a Numerous and Splendid Train of Persons of Quality among whom was a Prince of the Blood and Muncini Mazarine 's Nephew who brought a Letter from his Uncle to the Protector full of the highest Expressions of Respect and assuring his Highness That being within view of the English Shore nothing but the King's Indisposition who lay then ill of the Small-Pox at Calais could have hinder'd him to come over to England that he might enjoy the Honour of waiting upon one of the Greatest Men that ever was and whom next to his Master his greatest Ambition was to serve But being depriv'd of so great a happiness he had sent the Person that was nearest to him in Blood to assure him of the profound Veneration he had for his Person and how much he was resolv'd to the utmost of his power to cultivate a perpetual Amity and Friendship betwixt his Master and him Few Princes ever bore their Character higher upon all occasions than Oliver Cromwell especially in his Treaties with Crown'd Heads And it 's a thing without Example that 's mention'd by one of the best-inform'd Historians of the Age Puffendorf in the Life of the late Elector of Brandenburgh That in Cromwell's League with France against Spain he would not allow the French King to call himself King of France but of the French whereas he took to himself not only the Title of Protector of England but likewise of France And which is yet more surprizing and which can hardly be believ'd but for the Authority of the Author Puffendorf de Rebus Gestis Fredâ—rici Wilhelmi Electoris Brandenburgici p. 313. Id porro Bellum Protectoris in Hispanos adeo opportunum Gallo accedebat ut summo Studio istum faedore sibi innectere studeret etiam concesso ut Cromwellus eundem Gaâ—â—orum Regem non Galliarum nuncuparet aliâs ipse Protectoris quoque Franciae vocabulum ficut Angliae assumpturus Simul pateretur Cromwellum Instrumento suo Nomen titulumque ante Gallicum ponere whose own Words are in the Margin In the Instrument of the Treaty the Protector 's Name was put before the French King's It 's true France was then under a Minority and was not arriv'd at that Greatness to which it has since attain'd Towards which Cromwell contributed not a little by that League with France against Spain being the falsest Step he ever made with respect to the Tranquility of Europe As every thing did contribute to the Fall of King Charles I. so did every thing contribute to the Rise of Cromwell And as there was no design at first against the King's Life so it 's probable that Cromwell had no thoughts for a long time of ever arriving at what he afterwards was It is known he was once in Treaty with the King after the Army had carried his Majesty away from Holmby House to have Restor'd him to the Throne which probably he would have done if the Secret had not been like to take Vent by the Indiscretion of some about the King which push'd Cromwell on to prevent his own by the Ruin of the King It 's likewise certain that the Title of Protector did not satisfy his Ambition but that he aim'd to be King The Matter was for some time under Consideration both in his Mock-Parliament and Council of State in-so-far that a Crown was actually made and brought to Whitehall for that purpose But the Aversion he found in the Army against it and the fear of the Commonwealth-Party oblig'd him to lay the Thoughts of it aside at least for that time Yet it 's probable these high Aims did not dye but with himself For to be able with the help of Spanish Gold to carry on his Design in England without depending upon a Parliament for Money is thought was the true Motive of his Attempt upon St. Domingo which was the only Action of War he fail'd in But notwithstanding his specious Pretences to the contrary Cromwell invaded and betrayed the Liberties of his Countrey and acted a more Tyrannical and Arbitrary Part than all the Kings of England together had done since the Norman Conquest And yet after all his Good Fortune accompanied him to the last for after a long Chain of Success he died in Peace and in the Arms of his Friends was buried among the Kings with a Royal Pomp and his Death condol'd by the Greatest Princes and States of Christendom in Solemn Embassies to his Son But this is not all for whatever Reasons the House of Austria had to hate the Memory of Cromwell yet his causing the Portugal Ambassador's Brother to be Executed for a Tumult in London notwithstanding his Plea of being a Publick Minister as well as his Brother was near Twenty Years after Cromwell's Death brought as a Precedent by the present Emperor to justify his Arresting and carrying off the Prince of Furstenburgh at the Treaty of Cologne notwithstanding Furstenburgh's being a Plenipotentiary for the Elector of that Name And in the Printed Manifesto publish'd by the Emperor upon that occasion this Piece of Cromwellâ—s Justice in executing the Portuguese Gentleman is related at large To sum up Cromwell's Character it 's observable That as the Ides of March were equally Fortunate and Fatal to Iulius Caesar another Famous Invader of the Liberties of his Countrey so was the Third of September to Oliver Cromwell For on that Day he was Bornâ— on that Day he fought the Three Great Battels of Marston-Moor Worcester and Dunbar and on that Day he died Cromwell died in the peaceable Possession of the Sovereign Power though disguis'd under another Name and left it to a Son that had neither Heart nor Abilities to keep it The Genius of the Nation return'd to its Natural Byass and Monarchy was so much interwoven with the Laws Customs and the first Threads of the English Constitution that it was altogether impossible it could be ever totally worn out Our Ancestors had wisely settled themselves upon that Bottom and those very men that some Years before had justled out Monarchy upon the account of its Encroachments upon the Rights of the People were become as zealous now to restore it again upon the Encroachments that the assuming part of the People had made of late upon the Rights of their Fellow-Subjects For near Two Years together after Cromwell's Death the Government of England underwent various Shapes and every Month almost produc'd a New Scheme till in the end all these Convulsions co-operated to turn the Nation again upon its True and Ancient Basis. Thence it was that the Son of King Charles the First The Restoration of King Charles II. after Ten Years Exile was restor'd to his Father's Throne in the Year 1660 without Blood or any remarkable Opposition This Revolution was the more to be admir'd since not only all Attempts to bring King Charles back by Force of Arms prov'd ineffectual but that notwithstanding upon Cromwell's Death every thing at home seem'd to concur to his
to give you my Iudgâ—ment of your Proceedings in your Convocation as you call it and both as Rex in solio and unus Gregis in Ecclesia I am doubly concerned My Title to the Crown no body calls in question but they that neither love you nor me and you guess whom I mean All that you and your Brethren have said of a King in Possession for that Word I tell you is no worse than that you make use of in your Canon concerns not me at all I am the next Heir and the Crown is mine by all Rights you can name but that of Conquest and Mr Solicitor has sufficiently express'd my own Thoughts concerning the Nature of Kingship in general and concerning the nature of it ut in mea persona And I believe you were all of his Opinion at least none of you said ought contrary to it at the time he spake to you from me But you know all of you as I think that my Reason of calling you together was to give your Iudgments how far a Christian and a Protestant King may concur to assist his Neighbours to shake of their Obedience to their once Sovereign upon the Account of Oppression Tyranny or what else you like to name it In the late Queen's time this Kingdom was very free in assisting the Hollanders both with Arms and Advice And none of your Coat ever told me that any scrupled about it in her Reign Vpon my coming to England you may know that it came from some of your selves to raise Scruples about this Matter And albeit I have often told my Mind concerning Jus Regium in Subditos as in May last in the Star-Chamber upon the occasion of Hales his Pamphlet yet I never took any notice of these Scruples till the Affairs of Spain and Holland forc'd me to it All my Neighbours call on me to concur in the Treaty between Holland and Spain and the Honour of the Nation will will not suffer the Hollanders to be abandoned especially after so much Money and Men spent in their Quarrel Therefore I was of the Mind to call my Clergy together to satisfy not so much me as the World about us of the Iustness of my owning the Hollanders at this time This I needed not have done and you have forced me to say I wish I had not You have dipp'd too deep in what all Kings reserve among the Arcana Imperii And what ever Aversion you may profess against God's being the Author of Sin you have stumbled upon the Threshold of that Opinion in saying upon the Matter that even Tyranny is God's Authority and should be reverenc'd as such If the King of Spain should return to claim his old Pontifical Right to my Kingdom you leave me to seek for others to fight for it For you tell us upon the matter beforehand his Authority is God's Authority if he prevail Thus far the Secretary's Hand as I take it follows the rest in the King 's own Hand thus Mr. Doctor I have no time to express my Mind farther in this thorny business I shall give you my Orders about it by Mr. Solicitor and until then meddle no more in it for they are Edge-Tools or rather like that Weapon that 's said to cut with the one edge and cure with the other I commit you to God's Protection good Doctor Abbot and rest Your good Friend Iames R. APPENDIX Containing a Collection of Instruments and Original Papers referr'd to in the former Memoirs NUMB. I. The Character of the Members of the House of Commons in Queen Elizabeth's Time Naunton's Fragmenta Regalia p. 13 14. and how differing from those in the Reign of King James WE must ascribe some part of the Commendation to the Wisdom of the Times and the Choice of Parliament-men For I find not that they were at any time given to any violent or pertinacious dispute Elections being made of grave and discreet Persons not factious and ambitious of Fame such as came not to the House with a malevolent Spirit of Contention but with a preparation to consult on the publick good rather to comply than contest with her Majesty Neither do I find that the House was at any time weaken'd and pester'd with the admission of too many Young Heads as it hath been of later times Which remembers me of Recorder Martin's Speech about the Tenth of our late Sovereign Lord King Iames when there were accounts taken of Forty Gentlemen not above Twenty and some not exceeding Sixteen which moved him to say That it was the ancient Custom for Old Men to make Laws for Young ones but that then he saw the Case alter'd and that there were Children elected unto the great Council of the Kingdom which came to invade and invert Nature and to enact Laws to govern their Fathers Sure we are the House always took the Common Cause into their Consideration and they saw the Queen had just occasion and need enough to use their assistance Neither do I remember that the House did ever capitulate or prefer their private to the publick the Queen's Necessities c. but waited their times and in the first place gave their Supply and according to the Exigency of her Affairs yet failed not at last to obtain what they desired so that the Queen and her Parliaments had ever the good fortune to depart in Love and on reciprocal Terms which are Considerations which have not been so exactly observed in our last Assemblies as they might and I would to God they had been For considering the great Debt left on the King and in what Incumbrances the House it self had then drawn him his Majesty was not well used though I lay not the blame on the whole Suffrage of the House where he had many good Friends for I dare avouch had the House been freed of half a dozen of popular and discontented Persons such as with the Fellow that burnt the Temple at Ephesus would be talked of tho but for doing of mischief I am confident the King had obtained that which in reason and at his first Accession he ought to have received freely and without any condition NUMB. II. The Character of Cecil Naunton Ibid. p. 80 81 82 83. Earl of Salisbury with his Letter to the Lord Mountjoy about the Spaniards Invading Ireland AND so again to this great Master of State and the Staff of the Queen's declining Age who though his little crooked Person could not promise any great supportation yet it carried thereon a Head and a Head-piece of a vast content and therein it seems Nature was so diligent to compleat one and the best part about him as that to the perfection of his Memory and Intellectuals she took care also of his Senses and to put him in Linceos Oculos or to pleasure him the more borrowed of Argos so to give unto him a Prospective Sight And for the rest of his Sensitive Virtues his Predecessor Walsingham had left him a Receit
desire the comfort of your gracious presence and likewise the Unity and Justice of your Royal Authority to give more life and power to the dutiful and loyal Counsels and Endeavours of your Parliament for the prevention of that eminent ruin and destruction wherein your Kingdoms of England and Scotland are threatned The duty which we owe to your Majesty and our Countrey cannot but make us very sensible and apprehensive that the multiplicity sharpness and malignity of those evils under which we have now many years suffered are fomented and cherished by a corrupt and ill-affected party who amongst other their mischievous devices for the alteration of Religion and Government have thought by many false scandals and imputations cunningly insinuated and dispersed amongst the people to blemish and disgrace our proceedings in this Parliament and to get themselves a party and faction amongst your Subjects for the better strengthning of themselves in their wicked courses and hindring those Provisions and Remedies which might by the wisdom of your Majesty and Counsel of your Parliament be opposed against them For preventing whereof and the better information of your Majesty your Peers and all other your loyal Subjects we have been necessitated to make a Declaration of the state of the Kingdom both before and since the Assembly of this Parliament unto this time which we do humbly present to your Majesty without the least intention to lay any blemish upon your Royal Person but only to represent how your Royal Authority and Trust have been abused to the great prejudice and danger of your Majesty and of all your good Subjects And because we have reason to believe that those malignant parties whose proceedings evidently appear to be mainly for the advantage and encrease of Popery is composed set up and acted by the subtil practice of the Jesuits and other Engineers and Factors for Rome and to the great danger of this Kingdom and most grievous affliction of your loyal Subjects have so far prevailed as to corrupt divers of your Bishops and others in prime places of the Church and also to bring divers of these Instruments to be of your Privy Council and other employments of trust and nearness about your Majesty the Prince and the rest of your Royal Children And by this means hath had such an operation in your Council and the most important affairs and proceedings of your Government that a most dangerous division and chargeable preparation for War betwixt your Kingdoms of England and Scotland the increase of Jealousies betwixt your Majesty and your most obedient Subjects the violent distraction and interruption of this Parliament the insurrection of the Papists in your Kingdom of Ireland and bloody Massacre of your people have been not only endeavoured and attempted but in a great measure compassed and effected For preventing the final accomplishment whereof your poor Subjects are enforced to engage their persons and estates to the maintaining of a very expenceful and dangerous War notwithstanding they have already since the beginning of this Parliament undergone the charge of 150000 pounds sterling or thereabouts for the necessary support and supply of your Majesty in these present and perillous Designs And because all our most faithful endeavours and engagements will be ineffectual for the peace safety and preservation of your Majesty and your people if some present real and effectual course be not taken for suppressing this wicked and malignant party We your most humble and obedient Subjects do with all faithfulness and humility beseech your Majesty 1. That you will be graciously pleased to concur with the humble desires of your people in a Parliamentary way for the preserving the peace and safety of the Kingdom from the malicious Designs of the Popish party For depriving the Bishops of their Votes in Parliament and abridging their immoderate power usurped over the Clergy and other your good Subjects which they have most perniciously abused to the hazard of Religion and great prejudice and oppression of the Laws of the Kingdom and just liberty of your people For the taking away such oppressions in Religion Church government and Discipline as have been brought in and fomented by them For uniting all such your loyal Subjects together as joyn in the same fundamental truths against the Papist by removing some oppressions and unnecessary Ceremonies by which divers weak consciences have been scrupled and seem to be divided from the rest For the due execution of those good Laws which have been made for securing the liberty of your Subjects 2. That your Majesty will likewise be pleased to remove from your Council all such as persist to favour and promote any of those pressures and corruptions wherewith your people have been grieved and that for the future your Majesty will vouchsafe to imploy such persons in your great and publick Affairs and to take such to be near you in places of trust as your Parliament may have cause to confide in that in your Princely goodness to your people you will reject and refuse all mediation and solicitation to the contrary how powerful and near soever 3. That you would be pleased to forbear to alienate any of the forfeited and escheated Lands in Ireland which shall accrue to your Crown by reason of this Rebellion that out of them the Crown may be the better supported and some satisfaction made to your Subjects of this Kingdom for the great expences they are like to undergo this War Which humble desires of ours being graciously fulfilled by your Majesty we will by the blessing and favour of God most chearfully undergo the hazard and expences of this War and apply our selves to such other courses and counsels as may support your Royal Estate with honour and plenty at home with power and reputation abroad and by our loyal affections obedience and service lay a sure and lasting foundation of the greatness and prosperity of your Majesty and your Royal Posterity in future times A Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom Die Mercurii 15 Decemb. 1642. THE Commons in this present Parliament assembled having with much earnestness and faithfulness of affection and zeal to the publick good of this Kingdom and his Majesties honour and service for the space of twelve months wrestled with the great dangers and fears the pressing miseries and calamities the various distempers and disorders which had not only assaulted but even overwhelmed and extinguisht the liberty peace and prosperity of this Kingdom the comfort and hopes of all his Majesties good Subjects and exceedingly weakned and undermined the foundation and strength of his own Royal Throne Do yet find an abounding Malignity and Opposition in those parties and factions who have been the cause of those evils and do still labour to cast aspersions upon that which hath been done and to raise many difficulties for the hinderance of that which remains yet undone and to foment Jealousies betwixt the King and the Parliament that so they may deprive him his
the just Rewards of Rebellion Only give me leave after I have reduc'd this Countrey to your Majesty's Obedience and conquer'd from Dan to Beersheba to say to your Majesty then as David's General did to his Master Come thou thy self lest this Countrey be callâ—d by my Name For in all my Actions I aim only at your Majesty's Honour and Interest as becomes one that is to his last Breath May it please your Sacred Majesty Innerlochy in Lochaber Feb. 3. 1645. Your Majesty's most Humble most Faithful and most Obedient Subject and Servant MONTROSS NUMB. XI The Address of General Monk and his Officers from Scotland to the Parliament of England against Monarchy upon Richard Cromwell's Abdication Right Honourable THAT a Nation may be born in a day Whitlock's Memoirs p. 679 680. is a truth which this days experience witnesseth unto us against all the dictates of humane Reason and that a glorious Cause whose Interest was laid low even in the dust should be in one day restored to its life and lustre when almost all the Asserters of it had so manifestly declined it by a defection of many years cannot be imputed to less than the greatest and most powerful manifestation of the Arm of God that ever this or former Generations saw or heard of In the sense of this the greatest of our Temporal Mercies we now come to address to your Honours as those whose presence we have so long wanted that had you staid but a little longer it might have been left to be enquired what England was we mean what was become of that People by whom God for so many years filled the World with so much admiration and terror But though this great Work be as most justly it ought to be wonderful in our eyes yet when we consider its Author who calls things that are not as if they were bringeth down to the Pit and raiseth up again we see that nothing is difficult to Faith and the Promises of God are sure and stable even then when in the eye of man no less than impossible We cannot but acknowledge to our exceeding great sorrow and shame that our selves though we hope most of us through weakness and frailty not out of design have very much contributed to those Provocations which have caused God to depart from our Israel and we could heartily wish that even amongst those that help to make up your own number there had not been an helping hand to this sad and deplorable work But we see when God's hour is come and the time of his people's deliverance even the set time is at hand he cometh skipping over all the Mountains of Sin and Unworthiness that we daily cast in the way We are not willing to detain your Honours too long upon this Subject and therefore beseeching the God of all our Mercies to heal the backslidings of his people and not to charge unto their account in this his day of their deliverance their miscarriages whilst they were wandering in dark and slippery places after the imaginations of their own hearts we with all humility and affection in the first place congratulate you in this your happy Restoration to the Government of these Nations which God was pleased once so to own in your hands as to make you both the praise and wonder of the Earth the glory and rejoicing of his People and the terror of your Adversaries and we acknowledge it a singular condescension in you in this day of so great difficulties to take upon you so heavy a burthen And seeing his late Highness hath been pleased to manifest so much self-denial and love to his Country Richard Cromwell in appearing for the Interest thereof against his own we humbly intreat that some speedy care may be taken for him and his family together with her Highness Dowager that there may be such an honourable Provision settled upon them and such other Dignities as are suitable to the former great Services of that Family to these Nations And in the next place we cannot but humbly beseech you now you have an opportunity than which a fitter your hearts did never pray for to finish the work of Reformation that hath been so long upon the wheel and met with so great Obstructions that you would not heal the wound of the daughter of God's people slightly but make so sure and lasting provision for both their Christian and Civil Rights as that both this and future Generations may have cause to rise up and call you Blessed and the blackest of Designs may never be able to cast dirt in your faces any more And as helpful to these two great Concernments Religion and Liberty we humbly propose unto your mature consideration these two Desires First that you would be pleased to countenance Godliness and all the sincere professors thereof encourage an able and laborious Ministry and suffer no other Yoak to be imposed upon the Consciences of God's people than what may be agreeable to the Word of God and that you would be a terror to all impious prophane and licentious People whatsoever Secondly that you would so vindicate and assert the Native Rights and Liberties of these Nations in and by the Government of a Free-State that there may not be the voice of an oppressed one in our Land but that all may enjoy the blessed fruits of your righteous and peaceable Government And for the prevention of all possibility for ambitious Spirits ever to work their ends against you we humbly desire you to be very careful as well what persons you entrust with the management of the Armies and Navies of this Commonwealth as of the measure of that Power and Authority you depart with to them or substitute in them Touching the qualifications of the Persons we desire they may be truly godly and conscientious Touching the measure of their Authority that it may be adequate to the nature and being of a Commonwealth And whilst you are thus pleading and asserting the Interest of God and his People you may rest assured with greatest confidence that we shall appear in your defence and the vindication of your Authority against the opposition of all Arbitrary Powers whatsoever And to that blessed and All-powerful God who is able to spirit you for this great work you are and shall daily be recommended in the prayers of Your most loyal and most Obedient Servants George Monk Thomas Read Ralph Cobbet Tim. Wilks Robert Read Iohn Cloberry Abra. Holmes Henr. Dorney Dan. Davison Rich. Heath Mi. Richardson I. Hubbelthorn Tho. Iohnson P. Crisp. He. Brightman Phil. Watson Tho. Dean Ierem. Smith Will. Davis Iames Wright Ios. Wallinton Will. Helling Ethelb Morgan Rob. Winter Iohn Paddon Anthony Nowers The Form of the Declaration and Engagement taken by General Monk and his Officers against Monarchy and the Family of the Stuarts at his coming up from Scotland I A. B. Whitlock's Memoirs p. 684. do hereby declare That I do renounce the pretended Title of