of horses And within two dayes after the Lord Keeper Duke of Richmond Marquiss Hartford Earl of Salisbury Lord Gray of Ruthen with 17 Earls and 14 Barons the Lord Chief Justice Bancks and sundry others of eminent quality and reputation attest His Majesties Declaration and profession that He had no intention to make a War but abhorred it and That they perceived no Councels or preparations tending to any such designe and sent it with His Majesties Declaration to the Parliament In the mean time the Committee of Parliament appointed to make the propositions to the City of of London for the raising of Horse viz. 15. June 1642. Made report to the House of Commons That the Citizens did very cheerfully accept the same there being for indeed there had been some design and resolulution a year 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 Parlament was made for the Earl of Warwick to be Lord Admirall and keep the Navy though the King had commanded him on pain of treason to deliver up the Ships to him And the Lord Brook sent down into Warwick-Shire to settle the Militia 17. June 1642. Committee of both Houses was appointed to go to the City 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 War against his Parlament forbiddeth all levies of Forces without his Majesties express pleasure signified under his Great Seal And 20. June 1642. Informing all his Subjects by his Proclamation of the Lawfulness of his Commissions of Aray 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 himself had in the beginning of this Parlament accepted of one for the County of York Gave his people to understand That he 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 left under a pretence of danger and want of Authority from his Majesty to put them into a Military posture they should he drawn and engaged in any opposition against him or his just Authority But 21. June 1642. The Lords and Commons in Parlament Declaring The designe of their Propositions of raising Horse and Moneys was to maintain the Protestant Religion and the Kings Authority 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 themselvs had constantly for 6 months before did evidently appear to be intended for some great and extraordinary designe so as at this time also they do not charge the King with any manner of action of War or any thing done in a way or course of war against them and gave just caufe of fear and jealousie to the Parlament being never yet by any Law of God or man accounted to be a sufficient cause or ground for Subjects to make War against their Soveraign did forbid all Mayors Sheriffs Bayliffs and other Officers to publish His Majesties said Letter to the City of London And Declare that if He should use any force for the recovery of Hull or suppressing of their Ordinance for the Militia it should be held a levying Warr against the Parlament and all this done before His Majesty had granted any Commission for the levying or raising of a man and lest the King should have any manner of provision of War to defend himself when their Army or Sir John Hotham should come to assault him Powder and Armes were every whera seized on and Cutlers Gun-Smiths Sadlers and all Warlike Trades ordered not to send any to York but to give a weekly account what was made or sold by them And an Order made the 24 of June 1642. That the Horses which should be sant in for the service os the Parlament when they came to the number of 60. should be trained 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 means to suppress Popery Riots and unlawfull assemblies and to give the people to understand his resolution to maintain the Protestant Religion and the Laws of the Kingdom and not to govern 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 He would speedily give them such an answer as they shall have cause to thank him for his Justice and favour But the same day a Declaration was published by both Houses of Parlament commanding that no Sheriff Mayor Bayliff Parson Vicar Curate or other Sir Richard Gurney the Lord Mayor of London not many days before having been imprisoned for proclaiming the Kings Proclamation against the bringing in of Plate c. should publish or proclaim any Proclamation Declaration or other paper in the Kings name which should be contrary to any Order Ordinance or Declaration of both the houses of Parlament or the proceedings thereof and Order that in case any force should be brought out of one County into another to disturb the peace thereof they should be suppressed by the Train Bands and Voluntiers of the adjacent Counties Shortly after Sir John Hotham fortifieth the Town of Hull whilst the King is at York seizeth on a Ship coming to him with provisions for his Houshold takes Mr. Ashburnham one of the Kings servants prisoner intercepts Letters sent from the Queen to the King and drowneth part of the Countrey round about the Town which the Parlament allows of and promise satisfaction to the owners 5. July 1642. They order a subscription of Plate and Horse to be made in every County and list the Horse under Commanders and the morrow after Order 2000 men should be sent to relieve Sir John Hotham in case the King should besiege him to which purpose Drums were bear up in London and the adjacent parts to Hull The Earl of Warwick Ordered to send Ships to Humber to his assistance instructions drawn up to be sent to the Deputy-Lievtenants of the severall Counties to tender the Propositions for the raising of Horses Plate and Money Mr. Hastings and 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 meet every morning for the laying out of ten thousand pounds of the Guild-Hall moneys for the buying of 700 Horse and that 10000. Foot to be raised in London and the Country be imployed by direction of the Parlament and the Lord Brook is furnished with 6. pieces of
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 midst of the Parliaments greatest pretences and promises that they intended to take away his life and ruine him are now gone beyond suspition and every man may now know the meaning of their Canoneers levelling at the King with perspective glasses at Copredy bridge the acquitting of Pym the Inn-keeper who said He would wash his Hands in the Kings hearts-blood stifling of fifteen or sixteen severall indictments for treasonable words Rolf rewarded for his purpose to kil him and the prosecutors checked and some of them imprisoned for it For the Sun in the Firmament and the four great quarters of the Earth and the Shapes and Lineaments of man are not so universally known seen or spoken of as this will be most certain to the present as well as after ages The end hath now verified the beginning Quod primum fuit in intentione ultimo loco agitur Seaven years hypocritical Promises practices 7. years Pretences and seven years preaching and pratling have now brought us all to this conclusion as wel as Confusion The blood of old England is let out bygreater witch-craft and cousenage then that of Medea when she set Pelias daughters to let out his old blood that young might come in the place of it the Cedars of Lebanon are devouted and the Trees have made the Bramble King and are like to speed as wel with it as the Frogs did with the Storke that devoured them And they have not onely slain the King who was their Father but like Nero rip 't up the belly of the Common-Wealth which was their Mother The light of Israel is put out and the King Laws Religion and Liberties of the people murthered an action so horrid and a sin of so great a magnitude and complication as if we shall ask the daies that are past and enquire from the one end of the Earth to the other there will not be found any wickednesse like to this great wickedness or hath been heard like it The Severn Thames Trent and Humbar four of the greatest Rivers of the Kingdome with all their lesser running streams of the Island in their continuall courses and those huge heaps of waterin the Ocean girdle of it in their Restlesse agitations will never be able to scoure and wash away the guilt and stain of it though all the rain which the clouds shal ever bring forth and impart to this Nation and the tears of those that bewail the losse of a King of so eminent graces and perfections bee added to it Quis cladem illius diei quis funera fando Explicet aut possit lachrymis aequare dolores Gens antiqua ruit multos dominata per Annos AN EXACT LIST OF The Names of those pretended Judges who sate and sentenced our late SOVERAIGNE KING CHARLES the First in the place which they called the High Court of Justice Jan. 27. 1648. And also of those thirty five Witnesses Sworn against the said KING The Sentence read against him With the Catalogue of the Names of those that Subscribed and Sealed the Warrant for his Execution And the manner of his Cruel MVRDER London Printed by Henry Bell and are to be sold by most Book-sellors 1660. The Names of the pretended Judges who gave Sentence against the late King January 27. 1648. LXXII in Number IOhn Bradshaw Lord President Oliver Cromwell Henry Ireton Sir Hardress Waller Valentine Walton Thomas Harrison Edward Whaley Thomas Pride Isaac Ewer Lord Grey of Grooby William Lord Mounson Sir John Danvers Sir Thomas Maleverer Sir John Bourcher Isaac Pennington Henry Martin William Purifoye John Barkstead Mâ—â—thew Tomlinson John Blakeston Gilbert Millington Thomas Chaloner Sir William Constable Edmund Ludlow John Hutchison Sir Michael Livesey Robert Tichburne Owen Roe Robert Lilburne Adrian Scroop Richard Dean John Okey John Harrison John Hewson William Goffe Cornelius Holland John Carew John Jones Thomas Lister Peregrine Pelham Thomas Wogan Francis Alleu Daniel Blagrave John Moor. William Say Francis Lascels John Chaloner Gregory Clement Sir Gregory Norton John Venn Thomas Andrews Anthony Stapley Thomas Horton John Lisle John Browne John Dixwell Miles Corbett Simon Meyne John Alured Henry Smith Humphrey Edwards John Frye Edmund Harvey Thomas Scot. William Cawley John Downes Thomas Hammond Vincent Potter Augustine Garland Charles Fleetwood John Temple Thomas Wayte Counsellors assistant to this Court and to draw up the Charge against the KING were Dr. Dorislaus Serjeant Danby Serjeant at Arms. Mr. Aske   Mr. John Cook Solicitor Mr. Broughton Clerkes to the Court. Mr. Phelpes Colonel Humphrey Sword-bearer Messengers Door-keepers and Criers were these Mr. Walford Mr. Radley Mr. Paine Mr. Powell Mr. Hull Mr. King The Sentence against the said King Jan. 27 1648. which was read by Mr. Broughton aforesaid Clerk WHereas the Commons of England in Parliament have appointed them an High Court of Justice for the Trial of Charles Stuart King of England before whom he had been three times convented and at the first time a Charge of High Treason and other Crimes and Misdemeanors was read in the behalfe of the Kingdome of England c. as in the Charge which was read throughout To which Charge he the said Charles Stuart was required to give his Answer but he refused so to do and so expresâ— several passages at his Trial in refusing to answer For all which Treasons and Crimes this Court doth adjudge That the said Charles Stuart as a Tyrant Traytor Murderer and publick Enemy shall be put to death by severing his head from his body This Sentence says the President now read and published is the Act Sentence Judgement and Resolution of the whole Court. To which the Members of the Court stood up and assented to what he said by holding up their hands The King offered to speak but he was instantly commanded to be taken away and the court broke up The Names of thirty five Witnesses produced and Sworn in the said pretended Court to give Evidence against the King Henry Hartford of Stratford upon Avon in Com. Warwick Edward Roberts of Bishops Castle in Com. Salop Ironmonger Will. Baines of Wrixhall in Com. Salop. Robert Lacie of Nottingham Painter Robert Loads of Cottam in Com. Nottingham Tyler Samuel Morgan of Wellington in Com. Salop Feltmaker James Williams of Rosse in Com. Hartford Shoomaker Richard Pots of Sharpreton in Com. Northumberland Vintner Giles Grice of Wellington in Com. Salop Gent. William Arnop of John Hudson of John Winston of Dornotham in Com. Wilts George Seeley of London Cordwainer John Moor of Cork in Ireland Gent. Thomas Ives of Boyset in Com. Northampton Husbandman James Cresby of Dublin in Ireland Barber Thomas Rawlins of Hanslop in Com. Buck. Gent. Richard Bloomfeild of London Weaver John Thomas of Langallan in Com. Donbigh William Lawson of Nottingham Maulster John Pinegar of
consult or advise with the King for the defence of Him and his Kingdome or that when Felony and breach of Peace are excepted out of their priviledge Treason that is of a far higher nature consequence and punishment should be allowed them or if there could have been any such priviledge and a meaner man than their Soveraign had broke it a small understanding may inform them they could not without breach of the Peace have fought for it against a fellow-subject and then also could not their priviledges have reached to it but the King might have punished them for it and if they cannot upon a breach of priviledge as it was adjudged in Halls case without the Kings Writ and the cause first certified in Chancery deliver one of their own setvants arrested It is not likely any warrant can be found in Law to inforce the King to reparation though he himself should have broken it but to petition the King for an allowance of that or any other priviledge as well in the middle as any other time of their sitting in Parliament as they alwayes doe at the presenting of their Speaker in the beginning of it Wherefore certainly the people never gave the Parliament Commission if they could have given a Commission to make a War against their Soveraign to claim that was never due to them or to fight for that was never yet fought for by any of their Fore-fathers nor ever understood to be taken from them much less for their ayrie innovated pretences rather than priviledges which have since eaten up all the peoples Lawes and Liberties as well as a good part of their lives and estates with it and are now become to be every thing their Representatives will and and arbitrary power have a mind to make it who have so driven away their old legal priviledges by setting up illegal and fantastick kind of Priviledges as they are pleased to call them instead of them as there is nothing left of the Parliament like a Parliament neither matter nor form 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 the lower after that have driven away the upper and 45. of the House of Commons whereof eleven are great Officers and Commanders of the Army have after that imprisoned and driven away four hundred of their fellow-members And from degenerate and distemperate piece of a Parliament brought themselves to be but a representative or journey-men-voters to a Councel of their own mercenary and mechanick Army and may sit another eight yeares before ever they shall be able to find a reason to satisfie any man is not a fool 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 land and the Records and precedents of their own houses upon a charge or accusation of Treason for endeavouring amongst 〈◊〉 other pieces of Treason to alter the Government and subvert the fundamental Lawes of the Kingdome which the Parliament and they themselves that were accused have more than once declared to be Treason should be taken to be so great a breach of priviledge in the King their Soveraign when the forcing and over a wing the Houses of Parliament by the Army their servants and hirelings demanding the eleven Members and imprisoning and banishing some of them upon imaginary and fantastical offences committed against themselves or they could not tell whom shall be reckoned to be no breach at all of priviledge and the forcing of the Houses by the same Army within a year 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 several prisons with guards set upon them as if they had been common malefactors can be called mercies and deliverances and a purging and taking away rotten Members out of the House of Commons But now that we can find nothing to make a defensive or lawful nor so much as a necessary War on the Parliaments part for causa belli saith Besoldus correspondere debet damno periculo the Parliament feares and jealousies were not of weight enough to put the people into a misery far beyond the utmost of what their feares and jealousies to them did amount unto we shall do well to examine by the rules and laws of War and Nations the ways and means they used in it Injustum censetur bellum si non ejus penes quem est Majestas authoritate moveatur a war cannot be just if it be not made by a lawful authority Armorum delatio prohibitio ad Principem spectat It belongs to the Prince to raise or forbid Arms and the Records of the Parliament which we take to be a better sense of the House then their own purposes can inform them that the Prelates Earls Barons and Commonalty of the Realm did in the seventh year of the reign of King Edw. the First declare to the King That it belongeth and his part is through His Royal Signorie streightly to defend force of Armour and of Armour and all other force against his Peace when it shall please him and to punish them which shall do the contrary according to the Laws and usages of the Realm and that thereunto they were bound to aid their Soveraign Lord the King at all seasons when need shall be How much ado then will they have to make a War against their Soveraign to bee Lawfull or if by any Warrant of Laws Divine or Humane they could but tell how to absolve themselvs from their oaths of Supremacy Allegiance and their very many protestations and acknowledgements of Subjection to the King find a Supream authority to be in the People at the same time they not only stiled themselves but all those they represented to be his Subjects Or how will they bee able to produce a warrant from the People their now pretended Soveraigns till they shall be able sufficiently to enslave them to authorize them to make a War to undo them when they elected them but to consent to such things as should be treated of by the King and his Kingdom Or how could a tenth part 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 yield to it Or could the pretence of a War for defence of the Kings person and to maintain the Religion Laws and Liberties of the people be a warrant to the Parliament which never sought any for the King and People but to take away the Soveraignty from the one and the Liberties of the other to do every thing was
in the matter of fact hath hitherto among the wisest Princes and Commonwealths in the World been reputed a just and warrantable cause of War Homicide by the Lawes of England shall be excused with a fe defendendo when the assaulted hath but simply defended himself or retired in his own defence so far till by some water or wall he be hindred from going any further Death and destruction marching towards the King Hull fortified and kept behind him and all manner of necessitie compassing him in on every side could then doe no less then rouze him up to make his own defence and he must be as much without his senses as care of his own preservation if he should not then think it to be high time to make ready to defend himself and necessity enough to excuse him for any thing should be done in order to it The Parliament and He as this case stood could not be both at one and the same time in the defensive part For they had all the Money Arms Ammunition and strength of the Kingdom in their hands and multitudes of deluded people to assist them and so hunted and pursued 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 and were not likely therefore to be guilty of so much patience as the King who was so much in love with peace and 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 he suffer the Earl of Essex to attempt to force him from Oxford and Sir Thomas Fairfax once to beleager him when he had Power enough to have made London or the associate Counties the Seat of the War and it would be something strange that he who when he had raised forces against his Scottish Rebels and found himself in the Head of so gallant an Army as he had much adoe to keep them from fighting and his enemies so ridiculously weak as he might have subdued them but with looking upon them but a fortnight longer could not be perswaded to draw a Sword against them would now begin an offensive warre without any power or strength at all against those that had before-hand ingrossed it or what policy or wisedome could it be in him to begin a War without Money or Men or Armes to goe through with it or to refuse the assistance of his Catholique Subjects and Forrain Friends and Forces or to spend so much time in Messages and offers of Peace to give them time and ability to disarm him and arm themselves if he had not utterly abhorred a War and as cordially affected peace as he offered fair enough for it Or if we could but tell how to say that the King did begin the War when what he did was but to preserve his Regality and the Militia and Protection of his people which the Parliament in express terms as well as by Petitioning for it acknowledged it to be his Own being but that which every private man that had but money or friends would not neglect to do Did he any more in seeking to preserve his Regality then to defend and keep himself from a breach of trust they fought to make him break Or did he any more then seek to defend himself against those did all they could to force him to break it or could there be a greater perjury or breach of trust in the Kingly office than to put the Sword which God had given him into the hands of mad-men or fools or such as would kill and slay and undo 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 break their own trust to those they represented in asking of it as the King would havedone if he had granted it or why shall it not be accounted an inculpata tutela in the King to preserve and defend that by a War the Laws of God and Man his Coronation-Oath Honour and Conscience and a duty to Himself and his Posterity as well as to his people would not permit him to stand still and suffer to be 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 beginning 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 attempts of as high a nature put upon him the most malicious interpretation of the matter of Fact cannot find him so much as at all to have defended himself as to have done any one act of War or so much as like it who shall be in the fault for all that was done after when he offered to condiscend to all that might be profitable for his people in the matter of Religion Lawes and Liberties Or was it not a just cause of War to defend himself and his people against those would notwithstanding all he could doe and offer make a War against him because he would not contrary to his Oath Magna Charta and so many other Laws he had sworn to observe betray or deliver up his people into their hands to be 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 own Children out of his power was never sought to be taken out of the hand of any Father who was not a fool or a mad-man nor yielded to by any who would have the credit to be accounted 〈◊〉 wise or because he would not denude himself of the power of conferring honours or vilifie or discredit his great and lesser Seals and the Authority of them from which many mens Estates and Honours and the whole current of the Justice of the Kingdome had their original and refused to perjure himself by abolishing Episcopacy which Magna Charta and some dozens of other laws bound him to preserve Or if that be not enough to justifie him in his own defence had he not cause enough to deny and they little enough to ask Liberty of Conscience and practice to Anabaptists Blasphemers of God denieâ—s 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 he not cause enough to deny to set up the Presbyterian Authority would not even have taken away his own Authority 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 abhor or if all that could not make the War be made to be defensive
of Officers in their Remonstrance of the 16 November 1648. made to the Parliament call the putting down of Monarchy and the establishing of their unjust ends the publick 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 1 January 1648. affirm the bringing of Delinquents to punishment which if they had been Delinquents is certainly a part of the Kingly Office the main if not the onely end of making this War And in another place thereof acknowledges the rooting out of Episcopacy and bringing Delinquents to punishment to be the onely motives that induced them to undertake this War And though Achan will neither confess nor be brought to punishment till the wrath and never-failing judgement of God shall bring them and their sons and their daughters and their successes and the Asses that follow them to be consumed in the field of Achor and the Fig-leaves which they have patched together to palliate and hide their nakednesse cannot keep out the eyes and understanding of a ruined Nation bleeding under the burden of their iniquity but whether ever confessed or never will be as plain as the most infallible demonstration they were never necessitated to make a War but were so far from the Justification of a defensive War as that they were altogether in the offensive For beside all that hath been said to prove them guilty of the blood and misery of this Nation who can think or be believed if he should be so mad as to say it That they were forced to make a War for that was none of their own or to take away tenures in Capite which was a principal Flower of his Crown 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 Apostolical 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 than their forefathers and the makers of that Statute ever thought on But that we may do all the right we can to them have done so much wrong and the better carry on our judgements to a certain conclusion of that which God and all good and just men know to be true enough it will not we hope be impertinent in this our search and disquisition of the truth to proceed to the enquiry CHAP. V. Whether the Parliament in their pretended Magistracy have not taken lesler occasion to punish or provide against Insurrections Treasons and Rebellions as they are pleased to call them ALl in the neighbourhood of their Proceedings that know but any thing of them can tell it The Parliament have not been wanting to their own preservations and purposes in the exercise of the greatest jealousie vigilancy terror and authority over those they could get within their jurisdiction Witnesse Edward Archer who was whipt and punished almost to death for speaking but his ill wishes to the Earl of Essex when he was marching out of London with their Army against the King the imprisonment of their own Members for speaking against the Sense and Cabal of the House of Commons men and women old and young shut up under Decks ready to be stifled a ship-board upon suspition that they affected the King hanging of the two Bristol Merchants Master Bourchier and Master Yeomans for an endeavour to deliver to deliver up Bristol putting Colonel Essex out of the Government of that Town upon suspition of favouring the enterprise hanging of Master Tomkins and Master Chaloner for 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 and intercepting and opening their Letters beheading Sir Alexander Cary for an intention to deliver up Plimouth 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 son 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 Term being a greater mis-usage then Davids Messengers received from King Ammon imprisoning starving and undoing of any that durst but own the King or send or bring any Message from him or his party or that did but give any aid or assistance to him to which their Oaths and Consciences and the jugling Covenant they themselves took and forced upon them did oblige them shooting and cannonading of the Queen when she came but to aid her husband and chasing and shooting after her at Sea a year after when she 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 the Orthodox Ministers out of their Benefices and livelihoods for using the Common-Prayer-Book preaching true Doctrine and obedience to the King or praying for him at the same time when they pretended liberty of Conscience and prescription of Religion voting the Prince a Traitor for wishing well or being in company with his Father for he was too young to do 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 himself for but obeying the known Lawes they themselves made the world believe they made some part of the War for ordering all to die without mercy that did but harbour the King when he fled in a disguise before their Armies condemning men by a Court Martial after the War was ended and shooting them to death but for words or intentions And if this and many things more might be said of it be not enough what means so many Sequestrations and the bleating and lowing of mens Sheep 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 and divers Aldermen imprisoned but upon a suspicion of joyning with the Scots or something in pursuance 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 War was ended and the people like sheep devoured to maintain them so much complaining in our streets and taking away the fifth 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 Arms some in pursuance of the Covenant and others of them to deliver the King
out of prison and causing the Souldiers not onely 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 sequester 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 Cromwel himself had not long before set on som to petition for it and the ruine undoing of 2 parts of 3 in the Kingdome very many of whom did nothing actually in the Wars but were onely sacrificed to their pretended reasons and jealousies of State do sufficiently proclame and remain the woful Registers to after-generations of this lamentable assertion If the King could have gotten but so much leave of his mercy and a tenderheartednesse to his people as to have used but the five-hundredth part of the Parliaments jealousies and sharp and merciless authority in the managing of this Warre so much of his Kingdomes and people had not been undone and ruined nor the Parliament put to so much labour to coyn faults and scandals against him nor to wrest the Lawes to non-sense and the Scriptures to Blasphemy to justifie their most horrid act of murthering him but for seeking to preserve the Lawes and Liberties of his people who are now clearly cheated out of them And here our misery tells us we must leave them and in the next place shall remember for indeed it is so plain it needs no enquiry CHAP. VI. Who most desired Peace and offered fairliest for it TH'bundant 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 he would have done so many Declarations Answers and Messages penned by himself intending as much as his words could signifie and were believed and understood by all at that time that were not interessed or engaged 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 Trial of a King without either warrant or colour of Scripture or the Lawes of the Kingdome 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 be otherwise interpreted unlesse we shall say Ravillac might have justified his killing Henry the Fourth of France if he 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 be as pillars and lasting Monuments of this Truth The King was the onely desirer of Peace and laboured and tugged harder for it than ever Prince or King Heathen or Christian fince Almighty God did his first dayes work did ever doe with Superiors Equals or Subjects and it will be no wrong certainly to David whose sufferings are so much remembred in all Christian Churches complaining so bitterly that he sought peace with those that refused it and in the mean time prepared for War against him To say the King did suffer more and offer more and oftner for peace than ever he did for any thing is extant or appearing to us for surely so many Messages of Peace as one and twenty in two years space from the 5. of December 1645. to the 25. of Decem. 1647. sent to the Parliament after so many affronts and discouragements must needs excuse him that offered all could be imagined to be for the good and safety of his people and condemn those that not onely from time to time refused it but adhered so much to their first intentions as all the blood and ruine 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 term of his life and in a manner to un-king himself and was afterwards content to doe all that his Coronation-Oath Honour and Conscience could possibly permit him to do and to purchase a peace for his people was content to have born the shame reproach of what his enemies were onely guilty of insomuch as the Lord Say himself and most of his ever-craving never safe enough Disciples confessed the King had offered so much as nothing more could be 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 own but the Parliament would never yield to part with any thing was not their own And thus may the account be quickly cast up between the King and Parliament who would have saved the people from misery and who was most unwilling to make an end of it But that we may not too hastily give the sentence to try the businesse aâ— they use to do at the Councel of War or the new invented way of Justice sitting with their Will or the Sword onely in one hand and no Ballance at all in the other We shall in the next place examine CHAP. VII Who laboured to shorten the War and who to lengthen it THe odds was so great betwixt what the Parliament laboured to get and the King to keepe as that which sways the balance in most mens actions will be argument enough to conclude they were more likely to lose by a peace than a war therefore the more willing to continue it and if their own Interests would not put them so far upon it their vain-glory and ambition would be forward enough to perswade them to it and if not that the success of their arms or miscalled providence would make them look as experience tells us they did upon any tenders of peace as Alexander the Great did upon Darius his offer oâ— half his Kingdom and if not that their feares and jealousies now grown greater by wronging of the King than ever they were when they suspected him could never think it safe to let an inraged Lion into his Denne they had so long kept out of it But the King could not fight for his own but he must adventure the undoing of his own and could not but know that so much as was lost of his Subjects would be so much lost of a King and therefore doth all he can to preserve a People had no minde to preserve themselves and before He had gathered up the Bayes He won at Edge-hill sends a Proclamation of pardon to those that the day before did all they could to kill him and in
of Commons whereupon in a great rage perceiving his right as he supposed to be infringed notwithstanding all diswasions to the contrary he leaving his Council hasts to the Parliament-House swearing by the Living God he would dissolve them which accordingly was done about the latter end of the year dyed his Son in Law Mr. Robert Rich and not long after his Grand-father the Earl of Warwick And now about the 12 th of March a terrible plot is discovered the City of London was to be fired and the Tower and Mows fiered and all the Souldiers about the City sacrifized to the fury of the Royal interest and therefore he presently sends for the Lord Major Aldermen and common Council of the City of London to warne them of the approaching danger tells them how the Marquess of Ormond had lately been in London for 3. weeks together promoting the affairs of his Master that our most dread Soveraign lay ready with 8000. men quartered on the Sea Coasts of Flanders and 22. hyred Ships to transport them thereupon he recommended unto their care the setling of the Militia upon the many persons were apprehended an high Court of Justice erected Dr. Hewet Sir Henry Slingsby and Mr. Mordant were brought to tryal Sir Henry and the Doctor were both condemned to loose their heads on Tower-Hill and 6. others of meaner sort were adjudged to be hanged drawn and quartered great endeavours were used the Ministers of London Petition for the Doctors life and many great persons for the Knight but all avail nothing About the month of June 1658. arrived an ominous Whale in the River of Thames which was taken at Greenwich and found to be 58. foot in length and every way proportionable In Flanders successes came in with a full Garriâ—â— presently after the taking of Mardike Fort Dunkirk was straitly besieged by the joynt Forces of the English and French and after a sharp battle the Marquis of Leda Governour of Dunkirk being now more streitly then ever environed both by Land and Seas resolved upon a desperate sally in which he was mortally wounded and shortly after dyed the Governours death wrought so upon the besieged that on the 25 th day of June Dunkirk was surrendered into the hands of the French and afterwards consigned to the English August 6. Dyed Mrs. Elizabeth Claypoole a Daughter to Oliver Cromwel not long after her dyed the Earl of Mulgrave one of the privy Counsellors to his Highnes so called And now cometh death it self to act his part on this our noble Tyrant Cromwel himself must also dye who by force and fraud had from a mean beginning raised himself to the arbitrary Government of these 3. Kingdomes And that which is very remarkable on the same day on which he had gained two such signal victories against his Majesties forces viz. at Dunbar and Worcester viz. September 3. the night that ushered in the day of his death there arose such a horrible tempest the like hath hardly been seen in our age Trees both of a large and smaller size are torn out of the earth by the roots Having as he thought certainly secured the government of these three Kingdomes to himself being at the point of death he nominates for his successor his eldest son Richard who the next day after his Fathers death was in the presence of old Olivers privy Councill and the chief Officers of the Army Proclaimed Lord Protector of England Scotland and Ireland and had addresses unto him from most parts of the 3. Nations professing their zeal and affection to his government which how little they availed him time hath since sufficiently shewed us And now after the Advancement of Richard to the supream power and dignity of these Nations Principall care is taken for the enterment of his Fathers Corps with all the solemnity and state accustomed at Kings and Princes Funeralls and to this end search is made into old Records to see what was expended at the Funeral of King James of happy memory that the same nay much more cost might be bestowed on this his Corps being now enbalmed and wrapt in Lead was conveyed from Whitehal to Somerset-House there tolye in regal pompe and State a Spectacle for all Commers and now his Funeral pompe being ended great preparations there are for the sending out of naval supplyes to the King of Sweden But now want of moneys and other necessities of State enforce Richard and his Councel to summon a Parliament which accordingly meet Jan. 27. This Parliament consisted as the other in his Fathers time did of two Houses the Commons and the other House which now was called the Upper-house and now the great thing under debate was the Recognition of the Government and now the Protectorians and the Commonwealths-men for so the House was devided spend there time in large Speeches till on a sudden Behold A Remarkable and an unexpected change which was occasioned through some ambitious Spirits of some in the Army and particularly Major General Lambert who thought to make himself Lord Protector of the 3 Nations as his Master Cromwel had done before him joynes with his silly kindred Fleetwood Disborow and others and partly out of fear enforce Richard to dissolve the Parliament then sitting And so suffered himself to be devested of that power and authority which he was invested in returning to the condition of a private Person was now honest Dick again And now all men were in a maze wondring into what hands the chief power would next be devolved the generality of the people did now again according to their bounden duty not only desire but endeavour that his Sacred Majesty our most dread Soveraign might be introduced into his own Kingdoms full well knowing there could be no settlement without his Royal person But now the Members of the old Parliament and the Counsel of Officers of the Army meet and it was agreed that those Members of the old Parliament who sat in 1653. and were interrupted by their late aspiring General from sitting should be invited to their freedome and right of sitting and the exercise of their trust by a Declaration presented from the Army to the old Speaker William Lenthal and several of the Members at the Rolls in Chancery-lane This Juncto being thus Re-called from the grave of Ignominy and reproach for they were the very scorne of the people Being the Men that Murthered our Royal Soveraign and basely enslaved the people for so many years on the 7. of May they began to set again and first they appoint a Committee to attend Richard Cromwel to know his mind concerning his acquiescence in the present Government they receive from him a writing to this effect that he could freely acquiesce in the present Government that he held himself obliged as he expected from it so to demean himself peaceably under it Not long after they send for his Brother Henry who had ruled in Ireland under the title of Lord Lieutenant who
came over and submitted to their good pleasure And now the cunning Rump the better that they might secure themselfs take into their own hands the absolute command of the whole Army consâ—stituting the Speaker General in the name of the Parliament appointing the several Officers to receive now Comissions from them and now the foundations of government being thus overturn'd there appeared a generall discontent throughout the whole Kingdome in the end a Secret combination was laid for a generall rising in all Counties Sir George Booth in Cheshire and Middleton in Shropshlre raised a considerable Army in the defence of King and Parliament Other Counties failing to come into their assistance Sir George Booth and his party are totally routed by Lambert himselfe taken in a disguised â—abit and was sent Prisoner to the Tower of London This successe revived his antient credit with the Army and now he begins to plot their destruction whose lately had taken him into favour and that he might the better bring about his own ambitious designes 13 October 1659. he forced them to a dissolution 〈◊〉 keeping their Speaker and the rest of their Members from the House Thus was those once flourishing Kingdomes â—urried into changes of Government and Aâ—archiâ—â—â—â— confusions by mean persons who only studied to advance their own base ends and interests Fleetwood and Lambert and the rest of the Officers of the Army have now the sole authority of the Nations and because they have the longest Sword make their wil their Law but a little to satisfie the people that they might think themselvs not under the power of the sword these Officers chose a certain number of choice persons fit for their own turn to whom they give full authority over the people and Christen them a Committee of Safety This Goverment is the scorn and derision of the whole Nation and now though the Rump had hung its tail betwixt it's legs for about 3. months In December it began to wag it while the safety of the Committee of Safety was marched into the North under its Father Lambert the churlish Rump stole into the House again by night seven times a Devil worse then before where now they ride triumphant make whâ—â— Laws they list send their Jâ—â—â—â—ary 〈◊〉 coats into the City take away the Citizens money pretending it was gathered for the King they fill the prisons about London with those persons that are for a full and a free Parliament But yet the eyes of all the good are fixed upon our renowned Generall Monck who is ordered to march up to London with what force he thinks fit in the way he was courted with addresses from the Gentry in every County Being come to Lond. he was received with much joy now instead of being their Moses to deliver them from their Egyptian bondage he was suspected to be worse then Pharaoh himself On Thursday Feb. 9. 1659. by Commandment from the Rump he enters the City with his whole Army imprisons many of the Common Counsell Diggs up their posts breaks down the Gates of the City and none dares open their mouth This being done Saturday 11 of February 1659. a day never to be forgotten The Noble Generall enters the City with his Army refusing to obey the Rumps Command and shortly after admitts the Secluded Members of the House of Commons which were kept out by the Army 1648 Those Gentlemen take their places provide for the safety of the Nation and at last disolve themselves Issue out Writs for a free and full Parliament to meet at Westminster Aprill 25. 1660 But to return to his Majestie in Flanders of whose Itineracy life I have given you some small account already May the first the Parliament consisting of Lords and Commons in their Coachs assisted with divers Noblemen Gentlemen Citizens Souldiers c. Proclaimed his Sacred Majesty King of England Scotland and Ireland Defendor of the Faith at Westminister and London in great pomp and solemnity this being done they send Commissioners to his Royal Majesty then at Breda to acquaint his Majesty what his Parliament in Eâ—g had done entreating his Majesty to make what hast conveniently he can to his Parliament the City of London also send their Commissioners to wait on his Majesty The Ministers also of London send their Deputies to congratulate him his Majesty conferred the honour of Knight hood on the Citizens with the Lord Gerrards Sword The States General during his Majesties abode with them entertained him with as great expressions of joy as it he had been theirs not Englands Soveraign they had several times audience of his Majesty who delivered themselves in French and his Majesty answered them in the same language The States of Holland supped bare with his Majesty where they supped his Majesty sat at the upper end of the Table the Queen of Bohemia on the right hand the Princess Royal on the left the Duke of York at the right hand of the side of the Table the Duke of Glocester at the left hand and next him the Prince of Orange one of the Courses was served up all in Gold which was afterward presented to his Majesty valued at 60000. l. they also gave him a Bed which cost 7000 l. and Table linnen to the value of 1000. and 600000. Guldens the Illustrious Duke of York as high Admiral of England gives order to the Fleet for his Majesties Reception and Transportation of his retinue His Sacred Majesty the Queen of Bohemia the Princess Royal the most Illustrious Duke of York and Duke of Glocester and Prince of Orange went aboard General Montague in the good ship formerly called the Naseby but now christened by his Majesty the Royal Charles Where after Re-past the Queen of Bohemia the Princess Royal and the Prince of Orange having taken leave of his Majesty they set sail for England the Duke of York in the Lond. the Duke of Glocester in the James Not long after they arrived at Dover where he was received with great demonstrations of joy the General so soon as ever he saw his Majesty fell on his knees but his Majesty taking him up and kissing him and embracing him all parties were well satisfied His Majesty put on the George on his Excellency the Lord General Monck the Duke of York and Glocester put on his Garter he also made him one of the Lords of his honourable Privy Councel and Master of his Horse On Tuesday May 29. 1660. being the same day of the week on which his Royal Father was murdered and the same day of the month on which he was born being just 30. years age the same day it also pleased God to bring him in peace to the enjoyment of his Crown and Dignities Never was any Prince received with more Triumphs All the streets being richly hanged with Tapestry and a lane made by the Militia Forces to London Bridge from London Bridge to Temple Bar by the Trained bands on the one side and the several Companies in their Liveryes and the streamers of each Company on the other side in their Railes from Temple Barr to Westminster by the Militia forces and Regiments of the Army Thus was his Majesty conducted to his Royal Pallace at Whitehal the solemnity of the day was concluded with infinite of Bonfires among the rest a very costly one was made in Westminster where the Effiges of old Oliver Cromwel that grand Traytor was set upon a high post with the Arms of the Commonwealth which having been exposed a while to publick view with Torches lighted that every one might the better take notice of them were at last burnt together And thus having traced his most Sacred Majesty even from his lowest condition through all his sufferings persecutions We shall now leave him invested with his Royal Crown and Dignity and pray long may his Majesty live a support to his friends a Terrour to his Enemies an Honour to his Nation an Example to Kings of Piety Justice Prudence and Power that this Prophetical saying may be verifyed in his Majesty King Charles the II. shall be greater then ever was the greatest of that Name God save the King FINIS Camden Annalls Eliz. 99. 103. Ibidem p. 391. 394. 395. Vide the vote in M. Vicars Book entituled God in the moun p. 78 Collect. of Parl. and Decl. and Kings Mes and Decl. p. 50. Ibid. 51. Ibid. 52. Ibid. 53. Ibid. 77. 78. Vide the Petition of some Holderness men to the King 6. July 164â— Ibid. 153. Ibm. 169. 170. Collect. Par. Decl. 183 Ibm. 29. Ibidem p. 297. 298 Ibid. 301. Ibid. 305. Collect. of Par. Mes and Dec. 370. 370. Ibm. 346. 348. Ibid. 349. 350. Ibid. 350. Ibid. 356. 357. Collect. Par. Decl. 373. 374. Ibid. 376. Ibid. 442. Ibid. 449. Ibid. 450. Ibid. 453. Ibid. 459. Ibid. 452. Ibid. 457. Ibid. 457. Ibid. 465. 483. Ihm. 614. Alber. Gentil 223. Besoldus in dissert de â—ure Belli 77 78. Lib. Alber. 23. Lucan li. 2. Cicero Phiâ— lipic 5. 2 Sam 15. 2 Sam. 20. Bodm page 736. H. Grotius de jure paâ—is belli Collect. of MessR â— mon st and Declar. 15. Iom 45. c. Besoldus in dissert philolog p. 58. Besoldus dissert pâ—î log pa 88. Can. quid culpatur 23. Da. D. Bocer de bâ—llâ— cap. 5. Besoldus de juribus Majestati cap. 6. 7 Edw. 1. Besoldus Ibid. 95. Du. picart observat decad 10. colle 2. Facius axiom bell 10. Cic. 1. de offic Jov. lib. 1. Polidor 13. 20. Albericus Gentilis Cap. 3. Jerom. Ep. 47. Cicero pro Milone Baldus 3. consid 485 confid 3 Alberic Genti lib. 1. Dec. 25. Bald. 5. Cons pa. 439. Gen. 14. Judg. 20. 1 Sam. 30. 2 Sam. 6. 1 Reg. 20 1 Macc. 3. v. 43. 8 June 1644. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cap. 28. History of the Marque Montrosse his actions in Scotland Weavers Funcral Monu ments pag. 605. The government of the Kindoms â— changed K. Proclain Ireland Marquess of Ormonds Army defeated be Siege of Lon. -Derry raised by Sir Charles Coot Crom-lands with an Army in Ireland Prince Ruperts fleet blockt up at Kings sale Sentence in Parliament Treaty concluded Preparat for his Maj. His Maje proclaimed K. Edinbur Cross Edinburgh Castle sur to the Eâ—gl * Whereof but three suffered