to any Concord For making himself Head of the Holy Union he was by the Parisians declared Lieutenant General of the State and Crown of France with the same authority and power wich is naturally inherent in the King abating only the name which Power was intended to continue until the States-General should think fit to alter it Upon the possession whereof he entred 22. Febr. 1589 Having taken a Solemn Oath to Protect and defend the Catholick Religion against all Persons whatsoever to preserve the Estate belonging to the Crown of France to defend the Priviledges of the three Estates of Parliament the Clergy Nobility and Commons to cause the Laws and Constitutions of the Realm to be observed and the Authority and Power of the Courts of Justice Having done this he chose and setled the Council of the Union like a close Committee consisting of fourty the chief and most eminent Persons of the League to manage all the most Important Affairs with his Assistance leaving still the Government of the City of Paris with the Sixteen And as our Men had their Committies in several Counties which received Directions from and sent Informations to their great Council So did these of the League ordain that there should be six eight twelve or more of them nominated in several places of the Kingdom to propose what was fitting to the Council and having received Directions from them to act accordingly Nor hath scarce any act of Insolence been Commited by our Men in which they might not urge these for an Example What hath been done to Justice Mallet taken off the Bench and Committed to the Tower the like was done in Paris For they in a Tumultuous manner beset the Hall of the Pallace where the Judges than sate seiz'd upon Harle and others whom they deem'd to be well affected to the King and Committed them Prisoners to the Bastile The King upon like Motives as his Majesty Adjourn'd the Term from London to Oxford adjourn'd the Courts of Justice the Parliament of Paris to Towrs that of Roan to Cane that of Dijon to Chalon And that nothing might be wanting in this Rebellion which was in that As our Men took upon them to make a new great Seal ransackt the Kings Pallace at White-hall seiz'd all his Revenues Forts and Magazine into their own hands usurped his Authority and called in a Forreign-Nation the Scots to their Assistance their Parliament Voting it and their Preachers being the Trumpeters of War against the King So our own Camden tells us the Leaguers of France did Populus ubique Magistratibus parere dedignatus Regias aedes Lutetiae diripuit Conjurati novo consilio instituto novo Sigillo ad res administrandas confecto Regiam sibi authoritatem arrogarunt munitissima quaeque loca immo integras Provincias sibi raptarunt Regni redditus interceperunt Auxiliares Hispanos è Belgio evocarunt Parliamentis suffragantibus Ecclesiasticis Bellum in Regem ubique buccinantibus The King after all this being straitned for Money and entertaining no Thoughts but of Peace and Accommodation procured the Popes Legate to Interpose
civil Government I now descend to those their Arts and Devices whereof by the help and influence of a most subtile corrupt and schismatical party in Parliament they made use in order to the raising this late nefarious Rebellion the consequence whereof viz. the extirpating of Monarchy here was in their design long before however it may be thought by some that Necessity and Despair put them upon that blod Exigent after they had gone farther than they thought they could by any outward reconciliation or pardon be safe for if need were sufficient and undoubted testimony might yet be produced who did hear a principal Actor in this late woful Tragedy about a twelve-month after the barbarous murther of King Charles the First express these words I bless God that I have now lived to see the ruine of Monarchy and that I haue been instrumental in it for I do here acknowledge that it hath been in my design ever since I was at Geneva which is now thirty eight years Of these the first and indeed most fatal Artifices was the reducing his Majesty to Necessities to the end he might be inforc'd to betake himself unto such extraordinary means for supply as would certainly attract the odium of his Subjects For accomplishing whereof that war wherein King Iames became engaged on the behalf of his daughter and her children for recovery of the Palatinate gave them a seasonable opportunity the Story whereof I shall briefly here set down Upon the death of the Emperour Matthias 8. Aug. An. 1619. 17 Iac. Ferdinand his Brother adopted by Matthias in his life time was elected Emperour and crowned 19 Septemb. following Which Election the Bohemians disclaiming they chose for their King Frederick Count Palatine of the Rhine Who thereupon by his Letters to King Iames whose daughter he had marryed acquaints him therewith craving his advice as to his reception thereof Howbeit before King Iames his answer could come to his hand which was utterly dissuasory he had accepted their choice Whereof King Iames hearing in no little perplexity disavow'd the act and would never stile him by that Title That this unhappy business prov'd most destructive to the Count Palatine will immediately appear For the Emperor Ferdinand became so highly irritated thereat that he soon after publish'd a Proscription against him proclaim'd him guilty of High Treason and declared his resolution to prosecute him as a public Enemy of the Empire and accordingly sent Marquess Spinola with numerous Forces to invade the Palatinate as also Buquoy and D. Balthasar into Bohemia who with a powerful Army gave him Battail near to the City of Prague upon the eighth of November An. 1620 utterly routed the Bohemians and forc'd that new King with his Queen to flee the Country The Report whereof arriving soon after in England caused King Iames to advise with the Lords of his Council upon the 13 th of Ianuary following for recovery and protection of the Palatinate it being the antient Inheritance of his Son in Law and his Children Whereupon thirty thousand Pounds was forthwith sent to the Princes of the Union for their assistance therein and in order to farther help a Parliament call'd to sit at Westminster upon the 30 th of the same month of Ianuary At which Convention the King acquainting the two Houses with what had happened farther represented unto them that he had already treated a Peace in this business but Perswasions without power being as he said of little effect he told them that he thought it fit to provide an Army against the Summer following and desired them therefore to think upon his Necessities Which Parliament having sate about four months and done little in this matter the King considering of a Recess for a time in regard of the season that might cause Infection represented to them by the Lord Treasurer his purpose to adjourn them Whereat the Commons growing displeased they desired the Lords to joyn with them in petitioning against it the King therefore taking much exception thereupon judging it derogatory to his Prerogative it being in his sole power to call and adjourn and dissolve Parliaments they thereupon for satisfaction of his Majesty publish'd a Declaration wherein they signified unto him that in case his endeavours by a Treaty could not effect the restitution of the Palatinate upon signification of his pleasure in Parliament they should be ready to the utmost of their powers both with their lives and fortunes to assist him so as by the Divine help of Almighty God he might be able to do that with his Sword which by a peaceable course could not be effected After this the Parliament was adjourn'd from the fourth of Iune until the twentieth of November at which time of meeting again the King being absent for lack of health the Lord Keeper told them that unless they took farther resolutions and were expeditious the Army in the Palatinate would fall to the ground The Lord Treasurer also acquainting them how empty the King's Coffers were and that his Majesty had assisted the Palatine and Princes of the Union with great Sums which had so exhausted his Treasure that he was much in debt Also that notwithstanding the King had declared for War he pursued Peace and resolv'd therefore to close with Spain hoping by that Alliance to heal the breach Which Speech of the Lord Treasurer tending to Peace so startled the House of Commons wherein the Puritan was predominant that they soon after drew up a Remonstrance to his Majesty wherein representing Religion to be in danger by the growth of Popery they incited him to take his Sword into his Hand for the aid of those of our Religion in forreign parts and that the bent of this War might be against that Prince whose Armies and Treasures had maintained the War in the Palatinate Signifying that they had given him one Subsidy for the present Relief of the Palatinate But in this Remonstrance there being also divers things which the King esteem'd to tend unto his high dishonour and to trench upon his Prerogative-royal he forbad them farther to entermeddle concerning his Government and deep affairs of State and particularly with the match of his Son with a Daughter of Spain Certain it is that the Parliament made little hast in the offering of that for which they were chiefly called together viz. the giving to the King considerable aid for relief of the Palatinate in so much as the Lord Digby then took occasion to put the Peers in mind thereof and that it was to that end they were summon'd thither reporting the present distress of that Country and danger thereto by the Duke of Bavaria as also that the Army of Count Mansfeild which came in for defence thereof if not speedily supplyed was like to desert that service But instead of hasting such Relief Christmass approching and the King upon the
and three Fifteens which were by the late Parliament resolv'd on to have been given to the King setting forth a Declaration to manifest the reasons of his requiring that Loan Soon after which he sent away six thousand Foot-Soldiers under the command of Sir Charles Morgan and others for the service of the Vnited Provinces Moreover to heighten and increase these his wants about this time a most unlucky occasion hapned which in short was this that the French Priests and Domestics of that Nation which came into England with the Queen were grown so insolent and had put so many affronts upon the King that as the French King had sent back all the Spanish Courtiers which his Queen brought with her his Majesty was forc'd to send them home But that King not looking on this Example and knowing upon what ill terms our King stood both at home and abroad first seized on all the Merchants Ships which lay in the River of Bourdeaux and then brake out into open war so that the King was constrain'd to make use of those Forces against the French which were design'd to have been used against the Spaniard and to comply with the desire of the Rochellers who humbly sued for his protection and defence but the Fleet set forth for that purpose being encountred with great Tempests was forc'd to return without doing any thing farther then shewing his Majesties good will and readiness to assist them CHAP. IV. BUT the next year the King having made new Preparations for a war with France to manifest what ground he had for it declared that the House of Austria conspiring the ruin of all those of the Reform'd Religion through Christendom as he said plainly appear'd in the wars of Germany had such an influence upon the Councel of France as to prevail with the French to obstruct the landing of Count Mansfield's Army contrary to promise with whom they should have join'd Forces for the relief of the Palatinate and the German Princes the failure wherein proved the ruin of that Army the greatest part whereof perished Furthermore that having by his mediation prevail'd for a Peace between the French King and his Protestant Subjects and engaged his Word that the Protestants should observe the Articles of Agreement nevertheless the King of France contrary to those Articles block'd up their Towns Garrisons and Forts committing many spoils upon them though they had done nothing in violation of the Edict of Peace Whereupon the Duke of Buckingham in order to the relief of the Palatinate being made Admiral and Commander in Chief of the Land-Forces on the 27th of Iune set out from Portsmouth the Fleet consisting of an hundred Sail whereof ten were of the King 's Royal Navy having aboard six or seven thousand Land-Soldiers and towards the later end of Iuly appear'd before Rochel Where attempting to gain the Isle of Rhee which lay before that Town and imbarr'd their Trade his unskilful conduct therein was such that he was forc'd to a retreat with the loss of many valiant men and not a little of his Honour the more full relation of which ill success I refer to our Historians This Expedition proving thus unhappy his Majesties necessitous condition forc'd him to pawn much of his Lands to the City of London for an hundred and twenty thousand pounds which he then borrowed and also to borrow thirty thousand pounds more of the East-India Company But all this being not sufficient to support the charge of the Fleet notwithstanding these former great discouragements still hoping by a Parliament to obtain some reasonable Supply in these his pressing Necessities he call'd another Parliament to begin on the seventeenth of March next following At the meeting whereof he told them None there but knew that common danger was the cause of that Parliament and Supply at that time the Chief end thereof Likewise that if to maintain their own advices and as the case then stood for the following thereof the true Religion Laws and Liberties of this State and the just defence of its true Friends and Allies were not sufficient then no Eloquence of men and Angels could prevail the particular dangers being laid open by the Lord Keeper Hereupon after some time spent in debate of these things five Subsidies were voted and the Petition of Right assented to by his Majesty After which the Parliament was first prorogued from the 26th of Iune till the 20th of October And then by Proclamation till the 20th of Ianuary At which meeting the Clergy also gave the King as many Subsidies In the interim of which Prorogation the Duke of Buckingham who had formerly been the Darling of that Parliament which made use of him to King Iames for breaking the match with Spain being now grown odious and in this Parliament represented to be the chief cause of all their Grievances not only by reason of the losses at the Isle of Rhee but for many other respects as in the Annals of that time may at large be seen hoping as well to regain the honour he lost in the last year's attempt in that Isle as a better opinion of the People design'd another Expedition to Rochel In order whereunto being Commander of the Royal Fleet ready to set sail from Portsmouth he was there desperately murther'd by one Iohn Felton a discontented Officer of the last years Army upon the 23d of August who gave no other reason for that his barbarous and bloody Act then that the Duke had been declared an Enemy to the Commonwealth in a Remonstrance tendred to the King by the House of Commons in the former Session But I proceed notwithstanding this fair shew of an hopeful accordance there were not a few turbulent-spirited men both in the Parliament and elsewhere who sought all advantages for breaking thereof divers Merchants refusing to pay Tonnage and Poundage in regard it had not been granted to the King by a special Act since the death of his Royal Father King Iames. Whereupon his Majesty first sent for those Merchants to the Council-Table and after by a Speech to both Houses told them he expected they should pass the Bill for it But instead of complying therein the Commons publisht a Declaration concerning Religion alledging that they must prefer it before all other business Whereupon the King whose urgent Necessities for want of the Supply expected pressed hard upon them issuing out a special Commission for taking of Tonnage and Poundage Against which the Commons not only protested but some of their Members behaved themselves therein so disobediently and seditiously to the contempt of his Regal authority that fearing they should be dissolved before they had vented their own passions in that particular they lockt the doors of the House of Commons kept the Key and held the Speaker by strong hand in his Chair till they had thunder'd out their Anathema's not
viz. at Dunbar and Worcestrer it will not be amiss to take notice of somewhat concerning his Carcase which was wholly preternatural viz. that notwithstanding it was Artificially Embowelled and Embalmed with Aromatick Odours wrapt also in six-fold Cerecloth and put in a sheet of Lead with a strong wooden Coffin over it yet did it in a short time so strangely ferment that it burst all in pieces and became so noysom that they were immediately necessitated to commit it to the Earth and to celebrate his Funeral with an empty Coffin Which solemnity was performed from Somerset-House in the Strand unto King Henry the Sevenths Chappel at Westminster with that Grandeur and State upon the 23. of November following that it did equalize the greatest and most glorious of our Kings amongst which they laid the Corps of this infamous Regicide CHAP. XXXIX HEre should I go on in the path of my Story but because that reports have been so various and uncertain touching his Parentage and course of life before he became an Actor in this unparallel'd Rebellion it will not be improper to make a short digression and as briefly as may be to say somthing of both That his Extraction by the Fathers side was from Sir Richard Williams Kt. a Gentleman of eminent note in the Court of King Henry the VIII and son to Morgan ap William a Welchman by Sister to Thomas Lord Cromwel Earl of Essex the chief Agent in those days for the dissolution of the Monasteries is not to be doubted Who being by his Uncle preferred to the service of King Henry was for that cause and no other called Cromwel as is apparent enough from Testimonies of credit however some have fancyed otherwise which Sir Richard thereupon writing himself Cromwel alias Williams was then in such Favour and Grace with the King that having received the dignity of Knighthood for his Heroick behaviour at a Tilting in 32. Hen. VIII he had also the great Abby of Ramsey the Nunnery of Hinchinbroke with the Priories of Sautrey and Huntington given to him upon the disposal of the Monastery Lands All which he left unto Sir Henry Cromwel Kt. his Son and Heir Who making Hinchinbroke his principal Seat as more pleasantly situate than Ramsey is left Issue Sir Oliver Cromwel made Knight of the Bath at the Coronation of King Iames and Robert Cromwel a younger Son with some other Children Which Robert though he was by the countenance of his elder Brother made a Justice of Peace in Huntingtonshire had but a slender Estate much of his support being a Brew-House in Huntington chiefly managed by his Wife who was Sister to Sir Robert Steward of the City of Ely Knight and by her had Issue this our famous Oliver stiled Protector of England Scotland and Ireland as hath been observed In his Youth he was for some time bred up in the University of Cambridg where he made no great proficiency in any kind of Learning but then and afterwards sorting himself with Drinking-Companions and the ruder sort of people being of a rough and blustering disposition he had the name of a Royster amongst most that knew him and by his exorbitances so wasted his Patrimony that having attempted his Uncle Steward for a supply of his wants and finding that by a smooth way of application to him he could not prevail he endeavoured by colour of Law to lay hold of his Estate representing him a person not able to govern it But therein failing for lack of better mantenance his aim was for New-England purposing there to fix as is very well known Observing therefore that most of those unquiet Spirits who were refractory to the Church-Discipline by Law Establisht here were the principal persons which had stored that new Plantation and that none but such Schismaticks were welcome guests thither for his better furtherance from those of that gang and the fairer acceptance upon his arrival there through the recommendation of those Godly Brethren he forthwith quitted his old Companions and betook himself to the acquaintance of the pretended Holy Tribe most formally canting in their demure Language and affected tone and frequenting the Sermons of the fiercest Boutefeus Amongst which as a blessed Convert in whom they much gloried he gained in short time a very high Reputation So that having better Natural parts than the most of that Sect and confidence enough to put forth himself upon any fit occasion he was especially made choice of by those who ever endeavoured the undermining of Regal Authority to be their Orator at Huntington unto the late Kings Commissiones of Sewers there in opposition to His Majesties most commendable design for the general drayning of that great and vast level of the adjacent Fenns In which adventure his boldness and Elocution gained him so much credit as that soon after being necessitated through his low condition to quit a Country Farm which he held at St. Ives and betake himself to mean Lodgings in Cambridg the Schismatical party there chose him a Burgess for their Corporation in that unhappy Long-Parliament which began at Westminster upon the third of November 1640. Wherein he bestirred himself with as much violence and heat as any Schismatical Bankrupt did in that mischievious Convention being well aware that a general imbroilment of the Kingdom by an intestine War might be of advantange to such necessitous and desperate people Whereupon in short time he did accordingly obtain his long desired ends for being one of the first of those who put themselves in Arms against the King he was made a Captain of Horse in the Earle of Essex's Regiment and afterward Lieutenant General to the late Earl of Manchester In which service his great strength of Reason accompanyed with no less Courage soon gained him such experience in the Discipline of War as that taking strict care for the well Arming of his men and preventing their disorder upon any hot pursuit such success attended him upon all occasions as at length gained him the Reputation of a skilful Commander by reason whereof he arrived to much higher advancements Where soon discerning the general humour of the Souldier and that many of them were possessed with conceited Revelations some expecting a personal Reign of Christ here on Earth fancying themselves the men who were to make way for his coming and to that purpose that they were to destroy the wicked and possess their Estates he chiefly applyed himself to the humor of those desperate Fanaticks and by his subtle arts in Praying Preaching Groaning and Howling amongst them got himself no less Credit than Mahomet of old did with his Followers And so by degrees ascending those steps of Command and Power whereof instance hath been given in the precedent Story raised himself at last to the highest pitch of Soveraignty as hath already been observed CHAP. XL. I Now proceed to Richard his Son Proclaimed Protector upon his death as hath been said Whose Title was for a
Debate resolv'd against In the Case of the Bishops the Lords first Voted that they should retain their Voices in Parliament For taking the Protestation throughout the Kingdom the Lords first cast out the Order And notwithstanding their Order and Declaration for the due Observance of the Book of Common-Prayer the Commons made and set forth a contrary Order thereto appointing it to be dispersed and published in all the Churches throughout the Kingdom Likewise though the Lords refused to joyn with the Commons for Petitioning his Majesty that the Cinque-Ports might be secured Yet were they afterwards by terror constrain'd thereto So Likewise though they refused to join with them in their consent for removing the King's Magazine from Hull yet afterwards through over-awing did it And though they concurr'd not with them in that case of the Militia the House of Commons Voted that they did agree therein Thus we plainly see that the Breach of those antient Priviledges for Freedom of Debate and Vote in Parliament was not made without some difficulty But these subtile Men having by the help of those Tumults from the Londoners opened the gap went afterwards smoothly through with all their unjustifiable Practises which in the end brought Confusion both of Parliament and Kingdome So that by these Devices having effected whatsoever they had a mind to they stuck not to deliver it for a Breach of Priviledge that the Lords should dissent to any thing they had Voted as is manifest from that of the New great Scal wherein the Lords had the same measure put upon themselves as they had offered to the King in joyning with the Commons to Vote his Majesties Dissent to the Bills they tendred to him a Breach of their Priviledges CHAP. XLV BY what hath been already said I doubt not but it is apparent enough that these great pretended Champions for the Protestant-Religion the Laws of the Land the Liberty of the Subject and Priviledges of Parliament made use of those specious pretences for no other end than to Captivate the People and by that means get the Power of the Sword into their Mercyless Hands Now forasmuch as they were not asham'd in the midst of all their Vile Practises to cry out that they sought nothing but that Religion Liberty and Peace of the Kingdom should be preserved Having already shewed how well they regarded Religion and the Peoples Liberties let us see how much they endeavoured that generally wished for Peace Did they not order that the King's Proclamation of Pardon to all that would lay down Arms and return to their Obedience should not be Proclaim'd in London and Westminster And when divers Cittizens met at Guild-Hall to frame a Petition to present to the Members at Westminster for Peace was not there a Troop of Horse sent amongst them which with their Swords drawn and terrible Menaces caused them to Disperse for safeguard of their Lives And afterwards when a Committee of the Petitioners were by appointment attending the Court of Aldermen and Common Council at Guild-Hall did not more than Twenty Souldiers rush in amongst them with drawn Swords Crying On on strike now or never Let us destroy these Malignant Doggs that would have Peace Let us cut the Throats of these Popish Rogues And accordingly fell upon the Petitioners in a cruel manner beating and wounding divers of them And when the Petitioners being many disarm'd those Souldiers and shut up the Hall Doors was not there then a Troop of Horse which Discharg'd their Pistols in at them threatning to kill any that issued out And did they not presently bring two great Guns and plant them against the Doors so that the Petitioners were constrain'd to fly up to the Common-Council Chamber for Protection and beg for their Lives to be dismissed with safety Which being granted and they let out did not many lye in wait for them with drawn Swords who pursued them with bitter Execrations the Multitude kicking and striking at them in their Passage crying Hang them cut their Throats Whereupon divers of them were sore hurt and some drag'd to Prison Did not their House of Lords refuse a Petition for Peace from the Inhabitants of Westminster and the Suburbs And was not there a Constable in Westminster Committed for having a hand in that Petition And when His Majesties Commissioners of Array in Cheshire and the Parliaments Committee in that County for Exercising the Militia out of an earnest regard to prevent the Miseries of War in those parts had made an Agreement against any farther Hostility and to preserve the Peace of the Country did not they at Westminster make a publick Declaration against the same whereby they Renounced that Agreement as prejudicial and dangerous to the whole Kingdom and declared it void And was not Sir William Brereton thereupon sent down in all hast with a Troop of Horse a Regiment of Dragoons and four Field Pieces for raising new Forces in that County to serve the Parliament And was not the like Revocation and Disclaymer made by those Members at Westminster against the Agreement in York-shire by the Earl of Cumberland and others the Commissioners of Array there for His Majesty and the Lord Fairfax and others for the Militia Was not Mr. Nicholls and Prideaux two of their Members ordered to go down to break the like Pacification made by the Gentry and others in the Counties of Devon and Cornwail notwithstanding that the Commissioners had taken a Solemn Prorestation and received the Sacrament for Observation thereof And when His Majesty had sent a Gracious Letter and Declaration to the Sheriffs and City of London with Direction that it should be read in their Common Hall was not there an Order in the Name of both Houses to forbid their meeting for to hear it Read And divâ—â—s Discharg'd by Order of the Houses who met accordingly Likewise when His Majesty sent a Message to them for a Treaty with free Trade did not the Members in the House of Commons signify to the Lords at a Conference that it would prove destructive to the Liberty of the Subject and to the Kingdom And when the Women came in great Numbers to Westminster to cry for Peace were they not beaten and abused and three of them killed Were not there certain Propositions read in their House of Commons which were found in Mr. Salâ—marsh his Trunk near Hull First that all means should be used to keep the King and his People from a suddain Union Secondly to cherish the War under the notion of Popery as the surest means to engage the People Thirdly if the King would not grant their demands then to root him out of the Royal Line and collate the Crown upon some body else How hard a matter it was like to be to obtain Peace from these Men therefore let Stephen Marshall tell you whom Mr. Case
taken the Suburbs and sackt them The Convention of Estates thus met at Tours put out a Declaration in behalf of the King And that at Paris Publisht another against him After which contrary Declarations the Schollars being as eager to contend for their several Parties as the Souldiers there were publish't many Ordinances of Parliament infinite Writings of particular Men Decisions of the Sorbon Letters of the Pope's Legate Answers of the Bishops that adhered to the King and such a number of Books every where dispersed that it was a clear case there was not a Witt in the Kingdom but was Imploy'd Not a Pen but writ in defence of the Reasons of one side or other but with so much Obstinacy of Mind in their Arguments that it was easy to discern that the Arms of the Spirit when they are distorted and misused in divers manner in the Heat and Incogitancy of Wars are more apt to administer new Fewel to the Flame than quench the Fire already begâ—n At this time the Affairs of the League were in a very tottering condition the diversity of Pretensions and contrary ends of the Confederates much disturbing the course of their Enterprizes holding not only their Councils but the Effects and Actions of their common Interests in suspence Which in regard of the speedy Expedition and Resolutions of the King could not admit of delays The Duke of Mayne being Prince of the Faction and head of the Design who by the Authority of his Person Prudence of his Government and experience in Marshal-matters bore the chief burthen of their Affairs conceiving that the reward and fruits of his Paines did of Justice belong to himself projected therefore either to transfer the Crown upon himself or upon some of his House But in case he could not obtain so much then at least to set it upon the Head of some such Prince as might totally and absolutely be beholding to him for it being resolv'd that the Kingdom should not be divided much less that it should fall into the Hands of a Forein Prince On the contrary the King of Spain who in the beginning secretly but now openly protected and fomented the League and had of late Years laid out two Millions in the Service of the Confederates and was now to contribute vast Sums of Money both in publick and private besides his maintaining of Foot and Horse seeing that without his Assistance which they desired might be great and strong not only the main Design was like to come to nothing but the League could not long subsist without being Dissolved thought more than reasonable and more than just that as the Expences and Losses were his so the Fruits and Benefits should be his also And therefore besides an under-hand secret Design of Uniting the Crowns and gayning that of France to his Daughter Isabella the Infanta whom he had by his Queen Elizabeth King Henry the 3 ds Eldest Sister he farther endeavoured to get himself publickly declared Protector of the Crown of France with Sovereign Power and Authority to dispose of the Offices of the Crown to choose the Governours and Captains of the Armyâ— to conferr Bishopricks and to have all the Prerogatives pertaining to an absolute Prince All which was demanded and publickly Sollicited by his Agents Mendoza Mornea c. But the Citizens of Paris who perceived well that the main strength of the Faction consisted in them not only in regard of the Multitude of their People and Power of the City but by reason of their continual Contributions from whence the Sinews of the War were derived thought it was come to their share to dispose of the Crown And being all apay'd with the Duke of Mayne's bad Success in the Wars the same fate which the Earl of Essex had with the Londoners Imputing the loss of their Suburbs to his slackness whom they called Coward and Block-head p. 741. and that the City was now in a manner Besieged and much straitned for want of Provisions by reason of his want of Care inclin'd to submit themselves to be ordered by the Spaniards hoping by the help of their Forces to destroy the King's whose very Name was odious to them and to extirpate the Religion of the Huguenots whereunto they were naturally Enemies and by means of the Spanishâ—-Gold to be eased of the insupportable burthen of Contributions For the King of Spains Ministers bore them in hand and went about cunningly with fair Promises and big Words both in publick and private in order to their Assistance On the other side the Nobility which took part with the League in whose hands were the Arms and Forces of the Kingdom were much averse from submitting to the Spanish-Yoke inclined to the Duke of Mayne conforming themselves to his Pleasure to be guided by his Authority But in this great distraction of the Kingdom divers of them were not without their own particular Designs And of such variety of Councils was the League composed that by clashing with one another they interrupted the course of their Affairs and abated the heat by which they first Conspired in that Band which seemed to have no other end but Religion The King therefore taking advantage of these their Divisions dismissed the Marquess of Belin upon his Parole whom he had taken Prisoner at the Battel of Arches with Commission in his name to proffer Peace to the Duke of Mayne and to exhort him as a Prince of an honest and moderate temper not to assent to the Pernicious Designs of Foreigners but freeing himself from the base usage of the Vulgar and cunning of the Spaniard that he would hearken to an honest and safe Peace whereupon answerable to his Merit and Honour he should have as great a share in the Kings Favour as himself could desire When the Marquess made this overture to the Duke the Opinions of the Councillers about him were much divided some favouring it others declaming against it Telling how the War was founded upon the point of Religion and therefore nothing must be done in it without the Popes Approbation Also that the Duke of Mayne being not absolute Prince of the League but only the Head of his Party ought not to adventure upon such an Important Action without the joynt consent of all those that followed that Party and all the Princes that adhered to or favoured the League who if they should not follow his deliberation might choose another Head and he be left destitute of the support of the Catholick Party to the will of his Enemies And that this was but a trick of the Kings to work a diffidence in the Dukes Party and to sow Divisions and Suspitions amongst the Confederates though the King might promise Golden-Mountains to the end he might dissolve the Union of the League yet there was no security but that so soon as he should be Established King in Peace he would not observe the least Tittle of his promises The Duke therefore on the one side
about the City setting Guards in sundry places with Threats of the like Cruelty to divers others Upon endeavour to suppress which Uproar the City Garrison refused to obey being so much Devoted to the Councils and Actions of the Sixteen that Alexander de Monte said plainly He would not move against them who managed the Cause of God and all good Men with so much sincerity The Council of the Sixteen Condemning and Executing many Citizens whom they suspected to incline to the Kings Party in a precipitous manner About that time there being a consultation held at Rens by the chief Heads of the League where they Treated long about their Common Interests though every one did palliate their divers Pretences and coloured their private Designs yet was it plain enough that they would never concur in the same end As for the Spaniards they wholly trusted to their own Power and the necessity in which the rest stood of their Assistance The Popes Nuncio insisting upon the Majesty of the Apostolick See and the Foundation of Religion which the Pope must dispose The Duke of Lorreyne stood upon his credit as Head of the Family and pretended that the rest in Modesty must sit down to him The Duke of Savoy had an aim at the Compassing of Provence The Duke of Mercur at Brittain The Duke of Namurz meant to Cantonize the Government The Duke of Mayne as Head of the Army and chief of the Faction relyed upon the Union of the People and assent of the Nobility who stood well affected to him But things being not yet ripe and every one proceeding with great Caution and Secrecy concealed his own Designs and made a semblance as if he were moved with no other Considerations but of the publick good The Duke of Mayne attempted to Storm Mant where the Kings Council many Lords and Prelates and chief Officers of the Crown were with a less Guard than the Quality of the Persons and weakness of the place required To which purpose he brought divers of the Citizens of Paris drew out the Garrisons of Meaux Dreux and Pontois but was repulst by the Valour of the Lords themselves and their Families President Janin was sent into Spain to negotiate with the King of that Realm in behalf of the Leaguers but return'd without any resolution For it was desired in Spain that the War should move but a slow pace that the Duke of Mayne should not grow so much in Credit and Authority with his Party The Council of the Sixteen at Paris to whom the Preachers stuck close which was at first the Basis and Ground-work of the League pretending to carry all things according to their own liking demeaned themselves with much partiality and Passion proper to a Faction without any regard to preserve the Rights of the Crown or the Honour and Reputation of the French Nation their only Studies and whole Endeavours being set upon such things as might ruine the King whom they hated most perfectly and extinguish both his Name and all the Huguenot-Party so that they might put the Reins of Government into the hands of such Persons as would rule all things according to their Humours But the Duke of Mayne studying how to curb and moderate their turbulent desires instituted a Council of State distinct from that of the Sixteen consisting of many Wise and Moderate Men to counterpoise and restrain the heady courses of the other Amongst which were Villeroy Iannin c. Men not tainted with Spanish Practises nor the inconsiderate Zeal of the Preachers which kindled a great Heart-burning and emulation betwixt the Council of the State with the Parliament at Paris and Council of the Sixteen especially some of the Zealots amongst them Thus have we seen the main resemblance of the Holy League with this of ours as to the Original and Prosecution of it though in the ends of them they did somewhat differ Apparent it is that the carriage of the Scotts here was the very same with that of the Spaniards there Their Pretences the same viz. Religion and Assisting their Brethren Their private ends the same the advance of their own greatness Which were no sooner fully understood by the French but even those which were the Kings greatest Enemies began to detest them and chose rather to submit to the just Obedience of their King than undergo the Spanish-Yoke For when the Council of Spain were resolv'd to send but small Forces into France and to spin out the Wars to their own least cost and most advantage Hoping by that means to obtain their ends upon the French who without their help were not able to stand against the Kings Forces which were to procure the Lady Infanta Isabella of Spain to be declared Queen of France in a full Assembly of the States which they intended to force the Duke of Mayne to call for that purpose The Duke perceiving it began utterly to disgust them complaining of their niggardly and sparing assistance afforded to the League and eager desires of domineering which had occasioned the loss of all their former pains and given the King opportunity of recovering such strength as that he was now Superior to them both in Reputation and Forces with much more bitter Language to the Spanish Embassadors he underhand began to Treat of an accord with the King yet remitted nothing of his Violence and pursuit of his Ambitious ends but calling an Assembly of the States at Paris declared himself fully against the King and Proposed the new Election of another hoping the Crown might be conferr'd upon himself for his great Actions in the Wars none having merited more of the Cause Yet could he not prevail with those of his own Family the Dukes of Lorrein and Guise thinking as highly of themselves as he And when the matter came to be opened in a Close Committee of the chief Leaguers before some select Delegates of the three Estates the Duke of Feria in a set Speech full of Art and Eloqnence recommended the Infanta to their Election a thing which the Spanish Agents had before Practised under hand with many large proffers of Honour and Reward to those of the House of Lorrein and other chief Agents of the League Which Proposal sounded so strange in the Ears of the French generally that the Bishop of Saintliz William Rosa a Man of an harsh Temper and dogged Eloquence which he had many Years Exercised against the King and his Adherents though a Fiery-Zealous Leaguer could not endure to hear with Patience but instantly said he now saw the Kings Party was in the right of it who had always given out that they of the League did nothing but veil their State-Interests with the Mask of Religion Which Imputation himself and his Companions had ever laboured to consute out of the Pulpits and that now it grieved him to the Heart to see it confirm'd from the Mouths of the Embassadors
more than they can and leave the Triumph and Conquest of Souls to the Wisdom of God who only forms and Reforms the Hearts of Men as he pleasech and gives the signal to many wandring Souls to bring them into the way of Salvation it being not possible for Men to impose a necessity upon that which God hath left at Liberty the Conscience which should be as free in a State as Thought Where going on he shews by the continued Practice of former times that such Princes as were well advised never killed their Subjects to Convert them nor wasted their Dominions by War to inform their Consciences by the Sword knowing that Religion is an Act of Union and Concord and must be planted by Instruction whereas Wars are all for Division and Destruction And those who in these later times have mingled Heaven and Earth together to compell the Consciences of their Subjects to an Unity in Religion have at last been fayn to give over and let them alone and to reject the advise of those unskilful Physitians who prescribe nothing but Antimony and Letting Bloud for all Diseases Then he proves that the accord made with the Protestants was both just necessary and profitable The whole Discourse is not unworthy the consideration of our times but I shall not trouble the Reader with Transcribing farther Having now dispatch't the Holy-League and made good I hope so much as I undertook that it was for the most part parallel to this of ours One thing only I have not insisted on not knowing whether it be convenient to particularize in it namely the strange Disasters and Unfortunate ends which befell many Eminent Persons of that League Like to which our own Story hath afforded us some Examples already and Posterity may be able to observe more To say nothing of any that were Kill'd in those Wars on either Party nor much of the Tragical ends of many of that Family who were the first Authors and constant Upholders of that League it cannot be forgot that the Duke of Guise and his Brother the Cardinal were both of them suddainly taken away by Trechery when their hopes were at highest And the Duke of Nemure their Brother by the Mother Betray'd by one whom he most trusted Dyed in Despair in the declining of the League Likewise That one of the Duke of Guise his Sons a Person of special note for his Valour was some Years after the Peace miserably torn in peices by a Canon at Arles which burst when he gave Fire to it Shooting at a Mark. The chief of the Duke of Lorreynes Family who thought to have gained the Kingdom of France to his Son from the Father that Son lost all his own Dukedom to the Son The Duke of Merceur who aimed to have had Brittany at least for his share Dyed of the Plague in a Forrein Countrey left no Heir Male so that his whole Estate came to the Duke of Vendosine with his Daughter much against her Will. The Count of St. Paul who had been advanced by the Duke of Mayne to the Title of Mareschal of France was in the time of the League Stab'd by the young Duke of Guise as he came forth of the Church at Remes Villiers the Admiral was basely Kill'd by a Spanish-Souldier in cold Bloud and his Finger cut off by another for his Ring Brisson the Primier President of the Parliament at Paris who had been first most Violent against the King upon suspicion of complying afterwards was with some others Strangled by the Tumultuous Citizens of Paris And the Lord Gomeron Governour of Han in Picardy who sold that place to the Spaniard was Beheaded before the Walls of the same Town a Reward not much Inferior to that of the two Hothums I take no pleasure in reckoning up many of these Instances He that will seek may find more in France and he that will observe I do not wish but fear it in time may discover as many in England One Observation more I shall Intreat the Reader to carry home with him and then I have done with the Holy-League It hath already been shew'd at full that when the Leaguers first took up Armes and bound themselves by Oathes against their King the pretended grounds of the one and the Subject of the other were nothing but the Defence of the true Religion the Laws and Liberties and Property of the Subject with many fair Promises to make the King a Glorious King Where I cannot chuse but observe how the Hand of God by a strange Providence turned all their Vows into Prophecies and their Promises into Predictions by fulfilling them all though in far different sence from what they intended By setling the True Religion they meant the Roman but God fulfilled it of the Protestant And those Armes which they Vowed to the Ruine God Converted to the Advancement of it the Protestants of that Kingdom having upon that occasion obtain'd and ever since enjoyed greater Immunities and a more free and setled course of the Profession of their Religion than ever they had before As to the Laws the Fundamental Laws of France to speak with the French-Man the Salique-Laws touching the Succession of the Crown and Prerogative of the King which they intended to alter they did in the event confirm And as Henry the third was Advanced to a State of Glory by the cruel Hands of Iaques Clement an Instrument of the League and Henry the fourth by Ravilliac one Trained up in the same Principles So was King Charles the first by his bloudy Murtherers here But as it fell out consider what a purchase the Glorious Nobility the Gallant Gentry the Rich Citizens and the Secure Farmer had when by siding with the Leaguers they Exchanged their Loyalty and present Peace which they enjoyed under the King's Protection for the aiery hopes of a greater Liberty and if not bettering at least securing their Estates Did not the long continuance of those Wars so inure the Souldiers to a Military course of Life and the People to Patience under Contributions and Impositions that the former could never since be won to lay the Sword out of his Hands nor the latter get the Yoke shaken off their Shoulders Only the Scene is somewhat altered for whereas before their own Countrey was the Stage of the War they have now removed it to their Neighbours And the Crown of France by reason of their many Victories and Successes is now become justly formidable to a great part of Europe whereby the promise of the Leaguers is fully verified the King is made Glorious but how far they so intended is easy to imagine And how the Liberty of the Subject in general is enhaunted and their Property Establisht by these Glorious Atchievements of the King when their Yearly Taxes for support of his Wars amount almost if not altogether to the value of their Lands let the French if they have any cause make their boast And
now plainly see Eleven of those sixteen English Lords which were chosen on his Majesties part being afterwards Actors or Assisters in the late war against him The first demand there made by the Scots Commissioners being no less then forty thousand pounds a month for maintenanne of their Army during the Treaty Which tho not directly granted was so far yielded to as that the Assessment impos'd by them upon the Countie of Northumberland Bishopric of Durham and Town of Newcastle should stand good for the raising of Eight hundred and fifty pounds a day allowance for the space of two months to begin upon the sixteenth of that instant October And that there should be a cessation of Arms the Scots Army to be confin'd on the North part the River Tese and the English to the South thereof CHAP. VII WHich footing thus gotten by the Scots in the North gave no small encouragement to their well-wishers in the South especially in London who in contemplation also of the ensuing Parliament which by his Majesty was summon'd to meet upon the third of November following were not a little animated in divers bold Enterprizes for scandalous papers and Libels were frequently thrown in the streets against the Bishops Yea so bold were the multitude grown by the example of the Scots in an 1637 and through the incitation of many Citizens and others of note who would not then shew themselves that on the 22th of October a rabble of no less than Two thousand Brownists and the like Sectaries entred St. Paul's Cathedral where the high Commission Court then sat tore down all the Benches and cried out No Bishop No High Commission To the consideration of which Parliament begun on the third of November accordingly did the King represent the safety and security of this Realm earnestly desiring that care might be speedily taken for riddance of the Scots which had thus invaded the North and to satisfy their just Grievances promised his hearty concurrence desiring that his Army might not be suffer'd to disband for want of pay before the Rebels for so he then call'd the Scots were put out And that they would lay aside all suspicions to the end it might become a happy Parliament resolving to cast himself wholly upon the love and affection of his English Subjects But the house of Commons consisting of the same or persons worse affected then those in April before the prevalent party purging the House of divers persons whom they concieved would not comply with their destructive enterprises for such they either finding fault with their Elections or making them criminals as to some public Grievances though others of a deeper guilt were not touch'd whose offences might make them obnoxious to their power or obsequious to their designs went slowly on with what his Majesty had proposed to them for the busy-party who were the great Actors in the ensuing Tragedy then fell to contrivance about the accomplishment of their long desired work To which purpose the Treaty at Rippon was soon after remov'd to Westminster to the end that there they might have the Scots Commissioners at hand and the power of the Londoners to assist them for it had been impossible without the conjunction and help of the Prevalent and factious party in that City ever to have accomplish'd the ruine of the establish'd Government and destruction of the King as they afterwards did In order whereunto the first step they made was the entertaining Petitions of Grievances from all parts of the Realm which made such a noise as if the Subjects of England had suffered under the greatest slavery and oppression that had ever been heard of and being devised and framed by themselves were receiv'd with such great acceptance as that the People began to shew no small expressions of Joy in their new Reformers Who to win them the more besides the Impeachment of the Earl of Strafford which was within two days following whom they had made sufficiently odious by representing him to be one of the greatest causes of their oppressions and an especial Enemy to Parliaments expell'd divers Projectors and Monopolists out of the House of Commons impeach'd the Archbishop of Canterbury the Bishop of Ely and Lord Keeper Finch for Treason against the State having in order thereto by libellous Pamphlets and Pictures rendred them hateful to the People Damn'd that hideous Grievance of Ship-money by vote Pass'd a Bill for a Triennial Parliament as also impeach'd Justice Berkley of High Treason for his activeness in the business of Ship-money And to try how safely they might adventure to strike at the establish'd Government of the Church which might make the easier way for ruine of the State they brought Pryn Burton and Bastwick in triumph to London who had been censured in the Star-Chamber for Libels against the Hierarchy countenancing a Petition exhibited to them by Alderman Penington against Episcopacy and Church-Discipline Yet that there might be no doubt of their zeal and dutiful affection to the King they sent a Message to his Majesty to desire leave that they might advance and settle his Revenue offering to make him the richest King in Christendom And having thus gain'd a strong confidence with the people what blessed Patriots they were like to be that they might also seem as zealous for God's cause they exhibited a Remonstrance in the name of both Houses to his Majesty grounded upon divers Petitions which they had subtilly procured from all parts of the Realm of the increase of Popery Also that the danger thereof might the more amaze the world they then began to open their Cabinet of Plots and Conspiracies four of the House of Commons imparting to the Lords a a discovery of an horrid design by many thousands of Papists in England Ireland and Wales Moreover because of the great complaint of Innovation in Religion increase of Popery and growth of Superstition they appointed Commissioners for removing Rails from about all Communion-Tables throughout the Realm Likewise to the end that the Bishops might the better attend their Spiritual functions they voted that none of them should have voice in Parliament nor meddle in temporal affairs And to assure the Scots whose Army they as yet thought not fit to part with till their work was brought to more maturity they gave them three hundred thousand pounds towards a supply of their losses and Necessities Which signal favour got them the stile of Brethren and thanks from the Scotish-Commissioners who seem'd so tender of our good that they desired the Treaty might be accelerated and the Kingdom eased of the burthen of the two Armies by their returning home The next thing wherewith they went in hand was the Trial of the Earl of Strafford for 't was resolv'd he must be cut off being a person of such integrity to the King and known abilities To which purpose
whose endeavours were to kindle that combustion in England which they had in so great a measure effected in Ireland and which nothing could do as they said but the granting that Petition Which Petition together with an Ordinance of both Houses setting forth a most dangerous and desperate design upon the House of Commons and many discoveries importing fears of rebellious Insurrections by Papists and other ill affected persons in this Kingdom they then exhibited Whose answer thereunto being that for the City of London and other Corporations which by any antient Charters had power of ordering the Militia he conceiv'd it unfit to alter their government but that he could not consent to the indefinite time propounded for this Posture Whereupon they forthwith voted this Answer to be a flat denial and that his Majesties advisers thereto were Enemies to the State and mischeivous Projectors against the defence of the Kingdom Also that this denial was of such dangerous consequence that it would hazard the peace and safety of all his Kingdoms unless some speedy remedy were applyed by the Parliament And immediately dispatch'd another Petition to his Majesty then at Theobalds wherein they protested that if he did not speedily pass his assent to the satisfaction of their desires they should be inforced by authority of both Houses to dispose thereof and that they did accordingly so resolve to do Farther voting that the Kingdom should be forthwith put into a Posture of defence by Authority of both Houses that the Navy should be speedily rigg'd and a Declaration of their just Fears and Jealousies speedily drawn up with the grounds of their former votes for putting the Kingdom into a Posture by authority of both Houses to clear the Parliament of all mistrusts And to carry out all this under colour of the Peoples desires New Petitions were brought from several Counties viz. one from Staffordsh pretending such dread of the Papists rising there that every man was constrain'd to stand upon his Guard not daring to go to Church unarm'd Others from Worcestersh Berksh Norfolk Norwich Lynne Royston Salop all of them earnestly desiring this Posture of Defence And the very next day the Ordinance for ordering the Militia of the Kingdom by authority of both Houses sent to his Majesty 22 Febr. was assented to by the Lords and thereupon new Lieutenants were assign'd throughout all England and Wales And having in a grand Committee at Merchant-Taylers Hall contrived the Declaration mention'd in their Votes of March the second wherein they made a very great noise of a design to alter Religion in this Kingdom and that the wars with Scotland and Ireland were framed to that end they presented the same to his Majesty at Newmarket within few days after voting the King's Commissions of Lieutenancies in the several Counties illegal as also that there was an urgent and inevitable Necessity for putting his Majesties Subjects into a Posture of Defence and that the Ordinances of both Houses for the Militia being obliging to the People ought to be obeyed by the Fundamental Laws of this Kingdom And lastly that the Earl of Warwick should be appointed Vice-Admiral of his Majesties Ships And having now by these their exorbitant courses together with the Tumults so much endangered his Majesties Royal person that he was forced for safety of himself and the Prince to retire into the North they voted that they would go on with their former Votes concerning the Militia Also that when the Lords and Commons in Parliament should declare what the Laws of the Land be to Question it was a high breach of the Privilege of Parliament After this within few days they sent a Petition to York which was there presented to his Majesty by the Lord Willoughby of Parham and others wherein they alledged that his Majesties denial to their petition for disposing the Militia was a great hinderance to their other proceedings and justified the Tumults at Westminster by taxing his Majesty with denial of such a Guard to them as they might confide in aspersing his Government for many continued Acts of violation of Laws c. And to keep the people still awake by allarming them with new dangers they caused Letters to be read in the House which were said to come from Amsterdam intimating intelligence from Denmark of a great Army ready prepared there to be transported for England and to land at Hull upon some dangerous enterprize The like Letter pretended to come from Newmarket then produced and another from France Whereupon having receiv'd a Petition from the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common-Council of London in which great Thanks was given to the House for ordering the Militia of the City as they had done with their resolutions therein signified to obey the same As also another from the Cinque-Ports desiring that those places might be strongly guarded and fortified and the Kingdom put into a Posture they ordered that every of his Majesties Forts and Castles should be presently fortified with an Hundred men of the Trained Bands next adjoining to them and ten pieces of Ordinance to each place Also that no Forces should be admitted into Hull without the consent of the Lords and Commons and that Instructions should be sent thither for the farther fortifying of that place Likewise upon another pretended discovery made by one Mr. Cartwright and the Speaker of the House of Commons that they were advertised by Letters from France of an Army preparing there to come for England or Ireland the Lords sent a message to the Commons to let them know that they had designed the Earl of Warwick Vice-Admiral of the Fleet. Whereupon both Houses joyn'd in a Message to the King to inform him of the grounds and reasons of their sending out that Earl as Vice-Admiral without his Majesties consent The King therefore discerning that they had got the Royal Navy into their hands thought it high time to make sure of his Magazine which had been laid up at Hull about two years before part for the service of Ireland and the rest for the security of the North and accordingly rode from York thither for the disposal thereof But when he came to the Gates of that Town Sir Iohn Hotham a member of the House of Commons being a confiding man with the factious party there and by their contrivance got privately thither with Souldiers refused him entrance affirming that in so doing he had the authority of Parliament to bear him out For which insolent act he was declared traiterous by his Majesty and by a special Message so signifyed to both Houses with demand of Justice against him according to the Laws But instead thereof they forthwith not only publish'd a bold Declaration with Votes and order of assistance in the name of both Houses of Parliament justifying Hotham therein
and Sconces at Graves-end and Chatham together with Dover-Castle Into Leicestershire they sent the Earl of Stanford with Horse Foot and Canon Into Warwickshire the Lord Brooke and others with six thousand Horse and Foot and into Dorsetshire the Earl of Bedford with seven thousand Foot six hundred Horse and fourteen pieces of Canon and special direction into other parts that their Lieutenants and Deputy-Lieutenants should speedily execute their Ordinance for the Militia and declare to all men that it had been and should be the endeavour of both Houses of Parliament to provide for his Majesties safety c. But the more to incense the people they issued out other Declaration in the name of the Lords and Commons in Parliament scandalizing the King with laying the foundation of an arbitrary and tyrannical Government and that notwithstanding all his Vows and Protestations to govern by Law which had been dispersed throughout the Kingdom to blind and deceive the people as they alleaged the most mischievous principles of Tyranny had been exercised that ever were invented with promise to all well affected persons as they term'd them that should be prejudiced by the Cavaliers that they should have full reparation of their damages out of the Estates of all such persons as had withdrawn themselves to York to serve his Majesty The King therefore seriously weighing the perillous condition in which himself and the whole Realm were thus miserably plunged through the rage and malice of these desperate men that he might leave nothing unattemted for preventing of those great calamities which he clearly saw approaching after he had thus erected his royal Standard sent a Message from Notingham to those Houses at Westminister by the Earls of Southampton Dorset and others whereby he propounded that for composure of those unhappy differences some fit persons might be enabled to treat on both sides in such manner and with such freedome as might best tend to an happy conclusion of them But this gracious offer was receiv'd by them with so much scorn and insolence they then having a powerful Army on foot with plenty of Money and other accommodations and his Majesty destitute of all these that the substance of their Answer was that if his Majesty would forsake all his Loyal Subjects then with him and return to his Parliament he should find such expressions of their fidelities and duty as might assure him that his safety Honour and Greatness was only to be found in their affections And immediately publish'd a Declaration setting forth that the Arms which they had taken up c. should not be laid down until his Majesty should withdraw his protection from such as had been voted by both Houses to be Delinquents or that should be so voted and should leave them to the justice of the Parliament Things being brought to this height it will not be improper now to take notice how the Scots did behave themselves towards the King in this unhappy Juncture whose gracious condescensions to them had been such as hardly any age can parallel Wherein it is to be considered that they could not but discern what breaches had been made upon his Majesty and his just Rights by those here who sat at Westminister and call'd themselves the Parliament as also to what degree of strength and power they were grown with the artifices whereby they attain'd thereto Moreover that though by a Petition exhibited to the Lords of his Majesties Privy-Council of that Realm upon the last of May an 1642 they had intimated a desire to shun any just occasion that might give offence to their gracious Soveraign as they then call'd him or of Iealousy to their Brethen of England and so seemed to stand only as Spectators yet when they heard that their Friends in England had put themselves in Arms and were so powerful in strength every way and his Majesty so weak they then not only shew'd themselves more open but sent a Form of their Kirk-Government to the Parliament at Westminster as a Pattern for Reformation with desire from the Assembly of that Kirk that the same might be establish'd here and a Declaration of their affections to the Reformation in Kirk and State Wherein they signified their expectation that England would now bestir themselves and extirpate the Prelatical Hierarchy that the remainder of the work might be the more easy offering their assistance for furthering thereof Of which more anon That there was nothing wanting in his Majesty that could be expected from a most pious and gracious Prince for prevention of those miseries which this turbulent Generation afterwards brought upon these Realms doth sufficiently appear by his sundry pathetick Messages to them formerly sent Nevertheless to acquit himself farther to God and the world by another Message of Sept. the eleventh he manifested to them what endeavours he had used by his many offers but could not obtain any Treaty And therefore now declared that being thus left to his necessary defence relying only on the Providence of God the justness of his Cause and the affections of his good people he should yet piously remember the blood that was to be spilt in this Quarrel and chearfully embrace a Treaty when ever they should desire it But to this was returned a most scornful and scandalous Answer taxing him with committing by his Souldiers oppressions rapines and murthers upon his good Subjects saying that they had offered him all Security Honour Service Obedience Support c. and sought nothing but that their Religion Liberty Peace of the Kingdom and Safety of the Parliament might be secured from the open violence and cunning practises of a wicked party who had long plotted their destruction upbraiding him that Irish Traitors and Rebels were admitted to his presence grace and favour and telling him that if he would return to his Parliament without his forces they would secure his royal Person Crown and Dignity Being thus driven to these great Extremities which was either to submit to their mercy and forsake all those his loyal Subjects who had faithfully adhered to him or to expose his royal Person with that small part of an Army he then had to the uncertain chance of war and hearing that the Earl of Essex the Rebell 's General was gone out of London in great State upon the tenth of September the cheif part of his Army being advanced to Northampton before he march'd from Notingham towards Shrewsbury upon the thirteenth of that month with what forces he then had and at the Head of them near Wellington made a solemn Protestation to defend the Protestant Religion establish'd in the Church of England to govern by the known Laws of the Land that the Liberty and Property of the Subject might be by them preserved with the same care as his own just rights Also to maintain the just Priviledges of Parliament And that he would expect no
go out of the line of Communication yet now that they were rais'd they meaning the Parliament might dispose of them whether they pleased without asking their consents And whereas the first Ordinance for Excise was but only for maintenance of the Army and paiment of Debts due by the Common-wealth they passed another wherein was a consideration added for securing of Trade which occasioned the enlargement thereof upon such Commodities as had not been formerly tax'd besides an alteration of the rates Which Commodities were Strong-waters Medicinal-Drugs Haberdashers-ware Vpholsters ware Salt Sallets Sope all sorts of Woollen-cloth Paper Skins and Glasses Having also thus taught the new Auxiliaries the force of an Ordinance of Parliament they passed another for the pressing of five thousand men in the Cities of London and Westminster with the Counties adjacent to go under the command of Sir William Waller And to hasten on the march of their Brethren the Scots to their aid and assistance the Members of the House of Commons with great formality and no less seeming devotion entred into that unhappy Combination called the solemn League and Covenant so fram'd in Scotland in St. Margarets-Church at Westminster Which under the specious veil of Reformation was that fatal Engine whereby not only the Hierarchy in the Church was by them soon after destroyed and the patrimony thereof with the Lands and Revenues of the Crown swallow'd up by those pretenders to Godliness but the sacred Person of the King most inhumanly murthered and this ancient and long flourishing Monarchy so far as 't was in their power wholly subverted and destroy'd as to the whole world is most notorious In the Preamble whereunto they had the confidence to say that this their League and Covenant was according to the commendable practise of these Kingdoms and the Example of God's people in other Nations Whereas there is not only no mention of any such things by our Historiographers nor in the History of any other Realm that I have ever seen excepting that of the Holy League in France whereof I shall take farther notice ere I finish this work but Mr. Philip Nye one of their mighty Champions for the Cause and an especial assertor of this Covenant hath expresly affirmed in print that it is such an Oath as for matter persons and other circumstances the like hath not been in any age or Oath we read of in sacred or humane stories And it is also observable that whereas in the Preamble they farther affirm that they did it to preserve themselves and their Religion which must needs be intended the known Religion publickly profess'd and by Law establish'd in the Church of England from ruine and destruction they immediatly vow to reform Religion here in England according to the pattern of the Kirk of Scotland and to extirpate Episcopacy and all Ecclesiastical Offices depending thereon Notwithstanding they knew full well First that the King was by his Coronation Oath sworn to maintain and defend the Bishops and the Churches under their charge Secondly that all the Clergy of England had testified their approbation of Episcopal Government by personal Subscriptions thereto and thirdly that by a solemn Protestation made and framed by themselves in that very Parliament and recommended by them to be taken by all the people of England they had oblig'd themselves neither for hope nor fear or other respect to relinquish the true Protestant Religion express'd in the Doctrine of the Church of England But all this Pageantry in their thus taking of that solemn League and Covenant could not allay the loud clamours of the people occasion'd by the great pressures and daily exactions under which they miserably groaned the Members therefore were constrain'd to betake themselves to another way for the easing them at least in shew and this was by an Ordinance for selling the King's Queen's and Princes revenues and the arrearages thereof as also to another for felling and cutting down Woods within sixty miles of London in all Forests Chases and Parks belonging to the King or Queen or any Arch-bishop Bishop Dean and Chapter c. Papist Delinquent Malignant c. to be disposed of for supply of the City of London Which seeming favour was for no other purpose than that they might afterwards bring the greater load upon them as they did ere long For within few days upon a jugling Report made to the House of a Pope's Bull translated into English with a Declaration upon it which was pretended to be newly sent into England for the more effectual prosecuting of the Catholic war here a Committee of the House of Commons and of the Assembly of Divines came to a Common-Hall in London to consult with the Citizens for the speedy raising of an hundred thousand pounds for the advance of the Scottish Army to be lent for that service and repay'd when moneys were procured from forreign parts upon the public faith of both Kingdoms And to obtain more men as well as money there issued out another Order that the Committee for the Militia or London should have power to appoint six Regiments of their Trained-Bands and one of their Auxiliaries as also one Regiment of Horse and Dragoons to march out with their Commanders and joyn with the Earl of Essex's Forces Likewise an Ordinance for the pressing of five thousand Souldiers more to be sent to the Islands of Ieresey and Garnsey under the command of the Earl of Warwick those Trained-Bands being appointed to meet in St. Iames Fields and from thence to march unto such place as the Earl of Essex or his Officers should appoint and in default thereof their Shops to be shut up themselves depriv'd of Trade and liable to expulsion out of the lines of Communication And about the same time they passed another Ordinance for assessing the Twenty fifth part upon all Members of Parliament who then were either in the King's Army or otherwise absent their estates to be let in case of not paiment And having lately sped so well upon credit of the public faith they adventured again upon the same security recommending to the Counties of Norfolk Suffolk Essex and Lincoln with the City of Norwich the aid of the Lord Fairfax in Men Money Plate Horse and Amunition passing an Ordinance for repaiment of what should be lent for the speedy bringing in of the Scots to their assistance and securing it in the mean time by the before-mention'd public faith But the reputation of the public faith was now grown so low that moneys came not in either quick enough or in such large sums as were expected it being left arbitrary to the Creditors what they would lend another Ordinance therefore was passed for raising the full sum of sixty six thousand six hundred sixty six pounds thirteen shillings four pence within the Cities of London and Westminster with the Counties of Hertford Bedferd Middlesex Essex Suffolk
Majesties Garrisons In the same month of May Dudley castle in Staffordshire was delivered up to Sir William Brereton by Colonel Leveson and soon after Carnarvon Town and Castle to Major General Mitton and Major General Langhorn the Lord Byron being then Governour there Likewise Ludlow in Shropshire to Sir William Brereton and Borstall house near Oxford Oxford it self also soon followed Sir Thomas Glemham being then Governour As also Farringdon in Berkshire Sir George L'isle being Governour Next Lichfield close in Staffordshire Then the City of Worcester besieg'd by Colonel Whalley and Colonel Raynsborough Colonel Washington being Governour Also Wallingford castle Colonel Blague being Governour Gotherich Castle likewise in Hereford shire and Pendennis-castle in Cornwall whereof Iohn Arrundel of Trerise was Governour Conway Castle in Flintshire being storm'd by Major General Mitton In the next month after a long siege by General Fairfax Sir Trevor Williams and Colonel Langhorn Ragland castle in Monmouth shire was yielded to them And soon after the Isles and Castle of Scilly were given up As also the Castles of Denbigh and Holt Whereupon Generall Fairfax advanced triumphantly towards London And on the first of February next following the Scots having effectually received the whole Sum of two hundred thousand pounds for which they sold the King they marcht over Twede into Scotland His Majestie having thus cast himself upon the loyalty of those touching whose large professions and protestations to him I have already taken notice let us now behold the blessed Fruits of Presbytery by the subsequent Practises of these Zelots which doth amply make good what King Iames long since declared of that Sect viz. that no deserts could oblige nor Oaths or Promises bind them For notwithstanding those their solemn Oaths and Protestations they most perfidiously acted contrary to them hastning thereby that farther ruin which soon afterwards befel the Church of England and at length terminated in the wofull murther of their native Sovereign as is notoriously known to the World carrying on all this under the colour and veile of their Solemn League and Covenant In order whereunto the first thing observable is a plausible Letter directed to the Committee of Estates at that time residing with the Scotch Army wherein they tell them that their earnest desire being to keep a right understanding between the two Kigndomes did move them to acquaint them with that strange providence wherewith they were then surprised together with their carriage and desires thereupon and to endeavour to improve his Majesties being there to the best advantage for promoting the work of Vniformity for setling of Religion and Righteousness and attaining of Peace according to the League and Covenant and Treaty c. affirming that they had a Witness from Heaven and that there was nothing more in their desires than in all their resolutions and proceedings to adhere to the Covenant and Treaty ¶ What hopes this specious Letter might give his Majestie for promoting his earnest endeavours for such an happy peace as he desired is hard to say considering what relation it had to the Solemn League and Covenant but his former assurances in order to his coming to them as I have already observed being such as they were he became so confident thereupon as that shortly after he sent unto the two Houses at Westminster his xi th Message whereby because they had made so great a noyse of setling Religion That together with the Militia and the War of Ireland being the chief things insisted on in their former Propositions he recomended to them the advice therein of those Divines in both Kingdomes whom they had assembled at Westminster And for the Militia offred that he would be content to settle it as they themselves proposed in the Treaty at Uxbridge viz. that all persons who should be trusted therewith might be named by the two Houses of Parliament for the space of seven years and after that time to be regulated as should be agreed on by his Majestie and his two Houses of Parliament And touching Ireland that he would do whatsoever was possible for him to give full satisfaction to them And that if those his free offers would not serve then he desired that al such of their Propositions as were then by them agree'd on might be speedily sent to him he being resolved to comply with them in every thing that might conduce to the happiness of his subjects and removing all unhappy differences which had produced so many sad effects Farther offring that all his forces should be forthwith disbanded and Oxford with the remainder of his other Garrisons rendred into their hands upon honourable conditions and dismantled But to this gracious Message as to his former they turn'd a deaf ear there being then another Game to be play'd which was the getting of the King's person out of the Hands of the Scots suspecting as they had cause that those their dear Brethren would make no little advantage thereof Notwithstanding the Votes at Westminster that he should be disposed of as they should desire and direct Concerning which Votes at Westminster and debates of both Houses thereupon it will not be amiss here to take notice how they alledg'd that the Scottish Army in England was theirs id est under their pay Also that the King ought to be near to his Parliament whereby they might have recourse to him and obtain such things as should be most necessary for the Kingdomes Likewise that by Covenant they were sworn to preserve the Rights and Priviledges of Parliament but to detein the King from his Parliament was altogether inconsistent with the Covenant Of which Votes the Scots seem'd to take little notice but in stead thereof and for diversion amused the Members at Westminster with several Letters which they caused to be written to them one from the general assembly of the Kingdome of Scotland wherein they told them that their success against the Enemy id est the King's Forces did lay a strong obligation upon them to improve the power put into their Hands for the advancement of the Kingdome of Christ and bringing forth the head-stone of his House And therefore did earnestly intreat and beseech them in the Bowels of Christ to give unto him the glory due to his name by a timeous establishment of all his Ordinances in full integrity and power according to the Covenant c. Saying that the Searcher of Hearts knew how they desired to keep their Covenant c. concluding with their desires to the Parliament to endeavour all the ends of the Covenant The other to the Assembly of Divines sitting at Westminster wherein they expressed their Thanks for their constant endeavours and labours in the work of setting up the Ordinances of Christ desiring that they would go on in the sedulous promoting of that blessed work The third was to the Lord Mayor
cleared and those difficulties explained to him which he then conceived to be destructive to his just regal power in case he should give a full consent to those Propositions as they then stood Engaging himself to give his chearful assent to all such Bills as should be really to the good and peace of his people and to prefer the happiness of this Kingdome before his own particular And as a farther means to work a confidence in them of his own sincerity in these things he offered again to trust them with his own person conjuring them as they were Christians and Subjects and as they were men who desired to leave a good name behind them so to receive and make use of that his Answer that all issues of bloud might be stopped and those unhappy distractions peaceably setled But as his former gracious and frequent offers so this could not then find any acceptance at all with them by reason that it tended to the composure of those lamentable distractions which tended to the utter ruine of the King and Realm their aims at first and continued resolutions still being to share the spoyl which by their strength and power they had most unjustly got Nay in stead of any kindness or comfort which he might rationally expect from their many and most solemn promises and protestations they perpetually tormented his pious Soul with incessant importunities to take their hypocritical Covenant and sent for several of their most rigid Preachers to terrify him with their Kirk-censures upon his refusal thereof In which sad and disconsolate condition I shall for a while leave him and take a short view of the transactions betwixt the Members sitting at Westminster and those at Edenborough with their respective Commissioners The principal work being now done here in England by the help of the Scots the Grandees here as well as others began to be weary of their dear Brethren and for the sooner riddance of them passed a Vote that a Message should be sent to the Scottish Army that in regard they were not usefull in this Kingdome for the present and that the payment thereof would be a great burthen thereto they should with all convenient speed return into their Country But the Scots never intending to be loosers by their journey hither knowing full well how to make the best use of those advantages they then had gave their dear Brethren very good words telling them in their answer to the demands made in pursuance of that Vote that their earnest desires were the setling of Religion and Church Government which as it was the principal ground of their engagement in this Cause so would the perfecting of it be their chiefest joy and Glory of both Kingdomes it being the constant resolution of that Kingdome against all opposition to strengthen and cherish the Brotherly kindness between the Kingdomes and Peace setled with Truth and those things performed by the Honourable Houses which by Treaty they were obliged unto to recall their Army with as great alacrity as they were ready to send the same into England for the assistance of their Brethren And in another Letter speaking of the Arrears due to their Army they had these words This Kingdome lyeth under the burthen of great and vast expence in raising and entertaining of Armies and hath with the lives of many precious men set their own Houses on fire to quench the flame of yours And seeing by the seasonable assistance afforded by this Kingdome to you and by the late successes wherewith God hath blessed your Armies you are in a great measure freed of your troubles and are in a far better capacity to pay the moneys due to our Armies in England and Ireland than you were at any time since the beginning of these Wars we demand of the honourable houses to make payment of the summs of money duly owing to this Kingdome ¶ The state of things standing thus made the Game now to be play'd betwixt these great Masters not a little difficult to each the chief business of the then predominant party at Westminster being to gain the person of the King into their own hands and in case he should not upon the matter totally quit his Regal power to them by taking their Covenant and assenting to those their destructive propositions before-mentioned then to keep him close prisoner and exercise the same power without him And the design of the Scots not onely to use the like Regal-power in Scotland but to get a large sum of mony to boot considering that having the King in their hands the Grandees there were able to make their own terms on the behalf of themselves as to Riches and Honours There was therefore no means unessayed by each for accomplishing their respective ends But the Arguments and debates about this business continuing no less than six months before all things were fully agree'd I shall reserve my observations upon them till then and in the mean time take notice of what else did occur that is most remarkable in order to the carrying on their main work and divide the same into two parts the one touching their attempts upon the King in relation to the Covenant and Propositions the other towards the advancement of the Scepter of Iesus Christ for by that title they called their Presbyterean Doctrine and Discipline As to the first About the beginning of September Iames Duke Hamilton Lindsey Earl of Craford the Earl of Cassiles and some others from the Estates of Scotland came to Newcastle to the King and there earnestly solicited him to take the Covenant and sign the Propositions To second which motion there was a petition presented to His Majesty from the general Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland for Reformation of Religion according to the Covenant and uniformity of Church government denouncing God's anger upon him and the hazard to lose the Hearts of his good subjects in case he assented not thereto Soon after which Mr. Andrew Cant Mr. Robert Blayre and Mr. Iames Douglass came thither also to press him to the same purpose To torment him likewise yet more one of these violent men I mean a rigid Presbyterean-preacher besides many rude and uncivil expressions in his Sermon there before the King called for the 52. Psalm to be sung by the congregation which beginneth thus Why do'st thou Tyrant boast abroad thy wicked works to praise Whereupon His Majesty instantly stood up and called for the 56. Psalm beginning thus Have mercy Lord on me I pray for men would me devour Which the people readily sung waving the other Nay the fierceness of these Scottish-presbyters against His Sacred Majesty was such as that upon certain Proposals made to those of them who were Commissioners from the general Assembly viz. If the King shall come into Scotland and that the Kingdome of England shall exclude him of the Government there for his leaving them without granting the Propositions Whether or not
To the which Story as to the improbability of it I reply that 't is very well known the King was in that open Freedom at Hampton-Court all the time he remained there that divers of his old and Faithful Servants were not only permitted to attend on His Royal Person in their respective places but many others had the Liberty of Free access to him So that it is not at all likely that any Letter from the Queen should come to him at that time by other hands than those who were of known trust Besides what could he expect from the Scots which might conduce to the Restoring him to any part of his Regal Authority without submitting to their solemn League and Covenant which they full well knew he could never be prevail'd with to do Next that he had no great reason to conside much in Duke Hamilton's fair intentions towards him in case he should have vanquisht those men And lastly that it had been no Prudence to depend upon the strength of their Armes considering that the Events of War are uncertain especially having so much reason to hope and believe that Cromwell and his Party who had such an influence upon those Members which then Sate in their Parliament as on the Army would accomplish what he had so solemnly promised considering also in all Humane reason it would conduce to his own proper Interest Thus much as to the Improbability of any Truth herein But now to the Impossibility thereof Let it be considered that the Scots could not foresee any danger towards His Majesty till after he left Hampton-Court which was upon the Eleventh of November 1647. Nor then till the Month of December next following that they saw the Fur Dethroning Bills which through the influence of Cromwell and his Party were sent to him and the Vote on the Third of Ianuary ensuing of No more Addresses Shortly after which he was made close Prisoner by Colonel Hamond Which destructive Bills and malevolent Votes was that which in truth alarm'd the Scots as it did the English in divers Parts who discerning His Majesty in this miserable condition made several attempts in order to his rescue though without success as hath been already observed who thereupon and not till then did constitute a Committee of Danger at 〈◊〉 which was previous to any preparation for Raising an Army and necessitated them to consider what was without delay to be done in this great exigent foreseeing well that the Tyranny of these Antimonarchists would in the end overwhelm them there as well as the English here Whereupon they resolv'd to Raise an Army in order thereto Besides most apparent it is that the King was so ignorant of any Preparations made by the Scots to that purpose that until the Month of Iuly 1648. when it was told him that Duke Hamilton was entred England with an Army he was so strangely surprized with the News that he suddenly said Then he is undone To pass by this base Fiction therefore meerly devised to give some colour for the perfidiousness of Cromwell I descend to the next device they had to countenance their wicked Actions which was to detract from his deserved Fame in another kind For discerning soon after his Death those most Divine Meditations made publick by the Press and Intituled Icon Basilike which in his deplorable and disconsolate soliâ—udes he had Pathetically put in Writing whereby his Great Prudence Patience and Piety in those his woful Sufferings would be made openly conspicuous to the World and not being able to suppress them as they did earnestly endeavour to do they made it their work to blast them by their false and Impudent Reports that they were none of his own but composed by some Royallist to gain a Reputation to his Memory which they studyed by all malicious projects and practises to suppress and to that purpose encouraged a needy Pedagogue preferring him to the Office of Secretary to write that Scandalous Book called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being a bitter invective against those his Divine Meditations But to manifest that these were no borrowed wares but by the Good and Gracious assistance of Almighty God were totally of his own composure in the midst of his most sad afflictions besides the unlikely-hood that any such expressions could flow from an Heart not opprest and grieved with such a weight of sorrow as his was I shall make it evident from the Testimony of very credible persons yet living that he had begun the Penning of them long before he went from 〈◊〉 to the Scots For the Manuscript it self written with his own Hand being found in his Cabinet which was taken at â—â—vesby Fight was restored to him after he was brought to Hampton-Court by the hand of Major Huntington through the favour of General Fairfax of whom he obtained it And that whilst he was in the Isle of Wight it was there seen frequently by Mr. Thomas Herbert who then waited on His Majesty in his Bed-chamber as also by Mr. William Lever a Page of the the back Staires the Title then prefixt to it being Suspiria Regalia who not only read several parts thereof but saw the King divers times writing farther on it Which Mr. Herbert being that Learned Person who hath publisht his Observations upon his Travels in Asia hath since the Kings most happy Restauration been honoured with the Title of Baronet in Testimony of the Gracious sense His Majesty hath of his dutiful demeanour and perfect sidelity in those Perillous times to his dear Father of Blessed Memory Add hereunto the Testimony of Mr. Richard Royston a Bookseller at the Angel in 〈◊〉 who having in those Rebellious times adventured to Print divers of His late Majesties Declarations Speeches and Messages about the beginning of October 1648. the King being then in the Isle of 〈◊〉 was sent to by His Majesty to prepare all things ready for the Printing some Papers which he purposed shortly after to convey to him Which was this very Copy brought to him on the Twenty Third of December next following by one Mr. Edward Symmons a Reverend Divine who received it from Dr. Bryan Duppa then Bishop of Salisbury and afterwards of Winchester In the Printing whereof Mr. Royston made such speed that it was finished before that dismal Thirtieth of January that His Majesties Life was so taken away as before is observed What I have here instanced to wipe off this soul stain which the malice of wicked men have cast upon the Memory of His late Majesty will be sufficient I am sure to satisfie all such who through those most venomous Insinuations have been doubtful herein and enough to stop the mouths of those vile Detractors which are any way favoures of that execrable Murther of their Lawful Soveraign Whose last Legacies of what he had left the night before his Suffering and afterwards delivered by the hands of Mr. Herbert were as followeth viz. To the Prince our now Gracious King his Bible
while upheld by some few and much art used for perpetuating his Dominion first by procure Congratulations from all the Souldiery in England Scotland and Ireland Secondly from all the Independent Congregational-Assemblies Thirdly from the most eminent of the London Ministers as also from the French Dutch and Italian Churches and lastly from most of the Counties Cities and chief Towns in England all of them engaging to live and dye with this youngster In many of which solemn Congratulatory Addresses being highly magnified for his Wisdom nobleness of mind and lovely Composition of Body his Father Oliver was compared to Moses Zerubabel Ioshua Gideon Elijah to the Chariots and Horsemen of Israel to David Solomon and Hezekiah Likewise to Constantine the Great and to whomsoever else that either the Sacred Scripture or any other History had celebrated for their Piety and Goodness Insomuch as it was then by most men thought that this their late framed Government might be durable enough against the disturbance of any opposers But so active and earnest were the Fanaticks against it that they spared not their utmost industry for the supplanting thereof And discerning Fleetwood then General of the Army to be very much a friend unto all of their party unto him they made addresses for furtherance of their design speciously suggesting that the Office of Protector being at the disposal of Cromwel was to him alone intended though Richard had been Proclaimed by some few of the Council And to the end that the Souldiers might likewise incline to their side they put them on to require the auditing of their Arrears two pence a week having been withheld of their pay and not only so but to insist upon greater priviledges as Souldiers than they had enjoyed in Olivers time viz. that no Souldier should be displaced without consent of the Council of War no nor questioned for Murther Robbery or any other Offence otherwise than by the Law-Military whereby they were sure to have no little favour Likewise that it should be in the power of the Army upon all occasions to make choice of their General of all which they had first disputes with this Richard and afterwards by their Remonstrances did insist upon boldly These perrillous attempts being therefore discerned by his Highness he forthwith summoned a Parliament according to the tenor of the old Instrument which Parliament was for its greater honour to consist of two Houses thereby not doubting but to scatter these dangerous clouds and met accordingly at Westminster upon the seventh of Ianuary But consulting together instead of complying with his Highnesses designs they fell to questioning the Authority of the Other House Nor did they at all brook the Irish and Scotch sent thither as Representatives from each of those Realms Nevertheless after divers tedious and warm disputes they were at length content to transact with those who Sate in that Other House not excluding such Peers who had been faithful to the Parliament from their priviledges of being summoned as Members thereof and that they would receive any Message from them but by some of those who were Members of their own House And to the end they might by degrees bring themselves into power they attempted the asserting of their Interest in the Militia by a salvo in their Vote relating to the Fleet. Moreover to captivate the people with specious shews of alleviating their burthens they made divers formal Speeches for the taking away of all Excise as also of Tonnage and Poundage after the next three years Likewise to make shew how tender they were of the peoples Liberties they did not only set at large Colonel Overion and others which had been committed to Prison by Oliver without payment of Fees but questioned the Lieutenant of the Tower for detaining those persons there Appointing also a Committee of Inspection for Publick Accompts Which Committee Reported the Yearly incomes of England Scotland and Ireland to be eighteen hundred sixty eight thousand seven hundred and seventeen pounds and the Issues to be no less than two Millions two hundred and one thousand five hundred and forty pounds By which they saw that three hundred thirty two thousand eight hundred twenty three pounds of Debt incurred Yearly upon them by the ill management of that great Revenue which was treble to what any King of England ever enjoyed And further saw that to maintain the Conquest of Scotland they were at the Yearly charge of one hundred sixty three thousand six hundred and nineteen pounds more than the Revenue of that Kingdom did then yield unto them Other particulars they then had likewise in hand all tending to the publick benefit of the Nation forbearing to give mony beneficial Offices or rewards as formerly had been usual amongst themselves by which means the world might by degrees be wrought into a dislike of being Governed by that Military power which for so long time had Ruled the Roast and to restore the general sway of the Realm to themselves as the Representative of the People in whom according to the Presbyterian Maxim the whole Sovereign Power virtually was Which design so destructive to the Sword-mens Interest did not only disturb their minds but by doubts and jealousies at length divided their strength into Parties and Factions some of them holding their Councils at Wallingford House with the General others at White-hall with the Protector and his Confidents But in this Fraction those of Wallingford House being much the more numerous drew up a bold Representation both to the Protector and the House which so startled his Highness that he forthwith stood upon his Guard and so allarmed the House of Commons that they thereupon Voted That during the Sitting of the Parliament there should be no General Council or meeting of the Officers of the Army without direction leave and Authority of the Lord Protector and both Houses of Parliament And that no person should have and continue any Command or Trust in any of the Armies or Navies of England Scotland or Ireland or any the Dominions and Territories thereto belonging who should refuse to subscribe that he would not disturb or interrupt the free meeting in Parliament or their freedom in their Debates or Councils And to sweeten the Common-Souldiers lest they should joyn with their Officers in turning them out of Doors as they had formerly done added that they would presently take into consideration how to satisfie the Arrears of the Army with present pay and likewise to prepare and Act of Indempnity for them A great Task indeed had that Parliament then upon their Hands viz. the pleasing of the people which could no otherwise be than by alleviating their heavy burthens and satisfying the Souldiery by feeding them with mony whereon they fell seriously to consider But whilst they were intentive on these necessary works the Animosities of the Army Officers grew higher and higher against each other strict Guards being kept by
Members of the Church of England were Children of wrath Fourthly that at the day of Iudgment Christ would give up all power to his Father and would himself become a Subject And such as did not Pray and Preach after this fashion were cavill'd withall expell'd or committed to Prison as one was by Isaac Pennington sent to Newgate for singing a Malignant Psalm Another committed to that Prison which they made of the Lord Peter's House in Aldersgate Street because says his Mittimus he daily Read most Malignant Chapters But to proceed with some other particulars of their Prayers and Sermons Mr. Evans Preacher of St. Clements without Temple-Barr expostulated thus with God O Lord when wilt thou take a Chair and sit amongst the House of Peers And when O God when I say wilt thou Vote amongst the Honourable Commons thine own Commons who are so zealous for thine Honour And in his Sermon before the Earl of Essex then their General on the Fast-day he thus exhorted the People Beloved can you forget the Souldiers I say the Souldiers who have spent their blood for Christ as Christ did for them even their own precious blood in God's cause at Newbery And Mr. Colman in his Exhortation-Sermon to the Army for taking the Covenant told them That the Covenant was the Parliament's Sword and Buckler For when said he the Cavaliers shall see you come Armed with a Covenant they will run run run from the presence of the Lord of Hosts In the behalf of which Covenant Mr. Nye in a set Speech told the People that as God did swear for the Salvation of Men and of Kingdoms So Kingdoms must now swear for the preservation and salvation of Kingdoms to establish a Saviour Iesus Christ in England For this it was that one of the Lord Say 's Tenants a Lay-Preacher at Brouton near Banbury cryed out in his Prayer we know O Lord that Abraham made a Covenant and Moses and David made a Covenant and our Saviour made a Covenant but thy Parliaments Covenant is the greatest of all Covenants This it was that ushered in the Scots for whose Invasions these their Preachers so much laboured Mr. Bond at the Savoy telling them in the Pulpit that they ought to contribute and Pray and to do all that they were able to bring in their Brethren of Scotland for the setling of God's cause I say quoth he this is God's cause and if our God had any cause this is it And if this be not God's cause then God is no God for me but the Devil is got up into Heaven Another Preacht that Christmas day was a superstitious day and would if observed bring in Idolatrous Worship Whereupon the People were commanded to open their Shops that day One Isaac Massy a Lecturer at Uppingham in Rutland when he was to administer the Communion at Easter Anno 1644. and had Consecrated the Wine after his fashion smote himself on the Breast and said to the People As I am a faithful sinner Neighbours this is my Morning's draught and turning himself round to them said here 's to you all and so drank up the whole Cup full Which celebration of the Communion in this manner puts me in mind of Mr. Redman about that time Minister of Casâ—te-Dannington in Leicester shire who to thwaâ—t the Order ther in prescribed by the Laws administred it to his Parishioners in the After-noon and instead of Wine made use of Ale Mr. Corbet also a Lecturer in Gloucester told his Auditory that nothing had so much deceived the World as the name of King which he said was the ground of all mischiefs to the Church of Christ. And Mr. Vines Collonel Purefoy's Chaplain said in his Prayer at St. Clements without Temple-Bar O Lord thou hast given us never a Victory this long while for all our frequent Fasting What dost thou mean O Lord to fling us in the Ditch and there leave us And Lorkyn a seditious Lecturer at Greenwich in his Prayer expressing great wonder that God used to bless his People by Kings and Princes concluded with these words O Lord if thou wilt not bless us with a King bless us without one By which Teachers we may ghess at the Flocks for instance At Great Allhallows in Thames-street when the Parishioners were in the Chancel receiving the holy Sacrament an herd of new Brethren came into the Church and brought along with them Bief Mutton and other Provision for Dinner and when the Clarke desired them to be gone they told him that the Church was a frce for them to eat in as others and refus'd to depart saying they would stay till the Communion and their own Dinner was ended In a Thanksgiving-Sermon Preacht before the Members of Parliament 2. Apr. Anno 1646. by Ioseph Carril one of their Assembly of Divines upon this Text Iudges Cap. 10. Vers. 11 12. Did not I deliver you from the Egyptians He told his Auditory Here is nothing but the bare name of Deliverances and seven in number so many have you received from me saith the Lord. As if we should write now the Battel of Kineton one the Battel of Newbery two the Battel of Chereton-down three at Marston-More four at Navesby five at Langport fix at Torington seven and the Disbanding of the late Army in the West which may go for many Victories Mr. Cradock Vicar of Nun-Eaton in Warwickshire used this expression in his Prayer O Lord do not thou stand a Newter but take one side that we may see which it is that is thy cause And at a Fast kept by both Houses of Parliament at St. Margarets Westminster Hugh Peters Preaching of bringing the Children out of Egyptian Bondage to which he parallell'd the state of this Kingdom to shew how they should be brought out of this Bondage he put his hands before his Eyes and laid down his Head for a space on the Cusheon and then pretended a Revelation that it must be by extirpating of Monarchy hear and in all other places And now to close up all let us here some of Mr. Feake's expressions Preaching at Black-Friers in Anno 1653. when our late great Masters were at Wars with the Dutch But you 'l say the Dutch will recruit again and the Princes of the World will assist them for my part I do not see one Prince or State that offers to help them but if they should all joyn and lay their Crowns and Scepters together it is that Christ may cut off their Heads at a blow and get himself the more Honour All the Angels in heaven cannot make peace between Christ and the World If the Devil the Turk and the People should think to compound with Christ and say Thou Christ thou shalt have so many Kingdoms and let us enjoy the rest quietly Christ will never do it he will have all or none he will either kill or be kill'd Again I profess Saints we must go lay our heads
stiled a great Teacher in Israel who being in private conference with Obediah Sedgwick and one Alliston and askt by Alliston whether it were possible to end the War by a Treaty No said he we will never Treat unless we may have all granted which we formerly demanded Nay if the King should grant that now we should not agree For if the King had put down Bishops and Cathedrals at first we would have given him all their Lands But should he do it now we would not give him any of their Revenues For we must have both Church-Lands and Delinquents Estates also and all little enough to pay the Parliaments Debts and Recompence those who have Suffered for us and reward such as have laboured in our Cause Whosoever therefore observes their Demands by those Propositions presented to His Majesty at Oxford and the Passages of the Treaty at Uxbridge thereupon will find that their Commissioners did not much swerve from Mr. Marshals Principles And now I mention this Treaty for Peace at Uxbridge I cannot but take notice of a Memorable Accident First That whereas the Buckinghamshire-men were the first of all the Counties in this Kingdom that came in a Tumultuous manner to Westminster 11 Ian. 1641. with a Petition on the behalf of the Lord Kimbolton and the five Members which gave Countenance to the many Exorbitant Practises that after ensued and had Thanks returned them by the two Houses So were they the first County that Attempted to Petition for Peace But coming towards Uxbridge in great Numbers for that purpose were by Authority of the Commissioners there from those at Westminster met by a Regiment of Horse and Forced to return home with their Petition Sir Iohn Lawrence one of the Principal of them with others being sent up to Westminster and Committed to Prison for going about to Exhibite such a Malignant Petition as they call'd it CHAP. XLVI HAVING now done with these Observations let us see what Resemblance that great Rebellion of the Barons above four hundred Years since had with this Touching which I shall chiefly make use of what that Learned Antiquary Sir Robert Cotton Kt. and Barronet who died many Years since hath written thereof in that brief discourse of his Intituled A short view of the long Reign of K. Henry the third No other disquiet did the State then feel but such as is Incident in all Malice to Authority The Commons greedy of Liberty the Nobility of Rule The greatest in trust for publick Affairs being still shot at by the aspiring of those that doom themselves less in Imployment than they are in Merit That the Surfeit of a long Peace perchance having let in some abuses from whence the Commons to whom days present seem ever worst commend the foregon Ages they never remembred and condemn the present though they know neither the Disease thereof nor the Remedy To these Idle and usual Humours fell in some of the Young and Noble Spirits who being as truely ignorant as the rest first by sullying the Wisdome of the present and greatest Rulers making each casual mishap their Errors seem to decipher each Blemish in Government and then by holding certain imaginary and phantastick Forms of Common Wealths flatter their own Belief and Ability that they can mould any State to these general Rules which in particular Applications would prove Idle and Gross Absurdities Amongst this Unequal Medley there were of the Nobility Richard Earl of Pembroke Gloucester and Hartford Darlings of the Multitude Some for the merit of their Fathers whose Memories they held Sacred as Pillars of publick Liberty and Opposers of encroaching Monarchy These by force would effect what the other did effect by Cunning. The Lords still frustrate of their Malicious ends began to sow on these late grounds of the Peoples Discontents quaerelas ambiguos de principe sermones quoque alia turbamenta Vulgi and took it up a fashion to endeare and glorify themselves with the sensless Multitude by depraving the King's Discretion and Government Neither was the Church without a busy part in this Tragick Work For Walter Bishop of Worcester and Robert of Lincoln to whom Mountfort and his Faction praecordialiter adhaerebant were far engaged In such Designs Church-men are never wanting and the distast of the present Government as well in the Church as Common-Wealth will ever be a knot of Strength for such Unquiet Spirits who as well frame to themselues some other form of Government than the present in the Church as in the Temporal State as that which with the giddy Multitude winneth best Opinion and did at this time sute the Peoples Humours so much distasting the new Courts of the Clergy their Pomp c. A fair Pretext was it to those Factious Bishops to use their bitter Pens and Speeches so far against Religious-Orders Ceremonies and State of the Church that one of them incurred the Sentence of Excommunication at Rome and Treason at home For he injoined the Earl of Leicester in remissione peccatorum ut causam illam meaning his Rebellion usque ad mortem assumeret Asserens pacem Ecclesiae Anglicanae nunquam sine gladio materiali posse firmari It was not the best Doctrine that this Man could plant by Liberty or War when the first Church rose by Fasting and Prayer True Piety binds the Subject to desire a good Soveraign but to bear with a bad one and to take up the burthen of Princes with a bended Knee rather in time so to deserve Abatement than resist Authority To Suppress these Troubles and supply the King's Extremity a Parliament was called much to the liking of those Lords who as little meant to Relieve the King as they did to quiet the State their end at that time being only to open at home the Poverty of their Master to lessen his Reputation abroad and to breath out their own Passions freely whilst those times of Liberty permit Here they began to tell him he had wronged the Publick State in taking to his Private Election the Iustice Chancelour and Treasurer that should be only by the Common-Council of the Realm They blame him c. to have hurt the Common-Liberty by Non-Obstantes in his Patents to make good Monopolies for private Fauourites c. And that Sir Robert Passelew had torn from the Borderers of his Forest under pretence of Incroachments or Assarts great Sums of Money And therefore they wonder that he should now demand relief from his so pill'd and poled Commons Upon new grant of the great Charter admittance to his Council of some Persons Elected by the Commons c. They spare him such apittance as must tye him to their Devotion for a new supply Thus Parliaments which before were ever a Medicine to heal up any Rupture in Princes Fortunes are now grown worse than the Malady saith from thence more Malignant
his Government and in their Manifesto's reflected upon his Person To which he publisht an Answer wherein having first inform'd his People that though he had several times heretofore both by his Letters and Commands admonished them not to suffer themselves to be perswaded or perverted by such as endeavoured to raise Insurrections amongst them and to draw them into their Party and by so doing to turn them out of the ways of Peace And had also proferred and promised Grace and Favour to all such as being already engaged should return to their Obedience after they should truly understand his Intentions Nevertheless with great grief of Heart perceiving that notwithstanding his Commands and Gracious Advertisment some of his Subjects did not forbear to engage themselves in that Faction being drawn into it by several Interests But the most of them purely transported and blinded with the fair and specious Colours which the Authors of those Seditions put upon their Designs he thought it a part of his Duty for the general benefit of all his Subjects and in discharge of his Conscience to God and Honour to the World to oppose the clear light of the Truth to those Artifices of his Adversaries To the end that his Subjects being guided by the clearness of that Light might in time and without any Impediment discern and know the grounds and ends of those Troubles and by that means avoid the Miseries and Calamities both publick and private which were like to grow upon those Commotions After this Preface he proceeds to shew the Vanity of their Pretences and to remove the occasions of their Fears and Iealousies First in point of Religion appealing to his own constant practise of and endeavours for the Religion Established the dangers and hazards he had undergone for the defence of it That he should not refuse to conâ—ent to any Laws for the securing of it so they were just and possible in themselves and profitable for his Subjects Nor did he refuse any that were offred to him by the Parliament at Bloys in favour of it Nor did there ever any the least thought enter into his Heart of Countenancing Heresy in his Dominions Secondly in point of Justice and Defence of the Laws be shewed what he had done since his coming to the Crown in favour of it what good Laws and Constitutions he had made and how desirous he had been that they should be observed But if any default were in the Execution of them the blame must rest upon his Officers not upon him whose particular care had been so great for the Rebuilding of those two Pillars Religion and Iustice which the violence of former times had pull'd down and Level'd with the ground He likewise intreated all his Subjects to open their Eyes and consider the dangerous Consequences of these Wars which would not be ended so soon as they imagined and not to stain their Loyalty by suffring themselves to be made Instruments of their Countries ruine to their Enemies advancement Thirdly as touching the disposal of places of Honour and trust in the Kingdom first he stood upon his Prerogative that as all his Predecessors so he might freely confer such places upon whom he pleased being not restrained by any Law to make choice of one more than another Appealing to the People how groundless that Calumny was when they might see those that most complained and were the Authors of those Troubles to be such as had been most preferred by him Fourthly for the Grievances of the People he professed he had already begun and promised his continuance to relieve them Fifthly for the secret Plots and Conspiracies which the Heads of the Faction pretended to be laid against their Persons for preventing whereof they said they were inforced to take up Arms his Majesties known Clemency might sufficiently secure them from any on his part who was naturally so far from all desire of revenge that no Man living had ever the least cause to complain of him in that respect notwithstanding what ever Provocation he had from any But very many have had sufficient proof of his natural Bounty and Mercy Therefore his Majesty prayed and intreated the Heads of that Faction to Disband their Forces to relinquish their League and return to their Duty and Loyalty and so doing he promised to receive them into his favour But after the King and the Leaguers had for a long time bandied Writing one against the other they so far incensed each other that it was now full time either to come to Action and not to multiply any more words The Forces of the Kingdom which adhered to the King were very weak for he had not time sufficient to ripen his Designs being prevented by the sagacity and forwardness of the House of Guise his own Followers and those of his Favourites were divided sometaking one part some another And those which stood with the Royal Authority were very cold and slow their Courages being much daunted by the bold attempts of the Consederates Nay some of the King 's own Party and who had been highly favoured and preferred by him were revolted from him to the League But that which Afflicted the King above all was his feares of the City of Parts a just Parallel of our London which was indeed the Head of the Kingdom but a Head so great and Powerful that which way soever it inclined it was sure to turn the Scales This Citty was not only united with the general League but had entred into a particular League and Covenant amongst themselves And having secretly provided themselves of Arms was ready to revolt upon the first occasion and if need were to seize upon the Kings Person which very much troubled him For if he should stay in Paris he could not do it without great danger to himself being liable to every affront from the inconsiderable headiness of the Multitude And if he should abandon it it was sure to revolt To secure his stay there he was therefore forced to call all the Souldiers of his Ordinary Guard to their Colours and farther made choice of forty five Gentlemen in whom he could repose confidence whom he maintained at the charge of an hundred Crowns a Month besides their Expences at Court to attend continually upon his Person Yet for all this he lived in continual Jealousies and Affliction of Mind seeing himself upon such an Head-strong Beast as was not possible for him to manage Wherefore he endeavoured all fair means of accommodation with the Leaguers profering them all security The Citty of Paris erected a new Council of Sixteen as London new-moulded theirs which were the most interested and affected to the League according to the number of Wards in that Citty who were to manage all the affairs and dispose the minds of the People with whom were joined one of every Mistery in the City who made their Addresses to and