am not when Buckingham came out of France with the Queen of England he left or soon after sent Sir Balthazer Gerbier to hold secret Correspondence between the Queen and himself and tho Richlieu watch'd Gerbier narrowly yet he brought the Queen's Garter and an exceeding rich Jewel to Buckingham from her Upon the breaking out of the Feuds in the Queen's Family which began almost as soon if not before it was settled Buckingham prevails with the King to be sent into France to compose them which was granted But Nani says the true Motive of Buckingham's Journey being ascribed to Love contracted in that Court Richlieu perswaded the King to refuse him Entrance into the Kingdom The Rage hereupon of the other was inflamed to extremity and sware since he was forbidden to enter in a peaceable manner into France he would make his Passage with an Army Here you see the Duke was under a double Obligation of Love and Honour and since he could not attain his End in Love it 's remarkable by what Steps he proceeded to make good his Oath and Honour of entering into France with an Army which will be better observed if they be look'd upon in their Circumstances It was the 16th of August 1625 in the first Year of the King's Reign as you may see in Rushworth fol. 335. that Buckingham caused the Captains of the Fleet under the Command of Vice-Admiral Pennington to deliver it into the French Power to fight against the Rochellers and while the Fleet was thus in the French Power and after the Duke had received the horrible Affront of being denied Entrance into France in a peaceable and loving manner about Michaelmas following viz. about six Weeks after the delivery of the Fleet the Duke as Lord High Admiral of England by an extraordinary Commission seized the St. Peter of New-haven John Mallerow Master laden with Goods Merchandize and Money to the value of 40000 l. upon the account of Monsieur Villiers Governor of New-haven and other French Merchants as Prize and the Duke took out of the said Ship sixteen Barrels of Cochineal eight Bags of Gold three and twenty Bags of Silver two Boxes of Pearl and Emeralds a Chain of Gold and Monies and Commodities to the value of 20000 l. and delivered them to Gabriel Marsh his Servant Whereupon there was an Arrest of two English Merchant Ships in New-haven upon the 7th of December following viz. 1625. whereupon by a Petitionâ— from the Merchants the King ordered December the 28th that the Ship and Goods belonging to the French should be re-delivered to the French upon this the Court of Admiralty decreed upon the 16th of January following that the Ship with all the Goods except three hundred Mexico Hides sixteen Sacks of Ginger one Box of gilded Beads and five Sacks of Ginger should be released from further Detention and delivered to the Master yet the Duke not only detained to his own use the said Gold Silver Pearl Emeralds Jewels and Money but upon the 6th of February following without any legal Proceedings caused the sid Ship to be again arrested and detained as you may see in Rushw f. 312. And here began the seizing of our English Ships in France which the Duke makes one of the Causes of the War Object But this is but a Charge of the Commons upon the Duke and therefore no direct Proof Answ It is not to be presumed the Commons would have charged these things thus particularly and positively without Proof and I say moreover they are to be taken for Truth since the King did dissolve the Parliament rather than the Duke should come to his Trial upon the Commons impeaching him hereupon and 't is worth Observation to see how without Counsel and by contrary Extreams the King and Duke engaged in both the Wars against Spain and France The Bishop of Litchfield in the second Part of the Life of the Lord Keeper Williams f. 4. tit 2. says The next day after King James's Death the King and Duke were busied in many Cares but the chief was for the Continuation of the Parliament at King James's Death the Keeper shewed that the Parliament determined with the Death of the King then the King said Since Necessity required a new Parliament his Will was that Writs forthwith be issued out of Chancery for a new Choice and not a day lost The Keeper hereupon craved leave to be heard and said It was usual in times before that the King's Servants and Friends did deal with Counties Cities and Boroughs where they were known to procure a Promise for their Elections before the precise time of any insequent Parliament was published and that the same Forecast would be good at this time which would not speed if the Summons were divulged before they look'd about them The King answered It was high time to have Subsidies granted for the War with the King of Spain and the Fleet must go forth for that purpose this Summer To which the Keeper replied in few words and with so cold a Consent that the King turned away and gave him leave to be gone whereas the King dissolved this Parliament and lost four Subsidies and three Fifteenths to save the Duke and make War upon France Concealing the true Reason for this War with France the Duke in his Declaration gives two other Reasons of it the first was the refusal of Mansfield to land his Army at Calais according to Agreement whereby the Design for the recovery of the Palatinate was frustrate But why must this be a Reason at this time of day for this was done in the Reign of King James and when the Treaty of the Marriage with France was in being Why was not then the Treaty broke off upon it And why after this in King Charles's Reign was the English Fleet put into the Power of the French to subdue the Rochellers and this Business of Mansfield's not so much as taken notice of The second Reason was The French seizing our English Merchants Ships in their Ports But this was after the Duke had seized and made Prize of the St. Peter of Newhaven so here the Duke begins making Prize upon the French and makes War upon them for doing so by the English However we have here a Declaration and Reason of a War against the French such as 't was tho none could be had for the War with Spain Here you may see the unhappy Fate of Princes who treat their Subjects as Enemies and their Flatterers and Favourites as their only Friends and Confidents for notwithstanding the King 's ill Success last Year to Cadiz and the King's Complaint for want of Money in the Exchequer and the ill terms he was at with his Subjects not only to be put upon making a War against the King of Spain and the Emperor but now also against the King of France and to have none but Buckingham Laud c. and their Paraâ—ices to support him in all these Wars and what
leaving a Horse alive still in hopes of the Relief promised from England they held out so long till but 4000 of 15000 were left alive most of them died of Famine and when they began to be pinch'd with Extremity of Hunger they died so fast that they usually carried their Coffins into the Church-yard and other Places and therein laid themselves and died great Numbers of them being unburied and many Corps eaten with Vermin Ravens and Birds when the French Army entred the Town The Outrages committed against the Reformed Churches in France were so high as constrained them to implore King Charles his Aid in these Expressions That what they wrote was with their Tears and Blood But how unhappy soever this Prince's Fate was in War abroad yet it had been happy for him if he had not made his Fate worse at home and now let us see what Steps he made towards it even in this short Recess of the Parliament's Meeting Upon the 15th of July the King made Sir Richard Weston who died a declared Papist Lord Treasurer of England and the same Day translated Laud the Firebrand of the Arminian Faction to the Bishoprick of London whose next Step was Arch-bishop of Canterbury who that he might testify his Zeal to this Cause which after set all these Nations on Fire got Richard Mountague to be consecrated Bishop of Chichester the 24th of August following This Mountague was fierce for Arminianism and wrote a Book call'd A new Gag for an old Goose for which he was questioned in the Parliament of 23 Jac. and the Cause was committed to Arch-bishop Abbot which then ended in an Admonition and though the Arch-bishop disallowed the Book and sought to suppress it yet it was reprinted and dedicated to King Charles under the Title of Appello Caesarem Hereupon the Commons 1 Car. questioned Mountague for this and gave Thanks to the Arch-bishop for what he had done but this displeased the King who took the Business out of the Commons Hands but they had taken Bond of Mountague to appear I desire to be more particular herein because Arminianism was not only turn'd up Trump for the flattering Clergy to play their Game but for the Popish Party to undermine the Church of England as it was established by Law and the Canons Doctrine and Homilies of it and now Mountague's Cause was recommended to the Duke of Buckingham by the Bishops of Rochester Oxford and Laud Bishop of St. Davids as the Cause of the Church of England Thus this Cause stood when the King dissolved the first Parliament the 12th of August 1625. But the King's Necessities as he managed Business forcing him to call another before assembled Laud procured the Duke to sound the King whether he would leave Mountague to a Trial in Parliament which the King intended to do whereupon this pious Man Laud said I seem to see a Cloud arising and threatning the Church of England God of his Mercy dissipate it Note that all those who were not of this Faction of Arminianism were stiled by them Puritans these Mountague treats with bitter Railing and injurious Speeches and inserts divers passages in his Appeal dishonourable to King James the Commons therefore prayed that the said Mountague might be exemplarily punished and his Books supprest and burnt Yet this is the Saint that Laud in the first Act of his Regency as it may be called after he became Bishop of London must have made Bishop of Chichester and after Bishop of Norwich But this is observable that while Neal and Laud were consecrating Mountague News came of the Duke's being stabb'd This was the first step after Laud's Preferment the next was a Pardon for Mountague and Manwaring of all Errors by speaking writing and printing and you cannot believe that Laud would be less kind to Manwaring than to Mountague and therefore notwithstanding Manwaring's Censure he procured Manwaring the fat Rectory of Stamford Rivers in Essex and a Dispensation to hold it with the Rectory of St. Giles in the Fields That you may see the Kindness of this Bishop of London to our Laws in the very Infancy of his Power When Felton was brought before the Lords of the Council for murdering the Duke Laud threatned Felton with the Rack unless he would confess his Inducement for murdering the Duke but the King then in Council refused till the Judges were consulted and said if it could be done by Law he would not use his Prerogative but though the Judges determined he could not be put to the Rack by Law the King was graciously pleased not to use his Prerogative yet this was no thanks to the Bishop of London Now let 's see the Fruits of the Petition of Right and the manifold-Declarations of the King for maintaining the Laws of the Land and the just Rights and Liberties of the Subject but here you may understand that though he had taken the Customs not granted by Parliament yet by virtue of his Prerogative Royal he had enhanced the Rates such as were never granted by any Parliament and declared it his absolute Will and Pleasure besides that of Wines that the 2 s. and 2 d. Duties upon every Hundred of Currants by the Book of Rates should be advanced to 5 s. and 6 d. in the Hundred The first that suffer'd under the King 's absolute Will and Pleasure was Mr. Chambers who was committed by the Lords of the Council this Michaelmass-Term and was bailed by the Court of King's-Bench for which the Judges were check'd having done it without due Respect to the Privy-Council Next Mr. Vassal's Goods were seized for not paying the 5 s. 6 d. upon every hundred pound Weight of Currants upon which the Attorney General Sir Robert Heath exhibited an Information against him in the Exchequer to which Mr. Vassal pleaded the Statute De Tallagio non concedendo and that this was neither Antiqua seu Recta Consuetudo to which the Attorney demurred and Mr. Vassal joined in the Demurrer but the Court would not hear Mr. Vassal's Counsel and said the King was in Possession and they would keep him so and imprisoned Mr. Vassal for not paying the Duty thus imposed About the same time the said Mr. Chambers's Goods were seized by the Customers for not paying such Customs as were demanded by the Farmers Mr. Chambers sues a Writ of Replevin the Barons grant an Injunction against it Mr. Chambers offers to give Security for Payment of such Duties as the Court should direct which the Court refused unless he should pay such Customs as demanded by the Farmers which Chambers refusing the Court ordered the Officers to detain double the Value of Chambers's Goods demanded by them The same Course was taken with Mr. Rolls's Goods though a Parliament-Man one of the Commissioners saying Privilege of Parliament extended only to Persons not Goods another more boldly told Mr. Rolls if all the Parliament were in you we would take your Goods These Proceedings so ill sorting with the Petition
I cannot prove negatively that my Lord Chancellor did not first propound the King's Marriage with the Infanta of Portugal yet it seems to me reasonable he did not for these Reasons I never heard of any Discourse of this Match before the Arrival of the Queen-Mother in England or if any were it 's probable that Monsieur Courtin had this in his Instructions as well as that of moving the King not to abandon Portugal for both these tend to the same end and the French King all his Reign after sought to attain his Ends by Women as well as other Ways Nor can it be believed that the Prince of Portugal now engaged in War against Spain should pay the Queen's Portion 400000 l. I believe he did what he could give up Tangier and Bombay to the King which last Place he leased to the East-India Company for 10 l. per Annum but the Money was paid by the French King Though the Factions had such ill Success with previous Swearing which every one imposed upon the Nation when it was uppermost and which no Man regarded when another succeeded yet upon the Restoration of the King the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy which latter was only imposed upon certain Sorts of Men and as my Lord Verulam says sinks deep into the Conscience and was therefore interpreted by Queen Elizabeth in her Injunctions which were after confirmed by Act of Parliament were imposed upon all sorts of People and the Refusers looked upon as Enemies to the King and Favourers of the late Times And tho the Convention sate but from the 25th of April 1660 to the 29th of December following yet by this time the outward Face of almost all the Nation was quite changed the Cavalier Party under the Persecution of the late times lived quietly upon that part of their Estates which was permitted them after their Compositions and the Governing Factions put on a Countenance of Godliness and Sobriety whereas in the Jollity of the King's Restoration all sorts of Men even the Factions endeavoured to imitate the profuse Prodigality and Luxury of the Court which scarce entertained any but upon those Terms To humour the King the Publick Theaters were stuffed with most Obscene Actions and Interludes and the more Obscene pleased the King the better who graced the opening of them with his Presence at the first Notice of a new Play In this State the Convention was dissolved and a Parliament met the eighth of May 1661. where that they might outvy the Convention in Loyalty in the first Chapter they make Words to compass or imagine any Bodily Harm Imprisonment or Restraint upon the Body of the King or to Depose him or levy War against him to be high-High-Treason And if any shall any ways affirm the King to be a Heretick or Papist shall be incapacitated to hold any Ecclesiastical Civil or Military Imployment And that it shall be a Premunire in any to say The Long Parliament begun in November 1640 is not dissolved or that there lies any Obligation upon any one from any Oath to endeavour a Change of Government either in Church or State or that one or both Houses of Parliament have a Legislative Power and declare the Oath commonly called The Solemn League and Covenant to be an unlawful Oath and imposed upon the Subject against the Fundamental Laws and Constitutions of the Nation And Chap. 5. declare against Tumultuary petitioning the King or Parliament And Chap. 6. declare the sole Right of the Militia to be in the King This Parliament upon the thirtieth of July was adjourned to the twentieth of November This being but an Adjournment and so the Act of the Houses for as yet the King did not exercise his Prerogative of Proroguing them which hereafter you will see him very prodigal of I do not find that this Adjournment was made that the King might better proceed in his Bargain and Sale of Dunkirk to the French Yet I do say that before the Parliament met it was as I remember in September that the Bargain and Sale was perfected and Dunkirk put into the Power of the French But neither the Sale of Dunkirk without nor the keeping up a standing Army within called the King's Guards after it was disbanded and paid off by the Covention nor the King's Manner of Life could any ways abate the Loyalty of this Parliament to the King and keep him they would whatever came of it And to all the Provisions for Security of his Person and Power they will add that to keep him in which the Rump in its last Breath did to keep him out viz. To swear to keep him out And therefore the Parliament Chap. 2. made the Corporation-Oath to be taken by all the Members of Corporations viz. I A. B. do declare and believe that it is not Lawful upon any Pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King And that I do abhor that Traiterous Position of taking Arms by his Authority against his Person or against those who are commissioned by him So help me God This I think is one of the first Laws that ever was made to swear to Opinions and Belief And sure if Swearing would determine Controversies and Beliefs all Learning Reasoning and Instruction would be at an end and he that swears most is the best Logician and the Godliest Man We will therefore consider the Nature of an Oath and those who are to take this Oath If we consider Man and other Sensitive Creatures in their Creation and Generation they were all passive and they were created and generated without any Act of their own Will or the Counsel or Concurrence of any Creature but of a Divine and Omnipotent Power and by a Providence and Prescience not less wise and good than the Power was Omnipotent they had Food and other Means for their Continuance in this World provided before they were created or generated But though God without the Act of the Will of any Creature did make Man and other Sensitive Creatures by an inimitable Power which he communicated to no Creature and by an unscrutable Wisdom and Goodness did provide for them before they were made or generated yet did he not in vain make them Organical Bodies endued with Life Sense and Motion so that after they were made they might seek food which God had before provided for them and preserve themselves from other Creatures which might be hurtful to them As Sensation is naturally common to Man and other Sensitive Creatures so are the Passions of Love Fear Hatred and Desire viz. Love of those things which conduce to their Welfare and Preservation Fear of those things which are hurtful to them accompanied with an Hatred of them and a Desire of generating their Like in other Bodies Besides these Attributes common to other Creatures God endued Man with an Intellectual and Reasonable Soul which is proper to Man exclusive to other Creatures and made all things in this our Habitable World for the Use of
third of June following the English Fleet commanded by the Duke of York Prince Rupert Admiral of the White and the Earl of Sandwich of the Blue fought the Dutch off the Coast of Harwich where the Dutch were put to flight Opdam their Admiral was blown up and Cartinere Stillingwolf and Stamp Flag-Officers killed and eighteen of the Dutch Fleet sunk and taken and if it had not been for fear of disturbing the Duke in his next Night's Sleep it 's believed the whole Dutch Fleet might have been destroy'd But in this Fight the English lost the renowned Earl of Marlborough who tho Admiral in King Charles the First 's Reign died a private Captain in this Fight Rear-Admiral Sanson was killed in it and Vice-Admiral Lawson soon after died of his Wounds The Duke of York was of too estimable a Value to be ventur'd any more in this War for in his Person the Hopes of this War and Declaration of Indulgence resolved So the Earl of Sandwich was made Admiral Sir Thomas Allen of the White and Sir Thomas Tiddiman of the Blue Squadrons The Dutch were so damaged in the first Fight that they were not in a Condition to set out another Fleet this Year But the Dutch having lodged their East-India and other Fleets in Bergen in Norway the English Fleet sailed thither to attack them in it But Sir Thomas Tiddiman who was ordered to do it did not sail into the Harbour as he might have done upon his first Approach but sent to the Governour of the Castle to treat without the Dutch within alarm'd at the Danger set all hands on work that Night so that by the Morning they had so fortified the Castle that it was impossible for the English to force a Passage and the Weather growing boisterous it being towards the latter end of September the English Fleet was forc'd to return nor could the Dutch Fleet stay in Bergen and in their Return home two of their richest East-India Ships and about 80 Sail of their other Ships fell to the English share but tho they were deep laden when the English took them they became much lighter before they came into the English Harbour It seems God was not pleased with these things for this Year he sent a horrible Plague which raged over almost all the Parts of England The greatest Plague which happened since Edward the Third's time in England was in the first Year of this King's Grandfather yet a greater in the first Year of his Father's Reign and now a greater than either in the sixth Year of his actual Reign And as the Plague drove the Parliament to Oxford in his Father's Reign so did it now in his But neither the Mourning of the Land because of Oaths the Plague this Dutch War nor the King's Declaration of Indulgence for dispensing with the Penal Laws against Dissenters could abate the Parliament's Zeal in prosecuting Protestant Nonconformist Ministers but they made a Law called the Five-Mile-Act whereby they were banished five Miles from any Corporation or Market Town and had this Oath imposed upon them I A. B. do declare That it is not lawful upon any Pretence whatsoever to take up Arms against the King and that I do abhor that traiterous Position of taking up Arms by his Authority against his Person or any that are commissionated by him in pursuance of such Commission And I do swear that I will not at any time to come endeavour the Alteration of the Government either in Church or State So help me God The poor Non-conforming Ministers did quietly submit to this in England but the Presbyterians did not so to the High Commission erected in Scotland for about this time they rose in Arms at Pentland against the Persecution of the Prelates who disturbed them in the Execution of their Ministry but were soon broken and a terrible Execution follow'd upon them as Traitors and Rebels In England the Parliament at Oxford granted the King 1250000 l. for carrying on the War against the Dutch and in the Spring 1666 the Plague ceasing the King set forth a Fleet under the Command of Prince Rupert and the Duke of Albemarle Sir Thomas Allen Admiral of the White and Sir William Berkley of the Blue But the Dutch and French now try to do that by Craft which they could not do by Force and Plain-dealing And to this purpose it was given out that the French had fitted up a strong Fleet to join the Dutch and this so prevailed upon the King and Council that upon the 29th of May a remarkable Day when the English Fleet was riding in the Downs Prince Rupert in all haste was ordered with the White Squadron to sail to the West to fight the French Fleet coming to join with the Dutch I desire to be particular in some part of what followed because I had it from Sir John Harman himself who was Vice-Admiral of the Blue At the same time Prince Rupert sailed from the Fleet the Dutch put out to Sea the Wind at North-east a fresh Gale this brought the Dutch Fleet on the Coast of Dunkirk and carried the Prince to St. Helens on the Isle of Wight but the Wind suddenly turning into the South-west blew a strong Gale which brought the Dutch and Duke to an Anchor when Captain Bacon of the Bristol by firing of his Guns gave notice to the Duke of the Approach of the Dutch Hereupon the Duke summoned all the Captains on board him not to consult whether to fight the Dutch but to order them to weigh Anchor and fight the Dutch This was the 1st of June the Wind at South-west blowing a stiff Gale so that the Dutch were forced to cut their Cables not having time to weigh Anchor and tho the English had the Weathergage of the Dutch yet the Wind so bowed the English Ships that they could not use their lowest Tire when they came up to fight the Dutch Sir Berkley's Squadron led the Van but the Duke when he came on the Coast of Dunkirk to avoid running on a Sand made a sudden Tack which brought his Top-mast to the Board whereupon he was forced to lie by 4 or 5 Hours till another was set up but the Blue Squadron knowing nothing of this sailed on fighting through the Dutch Fleet which were 5 to 1 of the Blue Here Sir William was killed and his Ship the Swiftsure a second Rate and all her Guns Brass taken so was the Essex a Frigat of the third Rate and Sir John Harman in the Henry got among 9 Ships of the Zeal and Squadron commanded by Vice-Admiral Everts and these so disabled the Henry that Everts offered Sir John Quarter if he would yield but Sir John told him 't was not come to that yet and gave him a Broadside and killed Everts Hereupon this Zealand Squadron sailed to assist their Fellows behind and only left Sir John to the Mercy of 3 Fireships one of which grappled the Henry on her Starboard Quarter The Dutch
of his Majesty's Subjects who are Dissenters in Matters of Religion from the Church of England And a Bill passed the House accordingly but was stopt in the House of Lords Causa patet the dead Weight joining with the Caballing Party But whatever the Commons thought of the King 's Dispensing Power in England Lauderdale the fifth in the Cabal in England was of another Opinion in Scotland for in the second Parliament c. 1. held by him he gets an Act declaring That by Virtue of the King's Supremacy the ordering the Government of the Church does properly belong to his Majesty and Successors as an inherent Right of the Crown and that he may enact and emit such Constitutions Acts and Orders concerning Church-Administrations Persons Meetings and Matters as he in his Royal Wisdom shall think fit c. any Law Act or Custom to the contrary notwithstanding And that he might not be less active in Scotland than his Brother Clifford was in England and Buckingham and Arlington were in Holland being armed with these other Powers he made all sorts of People depose upon Oath their Knowledg of the Persons of Dissenters not Popish Meetings in the Exercise of their Worship upon Penalty of Fining Imprisonment Banishment and Transportation to be sold for Slaves imprisoning all outed Ministers who shall preach out of their Families till they give Security of 5000 Marks Scot not to do the same again every Hearer being a Tenant to pay 25l Scot and Cotter 12 toties quoties they shall offend and that it shall be Death for any to preach in Fields or Houses where any are without doors and 500 Marks Reward for any to secure such dead or alive and gave Orders That every Man for himself and all under him should give Bond not to go to Field-Meetings and to inform against pursue and deliver up all outed Ministers to Judgment The Execution of these Orders was not by legal Officers but by an Army of Highland Robbers who quartered upon the Country so that it may be a Question whether the French King did not take his Measures in his Dragoon-Reformation by the ground-work laid by Lauderdale But his Grace which it seems did work irresistibly did not stay here for his Highland Army which consisted of eight or nine thousand Men not only lived upon Free Quarter upon all sorts of the King 's peaceable Subjects but in most places levied great Sums of Money under the Notion of Dry Quarters they had only regard to the Duke 's private Animosities for the most part of the Places where they quartered and destroyed had not been guilty of Field-Conventicles The King's Subjects were denounced Rebels and Captions issued out for seizing their Persons for not entring into Bond That neither they nor any under them shall go to Field-Conventicles and the Nobility and Gentry were disarmed who had ever been faithful to the King and assisted in suppressing Field-Conventicles Indictments were delivered in by the King's Advocate in the Evening to be answered next Morning upon Oath otherwise they were to be reputed guilty These and many more of this kind in the Matters relating to Lauderdale's Administration of Affairs in Scotland were represented to the King and that by his Command and are in Lauderdale's and his Lady's Impeachment which are all in Print Notwithstanding all this it was this Lauderdale who had procured an Act of Parliament to raise 20000 Foot and 2000 Horse to march into England to serve the King upon all Occasions And tho the Duke to prevent the Fame of his Actions arriving in England had by a Proclamation forbid all Subjects to depart the Kingdom without Licence yet the Noise of his Actions flew every where in England not less than the Censures of the Star-Chamber and High Commission in Laud's Regency did in Scotland and in due time the Duke shall hear of them Can any Man now believe That the King by his Declaration of Indulgence intended any Benefit to the Dissenters in England whilst Lauderdale without doubt by his Order was acting these things in Scotland The House of Commons could not at first step forget all the Loyalty they before profest to the King nor yet would they own the Dutch War and therefore they voted the King 1238750 l. to supply the King 's extraordinary Occasions but before they would let this Bill slip through their Fingers they tack'd a Bill to it by which no Papist should have any publick Employment This Bill catch'd my Lord Treasurer Clifford the first in the Cabal who was forced to resign his Treasurer's Place or renounce Popery which he would not do his Pensioners not being against it hoping thereby to get the Places which the Popish Party held and even my Lord Chancellor Ashley from Delenda Carthago now sets up for the Country Party against the Designs of the Cabal so moultry are all Designs which are not cemented in Justice and Honour The King having got the Bill for the Money the further Sitting of the Parliament became uneasy to him whereupon the Parliament was adjourned till the 20th and after to the 27th of October viz. 1673. During this Recess there were three Sea-Fights between the English French and Dutch Prince Rupert Admiral in all which the French stood aloof looking on whilst the English and Dutch battered one another only Monsieur de Martell for engaging was recalled checked and dismissed As the English thrived no better by Sea so neither did the French by Land for first the Elector of Brandenburg then the Emperour and at last the King or Queen Regent of Spain apprehensive of the Danger common to them all of the French subduing the Dutch Provinces entred into a mutual League for their Defence and by their Conjunction the Prince of Orange recovered many of the Vpland Towns in almost as little Time as the French had taken them In this state the Swede now broke loose from the Triple League whereby he opened the Gap to let in this Confusion and became a Pensioner to France and proposes a Treaty of Peace to be held at Cologn and thither the King the Emperor the French King and the King of Spain send their Plenipotentiaries to treat of it The French King's Propositions were so insolent that if granted our King could have nothing yet the King pudet haec insisted That tho he was contented with such Propositions as he required so as accepted in ten Days yet if granted by the States they should be of no force nor will he enter into any Treaty of Peace unless his most Christian Majesty shall receive Satisfaction from the States in his Particular After the French King should have all the King's Demands were a Regulation of the Trade to the East-Indies a Settlement of the Freedom of Navigation in Europe the Arrears for the Fishing-Trade upon the English Coast to assert a settled Revenue to the Crown for every Buss or Dogger-boat for the future and to make Satisfaction for the Damages
so in Extreams yet his Actions so diametrically opposite to his Profession Here you see a Jesuited Prince pleading for Liberty of Conscience to the breaking down the â—aws which before he had so often professed to maintain and for such a sort of Men whom but little before he had slaughter'd banished and imprisoned as if he had designed to extirpate the whole Race of them If to reconcile these to Truth or Reality be not as great a Miracle as is in any of the Popish Legends I 'll believe them all and be reconciled to the Roman Catholick Church how inconsistible soever the Terms be The generality of the Protestant Dissenters having for near seven years together been so severely treated by the Tories were as forward to congratulate the King for his Indulgence in manifold Addresses as the Tories were in King Charles his time in their Addresses of Abhorrence to petition the King to call a Parliament to settle the Grievances of the Nation However this Declaration was so drawn in the sight of every Bird that of my knowledg many of the sober thinking Men of the Dissenters did both dread and detest it That this Declaration might be more passable Popish Judges were made in Westminster-Hall and Popish Justices of the Peace and Deputy-Lieutenants all England over the Privy Council was replenished with Popish Privy Counsellors the Savoy was laid open to instruct Youth in the Romish Religion and Popish Principles and Schools for that purpose were encouraged in London and all other Places in England Four Foreign Popish Bishops as Vicars Apostolical were allowed in Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction all England and Wales over From instructing the St. Omers Boys how to behave themselves in their Evidence to prove Oates was at St. Omers all April and May in 1678 my Lord Castlemain is sent Ambassador to the Pope to render the King's Obedience to the Holy and Apostolical See with great hopes of extirpating the Northern pestilent Heresy In return whereof the Pope sent his Nuncio to give the King his Holy Benediction yet I do not find that he beforehand sent for Leave to enter the Kingdom as was observed by Queen Mary Henry VIII and before The Judges in their Circuits had their private Instructions to know how Men were affected with the King 's Dispensing Power and those who were disaffected to it were turned out from the Lieutenancy and Commission of the Peace Justice Judgment and Righteousness support the Thrones of Princes but these were Strangers to this King's ways other Means must be found out to support and carry them through a standing Army is judged the best Expedient and as the King told the Parliament at their second Meeting he had encreased his Army to double what it was before so he made his Word good that he would employ Men in it not qualified by the late Tests and to this end Tyrconnel having disbanded the English Army in Ireland qualified by the Tests sends over an Army of Irish not qualified by the Tests to encrease the Army in England This Army thus raised against Law committed all manner of lawless Insolences though the King by several Orders would have had their Quarters restrained to Victualling-Houses Houses of publick Entertainments and such as had Licences to sell Wine and other Liquors the Officers too when they pleased would be exempt from the Civil Power And though the King had no other Wars but against the Laws and Constitutions of the Nation yet he would have the Act of the 1 2 Edw. 6. 2. which makes it Felony without Benefit of the Clergy for any Souldier taking Pay in the King's Service in his Wars beyond Sea or upon Sea or in Scotland to desert from his Officer to extend to this Army thus raised by the King And because the Recorder of London Sir J. H. would not expound this Law to the King's Design he was put out of his Place and so was Sir Edward Herbert from being Chief Justice of the King's Bench to make room for Sir Robert Wright to hang a poor Souldier upon this Statute and afterward this Statute did the Work without any further dispute Thus this Prince did not only assume a Power to controul the Laws of the Nation at his pleasure in Civil Affairs but when he pleased made them bend to his Will to establish an illegal Army and countenance the Effusion of Christian Blood but you 'll soon see God will blast these ungodly Ways and that not the Arm of Flesh but Judgment Justice and Righteousness establish the Thrones of Princes Thus Affairs stood in England Scotland and Ireland in the year 1687. wherein I suppose no History mentions so great and violent Alterations in so little time as in this King's Reign all tending to introduce a Foreign Power and to enslave the Nation yet so patiently endured by it but the Dangers of these Designs were not circumscribed within the bounds of this Nation but extended into France where for above twenty years a Conspiracy was carried on for promoting these Designs thus far advanced so that the Year 1688 had a much more terrible Aspect upon England than the Year 1588 had when Philip the II. designed the Conquest of it for then the Nation was firm and intire for its own Interest whereas this Year it was not only torn in pieces by internal Discords but had an Army and Fleet designed to join with the French King in propagating his boundless Ambition not only upon England but upon the Empire of Germany Spain Holland the Duke of Savoy and other Princes of Italy About the beginning of the year 1688 a Gentleman of High Jesuited Principles told me The States of Holland were Rebels against the King of Spain and that I should soon see the King of France would call them to an Account for it and humble them and that the French King would assist our King with Men of War I took more heed to this because I knew that he was frequently visited by several Jesuits in whose Counsels I believe the French King's Designs this Year were locked up for my Lord of Sunderland in his Letter recited in the History of the Desertion fol. 32. protests he knew nothing of a League between the King yet you will see it come out another way But my Lord of Sunderland says that French Ships were offered to join with our Fleet which was refused however this shews there was a Design contriving by these Princes yet at present the Affairs of France seemed to look another way and a French Fleet and Souldiers in them are sent to Canada the Design and Success you will soon hear of The King having thus as he thought laid a Foundation tho it proved a very Sandy one of his Designs and to shew how Absolute he would be in them upon the 4th of May passed an Order in Council that his Declaration of Indulgence should be read in all Churches and Chappels in England and Wales in time of Divine
the Design At this time there was not only a high Ferment in all the Nation against the King's Proceedings but in the Army against its mixture with Irish Officers and Soldiers which put the King into a great Agony which was increased by the Dutch Preparation Whereupon the Marquess d' Albeville the King's Envoy at the Hague upon the 2d of Sept. N. S. 23d of Aug. O. S. put in this Memorial to the States General High and Mighty Lords THE great and surprizing Preparations for War made by your Lordships by Sea and Land in a Season when all Action especially by Sea is laid aside giving just Cause of Surprize and Alarm to all Europe obliges the King my Master who has had nothing so much in his Mind since his Accession to the Crown as a Continuation of the Peace and Correspondence with this State to order the Marquess d' Albeville his Envoy Extraordinary to know your Highnesses Intentions thereby His Majesty as your antient Ally and Confederate believes it just to demand this Knowledg which he hoped with good Reason to have heard from your Ambassador but as he sees this Duty of Alliance and Confederation neglected and that such Power is raising without communicating the Intent in the least to him he finds himself obliged to reinforce his Fleet and to put himself in a Condition to maintain the Peace of Christendom The States paused upon an Answer to this Memorial when upon the 9th of September N. S. or the 30th of Aug. O. S. Monsieur d' Avaux the French Ambassador put in a Memorial to the States wherein he foolishly discovers the Contrivances which had been so long hatching between his Master and King James for after a long Story of his Master's Desire of maintaining the Peace of Europe now he had actually broke it he impertinently tells the States All these Circumstances and many others that I may not here produce perswade the King my Master with reason that this Arming threatens England Wherefore His Majesty hath commanded me to declare to the States on his Part that the Bonds of Friendship and Alliance between him and the King of Great Britain will oblige him the French King not only to assist him the King of Great Britain but also to look on the first Act of Hostility that shall be committed by your Troops and your Fleet against his Majesty of Great Britain as a manifest Rupture of the Peace and a Breach with his Crown Though the Dutch made no Answer to this Memorial yet they made no Bones to make this Answer to the Marquess d' Albeville's That they had armed in Imitation of his Britannick Majesty and other Princes and that they had thereby given no just Cause of Offence by arming when all other Princes were in Motion and that they were long since convinced of the Alliance which the King his Master had treated with France and what had been mentioned to them by Monsieur le Count d' Avaux in his Memorial This Answer King James took all one as if the Dutch had declared War against him and all the Eyes of England are now turned toward Holland as if from thence they expected Deliverance from the Designs of King James and his Popish Crew and the Fathers and Sons too of the Church of England are at as much Variance in their private and publick Prayers to God as Whig and Tory were in their Humours for in their private Prayers they pray for Prosperity to the Prince of Orange and in the Liturgy they pray that God would be King James's Defender and Keeper giving him Victory over all his Enemies God was pleased to prefer the private Prayers of the Church-men before those of the Church and to have granted both had been impossible and to put a hook into the French King's Nose who turned those Forces which he had raised not for the Peace and Tranquillity of Europe as d' Avaux said in his Memorial to the Dutch States upon the Empire where without any Declaration of War or Cause alledged he first fell upon Philipsburg which he took and after Heydelberg and Mainheim and while he was thus engaged he left the Prince of Orange free to vindicate his Cause against King James whereas if the French King had turned those Forces which he employed against the Empire upon the Spanish Netherlands and he might as justly have done this as that the Prince of Orange would have had little Force and less Leasure to have made any Attempt upon King James Thus God is pleased often to turn the Wisdom of the Crafty I will not say Wise into Folly and Destruction You have heard before how the French King in the beginning of the Year had sent out a Fleet to Canada whereupon the Company of Hudsons-Bay represented to the King their Apprehensions it was a Design upon their Factories and Plantations and so it succeeded for the French seized upon a Fort and Plantation of theirs called Fort Charles Towards the latter end of the Summer the King without the Knowledg of Hudsons-Bay Company entred into a Treaty of Commerce with his Brother of France in reference to the Trade of Canada wherein it was concluded that the Forts and Factories should be reciprocally enjoyed in the same state they were at the Conclusion of this Treaty the French having taken the Fort and Factory of Charles about three Months before So little did this King regard the Safety and Welfare of his Subjects wherein his Majesty and Honour was founded for to pleasure and endear his Brother of France from whom he expected mighty things for the Advancement of his Prerogative without reserve in England Scotland and Ireland Thus have I brought down the History of this King's Reign to the History of the Desertion where at large and particularly you may read how by a Wonder equal to King Charles his Coming in King James went out And if no human Prospect could have foreseen where the Tyranny of King Charles the I's Reign would have ended if the Long Parliament in 1640 had not put a full Stop to it so no uninterested Person was so purblind as not to see if the Heroick Magnanimity of this King in his Queen's his own and the Nation 's Right and for the common Safety of Christendom had not put a Stop to King James his Designs but the Popish Superstition and French Tyranny would have been imposed upon these Kingdoms and have overspread Christendom We admit these four Kings of the Scotish Race had an Hereditary Title to have governed England by the Laws and Constitutions of it yet no Hereditary King hath any higher Title nor any Man a Right to do Wrong and for an Hereditary King to govern otherways is a greater Tyranny than if an Usurper does by how much he adds Perfidiousness and Breach of his Trust to it Yet so it was that these four last Kings of the Scotish Race which should have been the Guardians of England in preserving the
Peace in all his Dominions when all our Neighbours about are in a miserable Combustion of War but Dulce Bellum inexpertis 5. That he had ever professed to restore his Children to their Patrimony by War or Peace and that by his Credit and Intervention with the King of Spain and Arch-Dukes he had preserved the lower Palatinate from the farther conquering for one whole Year and that his Lord Ambassador Digby had extraordinarily secured Heidelburg 6. That he could not couple the War of the Palatinate with the Cause of Religion and that the War was not begun for Religion but only by his Son-in-law's hasty and rash Resolution to take to himself the Crown of Bohemia and that this Usurpation of it from the Emperor had given the Pope and that Party an Occasion to oppress and curb many thousands of our Religion in divers parts of Christendom Here I desire that the Reader take notice of the Case of the Bohemians as it is set forth by Baptista Nani fol. 126. Anno 1618 after they had Liberty of Conscience granted them by Rodolph the Emperor and that Ferdinand had no colour of Title to the Kingdom of Bohemia but as he forced the Emperor Matthias to surrender it to him Ferdinand says he bred up in the Catholick Faith detested all sorts of Errour and therefore by how much not succeeding to the Father he found the Patrimonial Countries incumbred with false Opinions so much more with signal Piety had he applied himself to promote the true Worship with such Success that at last those Provinces rejoiced to be restored to the Bosom of the Antient Religion But this was not without some Sort of Severity so that many not to leave their Errours were constrained to abandon their Country and sell their Estates living elsewhere in Discontent and Poverty and others driven away by force and their Estates confiscate saw them not without Rancour possessed by new Masters and all this done in the Life of Matthias So that Ferdinand as his Title was Vsurpation and Force so was the Exercise of it Tyranny in the highest Degree to the Overthrow of the Bohemian Laws and Liberties therefore the Original of the Bohemian War was not founded in the Election of Frederick to be King for Ferdinand perpetrated these things two Years before Nani goes on and says in the Empire therefore in which the Religion no less than the Genius is for Liberty there appeared great Apprehensions that where Ferdinand should get the Power he would exercise the same Reformation and impose a Yoke so much the more heavy by how much standing in need of Money and the Counsels of Spain he should be governed by the Rules and Maxims of that Nation so hateful to the Germans So that it was not the Election of Frederick to be King of Bohemia that opened that Gate for the Pope and his Party for curbing and oppressing of many thousand of our Religion in divers parts of Christendom as the King said for it was set wide open before by Ferdinand 7. That the Commons Debates concerning the War with Spain and Spanish Match were Matters out of their Sphere and therefore Ne sutor ultra Crepidaâ— and are a Diminution to him and his Crown in Foreign Countries That the Commons in their Petition had attempted the highest Points of Soveraignty except the stamping of Coin 8. That for Religion he could give no other Answer than in general that the Commons may rest secure he will never be weary to do all he can for the Propagation of ours and repressing of Popery but the manner they must remit to his Care and Providence 9. That for the Commons Request of making this a Sessions and granting a General Pardon it shall be their fault if it be not done But the Commons required such Particulars in it that he must be well advised lest he give back double or treble of that he was to receive by their Subsidy but thinks fit that of his free Grace he sends down a Pardon from the higher House containing such Points as he shall think fittest 10. He thinks it strange the Commons should make so bad and unjust a Commentary upon some Words in his former Letter as if he thereby meant to restrain the Commons of their antient Privileges and Liberties in Parliament wherein he discharges them from meddling with Matters of Government and Mysteries of State namely Matters of War and Peace or his dearest Son's Match with Spain or that they meddle with things which have their ordinary Course in the Courts of Justice That a Scholar would be ashamed so to mis-judg and misplace Sentences in another Man's Book for in the coupling these Sentences they plainly leave out Mysteries of State and so err a bene divisis ad mala conjuncta that for the former part concerning Mysteries of State he plainly restrained his meaning to the Particulars which were after mentioned and for the latter he confesses he meant it by Sir Coke's foolish Business and therefore it had well become him especially being his Servant and one of his Council to have complained to him which he never did tho he was ordinarily at Court and never had Access refused him Sir Coke's Business was a Conspiracy against him by my Lord Chancellor Bacon one Lepton and Goldsmith after he was discharged from being Chief Justice to have exhibited an Information against him in the Star-Chamber or have sent him into Ireland The Business was debated in the House of Commons but Sir Edward complained not nor appeared to speak in it If the King were uneasy with the Commons Remonstrance the Commons were not less with the King's Answer and at the Resolution taken at Court to adjourn the Parliament to the 8th of January next which the Commons took to be a Violation of their Privileges and an Omen of their Dissolution whereupon they entred this Protestation THE Commons now Assembled in Parliament being justly occasioned thereunto concerning sundry Liberties Franchises and Privileges of Parliament among others here mentioned do make this Protestation following That the Liberties Franchises Privileges and Jurisdictions of Parliament are the antient and undoubted Birth-right and Inheritance of the Subjects of England and that the ardueus and urgent Affairs concerning the King State and Defence of the Realm and of the Church of England and the maintenance and making of Laws and Redress of Grievances and Mischiefs which may happen within this Realm are proper Subjects and Matter of Counsel and Debate in Parliament and that in the handling and proceeding of those Businesses every Member of the House of Parliament hath and of right ought to have freedom of Speech to propound treat reason and bring to Conclusion the same And that the Commons in Parliament have like Liberty and Freedom to treat of these Matters in such order as in their Judgment they shall think fittest And that every Member in the said House hath likewise freedom from all Impeachment Imprisonments and
me more than any of his Predecessors and he may believe me that in any thing that shall concern him I will employ not only my Peoples Lives but my own Bravely spoken and like K. James and whosoever of his Subjects Lewis's shall rise against him either Catholicks or others shall find him James a Party for him Lewis 'T is true if he be provoked to infringe his Edicts he shall impart as much as in him lies by Counsel and Advice to prevent the Inconveniencies Who ever expected he should do more or ever did But Venus must not have the only Ascendant in this Treaty for the Cardinal will have Mars to be in Conjunction with her and 't was high time for at this time Monsieur Sobiez had provided a great Fleet of Men of War as Times went then with the French and had entered and surprised the Fort of Blavet in Bretaign and took and carried away six of the French great Men of War out of it and also taken the Isles of Rhe and Oleron which he began to fortify and being absolute Master of the Sea triumphantly with a Fleet of 75 Men of War of all sorts landed a considerable Force at Medoc near Bourdeaux The Court of France was never so alarmed as at this notwithstanding all the King's Victories over the Reformed by Land and therefore the Cardinal threw another Article into the Treaty That King James should lend the French a Fleet of Ships to repress Soubiez and in lieu thereof the French should permit Mansfield who had raised an Army of 10000 Foot and 2000 Horse in England to land at Calais where the French should join him with another Body of Horse and Foot for the Recovery of the Palatinate But see the French Faith and how well Lewis made good his Promise to King James to render him all Offices in his own Person whensoever King James should desire him for at this time the Army being shipt at Dover and put over to Calais where being denied Entrance and having no other Instructions and wanting Provisions they lay neglected at Sea and in this Distress a Pestilence raged among them so that they were forced to sail to Zealand where having no Orders they were denied Landing there and this being the most terrible Season of the Year in December what by Hunger Cold and Pestilence above two thirds of them perished before Leave could be obtained to land them in Holland so that they never did the King of Spain near so much Hurt as they had done in England before they were shipt living upon Plunder and Free-Quarter These were sad Presages of future Happiness from the designed Marriage yet these things no ways discomposed the quiet Repose of our pacifick King so as he might see his only Son married to a Daughter of France was all his Business no matter how The Thirst which God was his Judg and as he was a Christian King he had contracted equal to that of the wayfaring Man in the Desarts of Arabia and in danger of Death for want of Water for the good Success of the Parliament is now asswaged by the granting of three Subsidies and three Fifteenths Here 's no mention of marrying his only Son with the Tears of his only Daughter and he is still ready with the Lives of his Subjects and his own to assist the most High most Excellent and most Puissant Prince his most dear and most beloved Brother Cousin and antient Ally Lewis The Managers of this Treaty were Hay a Scots-man created Earl of Carlisle and the Lord Kensington for the more Honour of it created Earl of Holland two of the King's Favourites of the second Rate but who bare no proportion to the Sagacity Wisdom and Integrity of the Earl of Bristol Bristol was all Heare of Oak and would not bend to Buckingham's Pride and Ambition but they were Willows that were liable to every Nod and Wind of Buckingham's Breath But how comes Buckingham who must have an Oar in every Boat to be absent from this Treaty The Reason was tho he were not wise yet he was jealous lest King James in his Absence should hear Bristol against him as the King had promised as well as he had heard Buckingham against him which was so dangerous a Rock as our Land-Admiral would not venture to run against Notwithstanding all this Haste for consummating this desired Marriage the Thread of the King's Life was spun out before for upon the 27th of March Ann. 1625. he died at Theobalds in the 58th Year of his Age having reigned twenty two Years compleat Having had an Ague the Duke of Buckingham did upon Monday the 21st before when in the Judgment of the Physicians the Ague was in its Declination apply Plaisters to the Wrists and Belly of the King and also did deliver several quantities of Drink to the King tho some of the King's Physicians did disallow thereof and refused to meddle further with the King until the said Plaisters were removed and that the King found himself worse hereupon and that Droughts Raving Fainting and an intermitting Pulse followed hereupon and that the Drink was twice given by the Duke 's own hands and a third time refused and the Physicians to comfort him telling him that this second Impairment was from Cold taken or some other Cause No no said the King it is that which I had from Buckingham I confess this was but a Charge upon the Duke upon the Impeachment of the Commons as you may read in Rushworth fol. 355 356. yet it was next to positive Proof for King Charles rather than this Charge should come to an Issue dissolved the Parliament which was a Failure of Justice tho the Commons had voted him four Subsidies and four Fifteenths before it was passed into an Act. The Character of King James He was the first of that Name King of England and the first King of the whole Isle of Britain and the first King since Henry the first that was born out of the Allegiance to the King of England and was the first at least since Rich. 2. that affected and endeavoured to introduce an Arbitrary Power in England foreign to the Laws and Constitutions of it and in all his Reign was more governed by Flatterres and Favourites than by the Advice of his Parliament or a wise Council His Flatterers and Favourites seldom spake of him but under the Appellation of Most Sacred rarely I think or never before used to any of the Kings of England and of the Solomon of the Age though never were two Kings more unlike unless it were in their Sons Charles and Rehoboam for Solomon died the richest of all the Kings of the World King James the poorest Solomon was inspired above all other Kings with Wisdom and his Proverbs Divine Sentences for Improvement of Vertue and Morality whereas this King's Learning wherein he and his Flatterers so much boasted was a Scandal to his Crown for all his Writings against Bellarmine and
Northumberland side by force of them passed the Tine and killed and took 300 English Prisoners and after took New-Castle and seized four great Ships of the English laden with Corn and imposed a Tax of 350 l. a day upon the Bishoprick of Durham and 300 l. a day upon the County of Northumberland upon pain of Plundering and the Scots committed many Injuries and Insolencies upon the English where the Scots quartered as you may read in Mr. Whitlock's Memoirs fol. 34 35. Thus was the state of things altered Mr. May says pag. 34. it should be pag. 18. And that War which was intended for an Enslavement of both the Nations truly said but untruly intended became the Bond of Concord between them God defend the Nation for time to come of such Concord or such Causes of it The Parliament Mr. May says began with Matters of Religion divers Ministers who had been of good Lives and Conversations conscientious in their ways and diligent in their Preaching and had by the Bishops and those in Authority been motested and imprisoned for not conforming to some Ceremonies which were imposed on them were now by the Parliament relieved and recompensed for their Suffering and others who had been scandalous either for loose wicked living or else Offenders in way of Superstition both which to discountenance the Puritans had been frequently preferred were censured and removed Here Mr. May is right but yet partial in that he does not tell how that the Orthodox Clergy as the Bishops of Lincoln Williams Dr. Hall of Norwich Dr. Prideaux of Worcester Dr. Brownrig of Exeter Dr. Morton of Durham c. and all the Orthodox Anti-Arminian Heads of both Universities and also Dr. Saunderson Dr. Featly and many others underwent the same Fate with those Ministers which Mr. May speaks of Pag. 38. which should have been 24. Mr. May says That the Parliament ordered that the Scots should be recompensed for all their Charges and Loss by that mischievous War which the King had raised against them Here Mr. May is not only partial and unsincere but the contrary hereof is true for the Scots in the former War took up Arms and seized the Regalia at Sterlin took Towns in Scotland and other ways committed Acts of Hostility before the King raised Arms to suppress them as is before and so they did in this latter raise Arms in Scotland before they invaded England before the King raised any Army See Whitlock's Mem. fol. 276. Where Mr. May had this unless framed by himself I cannot tell but Sir Richard Baker recites the Demand at large and the Commons Answer to them And this Mr. May speaks of is the sixth Demand Wherein they desire from the Justice and Kindness of the Kingdom of England Reparations concerning the Losses which the Kingdom of Scotland hath sustained and the vast Charges they have been put unto by occasion of the late Troubles To which the Commons answer That the House thinks fit that a Friendly Assistance and Relief shall be given towards the Supply of the Loss of the Scots and that the Parliament did declare that they did conceive that the Sum of 300000 l. is a fit Proportion for their Friendly Assistance and Relief formerly thought fit to be given towards the Supply of the Loss and Necessities of their Brethren of Scotland and that the Houses would in due time take into Consideration the Manner how and when the same shall be raised Now let any Man shew out of Mr. May where that mischievous War which the King had raised against them is to be found If Mr. May had been a faithful Historian he should have made Truth and not the Distempers of a distracted Time nor the Clamours of his prejudic'd Brain to have been the Measures of his Story He should have set forth how like Pedlars they treated the English in their Particulars in their 8th Demand of 514128 l. 9 s. besides the Loss of their Nation to 440000 l. Yet they did not give in that Account with an Intent to demand a total Reparation of all their Charges and Losses but were content good Men in some measure to bear a Remnant Mr. May should have set forth how perfidiously the Scots dealt with the English Nation when in their Remonstrance at their first coming in they professed that they would take nothing of the English but for Money or Security whereas they plundered and taxed Northumberland New-Castle and the Bishoprick of Durham so that those Places could not recover their Losses in 20 Years as Sir Benjamin Rudyard in open Parliament charged them and that the English formerly established the Scots Reformation at their own bare Charges whereas the Scots presumed to require a greater Sum than was ever given the King Which you may read more at large in Sir Rich. Baker fol. 417. These are the Parliament's Brethren for whose Brotherly Assistance they voted 300000 l. towards a Supply of the Losses and Necessities note that of our Brethren of Scotland and that the Parliament would in due time take into Consideration the Manner of raising and Days of Payment and in the mean time leave New-Castle Northumberland and Durham a Prey to these devouring Scots But lame-footed Vengeance shall overtake this Fraternity and that by no visible Power at present but what shall arise from among themselves I could add many more Particulars of Mr. May's Partiality and Insincerity but this already said is sufficient And now it 's time to enquire whether the King or Parliament or both designed the ensuing War and who first designed it tho the Distemper of the Times was so distracted and variable that it 's hard to judg of Intentions by Actions The Royalists excuse the King from any Intention of a Civil War in England in that he protected no Man from the Justice of the Parliament and that he had put away all those which the Parliament called Evil Counsellors both in Church and State having made Mr. St. John his Attorney and Mr. Holborn his Solicitor both which were his Antagonists in imposing Ship-Money and upon his going into Scotland made the Earl of Essex Chamberlain and General of his Forces on this side Trent and in the Church reversed all the Proceedings in the Star-Chamber against the Bishop of Lincoln and preferred Dr. Hall from Exeter to the Bishoprick of Norwich and made Dr. Brownrig Bishop of Exeter and Dr. Prideaux Bishop of Worcester who were the most Learned of the Church of England and most opposite to the Arminian Tenets and of most exemplary Life and Piety and before his going into Scotland passed all Bills presented to him by the Houses even that of not dissolving the Parliament without their Consent which he would never have done if he had had any Intention of raising a War against them or a Civil War in England Mr. May p. 43. it should be p. 25. tells us of a twofold Treason against the Parliament if you 'll take his word and that the
What Thanks now had Sir Philip Stapleton Sir William Waller and Major General Massey for all their valiant Services to the Parliament whilst Oliver was whistling to his Cambridg Teem of Committee-Men a new Tune of the way of Ordinances Dispensations Righteousness and Providence and whereto can they go to find Relief Glyn had so little Wit as to believe the Law would be his Protection and so did abide a Trial but he was mistaken in his Measures for tho he defended himself with much Prudence yet he was discharged from being a Member of the House and committed to the Tower during their Pleasure But the House proceeded higher against Sir John Maynard and order'd an Impeachment of High Treason to be drawn up against him and ordered Nichols to be taken into Custody but he escaped from the Messenger The English Covenanters could not be so purblind as not to see whereto this tended and were madded that they which had begun the War and by the Aid of their Brethren of Scotland were in a fair Possibility of bringing it to their Desires against the King should not only be outed of their conceived Glory and Reward by these Upstarts of the Army but also the principal of them to be persecuted and destroyed for continuing firm to their Gude-Cause The Militia of London was setled upon the 4th of May in the Management of the Presbyterians who were very industrious in compleating their Companies both of the Trained-Bands and Militia but this was counter to the Design of the Army and judged to be a Conspiracy against it whereupon Fairfax who bore the Name tho Cromwel rul'd all upon the 10th of June sent a Letter to the Parliament That the Militia of the City of London might be put into the Hands of Persons that were better affected to the Army Which the Commons tamely submitted to and upon the 23d of July repealed the Ordinance of the 4th of May. Hereupon the City met in Common-Council and resolved to petition the Commons against it which they did and upon the 26th by the Sheriffs and some of the Common-Council delivered their Petition to the Commons And about an Hour after about 1000 Apprentices delivered another Petition complaining That to order the City's Militia was the City's Birth-right belonging to them by Charters confirmed in Parliament for Defence whereof they had adventured their Lives as far as the Army And desired that the Militia might be put again into the same Hands in which it was put with the Parliament's and City's Consent by the Ordinance of the 4th of May. Upon the reading of this Petition the Lords revoked the Ordinance of the 23d of July and renewed that of the 4th of May and sent it down to the Commons for their Consent and kept back some of the Commons till the Members within agreed with the Lords and then they returned And after some time they or some others upon the rising of the House took the Speaker and thrust him back into the Chair and there kept him and the Members till they enforced them to pass a Vote That the King should come to London And then both Houses adjourned for four Days In this Interval the Members which favoured the Army and the Speakers of both Houses went to the Army and there complained of the Violences upon the Parliament tho none were done to the Lords And after the four Days Adjournment the Houses met and the Lords chose my Lord Hunsdon their Speaker and the Commons Mr. Henry Pelham and passed these Votes 1. That the King should come to London 2. That the Militia of London should be authorized to raise Forces for the Defence of the City 3. That Power be given to the same Militia to choose a General And 4. That the 11 Members impeached by the Army should take their Seats in Parliament This was upon the 30th of July The Citizens armed with these Powers proceed to raise Forces under the Command of Sir William Waller Major-General Massey and Colonel Pointz but these tho numerous being suddenly raised so as the Soldiers not being well listed 't was like no great Opposition could be made against an old experienc'd and victorious Army Besides the Borough of Southwark were generally for the Army and a Party of the Army seized upon the Block-house at Gravesend and block'd up the City by Water towards the East and the Army towards the West The Aldermen and Common-Council of the City now desert their three Generals Waller Massey and Pointz and sent to Fairfax for a Pacification which he granted them upon these Terms 1. That they should desert the Parliament then sitting and the 11 Members 2. That they should recal their Declaration lately divulged 3. That they should relinquish their present Militia 4. That they should deliver up to the General all their Forts and the Tower of London 5. That they should disband all the Forces they had lately â—aised and do all things else which were necessary for the Publick Tranquillity All which the City submitted to So the Speakers and Members which had run to the Army returned again and annulled all the Acts and Orders which had passed since the 26th of July last Here observe That the Members which did not run to the Army but met in Time and Place according to that Adjournment were as much a Parliament as those which continued at Westminster after the King left them and the Members which met at Oxford were as much a Parliament as those which met after they were restored by the Army When the Members were returned the Commons voted an Impeachment of High Treason against the Earls of Suffolk Lincoln and Middlesex and the Lords Berkley Hunsdon Willoughby of Parham and Maynard such a Stalking-Horse was Treason now made and the Crime no more than what themselves had done after the King left them And Sir John Gage the Lord-Mayor Alderman Bunce Langham Cullam and Adams were committed to the Tower for High-Treason for Forcing the Parliament But if this were Treason in them before the next Year goes round you 'll see Cromwel out-treason this a Bar and half And as Sir Phil. Gurney Sir Henry Garoway and Sir George Whitmore were committed to the Tower for adhering to the King against the Parliament so now the Mayor and Aldermen were committed to the Tower for adhering to the Parliament against the Army During these Discords and Confusions the Scots were in great Grumble that the Work of Reformation which united both Kingdoms in Adherence to their Solemn League and Covenant was in danger to be overthrown by the over-spreading of Heresy and Schism which was so much more lamented by how much after their Bargain and Sale of the King both Houses voted That if the King refused to pass Propositions for Peace they will do nothing which may break the Vnion and Affection of both Kingdoms but to preserve the same This was the 28th of December 1646. Now both Factions Parliament and Army
out this Conspiracy and so prevented it and upon the 22d of January 1654 dissolved the Parliament tho they sat not 5 Months which he sware by his Instrument of Government As the Republicans were impatient under Cromwel's Government so were the Royalists For in March after Cromwel had dissolved his Parliament the Cavaliers designed to rise but could not get together yet Sir Joseph Wagstaff with a Body of Wiltshire Men when the Assizes were holden at Salisbury seize upon the Judges in the Circuit and proclaim the King but were soon dispersed by Captain Crook who granted Colonel Penruddock and those with him Articles of War upon his surrendring himself to be indemnified in their Lives and Estates But Cromwel sent other Judges who condemned Colonel Penruddock and Captain Groves for High Treason for which they lost their Heads and several others were hanged and quartered Cromwel being thus at Odds with his Parliament and his standing Army in such intestine Feuds and Supernumeraries of the cashier'd Armies commanded by Essex Manchester Waller Massey c. discontented now contrives how to get freed from the Dangers he apprehended from them and therefore with as much Selfishness and Dishonour and Loss to the Nation as by his Peace with the Dutch he without Cause shewn makes War upon Spain By Cromwel's War with Spain the Dutch who since the Peace of Munster 1648 became Competitors with the English in the Spanish Trade are now sole Proprietors of it as much to their Inriching as our Impoverishing whereby they not only redeemed the Losses they sustained in the War with us but were enabled to build more and much greater Men of War than they had before And of this you 'l hear more about 10 Years hence But these were not all the Losses which the English sustained by this War for Cromwel did not begin it as just Princes do by complaining of Injuries done and demanding Redress and in case of denial to proclaim War but sneakingly and like a Pirate fits up a Fleet under William Penn own Father to the now William Penn and puts on board a Land-Army commanded by Colonel Venables Thus shipp'd away they sail for Hispaniola the Design was to take Sancto Domingo and after Carthagena where they were sure was Gold enough but care was taken the Souldiers and Sea-men should have little enough When the English arrived at Hispaniola some Souldiers were landed in sight of Sancto Domingo whilst they were to fetch a Compass and land to attack the Town on the other side but these mistaking their Place of landing landed ten Miles beyond The Sun was scorching the Country uncouth sandy and woody and the English ignorant of the Way were so overcome with Heat and Thirst that many of them died outright others so spent as they could not march so were killed by the Spaniards without fighting Yet some few feebly arrived to join their Companions when to the breaking of all their Hearts they opened their Commission and found that upon Pain of Death All the Gold Silver and Rich Goods should be brought into a Common Treasury This was cold Comfort to these wretched Men in this scorching Climate where they could no longer stay so away they sail to Jamaica where a Plague overtook them so that in less than six Months time not two Hundred of this whole Army outlived it Thus you see how Divine Vengeance overtook this part of the Army Abroad after their Perfidiousness Treachery and Hypocrisy at home And this Calamity was brought upon them by him whom they had set up to enable him to do it And Cromwel who expected Mountains of Gold like Sir Walter Raleigh in King James the First 's Reign by his Expedition to Guiana contracted such a Debt by this Expedition that by all his Tricks he could never after overcome And as Sir Walter lost his Head by his Expedition so did Cromwel his Reputation But if Cromwel lost by this War the Nation and Spanish Merchants lost much more for the Spaniards seize and confiscate all the English Effects in Spain which were so much more by how much the Merchants were surprized in it they having no Notice of it by which they might have withdrawn their Effects in the Spanish Power and the Privateers from Dunkirk Ostend and the Ports of Biscay and Galicia did the English Merchants in all their Trades more Damage than they sustained in the Dutch War with this Difference that the English took above seventeen Hundred Prizes from the Dutch which eased the English Charge in the War against the Dutch whereas in this the English took none or but very few from the Spaniard Nor had the English Nation any Benefit of the Two Ships taken by Blake in September 1656 off the Coast of Spain where one was sunk another burnt and two broke to pieces on the Shoar so that of eight Plate Ships but two got into Cadiz On the contrary both England and Europe suffered by Blake's burning the Spanish Plate-Fleet in Sancta Cruz in April 1657 whereby tho it were the immediate Loss of the Spaniard yet in Consequence this was a Loss to Europe in all their Trades to Spain which became so much lessened by this Loss as the Spaniard had thereby less means to hold Trade and Commerce with the Nations who traded to Spain or any of its Dominions Thus we have seen Cromwel make Peace with the Dutch to the endangering the Safety of the Nation and War with Spain to the enriching the Dutch and to the impoverishing the English next you 'll see him make Peace with France not only to the impoverishing the English but to the endangering the Safety not of England only but of all Christendom But that we may take a better View of what followed it 's fit to look back and see how things stood before About the latter end of 1642 Cardinal Richlieu died and in May following Lewis the Thirteenth died his Son the now French King being in the fifth Year of his Age But Cardinal Mazarine succeeding Richlieu in being Prime Minister of State not yet being warm in his Office the Prince of Conde and generally the Nobility of France rose in Arms against him and to them the Parliament of Paris joined and proscribed Mazarine and set a Reward upon any who should bring his Head However the Queen Mother continued firm to Mazarine and it was the Felicity of Mazarine to force the Pass I think at Charenton which Conde had ordered Marshal Tureen to keep Conde chafed at this Loss which was the loss of Paris receives Tureen with Indignation and Reproach Mazarine takes the Advantage of this and wins Tureen to his side which made Conde betake himself to Bourdeaux from whence he sent to the Rump for Assistance but the Rump being resolv'd upon a War with the Dutch gave the Prince no Assistance After the Reduction of Paris all France in a short time was reduced to the King's Obedience yet the Prince of Conde's
was sitting might be dangerous since the Parliament had so lately recognized him and so many thousands of the People had congratulated his Assumption into the Protectorate And to begin at the Parliament might be as dangerous for this they thought would disgust the Nation in general neither did they know whether the Parliament would be disbanded by them they therefore resolve they 'll make Richard dissolve them and take the Odium upon himself and when that 's done they 'll do well enough with Richard To this end the Officers urge Richard to make good their Proposals but the Protectorian Officers advised him to seize the Heads of the Republican which tho Richard durst not come to yet he spake high and threatned the Officers to cashier them This had a double Effect for the Protectorian Officers the Lord Falconbridg Captain Philip Howard Colonel Ingoldsby Whaley Goff and others seeing the meanness of Richard's Spirit in neglecting their Advice leave him and the Republicans were not to be quelled with Words but exasperated by them so that upon the 22d of April they beset White-hall and sent Desborough and Fleetwood to beseech him to dissolve the Parliament and if 't were not speedily done they would set fire to the House and kill all who should resist which so frightned Richard that he forthwith signs a Proclamation for dissolving the Parliament The Parliament thus dissolved Richard's Turn was next to be deposed not one of the manifold thousands of the ninety Congratulatory Addresses who promised to stand by Richard with their Lives and Fortunes speaking one word in his behalf and so shall such another Turn about thirty Years after be served on King James the Second Tho Richard and his Parliament were out yet something else must be in yet before they would put in any thing else the Republican Officers send Ingoldsby Goff Whaley my Lord Falconbridg and Howard after Earl of Carlisle after Richard and his Parliament and take in Lambert Harrison Rich Parker Okey and others whom Cromwel turn'd out But before they would set up any thing instead of Protector they make Fleetwood General by Sea and Land and Lambert Lieut. General To prepare the way for what was to be set up the Officers prepare a Remonstrance inveighing bitterly against the Malignants for so they call'â— the Royalists that they had printed Lists and marked for Destruction the Godly especially the King's Judges and therefore they would revive the Good Old Cause and restore the Rump Parliament but William Pryn according to his rude way of writing answered them That their Cause was neither Good nor Old and bitterly charges them with Treachery and Ingratitude But all to no purpose for since no better was to be had these Officers awake the Rump out of their Lethargy wherein they had been above five Years asleep and now were become so miserably lean that none but the Officers could abide the sight of them they could get but forty two together and these looked so wretchedly that they had much ado to get Lenthal to be Head again to it But how nasty soever the Rump was the first secluded Members would have sat with them but the Rump would none of that but set Guards at the Door of the House to keep them out Thus got together they again depose Richard and send Ludlow to do the same by Henry in Ireland and thus you see what Security can be had by relying upon a Mercenary Army one part of it exalted the Father and another part of the same Army deposed both the Sons But in Scotland they let Monk alone who promised to be true to them Yet these were not the Halâ—yon Days the Republican Officers expected by restoring the Rump for the Rump tho it had been long asleep yet remembred they were before tuned out by the Officers of the Army and that they shall do so no more they make Lenthal General of all the Forces in England Scotland and Ireland by Sea and Land The Rump being contemptible to all the Nation and the Officers of the Army being thus divided and subdued and like Virginal-Jacks when one was up the other was down raised the Expectation of the Royalists That a sudden Change would be which could end in nothing but restoring the King And the Presbyterians exasperated by the Rump's Repulse again resolve not to sit quiet under it and therefore a Correspondence is held between them and the Royalists to depose the Rump whatever came of it To this end Sir George Booth rises in Cheshire with whom Sir Thomas Middleton joined but was ill seconded by the Royalists This alarm'd the Rump for they expected no better from the Presbyterians than the Royalists And now the Rump not well knowing the Man had so little Wit as to send Lambert against Sir George and you 'll soon see Lambert shall do that by the Rump which the Presbyterians and Royalists both together could not do For Lambert having overthrown Booth and taken him Prisoner tho the Rump were mightily joy'd at it and voted Lambert a Gratuity of a Thousand Pounds yet this no ways alter'd the Designs of Lambert which ever since the Death of Cromwel he had been hatching For Lambert after the Defeat of the Cheshire-men in his return for London at Derby the 16th of September procured a Petition from the Officers to the Rump that Fleetwood might be General of the Army and himself Lieutenant-General He was content to give Fleetwood the first Place as Cromwel had given Fairfax for he knew himself to be too hard for Fleetwood and a much better Souldier and so would do what he list And the greater part of the Officers in London join with Lambert in his Petition The Rump was more alarm'd at this Petition than at Sir Booth's Insurrection so as all Prosecution against him and the Cheshire-Men was at a stand nor were the Rump of one piece among themselves for Sir Arthur Haslerig a hot-headed Man was violently against the Army and said they made the Parliament a precarious thing and that Lambert trod Cromwel's Steps and his seeming Modesty in preferring Fleetwood was but a Decoy But young Sir Henry now become old Sir Henry Vane with much more cunning endeavour'd to carry on the Designs of Lambert and his Faction However the Majority of the Members rather than be deposed depose Lambert Desborough Berry Kelsey Ashfield Cobbet Creed Parker and Barrow and make a Council of War without naming a General of Fleetwood Monk Haslerig Ludlow Morley and Overton And to starve Lambert and his Officers the Rump vote That no Money shall be raised without Consent in Parliament and he that shall do it shall be guilty of high-High-Treason against the Commonwealth And the Nation to whom the Rump and Army were alike hateful took this for a very good Law However before this Infant Council of War should be warm in their Seats Lambert resolves to beat up their Quarters and marches directly to London but the
several times and renewed the Charge but could not prevent their plain Flight yet made so brave a Retreat which wanted little of the Honour of a Victory so both the Citadel of Cambray and St. Omers upon the 20th of April fell into the French Hands and thereby the main Strength of the Frontier to the Dutch Netherlands lost And by these Conquests the French King not only delivered his own Subjects from the Contributions they paid to these Cities but enlarged his upon the Residue of the Spanish Netherlands Upon the 15th of February 167 6 7 the Parliament met again and from the Variance between the Houses about Appeals from Chancery to the Lords they fell at Variance in both Houses whether this long Prorogation were not a Dissolution The Contest was highest in the House of Lords and the Duke of Buckingham the Earls of Salisbury and Shaftsbury and Lord Wharton where committed close Prisoners to the Tower for their Reason alledged yet the Lords who voted their Commitment this Session were as zealous the last to petition the King to dissolve the Parliament when the Commons contested their Jurisdiction in Appeals from Chancery But tho the Commons being in love with their sitting resolved the Parliament not to be dissolved yet they committed none of their Members for debating whether the Parliament were not and granted the King an Additional Duty upon Beer Ale and other Liquors for three Years for now was the time to secure Religion and Property said my Lord Chancellor But whether the Parliament were dissolved or not the Commons were mightily alarm'd at the French Progress in Flanders and therefore upon the 23d of May resolved that an Address be made to the King to enter into a League Offensive and Defensive with the States General of the Vnited Provinces and make such other Alliances as he should think fit against the Growth and Power of the French King and for the Preservation of the Spanish Netherlands It seems the Ministers were as fearful of a War as the Commons were of this Peace wherein the Spanish Netherlands were in such Danger and therefore the King in his Answer upon the Twenty eighth of May told the Commons They had so intrencâ—â— upon so undoubted a Right of the Crown that in no Age it will appear when the Sword was not drawn the Prerogative of making War and Peace had been so dangerously invaded with a great deal more of suâ—â— Stuff and therefore assures them that no Condition shall make him depart from or lessen so essential a Part of the Monarchy A Man I think may swear out of what Quiver this Arrow was shot As if any King were less a King for being well advised especially by those who can best assist him To advise and to act 〈◊〉 different The Commons did not in this Address treat either 〈◊〉 War or Peace but only advised or counselled the King excited to it by their own as well as the King's Danger by the Growâ— of the French And sure Princes have not such a Prerogative a not to take Advice or Counsel in less Actions than of War and Peace If you look upon the King 's former Actions what Glorious Wars and Honourable Peaces he had made you had little reason to think it so dangerous to his Prerogative to advise him For my part I wonder the Commons should make any Address to him about them since they could have no Security in any Answer he should make to their Address For was not the King a Guaranty in the Treaty of Aix for the Preservation of the Spanish Netherlands before the Swede entred into the Triple Alliance And did not the King in the Beginning of this War declare he would observe the Treaty of Aix which he might do tho the Swede were out of it And was not the King by the last Peace with the Dutch obliged to withdraw his Subjects out of the French Service yet did not only continue them but permitted nay pressed his Subjects to recruit and encrease them In the first Dutch War which was designed for the Overthroâ— of the Protestant Interest then the Commons Advice was embraced and thankfully entertained but in this for the restraining the boundless Ambition of the French King is an unheard of Usurpation of the King's Prerogative However by this the Commons might perceive what Thanks they had from this King for their Restoration of him and for the manifold Millions they had poured upon him for the maintenance of his Prodigality and Luxury and how much he preferred the Enjoyment of his Minions and Flatterers above his own Honour the Safety and Welfare of himself the Nation or Christendom The King to shew his further Indignation to the Commons and to take French Counsels for Reparation of their dangerous Invasion of his Prerogative signified to the Commons that they should adjourn till the sixteenth of July following which was so absolutely obeyed by the Speaker then Mr. but now Sir E. S. that without the Consent of the House or so much as putting the Question he adjourned them to the sixteenth of July though Sir John Finch was impeached for the same thing of High Treason in Parliament in 1640. So that if the Parliament were not dissolved by the last long Prorogation another Question may now arise whether it was not so by their Separation without either Prorogation or Adjournment But in this time of War it seems the French King was not at leisure to give Counsel therefore when the Parliament met on the tenth of July Mr. Secretary Coventry signified that it was his Majesty's Pleasure they should be adjourned to the Third of December which Mr. Speaker did again by his own Authority But before the Third of December the King issued out his Proclamation that he expected not the Members Attendance then but that those about the Town might adjourn themselves to the Fourth of April 1678 yet when the House met the third of December Mr. Secretary Coventry delivered the House a Message from the King that the House should be adjourned but to the fifteenth of January 1677 which Mr. Seymor this third time did Thus did the Speaker make a threefold Invasion upon the Privilege of the House for the House's once presuming to invade his Majesty's Prerogative of making War and Peace In this Jumble of Adjournments the Prince of Orange about the End of September came into England and from Harwich rode Post to New-Market where the Court then was his Business was twofold a Wife and a Treaty with the King for the Preservation of the Spanish Netherlands terribly shaken by this last French Campagn Sir William Temple was sent into Holland by the King in July 1674 to mediate a Peace between the French King and States and after that to offer the King's Mediation for a general one between the Confederates and French King The Spaniards were fearful of this and the Prince jealous of it so that the Governour of the Spanish Netherlands
King was knowing of both one was to have delivered the Earl of Strafford out of the Tower but Sir William Balfour the Lieutenant would not consent to it Here note The King made Balfour a Scot Lieutenant of the Tower one of the greatest Places of Trust in England without any Complaint of the Parliament whenas the Parliament of Scotland in their second Demand made to the King would have no Stranger to command or inhabit in any Castles of the King 's without their Consent The other part of this Treason chief of all the rest But why all when but two Mr. May says was a Design to bring up the English Army which was in the North and not yet disbanded this Army they had dealt with to engage against the Parliament's sitting and as they alledg to maintain the King's Prerogative Episcopacy and other things against the Parliament it self This Charge is so false as well as partial as no Man who had any regard to Truth Honesty or Fairness would have so expos'd himself for if the King's Prerogative be not maintain'd he can neither govern his Subjects nor protect them from Foreign Enemies and Episcopacy is one of the Constitutions of the Nation and how the maintaining these can be against the Parliament had need of a wiser Head than Mr. May's to shew But these two are not all Mr. May says but there were other things against the Parliament if there had been other things I do not think Mr. May would in Modesty have conceal'd them but since Mr. May has not given the Causes of this chief Treason I will do it and not follow Sir Richard Baker nor Franklin lest they should be deemed to be partial to the King's Cause but Mr. Whitlock whom no Man believes to be so who fol. 44. b. says June 19th It was voted that the Scots should receive 100000 l. of the 300000 l. the Scots by a Paper pretended Necessity for 125000 l. in present the Parliament took off 10000 l. of 50000 l. which they had appointed for the English Army and order'd it for the Scots The Lord Piercy Commissary Wilmot and Ashburnham Members of Parliament sitting together and murmuring at it Wilmo◠stept up and said That if such Papers of the Scots could procure Monies he doubted not but the Officers of the English Army would soon do the like and this caused the English Army to say The Parliament had disobliged them The Officers put themselves into a Juncto of sworn Secrecy and drew up some Heads by way of Petition to the King and Parliament for Money for the Army and not to disband before the Scots to preserve the Bishops Votes and Functions and to settle the King's Revenue The Army tainted from hence met and drew up a Letter or Petition which was shewed to the King approv'd and signed by him with C. R. and a Direction to Captain Leg that none should see it but Sir Jacob Ashley it should have been Astly the main drift was That the Army might be call'd up to attend the Safety of the King's Person and Parliament's Security or that both Armies might be disbanded Where is this chief Treason lodg'd unless in Mr. May's Brain Or where is the King's Prerogative mention'd But as the Times then went Mr. May took liberty to say what he list to humour them the Scots must be obey'd in whatsoever they demand and it must be chief Treason in the English to petition Mr. May p. 32 33. will have the King 's going into Scotland to be a Design to raise War against the Parliament of England and to that end tells a Story of a Scots Writer that published that it was to engage the Scots against the Parliament of England with large Promises of Spoil and offering Jewels of great Value for Performance of it but he names not the Scot and leaves it uncertain for the Reader to judg by what fell out afterward But if he the King did it was a matter of great Falshood Mr. May says having as yet declar'd no Enmity against the English Parliament From the same Author he says it was to make sure of those Noblemen of that Kingdom he doubted of as not willing to serve his turn against England and true it is that about September Letters came to the standing Committee at Westminster that a Treasonable Plot was discovered there against the greatest Peers of the Kingdom but says not which Kingdom upon which the standing Committee fearing some Mischief from the same Spring placed strong Guards in divers Places of the City of London But in all this the Fox is the Finder and Mr. May as partial and false as in all he said before The truth was Jealousies and Fears were fomented by the Parliamentarians and even by the Members themselves against the King and Royalists But Mr. Whitlock tho of like Affection with Mr. May yet a much more impartial Representer of the Actions of those Times fol. 49. a. represents it thus The Marquesses of Hamilton and Argyle withdrew from the Parliament in Scotland upon Jealousy of some Design against their Persons but upon Examination of that matter by the Parliament there it was found to be a Misinformation yet the same took fire in our Parliament upon the Surmises of some whereupon the Parliament here appointed Guards for London and Westminster and some spake 〈◊〉 without Reflection upon the King The Royalists charge the Parliament at least the Commons with a Design to raise War against the King and to make him odious to the People after he had granted all the Parliament desired of him and given up those whom they call'd evil Counsellors to their Justice for their Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom after the King's return out of Scotland which because of the Extraordinariness of it we will recite it verbatim as is said by Mr. Whitlock f. 49. b. The House of Commons prepared a Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom wherein they mentioned All the Mistakes Misfortunes Illegalities and Defaults in Government since the King 's coming to the Crown the evil Counsels and Counsellors and a malignant Party that they have no hopes of settling the Distractions of this Kingdom for want of a Concurrence with the Lords This Remonstrance was somewhat roughly penn'd both for the Matter and Expressions in it and met with great Opposition in the House insomuch as the Debate of it lasted from three a Clock in the Afternoon till ten next Morning and the sitting up all Night caused many of the Members through Weakness or Weariness to leave the House and Sir B. R. I think he means Sir Benj. Rudyard to compare it to the Verdict of a starv'd Jury When the Vote was carried tho not by many to pass the Remonstrance Mr. Palmer and two or three more made their Protestation against this Remonstrance for which they were sent to the Tower This Remonstrance was presently printed and published by the Parliament contrary to the King's Desire