Negative voyce The levying of Warre against the Personall commands of the King though accompanied with His presence is not a levying of Warre against the King but a levying Warre against His Lawes and Authority which they have Power to declare is levying of Warre against the King Treason cannot bee committed against his Person otherwise then as Hee was intrusted They have Power to judge whether hee discharge His trust or not that if they should follow the highest precedents of other Parliaments paternes there would bee no cause to complaine of want of modesty or duty in them and that it belonged only to them to Judge of the Law 27 of May The King by his Proclamation forbids all his Subjects and trayned bands of the Kingdome to Rise March or Muster But the Parliament on the same day Command all Sheriffs Justices of Peace and Constables within one hundred and fifty miles of Yorke to seize and make stay of all Armes and Amunition going thither And Declaring the said Proclamation to bee void in Law Command all men to Rise Muster and March and not to Muster or March by any other Authority or Commission and the Sheriffs of all Counties the morrow after Commanded with the posse Commitatus to suppresse any of the Kings Subjects that should bee drawne thither by his Command Secure and seize upon the Magazines of the Counties Protect all that are Delinquents against him make all to bee Delinquents that attend him and censure and put out of the house of Peeres nine Lords at once for obeying the Kings summons and going to him 3. June 1642. The King summoning the Ministery Gentry and Free-holders of the Countie of Yorke declared to them the reasons of providing himselfe a guard and that he had no intention to make a Warre and the morrow after forbad the Lord Willoughby of Parham to Muster and Trayne the Countie of Lincolne who under colour of an Ordinance of Parliament for the Militia had begun to doe it 1â— June 1642. The Parliament by a Declaration signifying That the King intended to make a War against his Parliament invited the Citizens of London all others well affected as they pleased to mis-call them within 80. miles of the City to bring money or plate into the Guild-Hall London and to subscribe for Men Horses and Army to maintaiâ—e the Protestant Religion the Kings Person and Authority â—ree course of Justice Lawes of the Land and priviledges of Parliament and the morrow after send 19. propositions to the King That the great affaires of the Kingdome and Militia may bee mannaged by consent and approbation of Parliament all the great officers of Estate Priâ—y Councell Ambassadors and Ministers of State and Judges bee chosen by them that the Grvernment Education and Marriage of the Kings Children bee by their consent and approbation and all the Forts and Castles of the Kingdome put under the Command and Custody of such as they should approve of and that no Peeres to bee made hereafter should sit or vote in Parliament without the consent of Parliament with severall other demands which if the King should have granted would at once in effect not only have undone and put his Subjects out of his protection but have deposed both himselfe and his posteritie and then they would proceede to regulate his Revenue and deliver up the Towne of Hull into such hands as the King by consent and approbation of Parliament should appoint But the King having the same day before those goodly demands came to his hands being a greater breach of his Royall Priviledges then his demanding of the 5. Members and Kimbolton if it had not beene Lawfull for him so to doe could be of theirs granted a Commission of array for the Countie of Lecester to the Earl of Huntington and by a letter sent along with it directed it for the present only to Muster and Array the Trayned-Bands And 13. June 1642. Declared to the Lords attending Him at York That Hee would not engage them in any Warre against the Parliament unlesse it were for his necessary defence wherupon the L. keeper Litleton who a little before had either beene affrighted or seduced by the Parliament to vote their new Militia The Duke of Richmond Marquis Hartford Earle of Salsbury Lord Gray of Ruthen now Earle of Kent and divers Earles and Barrons engaged not to obey any Order or Ordinance concerning the Militia had not the Royall assent to it And fourteenth of June 1642. Being informed That the Parliament endeavored to borrow great summes of money of the City of London and that there was great labour used to perswade His Subjects to furnish horse and money upon pretence of providing a guard for the Parliament By His letter to the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Sheriffes of London disavowing any purpose of making a Warre declared That He had not the least thought of raising or using of forces unlesse Hee should bee compelled to doe it for His owne defence and forbiddeth therefore the lending of money or raising of horses And within two dayes after the Lord Keeper Duke of Richmond Marquis Hartford Earle of Salisbury Lord Gray of Ruthen with 17 Earles and 14. Barons the Lord Chiefe-Justice Bancks and sundrie others of eminent qualitie and reputation attest His Majesties Declaration and profession that Hee had no intention to make a Warre but abhorred it and That they perceived no Councells or preparations tending to any such designe and send it with His Majesties Declaration to the Parliament In the meane time the Committee of Parliament appointed to make the propositions to the Cittie of London for the raising of Horse vizt. 15. June 1642. Made report to the house of Commons That the Citizens did very cheerfully accept the same there being for indeede there had beene some designe and Resolution a yeare before concerning the melting of plate to raise monies already great store of plate and monies brought into Guild-Hall for that purpose and an Ordinance of Parliament was made for the Earle of Warwick to bee Lord Admirall and keepe the Navy though the King had commanded him upon payne of Treason to deliver up the Ships to Him And the Lord Brooke sent downe into Warwick-shire to settle the Militia 17. June 1642. A Committee of both Houses was appointed to goe to the Citie of London to enquire what store of Horse Monies and Plate were already raised upon the Propositions 18. June 1642. The King by His Proclamation Disclaiming any intention to make Warre against His Parliament forbiddeth all levies of Forces without His Majesties expresse pleasure signified under His Great-Seale And 20. June 1642. Informing all His Subjects by His Proclamation of the Lawfullnesse of His Commissions of Array That besides many other Warrants and Authorities of the Law Judge Hutton and Judge Crooke in their arguments against the Ship-money agreed them to be Lawfull and the Earle of Essex himselfe had
it 1. March 1641. Petition for the Militia and tell him If he would not graunt it they would settle and dispose it without him And the morrow after Resolve upon the Question That the Kingdom be forthwith put in a posture of Defence in such a way as was already agreed upon by both Houses of Parliament and Order the Earle of Northumberland Lord high-Admirall to Rig and send to Sea his Majesties Navie and notwithstanding that the King 4 March 1641 by his Letter directed to the Lord Keeper Littleton had signified that hee would wholly desist from any proceedings against the five Members and Kimbolton Sir John Hotham a Member of the House of Commons who before the King had accused the five Members and Kimbolton had by Order of Parliament seized upon the Towne of Hull the only fortified place of strength in the Kingdom and made a Garison of it summoned and forced in many of the trayned Souldiers of the County of Yorke to help him to guard it And eighth of March 1641 Before the King could get to Yorke it was Voted That whatsoever the two houses of Parliament should Vote or Declare to be Law the People were bound to obey And when not long after the King offered to goe in person to suppresse the Irish-Rebellion That was Voted to bee against the Law and an encouragement to the Rebells and they Declare that whosoever shall assist him in his Voyage thither should bee taken for an enemy to the Common-weale And 15 of March 1641. Resolved upon the Question That the severall Commissions granted under the great-Seale to the Lievetenants of the severall Counties were illegall and void and that whosoever should execute any power over the Militia by colour of any such Commission without consent of both Houses of Parliament should bee accounted a disturber of the Peace of the Kingdom Aprill 1642. Sir John Hotham seizeth the Kings Magazine at Hull and when the King went but with a small attendance to demand an entrance into the Towne denies him though hee had then no Order to doe it Notwithstanding all which the 28 of Aprill 1642. they Vote That what hee had done was in obedience to the commands of both Houses of Parliament and that the Kings proclaming him to bee a Traytor was a high breach of Priviledge of Parliament And Ordered All Sheriffs and Officers to assist their Committees sent down with those their Votes to Sir John Hotham In the meane time the Pulpits flame with seditious invectives against the King and incitements to Rebellion and the People running headlong into it had all manner of countenance and encouragement unto it but those Ministers that preached Obedience and sought to prevent it were sure to bee imprisoned and put out of their places for it Sir Henry Ludlow could bee heard to say in the house of Comons That the King was not worthy to Reigne in England And Henry Marten That the Kingly Office was forfeitable and the happinesse of the Kingdome did not depend upon him and his Progeny And though the King demanded justice of them were neither punished nor put out of the House Nor so much as questioned or blamed for it The Militia the principall part of the Kings regality without which it was impossible either to bee a King or to governe and the Sword which God had given him and his Ancestors for more then a thousand yeeres together had enjoyed and none in the Barons wars nor any Rebellion of the Kingdome since the very being or essence of it durst ever heretofore presume to aske for must now be wrestled for and taken away from him The Commissions of Array being the old legall way by which the Kings of England had a power to raise and levie men for the defence of themselves and the Kingdome Voted to bee illegall The passage at Sea defended against him and his Navy kept from him by the Earle of Warwick whilest the King all this while contenting himselfe to bee meerely passive and only busying himselfe in giving answeres to some Parliament Messages and Declarations and to wooe intreat them out of this distemper cannot be proved to have done any one action like a war or to have so much as an intention to doe it unles they can make his demanding an entrance into Hull with about twenty of his Followers unarmed in his Company and undertaking to returne and leave the Governor in possession of it to be otherwise then it ought to be 5. Of May 1642. The King being informed That Sir John Hotham sent out warrants to Constables to raise the trayned bands of York-shire writes his letter to the Sheriffe of that County to forbid the Trayned bands and commands them to repaire to their dwelling houses 12. Of May 1642. Perceiving himselfe every where endangered and a most horrid Rebellion framing against him and Sir John Hotham so neere him at Hull as within a dayes journey of him moves the County of Yorke for a Troope of horse consisting of the prime gentry of that County and a Regiment of the trayned bands of foot to bee for a guard unto him and caused the Oath of Allegiance to be administred unto them But the Parliament thereupon Vote That it appeared the King seduced by wicked Councell intended to make a War against them and till then if their own Votes should be true must acquite him from any thing more then an intention as they call it to do it And that whosoever should assist him are traytors by the fundamentall Lawes of the Kingdome The Earle of Essex Lord-Chamberlaine of the Kings houshold and all other of the Kings houshold Ser. ants forbid to go to him the Kings putting some of them out others in their places Voted to bee an injury to the Parliament Messengers were sent for the apprehending some Earles and Barons about him and some of his Bed-Chamber as if they had been Felons The Lord Keepers going to him with the great-Seal when he sent for him voted to bee a breach of priviledge and pursued with a warrant directed to all Mayors and Bayliffes to apprehend him Cause the Kings Rents and Revenues to bee brought in to them and forbid any to bee paid him Many of his Officers and Servants put out of their places for being Loyall unto him and those that were ill affected to him put in their Roomes and many of his owne Servants tempted and procured by rewards and maintenance to tarry with them and bee false and active against him The twenty sixt day of May 1642. a Declaration is sent to the King but printed and published before hee could receive it That Whatsoever they should Vote is not by Law to bee questioned either by the King or Subjects No precedent can limit or bound their proceedings A Parliament may dispose of any thing wherein the King or People have any right The Soveraign power resides in both Houses of Parliament The King hath no
in the beginning of this Parliament accepted of one for the Countie of Yorke Gave His People to understand That Hee had awarded the like Commissions into all the Counties of England and Dominion of Wales to provide for and secure them in a legall way lest under a pretence of danger and want of Authority from His Majestie to put them into a Military postuâ—e they should bee drawne and engaged in any opposition against Him or His Just Authority But 21. June 1642. The Lords and Commons in Parliament Declaring The Designe of their Propositions of raising Horse and Moneys was to maintaine the Protestant Religion and the Kings Authoritie and Person and that The Forces already attending His Majestie and His preparations at first coloured under the pretence of a guard being not so great a guard as they themselves had constantly for 6. moneths before did evidently appeare to bee intended for some great and extraordinary designe so as at this time also they doe not charge the King with any manner of action of Warre or any thing done in a way or course of Warre against them and gave just cause of feare and jealousie to the Parliament being never yet by any Law of God or man accounted to be a sufficient cause or ground for Subjects to make a Warre against their Soverainge did forbid all Mayors Sheriffes Bayliffes and other Officers to publish His Majesties said Letter to the Citie of London And declare that if Hee should use any force for the recovery of Hull or suppressing of their Ordinance for the Militia it should bee held a levying Warre against the Parliament and all this done before His Majestie had granted any Commission for the levying or raising of a man and lest the King should have any manner of provision of Warre to defend Himselfe when their Army or Sir John Hotham should come to assault Him Powder and Armes were every where seized on and Cutlers Gun-smiths Sadlers and all Warlike Trades ordered not to send any to Yorke but to give a weekely account what was made or sold by them And an Order made the 24. day of June 1642. That the Horses which should bee sent in for the Service of the Parliament when they came to the number of 60. should bee trayned and so still as the number increased 4. July 1642. The King by His letter under His signe Manuall commanded all the Judges of England in their circuits to use all meanes to suppresse Popery Riots and unlawfull assemblies and to give the People to understand His Resolution to maintaine the Protestant Religion and the Lawes of the Kingdome and not to governe by any Arbitrary way and that if any should give the King or them to understand of any thing wherein they held themselves grieved and desired a just reformation Hee would spedily give them such an answer as they should have cause to thank Him for His Justice and favour But the same day a Declaration was published by both houses of Parliament Commanding That no Sheriffe Mayor Bayliffe Parson Vicar Curate or other Sir Richard Gurney the Lord Mayor of London not many dayes before having beene imprisoned for proclaming the Kings Proclamation against the bringing in of Plate c. should publish or Proclaime any Proclamation Declaration or other Paper in the Kings name which should bee contrary to any Order Ordinance or Declaration of both houses of Parliament or the proceedings thereof and Order That in case any Force should bee brought out of one County into another to disturbe the Peace thereof they should bee suppressed by the Trayned Bands and Voluntiers of the adjacent Counties Shortly after Sir John Hotham fortifieth the Towne of Hull whilest the King is at Yorke seizeth on a Ship comming to Him with provisions for His Houshold takes Mr. Ashburnham one of the Kings Servants Prisoner intercepts Letters sent from the Queene to the King and drowneth part of the Countrey round about the Towne which the Parliament allowes of and promise satisfaction to the owners 5. July 1642. They Order a subscription of Plate and Horse to bee made in every Countey and list the Horse under Commanders and the morrow after Order 2000. men should bee sent to relieve Sir John Hotham in case the King should besiege him to which purpose Drummes were beat up in London and the adjacent parts to Hull The Earle of Warwick Ordered to send Ships to Humber to his assistance instructions drawne up to bee sent to the Deputie-Lievetenants of the severall Counties to tender the Propositions for the raising of Horses Plate and Money Mr. Hastings divers of the Kings Commissioners of Array impeached for supposed high Crimes and misdemeanours and a Committee of five Lords and ten of the house of Commons ordered to meete every morning for the laying out of ten thousand pounds of the Guild-hall moneys for the buying of 700. Horse and that 10000. Foote to bee raised in London and the Countrey bee imployed by dirction of the Parliament and the Lord Brooke is furnished with 6. peeces of Ordnance out of the Tower of London to fortifie the Castle of Warwick And 9. July 1642. Order That in case the Earle of Northampton should come into that County with a Commission of Array they should raise the Militia to suppresse him And that the Common Councell of London should consider of away for the speedy raising of the 10000. Foote and that they should bee listed and put in Pay within foure dayes after 11. July 1642. The King sends to the Parliament to cause the Towne of Hull to bee delivered unto him and desires to have their answer by the 15. of that moneth and as then had used no force against it But the morrow after before that message could come unto them they resolve upon the Question That an Army shall bee forthwith raised for the defence of the Kings Person and both houses of Parliament and those who have obeyed their Orders and Commands in perserving the true Religion the Lawes Liberties and the Peace of the Kingdome and that they would live and dye with the Earle of Essex whom they nominate Generall in that Cause And 12. July 1642. Declare That they will protect all that shall be imployed in their assistance and Militia And 16. July 1642. Petition the King to forbeare any preparations or actions of Warre and to dismisse His extraordinary guards to come neerer to them and harken to their advice but before that Petition could bee answered wherein the King offered when the Towne of Hull should bee delivered to Him hee would no longer have an Army before it and should bee assured that the same pretence which tooke Hull from him may not put a Garrison into Newcastle into which after the Parliaments surprise of Hull Hee was inforced to place a Governour and a small Garrison Hee would also remove that Garrison and so as his Magazine and Navy might bee delivered
unto him all Armies and Levies made by the Parliament laid downe the pretended Ordinance for the Militia disavowed and the Parliament adjourned to a secure place hee would lay downe Armes and repaire to them and desired all differences might bee freely debated in a Parliamentary way whereby the Law might recover its due reverence the Subject his just Libertie Parliaments their full vigour and estimation and the whole Kingdome a blessed Peace and Prosperity and requiring their answer by the 27. of that July promised till then not to make any attempt of force upon Hull had Armed their Generall with power against Him given him a Commission to kill and slay all that should oppose him in the execution of it and chosen their Generall of the Horse 8. August 1642. Upon information That some of the Towne of Portsmouth had revolted to Collonell Goring being but sent thither with a message from the King and Declared for His Majestie Order forces to bee sent thither spedily to beleaguer it by Land and the Earle of Warwick to send thither 5. Ships of the Navy to prevent any Forraigne forces comming to their assistance and upon Intelligence that the Earle of Northampton appeared with great strength at Banbury to hinder the Lord Brookes carrying the peeces of Ordinance to Warwick Ordered 5000 Horse and Foote to bee sent to assist Him 9. August 1642. Upon information That the Marquis of Hartford and divers others were in Somerset-shire demanding obedience to the Kings Commission of Array and to have the Magazine of the Countie to bee delivered unto them Gave power to the Earle of Essex their Lord Generall the Lord Brooke and others to apprehend the Marquis of Hartford and Earle of Northampton and their complices and to kill and slay all that should oppose them And the day following gave the Earle of Stamford a Commission to raise forces for the Suppressing of any should attempt for the King in Leicester-shire or the adjacent Counties And on the eleventh of August 1642. Upon the Kings Proclamation 2. dayes before Declaring the Earle of Essex and all that should adhere unto him in the levying of Forces and not come in and yeild to His Majestie within 6. dayes to be Traytors vote the said Proclamation to bee against the Fundamentall Lawes of the Kingdome Declare their resolutions to maintaine and assist the Earle of Essex and resolve to spend no more time in Declarations and Petitions but to endeavour by raising of Forces to suppresse the Kings Party Though all that the Kings Loyall Subjects did at that time for Him was but to execute the Commission of Array in the old legall way of the Militia and within a day or two after Ordered the Earle of Essex their Lord Generall to set forth with his Army of Horse upon the Monday following but not so much as an answer would bee afforded to the Kings message sent from Hull where whilst Hee with patience and hope forbore any action or attempt of force according to His promise Sir John Hotham sallied out in the night and murdered many of His fellow Subjects 12. August 1642. The King though hee might well understand the greate leavies of Men and Armes ready to march against Him by a declaration published to all His Subjects assures them as in the presence of God That all the Acts passed by him in this Parliament should bee as equally observed as those which most of all concerned his owne interest and rights and that his quarrell was not against the Parliament but particular men and therefore desired That the Lord Kimbolton Mr. Hollis Sir Henry Ludlow Sir Arthur Haslerig Mr. Strode Mr. Martin Mr. Hampden Alderman Pennington and Capt. Venne might bee delivered into the hands of Justice to bee tried by their Peeres according to the knowne Lawes of the Land and against the Earles of Essex Warwick Stamford Lord Brooke Sir John Hotham Major Generall Skippon and those who should exercise the Militia by vertue of the Ordinance hee would cause Indictments to bee drawne of high Treason upon the Statute of 25. Edw. 3. and if they submit to triall and plead the Ordinance would rest satisfied if they should bee acquited But when this produced as little effect as all other endeavours Hee had used for peace Hee that saw the Hydra in the mud and slyme of Sedition in its Embrio birth and growth and finds him now erected ready to devoure him must now though very unwilling to cast off His beloved robe of Peace forsake an abused patience and beleeve no more in the hopes of other remedies had so often deceived Him but if Hee will give any account to the Watch-man of Israel of the People committed to his Charge or to the People of his protection of them or any manner of satisfaction to his own Judgement and discretion betake Himselfe to the Sword which God had intrusted Him with and therfore makes the best use he could of those few friends were about Him and with the money which the Queen had not long before borrowed and the small supplies He had obtained of His Servants and Friends about Him who pawned and engaged their Plate Jewels and Lands for Him with those Lords and Gentlemen that willingly offered to beare Him Company in His Troubles provides what Men and Armes Hee could in His way towards Nottingham where Hee intended to set up His Standerd But the Parliament about the 23. of August 1642. having received some information that Hee intended to set up His Standard at Nottingham Declare That now it appeares to all the World that there is good ground of their feares and jealousies which if ever there had beene any as there was no cause at all of any more then that meaning to murder and ruine Him they were often afraid Hee should take notice of it and seeke to defend Himselfe there was by their own confession till this time no manifest or certaine ground appearing that Hee intended to defend Himselfe against the Parliament and therefore Order That all that shall suffer in their Estates by any forces raised by the King without consent of Parliament shall have full reparation of their damages out of the Estates of the actours and out of the Estates of all such Persons in any part of the Kingdome who should persist to serve the King in this Warre against the Parliament and That it should bee Lawfull for any number of persons to joyne and defend themselves and That the Earle of Essex their Generall should grant out Commissions for Levying and conducting forces into the Northerne parts And Sir John Hotham the Governour of Hull assist them and Command also the Sheriffes of the Countie of Yorke and the adjacent Counties with the Power of the Counties and Trayned-Bands to aide them and to seize upon all that shall execute the Commission of Array for His Majestie who thus sufficiently beset by those that intended what since they have brought to passe against Him 25
hee went out of the field sent Sir William Le-neve Clarenciâ—ux King of Armes to Warwick whither the Earle of Essex was fled with a Proclamation of pardon to all that would lay downe armes which though they scornefully received and the Herald threatned to bee hanged if hee did not depart the sooner cannot perswade him from sending a Declaration or Message to the Parliament to offer them all that could bee requested by Subjâ—cts but all the use they made of it was to make the Citty of London beleeve they were in greater danger then ever if they lent them not more moneyes and recruited the Earle of Essex his broken Army and to cosen and put the People on the more to seeke their owne misery a day of thanks giving was publiquely kept for the great Victory obtained against the Kâ—ng And Stephen Marshall a Factious bloody minister though hee confessed hee was so carried on in the crowde of those that fled from the battell as hee knew not where hee was till hee came to a Marâ—et Towne which was some miles from Edge-hill where the Battell was fought preaches to the people too little beleeving the Word of God and too much beleeving him That to his knowledge there was not above 200. men lost on the Parliaments side that hee picked up bullets in his black Velvet cap and that a very small supply would now serve to reduce the King and bring him to his Parliament And here yee may see Janus Temple wide open though the doores of it were not lift off the hinges or broken open at once but pickt open by those either knew not the misery of the War or knowing it will prove to be the more guilty promoters of it That we may the better therfore find out though the matter of Fact already represented may bee evidence enough of it selfe who it was that let cut the fury and rage of Warre upon us we shall consider CHAP. III. Whether a Prince or other Magistrate labouring to suppresse or punish a Rebellion of the People bee tyed to those rules are necessary for the justifying of a Warre if it were made betweene equalls VVArre was first brought in by necessitie where the determining of controversies betweene two strange Princes of Equâ—lâ— power could not bee had bâ—cause they have no superiour A Rebell therefore cannot properly bee called an enemy for Hostis nomen notat equalitatem and when any such armes are borne against Rebells it is not to bee called a Warre but an Exercise of Jurisdiction upon traterous and dis-loyall Persons at què est ratio manifesta saith Albericus Gentilis qui enim jure judex est superior non jure cogitur ad subeundas partes partis aequalis non est bellum cum latronibus praedonibus aut piratis quanquam magnâ—â— habeant excercitus provide nec ulla cum illis belli jura saith Besoldus The Romans who were so exact and curious in their publique denouncing of Warre and sending Ambassadors before they made Warre against any other Nation did not doe it in cases of Rebellion and defection and therefore Fidenatibus Campanis non denunciant Romani And Cicero that was of opinion that nullum bellum justum haberi videtur nisi nunciatum nisi indictum nisi repetitis rebus stood not upon those solemnities in the Cataline conspiracy for the rules of justifying a Warre against an enemy or equalls as demanding restitution denunciation and the like are not requisite in that of punishing of Rebells Pompey justifies the Warre maintayned by the Senate against Caesar not then their Soveraigne with neque enim vocari praelia justa decet c. Cicero did not think it convenient to send Ambassadors to Anthony nor intreat him by faire words but that it was meet to enforce him by armes to raise his siege from Mutina for hee said They had not to doe with Haniball an enemy to the Common-wealth but with a Rebellious Citizen The resisting of the Kings Authourity when the Sheriffe of a County goes with the posse Comitatus to execute it was never yet so much as called a Warre but Rebellion and Insurrection or Commotion were the best termes bestowed upon it such attempts are not called Warres but Robberies of which the Law taketh no other care of but to punish them The haste that all our Kings and Princes in England have made in suppressing Rebellions as that of the Barons Warres by Henry the 3. and his sending his sonne the Prince to besiege Warren Earle of Surrey in his Castle of Rygate for affronting the Kings Justices saying That hee would hold his Lands by the Sword That which Ri. 2. made to suppresse Wat. Tiler H. 6. Jack Cade H. 8. Ket and the Norfolk Rebells and Queene Eliz. to suppresse the Earles of Northnmberland and Westmerland may tell us that they understood it no otherwise then all the Kings and Magistrates of the World have ever practised it by the Lawes of England if Englishmen that are Traytors goe into France and confederate with Aliens or Frenchmen and come afterwards and make a Warre in England and bee taken prisoners the strangers may bee ransomed but not the English for they were the Kings Subjects and are to be reckoned as Traytors not strangers And the Parliaments owne advise to the King to suppresse the Irish Rebells that ploughed but with their owne Heyfer and pretended as they did to defend their Religion Lawes and Liberties and the opinion also of Mr. President Bradshaw as Sir John Owen called him in his late sentence given against the Earles of Cambridge Holland and Norwich Lord Capell and Sir John Owen whom hee mistakenly God and the Law knowes would make to bee the Subjects of their worser fellow Subjects may be enough to turne the question out of doores But lest all this should not bee thought sufficient to satisfie those can like nothing but what there is Scripture for wee shall a little turne over the leaves of that sacred Volume and see what is to bee found concerning this matter Moses who was the meekest Magistrate in the World and better acquainted with him that made the fifth Commandement then these that now pretend Revelations against it thought fit to suppresse the Rebellion of Corah Dathan and Abiram as soone as hee could and for no greater offence then a desire to bee coordinate with him procured them to be buried alive with all that appertained unto them When Absolom had Rebelled against his father David and it was told him That the hearts of the men of Israel were after him David a man after Gods owne heart without any Message of Peace or Declaration sent unto his deare sonne Absolom or offering halfe or any parte of his Kingdome to him sent three severall armies to pursue and give him battaile When Sheba the sonne of Bichri blew a Trumpet and said Wee have no part in David every man to his Tent ô Israel
and thereupon every man of Israell followed after him and forsooke their King David who knew that Moses would not make a Warre upon the Amorites though he had Gods commandement for it without offers of Peace messengers sent first unto them said to Amasa assemble me the men of Judah within three dayes and when hee tarried longer said unto him Take thou thy Lords Servants and pursue after him lest hee get him fenced Citties and escape us For they that would take heede of Cocatrices have ever used to kill them in the shell And diligenticuiquè Imperatori ac magistratui danda est opera saith Bodin ut non tam seditiones tollere quam praeoccupare student For sedition saith hee once kindled like a sparke of fire blown by popular fury may sooner fire a whole City then bee extinguished Et tales igitur pestes opprimere derepenté necesse est Princes and Soveraignes who are bound to protect and desend their Subjects are not to stand still and suffer one to oppresse another and themselves to bee undone by it afterwards But put the case the Parliament could have beene called a Parliament when they had driven away the King which is the head and life of it or could have beene said to have beene two houses of Parliament when there was not at that time above a third part of the house of Peeres nor the halfe of the house of Commons remaining in them and what those few did in their absence was either forced by a Faction of their own or a partie of Seditious Londoners for indeed the Warre rightly considered was not betwixt the Parliament and the King but a Warre made by a Factious and Seditious part of the Parliament against the King and the major part of the Parliament and had beene as it never was nor could bee by the Lawes and constitution of the Kingdome coordinate and equall with the King and joint tenants of the Kingdome it would have â—â—â—ne necessary to make the Warre as just as they could and to hace done all that had beene in order to it and therefore wee hope they which pretend so much to the Justice of the Kingdome will not bee offended to have the Justice of their Warre somthing examined CHAP. IIII. Suppose the Warre to bee made with a neighbour Prince or betweene equalls whether the King or Parliament were in the defensive or justifiable part of it PLaerique saith learned Grotius tres statuunt bellorum just as causas defensionem recuperationem punitionem For any defence the Parliament might pretend a necessitie of The King neither assaulted them nor used any violence to them when they first of all granted out their Propositions and Commissions of Warre unlesse they can turne their jealousies into a Creede and make the Kings demanding the five Members and Kimbolton being done by warrant of the Lawe of the Land and the Records and precedents of their owne houses appeare to bee an assaulting of them Or if any reasonable man knew but how to make that to bee an assault or a necessary cause of Warre for them to revenge it the Kings waving and relinquishing of his charge afterwards against them might have certainly beene enough to have taken away the cause of it if there had beene any howsoever a Warre made only to revenge a bare demand or request of a thing was neither so much as forced or a second time demanded of them but was totally laid aside and retracted can never bee accounted just As for the recovery of things lost or taken away The Parliament it selfe had nothing taken from them for both they and the People were so farre from being loosers at that time by the King as the Remonstrance of the house of Commons made to the People 15. December 1641. of the Kings errours as they please to call them in the government but indeed the errours rather of his Ministers and themselves also in busying him with brawles and quarrells and denying to give him fitting supplies mentions how much and how many beneficiall Lawes the King had granted them And so the Parliament and People being no loosers and the King never denying them any thing could in honour or conscience bee granted them That part of the Justyfying of a Warre will no way also belong to them But if the punishment for offences and injuries past if they could bee bee so properly called being a third cause of justifying a Warre could bee but imagined to bee a cause to justifie the Parliaments Warre against the King Yet they were to remember another Rule or Law of Warre Ne nimis veteres causae accersentur That they doe not pick quarrells by raking up past grievances and that it bee not propter leviusculas injurias or for trifles For when the King who if he had been no more then coordinate with them had called them to councell to advise him followed their advice in every thing hee could finde any reason for taken away all grievances made a large provision to prevent them for the future by granting the Tryenniall Parliament and so large an amends for every thing they could but tell how to complaine of there was so little left to the People and the Parliament to quarrell for as they were much behind in thankfullnesse for what they had got of him already Or if any other causes or provocations should bee imagined as misusing the Parliaments Messengers or the like wee know the King unlesse it were by his patience and often Messages for Peace was guilty of no provocations but on the contrary though hee had all manner of scornes and reproaches cast upon him and his Messengers evill intreated by them could never bee brought to returne or retaliate it to any of theirs But nothing as yet serving to excuse them It will not be amisse to examine the Causes as they are set downe by themselves to justifie their warre and so wee may well suppose there are no other A Warre against the King for safety of his owne Person was needlesse and then it comes within that rule of warre and lawe of Nations Ne leves sint causa belli not to make a warre unnecessary for the King would looke to that himselfe and as they were his Subjects they as well as every honest Subject were bound to defend and assist him but not whether hee would or no and in such a way of defence as would tend to his ruins rather then his safety For surely should any stranger of another Kingdome or Nation have casually passed by Edge-hill when the Kings and the Parliaments Armies were in fight and have beene told that the King shot at them for the safety of his owne Person and that they also shot against him for the safety of his owne Person and being asked which of the two parties hee beleived did really or most of all intend the safety of it wee cannot tell how to think any man such
representatives will and arbitrary power have a mind to make it who have so driven away their old legall priviledges by setting up illegall and fantastique kinde of Priviledges as they are pleased to call them instead of them as there is nothing now left of the Parliament like a Parliament neither matter nor forme nor any thing at all remaining of it For the upper and lower houses have driven away and fought against the King who was their Head the lower after that have driven away the upper and fourtie-five of the house of Commons whereof eleven are great officers and commanders in the Army have after that imprisoned driven away foure hundred of their fellow members And from a degenerate and distemperate peece of a Parliament brought themselves to bee but a representative or journey-men-voters to a Councell of Warre of their owne mercenacy and mechanique Army and may sit another eight yeares before ever they shall bee able to finde a reason to satisfie any man is not a foole or a mad-man or a fellow Sharer in the spoiles of an abused and deluded Nation Why the Kings demanding of the five Members and Kimbolton by undeniable warrant of the Lawes of the Land and the Records and precedents of their owne houses upon a charge or accusation of Treason for endeavouring amongst other pieces of Treason to alter the Government and subvert the fundamentall Lawes of the Kingdome which the Parliament and they themselves that were accused have more then once declared to bee Treason should bee taken to bee so great a breach of priviledge in the King their Soveraigne when the forcing and over-awing the houses of Parliament by the Army their servants and hirelings demanding the eleven members and imprisoning and bannishing some of them upon imaginary and fantasticall offences committed against themselves or they could not tell whom shall bee reckoned to be no breach at all of priviledge and the forcing of the houses by the same army within a yeare afterwards by setting guards upon them violently pulling two of the members of the house of Commons out of the house and imprisoning them and 39. more of their fellow members all night in an Alehouse and leading them afterwards to severall prisons with guards set upon them as if they had beene common malefactors can bee called mercies and deliverances and a purging and taking away rotten members out of the house of Commons But now that wee can finde nothing to make a defensive or Lawfull nor so much as a necessary warre on the Parliaments part for causa belli saith Besoldus correspondere debet damno et periculo the Parliament feares and jealousies were not of weight enough to put the People into a misery far beyound the utmost of what their feares and jealousies suggested to them did amount unto wee shall doe well to examine by the rules and lawes of warre and Nations the wayes and meanes they used in it Injustum censetur belium si non ejus penes quem est Majestas authoritate moveatur a Warre cannot bee just if it bee not made by a Lawfull authoritie Armorum delatio et prohibitio ad Principem spect at It belongs to the Prince to raise or forbid armes and the Records of the Parliament which wee take to bee a better sence of the house then their owne purposes can informe them that the Prelates Earles Barons and Commonaltie of the Realme did in the seveneth yeare of the raigne of King Edw the first declare to the Kâ—ng That it belongeth and his part is through his Royall Signorie streightly to defend force of Armour and all other force against his Peace when it shall please him and to punish them which shall doe the contrary according to the Lawes and usages of the Realme and that thereunto they were bound to aid their Soveraigne Lord the King at all seasons when neede shall bee How much adoe then will they have to make a warre against their Soveraigne to be Lawfull or if by any warrant of Lawes Divine or Humane they could but tell how to absolve themselves from their oathes of Supremacy Allegiance and their very many protestations and acknowledements of Subjection to the King finde a Supreame authority to bee in the People at the same time they swore an allegiance and obedience to the King and at the same time they not only stiled themselves but all those they represented to bee his Subjects Or how will they bee able to produce a warrant from the People their now pretended Soveraignes â—â—ll they shall bee able sufficiently to enslave them to authorize them to make a Warre to unâ—â—e them when they elected them but to consent to such things as should bee treated of by the King and his Lords for the defence of the King and his Kingdome Or how could a tenth parte of the People give warrant to them to fight against the King and the other nine parts of the People Or can that bee a good warrant when some of them were cheated and the other by plunderings and sequestrations forced to yeild to it Or could the pretence of a warre for defence of the Kings Person and to maintaine the Religion Lawes and Liberties of the People bee a warrant to the Parliament which never sought any thing for the King and People but to take away the Soveraignty from the one and the Liberties of the other to doe every thing was contrary unto it But if that could have legitimated their actions as it never did or will bee able There is a two fold rule of Justice in the practise of Warre and Nations si bellum geratur sine denunciationâ— in captivos tanquam latrones animadverti possit It is a thievery rather than a Warre not to denounce or give notice of it beforehand and in that also the Parliament was faulty for they took Huâ—â— and Portsmouth and the Kings Navy and Magazine from him when hee hoped better things of them and sent out their Armies and the Earle of Essex against him whilest hee was in treaty with them and offered all that hee could for to have a peace with them Bellum item impium injustumque sit si modus debitus non observetur A Warre is unjust if their bee not a due way of proceedings held in it which especially consisteth in not hurting the innocent Church-men Husbandmen weake or impotent People as old men women and Children and in this also they will fall short of an excuse For how full is every Towne and Village of the truth as well as the complaints of the unchristian usage of old and sick people Women and Children beaten wounded or killed upon no provocation Women and Maids ravished and their fingers cut off for their rings old Best of Canturbury hanged up by the priviâ—ies others tortured and had burning matches tied to their fingers to make them confesse where their money was Women and Children and sick and aged Persons starved
were not likely therfore to be guilty of so much patience as the king who was so much in love with peace so thirsted after it as that and his often sending Messages and Propositions for it would not suffer him to make use of any victories or advantages God had given him Twice did hee suffer the Earle of Essex to attempt to force him from Oxford and Sir Thomas Fairfax once to beleager him when hee had power enough to have made London or the associate Counties the feat of the War and it would bee something strange that hee who when hee had raised forces against his Scottish Rebells and found himselfe in the head of so gallant an Army as hee had much adoe to keepe them from fighting and his enemies so ridiculously weake as hee might have subdued them but with looking upon them but a fortnight â—onger could not bee perswaded to draw a Sword against them would â—ow begin an offensive warre without any power or strength at all against those that had before hand ingrossed it Or what policy or wisdome could it bee in him to begin a Warre without Money or Men or Armes to goe through with it Or to refuse the assistance of his Catholique Subjects and Farraigne friends and forces or to spend so much time in Messages and offers of Peace to give them time and abilitie to disarme him and Arme themselves If hee had not utterly abhorred a Warre and as cordially affected peace as hee offered faire enough for it Or if wee could but tell how to say that the King did begin the Warre when what he did was but to preserve his Regality and the Militia and protection of his People which the Parliament in expres terms as well as by Petitioning for it acknowledged to be his owne being but that which every private man that had but money or friends would not neglect to do Did hee any more in seeking to preserve his Regalitie then to defend and keepe himself from a breach of trust they fought to make him break Or did hee any more then seek to defend himself against those did all they could to force him to breake it Or could there bee a greater perjury or breach of trust in the Kingly office then to put the Sword which God had given him into the hands of madmen or fooles or such as would kill and â—â—ay and undoâ— their fellow Subjects with it or to deliver up the protection of his People into the hands of a few of their ambitious fellow Subjects did as much breake their owne trust to those they represented in asking of it as the King would have done if hee had granted it Or why shall it not bee accounted an inculpata tutela in the King to preserve and defend that by a Warre the Lawes of God and Man his Coronation-Oath Honour and Conscience and a dutie to himselfe and his Posterity as well as to his People would not permit him to stand still and suffer to bee taken away from him But if the King by any manner of construction could be blamed or censured for denying to grant the Militia which was the first pretence of begining of the war by those that sought to take it from him for till the besieging of Hull the 16. of July 1642. after many other affronts and attempts of as high a nature put upon him the most malicious interpretation of the matter of Fact cannot find him so much at all to have defended himselfe as to have done any one act of Warre or so much as like it who shall bee in the fault for all that was done after when hee offered to condiscend to all that might bee profitable for his People in the matter of Religion Lawes and Liberties Or was it not a just cause of War to defend himselfe and his People against those would notwithstanding all he could doe and offer make a Warre against him because hee would not contrary to his Oath Magna Charta and so many other Lawes hee had sworn to observe betray or deliver up his people into their hands to bee governed or rather undone by a greater latitude of Arbitrary power then the great Turk or Crim Tartar ever exercised upon their enslaved People and put the education and marriage of his owne Children out of his Power was never sought to bee taken out of the hand of any father was not a foole or a madman nor yeilded to by any would have the Credit to bee accounted otherwise or because he would not denude himselfe of the power of conferring honours or vilifie or discredit his great and lesser Scales and the Authority of them from which many mens Estates and Honours and the whol current of the Justice of the Kingdom had their Originall and refused to perjure himselfe by abolishing Episcopacy which Magna Charta and some dozens of other Lawes bound him to preserve Or if that bee not enough to justyfie him in his owne defence had hee not cause enough to deny and they little enough to aske Libertie of Conscience and practise to Anabaptists Blasphemers of God deniers of the Trinity Scriptures and Deity of Christ when the Parliament themselves had taken a Covenant to root them out and made as many of the People as they could force to take it with them or had hee not cause enough to deny to set up the Presbyterian authoritie would not only have taken away his owne authoritie but have done the like also with the Lawes and Liberties of the Nation and the ruling part of that they now call the Parliament utterly abhorre or if all that could not make the War be made to bee defensive and Lawfull had hee not cause enough to deny and they none at all to ask that he should by act of Parliament consent to make all those to bee Traitors that tooke his part their Blood and Posterities attainted and their Estates forfeited when as some of the Parliaments owne Members were heard to say when those Propositions were sent unto him That if hee yeilded unto them Hee was the unworthiest man living and not fit to bee a King For certainly if the Lawes of God and man and the understanding of all mankinde bee not changed there was never a juster more defensive unwilling and necessitated Warre then that of the Kings part since man came out of Paradice And if such a Warre should not bee Lawfull after so many provocations and necessities for the defence of himselfe and his People and so many after generations this Warre of the Parliament and the curse of it is like to ruine and leave in slavery under what censure and opinion may that of Abrahams with Chederlaomer the King of Elum and Tidal King of the Nations bee when hee fought with them to rescue his Brother Lot and his goods and was blessed by Melchisedec the Priest of the most high God for doing of it Or if the Warre which the Tribes of Israell made against
necessitated to make a Warre but were so farre from the Justification of a defensive Warre as that they were altogether in the offensive For beside all that hath beene said to prove them guiltie of the blood and misery of this Nation who can think or bee beleeved if hee should bee so mad as to say it That they were forced to make a Warre for that was none of their owne or to take away tenures in Capite which was a principall flower of his Crowne or for a Reformation of Religion was already the envie and ambition of the best of the Reformed Churches or to commit sacriledge and abolish Episcopacy which at the least was of Apostolicall institution or to preserve the Statute of 25. E. 3. concerning what was Treason when they themselves committed most of the Treasons were mentioned in it and more then their fore-fathers and the makers of that Statute ever thought on But that wee may doe all the right wee can to them have done so much wrong and the better carry on our judgements to a certaine conclusion of that which God and all good and just men know to bee true enough it will not wee hope bee impertinent in this our search and disquisition of the truth to proceede to the enquiry CHAP. V. Whether the Parliament in their pretended Magistracy have not taken lesser oceasions to punish or provide against Insurrections Treasons and Rebellions as they are pleased to call them ALL in the neighborhood of their Proceedings that know but any thing of them can tell it The Parliament have not beene wanting to their owne Preservations and purposes in the exercise of the greatest jealousie vigilancy terror and authority over those they could but get within their pretended Jurisdiction Witnesse Edward Archer who was whipt and punished almost to death for speaking but his ill wishes to the Earle of Essex when he was marching out of London with their Army against the King the imprisonment of their owne Members for speaking against the Sence and Cabal of the House of Commons men and women old and young shut up under Decks ready to bee stifled a ship-board upon suspicion that they affected the King hanging of the two Bristoll Marchants Master Bourchier and Master Yeomans for an endeavor to deliver up Bristoll Putting Colonell Essex out of the government of that Towne upon suspicion of favouring the enterprise hanging of Master Tompkins and Master Chaloner â—or a purpose to force the delivery up of some factious men to Justice banishing Master Waller an eminent Member of the House of Commons for the contrivance of it searching the houses of forraign Ambassadors intercepting and opening their Letters Beheading Sir Alexander Cary for an intention to deliver up Plymouth and Sir John Hotham who adventured first of all to set up their authority and was magnified and almost adored for it for an intention only to deliver up Hull to the King executing of his sonne for joyning with his father in it hanging Master Kniveton one of the Kings Messengers but for bringing his Majesties proclamation to London for the adjourning of the Tearme being a greater misusage then Davids Messengers received from King Ammon imprisoning starving and undoing of any that durst but owne the King or send or bring any Message from him or his partie or that did but give any aide or assistance to him to which their Oathes and Consciences and the jugling Covenant they themselves took and forced upon them did obliege them shooting and cannonading of the Queene when shee came but to aid her husband and chasing and shooting after her at Sea a yeare after when shee was going back into France from him sequestring wives and mothers that did but relieve their husbands and childrens wants when they returned out of the Kings service putting thousands of Orthodox ministers out of their benefices and livelyhoods for using the Common-Prayer-Booke Preaching true Doâ—â—â—ne and obedience to the King or Praying for him at the same time when they pretended libertie of Conscience and preservation of Religion voting the Prince a Traytor for wishing well or being in companie with his Father for hee was too young to doe any thing else for him and making or rather supposing charges of high Treason against those that either fought for the King or counselled him how to defend himselfe for but obeying the knowne Lawes they themselves made the World believe they made some parte of the Warre for ordering all to dye without mercy that did but harbour the King when hee fled in a disguise before their armies condemning men by a Court martiall after the Warre was ended and shooting them to death but for words or intentions And if this and many things more might bee said of it bee not enough what meanes so many sequestrations and the bleating and lowing of mens Sheepe and Oxen taken away from them since the Warre was ended but for words spoken either for the King or against them husbands and Fathers undone for what their Wives or Children did without their privity the Mayor of London divers Aldermen Imprisoned but upon a suspicion of joyning with the Scots or somthing in pursnance of the Covenant they forced them to take or else would have undone them for refusing of it Garrisons and Armies with free quartering and Taxes kept up after the Warre was ended and the People like sheepe devoured to maintaine them so much complaining in our streets and taking away the fift part of many men in whole Counties as Essex Kent c. for joyning with some of the Kings forces or for being forced to send provisions to them when they took up armes some in pursuance of the Covenant and others of them to deliver the King out of Prison and causing the Soldiers not only to cut and kill divers of the County of Surrey in the very act of Petitioning the Parliament for a Treaty of Peace with the King and sequesteâ— many of them for putting their hands to it with disabling the Citizens of London for bearing any office in the City or Common-wealth for but putting their hands to the Petition for the Treaty though Cromwell himself had not long before set on som to Petition for it and the ruine and undoing of two parts of three in the Kingdome very many of whom did nothing actually in the Warres but were only sacrificed to their pretended reasons jealousies of State doe sufficiently Proclame and remaine the wofull Registers to after generations of this lamentable assertion If the King could have gotten but so much leave of his mercy and a tender-heartednesse to hiâ— People as to have used but the five hundreth part of the Parliaments jealousies and sharpe and mercilesse authority in the mannaging of this Warre so much of his Kingdoms and People had not beene undone and ruined nor the Parliament put to so much labour to coyn faults and scandalls against him nor to wrest the Lawes to non sence and the Scriptures
King CHARLES the First no Man OF BLOOD BUT A MARTYR FOR HIS PEOPLE OR A sad and impartiall enquiry whether the King or Parliament began the Warre which hath so much ruined and undon the Kingdom of England and who was in the defensive part of it Exoritur aliquod majus è magno malum Nondum ruentis Ilij fatum stetit SENEC Traged in Troade Act 3. Printed in the Yeare 1649. King CHARLES the First No Man of Blood BUT A Martyr for his People THAT there hath beene now almost seaven yeeres spent in civil-Civill-Warres aboundance of Blood-shed and more Ruine and Misery brought upon the Kingdome by it then all the severall Changes Conquests and Civill-Warres it hath endured from the time of Brute or the first Inhabitants of it every mans wofull experience some only excepted who have beene gayners by it will easily assent unto No mervaile therefore that many of those who if all they alledge for themselves that they were not the cause of it could bee granted to be true might eyther have hindred or lessned it would now put the blame of so horrid a businesse from themselves and lay it upon any they can perswade to beare it And that the Conquerours who would binde their Kings in Chaynes and their Princes with fetters of Iron and thinke they have a Commission from Heaven to doe it the guilt of it being necessarily either to bee charged upon the Conquerors or conquered are not willing to have their triumphant Chayres and the glories as they are made beleeve that hang upon their shoulders defiled with it but do all they can to load their Captives with it But howsoever though the successe and power of an Army hath frighted it so farre out of question as to charge it upon the King and take away his life for it by making those that must of necessity bee guilty of the fact if he should have beene as in all reason hee ought to have beene acquited of it the only Judges of him It may well become the judgement and conscience of every man that will bee but eyther a good Subject or a Christian not to lend out his Soule and Salvation so much on trust as to take those that are parties and the most ignorant sort of mens words for it but to enter into a most serious examination of the matter of Fact it selfe and by tracing out the foote-steps of Truth see what a conclusion may be drawn out of it In pursuance wherof for I hope the originall of this Sea of blood will not prove so unsearchable as the head of Nile Wee shall enquire who first of all raysed the Feares and Jelousies Secondly represent and set down the truth of the matter of Fact and proceedings betwixt the King and Parliament from the tumultuous seditious coming of the People to the Parliament and White-hall untill the 25. Aug. 1642. when he set up his Standard at Nottingham from the setting up of his Standard untill the 13 Sep. 1642. when the Parliament by their many acts of hostility a negative Churlish answer to his propositions might well have put him out of hope of any good to be obteined from them by messages of Peace sent unto them Thirdly whether a Prince or other Magistrate labouring to suppresse or punish a rebellion of the People be tied to those rules are necessary to the justifying of a warre if it were made betweene equalls Fourthly suppose the warre to bee made with a neighbour Prince or between equalls whether the King or Parliament were in the defensive or justifiable part of it Fiftly Whether the Parliament in their pretended magistracy have not taken lesser occasions to punish or provide against insurrections treasons rebellions as they are pleased to call them Sixtly Who most desired Peace and offered faireliest for it Seventhly Who laboured to shorten the Warre and who to lengthen it Eightly Whether the Conditions proffered by the King would not have beene more profitable for the People if they had beene accepted and what the Kingdome and People have got insteed of it CHAP. I. Who first of all Raised the Feares and Jealousies THE desiring of a guard for the Parliament because of a tale rather then a plot That the Earle of Crawford had a purpose to take away the Marquis of Hamiltons life in Scotland the refusing of a legall guard offered by the King and His Protestation to bee as carefull of their safety as of the safety of His Wife and Children The dreame of a Taylor lying in a ditch in Finsbury fields of this and the other good Lord and Common-wealths men to be taken away The trayning of horses under ground and a plague plaister or rather a clout taken from a galled horse back sent into the house of Commons to Mr. Pym A Designe of the Inhabitants of Covent-Garden to murther the City of London News from France Italy Spaine and Denmarke of Armies ready to come for England and a supposition or feaverish fancy That the King intended to introduce Popery and alter Religion and take away the Lawes and Liberties of the People and many other the like seditious delusions the People so much as their misery will give them leave have now found out the way to laugh at either came from the Parliament partie or were cherished and turned into advantages by them For they had found the way and lost nothing by it to be ever jealous of the King And whilest he did all he could to shew them that there was no cause for it they who were jealous without a cause could bee so cunning as to make all the haste they could to weaken Him and strengthen themselves by such kind of artifices But hee that could not choose but take notice that there were secret ties and combinations betwixt his English and Scottish Subjects the latter of whom the Earle of Essex and Sir Thomas Fairfax themselves understood to be no better then Rebels and therfore served in places of Command in His Majesties Army against them That Sir Arthur Haselrig had brought in a Bill in Parliament to take the Militia by Sea and Land away from him saw himselfe not long after by a Printed remonstrance or declaration made to the People of all they could but imagine to bee errours in his government arraigned and little lesse then deposed The Bishops and divers great Lords driven from the Parliament by Tumults Was inforced to keepe his gates at Whitehall shut and procure divers Captaines and Commanders to lodge there and to allow them a table to bee a guard for him and had beene fully informed of many Trayterous Speeches used by some seditious mechaniques of London as that It was pitty Hee should raigne and that The Prince would make a better King was yet so farre from being jealous or solicitous to defend himself by the Sword and power which God had intrusted him with as when he had need reason enough to do it he still
for want of the sustenance they had taken from them Husbandmen had their corne and hay spoiled in the field and the barne their sheep cattel and provisions devoured houses ruined or burnt and their horses thay should help to plough and doe other workes of Husbandry taken away in so much as some were inforced to blinde and put out their horses eyes that they might not bee taken from them Churches that escaped defacing prophaned and made Stables or Goales or Victualing or Bawdy houses Monuments defaced and Sepulchers opened as were those of the Saxon Kings at Winchester and the Priests and Ministers not so much as sustered to weepe betwixt the Porch and the Altar but their benefices and livelyhood taken from them by Wolues put in the Shephards places had their bookes burned and all their meanes and maintenance plundred from them and those that were newtralls and medled on neither side but lived as quietly as they could either totally undone or cast in prison not for that they did them any hurt but because they might doe it and if they were not imprisoned their Lands money or goods were sure to bee in the fault and taken away from them Vt bellum illaesa conscientia geratur necesse est ut adsâ—t intentio bona there ought to bee a good intention to make the Warre conscionable which in this appeares to faile also For the Charge against the five Members is now as true as it was then they meant to ruine the King and they have don it and to alter the Government subvert the Religion Lawes and Liberties of the Kingdom and they have don a great part of it and as fast as they can are pulling down the remainder Quaerere debemus victoriam rationibus honestis ne salutem quidem turpibus Wee ought to pursue victory and the just ends of Warre by honest and Lawfull meanes and not to doe foule and dishonest things to procure our safety from the latter of which the made feares and jealousies which the Parliament made use of to usher in their pretences their fayning of victories and scandaling the King and his actions not to insist upon their buying the Kings servants and secrets Battells Townes and Garrisons and making too many Judases of all that were about him will hardly bee able to free them or if they could the making use of men and money intended for the support of Ireland and leaving them wallowing in their blood for seven years together whilest they were ruining their King that would have helped them violating of their oathes of allegiance and Supremacy which many of their members had taken six or seaven times over breaking their oathes taken in their protestation and Nationall Covenant and not so few as 100 solemne promises and undertakings in their severall Petitions Remonstrances and Declarations forcing the People to take the Protestation and Covenant and compell them as soone as they had taken it to breake them and by cosening and forcing them into Rebellions and perjuries cheate them out of their Religion Loyaltie Lawes and Liberties will without very good advocates bee sure enough to condemne them and if the great Turke carrying the Covenant which Ladislaus the unfortunate King of Hungary was perswaded to breake with him as an ensigne of publique detestation in the bettell wherein hee slew him invoked the God of the Christians to help him to revenge so grrat a treachery there will bee more reason now for all that are but Christians or but pretende to any morality to carry in their banner the pourtract of the Kings bleeding head as it was cut from his shoulders and make Warre in revenge of the maisterpiecee and totum aggregatum of all manner of wickednesle and perfidiousnesse who besides all their owne and the Peoples oaths taken to defend him when those they called Delinquents some few onely which were specially named and excepted for obeying the knowne Lawes of the Land as well as their oaths and Consciences were never questioned for their lives but suffered to compound for their estates would not suffer the King that was neither a Delinquent or Excepted Person to enjoy either his Life or Estate though to save his people and keepe them from killing one another hee yeilded himselfe and became a Prisoner upon the publique faith of the Kingdomes of England and Scotland Paxaequa non est recusanda Licet victoriae spes adsit saith Besoldus A good or fitting Peace is not to bee refused though the victory were certaine And in this also the Parliament will bee as farre to seeke for a justification as in the other For instead of offering any thing which was likely to bring it they caused men and women in the first yeare of their Warre to bee killed because they did but petition them to accept of a Peace and in the third and fourth yeare of their War plundred robbed others that petitioned them but to hearken to it and put out of office and made all as Delinquents in the seventh yeare of their War that did but petition them for a Treaty with the King and refused all the Kings many very many Messages for Peace not only when hee was at the highest of his successe in the war but when hee was at the lowest and a Prisoner to them and conjured them as they would answer at the dreadfull day of Judgement to pitty the bleeding conditions of his Kingdomes and People and send propositions of Peace unto him quarters and halfe yeares and more then a whole yeare together after the battell of Naseby insomuch as their fellow Rebells the Scotch Commissioners did heavily complaine of it were at severall times trifled away and spent before any propositions could bee made ready though those which they sent to Oxford Vxbridge Newcastle and Hampton-Court were but substantially and materially the same with their nineteâ—ne Propositions which they made unto the King before the Earle of Essex was made their Generall and in all the Treaties made Propositions for themselves and the Soveraignty and great offices and places of the Kingdome but would neither for Gods sake or their Kings sake or their Oathes or Consciences sake or the Peoples sake or Peace sake which the People petitioned and hungred and thirsted for alter or abate one Ioâ—a or tâ—ttle of them but were so unwilling to have any peace at all as 6 or 7 Messengers or Trumpeters could com from the King before they could be at leisure or so mannerly as to answer one of them but this or that Message from the King was received and read and laid by till a weeke or when they would after and the Kings Commissioners in the Treaties must forget their due titles of Earles Lords or Knights because the King had made them so since the beginning of the Warre or else must bee neither Treaty nor Peace there At Vxbridge the time of the Treaty limited for 20. dayes and at Newcastle for 10. and though the King
maintaine an Army against Him and many of his Subjects daily imprisoned sequestred undone or killed can bee blamed if hee had a great deale sooner gone about to defend both himselfe and his People For who saith St. Jerom did ever rest quietly sleeping neer a viper et lex una perpetua salutem omni ratione defendere haec ratio doctis necessitas Barbaris mos genâ—ibus feris natura ipsa prescripsit et haec non scripta sed nata lex saith Tully that great master of morality Reason Necessity Custome and Nature it selfe have made selfe preservation to bee warrantable Nemo exponere so debet periculis obviam offensiom eundum non modo quae est in actu sed quae est in potentia ad actum justus metus justum facit belium say the Civill Lawes and where there was not unda cogitatio or a bare intention only to ruine the King but so much over and over againe acted as might well occasion more then a feare and apprehension in him of what hath since beene brought to passe against him no man certainly without much blindnesse or partiality can think it to bee a fault in him to seeke to defend himselfe when the Parliament did not only long before hee raised any forces to defend himselfe but at the same time when hee was doing of it make the people beleeve his Person was in so much danger as they must needs take up armes to defend Him And how much more warrantable then must it bee in the Kings case when it was not only an endeavour to defend himselfe but all those that have beene since slaine and undone and ruined for want of power enough to doe it Defence is by the civill Lawyers said to bee either necessary profitable or honest Nec distingui vult Baldus sive se sua suosve defendar sive prope sive posita longé a man is said to defend himselfe when it is but his owne goods estate or People whether neere or furtherof Necessaria defensio ejus est et factum ad necessariam defensionem contra quem veniat armatus inimicus et ejus contra quem inimicus se paravit It must needs bee a necessary defence against whom an armed Enemy is either marching or preparing Vtilis defensio quum nos movemus bellum verentes ne ipsi bello petamur when wee make a Warre to prevent or bee before hand when Warre or mischiefe is threatned or likely to come upon us For as Nicephorus the Historian saith Hee that will live out of danger must occurrere malis impendentibus et autevertere â—ec est cunctandum aut expectandum c. meete and take away growing evills and turne them another way and not to delay and bee â—â—ock in it Honesta defensio quae citra metumâ—ullum periculi nostri nulla utilitate quaesita tantum in gratiam aliorum suscipitur When for no feare of danger to our selves and for no consideration of profit to our selves but meerely in favour or help of others the Warre is undertaken Wherefore certainly when the King may bee justly said to tarâ—y too long before hee made the second and third kindes of defences either to prevent the danger and fury of a Warre against himselfe or to help those that suffered and were undone in seeking to defend him and was so over much in love with Peace as hee utterly lost it and could never again recover it and was so much mistaken in the love and religion of his Subjects and Parliament promises and the impossibilities of such horrid proceedings against him as all his three Kingdomes were in a flame of Warre and strong Combinations made by two of them and the Pulpits every where flaming Seditious exhortations against Him his Navy Magazines Ports Revenues Mint strongest Townes and places seised on Armies marching against him and hee only and a few friends and followers pend up in a corner had an enemy and a strong Towne at his back readie every day to surprize him and severall Armies marching and in action before and round about him before hee granted out any Commission for Warre or liad or could make any preparation for it and had so many to help and defend besides himself It would be too much injury and too great a violence to all manner of reason and understanding to deny him a Justification upon the first sort of defences if the two latter will not reach it for the first cannot by any interpretation goe without For haec est necessitas saith Baldus quae bellum justificat quum in extremo loco ad bellum configitur Or if with Grotius wee looke upon it another way and make the Justice of Warre to consist 1o in defensione 2o in recuperatione rerum 3o in punitione The King before ever hee went to demand Hull or before ever he desired a guard of the County of Yorke had cause enough and enough to doe it and it would be hard if a great deale lesse then that should not bee able to deliver him from the censure or blame of an offensive or unnecessary Warre When that which was made by David upon the Children of Ammon and that of the late glorious King of Sweden against the Emperour of Germany the former for misusing the latter for encroaching upon him and not receiving his Ambassadors found warrant and necessity enough to doe it But what could the King doe more in his endeavours and waiting for a Peace or lesse in his preparations or making of a War when the least or one of the hundred provocations or causes wee dare say plainly here set downe in the matter of fact hath hitherto among the wisest Princes and Common-wealths in the World beene reputed a just and warrantable cause of warre Homicide by the Lawes of England shall bee excused with a se defendendo when the assaulted hath but simply defended himselfe or retired in his owne defence so farre till by some Water or Wall hee bee hindred from going any further Death and destruction marching towards the King Hull fortified kept behind him and all manner of necessities compassing him in on every side could then doe no lesse then rouse him up to make his owne defence and hee must bee as much without his sences as care of his owne preservation if hee should not then think it to bee high time to make reaedy to defend himselfe and necessity enough to excuse him for any thing should bee done in order to it The Parliament and hee as this case stood could not bee both at one and the same time in the defensive parte For they had all the Money Armes Ammunition and strength of the Kingdome in their hands and multitudes of deluded People to assist them and so hunted and pursued him from place to place as it was come to be a saying and a by word among the apprentices and new levied men at London they would goe a King-catching
the Tribe of Benjamin and the men of Gibeah for committing lewdnesse and folly in Israel that of David to rescue his Wives that were carried away captive by the Amalekites or to fetch home the Arc of God from the Philistines that which Ahab made with Benhadad the king of Syria who was not half so Tyrannical in his Propositions as the Parliament were aproved of in sacred Story or that which was made by Judas Machabeus and his Brethren to rescue the decayed Estate of the people of the Jewes or that which was used to be made by the heathen pro aris focis wer never yet so much as suspected to be unlawfull How shall this of the kings be condemned that had as much as Abraham David Ahab against Benhadad Judas Machabeus and the tribes of Israel or those heathens that made it pro aris socis put them altogether to warrant it Or by what reason or Law is any man by the Lawes of England excused for killing a man in his owne defence when hee is necessitated or hindred by a Wall or a Water that hee can goe no further or for killing theeves that come to assault or Rob him in his house or Castle If the King shall bee hunted from his house through all the parts and corners of his Kingdome for his Life and not only for his Life but his Honour and not only for his Life and Honour but his Conscience and yet must never draw his Sword or seeke to defend himselfe or have any body else to doe it for him Or how have all the Kings Princes and Magistrates of the world hitherto governed and defended themselves and their people or shall ever bee able to give an account of the people committed to their charge if they may not bee at libertie to make a Legall use of the sword power and reason God hath given them Or how can those State riddles like those of Sphinx only made to destroy men withall that they fought for the King and Parliament as is alledged in many of their Orders and Declarations and that the warre was a Rebellion raised against the King and Parliament as is expressed in the Ordinance of Parliament for association of the Counties of Pembroke Cardigan and Caermrthen bee ever understood by any rules of sence or reason if hee were on the offensive part of the warre and had begunne it against them But if any shall bee so in love with the sense of the house of Commons as to bee out of their own senses and think that though there bee no manner of evidence or proofe to bee had for love or money that the Parliament were constrained to defend themselves by a warre yet the Kings admitting of the Preamble of the Parliaments Propositions presented to him at the Isle of Wight that the Parliament was necessitated to take up Armes in their just and lawfull defence makes him who must needs be best acquainted with his owne actions to bee so clearly guiltie of all the blood hath beene shed in these warres as it puts to silence all that can bee now alledged or said in his behalfe They that made the preamble and placed it in limine and threshold of the Treatie on purpose to catch and insnare him for either hee must have denied it at the very beginning and entrance into the Treatie and leave his Kingdomes and People to wallow in the blood and miserie their Parliament Idols had brought them to and have all the blame laid upon him for hindring a Peace hee had so much longed and laboured for or put himselfe and all his Loyall Subjects that helped to defend him under the burden of those Sinnes and Shames the Parliament themselves had all the right to can tell their undone and deluded Proselites how much the King stuck at it how unwilling hee was to breake off the Treatie and was unwilling to wrong his owne Innocency and that when the Parliament Commissioners had not any thing either in Law or Truth or Reason or Argument to perswade him to yeild unto it but laid it only as a case of necessitie before him though there was no such preamble at the Treaties of Oxford and Vxbridge nor any such necessity at those times insisted upon that unlesse hee would take the guilt upon himselfe his two Houses of Parliament and the People had engaged with them must necessarily bee guilty of Treason and could not have any security from the guilt and punishment The King bemoaning himselfe and people that must bee thus shut out from any hopes of peace intreated some expedient or medium might bee found out to reconcile the difference But Cains sinnes being greater then could bee forgiven him unlesse Abell can bee brought to say hee killed Cain they that could afterward finde an expedient for 21. of their great Councell of estate that refused to subscribe to the Lawfullnesse of murdering the King after it was done could finde none at all for the King to purchase a peace for the People though many kinds of wayes and expedients as allowing him to make the like preamble to his owne proposition or the like might have beene easily contrived and thought upon For the truth was the Independent partie desired no Peace at all and the Preshyterian desired it only to get into their hands the Kings Power and Authoritie and lay the guilt of all the blood they had shed for it upon him and â—oth of them were so well content to have him allow of the preamble as the latter thought himselfe safe and out of controversie if the King tooke the blood upon him and the former that it would prove no small advantage or colour to take away his Life for confessing himselfe guilty of it by allowing of the preamble in this unparalel'd demand never before stood upon by Subjectâ— to their Prince or Conquerours to their Captives Nero himselfe was so farre short of as though hee had cuuning enough when hee set Rome on fire to lay the fault upon the Christians had not Villany enough to torture and seek to draw them to a confession that they did it The King after Protestation that hee could not without a manifest injury to the Truth and a violation of his Honour and Conscience take upon him a guilt could no way bee charged upon him or those that appeared in his defence was yet for peace sake and his peoples sake content to say It will bee a great self deny all to take this supposition of a guilt upon my selfe and a Christian virtue to undergoe any affliction that may bee for the good of my People and I am confident those that have adventured so much for me will bee content to share with me for so good a purpose in the suffering for it I shall therefore Conditionally consent to the Preamble so as there follow a conclusion upon the whole matter in Treaty and Propositions betwixt us otherwise it is but sub modo
and conditionall as it is alwaies to bee understood in this Treaty that nothing agreed in part betwixt us shall be binding unlesse their be a conclusion upon the whole And here let the Truth bee judge if the King did not aboundantly endeavour to save his People and if the Parliament had not neede of a justification when they used all manner of force and shifts to have the King take the fault upon him they therefore that shall consider that the King was a close prisoner robbed and bereaved of all hee had but his Honour and Conscience and a great measure of knowledge and understanding and the hearts of his Loyall Subjects was debarred of all friends and comforts penned up and used with all manner of hardship and and extremities and every day like to bee murdered that conditions adimpleri debent priusquam sequatur effectus are but inserted or added inâ—casum incertum qui potest tendere ad esse aut non esse depend on subsequencies or following effects which not hapning or coming to be performed according to the intent of the conditions makes them to vanish and expire as if there no such matter at all had bene acknowledged or expressed in them That Cooke his accuser who when hee comes to bee hanged for it will never bee able to prove that the People who substituted or gave him warrant for to accuse him And Bradshaw who sate higher in the pageant of Justice and the rest of his fellow murderers tooke the Kings conditionall consenting to the Preamble to bee so little for their purpose as they never so much as mentioned it must not only acquit him of any Confession or guilt to bee inferred from his conditionall yeilding to that Ambuscado Preamble but dissolve into wonder and admiration that hee who in his Royall Meditations and Conference with death upon the Parliaments votes of non addresse and his closer imprisonment at Carisbrooke-Castle had clearnesse of Conscience enough to say for as for his judgment wee hope it cannot bee suspected when Mr. Carill the Independent and Mr. Vines a Presbyterian Minister could say hee was a second Salomon and the Parliaments Commissioners at the Isle of Wight report him to bee the master of the greatest wisdome and understanding That hee had the feast of a good Conscience and the brazen wall of a judicious integrity and Conscience doubted not but his Innocency would find God to bee his protector rejoyced in the comfort of Imitating Christs example in suffering for Righteousnesse sake and thanked God hee could pray for them that God would not impute his Blood to them further then to convince them what neede they had of Christs Blood to wash their Soules from the guilt of Sheding His And was afterwards in the face and view of Death and his murderers heard to say upon the Scaffold Hee never did begin a Warre with the two houses of Parliament and called God to his witnesse to whom hee was shortly to make an account hee never intended to incroach upon their priviledges but they began upon him It was the Militia they began upon though they confest it was his and that any that would looke into the date of their Commissions and his might cleerely see that they began these unhappie troubles and hoped God would cleer him of it Could bee so much more then a man and so great a protectour of his People as not only to bee content to bee robbed and despoiled of all that hee had for their sakes but to save the Lawes and estates of his People when there was no other way to doe it deliver up himselfe so as a Peace and Agreement might have followed upon the Treaty to the unjust Censure of Robbing and Spoyling those that had robbed and undone him But now that we have hunted this Parliament Protens through all this disguises of Parliament priviledges and pretences and are lamentably assured a great and accursed thing is committed in our Israel and the anger of the Lord is kindled against us it may bee labour well bestowed though here is sure enough already said and prov'd that the King was in the defensive and justifiable part of the Warre to send into Achans tent and search and see what is there to bee found concerning this matter and here we find the Lord Say the Lord Brooke and their complices had not long before the King had summoned them to that which is now called the Parliament setled and conveyed their estates to prevent any dangers might happen upon their intended enterprises Peard the pragmatique Parliament man was heard to say a little before this holie Warre began to break out That the Government of the Kingdome would within a year or two bee altered A little before the second Scottish invasion Hinderson the Scotch firebrand confesses the Covenanters of both Kingdomes were unanimously agreed to bring the King to their lure before they laid downe Armes the joynt declaration of both Kingdomes in January 1643. professes they will never lay down Armes till the pretended reformation bee accomplished many declarations and remonstrances of the Parliament if they may bee so called and the Army mention the originall power and Soveraignty to bee in the people the common Rights and Freedome of the Nation and the opertunities God hath put into their hands An Ordinance of Parliament 20. October 1645. concerning rules and directions for Tryers and Judges of the abilitie of Elders declares it was the wonderfull providence of God in calling them which hee never did by force of Armes Hypocrisie Treason Rebellion and usurping of regall authority to the great and difficult worke of reformation and purging the Church The Lord Fairfax and his generall councell of Officers in their Remonstrance of the 16. November 1648. made to the Parliament call the putting downe of Monarchy and the Establishing of their unjust ends the publique interest originally contended for on the Parliaments part and the declaration and votes of those that call themselves the Commons of England in Parliament assembled 15. January 1648. affirm the bringing of Delinquents to punishment which if they had beene Delinquents is certainly a part of the Kingly office the maine if not the only end of making this Warre And in another place thereof acknowledges the rooting out of Episcopacy and bringing Delinquents to punishment to bee the only motives that induced them to undertake this Warre And though Achan will neyther confesse nor bee brought to punishment till the wroth and never failing judgement of God shall bring them and their sons their daughters and their successes the asses that follow them to be consumed in the field of Achor and the Fig-leaves which they have patched together to palliate hide their nakednesse cannot keepe out the eyes and understanding of a ruined Nation bleeding under the burden of of their iniquity but whether ever confessed or never will bee as plaine as the most infallible demonstration they were never
to Blasphemy to justifie their most horrid act of murdering him but for seeking to preserve the Lawes and Liberties of his People who are now cleerely cheated out of them And here our misery tells us wee must leave them and in the next place shall remember for indeede it is so playne it needs no enquiry CHAP. VI Who most desired Peace and offered faireliest for it TH' abundant satisfaction the King had offered them from his first summoning of the late Parliament to their dissolving of themselves by dissolving him who gave them all their Life and Being That which he did and all which hee would have done So many Declarations Answers and Messages penned by himself intending as much as his words could signifie were beleeved and understood by all at that time that were not interessed or ingaged against him and by many of the eagrest of them also that had no hand or look't to have any profit in the murthering of him for a tryall of a King without either warrant or colour of Scripture or the Lawes of the Kingdom or the consent of the major part of the People if that could have authorized it cannot nay will not by all the world and after ages bee otherwise interpreted unlesse wee shall say Ravillae might have justified his killing of Henry the fourth of France if hee had but had the wit to have framed or fancied a Supreme Court of Justice and have Sentenced him before he had done it will bee as Pillars and lasting-Monuments of this Truth The King was the only desirer of Peace and laboured and tuggedâ—â—rder for it then ever Prince or King Heathen or Christian since Almighty-God did his first days work did ever doe with Superiors Equalls or Subjects it will be no wrong certainly to David whose sufferings are so much remembred in all christian Churches complayning so bitterly that he sought Peace with those that refused it and in the meane time prepared for warre against him To say the King did suffer more and offer more and oftner for Peace then ever hee did for any thing is extanc or appearing to us for surely so many messages of Peace as one and twentie in two yeares space from the 5. of December 1645. to the 25. of December 1647. sent to the Parliament after so many affronts and discouragements must needs excuse him that offered all could bee imagined to bee for the good and safety of his People and condemne those that not only from time to time refused it but adhered so much to their first intentions as all the blood and riune of the People could not perswade them to depart with the least punctillio of it though the King before the Isle of Wight Treaty offered so much for the Olive-Branch as to part with the Militia for terme of his life and in a manner to un-king himselfe and was afterwards content to doe all that his Coronation-Oath Honour and Conscience could possibly permit him to doe and to purchase a Peace for his People was content to have borne the shame and reproach of what his enemies were only guilty of in so much as the Lord Say himselfe and most of his ever craving never safe enough Disciples confessed the king had offered so much as nothing more could bee demanded of him They therefore that can but tell how to divide or put a difference betwixt white and black night and day and the plainest contraries must needs also acknowledge the King offered all and the Parliament refused all The King was willing to part almost with every thing and the Parliament would never part with any thing The King was willing for the good of his People to give away almost every thing of his owne but the Parliament would never yeild to part with any thing was not their owne And thus may the account bee quickly cast up betweene the King and Parliament who would have saved and kept the people from misery and who was most unwilling to make an end of it But that wee may not too hastily give the sentence to try the businesse as they use to doe at the Counsell of Warre or the new Invented way of Justicel sitting with their Will or the Sword only in one hand and no Ballance at all in the other Wee shall in the next place examine CHAP. VII Who Laboured to Shorten the Warre and who to Lengthen it THe ods was so great betwixt what the Parliament laboured to get and the King to keep as that which swayes the ballance in most mens actions will bee argument enough to conclude they were more likely to loose by a peace then a war therfore the more willing to continue it and if their owne interests would not put them so farre upon it their vaine glorie and ambition would bee forward enough to perswade them to it and if not that the successe of their armes or miscalled providence would make them looke as experience tells us they did upon any tenders of peace as Alexander the great did upon Darius his offer of halfe his Kingdome and if not that their feares and jealousies now growne greater by wronging of the King then ever they were when they suspected him could never think it safe to let an inraged Lion into his den they had so long kept out of it But the King could not fight for his owne but hee must adventure the undoing of his owne and could not but know that so much as was lost of his Subjects would bee so much lost of a King and therefore doth all hee can to preserve a People had no minde to preserve themselves and before hee had gathered up the bayes hee wonne at Edge-hill sends a Proclamation of pardon to those that the day before did all they could to kill him and in all his actions of warre afterward behaved himselfe rather like a weeping father defending himselfe against the strokes and violence of disobedient Children Had the Parliament accepted of his offers before hee came to Beverley or besieged Hull hee had never set up his Standard at Nottingham or had they loved his People but halfe so much as he did their Armies had never seen his Banners displaid at Edge-hill Had they hearkned to his many endeavors for Peace after that battell and not sought to surround or ruine him when hee came so neere as to their very doores to intreat for it they had never beene troubled to frame an accusation against him for defending himselfe at Braynford Had his Treaty at Oxford beene proceeded in with the same desires of Peace hee brought to it the blood that was shed at Caversham-bridge had beene kept for better purposes had hee sought his owne advantages hee had not besieged Glocester or had hee not beene so unwilling to put the People in it to the hazard of a storme might have taken it had they not sent their Generall to assault him at Glocester whil'st hee was as David besieging the strong hold of the Jebusites
Turk and the King as their Henry Scobell or Towne Clearke but subscribe it their Spirituall as well as their Temporall Estate and their Soules as well as their Bodies must bee voted and forced to it And now let the People that have tasted too much of such a kind of happinesse and are like to continue in it as long as their misery-makers can by any help of the Devill or his angells hold them to it consider whether they or their forefathers though some have thought themselves to have wit enough to adventure to call them fooles were the wiser whether they that setled the government and were contented with it or they that pulled it in peeces and whether the tearing up of the fundamentall Lawes of Monarchy Peerage Parliament and Magna Charta even since the day the King was murthered for defending of them which every one but themselves desired to uphold bee not enough besides the Scottish combination and the plots to ruine Monarchy and the King and his posterity before the five Members and Kimbolton had so farâ—â— engaged themselves in it to informe them if nothing else had beene demonstrated unto them That the King did all hee could to preserve the Lawes Religion and Liberties of the People which diverâ— peeces of his coyne will help to perpetuate the truth as well as the memory of and the parliament all they could to destroy them And that as hee actually endeavoured to defend them so have they as actually undone and destroyed them And let the greatest search of history can bee made or time it selfe bee Judge if ever any warre was more made in the defensive or upon juster grounds or greater necessities or if ever any King before fought for the Liberties of those hee was to governe and for Lawes to restraine himselfe withall or if it were possible for him to suffer so much in any mans opinion as to have it thought to bee unlawfull or that he was a murtherer of his people for seeking to protect them How shall any King or Majestrate bee able to beare or use the Sword when they themselves shall bee in continuall danger to bee beaten with it King Edward the 2. of England was not murthered for the blood that was shed in the Barrons Warres though some of them had drawne their swords but in performance of his fathers will to take away his favorite Gavestson from him King Rich. 2. in those many dâ—vised Articles charged against him was not deposed for the blood was shed in Wat Tilers Commotion nor Hen. 6. publiquely accused for that of Jack Cades Rebellion and the most bloody differences of the White and Red-Roses nor Queene Elizabeth for all that was spilt in reducing Ireland when her favorite the Earle of Essex made it to bee the more by his practises with Tyrone nor for the blood of Hacket who pretended to bee Christ nor of Penry and other Sectaries lesser Incendiaries then Burton Prynnâ— and Bastwick for disturbing the Common-Wealth the great Henry of France was not endeavoured by his Catholick Subjects to be brought to triall for sheding so much of their Blood to reduce them to his obedience nor by his Protestant Subjects after hee was turned Catholique for spending so much of their blood to another purpose then they intended it Nor have the stout harted Germans though many of them great and almost free Princes in their late peace and accord made betwixt the Swedes and the Emperour thought it any way reasonable or necessary to demand reparation for those millions of men Women and Children houses and Estates were ruined and spoyled by a 30. yeares warre to reduce the Behemians and Prince Elector Palatine to their obedience For what rules or bounds shall bee put to every mans particular fancy or corrupted interest if they shall bee at Libertie to question and call to account the authority God hath placed over them Shall the sonne condemne or punish the father for his owne disobedience the Wife her Husband for her owne act of Adultery or the Servant the Master for his owne unfaithfullnesse or can there bee any thing in the Reason or understanding of man to perswade him to think the King was justly accused for the shedding of his Subjects blood which the accusers themselves were only guilty of And Bradshaw himselfe like the Jewes high Priest confessing a truth against his will in the words he gave insteed of reason for murthering the King against the will and good liking of 9. parts in every 10. of the Commons of England could make his Masters that call themselves the Parliament of England to bee no better then the Tribum plebis of Rome and the Ephori of Sparta the former of which for manifold mischiefes and inconveniences were abrogated and laid aside and never more thought fit to bee used and the latter not being halfe so bad as our new State Gipsies killed and made away to restore the People againe to their Liberties But the opinion and Judgement of the Learned Lord Chiefe Justice Popham who then little thought his grand-child Collonell Popham should joyne with those that sate with their Hats on their heads and directed the murther of their Soveraigne and if hee were now living would sure enough have hanged him for it and those other learned Judges in the case and Tryall of the Earle of Essex in the Raigne of Queene Elizabeth That an intent to hurt the Soveraigne Prince as well as the Act of it was Treason And that the Lawes of England doe interpret every act of Rebellion or Treason to aime at the death or deposing the Prince For that Rebels by their good will never suffer that King or Prince to live or Raigne that understands their purposes and may revenge them agreeable to that of the Civill Law That they that goe about to give Lawe to their Prince will never suffer him to recover Authority to punish it is now written in the blood of the King and those many iterated complaints of the King in severall of his Declarations published to the People in the mid'st of the Parliaments greatest pretences and promises that they intended to take away his life and ruine him are now gone beyond suspicion and every man may now know the meaning of their Cannoneeres levelling at the King with perspective glasses at Copredy bridge the acquitting of Pym the â—nnâ—keeper who said hee would wash his hands in the Kings Heart Blood stifling of 15. or 1â— severall indictments for treasonable words and Rolfe rewarded for his purpose to kill him and the prosecutor chequed and some of them imprisoned for it For the Sunne in the Firmament and the foure great quarters of the Earth and the Shapes and Lineaments of man are not so universally knowne seene or spoken of as this will bee most certaine to the present as well as after ages The end hath now verified the beginning and Quoâ— primum fuit in intentione ultimo loco agitur Seaven yeares