in the beginning of this Parliament accepted of one for the Countie of Yorke Gave His People to understand That Hee had awarded the like Commissions into all the Counties of England and Dominion of Wales to provide for and secure them in a legall way lest under a pretence of danger and want of Authority from His Majestie to put them into a Military postuâ—e they should bee drawne and engaged in any opposition against Him or His Just Authority But 21. June 1642. The Lords and Commons in Parliament Declaring The Designe of their Propositions of raising Horse and Moneys was to maintaine the Protestant Religion and the Kings Authoritie and Person and that The Forces already attending His Majestie and His preparations at first coloured under the pretence of a guard being not so great a guard as they themselves had constantly for 6. moneths before did evidently appeare to bee intended for some great and extraordinary designe so as at this time also they doe not charge the King with any manner of action of Warre or any thing done in a way or course of Warre against them and gave just cause of feare and jealousie to the Parliament being never yet by any Law of God or man accounted to be a sufficient cause or ground for Subjects to make a Warre against their Soverainge did forbid all Mayors Sheriffes Bayliffes and other Officers to publish His Majesties said Letter to the Citie of London And declare that if Hee should use any force for the recovery of Hull or suppressing of their Ordinance for the Militia it should bee held a levying Warre against the Parliament and all this done before His Majestie had granted any Commission for the levying or raising of a man and lest the King should have any manner of provision of Warre to defend Himselfe when their Army or Sir John Hotham should come to assault Him Powder and Armes were every where seized on and Cutlers Gun-smiths Sadlers and all Warlike Trades ordered not to send any to Yorke but to give a weekely account what was made or sold by them And an Order made the 24. day of June 1642. That the Horses which should bee sent in for the Service of the Parliament when they came to the number of 60. should bee trayned and so still as the number increased 4. July 1642. The King by His letter under His signe Manuall commanded all the Judges of England in their circuits to use all meanes to suppresse Popery Riots and unlawfull assemblies and to give the People to understand His Resolution to maintaine the Protestant Religion and the Lawes of the Kingdome and not to governe by any Arbitrary way and that if any should give the King or them to understand of any thing wherein they held themselves grieved and desired a just reformation Hee would spedily give them such an answer as they should have cause to thank Him for His Justice and favour But the same day a Declaration was published by both houses of Parliament Commanding That no Sheriffe Mayor Bayliffe Parson Vicar Curate or other Sir Richard Gurney the Lord Mayor of London not many dayes before having beene imprisoned for proclaming the Kings Proclamation against the bringing in of Plate c. should publish or Proclaime any Proclamation Declaration or other Paper in the Kings name which should bee contrary to any Order Ordinance or Declaration of both houses of Parliament or the proceedings thereof and Order That in case any Force should bee brought out of one County into another to disturbe the Peace thereof they should bee suppressed by the Trayned Bands and Voluntiers of the adjacent Counties Shortly after Sir John Hotham fortifieth the Towne of Hull whilest the King is at Yorke seizeth on a Ship comming to Him with provisions for His Houshold takes Mr. Ashburnham one of the Kings Servants Prisoner intercepts Letters sent from the Queene to the King and drowneth part of the Countrey round about the Towne which the Parliament allowes of and promise satisfaction to the owners 5. July 1642. They Order a subscription of Plate and Horse to bee made in every Countey and list the Horse under Commanders and the morrow after Order 2000. men should bee sent to relieve Sir John Hotham in case the King should besiege him to which purpose Drummes were beat up in London and the adjacent parts to Hull The Earle of Warwick Ordered to send Ships to Humber to his assistance instructions drawne up to bee sent to the Deputie-Lievetenants of the severall Counties to tender the Propositions for the raising of Horses Plate and Money Mr. Hastings divers of the Kings Commissioners of Array impeached for supposed high Crimes and misdemeanours and a Committee of five Lords and ten of the house of Commons ordered to meete every morning for the laying out of ten thousand pounds of the Guild-hall moneys for the buying of 700. Horse and that 10000. Foote to bee raised in London and the Countrey bee imployed by dirction of the Parliament and the Lord Brooke is furnished with 6. peeces of Ordnance out of the Tower of London to fortifie the Castle of Warwick And 9. July 1642. Order That in case the Earle of Northampton should come into that County with a Commission of Array they should raise the Militia to suppresse him And that the Common Councell of London should consider of away for the speedy raising of the 10000. Foote and that they should bee listed and put in Pay within foure dayes after 11. July 1642. The King sends to the Parliament to cause the Towne of Hull to bee delivered unto him and desires to have their answer by the 15. of that moneth and as then had used no force against it But the morrow after before that message could come unto them they resolve upon the Question That an Army shall bee forthwith raised for the defence of the Kings Person and both houses of Parliament and those who have obeyed their Orders and Commands in perserving the true Religion the Lawes Liberties and the Peace of the Kingdome and that they would live and dye with the Earle of Essex whom they nominate Generall in that Cause And 12. July 1642. Declare That they will protect all that shall be imployed in their assistance and Militia And 16. July 1642. Petition the King to forbeare any preparations or actions of Warre and to dismisse His extraordinary guards to come neerer to them and harken to their advice but before that Petition could bee answered wherein the King offered when the Towne of Hull should bee delivered to Him hee would no longer have an Army before it and should bee assured that the same pretence which tooke Hull from him may not put a Garrison into Newcastle into which after the Parliaments surprise of Hull Hee was inforced to place a Governour and a small Garrison Hee would also remove that Garrison and so as his Magazine and Navy might bee delivered
and conditionall as it is alwaies to bee understood in this Treaty that nothing agreed in part betwixt us shall be binding unlesse their be a conclusion upon the whole And here let the Truth bee judge if the King did not aboundantly endeavour to save his People and if the Parliament had not neede of a justification when they used all manner of force and shifts to have the King take the fault upon him they therefore that shall consider that the King was a close prisoner robbed and bereaved of all hee had but his Honour and Conscience and a great measure of knowledge and understanding and the hearts of his Loyall Subjects was debarred of all friends and comforts penned up and used with all manner of hardship and and extremities and every day like to bee murdered that conditions adimpleri debent priusquam sequatur effectus are but inserted or added inâ—casum incertum qui potest tendere ad esse aut non esse depend on subsequencies or following effects which not hapning or coming to be performed according to the intent of the conditions makes them to vanish and expire as if there no such matter at all had bene acknowledged or expressed in them That Cooke his accuser who when hee comes to bee hanged for it will never bee able to prove that the People who substituted or gave him warrant for to accuse him And Bradshaw who sate higher in the pageant of Justice and the rest of his fellow murderers tooke the Kings conditionall consenting to the Preamble to bee so little for their purpose as they never so much as mentioned it must not only acquit him of any Confession or guilt to bee inferred from his conditionall yeilding to that Ambuscado Preamble but dissolve into wonder and admiration that hee who in his Royall Meditations and Conference with death upon the Parliaments votes of non addresse and his closer imprisonment at Carisbrooke-Castle had clearnesse of Conscience enough to say for as for his judgment wee hope it cannot bee suspected when Mr. Carill the Independent and Mr. Vines a Presbyterian Minister could say hee was a second Salomon and the Parliaments Commissioners at the Isle of Wight report him to bee the master of the greatest wisdome and understanding That hee had the feast of a good Conscience and the brazen wall of a judicious integrity and Conscience doubted not but his Innocency would find God to bee his protector rejoyced in the comfort of Imitating Christs example in suffering for Righteousnesse sake and thanked God hee could pray for them that God would not impute his Blood to them further then to convince them what neede they had of Christs Blood to wash their Soules from the guilt of Sheding His And was afterwards in the face and view of Death and his murderers heard to say upon the Scaffold Hee never did begin a Warre with the two houses of Parliament and called God to his witnesse to whom hee was shortly to make an account hee never intended to incroach upon their priviledges but they began upon him It was the Militia they began upon though they confest it was his and that any that would looke into the date of their Commissions and his might cleerely see that they began these unhappie troubles and hoped God would cleer him of it Could bee so much more then a man and so great a protectour of his People as not only to bee content to bee robbed and despoiled of all that hee had for their sakes but to save the Lawes and estates of his People when there was no other way to doe it deliver up himselfe so as a Peace and Agreement might have followed upon the Treaty to the unjust Censure of Robbing and Spoyling those that had robbed and undone him But now that we have hunted this Parliament Protens through all this disguises of Parliament priviledges and pretences and are lamentably assured a great and accursed thing is committed in our Israel and the anger of the Lord is kindled against us it may bee labour well bestowed though here is sure enough already said and prov'd that the King was in the defensive and justifiable part of the Warre to send into Achans tent and search and see what is there to bee found concerning this matter and here we find the Lord Say the Lord Brooke and their complices had not long before the King had summoned them to that which is now called the Parliament setled and conveyed their estates to prevent any dangers might happen upon their intended enterprises Peard the pragmatique Parliament man was heard to say a little before this holie Warre began to break out That the Government of the Kingdome would within a year or two bee altered A little before the second Scottish invasion Hinderson the Scotch firebrand confesses the Covenanters of both Kingdomes were unanimously agreed to bring the King to their lure before they laid downe Armes the joynt declaration of both Kingdomes in January 1643. professes they will never lay down Armes till the pretended reformation bee accomplished many declarations and remonstrances of the Parliament if they may bee so called and the Army mention the originall power and Soveraignty to bee in the people the common Rights and Freedome of the Nation and the opertunities God hath put into their hands An Ordinance of Parliament 20. October 1645. concerning rules and directions for Tryers and Judges of the abilitie of Elders declares it was the wonderfull providence of God in calling them which hee never did by force of Armes Hypocrisie Treason Rebellion and usurping of regall authority to the great and difficult worke of reformation and purging the Church The Lord Fairfax and his generall councell of Officers in their Remonstrance of the 16. November 1648. made to the Parliament call the putting downe of Monarchy and the Establishing of their unjust ends the publique interest originally contended for on the Parliaments part and the declaration and votes of those that call themselves the Commons of England in Parliament assembled 15. January 1648. affirm the bringing of Delinquents to punishment which if they had beene Delinquents is certainly a part of the Kingly office the maine if not the only end of making this Warre And in another place thereof acknowledges the rooting out of Episcopacy and bringing Delinquents to punishment to bee the only motives that induced them to undertake this Warre And though Achan will neyther confesse nor bee brought to punishment till the wroth and never failing judgement of God shall bring them and their sons their daughters and their successes the asses that follow them to be consumed in the field of Achor and the Fig-leaves which they have patched together to palliate hide their nakednesse cannot keepe out the eyes and understanding of a ruined Nation bleeding under the burden of of their iniquity but whether ever confessed or never will bee as plaine as the most infallible demonstration they were never
necessitated to make a Warre but were so farre from the Justification of a defensive Warre as that they were altogether in the offensive For beside all that hath beene said to prove them guiltie of the blood and misery of this Nation who can think or bee beleeved if hee should bee so mad as to say it That they were forced to make a Warre for that was none of their owne or to take away tenures in Capite which was a principall flower of his Crowne or for a Reformation of Religion was already the envie and ambition of the best of the Reformed Churches or to commit sacriledge and abolish Episcopacy which at the least was of Apostolicall institution or to preserve the Statute of 25. E. 3. concerning what was Treason when they themselves committed most of the Treasons were mentioned in it and more then their fore-fathers and the makers of that Statute ever thought on But that wee may doe all the right wee can to them have done so much wrong and the better carry on our judgements to a certaine conclusion of that which God and all good and just men know to bee true enough it will not wee hope bee impertinent in this our search and disquisition of the truth to proceede to the enquiry CHAP. V. Whether the Parliament in their pretended Magistracy have not taken lesser oceasions to punish or provide against Insurrections Treasons and Rebellions as they are pleased to call them ALL in the neighborhood of their Proceedings that know but any thing of them can tell it The Parliament have not beene wanting to their owne Preservations and purposes in the exercise of the greatest jealousie vigilancy terror and authority over those they could but get within their pretended Jurisdiction Witnesse Edward Archer who was whipt and punished almost to death for speaking but his ill wishes to the Earle of Essex when he was marching out of London with their Army against the King the imprisonment of their owne Members for speaking against the Sence and Cabal of the House of Commons men and women old and young shut up under Decks ready to bee stifled a ship-board upon suspicion that they affected the King hanging of the two Bristoll Marchants Master Bourchier and Master Yeomans for an endeavor to deliver up Bristoll Putting Colonell Essex out of the government of that Towne upon suspicion of favouring the enterprise hanging of Master Tompkins and Master Chaloner â—or a purpose to force the delivery up of some factious men to Justice banishing Master Waller an eminent Member of the House of Commons for the contrivance of it searching the houses of forraign Ambassadors intercepting and opening their Letters Beheading Sir Alexander Cary for an intention to deliver up Plymouth and Sir John Hotham who adventured first of all to set up their authority and was magnified and almost adored for it for an intention only to deliver up Hull to the King executing of his sonne for joyning with his father in it hanging Master Kniveton one of the Kings Messengers but for bringing his Majesties proclamation to London for the adjourning of the Tearme being a greater misusage then Davids Messengers received from King Ammon imprisoning starving and undoing of any that durst but owne the King or send or bring any Message from him or his partie or that did but give any aide or assistance to him to which their Oathes and Consciences and the jugling Covenant they themselves took and forced upon them did obliege them shooting and cannonading of the Queene when shee came but to aid her husband and chasing and shooting after her at Sea a yeare after when shee was going back into France from him sequestring wives and mothers that did but relieve their husbands and childrens wants when they returned out of the Kings service putting thousands of Orthodox ministers out of their benefices and livelyhoods for using the Common-Prayer-Booke Preaching true Doâ—â—â—ne and obedience to the King or Praying for him at the same time when they pretended libertie of Conscience and preservation of Religion voting the Prince a Traytor for wishing well or being in companie with his Father for hee was too young to doe any thing else for him and making or rather supposing charges of high Treason against those that either fought for the King or counselled him how to defend himselfe for but obeying the knowne Lawes they themselves made the World believe they made some parte of the Warre for ordering all to dye without mercy that did but harbour the King when hee fled in a disguise before their armies condemning men by a Court martiall after the Warre was ended and shooting them to death but for words or intentions And if this and many things more might bee said of it bee not enough what meanes so many sequestrations and the bleating and lowing of mens Sheepe and Oxen taken away from them since the Warre was ended but for words spoken either for the King or against them husbands and Fathers undone for what their Wives or Children did without their privity the Mayor of London divers Aldermen Imprisoned but upon a suspicion of joyning with the Scots or somthing in pursnance of the Covenant they forced them to take or else would have undone them for refusing of it Garrisons and Armies with free quartering and Taxes kept up after the Warre was ended and the People like sheepe devoured to maintaine them so much complaining in our streets and taking away the fift part of many men in whole Counties as Essex Kent c. for joyning with some of the Kings forces or for being forced to send provisions to them when they took up armes some in pursuance of the Covenant and others of them to deliver the King out of Prison and causing the Soldiers not only to cut and kill divers of the County of Surrey in the very act of Petitioning the Parliament for a Treaty of Peace with the King and sequesteâ— many of them for putting their hands to it with disabling the Citizens of London for bearing any office in the City or Common-wealth for but putting their hands to the Petition for the Treaty though Cromwell himself had not long before set on som to Petition for it and the ruine and undoing of two parts of three in the Kingdome very many of whom did nothing actually in the Warres but were only sacrificed to their pretended reasons jealousies of State doe sufficiently Proclame and remaine the wofull Registers to after generations of this lamentable assertion If the King could have gotten but so much leave of his mercy and a tender-heartednesse to hiâ— People as to have used but the five hundreth part of the Parliaments jealousies and sharpe and mercilesse authority in the mannaging of this Warre so much of his Kingdoms and People had not beene undone and ruined nor the Parliament put to so much labour to coyn faults and scandalls against him nor to wrest the Lawes to non sence and the Scriptures
to Blasphemy to justifie their most horrid act of murdering him but for seeking to preserve the Lawes and Liberties of his People who are now cleerely cheated out of them And here our misery tells us wee must leave them and in the next place shall remember for indeede it is so playne it needs no enquiry CHAP. VI Who most desired Peace and offered faireliest for it TH' abundant satisfaction the King had offered them from his first summoning of the late Parliament to their dissolving of themselves by dissolving him who gave them all their Life and Being That which he did and all which hee would have done So many Declarations Answers and Messages penned by himself intending as much as his words could signifie were beleeved and understood by all at that time that were not interessed or ingaged against him and by many of the eagrest of them also that had no hand or look't to have any profit in the murthering of him for a tryall of a King without either warrant or colour of Scripture or the Lawes of the Kingdom or the consent of the major part of the People if that could have authorized it cannot nay will not by all the world and after ages bee otherwise interpreted unlesse wee shall say Ravillae might have justified his killing of Henry the fourth of France if hee had but had the wit to have framed or fancied a Supreme Court of Justice and have Sentenced him before he had done it will bee as Pillars and lasting-Monuments of this Truth The King was the only desirer of Peace and laboured and tuggedâ—â—rder for it then ever Prince or King Heathen or Christian since Almighty-God did his first days work did ever doe with Superiors Equalls or Subjects it will be no wrong certainly to David whose sufferings are so much remembred in all christian Churches complayning so bitterly that he sought Peace with those that refused it and in the meane time prepared for warre against him To say the King did suffer more and offer more and oftner for Peace then ever hee did for any thing is extanc or appearing to us for surely so many messages of Peace as one and twentie in two yeares space from the 5. of December 1645. to the 25. of December 1647. sent to the Parliament after so many affronts and discouragements must needs excuse him that offered all could bee imagined to bee for the good and safety of his People and condemne those that not only from time to time refused it but adhered so much to their first intentions as all the blood and riune of the People could not perswade them to depart with the least punctillio of it though the King before the Isle of Wight Treaty offered so much for the Olive-Branch as to part with the Militia for terme of his life and in a manner to un-king himselfe and was afterwards content to doe all that his Coronation-Oath Honour and Conscience could possibly permit him to doe and to purchase a Peace for his People was content to have borne the shame and reproach of what his enemies were only guilty of in so much as the Lord Say himselfe and most of his ever craving never safe enough Disciples confessed the king had offered so much as nothing more could bee demanded of him They therefore that can but tell how to divide or put a difference betwixt white and black night and day and the plainest contraries must needs also acknowledge the King offered all and the Parliament refused all The King was willing to part almost with every thing and the Parliament would never part with any thing The King was willing for the good of his People to give away almost every thing of his owne but the Parliament would never yeild to part with any thing was not their owne And thus may the account bee quickly cast up betweene the King and Parliament who would have saved and kept the people from misery and who was most unwilling to make an end of it But that wee may not too hastily give the sentence to try the businesse as they use to doe at the Counsell of Warre or the new Invented way of Justicel sitting with their Will or the Sword only in one hand and no Ballance at all in the other Wee shall in the next place examine CHAP. VII Who Laboured to Shorten the Warre and who to Lengthen it THe ods was so great betwixt what the Parliament laboured to get and the King to keep as that which swayes the ballance in most mens actions will bee argument enough to conclude they were more likely to loose by a peace then a war therfore the more willing to continue it and if their owne interests would not put them so farre upon it their vaine glorie and ambition would bee forward enough to perswade them to it and if not that the successe of their armes or miscalled providence would make them looke as experience tells us they did upon any tenders of peace as Alexander the great did upon Darius his offer of halfe his Kingdome and if not that their feares and jealousies now growne greater by wronging of the King then ever they were when they suspected him could never think it safe to let an inraged Lion into his den they had so long kept out of it But the King could not fight for his owne but hee must adventure the undoing of his owne and could not but know that so much as was lost of his Subjects would bee so much lost of a King and therefore doth all hee can to preserve a People had no minde to preserve themselves and before hee had gathered up the bayes hee wonne at Edge-hill sends a Proclamation of pardon to those that the day before did all they could to kill him and in all his actions of warre afterward behaved himselfe rather like a weeping father defending himselfe against the strokes and violence of disobedient Children Had the Parliament accepted of his offers before hee came to Beverley or besieged Hull hee had never set up his Standard at Nottingham or had they loved his People but halfe so much as he did their Armies had never seen his Banners displaid at Edge-hill Had they hearkned to his many endeavors for Peace after that battell and not sought to surround or ruine him when hee came so neere as to their very doores to intreat for it they had never beene troubled to frame an accusation against him for defending himselfe at Braynford Had his Treaty at Oxford beene proceeded in with the same desires of Peace hee brought to it the blood that was shed at Caversham-bridge had beene kept for better purposes had hee sought his owne advantages hee had not besieged Glocester or had hee not beene so unwilling to put the People in it to the hazard of a storme might have taken it had they not sent their Generall to assault him at Glocester whil'st hee was as David besieging the strong hold of the Jebusites
Negative voyce The levying of Warre against the Personall commands of the King though accompanied with His presence is not a levying of Warre against the King but a levying Warre against His Lawes and Authority which they have Power to declare is levying of Warre against the King Treason cannot bee committed against his Person otherwise then as Hee was intrusted They have Power to judge whether hee discharge His trust or not that if they should follow the highest precedents of other Parliaments paternes there would bee no cause to complaine of want of modesty or duty in them and that it belonged only to them to Judge of the Law 27 of May The King by his Proclamation forbids all his Subjects and trayned bands of the Kingdome to Rise March or Muster But the Parliament on the same day Command all Sheriffs Justices of Peace and Constables within one hundred and fifty miles of Yorke to seize and make stay of all Armes and Amunition going thither And Declaring the said Proclamation to bee void in Law Command all men to Rise Muster and March and not to Muster or March by any other Authority or Commission and the Sheriffs of all Counties the morrow after Commanded with the posse Commitatus to suppresse any of the Kings Subjects that should bee drawne thither by his Command Secure and seize upon the Magazines of the Counties Protect all that are Delinquents against him make all to bee Delinquents that attend him and censure and put out of the house of Peeres nine Lords at once for obeying the Kings summons and going to him 3. June 1642. The King summoning the Ministery Gentry and Free-holders of the Countie of Yorke declared to them the reasons of providing himselfe a guard and that he had no intention to make a Warre and the morrow after forbad the Lord Willoughby of Parham to Muster and Trayne the Countie of Lincolne who under colour of an Ordinance of Parliament for the Militia had begun to doe it 1â— June 1642. The Parliament by a Declaration signifying That the King intended to make a War against his Parliament invited the Citizens of London all others well affected as they pleased to mis-call them within 80. miles of the City to bring money or plate into the Guild-Hall London and to subscribe for Men Horses and Army to maintaiâ—e the Protestant Religion the Kings Person and Authority â—ree course of Justice Lawes of the Land and priviledges of Parliament and the morrow after send 19. propositions to the King That the great affaires of the Kingdome and Militia may bee mannaged by consent and approbation of Parliament all the great officers of Estate Priâ—y Councell Ambassadors and Ministers of State and Judges bee chosen by them that the Grvernment Education and Marriage of the Kings Children bee by their consent and approbation and all the Forts and Castles of the Kingdome put under the Command and Custody of such as they should approve of and that no Peeres to bee made hereafter should sit or vote in Parliament without the consent of Parliament with severall other demands which if the King should have granted would at once in effect not only have undone and put his Subjects out of his protection but have deposed both himselfe and his posteritie and then they would proceede to regulate his Revenue and deliver up the Towne of Hull into such hands as the King by consent and approbation of Parliament should appoint But the King having the same day before those goodly demands came to his hands being a greater breach of his Royall Priviledges then his demanding of the 5. Members and Kimbolton if it had not beene Lawfull for him so to doe could be of theirs granted a Commission of array for the Countie of Lecester to the Earl of Huntington and by a letter sent along with it directed it for the present only to Muster and Array the Trayned-Bands And 13. June 1642. Declared to the Lords attending Him at York That Hee would not engage them in any Warre against the Parliament unlesse it were for his necessary defence wherupon the L. keeper Litleton who a little before had either beene affrighted or seduced by the Parliament to vote their new Militia The Duke of Richmond Marquis Hartford Earle of Salsbury Lord Gray of Ruthen now Earle of Kent and divers Earles and Barrons engaged not to obey any Order or Ordinance concerning the Militia had not the Royall assent to it And fourteenth of June 1642. Being informed That the Parliament endeavored to borrow great summes of money of the City of London and that there was great labour used to perswade His Subjects to furnish horse and money upon pretence of providing a guard for the Parliament By His letter to the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Sheriffes of London disavowing any purpose of making a Warre declared That He had not the least thought of raising or using of forces unlesse Hee should bee compelled to doe it for His owne defence and forbiddeth therefore the lending of money or raising of horses And within two dayes after the Lord Keeper Duke of Richmond Marquis Hartford Earle of Salisbury Lord Gray of Ruthen with 17 Earles and 14. Barons the Lord Chiefe-Justice Bancks and sundrie others of eminent qualitie and reputation attest His Majesties Declaration and profession that Hee had no intention to make a Warre but abhorred it and That they perceived no Councells or preparations tending to any such designe and send it with His Majesties Declaration to the Parliament In the meane time the Committee of Parliament appointed to make the propositions to the Cittie of London for the raising of Horse vizt. 15. June 1642. Made report to the house of Commons That the Citizens did very cheerfully accept the same there being for indeede there had beene some designe and Resolution a yeare before concerning the melting of plate to raise monies already great store of plate and monies brought into Guild-Hall for that purpose and an Ordinance of Parliament was made for the Earle of Warwick to bee Lord Admirall and keepe the Navy though the King had commanded him upon payne of Treason to deliver up the Ships to Him And the Lord Brooke sent downe into Warwick-shire to settle the Militia 17. June 1642. A Committee of both Houses was appointed to goe to the Citie of London to enquire what store of Horse Monies and Plate were already raised upon the Propositions 18. June 1642. The King by His Proclamation Disclaiming any intention to make Warre against His Parliament forbiddeth all levies of Forces without His Majesties expresse pleasure signified under His Great-Seale And 20. June 1642. Informing all His Subjects by His Proclamation of the Lawfullnesse of His Commissions of Array That besides many other Warrants and Authorities of the Law Judge Hutton and Judge Crooke in their arguments against the Ship-money agreed them to be Lawfull and the Earle of Essex himselfe had
Lord Keeper Littleton should bee Null and of no force in the Law and that a new Seale should bee provided The King therefore seeing what Hee must trust to 19. September 1642. Being at Wellington in Shrop-shire in the head of such small forces and friends as Hee could get together for the Parliament that very day had received letters That the King but the weeke before having a muster at Nottingham there appeared but about 3000. foote and 2000. horse and 1500. dragoones and that a great part of His men were not provided with armes made His Protestation and Promise as in the presence of almighty God and as Hee hoped for His blessing and protection to maintaine to the utmost of His power the true reformed Protestant Religion established in the Church of England and that Hee desired to governe by the knowne Lawes of the Land and that the Libertie and propertie of the Subject should be preserved with the same care as His owne just rights and to observe inviolably the Lawes consented to by Him in this Parliament and promised as in the sight of almighty God if Hee would please by His blessing upon that Army raised for His necessary defence to preserve Him from that Rebellion to maintaine the just priviledges and freedome of Parliament and governe by the known Lawes of the Land In the meane while if this time of Warre and the great necessity and straights Hee was driven to should beget any violation of them Hee hoped it would bee imputed by God and man to the Authours of the Warre and not to Him who had so earnestly desired and laboured for the Peace of the Kingdome and preservation thereof and that when Hee should faile in any of those particulars Hee would expect no aide or reliefe from any man nor protection from Heaven And now that the stage of Warre seemes to bee made ready and the parliament partie being the better furnished had not seldome shewed themselves and made severall traverses over it for indeede the King having so many necessities upon him and so out of power and provision for it might in that regard only if Hee had not beene so unwilling to have any hurt come to His People by his own defending of Himselfe bee backward and unwillingly drawn unto it wee may doe well to stand by and observe who cometh first to act upon it 22. Of September 1642. The Earle of Essex writeth from Warwick that hee was upon his march after the King and before the 6. of October following had written to the Countie of Warwick with all speede to raise their Trained bands and Voluntiers to resist his Forces if they should come that way and to the three Counties of Northampton Lecester and Darby to gather head and resist him if hee should retire into those parts and by all that can bee judged of a matter of fact so truely and faithfully represented must needes bee acknowledged to have great advantages of the King by the City and Tower of London Navy Shipping Armes Ammunition the Kings Magazine all the strong Townes of the Kingdome most of the Kingdomes plate and money the Parliament credit and high esteeme which at that time the People Idolized the fiery Zeale of a Seditious Clergie to preach the People into a Rebellion and the People head-long lie runing into the witcheraft of it When the King on the other side had little more to help him then the Lawes and Religion of the Land which at that time every man began to mis-conster and pull in peeces had neyther men horse armes ammunition ships places of strength nor money not any of his partie or followers after the Parliament had as it were proclaimed a Warre against Him could come single or in small numbers through any Towne or Village but were either openly assaulted or secretly betrayed no man could adventure to serve or owne him but must expose Himselfe and his Estate to bee ruined either by the Parliament or People or such as for malice or profit would informe against him All the gaines and places of preferment were on the Parliaments part and nothing but losses and mis-fortunes on the Kings No man was afraid to goe openly to the Parliaments side and no man durst openly so much as take acquaintance of his Soveraigne but if hee had done a quarter of that which Ziba did to David when hee brought him the 200. loaves of bread or old Barzillai or Ittay the Gittite when hee went along with him when his sonne Absolom rebelled against him They should never have escaped so well as they did but have beene sure to bee undone and sequestred for it So much of the affâ—ctions of the People had the Parliament cosened and stolne from them so much profit and preferment had they to perswade it and so much power to enforce those that otherwise had not a minde to it to fight against him Who thus every way encompassed about with dangers and like a Partridge hunted upon the Mountaines marcheth from Shrewsbury towards Banbury perswading and picking up what help and assistance His better for of Subjects durst adventure to afford Him in the way to which On Sunday the 23. of October 1642. for they thought it better to rob God of his Sabboth then loose an opportunity of murdering their Soveraign Tâ—e Earle of Essex and Parliament Army powring in from all quarteâ—s of the kingdom upon him had compâ—ssâ—d Him in on all sides and before the King could put His men in battell Aray many of whom being young country fellows had no better armes then clubs and staves in their hands cut out of the hedges and put His two young Sonnes the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Yorke in the guard of a troope of horse at the further end of the field and had finished a short prayer a bullet of the Earle of Essex's Cannon grazâ—d at His heeles as hee was kneeling at His prayers on the side of a bâ—â—ke for Blague a villaine in the Kings Army having a great Pension allowed Him for it had given notice in what part of the field the King stood that they might the better know how to shoot at him But God having a greater care of his Annointed then of their Rebellious pretences so ordered the hands of those that fought for the King as the Earle of Essex was so loaden with Victories as hee left five of His men for one of the Kings dead behinde him lost his baggage and Artillery retired back to Warwick and left the King to blesse God in the field where Hee supped with such Victualls as the more Loyall and better naturd neighbours sent him when the worser sort refused to do it and lying there all night sent warrants out the next day to the neighbour Parishes to bury the dead drew off His ordnance and marched to Banbury and yet hee could not forget to pitty those were at such paynes and hazard the day before to murther him but before
representatives will and arbitrary power have a mind to make it who have so driven away their old legall priviledges by setting up illegall and fantastique kinde of Priviledges as they are pleased to call them instead of them as there is nothing now left of the Parliament like a Parliament neither matter nor forme nor any thing at all remaining of it For the upper and lower houses have driven away and fought against the King who was their Head the lower after that have driven away the upper and fourtie-five of the house of Commons whereof eleven are great officers and commanders in the Army have after that imprisoned driven away foure hundred of their fellow members And from a degenerate and distemperate peece of a Parliament brought themselves to bee but a representative or journey-men-voters to a Councell of Warre of their owne mercenacy and mechanique Army and may sit another eight yeares before ever they shall bee able to finde a reason to satisfie any man is not a foole or a mad-man or a fellow Sharer in the spoiles of an abused and deluded Nation Why the Kings demanding of the five Members and Kimbolton by undeniable warrant of the Lawes of the Land and the Records and precedents of their owne houses upon a charge or accusation of Treason for endeavouring amongst other pieces of Treason to alter the Government and subvert the fundamentall Lawes of the Kingdome which the Parliament and they themselves that were accused have more then once declared to bee Treason should bee taken to bee so great a breach of priviledge in the King their Soveraigne when the forcing and over-awing the houses of Parliament by the Army their servants and hirelings demanding the eleven members and imprisoning and bannishing some of them upon imaginary and fantasticall offences committed against themselves or they could not tell whom shall bee reckoned to be no breach at all of priviledge and the forcing of the houses by the same army within a yeare afterwards by setting guards upon them violently pulling two of the members of the house of Commons out of the house and imprisoning them and 39. more of their fellow members all night in an Alehouse and leading them afterwards to severall prisons with guards set upon them as if they had beene common malefactors can bee called mercies and deliverances and a purging and taking away rotten members out of the house of Commons But now that wee can finde nothing to make a defensive or Lawfull nor so much as a necessary warre on the Parliaments part for causa belli saith Besoldus correspondere debet damno et periculo the Parliament feares and jealousies were not of weight enough to put the People into a misery far beyound the utmost of what their feares and jealousies suggested to them did amount unto wee shall doe well to examine by the rules and lawes of warre and Nations the wayes and meanes they used in it Injustum censetur belium si non ejus penes quem est Majestas authoritate moveatur a Warre cannot bee just if it bee not made by a Lawfull authoritie Armorum delatio et prohibitio ad Principem spect at It belongs to the Prince to raise or forbid armes and the Records of the Parliament which wee take to bee a better sence of the house then their owne purposes can informe them that the Prelates Earles Barons and Commonaltie of the Realme did in the seveneth yeare of the raigne of King Edw the first declare to the Kâ—ng That it belongeth and his part is through his Royall Signorie streightly to defend force of Armour and all other force against his Peace when it shall please him and to punish them which shall doe the contrary according to the Lawes and usages of the Realme and that thereunto they were bound to aid their Soveraigne Lord the King at all seasons when neede shall bee How much adoe then will they have to make a warre against their Soveraigne to be Lawfull or if by any warrant of Lawes Divine or Humane they could but tell how to absolve themselves from their oathes of Supremacy Allegiance and their very many protestations and acknowledements of Subjection to the King finde a Supreame authority to bee in the People at the same time they swore an allegiance and obedience to the King and at the same time they not only stiled themselves but all those they represented to bee his Subjects Or how will they bee able to produce a warrant from the People their now pretended Soveraignes â—â—ll they shall bee able sufficiently to enslave them to authorize them to make a Warre to unâ—â—e them when they elected them but to consent to such things as should bee treated of by the King and his Lords for the defence of the King and his Kingdome Or how could a tenth parte of the People give warrant to them to fight against the King and the other nine parts of the People Or can that bee a good warrant when some of them were cheated and the other by plunderings and sequestrations forced to yeild to it Or could the pretence of a warre for defence of the Kings Person and to maintaine the Religion Lawes and Liberties of the People bee a warrant to the Parliament which never sought any thing for the King and People but to take away the Soveraignty from the one and the Liberties of the other to doe every thing was contrary unto it But if that could have legitimated their actions as it never did or will bee able There is a two fold rule of Justice in the practise of Warre and Nations si bellum geratur sine denunciationâ— in captivos tanquam latrones animadverti possit It is a thievery rather than a Warre not to denounce or give notice of it beforehand and in that also the Parliament was faulty for they took Huâ—â— and Portsmouth and the Kings Navy and Magazine from him when hee hoped better things of them and sent out their Armies and the Earle of Essex against him whilest hee was in treaty with them and offered all that hee could for to have a peace with them Bellum item impium injustumque sit si modus debitus non observetur A Warre is unjust if their bee not a due way of proceedings held in it which especially consisteth in not hurting the innocent Church-men Husbandmen weake or impotent People as old men women and Children and in this also they will fall short of an excuse For how full is every Towne and Village of the truth as well as the complaints of the unchristian usage of old and sick people Women and Children beaten wounded or killed upon no provocation Women and Maids ravished and their fingers cut off for their rings old Best of Canturbury hanged up by the priviâ—ies others tortured and had burning matches tied to their fingers to make them confesse where their money was Women and Children and sick and aged Persons starved
for want of the sustenance they had taken from them Husbandmen had their corne and hay spoiled in the field and the barne their sheep cattel and provisions devoured houses ruined or burnt and their horses thay should help to plough and doe other workes of Husbandry taken away in so much as some were inforced to blinde and put out their horses eyes that they might not bee taken from them Churches that escaped defacing prophaned and made Stables or Goales or Victualing or Bawdy houses Monuments defaced and Sepulchers opened as were those of the Saxon Kings at Winchester and the Priests and Ministers not so much as sustered to weepe betwixt the Porch and the Altar but their benefices and livelyhood taken from them by Wolues put in the Shephards places had their bookes burned and all their meanes and maintenance plundred from them and those that were newtralls and medled on neither side but lived as quietly as they could either totally undone or cast in prison not for that they did them any hurt but because they might doe it and if they were not imprisoned their Lands money or goods were sure to bee in the fault and taken away from them Vt bellum illaesa conscientia geratur necesse est ut adsâ—t intentio bona there ought to bee a good intention to make the Warre conscionable which in this appeares to faile also For the Charge against the five Members is now as true as it was then they meant to ruine the King and they have don it and to alter the Government subvert the Religion Lawes and Liberties of the Kingdom and they have don a great part of it and as fast as they can are pulling down the remainder Quaerere debemus victoriam rationibus honestis ne salutem quidem turpibus Wee ought to pursue victory and the just ends of Warre by honest and Lawfull meanes and not to doe foule and dishonest things to procure our safety from the latter of which the made feares and jealousies which the Parliament made use of to usher in their pretences their fayning of victories and scandaling the King and his actions not to insist upon their buying the Kings servants and secrets Battells Townes and Garrisons and making too many Judases of all that were about him will hardly bee able to free them or if they could the making use of men and money intended for the support of Ireland and leaving them wallowing in their blood for seven years together whilest they were ruining their King that would have helped them violating of their oathes of allegiance and Supremacy which many of their members had taken six or seaven times over breaking their oathes taken in their protestation and Nationall Covenant and not so few as 100 solemne promises and undertakings in their severall Petitions Remonstrances and Declarations forcing the People to take the Protestation and Covenant and compell them as soone as they had taken it to breake them and by cosening and forcing them into Rebellions and perjuries cheate them out of their Religion Loyaltie Lawes and Liberties will without very good advocates bee sure enough to condemne them and if the great Turke carrying the Covenant which Ladislaus the unfortunate King of Hungary was perswaded to breake with him as an ensigne of publique detestation in the bettell wherein hee slew him invoked the God of the Christians to help him to revenge so grrat a treachery there will bee more reason now for all that are but Christians or but pretende to any morality to carry in their banner the pourtract of the Kings bleeding head as it was cut from his shoulders and make Warre in revenge of the maisterpiecee and totum aggregatum of all manner of wickednesle and perfidiousnesse who besides all their owne and the Peoples oaths taken to defend him when those they called Delinquents some few onely which were specially named and excepted for obeying the knowne Lawes of the Land as well as their oaths and Consciences were never questioned for their lives but suffered to compound for their estates would not suffer the King that was neither a Delinquent or Excepted Person to enjoy either his Life or Estate though to save his people and keepe them from killing one another hee yeilded himselfe and became a Prisoner upon the publique faith of the Kingdomes of England and Scotland Paxaequa non est recusanda Licet victoriae spes adsit saith Besoldus A good or fitting Peace is not to bee refused though the victory were certaine And in this also the Parliament will bee as farre to seeke for a justification as in the other For instead of offering any thing which was likely to bring it they caused men and women in the first yeare of their Warre to bee killed because they did but petition them to accept of a Peace and in the third and fourth yeare of their War plundred robbed others that petitioned them but to hearken to it and put out of office and made all as Delinquents in the seventh yeare of their War that did but petition them for a Treaty with the King and refused all the Kings many very many Messages for Peace not only when hee was at the highest of his successe in the war but when hee was at the lowest and a Prisoner to them and conjured them as they would answer at the dreadfull day of Judgement to pitty the bleeding conditions of his Kingdomes and People and send propositions of Peace unto him quarters and halfe yeares and more then a whole yeare together after the battell of Naseby insomuch as their fellow Rebells the Scotch Commissioners did heavily complaine of it were at severall times trifled away and spent before any propositions could bee made ready though those which they sent to Oxford Vxbridge Newcastle and Hampton-Court were but substantially and materially the same with their nineteâ—ne Propositions which they made unto the King before the Earle of Essex was made their Generall and in all the Treaties made Propositions for themselves and the Soveraignty and great offices and places of the Kingdome but would neither for Gods sake or their Kings sake or their Oathes or Consciences sake or the Peoples sake or Peace sake which the People petitioned and hungred and thirsted for alter or abate one Ioâ—a or tâ—ttle of them but were so unwilling to have any peace at all as 6 or 7 Messengers or Trumpeters could com from the King before they could be at leisure or so mannerly as to answer one of them but this or that Message from the King was received and read and laid by till a weeke or when they would after and the Kings Commissioners in the Treaties must forget their due titles of Earles Lords or Knights because the King had made them so since the beginning of the Warre or else must bee neither Treaty nor Peace there At Vxbridge the time of the Treaty limited for 20. dayes and at Newcastle for 10. and though the King
maintaine an Army against Him and many of his Subjects daily imprisoned sequestred undone or killed can bee blamed if hee had a great deale sooner gone about to defend both himselfe and his People For who saith St. Jerom did ever rest quietly sleeping neer a viper et lex una perpetua salutem omni ratione defendere haec ratio doctis necessitas Barbaris mos genâ—ibus feris natura ipsa prescripsit et haec non scripta sed nata lex saith Tully that great master of morality Reason Necessity Custome and Nature it selfe have made selfe preservation to bee warrantable Nemo exponere so debet periculis obviam offensiom eundum non modo quae est in actu sed quae est in potentia ad actum justus metus justum facit belium say the Civill Lawes and where there was not unda cogitatio or a bare intention only to ruine the King but so much over and over againe acted as might well occasion more then a feare and apprehension in him of what hath since beene brought to passe against him no man certainly without much blindnesse or partiality can think it to bee a fault in him to seeke to defend himselfe when the Parliament did not only long before hee raised any forces to defend himselfe but at the same time when hee was doing of it make the people beleeve his Person was in so much danger as they must needs take up armes to defend Him And how much more warrantable then must it bee in the Kings case when it was not only an endeavour to defend himselfe but all those that have beene since slaine and undone and ruined for want of power enough to doe it Defence is by the civill Lawyers said to bee either necessary profitable or honest Nec distingui vult Baldus sive se sua suosve defendar sive prope sive posita longé a man is said to defend himselfe when it is but his owne goods estate or People whether neere or furtherof Necessaria defensio ejus est et factum ad necessariam defensionem contra quem veniat armatus inimicus et ejus contra quem inimicus se paravit It must needs bee a necessary defence against whom an armed Enemy is either marching or preparing Vtilis defensio quum nos movemus bellum verentes ne ipsi bello petamur when wee make a Warre to prevent or bee before hand when Warre or mischiefe is threatned or likely to come upon us For as Nicephorus the Historian saith Hee that will live out of danger must occurrere malis impendentibus et autevertere â—ec est cunctandum aut expectandum c. meete and take away growing evills and turne them another way and not to delay and bee â—â—ock in it Honesta defensio quae citra metumâ—ullum periculi nostri nulla utilitate quaesita tantum in gratiam aliorum suscipitur When for no feare of danger to our selves and for no consideration of profit to our selves but meerely in favour or help of others the Warre is undertaken Wherefore certainly when the King may bee justly said to tarâ—y too long before hee made the second and third kindes of defences either to prevent the danger and fury of a Warre against himselfe or to help those that suffered and were undone in seeking to defend him and was so over much in love with Peace as hee utterly lost it and could never again recover it and was so much mistaken in the love and religion of his Subjects and Parliament promises and the impossibilities of such horrid proceedings against him as all his three Kingdomes were in a flame of Warre and strong Combinations made by two of them and the Pulpits every where flaming Seditious exhortations against Him his Navy Magazines Ports Revenues Mint strongest Townes and places seised on Armies marching against him and hee only and a few friends and followers pend up in a corner had an enemy and a strong Towne at his back readie every day to surprize him and severall Armies marching and in action before and round about him before hee granted out any Commission for Warre or liad or could make any preparation for it and had so many to help and defend besides himself It would be too much injury and too great a violence to all manner of reason and understanding to deny him a Justification upon the first sort of defences if the two latter will not reach it for the first cannot by any interpretation goe without For haec est necessitas saith Baldus quae bellum justificat quum in extremo loco ad bellum configitur Or if with Grotius wee looke upon it another way and make the Justice of Warre to consist 1o in defensione 2o in recuperatione rerum 3o in punitione The King before ever hee went to demand Hull or before ever he desired a guard of the County of Yorke had cause enough and enough to doe it and it would be hard if a great deale lesse then that should not bee able to deliver him from the censure or blame of an offensive or unnecessary Warre When that which was made by David upon the Children of Ammon and that of the late glorious King of Sweden against the Emperour of Germany the former for misusing the latter for encroaching upon him and not receiving his Ambassadors found warrant and necessity enough to doe it But what could the King doe more in his endeavours and waiting for a Peace or lesse in his preparations or making of a War when the least or one of the hundred provocations or causes wee dare say plainly here set downe in the matter of fact hath hitherto among the wisest Princes and Common-wealths in the World beene reputed a just and warrantable cause of warre Homicide by the Lawes of England shall bee excused with a se defendendo when the assaulted hath but simply defended himselfe or retired in his owne defence so farre till by some Water or Wall hee bee hindred from going any further Death and destruction marching towards the King Hull fortified kept behind him and all manner of necessities compassing him in on every side could then doe no lesse then rouse him up to make his owne defence and hee must bee as much without his sences as care of his owne preservation if hee should not then think it to bee high time to make reaedy to defend himselfe and necessity enough to excuse him for any thing should bee done in order to it The Parliament and hee as this case stood could not bee both at one and the same time in the defensive parte For they had all the Money Armes Ammunition and strength of the Kingdome in their hands and multitudes of deluded People to assist them and so hunted and pursued him from place to place as it was come to be a saying and a by word among the apprentices and new levied men at London they would goe a King-catching
that witheld it from his obedience and sought to ruine and undoe Him aswell as his Loyall Subjects he had not fought with them afterwards at Newbery had not his Olive branches been flung in the fire by those he sent them unto hee had not beene put to defend himselfe at Cropredy-bridg Had any thing beene able to prevaile with the Parliament to pitty their fellow Subjects hee had not taken such a tedious and dangerous march to relieve those they would have ruined at Bodmin in Cornwall Had the Treaty at Vxbridge taken effect hee needed not afterwards have adventured so much to defend himselfe at Newbery Had not the newmodel'd Army after so many tenders of Peace refused by their masters been sent out to destroy him hee had not beene put to the trouble of taking Lecester for his security And had not hee beene surrounded and almost surprised by them might have reserved himselfe to a better successe and advantage then hee had at Naseby Had his voluntary resigning up of the remainder of his Armies and Garrisons beene able to perswade any thing with them there had not beene so much as a relique of Warre left in the Kingdome or could so many messages for Peace and so many Petitions of the people for it have made but any impression on the Parliament so many divisions parties and insurrections had not since broken the Harpes of the Children of Israel noâ— should the drums have out gone the voice of the Turtle Hee that could not bring himselfe to the common actions of Warre to hang a Spie in so much as when one of them was hanged before hee was told hee was taken hee was intreating the Governour of Oxford to spare him Hee that when he had John Lilborne one of the most factions that were against him Wingate and Daâ—ley Parliament men Collonell Ludlow an actor of that Treason his father had not long before spoken against him and Dr. Bastwick one of the bellowes and principall factours of this horrid Rebellion did no more then imprison some of them and giving the rest a legall Tryall shewed them what the Law they made silly People beleive they tooke up armes to maintain would judg of them suffered them to be exchanged to doe what they could afterwards against him Hee that when hee had taken 400. prentise-boyes in the fight at Brainford did but dismisse and pitty them when he had compelled the E. of Essex the Parliament General at Lestiâ—hiel in Cornwall to fly away by Sea in a Cock-boat and leave all the Artillery and foot of his Army to his mercy did no more but disarme them and take an oath of them never more to serve against him and being then in the height of his prosperity sent a Message and offer of peace to the Parliament who were low enough at that time if their designes would have given them leave to have received it Hee that could say hee should bee more afraid to take away any mans life unjustly then to loose his owne was not likely to bee guilty of blood seeking or the sheding of it Hee that had experience enough how much his Life and Crowne were sought for yet to shew them the way to peace and to take off all pretences to hinder it could Sheath his owne Sword and put himselfe into the hands of those hee had so little reason to trust as hee knew them to bee the great contrivers of the Warre against him caused the Marquesse of Montrosse one of his mightie men of war to disband when hee was master of a strong and not long before fortunate Army in Scotland commanded Newarke Oxford Wallingford and Worcester very strong and almost impregnable Townes and Garrisons in England to be delivered up and all acts of hostility by Sea Land and all the preparations his friends could make eyther in forraigne parts or at home to cease Hee that could indure five yeares Ballading Libelling and Preaching against him and such heapes of numberlesse affronts and injuries of all kindes done unto him and two years imprisonment afterwards yet so long as he enjoy'd but the libertie of Pen Inke or a Messenger to carry it did so tire them with Messages offers of Peace as they voted it to be Treason for any to bring any message from him and notwithstanding all that made shift to throw a message or declaration to his people made up like a ball out of the place of his close Imprisonment at Carisbrook was not like to desire the lengthening that war he did all hee could to avoid offered so much to make an end of but on the contrary if we take into our consideration the more then Gothish unheard of inhumane cruelties acted and done by the Parliament against their better fellow Subjects their Plundrings Sequestrations and racking of every mans estate they pleased to call Delinquents severities in all their actions standing upon every punctilio or word or superscription of a Letter not abating a tittle of their demands as if they had been the Decalogue or some other place of Scripture though rivolets of blood hundred thousands of ruined families and thronged Hospitalls of sick and wounded men Widowes and Fatherlesse cried aloud to them for Peace and their killing and murthering those that but petitioned for it and a foundation laid of a new Warre may last as long as that of the Netherlands and Germany There will bee enough and enough again to insure us of this most cleere and evident truth the King did all hee could and more then any man else would have done to obtaine Peace and the Faction or Parliament all they could to avoid it for certainly if there bee any rules of Learning Truth or Reason left us to judge by hee must bee sequestred of all his braines that can but endeavour to make a doubt whether the King did not more resemble the true mother of the Child in the case before Salomon who did so much and offered to part with so much to save the life of it then the Parliament that would have it more then devided and to bee cut and torne all to bits and peeces and would doe nothing at all to save but every thing to destroy it And now wee have seene a King undone and imprisoned for his endeavours to protect his People and bring againe beloved Peace to those that would not entertaine it and heard the report of his murther for most of the Peoples eyes have not seene it nor have their hearts acted in it wee shall as most men doe after they have lost a good offer or opportunity enquire CHAP. VIII Whether the Conditions offered by the King would not have beene more profitable if they had beene accepted and what the People have got instead of them IN Order to which though so woefull and over-and-over-â—itterly-Tasted Seene Felt Heard and Vnderstood-Experiences of the miseries have come unto us by the Parliaments not accepting the gracious offers and
Turk and the King as their Henry Scobell or Towne Clearke but subscribe it their Spirituall as well as their Temporall Estate and their Soules as well as their Bodies must bee voted and forced to it And now let the People that have tasted too much of such a kind of happinesse and are like to continue in it as long as their misery-makers can by any help of the Devill or his angells hold them to it consider whether they or their forefathers though some have thought themselves to have wit enough to adventure to call them fooles were the wiser whether they that setled the government and were contented with it or they that pulled it in peeces and whether the tearing up of the fundamentall Lawes of Monarchy Peerage Parliament and Magna Charta even since the day the King was murthered for defending of them which every one but themselves desired to uphold bee not enough besides the Scottish combination and the plots to ruine Monarchy and the King and his posterity before the five Members and Kimbolton had so farâ—â— engaged themselves in it to informe them if nothing else had beene demonstrated unto them That the King did all hee could to preserve the Lawes Religion and Liberties of the People which diverâ— peeces of his coyne will help to perpetuate the truth as well as the memory of and the parliament all they could to destroy them And that as hee actually endeavoured to defend them so have they as actually undone and destroyed them And let the greatest search of history can bee made or time it selfe bee Judge if ever any warre was more made in the defensive or upon juster grounds or greater necessities or if ever any King before fought for the Liberties of those hee was to governe and for Lawes to restraine himselfe withall or if it were possible for him to suffer so much in any mans opinion as to have it thought to bee unlawfull or that he was a murtherer of his people for seeking to protect them How shall any King or Majestrate bee able to beare or use the Sword when they themselves shall bee in continuall danger to bee beaten with it King Edward the 2. of England was not murthered for the blood that was shed in the Barrons Warres though some of them had drawne their swords but in performance of his fathers will to take away his favorite Gavestson from him King Rich. 2. in those many dâ—vised Articles charged against him was not deposed for the blood was shed in Wat Tilers Commotion nor Hen. 6. publiquely accused for that of Jack Cades Rebellion and the most bloody differences of the White and Red-Roses nor Queene Elizabeth for all that was spilt in reducing Ireland when her favorite the Earle of Essex made it to bee the more by his practises with Tyrone nor for the blood of Hacket who pretended to bee Christ nor of Penry and other Sectaries lesser Incendiaries then Burton Prynnâ— and Bastwick for disturbing the Common-Wealth the great Henry of France was not endeavoured by his Catholick Subjects to be brought to triall for sheding so much of their Blood to reduce them to his obedience nor by his Protestant Subjects after hee was turned Catholique for spending so much of their blood to another purpose then they intended it Nor have the stout harted Germans though many of them great and almost free Princes in their late peace and accord made betwixt the Swedes and the Emperour thought it any way reasonable or necessary to demand reparation for those millions of men Women and Children houses and Estates were ruined and spoyled by a 30. yeares warre to reduce the Behemians and Prince Elector Palatine to their obedience For what rules or bounds shall bee put to every mans particular fancy or corrupted interest if they shall bee at Libertie to question and call to account the authority God hath placed over them Shall the sonne condemne or punish the father for his owne disobedience the Wife her Husband for her owne act of Adultery or the Servant the Master for his owne unfaithfullnesse or can there bee any thing in the Reason or understanding of man to perswade him to think the King was justly accused for the shedding of his Subjects blood which the accusers themselves were only guilty of And Bradshaw himselfe like the Jewes high Priest confessing a truth against his will in the words he gave insteed of reason for murthering the King against the will and good liking of 9. parts in every 10. of the Commons of England could make his Masters that call themselves the Parliament of England to bee no better then the Tribum plebis of Rome and the Ephori of Sparta the former of which for manifold mischiefes and inconveniences were abrogated and laid aside and never more thought fit to bee used and the latter not being halfe so bad as our new State Gipsies killed and made away to restore the People againe to their Liberties But the opinion and Judgement of the Learned Lord Chiefe Justice Popham who then little thought his grand-child Collonell Popham should joyne with those that sate with their Hats on their heads and directed the murther of their Soveraigne and if hee were now living would sure enough have hanged him for it and those other learned Judges in the case and Tryall of the Earle of Essex in the Raigne of Queene Elizabeth That an intent to hurt the Soveraigne Prince as well as the Act of it was Treason And that the Lawes of England doe interpret every act of Rebellion or Treason to aime at the death or deposing the Prince For that Rebels by their good will never suffer that King or Prince to live or Raigne that understands their purposes and may revenge them agreeable to that of the Civill Law That they that goe about to give Lawe to their Prince will never suffer him to recover Authority to punish it is now written in the blood of the King and those many iterated complaints of the King in severall of his Declarations published to the People in the mid'st of the Parliaments greatest pretences and promises that they intended to take away his life and ruine him are now gone beyond suspicion and every man may now know the meaning of their Cannoneeres levelling at the King with perspective glasses at Copredy bridge the acquitting of Pym the â—nnâ—keeper who said hee would wash his hands in the Kings Heart Blood stifling of 15. or 1â— severall indictments for treasonable words and Rolfe rewarded for his purpose to kill him and the prosecutor chequed and some of them imprisoned for it For the Sunne in the Firmament and the foure great quarters of the Earth and the Shapes and Lineaments of man are not so universally knowne seene or spoken of as this will bee most certaine to the present as well as after ages The end hath now verified the beginning and Quoâ— primum fuit in intentione ultimo loco agitur Seaven yeares