but all their said several preferments places and promotions shall be utterly void as if they were naturally dead nor shall they otherwise use their Function of the Ministry without advice and consent of both Houses of Parliament Provided that no Laps shall incurr by such vacancy until six months past after notice thereof 6 Qualification That all persons who have been actually in Arms against the Parliament or have counselled or voluntarily assisted the Enemies thereof are disabled to be Sheriffs Justices of the Peace Mayors or other head-Officers of any City or Corporation Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer or to sit or serve as Members or Assistants in either of the Houses of Parliament or to have any Military employment in this Kingdom without the consent of both Houses of Parliament 7 Qualification The persons of all others to be free of all personal censure notwithstanding any Act or thing done in or concerning this War they taking the Covenant 8 Qualification The Estates of those persons excepted in the first three precedent Qualifications and the Estates of Edward Lord Littleton and of William Laud late Archbishop of Canterbury to pay publick Debts and Damages 9 Qualification Branch 1. That two full parts in three to be divided of all the Estates of the Members of either House of Parliament who have not onely deserted the Parliament but have also voted both Kingdoms Traytors and have not rendred themselves before the first of December 1645. shall be taken and employed for the payment of the publick Debts and Damages of the Kingdom Branch 2. That two full parts in three to be divided of the Estates of such late Members of either House of Parliament as sate in the unlawful Assembly at Oxford and shall not have rendred themselves before the first of December 1645. shall be taken and employed for the payment of the publick Debts and Damages of the Kingdom Branch 3. That one full moity of the Estates of such persons late Members of either of the Houses of Parliament who have deserted the Parliament and adhered to the Enemies thereof and shall not have rendred themselves before the first of December 1645. shall be taken and employed for the payment of the publick Debts and Damages of the Kingdom 10 Qualification That a full third part of the value of the Estates of all Judges and Officers towards the Law Common or Civil and of all Serjeants Counsellors and Attorneys Doctors Advocates and Proctors of the Law Common or Civil And of all Bishops Clergy-men Masters and Fellows of any Colledge or Hall in either of the Universities or elsewhere And of all Masters of Schools or Hospitals and of all Ecclesiastical persons who have deserted the Parliament and adhered to the Enemies thereof and have not rendred themselves to the Parliament before the first of December 1645. shall be taken and employed for the payment of the publick Debts and Damages of the Kingdom That a full sixth part on the full value of the Estates of the persons excepted in the sixth Qualification concerning such as have been actually in Arms against the Parliament or have counselled or voluntarily assisted the Enemies thereof and are disabled according to the said Qualification be taken and employed for the payment of the publick Debts and Damages of the Kingdom 11 Qualification That the persons and Estates of all Common Souldiers and others of the Kingdom of England who in Lands or Goods be not worth two hundred pounds sterling and the persons and Estates of all Common Souldiers and others of the Kingdom of Scotland who in Lands or Goods be not worth one hundred pounds sterling be at liberty and discharged Branch 1. This Proposition to stand as to the English and as to the Scots likewise if the Parliament of Scotland or their Commissioners shall so think fit Branch 2. That the 1 of May last is now the day limited for the persons to come in that are comprised within the former Qualifications Provided that all and every the Delinquents which by or according to the several and respective Ordinances or Orders made by both or either of the Houses of Parliament on or before the 24th day of April 1647. are to be admitted to make their Fines and Compositions under the rates and proportions of the Qualifications aforesaid shall according to the said Ordinances and Orders respectively be thereto admitted and further also that no person or persons whatsoever except such Papists as having been in Arms or voluntarily assisted against the Parliament have by concealing their quality procured their admission to Composition which have already compounded or shall hereafter compound and be thereto admitted by both Houses of Parliament at any of the rates and proportions aforesaid or under respectively shall be put to pay any other Fine than that they have or shall respectively so compound for except for such Estates or such of their Estates and for such values thereof respectively as have been or shall be concealed or omitted in the particulars whereupon they compound and that all and every of them shall have thereupon their Pardons in such manner and form as is agreed by both Houses of Parliament That an Act be passed whereby the Debts of the Kingdom and the persons of Delinquents and the value of their Estates may be known and which Act shall appoint in what manner the Confiscations and Proportions before-mentioned may be leavied and applied to the discharge of the said Engagements The like for the Kingdom of Scotland if the Estates of Parliament or such as shall have power from them shall think fit XIX That an Act of Parliament be passed to declare and make void the Cessation of Ireland and all Treaties and Conclusions of Peace or any Articles thereupon with the Rebels without consent of both Houses of Parliament And to settle the prosecution of the War of Ireland in both Houses of the Parliament of England to be managed by them and the King to assist and to do no act to discountenance or molest them therein That Reformation of Religion according to the Covenant be setled in the Kingdom of Ireland by Act of Parliament in such manner as both Houses of the Parliament of England have agreed or shall agree upon after Consultation had with the Assembly of Divines here That the Deputy or chief Governour or other Governours of Ireland and the Presidents of the several Provinces of that Kingdom be nominated by both the Houses of the Parliament of England or in the intervals of Parliament by such Committees of both Houses of Parliament as both Houses of the Parliament of England shall nominate and appoint for that purpose And that the Chancellor or Lord Keeper Lord Treasurer Commissioners of the Great Seal or Treasury Lord Warden of the Cinque-Ports Chancellor of the Exchequer and Dutchy Secretaries of State Master of the Rolls Judges of both Benches and Barons of the Exchequer of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and the Vice-Treasurer and the
stuck still in his Mind that our King was the first of all who honourably received a splendid Embassie from the Duke of Braganza and after he had successfully dispatched his business sent him away in triumph To this may be added the mischance of Don Oquenda not many years before under whose Command several Ships carrying Men and Arms for a recruit to the War of Flanders being forced into the English Harbours by the Dutch who pursued them were under our Castles though then in Peace with Spain suffered to be torn sunk and burnt our Fleet rather threateningly rebuking then stoutly driving off the Enemy Which discontents not expiring with the Murthered King are hurtful now to his Son But after all his new Friends as a reward of the amity freely offered them by stealth and without any Declaration of War having sometimes after invaded the West Indies that is the very Bowels of the Spanish Empire And their attempt upon Hispaniola being disappointed he at length laying aside all hatred obliged CHALES the Second by all sorts of good Offices and entertaind him in his Territories for the ruine of the Regicides The King of Portugal shewed a generous Soul of which hereafter had his Strength corresponded with his Inclinations But what would one who hardly as yet sate steddy in his own lately recovered Throne do for another expulsed Prince The truth is though he had then flourished in the quiet enjoyment of his own just Rights he was not Potent enough to undertake such a War as could restore a banished King and much less at that time when he could hardly on the one hand repel the Spaniard who offered at all and on the other keep even with the Dutch who in the East Indies and all over the Ocean strove for the mastery Suedland at first good natured changed as Affairs altered Frederick Duke of Holstein supplied the Earl of Montross who was then ready to Sail into Scotland with Men Money Ships and Arms for the Service of the King Danemark having its Treasury exhausted for the Cause of the King's Father and running into a new War was able to do no more The Rebellious Cossacks and Neighbouring Nations who had rendred the Peace uncertain made the King of Poland sparing in his Assistance Yet the Scottish Subjects who lived in those Countries as they were commanded gave what help they were able to give And so did the Emperour of Moscovie Elector of Brandenbourg Arch-Bishop of Mentz and other Princes of Germany show their Affections to the King But alas what was all that to the fitting out of a Fleet and raising of an Army to the providing of Arms Ammunition and Necessaries of War perhaps a little more than might defray the Charges of Ambassadours and relieve the Poverty of Courtiers All the hope was now in the Loyalty and Benevolence of Subjects who though many of them were wheedled by the Artifices of the Regicides or the fawnings of Prosperity Ambition of rising to higher Employments or the coveteousness of other mens Estates which they hoped might be had for little or nothing and these because Justice delay'd to strike drawn in to the number of above fifty thousand yet a far greater number kept their Loyalty and Allegiance to the King inviolated but being stun'd with the sudden horrour of the Kings Murder and amazed at the continual Victories of the Regicides they knew not what to do or whither to turn themselves They knew not as yet what it was to Associate and they had no opportunity of rising the Regicides having a watchful Eye over all the Countries and their Spies and Emissaries wresting all the Actions and Sayings of Honest men into the worst Sense Nevertheless many Royalists in disguise crossed the Sea and waited upon the King and others who came hither from the King were by his Friends informed what to do All that they could do was gradually to confer Councils encourage one another plot and contrive gather supplies and by blowing the Coals raise such a Flame as might at length destroy the Enemy Yet some of them of whom I shall mention two Sir Charles Berkly and Sir Henry Slingsby were taken by the watchfulness of Informers but both made their escape though the last falling again into the Noose payed for his Loyalty and lost his Head by Sentence of the High Court of Justice About that time Ascham whom I named a little before a Fellow of obscure Birth desiring to show his Gifts and get himself a Name by writing against the King and for the abominable change of Government which the less it beeame him to do for that heretofore under the Earl of Northumberland he had had the institution of the Young Duke of Glocester is therefore in quality of Envoy with Ribera an Italian as his Interpreter sent into Spain to treat of Affairs But he had got himself so much hatred by his Writings that were published and the Employment he now undertook that some conspired a revenge and suddenly breaking into his Chamber at Madrid against all Law and Equity killed both him and Ribera his Interpreter The Ambassadour of Venice gave Sanctuary to one of the Murderers another being taken making his escape publickly suffered for it The rest to the number of three took Sanctuary in a Church till the Ecclesiasticks should have time to take cognisance of the Cause But by delaying of time and lengthening out the debate the English also infesting the West Indies they at length get clearly off It is fit we should also mention the good Offices of the emulous King of Portugal and how for the sake of our Prince he provoked the Rebel Hornets Prince Rupert and Prince Maurice when they fled from Ireland found Protection at Lisbon But Blake Admiral of the Fleet for the Rump-Parliament pursuing them hither desires leave to sight the Prince's Ships The King of Portugal thinking that the Laws of Hospitality were not so to be violated seing it was not safe for him openly to refuse he shifts the matter and forces not the Princes to put out to Sea Blake being highly offended at this Cruises upon the Coast and at length meeting with a Fleet of seaven or eight Sail of Ships laden with Sugers he takes them and sends them into England He himself in the mean time having pursued the Princes who had put to Sea again comes up with them at Carthagena a Spanish Town in the Streights and in the Bay of Vera forces them ashoar but both of them escaped in one of their Ships and Sailing with one or two more Ships to the West Indies they leave Spain to be sufficiently mauled by the Parliament But a terrible Hurricane which is frequent in the Torrid Zone having separated Maurice from his Brother he was cast away with his Ship and Men in the dreadful Storm Here we cannot but sigh at our Calamities in the dismal fate of so Illustrious a
the Booty which they thought themselves sure of whisper about that they observed the Enemies Horse feeding without the Walls and that if an old demolished Castle called Baggoâ—s-wreath about a Musquet shot from the Walls were new Fortified which might be done in a Nights time the Enemy might be hindred both from Forage and Provisions which being wanting Dublin must of necessity be surrendred within the space of a Week And therefore they earnestly desire that before they drew off they might have leave to attempt this The Counsel upon viewing the place was thought good and it was not long before the Army was drawn out and a choice made of Pioneers for the Work To whom Orders were given to repair the Castle raise it higher and cast up a Wall about it whilst the Horse and Foot were in readiness behind to defend them About Mid-night the Lord Lieutenant came thinking that the work had been almost finished but finding that it was not as yet begun by their mistaking the way having severely chid the Labourers and placed another Overseer over them he encourages them to the work then returning to the Camp he kept Watch all the rest of the Night and by break of day gave Orders that the Army should stand to their Arms and be in a readiness whilst he refresh'd himself a little in Bed But before he had been there an hour he was wakened out of sleep by the noise and firing of Shot and starting up immediately to see what the matter was Alas he found too late that the Souldiers had been negligent in keeping Watch and that in the mean time Jones had broken in into that half-repaired Castle and that the Captain of the Guard being at first onset killed all his Men were turned to a shameful flight These things succeeding so well with the Enemy their boldness as it usually happens increasing with their good Fortune not only the whole Souldiers to the number of twelve hundred Horse and four thousand Foot but a great many of the Citizens also came rushing out of the Town and fiercely charge the Kings Forces who were in disorder putting all into Confusion there being nothing but Horror Noise Slaughter and flying of Men to be heard or seen In this deplorable state of Affairs the Lord Lieutenant having with Sword in Hand Prayers and Intreaties in vain endeavoured to stop and rally the Fugitives he breaks through the thick of the Enemy crosses the River and encourages Dillo with all speed to come to the assistance of the Army and fall upon the Enemy now wearied and busie at Plunder But he finds them tho they had not as yet seen the Enemies Face seized with a panick Fear throwing away their Arms and betaking themselves to flight In this fatal Engagement the wealthy Camp is plundered and all that during the space of a whole year had been with much Labour and most diligent care gathered together is scattered in the twinkling of an Eye Three thousand Men were killed two thousand and one hundred private Souldiers an hundred and fifty Officers higher and lower taken above eight thousand Arms the Tents Warlike Engines all the Baggage and Ammunition fell all into the hands of the devouring Enemy A great Overthrow indeed and which gave an incurable wound to the Royal Cause in Ireland The Kings Souldiers taking the advice that was given them in their slight betake themselves to Drogheda The Lord Lieutenant hastens to Kilkenny that he might muster his broken Forces having upon his march summoned the strong Castle of Bellison upon pretext that Dublin was taken which surrendred There having represented to the Convention of Estates that were still sitting what loss he had sustained and having moved them for Supplies and Money he sets forward to Drogheda with three hundred Horse And that in a very opportune time for Jones had hastned thither with some Horse that by the sole presence of the Conquerour he might reduce the City now in disorder by the news of the late overthrow and confusion of the Souldiers But the coming of the Lord Lieutenant scaring away Jones the Fear and Danger were both quickly over Next he Fortifies Trim Neury Dundalk and other neighbouring places putting strong Garrisons where it was needful he views all places gives Orders and prepares for a vigorous defence being resolved to meet Cromwell if he came that way whilst his Horse relieving the places that were in danger he might in the beginning of the Spring raise a new Army But in that also his hopes were in vain For Cromwell having received the glad tydings of the Victory set Sail from Milford-Haven and that he might pursue the Point upon the discomfited Enemy and carry the Wound home to the Heart he steers his Course straight to Dublin with a Fleet of about an hundred Ships Men of War and Tenders and wholly slighting Munster arrived there in the Month of August One thousand six hundred and forty nine where having put ashore the Souldiers with the Artillery Ammunition and Baggage he makes a General-Muster of about fifteen thousand Men most of them old Souldiers for he thought it better to excel in Valour than in Number and to take along with him stout Hands and not many Heads He declares Jones Lieutenant-General Ireton Major-General and Reynolds General of the Horse assigning to every one their several Offices He orders Venables to march to Derry to the Elder Coot with a Regiment of Horse and two Regiments of Foot He himself with ten thousand Men marches streight to Drogheda having committed the care of the Fleet to Aiskew the Admiral In this Town the Lord Liuetenant had put the Flower of his Veterane Souldiers most English under the Command of Sir Arthur Aston a Gentleman Renowned in the Wars both at home and abroad but for the most part unfortunate And here Cromwell resolved to make his first Essay of the War Aston on the contrary laid his Design to tire out and break the Enemy insolent through Victory by the badness of the Weather Watching and Hunger then expose them to be harrassed and alarmed by the Lord Lieutenants Horse and the Foot that were shortly to be recruited until the Royalists being reassured and encreased in force might have the courage to provoke the Cromwellians and fight them in a pitched Battel But he flatters himself in vain for Cromwell attacks not the place by opening of Trenches slow Approaches and the other acts of a Siege But having forthwith caused a Battery to be raised on the North side of the Town and planted with Guns he so plied the place with continual Shooting that he quickly made two Breaches in the Wall and immediately Commands an Assault to be made that with Courage and Resolution they might force their entry into the place But this having been twice unsuccessfully attempted he himself with Ireton commanding the Attack with Indignation and Courage
shut or guarded by Souldiers and imposing upon Delinquents for the first fault a Fine for the second Imprisonment and for the third Banishment that punishment might at length restrain those whom Clemency could not gain Nevertheless a War with Holland breaking forth and the Laws being silent amongst the noise of Arms the domestick Calamity grew so strong that the Authority of the Justices of the Peace not being able to prevail against the obstinacy of the Rabble the evil catched like Wild-fire and all future Remedies seemed posthumous and unseasonable The great injuries done by the Dutch to the English Merchants having for a long time past unrevenged did now occasion great grievances and complaining at London Though there was no Nation upon Earth whom the Dutch desired more for Friends and less for Enemies than the English who in the late War had proved themselves as formidable Enemies to the Hollanders as heretofore they had been to their Enemies yet they unjustly broke that Peace which some years before they had dishonourably begg'd of the Rump and Cromwel as being necessary for their interest by humble Addresses sordid and base compliances of their Embassadours and had since confirmed by a stricter League with King Charles the Second For to that pitch of Arrogance and Perfidy was that State of Fisher-men and croud of crafty Merchants who under the Title of a Commonwealth disliked all Monarchy raised that besides the detaining of the Island of Poloron which they were obliged to deliver up by the Articles of Peace they took a great many English Ships upon the Coast of India and Africa and making Prize of the Ships and Goods made the Sea-men Prisoners and added cruelty and scoffing to their Injustice They block up many Ports of the Indies which the English had long possessed with Men of War and having unjustly intercepted the English Trade they sold to other Nations at home at the dear rates the Commodities which they had for a small matter bought in the Indies Holmes who was Admiral for the King upon the Coast of India and Africa behaving himself modestly in his Commission was by those Dutch Pirats by Sea and Land whom neither the East nor West could satisfie contrary to the Law of Nations often fired upon At which Holmes a man of a daring temper and unacquainted with affronts being provoked resolved to continue no longer on the defensive part but to turn Aggressour and therefore bringing his Guns ashore and planting them on Batteries he took some of the Dutch Garrisons and revenged the injuries he had received But with false Accusations they complain of Holmes who had been so often and basely used by them to the King crying out against him as a Robber and the causer of a War as if by making a clamour first they might ridiculously excuse their own Treachery These and many other Encroachments of the Dutch so incensed the Parliament that they forthwith voted it necessary to revenge so many Injuries done to the Merchants and a considerable supply of money to be given to the King to carry on a War which they judged safer than a doubtful and uncertain Peace Though the King was highly offended to hear of the Injuries done to his Subjects and concerned in honour to right them yet he resolved to try other ways of adjusting matters before he came to force of Arms having therefore dispatched Letters to Sir George Downing his Embassadour at the Hague he demands a speedy reparation of the Injuries done to his Subjects from the States But though the Kings demands were just and lawful yet it was in vain to represent the Rapines of Dutch Merchants to trafficking States since they who were in Authority and should have punished these Abuses reaped the profit of them But amongst these Clashings about Injuries a new cause of quarrel not heard of till then happened through the treachery of the Dutch For the year before the States General having been oppressed by the frequent Piracies of the Algerines by Embassadours made earnest application to the King that joyning his Fleet with theirs he would help to revenge the Injuries of these Infidels Nor was the King wanting to contribute to the safety of his Subjects and of all Christendom but sent Vice-Admiral Lawson an expert Sea-Commander with a well-appointed Fleet to joyn and assist the Fleet commanded by de Ruyter But whilst Lawson was wholly taken up in fighting and pursuing the Pirats Ships of which he had sunk and burnt many upon the Coast of Barbary De Ruyter gave him the slip and by orders from the States directed his course to Guiny where falling upon the English who were secure and neither expected nor deserved any such thing he committed no less Robberies upon us than he pretended to revenge on the Algerines but with far greater treachery The news of so base an action being freshly brought to London so incensed all People that the King highly offended commanded all Dutch Ships in the Ports of England to be stopt and all further Treaties of Pacification being laid aside both sides prepare for a War But during the preludes of the approaching War the Dutch a more contumelious than formidable Enemy inflamed the rage and hatred of the English by scurrilous Libels Medals and many base and satyrical Pictures according to the innate insolency and barbarous vanity of that People Holland more powerful both in Wealth and Cunning led the rest of the Vnited Provinces by the nose and Dewit Holland a man of a crafty and subtle Wit malicious Eloquence and of more reputation for cunning Policy than Honesty The greatness of the Family of the Prince of Orange and the vast power of the King of Great Britain by Sea stood in the way of the Artifices of this arrogant man and of his own Holland To ruine therefore the Prince and Family of Nassau he raised secret jealousies against him and by lessening the authority of Orange with the States he alone managed all affairs and under colour of standing up for the liberty of the Commonwealth ruled absolutely at his pleasure and so confident of himself grew this Butter-box that having trode upon the Dignity of the Prince at home he thought that by turns he might make fools of all the Kings of Europe He hated the King of Great Britain the more because he feared him and since through similitude of Manners he had been a great friend to the Traytor Cromwel he was therefore the more implacable Enemy to King Charles Certainly next to the insatiable Avarice of the Dutch Nation all the hatred of that People to the English is to be attributed to Dewit and his Faction To so great an Arrogance were the Dutch raised that it was given out amongst the People That the affairs of England were not in such a posture that the Civil War of England being just ended they had money enough still to
make War abroad nor that the King was as yet so well seated in the Government that he could revenge the Injuries of the Dutch that it was not safe for him to trust Arms in the hands of his Subjects which afterwards they might be unwilling to lay down That the English were not now the same Enemies as the Dutch had found them to be under the Rump-Parliament that the warlike fierceness of that Nation was gone with the Sectarians and that there remained amongst them none but a company of silly Cowards That there were a great many Fanaticks in England who perhaps would fight for the Dutch against the King or at least would not fight for him against those who were for liberty of Conscience Nor was there wanting a great many of our fugitive Traytors amongst the Dutch who made these false reports to be believed The bloudy War which broke out the year following was ushered in by the taking of Ships on both sides and Alan with a Fleet of English Ships for securing the Merchant-men and anoying the Dutch in the Mediterranean fell upon the Dutch Smirna-Fleet in the Streights upon their return homewards and having killed them many men sunk some Ships Brakell the Admiral of the Fleet being slain he took and brought off four of the Enemies Ships which was the first booty and glad Omen of the War but one of them richly laden being much shattered and leaky foundered in the greedy Sea Nor was the King so wholly taken up with the thoughts of the approaching War but that he also minded other affairs and his innocent diversions he therefore on the fifteenth of April visited the famous Colledge of Physicians of London and was received very honourably by the Doctors There he saw the Marble Statue of Harvey the chief Pilot of the Blouds Circulation and heard the President Ent with equal Eloquence and Art reading upon the mysteries of Anatomy whom there he knighted There he saw the chief Physician Bates renowned in the skill of Physick and of Latine and Fraser his chief Physician since and Glisson excellent in Medicine and Philosophy and successful Micklethwait and much-esteemed Cox and Scarborough accomplished in all Natural Philophy and no less famous amongst the Muses with Wharton the Secretary of the Glandules and acute Merret besides many others eminent in the Art of Curing to whom at length were associated Willis the great Restorer of Medicine but of too short a life with Lower and Needham who have illustrated the Faculty by their Writings And now was the Royal Fleet ready to set sail divided into three Squadrons the first commanded by the Duke of York Lord High Admiral of England the second by the most Illustrious Prince Rupert and the third by the Earl of Sandwich famous in Expeditions at Sea The other Flag-Officers of the Fleet were Lawson and Alan lately returned from the Mediterranean Jordan Spragg Smith Meens and Tiddiman all famous Sea-Commanders Many persons of great Quality went Volunteers to Sea and though they had no command in the Fleet yet they thought it honourable in so just a War to try their fortune with the Duke of York The Fleet consisted of about an hundred Men of War having on board to the number of about thirty thousand Sea-men and Souldiers and on the two and twentieth of April weighed and with joyful Huzza's full Sails and flying Streamers sailed over to the Coast of Holland and came to an Anchor before the Texel the Enemy in the mean while for all their bragging not daring to come out His Royal Highness in the mean time in the Royal Fleet rode Master of the Seas and many Dutch Ships returning home in sight of the Shore fell into the hands of the English as Booties cast into their way by Providence But his Royal Highness more desirous of Fighting than Prey after he had expected almost a month the coming out of the Enemy upon their own Coast Victuals and Provisions growing scarce came back again to the English Coast giving them opportunity if they had a mind to fight to come out But now the Commanders of the Dutch Fleet moved with the disgrace of being blocked up but more at the Reproaches and Execrations of the people use all diligence to bring out their Ships The Fleet of the States General consisted of above an hundred sail of Men of War in seven divisions which were commanded by Opdam Trump Cartener Schramp Stillingwolfe Cornelius and John Evertsons Opdam in the mean time being Admiral But as the Dutch stood out to Sea a Fleet of English Merchant-men coming from Hamborough in the dark of the night by mistake fell in amongst the Enemies nor were they sensible of their Captivity till it was too late to flie for it and so they payed dear for their unhappy and prohibited Voyage The taking of the English Merchant-men was to the Enemies so joyful a presage of a future Engagement that directing their course towards England they resolved not to expect the coming of the English but not doubting of success to attack them in their own Coast His Royal Highness in the mean time was at Anchor with his Fleet near Harwich where so soon as he was advertised by his Scouts that the Enemy approached rejoycing at the long wished-for occasion of an Engagement on the first of June setting his Fleet in order with all the expedition he could he steers directly against the Dutch Next day he came in sight of the Enemies Fleet by night they were got near to one another and on the third of June with the day the Fight began The Fleet being drawn up undaunted Prince Rupert was in the Van in the Body of the Fleet was the Duke of York and the Earl of Sandwich in the Rear an expert Commander at Sea the Enemies Fleet being in order to engage them The first shot that was fired was from Prince Rupert's Squadron And both Fleets as yet fought with their great Guns at a distance The English had the wind which the Dutch on the other hand strove to gain it being westerly but whilst both Fleets strive for the wind the order of the Ships engaged changing the middle of the English Fleet came up with the front of the Enemies and Lawson who commanded the next Ship to the Admiral bearing in amongst their Fleet they came by a closer engagement to try the fate of both Nations By and by the Admirals of both Fleets by chance engaged together There was great slaughter on both sides and it was a bloudy Victory to his Royal Highness for whether by carelesness or our shot fire got into the Powder-Room and presently blew up Opdam's Ship He flying up into the Air prevented a shameful flight with his Fleet and falling again into the Sea Animam morti non redidit uni Resigned his life to several deaths The loss of the Admiral was attended with the
Archbishop of Canterbury are accused of High-Treason both the English and Scots impeaching them Against Strafford also out of Ireland where the greatest matter of accusation was to be pickt up both Witnesses and Accusers are brought For whilst he was Deputy of Ireland he had by some severities which though perhaps they could not stand the test of the punctilio's and niceties of Law yet were necessary for the publick raised the indignation of the Inhabitants in that he endeavoured to reclaim the native Irish from their wonted Barbarity to Industry Civility and better Manners and to enure them to the Customs and Practices of the English Whence in a short time he had been so successful in this that having setled Trades Husbandry and Commerce amongst those lazy and stubborn people they began to flourish more than in all Ages before and to bring money into the Exchequer of England which by Rebellions they had so often exhausted before From amongst these though they were Roman Catholicks and sworn enemies to the English Government and even then plotting a Conspiracy against it Accusers in name of the Kingdom of Ireland and Witnesses were sent for who being prone enough of themselves to the work that they might the more securely attempt the Rebellion which then they hatched in their minds the wise Deputy being taken off were by all civilities and kind offices caressed by the Factious that by accumulated crimes they might overwhelm Strafford The Lord Keeper Finch was also accused and all the Judges who being sworn had after long deliberation declared in favour of the King as to the lawfulness of Ship-money Twelve Bishops also who by the riotous Rabble having been barred from coming into the House of Lords protested against all Laws that should be made as invalid until all that were concerned in the Council of the Kingdom might safely be present Others withdrew to avoid the impendent storm The Judges scared with this Parliamentary Thunderclap and taught to obey their Lords and Masters are at last all freely discharged and some of them continued in their places or promoted to higher The Bishops having lost their power of voting in the Lords House by a Law made in their absence being likewise set at liberty Canterbury is reserved for a future Sacrifice All the Storm at present fell upon the head of the Earl of Strafford whose Tragedy since it lay heavy upon the King during his whole life and at his death and that he by the Rebels was reckoned the most guilty I shall more fully relate that by the instance of one judgment may be made of the rest what kind of men they were who were so hated by the Parliament With great pomp he is accused by the Commons of twenty eight Articles of High Treason before the House of Lords all the Commons were present of whom six of the most violent were his Prosecutors or Managers of the Tryal the King also Queen and Prince being there privately behind the Curtain The weight of his Impeachment lay in this That in Ireland he had acted many things arbitrarily contrary to Law That in time of Peace he had raised Money of the Inhabitants against their wills by Military Exactions That he had advised the King to force the Subjects of England to obedience by foreign Arms and to make War against Scotland The Tryal lasted many days during which the Earl with great presence of mind and judgment defending himself so refuted the Arguments of his Prosecutors that amongst so many Articles there was not one even in the judgment of his enemies that could amount to Treason nor could all put together be constructed an acumulative Treason which inraged the House of Commons so far that having no colour of Law to take his life they make a new Law ex post facto whereby he is made guilty of High-Treason with a clause therein That it should not be made a Precedent in other Courts But this past not without great debate and opposition many speaking and arguing to the contrary and fifty nine of the chief Members of the House dissenting whose names were posted up in publick places that being exposed to the view and fury of the Mobile they might learn to vote with the Factious for the future if they had not rather be torn in pieces alive This Bill was in two days time past and engrossed in the House of Commons and carried up to the Lords for their consent but a matter of such moment was more seriously deliberated about there The Factious impatient of this delay stir up the Rabble and Dregs of the People who armed with Staves and Clubs and what Weapons Rage put into their hands came rushing to the Parliament-house roaring out Justice Justice and growing dayly more and more insolent morning and evening persisted in their riotous Clamours These Blades besetting the House of Lords lay hands upon what Lords and Bishops they please and tossing them to and fro hinder them from entering and threaten them worse if they obstinately refused to comply with the Commons Next they break in into Westminster-Abbey pull down the Organs rob the Vestments and sacred Furniture of the Church and then with furious clamours run to White-hall the Kings own house Nay they proceeded to that impudence as to dare to affront the King by sawcy and insolent Answers when his Majesty from a Balcony told them as they passed by White-hall that they should keep at home and mind their business Whilst some of the Justices of Peace according to their Oath and duty imprison those of that Rabble whom they could catch to be kept there for condign punishment they themselves are clapt up by the factious House of Commons pretending that it was free for all to come and petition the Parliament though they had caused the Gates of London to be shut against the men of Kent who came to petition the contrary and frightened others who intended to have done the like And when some discreet and good men had desired the Factious that they would at length lay the Devils whom they had raised they made answer That they ought rather to thank their Friends Nay so far was the Parliamentary Dignity debased that many times Members of the House of Commons came to the Clubs of Apprentices where they consulted about related and examined the affairs that past in Parliament what was designed to be done what parts they themselves were to act and when Hence their Tumults became by this kind of schooling in a manner to be regular being distributed into proper Classes and Fraternities as of Porters Watermen Taylors c. who under pretext of petitioning at the least hint from their Demagogues flocked together into bodies And that once for all we may lay open the nature of this Sore if any difficult knot occurred which by other arts they could not unty they presently betook themselves
complains and demands reparation for the affront But the House of Commons approve Sir John Hotham's Fact and vote that the King had violated the Priviledges of Parliament in proclaiming a Member of the House guilty of Treason Before he was heard in their House they give Orders to the Earl of Warwick to send some Souldiers from on board into the Town and to transport the Magazine from thence to London But Sir John Hotham repenting too late when he perceived that these Sparks had put the whole Country into a flame having afterwards obtained pardon and being about to deliver up the Town to the King was taken and payed to the Parliament what he owed to the King both he and his Son being beheaded Amongst these preludes to War there is some mention and hopes of peace for after some months the Parliament send an Answer to the King's Proposals which he made at Windsor upon his departure for the North in nineteen Articles or Demands of which this is the sum 1. That all the King's Privy-Council great Officers and Ministers of State may be put out excepting such as the Parliament shall approve and to assigne them an Oath 2. That all affairs of State be managed by the Parliament except such matters as are transferred by them to the Privy-Council and to be concluded by the major part of the Nobility under their hands the full number not to exceed 25 nor under 15 and if any place fall void in the interval of Parliament then the major part of the Council to chuse one to be confirmed at the next Session of Parliament 3. That all the great Officers of the Kingdom shall be chosen with approbation of Parliament c. as before said 4. The government and education of the King's Children by Parliament c. ut supra 5. Their Marriages to be treated and concluded by Parliament c. 6. The Laws against Papists Priests and others be executed without Toleration or Dispensation except by Parliament 7. No Popish Lord or Peer to have vote in Parliament and their children to be educated in the Protestant Faith 8. To Reform Church-government as the Parliament shall advise 9. To settle the Militia as the Parliament have ordered and for the King to recal all his Declarations published against their Ordinances therein 10. All Privy-Counsellers and Judges to take Oath for maintenance of the Petition of Right and other Statutes which shall be made this Parliament 11. All Officers placed by Parliament to hold their places quam diu bene se gesserint 12. All Members of Parliament put out during this time be restored again 13. The Justice of Parliament to pass upon all Delinquents and they to appear or abide their censure 14. The general Pardon to pass with Exceptions as the Parliament shall advise 15. All Forts and Castles of the Kingdom to be disposed of by Parliament ut supra 16. The King to discharge all his Guards and Forces now in being and not to raise any other but in case of actual Rebellion 17. The King to enter into a strict Alliance with all Reformed States for their assistance to recover the Rights of his Royal Sister and her Princely Issue to those Dignities and Dominions which belong unto them 18. To clear the Lord Kimbolton and the five Members by Act of Parliament 19. No Peer hereafter to be made shall sit in Parliament without their consent And these Articles being confirmed the Parliament engage to make him a happy Prince To these Commands rather than Articles of Peace being such as were more proper to move Indignation than to gain an Assent the King sends an Answer by two noble and discreet Lords the Marquess of Hertford and the Earl of Southampton who were enjoyned to treat on more equal terms in the House of Lords But they not being admitted the Treaty came to nothing And because in this place we have made mention of Peace and Proposals we are to take notice that afterwards in the heat of the War at the instance of the King Propositions of Peace being mutually sent and Commissioners on both sides twice meeting to treat about it nothing could be effected and mostly by the Parliaments fault For seeing they proposed such severe Conditions on their own parts and which tended onely to their own advantages and the King on the other hand such just and equitable Terms more favourable to the Parliament and State than to himself and Family the People began to be enraged and to fall off dayly from the Parliament The King of France also how sincerely I shall not judge and the States of the Vnited Provinces interposed for accommodating the differences but were rejected by the Parliament and the Scots who likewise offered to mediate were refused by the King as partial But farewel Peace Bellona is now at the doors The People being in the disposition we mentioned before Deputies were sent with Commissions into all the Counties and the Parliamentarian Rebels by force and their own authority invade the Militia which they could not obtain from the King by petitioning The King on the contrary commands them to desist upon pain of Treason citing the Act of the 25 Edw. 3. whereby To contrive the death of the King Queen or Prince to violate the Queen or the Wife of the Prince to take up Arms against the King to assist the Kings enemies within or without the Kingdom to counterfeit the great Seal or Kings Coyn are for the future declared to be Treason having also alleadged other Acts whereby it is declared That the power of the Militia and taking up of Arms belongs onely to the King But they make answer That the Letter of the Law is for the King but the mind of it for them That it is not forbidden to take up Arms against the Kings Person but against his Authority which being in all Courts of Judicature was most eminently in the Parliament To this the King replies That that distinction was condemned above three hundred years since when the Spencers under that cover carrying on Sedition were condemned to death by the Parliament That besides the present Parliament was not free but the better part of the Members being excluded the rest were slaves to the Faction These courses taking no effect the King also sends Deputies into all Counties with authority from his Majesty to array and arm the Subjects and to have fit men in readiness if necessity should require for suppressing Rebellions and Seditions And from this we may date our Sorrows and Calamities whilst the King endeavouring to maintain his ancient Rights and they again to invade them War breaks out in the Kingdom But the Match was unequal on what side soever the Right stood The Parliament superiour in strength prevails and in most Counties usurps the Government the Royal Cause being very weak and in a few Counties struggling for life With no greater
more willing to serve the end it was at the same time voted in the House of Commons That the Tythes and Dean and Chapters Rents should be paid to the Preachers seeming to be very sollicitous for the Cause of God and Religion when in reality they intended to cheat the Church of them and to convert them to profane use Nay the Justices of Peace are everywhere enjoyned to force the Laicks who refused to pay them They likewise hoped to stir up the people by Emissaries and Souldiers everywhere dispersed by Anabaptists Schismaticks and Hereticks who were most diligent in propagating their affairs to approve what the Parliament had done by congratulatory Addresses and to demand some severer punishment to be inflicted upon the King But it happened contrariwise for three Answers and Apologies at least came out within a short time one of which was written with the Kings own hand wherein his Majesty was most clearly acquitted from those reproachful Imputations and the Accusations retorted upon the Faction it self which was proved to be guilty of all the crimes that it maliciously and falsly fastened upon the King and that with so great evidence and perspicuity that no man durst offer so much as to mutter against it In the mean time the Ministers coldly obey their commands and some few gratulatory Addresses by the industry of Sectarians are with much ado extorted from a few Counties and signed but with the hands of some obscure and notoriously malicious Villains Now the people began to grumble and fret to accuse the Sectarians and especially the Souldiers of juggling and imposture and to curse them all Afterwards came Petitions from a great many Counties and those also which always were for the Parliament earnestly intreating that a personal Treaty might be had with the King that the Army might be paid and disbanded that assistance in the mean time should be sent over into Ireland that England might be eased from Oppressions and from contributing to the charges of an unnecessary Army which it was no longer able to bear At length it came to that that a great many of these humble Petitions signed with the hands of infinite numbers of men had almost confounded the repugnancy of the Parliament the Commanders of the Army in the several Counties and the Parliament Commissioners who for the most part did all now comply with the victorious Party in vain using all their endeavours by threats of sequestrations imprisonments banishment and death and now and then by flattery and golden promises to make them desist and be silent Nor can we pass over without a remark the changing Tides of Divine Vengeance or of Popular Inconstancy whilst the very same Parliament from which the first tumults of petitioning against the King had their rise does now complain that the dignity of the Members are endangered by an undesired confluence of Petitioners The first that led the van in petitioning were the Essex-men in numbers unusual before these times who were so many that they might have compelled those whom they came to supplicate Next came the Surrey-men who being unarmed were upon a slight occasion barbarously treated by the Souldiers near the very door of the Parliament-house being severely beaten forced to flie some killed more wounded all plundered and that by order of the House and command of the Officers nay the Rioters had the thanks of the Lower House and rewards for the fact that so the people might for the future beware of licentious petitioning which heretofore was judged a part of their Right But all they get by their Tyranny in labouring to stifle the Grievances and Complaints of the opprest people was to incense the other Counties to ply them more frequently with Petitions who seeing they could procure no remedy by complaining from Prayers and Petitions they betake themselves to Arms. The liberty of the King and People which heretofore the deluded Rabble thought to be inconsistent are again born in colours by the men of Kent Essex Suffolk Norfolk York-shire and other Northern Counties South and North Wales also and at length of Surrey who were inflamed with a greater desire of vengeance many Nobles the Earl of Holland Wiot and Duke of Buckingham c. who were unluckily discovered to have entered into a Conspiracy at London joyning them too hastily The Sea-men also being carried with the same tyde of Commiseration towards the King fall off and seventeen men of War having put the Republican Admiral Rainsborough on shore come over to Prince Charles The Scots also by order of their Parliament take up Arms for delivering the King out of Prison wherein he was basely detained and make an Irruption into the Northern parts of England with a numerous army under the command of Hamilton being joyned by Sir Marmaduke Langdale with a considerable body of English But whether it was the wonted ill fortune of the King or of Hamilton himself or rather the decree and purpose of Almighty God the English first by intervals and one after another were routed and killed by the enemy for it was a matter of small difficulty for an old Army provided with Ammunition and all other necessaries of War commanded by vigilant and expert Generals and Officers to defeat and put to flight a tumultuary body of raw Country-men rather than Souldiers destitute of Arms and warlike provisions and for most part without Commanders whilst they come to engage by Parties one after another Nevertheless Colchester in Essex and Pembrooke the chief Town of that County in Wales though they were unprovided for a Siege gave the Rebels no little work to do Nor did Pontfract-Castle fall dishonourably into their hands out of which about thirty Horsemen breaking through the Forces that besieged the place pulled Rainsborough lately Admiral and now General of the Northern Army who had brought some thousands of Auxiliary Troops to make an end of the Siege out of his Bed in Duncaster a fortified Tower twelve miles distant from Pontfract and because he refused to be carried away with them as a Prisoner killed him Nay the Garrison being reduced to the utmost extremity all had free liberty to depart to their own houses except two Souldiers to whom it was permitted even by Articles either to die in the Bed of Honour fighting or to arm themselves and strive to break through the enemy Which both of them watching their opportunity got on horseback and performed almost without a wound The Scots through the unskilfulness and cowardise of their Generals or which I am not willing to suspect their treachery leading the Army in two bodies forty miles distant one from another are without any trouble routed by Cromwel who unexpectedly falling upon the main body put it to flight and all the rest into consternation many being killed and taken amongst whom was Hamilton the General The rest he pursued into Scotland where
to death Out comes presently an Ordinance under pain of High-Treason That no man should presume to declare CHARLES STEUART commonly called Prince of Wales King And as if this had been but a small matter That no man should pray for CHARLES the Second under the name of Prince of Wales King of Scotland or eldest Son of the King or for the Duke of York or any of the Royal Family under pain of Sequestration Monarchy and the House of Lords being both abolished the first under pretext of change uselesness and danger and the other both of uselesness and danger they make an Ordinance for changing the most ancient Government of England into a Democraty or Popular Commonwealth and because the Mayor of London refused to publish the Ordinance they turn him out of his Office fine him in two thousand pounds and commit him to the Tower notwithstanding his alleadging That such an act was to be performed by the Sheriffs and not the Mayor of London and that being bound by so many Oaths he could not in conscience do it A dull blockhead one of the Kings Judges was forthwith put into his place and that others upon account of conscience might not boggle at any of their commands they abolish the Oath which all men upon their entry into publick place were obliged to take to the Kings Majesty They purge the Common Council of the City which was wont to consist of the richer and graver Citizens and turn out many Aldermen making this their colour for it that the year before though at the desire of the major part of the Parliament They had signed the Petition for a personal Conference with the King and filled their places with the abject Riff-raff of the Rabble many of them very young and most of them broken fellows They also turn out the Recorder Town-Clerk and other Officers of the City who had refused to attend the Mayor at the publishing of the Ordinance for abolishing of Monarchy other factious Villains of their own Gang being preferred to their places who leading the other Citizens by the noses the City of London in a trice became obedient to the Orders of the Mock-Parliament With one single Vote they repeal all the ancient Laws made against Sects and Schisms They deprive the Ministers of the promised Revenues I mean of Deans and Chapters Lands They also make profession of easing tender Consciences from the burthen of Tythes assigning some thousands a year out of the Kings Revenue for Stipends and Salaries for the Preachers that so they might be at the beck of the Republicans and be at length by Office constrained with mutual Assistance and Pay to conspire against Monarchy Nay it was debated whether they should not for some time shut the Church-doors and restrain the licentiousness of Presbyterians but milder Councils prevailing some having been imprisoned others threatned with death all are commanded upon pain of Sequestration to refrain from Invectives and to comply with their Rulers in keeping Fasts and Thanksgiving-days and whatever else concerned the affairs of the Church They break down the Kings Arms and Statues that were set up in publick places and put up their own instead of them They coyn new money with the impression of a Cross and Harp as the Arms of England and Ireland In a word as by Law and in full right they invade and appropriate to themselves all the Regalia which as by way of Sequestration they had before usurped From henceforward without any regard to Justice and Honesty they spare neither Sex nor any Order of men The Kings Children who remained in England to wit the Lady Elizabeth and Henry Duke of Gloucester Princes of singular accomplishments of Nature are many ways basely used by them Amongst the Regicides it was moved oftener than once whether they had not better put her out Apprentice to a Trade that she might get her living than to breed her up in a lazy life at the charge of the Publick From the gentle tuition of the Earl of N. she is turned over to the severer discipline of another with orders that when there was no occasion for it she should not be treated as the Daughter of a King Afterward she was confined to Carisborough-Castle in the Isle of Wight under the custody of one Mildmay an inspired fool but implacable enemy to the Royal Family that she poor Lady thus put in mind of her Fathers Imprisonment and Murder being already consumptive might the sooner be brought to her end And indeed when through the irksomness of Prison Grief and Sickness she visibly and daily decayed and pined away the inhumane Traytors deny her the assistance of a Physician nay the Physician whose presence she earnestly desired they so frighten from his duty that he durst not wait upon her She being dead they send the Duke of Gloucester into banishment having allowed him a small piece of money that I may not omit any act of their humanity to carry him over into Flanders They basely treat the Countess of Carlisle by an usage unworthy of her Sex and Quality as being one who of too much a friend before was now become an Enemy and commit her to the Tower of London Duke Hamilton and the Earl of Holland who now too lately repented their having been the first of the Lords and chief of the Factious who for their own safety had too much served the times against the King and of the Royal Party the heroick Lord Capel a prime Champion both for his King and Country are by the same President Bradshaw who dyed red with Royal bloud knew not what it was to spare the bloud of other men in the same Court of Justice sentenced to lose their heads Whom the Rebels thought fit they banished and seized all Estates and Inheritances how large soever at their own discretion There was a debate amongst them about making a Law that whosoever was by them suspected to be an ill willer to the Commonwealth or an enemy to the Army might be brought to a tryal before a Council of War and sentenced by them as they thought fit Nay they order the stately Fabricks of the Royal Houses and Palaces to be thrown down that Kings for the future might not have a house of their own to cover their heads under God any stately Temples wherein he might be worshipped or the Kingdom any publick Structures to shew its magnificence St. Paul's Church in London that of Salisbury and the Kings house of Hampton-Court Fabricks that may compare for stateliness with the best of Europe with much ado escaped the fury of their desolating hands A Council of forty persons is erected which by a gentle name to the common people they call the Keepers of the Liberties who altogether or at least seven of the number had the full administration of the Commonwealth Amongst these were three or four contemptible Lords Slaves to the Republican Faction admitted of whom
for they grow openly mutinous and infect others with the same itch of Rioting They accuse the Lord Lieutenant in presence of the Lord O-Bryan Inchiqueen as the Disturber of the Affairs of Ireland whose continuing longer at the Helm would quickly be the ruin of the Government but that if he alone would undertake the management of Affairs being a person descended of the ancient Race of their Kings whom they had found to be a Valiant Watchful Faithful and Successful General they all promise to swear Obedience to him and willingly submit to his Government On the other hand they whisper the Lord Lieutenant in the Ear that Inchiqueen having been an inveterate Rebel had not as yet laid aside the thoughts of his ancient Enmity nor would he cordially defend the cause of those against whom he had been so long accustomed to draw his Sword that if the Lord Lieutenant would consent to lay him aside the Irish would unanimously joyn and in all things obey his Commands Thus whilst by an abominable Treachery and Hatred to either they strive to Calumniate and Blacken both they make it their business to propagate Faction and Divisions But the Lord Lieutenant meeting the Bishops and Great Men earnestly exhorts them That at length laying aside all private Grudges and Animosities which still remained to be composed they would consult the Publick Interest become Friends and unanimously prepare for a more vigorous defence That they would reflect upon the great danger they were in three Provinces being already almost wholly subdued and the last not like to resist much longer That if his Government was less grateful to them and was a hindrance to the defence of the Country he would hasten his departure and commit the charge to another For he had already secretly obtained leave to depart from the King being still at Jersey and had got the Goverment conferred on Clanricard When they heard this all of them pretended extraordinary Sorrow that they would submit to his Will and Pleasure banish all mutual Jealousies and perswade the Towns to Obedience They departed with glad and cheerful Countenances as abundantly satisfied though they were still inwardly discontented So true it is That those whom God intends to destroy he first infatuates For the Inhabitants and Roman Catholick Clergy combining privately together kept Clubs and Cabals and dispersed infamous Libels wherein they shew the Rancour of their Minds by calumniating the Lord Lieutenant as unactive Cowardly and Treacherous finding fault with the Commissions that were granted to Officers of the Reformed Religion and repining that the War should be committed to the Caâ—e and Conduct of unfit Men wholly addicted to Whoring Gaming Gluttony and Impiety The Bishops of Cork and Toam and of Clonfert and the rest of the Clergy declare the Government void and the Followers of the Lord Lieutenant liable to Excommunication And therefore they order the Army to be Disbanded before they could think of the raising of another Nevertheless the Lord Lieutenant that he might as much as lay in his Power preserve the Forces in their Duty and Loyalty to the King he left the charge of them to the Earl of Clanricard with the Title of Lord Deputy who being admitted by the unanimous consent of all that stuck to the Kings Party took upon himself the management of the War A general Muster being thereupon appointed new Levies are made the Souldiers Exercised necessaries for the War provided and all things prepared afresh the Clergy being very Zealous and the People assistant in carrying on the Work About that time Ireton betook himself to Winter Quarters in Dublin that he might consult with the Commissioners of the Common-wealth about the future War and other Affairs having left Orders to Axtel Governour of Kilkenny to have an eye upon the Garrisons about Athlome Axtel by chance whil'st he was upon Duty fell in with Clanricards Men who passing the Shannon at Athlome had taken some of Iretons Garrisons and had surprised more if he had not come in the nick of time They charge Axtel who being much inferiour in number retreated a little until being recruited from Wexford and other places he had joyned thirteen hundred men to the eight hundred which he himself had and then he made head against the Enemy But so soon as they began to Skirmish though the Irish were five thousand Foot and four hundred Horse strong yet not daring to venture a battel they retreat to the River Shannon and skulk in two Boggs about Melecha fortifying themselves with Poles and Stakes driven into the ground and filled up with Earth as by a double Wall However the English leaving no means unessayed and breaking through all impediments bravely drove them out of their Station and destroyed them five hundred men who were partly slain and partly drowned After this overthrow it was thought safer in the very extremity of Winter to keep the Souldiers betwixt the Shannon vast Lakes and the Collough Mountains than any more to molest the Enemy whom daily Success made bolder The Reader may be apt to wonder that the Irish shewed themselves so Cowardly and Timerous during the whole Series of this War as if from Men they had degenerated into Women being every where defeated though they fought for their Lives and Liberties But whoever equally weighs matters will easily leave off to wonder For on the one hand he 'll find the English provided of all necessaries for a War unanimous amongst themselves all expert in War and confiding as it is usual in their continual good Fortune The Irish on the other hand almost without Arms for most part destitute of Weapons and other necessaries disagreeing also amongst themselves miserably rent into Factions raw and unskillful in War and in a manner cowed by constant ill Fortune Besides they are neither comparable to the English in Foot nor Horse how brave soever they be in Foreign Countries The private Souldiers I know not whether it be by the Skill and Knowledge they have of the Bogs and lurking Places that they are to soon enticed to fly or that through the force of an old Custom they could not but turn their Backs envied to the Blows of the English Now as to their Horse they are far exceeded by the English not only in number but also in the quality of the Horses and Riders The Horses indeed march but softly but in bulk of Body strength of Limbs and Courage one Troop of them is worth three almost of the Irish and breaks Ranks better And the Riders again are for close Fighting discharging their Pistols in the Enemies Breast and laying about them with their Swords Hence it is that in every Engagment the Irish presently betake themselves to flight nor can they endure the looks yea hardly the Neighing of the Horses of the English I hope the Reader will pardon me that I have tacked this Apology
head-piece and boots and in ordering of Civil Affairs also to watch till midnight at length as the Devil would have it he was one of the chief in shedding of the Royal Blood his Memory for that unparalelled Villany being execrable to all Posterity In Ireland he always stood by the Anabaptistical Fanaticks relying upon their counsels for these he gave his Vote both in Civil and Military Affaires and with them filled the Towns Councils and Camp At length this most cruel Pest of his Countrey died of the contagious Plague Though he was removed yet the War still goes on For Coot with the unanimous consent of the Commanders from Limmerick marches to the Siege of Galloway which they straitly blockt up both by Sea and Lannd Clanricard having got leave to depart Nor was it long before it was delivered to the Enemy upon Conditions not unlike to those of Limmerick And thus Galloway the most noted staple of all Ireland strong in fortifications considerable for buildings riches numerousness of inhabitants and open trade by Sea submits to the yoke of the Enemies in resisting of whom they had formerly denied the Lord Lieutenant their assistance But as if they had not been sufficiently punished by War the hand of God chastised them with a severe punishment a following Plague having within the space of a year and a half swept away twelve thousand of the Inhabitants Now was Ireland fully subdued and henceforward the pleasure of the Commissioners went for Law they being Jones Corbet Ludlow and Weaver To these it seemed good to begin their Government by the suppression of the Tories a kind of robbers who have always but not in so great numbers infested Ireland Nor is it a new thing amongst barbarous Nations who whenever they find themselves oppressed by the Governours of Provinces or otherwaies have run out their Estates and are broken presently to shake off the Laws refuse to labour the Ground and despise Trades Wherefore they betake themselves to the Mountains Desarts Bogs and Rocks according as the Countrey is naturally fortified declare War against all other Mortals and live by Rapine Such are the Banditi in Italy and Spain the Cossacks to Poland and others in other Countreys and that we may not go far for an example of such wickedness such are the Moss Troopers in Scotland as will hereafter appear For these in the night time lurk in Woods Caves and Dens but in the day time break out suddenly upon Travellers or men about their lawful Business and rob them both of Life and Money And as often as they get together into a body with desperate Barbarity they burn and pillage Villages add presently betake themselves to their lurking holes again They are a kind of land Pirats who wandring amongst Lakes and Bogs according to the light-footedness of the Nation they safely skip over the Quagmires and loose ground wherein strangers unacquainted with the places that follow them commonly stick They therefore give orders to the Soldiers who had now nothing else to do to divide themselves into small parties and so to environ hunt and kill them like wild Beasts which being done they either mutually betrayed one another or found their holds and lurking places to be so unsafe for them that in two years time there was none of those Enemies of mankind any where to be seen In the mean time the Rump-Parliament consult about a Deputy who might succeed to Ireton and sit at the Helm in the administration of the Affairs of Ireland and by unanimous Vote they pitch upon Lambert But whilst he is prepairing for his passage with greater Pomp than the times required whether it happened by the advice of the Commissioners who at that time affecting Equality did not like such preeminence or through the cunning of Cromwell at whose beck the Affairs of Ireland were managed and who had lately privately married his Daughter Iretons Widow to Colonel Fleetwood The Rump-Parliament changing their resolution he has orders to lay aside his Title to Deputy and go over to Ireland as a Commissioner Which Lambert a man most ambitious of Rule and impatient to be baffled in the Honour that had been promised him taking ill and far worse that the Command of the Army should be divided amongst men unacquainted with War he thought it better wholely to renounce the Government of Ireland Fleetwood therefore embracing the same Conditions having celebrated his marriage with the aforementioned Widow passes over into Ireland in Quality of chief of the Commissioners and besides of Major General Now that the Reader may know who this man was and to give some light to what follows after I thought fit to premise these few things He was the son of a Knight the youngest of many Brothers who to get an honest living applied himself to the study of the common Law untill that the flame of Civil War spreading he changed his profession turned Soldier and under the Earl of Essex served as a Gentleman Volunteer Afterwards rising from one degree to another till he became a Colonel he aspired to the marriage of Cromwell's Daughter as we have now related she being a Widow and he a Widower His Religion from the Cradle was of the strickt new Cut and if he was not a stout professour of Anabaptism yet he loved to be thought a great favourer of it not onely that he might serve a turn and engage in a reciprocal aid and benevolence but because he was inwardly and sincerely so As he was no cunning man himself so neither was he reckoned a a great prier into the Counsils of other men And being so qualified he became dear to the common Soldiers and for that no ways suspected by the more Powerful In a word he was no ill man but that by taking up Arms against his own King he had for ever stained his Reputation by the horrid Crime of Treason and Rebellion Now were the Rump-Parliament masters of all Ireland except of a few scattered Forces who here and there lurked in obscure and unaccessible places Of whom the greatest part sculked in Munster under the command of Sullivan O-Beare and some in Vlster under Farel The former at length submit to Broghill but upon this Condition that they might go beyond Sea in Ships provided by the Rump-Parliament for that affect the latter to Colonel Ludlow upon the same Conditions And afterwards all the Military part of the Nation followed their example and six and twenty thousand departed the Kingdome some to Spain some to France and the rest whither they pleased the English accommodating them with Vessels for their Transportation so that within the space of eight months Ireland was left destitute of all its fighting Men as being impatient of the English yoke Then was a High Court of Justice Erected consisting of most of every Sect of the Counties where that assembly met sometimes Cook and
had not been for the reverence and awe they stood in of the King would have flown in the faces of those Countrey-men of theirs at least would have been very troublesome unto them And now being informed how basely the King was used by the Covenanters they invite him to them promising to protect and defend him these were the Marquess of Huntley Earls of Athol and Seaforth the Lords Ogilby and Gordon Middleton and several other great men The King had already listned to these and secretly casts about with himself how he might make his escape out of the hands of those Covenanters Therefore mounting on Horse-back without Boots as if he had been going a Hawking with three or four more in Company he slips out of Town and directs his Journey to the house of the Lord Vicount Diddop with a purpose to abscond until the return of the Messengers who had been sent to learn the minds of the Highlanders whether or not they were able and were indeed willing to assist him In the mean time an Englishman having discovered where the King was great debates arise amongst the Nobles whether the Scots should leave him to shift for himself and onely look to themselves or having made submission unto him and promised greater obedience for the future they should use his means and Authority for reconciling all parties and perswasions This was liked of by most and for that end Montgomery is quickly dispatched with a trusty party of Horse that he might represent to his Majesty how dangerous that forsaking of the Covenanters would be to himself and his Affairs intreat him to return and promise better usage for the future In pursuance of his orders he came and beset the Lord Diddop's house in the night time and entring in the morning fell at his Majesties feet and pressed him so urgently that by his and others perswasion he was prevailed upon to return back with him to St. Johnston About that time as an accession to other Calamities the Death of the Prince of Orange happened He had fallen sick of the small Pox which at first seemed to threaten no danger having been let Blood put on clean Linnen and eaten Flesh unseasonably he suddenly dies and indeed too soon for the King and his own Family But he left a posthumous Son the present Prince to inherit his just Rights and Dignities in the Vnited Provinces Now began the minds of the Scots to bend by degrees Heretofore none to be admitted into the War but he who first gave a confession of his Faith and whose Religion was no ways suspected Flatterers who could countefeit Godly looks and grimaces were freely admitted but men of Courage who had signalized themselves in the Wars were put back No Water could serve them to quench the fire but what came from the clear Fountain Head no Sword but the Holy Sword of the Spirit was to be drawn against the Enemy Now all are sharers in the War yet not before they had confessed their Sins and by a kind of Repentance scowred their Consciences The Marquess of Hamilton is oblig'd of new to take the Covenant as also the Earls of Lauderdale Crawford Buchan the Lords Diddop Levingstone and many other Persons of great Quality Nay and the English also as the Duke of Buckingham Lord Wilmot Earl of Cleveland Massey and others whose names I do not remember are associated But Middleton and Huntley not satisfied with the Act of Indemnity having joyned the forces of the Earl of Athol march against them and defeat Browns Regiment and had also engaged Lesly had not the coming of the King put an end to the Controversie all being relaxed from Excommunication taking the Covenant and associated into the War Whilst these things are in agitation on the other side of Forth the effects of Cromwell's Letters and practises began to appear in that Seeds of Sedition being sown amongst the Scots the foundations of the Kirk were miserably shaken the Remonstrators from the Pulpit railing at the King and his Ministers and publishing Libels nay at length appealing to Cromwell against General Assemblies which they sawcily enveigh against because they prohibited their clamorous buffoonery And in all places cry that it was lawful for none that were truly Godly to take up Arms for the cause above mentioned at the Command of the Parliament King or Kirk All the South part of Scotland with greatest part of the Ministers and the Horse that were Commanded by Ker and Straughan are drawn in to subscribe the Remonstrance wherein they spew out the poison of their rancour against all those Who had called in the King too hastily before he had given certain marks of sincere Repentance and Conversion to God and before they had sounded the minds of the Parricides who had not had satisfaction objecting to them much more of the same stuff At last they propose ways for remedying those Evils The Parliament and Assemblie of the Kirk at first essay to mitigate and appease those violent Spirits with Lenities inviting them to send Commissioners to St. Johnston that if they had any remaining Scrupules they might be removed without noise But they returning an answer more insolently propose Sterling as a place of greater security to both meetings That the Parliament might repress that Sedition they order Ker to apprehend Straughan and bring him to Justice But he discovering the Train instantly sled into Cromwell's Camp where soon after dying he concluded the Catastrophe of his Fortune And so Ker alone has the command of the Horse Cromwell now despairing of the intestine dissentions amongst the Scots pursues Ker and having ordered Lambert and Whaley with five Regiments of Foot and an hundred Dragoons to keep along the South side of the River Clide he himself advances on the North side Lambert marching through Peebles quartered at Hamilton which Ker being informed of by his Scouts and knowing that Cromwell was absent with fifteen hundred Horse he suddenly falls upon Lambert in the night time and that very successfully at first till by chance a Tree being laid cross the street in the middle of the Town which a Captain with a Company defended put a stop to their Progress whilst Lambert drew up his Men and surrounding the Enemy charged them on the Rear And having made a considerable slaughter of them and Ker himself who was shot through the hand being taken he pursued the rest to Air which Town being presently taken was secured with a Garrison And so those of the old Army that hitherto remained are quite broken and dispersed whether more to the grief or satisfaction of the King I cannot tell About the same time a great Conspiracy of Presbyterians both Ministers and Lay-men is discovered at London which took vent first in Scotland and was by Cromwell upon some suspitions he had not without ground conceived recommended to the Regicides of England to
Earl is defeated who having received two wounds by By-ways cross the Countrey he flies to Worcester the Lord Widderington Sir Thomas Tilsley Matthew Bointon and Trollop Colonels with Lieutenant Colonel Galliard being kill'd and Sir William Throgmorton Colonel Richard Leg with four other Officers and fourty Private Souldiers taken Cromwell in the mean time views the Kings Camp uncertain as yet in what part to fall on He thought it however fit to make his first attempt at Vpton seaven Miles above Worcester to the South where there is a Stone-bridge over the Savern Massey had broken the Bridge and accidentally left a Plank from one Arch to another lying secure with two hundred and fifty Horse in the Neighbouring Town and no Guard left to defend the pass But the Cromwellians laying hold of the occasion stradling upon the Plank pass over one after another and encreasing in number they possess themselves of Vpton Church and for some time defend it until more Swimming over the River on Horseback and crossing the Bridge that was now in some manner repaired came up to their Assistance Massey takes the Allarm too late and having received a grievous wound in the Hand is forced to Retreat to Worcester Then upon a Bridge of Boats they pass the small River Team which running at some distance to the West falls into the Savern a little below the Town Soon after a like Bridge of Boats being made over the Savern it self they joyn'd all their Forces under Bun-hill within a Mile of Worcester and march towards the Citie as challenging the Kings Forces to come out The night following Middleton with fifteen hundred Horse and Foot all Scots resolves to Sally out upon the Enemy But the Cromwellians were in readiness having had timely Intelligence given them by a Taylor who was hang'd for his Treachery Nevertheless the Royalists attempt to break into the Camp but in vain and having lost Major Knox with some others they Retreat back again And now the third of September came a Day fatal to and never to be forgot by the Scots for the overthrow they received at Dunbar the year before when the King with a Council of War viewing the Enemies from the high Steeple of the Cathedral-Church perceived them upon their March towards the Town All presently Arm and the King himself marches out to the defence of Powick-bridge and to hinder the Enemies passing over the Bridge of Boats which we just now mentioned The King was scarcely got back into the Town when Montgomery who defended the Bridge being dangerously wounded and destitute of Gunpouder Kreth also another Commander being taken returns to the City Whil'st these things were acting the Kings Majesty turning towards the East-side of the Town resolves to hazard a Battel Therefore with a considerable Body of Foot but a small number of Horse for the Scottish Cavalry scarce budg'd he marches against the Enemy at Perry-wood with a most undaunted and present Mind being followed by the Dukes of Hamilton and Buckingham and Sir Alexander Forbes at the Head of his Foot At the first charge he beat the Van and made himself Master of the Artillery but afterwards though with wonderful Sagacity he gave orders in the heat and confusion of the Fight fac'd the greatest dangers with a High and Steady Mind not to be matched by others and with his own Hand did many brave Actions though at that time he gave illustrious proofs of his Personal Valour even in the Judgment of his Enemies yet being overpowred by fresh Men whom Cromwell in great numbers sent in he despaired not but that he might reserve himself for better Fortune thought it best to retreat in time and save himself in the Town but he was for some time stopt by a Wagon laden with Ammunition which the Wheel being accidentally broken lay cross Sudbury-Gate However alighting from his Horse he went in on Foot and presently mounting another he used all manner of perswasions to encourage the Souldiers who now were giving over to renew the Engagement till the danger growing greater and greater by St. Martins-gate he went out to the Horse Commanded by David Leslie being almost whole entire and directed his course towards Barbon-bridge earnestly entreating the Horse that they should take Courage and hasten to the Assistance of the Foot who were put to utmost extremity But many refused some threw away their Arms all slunk away and chose rather to decline the danger than by fighting stoutly either make that the last day of their Life or the first of their Victory But whil'st the King is making his escape the Earl of Cleveland Sir James Hamilton Colonel Careliss and some other worthy and Loyal Gentlemen with the remains of the Horse renewing the fight at Sudbury-Gate put a stop to the Enemy for some time till Fleetwood on the West-side having past the River broke into the Town through the Suburbs of St. John and Cromwel having thrown down Sudbury-gate beat off the Earl and the rest From thence he marched on victorious to the Fort Royal maintained by Colonel Drummond with fifteen hundred Soldiers who having refused to surrender it was Attacked on all Hands and cut off with all his Men. Deplorable and sad was the Countenance of the Town after that The Victorious Souldiers on the one Hand Killing breaking into Houses Plundering Sacking Roaring and Threatning on the other hand the Subdued flying turning their backs to be cut and slasht and with stretched out hands begging Quarters some in vain resisting sold their lives as dear as they could whil'st the Citizens to no purpose prayed lamented and bewailed All the Streets are strowed with dead and mangled Bodies Here were to be seen some that begg'd Relief and there again others weltering in their own gore who desired that at once an end might be put to their lives and miseries The Dead Bodies lay unburied for the space of three days or more which was a loathsome spectacle that encreased the horrour of the Action Three thousand and five hundred Private Souldiers were slain Duke Hamilton having his Thigh broken lived but four or five days after the Battel Forbess was shot through both his Legs Five thousand were taken Prisoners some Towns-people but most Scots amongst whom were the Earls of Rothes Karnewath Kelly the Lord Sinclare Montgomery the General of Artillerie as also of English Colonel Graves and Fanshaw Secretary to the King with the Officers of the Scots Army all the Baggage and an hundred and five and fifty Colours The Kings Majesty having a little beyond Barbon-bridge left Leslie who resolved to march with the Horse that were almost entire by Newport streight into Scotland and being attended by the Duke of Buckingham the Earls of Derby and Lauderdale the Lords Wilmot Talbot and other Persons of Qualitie with about fifty Horse followed By-ways partly that he might refresh himself with sleep and partly that
of the Council That the Christian Religion as it is contained by Holy Scripture should be the Publick Profession of the Nation and that those who were to have the Care thereof should have their Support from the Publick so that it be with some other more convenient Maintenance and less subject to Envy than by Tythes That no Man shall be by any Fine or Penalty whatsoever forced to Comply with the said Publick Profession otherwise than by Persuasions and Arguments That no man Professing Faith in Christ should be prohibited the Exercise of his own Religion so that he disturb not any other but that neither Popery or Prelacy should be permitted the least Favour or Licence and that all Laws to the contrary should be void That all Agreements made by Parliament should be firm and stable All Articles of Peace made with Domestick Enemies made good That all Protectors in their Order should be obliged by Oath at their first taking upon them the Government by all means to procure the Peace Welfare and Quiet of the Commonwealth by no means to violate the present Agreements and lastly to his Power to administer all things according to the Laws Statutes and Customs of England To these Conditions Cromwell swears and then cunningly chuses his Privy-Counsellors which he so dexterously pack'd that though they differed in Quality and Inclinations amongst themselves yet all were equally at his devotion Of every Sect he chuses some Leading Men by whose means he might gain the rest of the same Stamp Officers also of the Army especially the Higher and those who were most in Favour and Authority with the People Amongst them were Anabaptists Independents and Presbyterians Irish and Scots all sorts of Republicans and until all Liberty of Ingenuous Minds was restrained some Royalists also The Reins of these so many and different Opinions Factions Nations and Sects the skilful Driver being himself of no Faith nor certain Profession took into his Hands and turned them at his pleasure now inclining to one side now to the other sometime approving the greater and sometime the smaller number of Votes being ready at every turn to dismiss those that were head-strong And thus assisted by his Counsellors he takes upon him the Administration of the Commonwealth Out of fear few withstand this so great a Change in Affairs and many applaud it Those who are of a contrary Opinion stand in amaze and conceal their Thoughts Presbyterians Independents Royalists Neutralists and all chuse rather to acquiesce under his Government than eternally to be enslaved to the Pleasure of mad Fanaticks The exulting Soldiers are cock-a-hoop Now Colleges are freed from the fear of Ruine the Common-Laws are secured from danger the Nobility though maimed yet still seemed to be in being the Presbyterians secure of their Tythes and Discipline though not coactive triumph nor are the Royalists much grieved being now sure of a Single Person and hoping that the Scepter and Crown after one or two Turns more would at length be setled upon the right Basis the Royal Family Every Commander of the Army talks of Golden days as if now their Places were to last for ever nor does the meanest Soldier despair but that by degrees he may mount to the top of the Government But Lambert and other Chief Officers besides the plentiful Estates wherewith they are enriched at present skip for joy that they are admitted into a share of the Government hoping within a little after the death of the aged Protector to be raised higher Amidst these Domestick Revolutions at home England wanted not a Foreign Enemy they had a heavy War with Holland upon their Shoulders which being begun two years before and till then continued seemed like to terminate in the Ruine of one of the two Nations had not God othewise decreed The Dutch were netled at the Letters of Reprisal which being promiscuously granted Pyrats from all Places who liked better to live by Rapine than by honest Courses infesting the Seas had taken above Fourscore Sail of Ships as also at the Order of Parliament That no Goods should be Imported from abroad unless in English Bottoms or Ships of the Country where the Commodities were originally to be had And that People were too late foolishly bent upon War For when it was in their Power to have assisted the King against His Rebellious Subjects then would they neither aid Him with Counsel Money Intercession Credit nor any other way nay I wish it might not be said that some of them assisted the Rebels But now when the Princes of Europe vailed their Crowns and Scepters before the Parricides they think themselves able to make Head against them and vie for Pre-eminence Nothing now is to be heard amongst them but forthwith resisting Force by Force The Publick Places resound with Ballads and Songs against the Villanous Regicides and Sectarians and Booksellers Shops are adorned with Pictures The Flushingers exceeded all the rest in Folly who boasted that their own Ships alone were able to beat the English But the High and Mighty States were not of that Judgment they were divided into Three Parts One Part was not onely for entertaining a Peace and good Correspondence with the Regicides but also for Leaguing into a stricter Amity Others favouring the Popular Opinion did all that lay in their power to thwart that and that Confederating with Neighbouring Princes they should endeavour to restore the King of Great Britain to the Throne of his Ancestors A third Party taking a middle way thought it best to mind their own Interests carry fair and civilly with the Rebels thereby to secure their Trade and the free use of the Seas but in the mean time if the Parricides carried it high and slighted their Friendship that with a well-appointed Fleet of an hundred and fifty Men of War they should forthwith quell them The last Opinion prevailing Four Embassadours for Pacification are appointed to go into England the Heer 's Catz Schaep Vandeperre and Neuport who had long been resident there They renew the Treaty which St. Johns had broken up beginning at the same Article where he had left off The Oligarchicks hereupon seem sorry for what was past and presaging a future Coalition with the English into one Commonwealth carry very civilly and kindly receive them Then the Dutch Ambassadors without denouncing of War make some mention of an hundred and fifty Men of War which they had in readiness to scowr the Seas from Pyrates and securing Navigation but without any Intention to molest us which was far from their thoughts But in the heat of the Treaty it unluckily fell out that a great Fight hapned betwixt Blake and Trump the Admirals of both Nations but I am uncertain who gave the first Provocation We alledged That the Dutch refused to strike Sail which is a Mark of Prerogative and Dominion that we demand of all Foreign Ships and that Trump being warned to do
Army that he might shew him not onely to the People but to the Soldiers and that he might insinuate with all and as much as he could make himself Friends by Conversation And now the day was come when the whole Parliament was to meet as well the Republicans who in the beginning of the Parliament had been excluded by Cromwell for refusing to subscribe to the Condition required as the Lords or Peers who by Oliver's Writ filled the Upper House But the Reader cannot but wonder how disdainfully the Members of the Lower House looked upon those new Lords asking them with scorn By what Authority they sate to what end and for what purpose were they called hither Nay they could not refrain from ridiculing and scoffing at them nor be induced to have any thing to do or consult in common with these Men. On the contrary the Lords as they were instructed by Cromwell fawned complied wheadled and courted their Friendship leaving no means unessayed whereby they might soften and make them more gentle But they continue to be morose untractable and refractory to every thing Which Cromwell observing and especially because he understood that the Cavaliers were hatching new Designs that the King was in a readiness with I know not how many thousand Men to invade England and that the Marquess of Ormond was really in the Land secretly labouring to raise the Country for these Reasons he forthwith dissolved that fictitious and as I may say Comical Parliament It was not long before the Stirs began more clearly to appear one Corkar a Parson in Sussex who nevertheless had heretofore had a hand in killing Rainsborough at Doncaster Sir Richard Willis and many others who had served and been well rewarded by the King and had opportunity of passing to and again betwixt Cromwell and His Majesty and discovering all secret Intrigues having basely betrayed the Design A General Insurrection was designed almost all over England especially in Hull London Sussex Surrey and many other Places which the King himself with Foreign Forces commanded by Marsin intended to Head But all proved in vain the Matter as we have said having been discovered to Cromwell by treacherous and clandestine Spies The Marquess of Ormond with much ado made his Escape having by the Assistance of Doctor Quarterman procured a Boat in Sussex And now a vast number of Persons apprehended are loaded with the suspicion of guilt and therefore the High Court of Justice a true Object of Derision had it not been polluted with Blood is again appointed Lisle being President Before this Court are brought Mordant Son to the Earl of Peterborough two Stapleys Woodcock Sir Henry Slingsby Hewet Doctor of Divinity Mallory Rivers Dyke and many more Hewet is condemned for Contumacy in not acknowledging the Authority of the Court Slingsby because being formerly a Prisoner in Hull he had treated with Waters about the Delivery of Hull-Fort into the hands of the King Mordant is absolved by the Majority onely of one Voice when within a quarter of an hour after Pride came in who would certainly have voted to the contrary so near he seemed to the very Jaws of Death Woodcock defended himself so ingeniously that he came off The rest were either not found Guilty or obtained Cromwell's Pardon for accusing of others or in short were condemned of High Treason Hewet and Slingsby were both beheaded But four others were drawn hanged and quartered their Privy Members and Bowels burnt their Heads set up upon London-Bridge and their Quarters upon four Gates of the City The Common sort being safe by their Number after a long Imprisonment at length denying the Fact upon Oath are dismissed Thus they who for attempting to slay a Tyrant deserved a Triumphal Arch and highest Honours falling into the bloody Hands of their Enemies suffer a cruel and ignominious Death But that he might provide against such Stirs for the future and more securely settle his ill-got and unsafe Government besides the Soldiers of the Army he levies Troops of Horse in the several Counties which for the most part were made up of Voluntiers whom either ambition of domineering hope of Preferment prospect of Booty or at least the tediousness of an idle and lazy Life allured into the Service Of these he gave the Command to some of his Relations and fast Friends Though at present their Pay was but small Eight pound a year yet by getting into profitable Places and plundring the Cavaliers upon all occasions they were in good hopes of feathering their Nests Their Duty was to watch over the Counties to be present at Publick Fairs and other numerous Meetings to hinder private Assemblies and Concourses of People to exact the Taxes from those who were either slow or unwilling to pay them by Free-Quarters and Fines imposed upon them to seise besides suspected Persons search their Houses take from them the Arms which they might have for defending themselves against Thieves in the Night-time and in a word to suppress instantly all Stirs if any hapned in the bud Blake is again but now the last time to appear upon the Stage He being this year sent to cruise in the Atlantick Ocean had Intelligence that the Spanish Fleet richly laden with Silver and Plate had out of fear put into the Island of Tenariff resolving to keep in the Port of Sancta Cruce until Blake should be forced to return home either by the Winter Weather or the want of Victuals and Provisions Wherefore steering his Course thither he found the Harbour in shape of a Crescent defended by seven Forts lying round it and two Castles placed at the Points with seventeen Ships riding therein their Heads standing towards the Mouth of the Harbour that they might fire with greater certainty upon those that offered to enter nor could the Governour forbear to jear and slout at the English Blake therefore entring the Mouth of the Harbour with his Frigats thunders Broadsides and small Shot against the Castles till the Soldiers flying from thence he Manned his Boats with Seamen and sent them in who destroyed and burnt all the Spanish Ships that were there Which being done he made use of a favourable Wind which as it had brought him thither so carried him off again more satisfied with his Revenge than Booty But farewell to Blake who in that Expedition died of a Scurvey and Dropsie A Man deserving Praise even from an Enemy who having heretofore diligently plied his Studies took his Degree of Master of Arts in Wadham-College in Oxford and lived long a quiet and Country-life in Somersetshire till afterward the Civil War breaking out he was engaged into the Service by some Parliamentarians and defended Lime and Taunton even to a Miracle against the King Then being advanced to a Command at Sea he subdued the Isles of Silly at home after which being honoured with the Title and Place of Admiral he became famous by many Actions abroad For he
been subject unto seeing for at least thirty years he had at times heavily complained of Hypochondriacal indispositions Though his Bowels were taken out and his Body filled with Spices wrapped in a fourfold Cerecloath but put first into a Coffin of Lead and then into a Wooden one yet it purged and wrought through all so that there was a neâ—ssity of interring it before the Solem◠〈…〉 â—rals But still his Character is wanting which without prejudice and waving what we before observed in the series of the History thus take He was born of honest Parents in Huntingtonshire and from a Child gave no obscure proofs of Enthusiasm For as I have had it from credible Persons when he was a Child he reported that one appeared to him in the likeness of a Man who told him that he should be a King which his School-master being acquainted with whipt him for it by his Fathers direction He laid an unsolid Foundation of Learning at Cambridge but he was soon cloy'd with Studies delighting more in Horses and in Pastimes abroad in the Fields However from one Indecent Action the Reader may conclude of the extravagance of his Youth Sir Oliver Cromwell his Uncle an honest good Gentleman far from the Humours of the Nephew after the old manner kept Christmas with Musick Dancing and the other Diversions of a chearful heart a Master of the Revels as the Custom was presiding in their Plays when my Gentleman observing a great many got together daubs over his own Boots and Gloves with Ordure and crouding in amongst the rest whilst they were a Dancing besmears the Clothes of the Master of the Revels and other Guests so that the whole House was perfumed but not with the scent of Frankincense Therefore the Master of the Revels caused him to be Horsed upon a Pole carried upon the Shoulders of some of the stronger Youths and so plunged over Head and Ears in the next Pond there to be throughly rinsed I would add a great many more of such his nasty pranks if I were not afraid to offend the Readers Modesty After the Death of his Father in his Youth he married a Gentlewoman but by his profuse and luxurious way of living in a short time he squandered away both his own and Wives Estate so that he was almost reduced to Beggary Afterward playing the Penitent he gave himself wholly over to the hearing of Sermons reading of Godly Books and Works of Mortification and having hired a Brewhouse as if he would now Brew better than he had Baked he plied the Brewing Trade and Husbandry After that by means of Sir Robert Steward some Royalists and Clergy-men he was reconciled to his Uncle who could not before endure him so that he made him his Heir But shortly after having again run out of all he resolved to go to New-England and prepares all things for that end In the mean time by the help of Sectarians he was chosen a Member of Parliament where finding fit Companions mad partly through Ambition and partly through Zeal and Religion he omitted no opportunity of fomenting Debates and raising Calumnies to the prejudice of the King inventing Tales stirring up the Embers and blowing about Sparks of Division till at length he put all into a fair Flame and Combustion The War afterwards breaking out he served as a Captain and really was so against his own King Charles the First a Prince of ever Blessed Memory But reflecting with himself on the continual Victories of the Cavaliers he told the Parliamentarians that the Rabble would never be able to fight against the King whose Army consisted of Gentlemen because of the disparity of the Cause and Motives Honour moving the one and Pay the other but if they desired to fight with equal Courage and overcome the Enemy they must look out for and raise good honest Soldiers that would fight meerly for Conscience sake or at least place such Officers of their Forces Many have often heard him glory of that Advice Having therefore obtained leave from the Parliament to raise a Regiment by Letters or Messengers he invited the Honest Men as he was pleased to call them from among all the Soldiers in the several Counties with whom he had had any acquaintance and persuaded them to take on with him Wherefore Independents Anabaptists Quakers and in a word all the Sink of Fanaticks come flocking to him so that he made up above a thousand Horse who in the beginning being unskilful either in handling their Arms or managing a Horse by Diligence and Industry became in process of time most excellent Soldiers for Cromwell used them daily to look after feed and dress their Horses and when it was needful to lie together on the ground and besides taught them to clean and keep their Arms clear and have them ready for Service to chuse the best Armour and to arm themselves to the best advantage Trained up in this kind of Military Exercise they excelled all their Fellow-Soldiers in Feats of War and obtained more Victories over their Enemy This was the beginning of the New Model as they called it These were preferred to be Commanders and Officers in most part of the Troops of the Army the places of Private Soldiers being filled up with lusty strong Fellows whom Oliver trained up and kept in very strict Discipline Afterward he was made Major-General of the Horse then Lieutenant-General and at last General till after all he raised himself to the Dignity of Protector and invaded the highest Place of Honour and Authority When he was thus mounted to the top of Preferment his first care was to break down the Steps by which he ascended lest Rivals might climb up by the same means Few have hitherto applied greater Industry than he in the Administration of the Commonwealth What is Philosophically said of others I may with probability affirm of him to wit That he had two Assistant Spirits a good and a bad and that when he knocked his Breast poured out his Prayers Sighs and Tears promising all things that were good he was acted by his good Genius but when by Lying and Fallacies he carried on his Cheats his wicked and Traiterous Designs then was he prompted by his bad Genius or Spirit He was not unworthy of Government had he not invaded it by Villany Fraud Treachery and the Blood not onely of others but of his own Prince also Next day Richard his eldest Son is by the Privy-Counsellors after mutual Consultation saluted Protector and is by a Herald proclaimed first in the conspicuous Places in London and then all over England Scotland and Ireland Nay the Officers of the Army though they hatched in their Breasts contrary Counsels which were not as yet come to maturity came to Congratulate him and under their Hand-writing promised to be true to and defend him But he was far from aspiring to it out of Ambition and
for money and that the Souldiers might be paid by the spoils of the State Lambert's forces are imperiously commanded back to their Garrisons and forthwith to leave the Field upon pain of disobeying the Supreme Power and forfeiting their Duty And at the same time news was brought to Monk's Camp that the Committee of Safety was broken and the Rump again in power What could Lambert now between hawk and buzzard do he was forsaken by Fortune deluded by Fleetwood's confidence over-reached by Monk under a colour of Peace and despised by the Rump Should he return to London it was a long and difficult march and perhaps as late for the succour of his friends as dangerous to himself having such an Enemy in the rear Should he engage Monk in a Country improper for Horse the ground being covered over with Ice and Snow it would be very uncertain if not in vain since in the dead of Winter his Horse could do no feats What to do he could not tell Nor were Lambert's men truer to their Trust than Fleetwood's had been at London for so soon as they heard of the defection of the London-Regiments basely without consulting their General nay and slighting his authority they submit to the Rump Few now were to be seen at Lambert's door and fewer within nothing but silence and seldom any Guards He was no more General nor cause of the War but where he hoped for Laurel and Triumph he was fain to search a hiding place so that without any attendance he speedily and secretly betook himself to London So fallacious and uncertain a thing is Power when it is too great A certain kind of Triumviral Power now exerted it self in Britain under Monk Fleetwood and Lambert not much unlike to that Roman Triumvirat of Caesar Pompey and Crassus With almost the same gallantry Monk behaved himself in Scotland as Caesar heretofore governed in Gallia but out of their Governments Monk out-did Caesar for the Roman being come into the City offered violence to the Senate and unjustly usurped the Dictatorship The other entering London under colour of restoring the Parliament by a rare instance of Loyalty and Modesty restored the King Nor were the emulous and competing Crassus and Pompey more sollicitous in drawing in Caesar than Fleetwood and Lambert were in endeavouring to associate Monk into the Government for though they contributed their mutual assistance in overturning the Rump-Parliament yet it is certain they hardly conspired in any thing but in the fear that both of them had of Monk Fleetwood was jealous of Lambert's ambition and Lambert could not brook Fleetwood's authority the one could not admit of an Equal nor the other of a Superiour Monk therefore was courted by Letters from both as having it in his power to give the Government to what Party he pleased Nor could Fleetwood have expected better Conditions from Lambert had he prevailed against Monk which those who favoured Fleetwood in his Army perceiving avoiding all opportunity of fighting with Monk lest Lambert perchance getting the victory might turn out his Rival Fleetwood Lambert can hardly be compared to Pompey unless it be in boundless ambition and the unhappy issue thereof and Fleetwood not at all to Crassus But without doubt it was the interest of the Publick that both were undone seeing Monk getting the better restored at length Britain to it self Lambert's Forces in all places having either run away or submitted Monk divides his Army and under his own and Morgan's conduct marches streight to London a march that will be famous in all future Ages and memorable to Posterity On New-years-day having sent before the Foot he moved from Caldstream and the day after he himself followed with the Horse and took his Quarters at Wellar the next day when he was come to Morpet he received Letters from the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen of London sent by the City Sword-bearer wherein they earnestly entreat him That according to the great Trust and Power he had having now found an occasion than which Providence had never offered a greater he would relieve the distressed State and call a new and full Parliament as the onely support of their tottering Country freely offering him the assistance and concurrence of the City in the affair And now on the fourth of January Monk having marched his Army over desert Mountains in deep Winter-Snow arrived at Newcastle and the day following sets forward to Durham from thence directing his march to York near Allerton he was honourably received by the Sheriff of the County Being next day come to York he was met by a multitude of Citizens and Persons of Quality and by them splendidly conducted into the City Having performed so great a march in so short a time he rested here five days either that he might let the news of his coming flie before him to London or that having allowed some time he might by his Agents of whom he had a great many in the City be early informed of the Councils of the Rump and inclinations of the Citizens Here Monk met with Fairfax a famous Souldier and his old Companion in the Wars who now following his own humour had risen in Arms against Lambert and was with no contemptible Forces but far greater reputation come over to the right side being now with more honour an Enemy than he had heretofore been General of the same Army During this stay at York Monk received into his service some Regiments of Lambert's Army having changed the Colonels and Officers and no Enemy now appearing anywhere he mustered his Army and sent back part of it under the command of Morgan into Scotland He himself with four thousand Foot and eighteen hundred Horse marches forwards towards London Such was the Army of Monk the least and yet most renowned body of men that ever marched through England which being hardly a third part in number to the enemy buoyed up the fate of tottering Britain and the fortune of Charles the Second The Army marching from hence and being come to Nottingham he was met by Clarges who came post from London a man deservedly of great interest and authority with him He secretly informed him of the designes of the Rump the strength of the City-Forces the suspicions and jealousies of the Sectarians and that the hopes of the Citizens depended wholly on him Upon his march he was met at Leicester and congratulated by Scot and Robinson Commissioners from the Rump upon pretext of doing honour to the General and civilly waiting upon him in his march but in reality as Spies to dive into his secrets and diligently to observe his words and actions Nor was Monk less circumspect but being a great concealer of his thoughts and sparing in words accommodating all his discourse to occasion and shewing the Commissioners all imaginable respect in the Army he confirmed them in the opinion of his sincerity In this long and
Churches under their government The King answered With a willing and devout heart I promise and grant my Pardon and that I will preserve and maintain to you and the Churches committed to your charge all Canonical Priviledges and due Law and Justice and that I will be your Protector and Defender to my power by the assistance of God as every good King in his Kingdom in right ought to protect and defend the Bishops and Churches under their government Then the King arose and was led by the Bishops of Duresme and Bath and Wells to the Communion-Table where he made a solemn Oath in sight of all the People to observe the Premises and laying his hand upon the Bible said The OATH The things which I have here promised I shall perform and keep So help me God and the Contents of this Book On the eighth of May a new Parliament met which continued many years Since the year before the Regicides had been brought to condign punishment the three Estates of Parliament now condemned to the flames the Solemn League and Covenant the Bond of the English and Scottish Conspiracy and Sacrament of the Presbyterian Villany The same was done by the Parliament of Scotland and Ireland and that which had raised a Civil Combustion and propagated the same all over Britain and Ireland is now burnt by the hand of the Hangman and by its own ashes expiated at length the wickedness of three Nations This year was concluded or the new begun by the further punishment of Regicides For by Order of Parliament Mouson an upstart Lord Sir Henry Mildmay heretofore Keeper of the Jewels to the late King and therefore the more criminal and Robert Wallop on the seven and twentieth of January the day whereon the blessed King had been condemned were in Hurdles with Halters about their necks dragged to Tyburn and back again to Town being sentenced to perpetual imprisonment It was sufficiently made out that they had been Members of that execrable High Court of Justice but because they had not signed the Warrant for the Kings execution they were onely punished by Bonds and Imprisonment Hazelrigg in the mean time one of the bitterest of all the Traytors being sentenced to the same punishment pined away with anger and grief and unable to bare his disgrace prevented the dishonour and his captivity by a timely death in the Tower of London The same punishment was inflicted upon the Traytors who as we said before came in upon the Kings Proclamation For being brought to the Bar because waving all defence they humbly acknowledged their Crime and that they were a Crew most part of them of silly seduced Rascals drawn in either by the arts or threatnings of Cromwel they redeemed their necks from the Gallows which they had so often deserved by a perpetual imprisonment to which being closely confined they lived to see their Villany punished by Infamy But fortune was more favourable to the Traytors that came in at home than to those who fled abroad for about that time Sir George Downing being Embassadour in Holland had intelligence that three of the Fugitive Regicides Barkstead Okey and Corbet being come back out of Germany lurked in Delf He therefore having obtained a Warrant from the States General seized them and sent them over to England where being brought to a tryal they were condemned for High-Treason and April the nineteenth executed at Tyburn They went all to death with a fanatical ostentation of Piety But Barkstead and Corbet approaching to their end after many ugly delays and cups of Strong-waters unwillingly put their trembling necks into the Halter which quickly put an end to the Wretches half dead already for fear But Okey being a man of an undaunted mind and making use of his courage to the last went off with the bravoury of a Souldier and not undecently had he so died for his Country Corbet was heretofore an inspired prating Lawyer more skilful in the Principles of Fanaticks than in the Laws he got to be a Member of that long and black Parliament and no man was more professedly an implacable Enemy to the King The low extraction of Okey is buried in obscurity Being a Tallow-chandler in London and weary of his poor condition he followed the profitable Wars of the Parliament where his daringness advanced him to the place of a Colonel and at length to be one of the chief Judges in trying and sentencing the King Barkstead was heretofore a whifling Goldsmith in London and had raised himself upon the Ruines of his Country But those who knew the cunning of Oliver in chusing his Magistrates wondered that he preferred so silly and idle a fellow even to be a Colonel and Lieutenant of the Tower of London besides other Offices But that kind of stupid fierceness was more useful to Cromwel than the cunninger knavery of others for the Tyrant himself for the most part looked another way and commanded the Villanies which he would not behold so that this fellow no doubt was privy to the furious Councils of Cromwel and a trusty Minister of his Protectoral Cruelty And so long as he was chief Jaylor to Oliver the barbarous Villain was never startled at the sight of the Murders and Imprisonments of so many Nobles and worthy Subjects His head was set upon a Gate of the Tower whereof heretofore he had been Governour that upon the same Stage where he acted his greatest Crimes he might suffer his greatest Punishment The first Prodigy of the Regicides was their matchless impudence in putting to death the King and their next their obstinacy to the last For when they had murdered the best of Kings to the shame of Christianity the infamy of the Reformation and the universal reproach and malediction of Fanatick Zeal these godly Regicides were ashamed when Treason stuck in their breasts to confess their hypocritical pretending Religion even at the last gasp Nay their Godliness made them so impudent as rather to know themselves guilty and deny it to save their reputation amongst their Brethren than humbly and modestly to acknowledge their Crimes The Authority of Parliament was the onely thing that all of them alleadged to justifie their Parricide as if a Gang of fifty Robbers who had so often violated that Authority had been worthy of that name when there was neither the colour nor resemblance of a House of Commons left Nec color Imperii nec frons fuit illa Senatûs But since they could live no longer to do mischief their whole care was at their death to harden the minds of their Party by a fanatical assertation of dying good men when it was rather the highest Judgment of an offended God to let them fill up the Cup of their bold Indignities by a desperate end It was time now for the King who was a Batchelour to think of Marriage that he might leave a Posterity for the future
overthrow of his Fleet and the English redoubling their courage bore in more furiously amongst the Enemies But the Dutch Fleet wanted both strength and courage to continue the Engagement longer and with full sail run for it Now it was no more an Engagement but a Pursuit accompanied with slaughter and the usual calamities of Fugitives for four of the Enemies Ships in the haste and consternation of the flight falling foul of one another were by an English Fire-ship burnt all together Three more of their Ships being afterward in the same manner pestered together were by the next Fire-ship likewise set on fire and burnt Then were many of the Dutch Ships taken and more sunk nor was there any end of destroying and pursuing till it was dark night The Pursuit continued next day with the same vigour and the Dutch fled with the less shame that they had the Duke of York to follow them This was a famous Victory nothing short of the ancient Atchievements of the English five thousand of the Enemies being killed or taken and Opdam Cartener Stillingwolfe and Stamp the chief Commanders of the Dutch Fleet dying in the Engagement There were about eighteen Ships burnt sunk and taken Many of the Enemies swimming in the Sea after the Ships were burnt or sunk his Royal Highness who is merciful in his anger caused them to be taken up having for that purpose ordered out Boats For why should they die who hardly deserved to live It was a greater than joyful Victory to the English the flower of the Honorary Volunteers being slain Just by the Duke fell the Earls of Portland and Fulmouth the Lord Mufcarrey and a Warlike Youth the Son of the Earl of Burlington who joyfully sacrificed their lives to the Honour of their Country and to that Victory wherein they had the Duke of York for a Witness of their Valour and a Bewailer of their Destiny The valiant Earl of Malborough and Rear-Admiral Sanson died also in the Bed of Honour Lawson being wounded in the thigh six weeks after died with Honour and Reputation And though being in a dying condition he could not make use of the Triumphant Victory to which he had largely contributed yet he tasted of the pleasure of it There were not many killed nor slain and onely one Ship lost And thus his Royal Highness brought home the Royal Fleet loaded with Triumph and the Spoils of Victory And whilst the States of the Vnited Provinces were taken up in punishing the cowardise of Commanders King Charles in the mean time conferred Honours upon his deserving Officers and knighted Alan Smith Jordan Meens Tiddeman and Spragg for their brave and good services The Dutch Fleet in the mean time fighting ill having been soundly-beaten De Ruyter in his Piracies abroad had somewhat better fortune After the action at Guiny he attempted other English Islands in America From Barbadoes an Island well fortified and defended he was repulsed with disgrace From thence sailing to New-found-land and having easily mastered it he made prize of all he found there and having cruelly used the Inhabitants plundered them of all and wasted the Island he returned home Upon his return he was immediately from a Pirat advanced to be Admiral being the onely person judged worthy to succeed Opdam in the command of the Navy But for this year the Dutch were sufficiently cowed as no more to fight the Victorious English by Sea Wherefore the Duke of York who liked better to overcome than to spoil his Enemies seeing there was no hopes of any farther Engagement spent the remaining part of the year on shoar But Sandwich being made Admiral of the Royal Fleet set sail again towards the Coast of Holland and offered though in vain a second Engagement but the Enemy could not be overcome till they were found The States in the mean time after their Fleet of War was disabled and beaten off of the Sea were in no small fear and apprehension for their East India Fleet which was upon the way homeward richly laden nor was the eagerness of the English less to catch the Booty But that Fleet having intelligence that Holland was blockt up by the English and thinking it safer to shelter themselves in another Dominion put into Bergen a famous Harbour in Norway Part of the Royal Navy hastened thither and sending five Frigats into the Harbour they attacked the Dutch Ships that lay secure under the protection of the Castle and shore nor did it seem difficult to have taken them had not the English contrary to expectation found another Army to deal with the Danes firing upon them from the Castle The English greedy of the Prey were a little too rash in running themselves into the danger of a double Enemy but their Valour made amends for their boldness A sharp Dispute continued for almost six hours to the vast damage of the Goods on board the shattered and torn Ships and to no small loss on our side especially from the Castle but at length after a proof of great but unseasonable courage to prevent greater loss and slaughter the Fleet retreaâ—ed and seeing they could not enjoy the spoils of the Enemy they had the satisfaction to embezile and sink them as if they had got when the Enemy lost But amidst the Triumphs of War the Joys of the Victorious English were short and interrupted for this was a doleful year through the breaking out of a raging Plague not occasioned by an influx of the Stars nor the French Pox degenerating into a Contagion as some idle men dreamt but as it was more credibly reported by the infected Goods that were brought from Holland into England so that when the Dutch Arms could not beat us their Contagion overcame us After it had by the space of almost one whole year raged in London and swept away infinite numbers of people it spread over many other and far distant Cities and Towns of England Nor could the Contagion be stopt by any humane arts or skill of Physicians before it had carried away above two hundred thousand Souls within less than two years time neither were the days and nights long enough for the dying to expire in nor Church-yards big enough to contain the bodies of the dead though they were heaped together into Graves The King and Court leaving the desolate City removed to Oxford as yet clear from infection and seated in a wholsome Air thither also went the Judges and Courts of Justice The Nobility Gentry and rich Citizens in the mean time avoiding all confluence of people lurked everywhere in Country-houses and Villages The onely persons of great Quality that stayed in London were the Duke of Albemarle and Earl of Craven which was both a comfort and safety to the City in so great a Desolation and Mortality of the Citizens The Plague at length ceasing in London the earnest desires of the Citizens invited back
the King who on the first of February returned from Oxford to London where the Bonfires during the night expressed the hearty Joys of the People glad to see their Prince and that he saw the City now again in health Neighbouring Nations as yet looked at a distance upon the bloudy War betwixt the English and Dutch But Louis the French King powerful in men and money after he had for some time stood neutral thought and hoped that the Dutch and we having mutually weakened and tired our selves out in War he might have a fair opportunity to raise his power at Sea though the genius of that Nation seems not to be cut out for that profession He therefore smoothed up the Dutch with promises of assisting them with his Fleet being willing that they should have the dominion over the Seas whom he intended to conquer by Land and thereupon declared War against the English which was reciprocally proclaimed in London against the French In the same condition we stood with Denmark that the triumphs of Charles might be the larger Now besides the Dutch our Rivals at Sea the English Valour alone as yet unshaken resisted the threatning French and Denmark then alied with Holland as was equal to them all The affairs of England never succeeded better at Sea than under the auspicious conduct of his Royal Highness James Duke of York who always prefered the welfare of his Country before his own life yet he was dearer to the King and Kingdom being the second hopes of Britain than that his Princely person born to the highest Honours should be any more exposed to so mean and base an Enemy Therefore in the year one thousand six hundred and sixty six Prince Rupert and the Duke of Albemarle were pitched upon for the command of the Royal Navy who going on board equal in Power and Concord they put to Sea with a Fleet well appointed for War but presently after Prince Rupert by Letters from the Privy-Council has orders sent him in all haste with twenty good Frigats of the Fleet and others lying at Portsmouth to stand over for the Coast of France and hinder the French Fleet from joyning the Dutch I would to God it had not been judged of such an importance to make so great an effort to hinder the coming up of an Enemy who would not have much injured us nor assisted their Friends nor was there any thing to be feared from the French Fleet after the late overthrow of the Dutch But they laying hold of the opportunity of the English Fleet being divided and never fighting but by wiles and upon the advantage of number with fourscore and five Men of War attack the Royal Navy now much diminished in number With Albemarle there were not above fifty Frigats but he being a General without fear unacquainted with flight and judging nothing too hard for his fortune despised the Enemy which so far surpassed him as if they had been inferiour to him in number so confident a thing is Courage and preferring Glory before Safety on the first of June the day being pretty far advanced he drew up his Fleet and bravely engaged the Dutch Here number strove with Valour but the Sea being rough the English could not then use their lower tire of Guns which never failed to shatter and tear their Enemies Albemarle did great actions in this Engagement and everywhere behaved himself bravely being fearless amidst the thickest dangers and bold to admiration for bearing down with his own Ship upon the Enemies main Fleet he broke quite through them furiously firing on both sides till at length having given and received great loss and being disabled in his Masts Sails and Rigging he bore off Part of the Royal Fleet defended the Duke whilst he refitted his Ship and the rest continued obstinate in the Engagement till they were parted by the night In this Engagement four Dutch Ships were burnt and a Vice-Admiral and another of a less value sunk And the Dutch took three English Ships who being separated from the rest of the Fleet were engaged at a distance The Royal Fleet in the mean time suffered most in their Rigging and Tackle but all things by the diligence of the Sea-men being repaired in the night-time next morning the second of June Albemarle having called the Commanders to a Council of War on board his own Ship spake to them to this purpose HAd we been afraid of the double number of the Enemy we should have ran for it yesterday but though we be inferiour to them in Ships in all things else we have the better on 't Number made the Dutch bold and Courage us let us reflect upon that Fortune upon that Valour which heretofore the Dutch have felt to their woful experience we have the same Enemy to deal with whom we have so often beaten and made it our custom so often to overcome Let our Adversaries find to day that though our Fleet be divided our Courage is entire and when we consider our own Glory and ancient Renown how much more honourable will it be to die not unrevenged upon the Seas than to be carried Prisoners in our own Ships as a Spectacle of Triumph to the Dutch It is less disgrace to be overcome than to flie and Death is to be preferred before Fear The Fleet thus encouraged equally despising their own safety and their too numerous Enemy and being eager to retrieve their Honour all desire an Engagement and Albemarle confident in his own Valour and in the eagerness of his Souldiers declined not the Fight so that both Fleets fell to it afresh and engaged Pell-mell The English whose courage is redoubled by danger put the Enemy hard to it though they had had a fresh supply of Ships Men and Ammunition from Holland The Royal Fleet being incompassed by so many Dutch Ships had nothing else to trust to but to fight stoutly and make way for themselves in the best manner they could till at length many of the English Ships being disabled in their Sails and Rigging stood away and left the rest to deal with and maul the Enemy The Dutch sunk one Ship of the Royal Fleet and we our selves destroyed another that could not be brought off The Dutch in the mean time had but one Vice-Admiral Ship burnt and in this days Engagement with so numerous an Enemy it was a harder thing for us to keep our selves from being beaten than it was many times heretofore to have overcome them But after that with more than humane force and courage they had asserted their own Honour and the Glory of Britain lest they might make that Engagement which the resolution of the English had rendred famous by an inconsiderate boldness to be thought rash it was next day resolved in a Council of War to send off first the disabled Ships draw up the rest that were in a condition of fighting which were not above sixteen to make head
against the Enemy and so to make the safest retreat with the Fleet they could Ashamed they were and no less encouraged at the disgrace that they who were used to command the Seas should now decline the Enemy whom they had so often pursued And Albemarle stood on the Quarter-deck flying with threatning looks and terrible to the Enemy in his very retreat the boldest of whom that durst approach him with his Stern-Guns he either beat off or sunk nor did over-powered Valour give o're and they who fled had mâ—re courage to flight than those that pursued But now Fortune seemed to repent that she had not seconded the Valour of the English Nation For during this sharp Engagement the noise of the Guns had reached the ears of Prince Rupert who at a great distance was in search of the French Fleet though in vain he therefore tacking about made all the sail he could to come into the assistance of his Friends inflamed with the desire of fighting The sight of his Ships was as joyful to our men as formidable to the Enemy But Albemarl's Fleet had the ill fortune to take the nearest course to joyn the Prince who was so luckily come For the unskilful Pilates hastening too rashly steered upon Shelves and Banks where many struck but though the rest got off again yet the Prince a Man of War that deserved better fate commanded by Sir George Askeugh being so far got on as they could not bring her off was burnt by the Enemy and Askeugh being taken was afterward carried in triumph into Holland The Royal Fleet being now rejoyned on the fourth of June give chace to the Dutch daring them to another Engagement Hopes of Victory incited the Prince and Albemarle to revenge but which of the two had greatest Courage it is hard to determine And now a fourth time they fall to it in as memorable and fierce an Engagement as perhaps ever happened upon the Ocean though after three days fighting they now contended with greater fury than force The Prince with his fresh and entire Squadron had the Van carrying in his looks the resolution of his mind Albemarle followed after spurred on with new desires from the supplies of others having received fresh Vigour to himself but the Enemies Fleet kept at a distance not daring to come to a close Engagement until Prince Rupert desirous to make an end of the matter with his usual undaunted Courage fell in amongst the thick of the Dutch and sunk and put to flight many of them and had not Albemarl's own Ship been extreamly disabled in the former Engagements and had not an unlucky shot of the last of the Enemies Ships towards the evening brought the Mast of Prince Rupert's Ship by the board and so hindred the pursuit They had been able to have given a far better account of the Dutch in this days Engagement who now strove who could run fastest But the Dutch found by this days experience that the English equal or unequal in force were invincible and that they must submit to the fortune of Charles The Enemy being now everywhere put to flight the Royal Fleet seemed the more joyful that they had conquered the greater dangers and so stood over to their own Coast and put into Harbour to have their Ships refitted which was done with all diligence In the mean time the Dutch gave it out that they had got the Victory because they came off so well and after that they had celebrated a Mock-triumph over the English at home with a more ridiculous silliness they bragg'd of their Victory abroad to the scorn and derision of Foreign Nations And having speedily patched up a Fleet they come in sight of Harwich and dared the English upon their own Coast but with no designe of fighting as appeared afterward but onely out of a Dutch vanity and a false perswasion of a Victory for so soon as upon the seventeenth of July the Royal Fleet had put out to Sea again the Enemy bore off trusting more to their Banks than their Courage On the twenty fifth of July Prince Rupert and Albemarle engaged the Dutch on their own Coast nor did they decline the Engagement not out of confidence but being compelled to be bold and trusting to the neighbourhood of the shore and the nature of the Coast There was a hot Dispute on both sides for almost four hours but the Dutch suffering more in their reputation than in other losses tacked about and made all the sail they could to be gone the report being that de Ruyter's Ship gave them the example of flying The Royal Fleet pursued after with continual thundring of Guns until the Enemies having got behind their Banks the English were in greater danger from the Banks and Shelves of their Coast than from the flying Enemy A Squadron of Ships under the command of Trump stood it out still and was attacked by a part of the Royal Fleet that was in the rear but after a bloudy Engagement they were forced in the night-time to follow the fortune of the rest and shift for themselves upon the Coast of Zealand Jordan sunk de Ruyter's Fire-ship and in the Fight were taken Banker the Vice-Admirals Ship and the stoutest Ship of Harlem both which were burnt by the English who were more intent upon the Battel than the Booty Everts Admiral of the Zealand-Squadron Tirich Hides of the Friesland Vice-Admiral Conder and six Captains of Ships were killed The English lost onely one Ship commanded by Captain Hannam which after the Seamen had escaped was burnt by the Dutch The Royal Fleet was more troubled at this base flight of the Dutch than they were at the dangers of the former Engagement and they were vexed that the cowardly running of the Enemy should have cut them short of a more triumphant Victory But the Dutch always preferred a whole skin though with a dishonourable flight before Honour with danger Now did the Royal Fleet again block up the Dutch Coast that they might keep the Seas and make them ashamed of their overthrow who now being so often beaten were forced in their skulking holes to acknowledge the prowess of the English and seeing no Enemy appeared the Merchant-ships that were daily taken suffered what the Fleet better deserved But the English were unwilling to be idle upon the Dutch Coast and therefore Prince Rupert and the Duke of Albemarle ordered out Sir Robert Holmes a man of great undertaking to the Vly who sailing thither and having left a guard of Ships at the entry into the Harbour he took with him five Fire-ships and one Frigat besides Pinnaces and Boats manned with Souldiers and Sea-men and boldly entring in he burnt all the Ships in the Harbour to the number of one hundred and fifty Sail many of them East India Ships laden The Town of Schilling was afterwards taken and burnt and the Plunder given to the Souldiers And Holmes having shared
the glory and danger with his men came safe off leaving behind him a blazing Bonfire of Ships and an amazement amongst the Enemies The Enemy having now wholly abandoned the Sea the Prince and Albemarle steered their course back again to England leaving the terrour of their Names behind them After a tryal of Fortune both ways the Dutch prevailing neither with equal nor greater force they apply themselves to the French for the assistance so often promised and so often delayed and turning their sails and desires towards France they endeavoured in another Country to raise up an Enemy to the King of Great Britain Upon the news of the Enemies being out again at Sea the Royal Fleet presently set sail from England and beyond Calis blockt up the Dutch on the French Coast but a strong East Wind blowing and the Sea being very tempestuous it was not safe for the English to keep out longer at Sea They therefore bear away to St. Helens Point a very fit place to intercept the French Fleet that then was at the Rochell But so many fortunate successes over conquered Enemies abroad were quashed by a sudden and most dismal Calamity at home as if the beams of our shining Fortune were always to be intermixed and set off by Adversities For on the second of September a Lamentable Fire broke out in London a sad Judgment of an offended God against England The Fire began in a Bakers house in the lower part of the City near Thames-street amongst old rotten houses apt to catch fire and full of combustible Goods The darkness of the night putting all things into terrour and confusion increased the horrour of the Calamity The Citizens being frightened delayed the use of timely Remedies and which was no small accession to the Evil the people neglecting too much their houses were too fatally set upon the hasty removing of their Goods which were yet at length devoured by the nimble flames The raging East Wind that had much incommoded the English Fleet at Sea did far greater damage in the burning City by carrying the force of the flames through the greatest part of London The Conflagration grew soon insuperable by the blowing of the Wind which raising in a moment the fire from the bottom to the tops of the houses and scattering flakes in all places it grew too strong for the endeavours of those that laboured to quench it Here the blazes of ruddy flames were to be seen and there the crashing of falling houses to be heard and which was the sadest Spectacle under the Sun the doleful looks of so many Citizens the wailings of desolate women and the cries of children and decrepit aged people And in the forsaken shops of the wealthy Inhabitants numbers of Thieves and Pilferers greedier of Booty than the fire villanously skulked No man that had a sense of humane Miseries could see and not be affected with the dismal spectacle of the Ruining City of London Now were there to be seen almost an hundred Churches consecrated to God and many Hospitals the Monuments of ancient Piety besides other publick Buildings raised at the vast charges of our Ancestors the famed Sion-Colledge and Royal Exchange of London the Guild-hall and stately Cathedral of St. Pauls as sad Spectacles of the Calamity either buried under their own Rubbish or standing Monuments of the devouring flames Whilst all things else in the Exchange were consumed without sparing the many Statues of our Kings onely that of Gresham the Founder stood to bewail the Ruines of his own Fabrick so kind was Fate to the fame and memory of the liberal Doner The King whose high-born Soul was above the Vicissitudes of humane Contingencies could not but with grief and sorrow behold the lamentable Calamity of his wretched Subjects and native City exhorting comforting and advising them in their greatest difficulties And therefore he ordered that the next houses to the fire should be blown up that a void space being made betwixt the Buildings the remaining part of the City that which still stood might be saved this being the last Remedy that could be used The Duke of York also and many of the Nobility praised and encouraged the forward assisted the distressed and gave a generous example to all by the vigorous resistance they made against the devouring flames After that the Conflagration had continued four days to the inestimable losses of the Citizens and had burnt down thirteen thousand houses it was at length stopt more at the direction of Divine Providence than by any humane Arts or Means The more loyal part of the Citizens affected with the Kings sorrow more than their own put an high value upon his Royal Compassion towards them But the Fanatical Clubs who turned even the Calamities of their Country into Reproaches could scarcely forbear to miscal the Judgment a Command or at least did buz it about that the Kings Guards were a hindrance to those who laboured to put out the fire but the commoner surmise was that some French Agents had fired the City And many reasons were by fear or envy suggested to confirm the Treachery nothing being more usual amongst the common People than to make all Casualties Designes But those who still remembred the insolent Rage of the Londoners was the first cause of the Misfortunes of Charles the Martyr that the City was polluted with sacred Bloud had beheld the sad fate of the King and that some of the Citizens had called for and others permitted the murder of Charles humbly acknowledged the avenging hand of God in the Judgment This was the issue of that memorable fire of London which for above two thousand years had been rising to that greatness which now it could hardly bear A City impregnable against all the Efforts of so many foreign Enemies and civil Broils could no otherways be ruined but by the breaking out of a Fire amongst old wooden Buildings that were but too apt fewel for the flames Yet after the City was destroyed the Londoners bore up with greater resolutions than the Romans did of old when after the Conflagration made by the Gaules they removed to Veii nor did any man despairing to see London again rebuilt talk in the least of changing his habitation but the Citizens crowding themselves into Booths and new-made Deal-board houses or into Dwellings in the Suburbs took their measures about the building of a new City The approaching Winter now put an end to all Naval Engagements for this year so that both Fleets the Dutch and ours put into Harbour and were laid up and left the Privateers on each side to molest and take Merchant-men at Sea The King having last year tried the shifting way of his Enemies managing the War resolved upon other measures that by intercepting the Dutch Trade he might force them either to put an end to the War by fairly fighting or willingly submitting So that without putting himself to the charge of a Fleet this
Parl. should adhere The flight of the Members of Parl. is approved The Rebels having got the power into their hands forget the K. some being for an Oligarchy and others for Democraty All conspire against Monarchy and the K. Whose murder they plot some privately Others by a Council of War Some under pretext of a Parliamentary Authority To which they make way gradually sending Propositions to the K. with a pretence of peace but in reality to find a cause of accusing him Which though the Commanders of the Army had procured in Parl. yet in the Camp they perswade the K. not to condescend to them The K. makes answer to the Parl. proposals Appeals to the Demands of the Army as more conducing to peace Where at Cromwel and the Commanders seem to rejoyce But from thence labour to incense the rest of the Members against him They juggle with the K. putting him by turns in hope and fear At which his Majesty being moved makes his escape to the Isle of Wight From thence he speedily writes to the Parl. sending also Concessions Vpon which he demands a Treaty with the Parl. Thus the Rebels oppose and take occasion of asking Demands preliminary to the Treaty Which the Scots oppose both in Parl. and before the King The King answers Is confined to close imprisonment The Oligarchick Commanders reduce the Democraticks to order and restore Military Discipline They openly rail against the King And pass a Vote of none Addresses to the King But surreptitiously in the Lower House By force and threats in the Vpper House Cromwel excuses himself of perfidiousness They publish a Declaration Which they stuff with all the Calumnies they can against the King They command it to be read publickly by the Ministers in all Parish-Churches And sooth them with promises that they may commâ—nd it in their sermons They endeavour by their Emissaries to procure gratulatory Petitions The K. Majesty is justified by many Apologies The Parsons coldly execute their orders very few congratulate All the people grumble and fret Many petition for a personal Treaty with the King The Rebels in vain opposing it ☜ First were the Essex-men Next those of Surrey who are abused by the Souldiers But nevertheless more Petitions come from other Counties And the Kentish and Essex men with several others being repulsed betake themselves to Arms. The Fleet also falls off from the Parl. The Scots rise in arms for delivering the K. out of prison The English are overcome by the enemy And the Scots Hamilton the General being taken The ships prepare to make a defection from the Prince matters succeeding ill at Land The Parl. in the mean time think of making peace The Act of None Addresses is rescinded They appoint a Conference with the K. by Commissioner in the Isle of Wight No notice taken of the Scots To what Conditions the Commissioners are tyed The Conference to be held at Newport The K. is allowed his necessary servants The K.'s wonderful prudence in the Conference In the middle of the Treaty the Parliamentarians require that the Marquess of Ormond's Commission be recalled The K.'s Answers are censured in Parl. The K. unexpectedly granted many things * There is no mension of the Court of Wards in these Articles thô it is expressed both here and in Baker's Chronicle and perhaps was thought of after these Articles were printed The K. makes some Proposals To which the Parl. in a great part consent The promising hoâ—es of Peace Are disappointed by the Rebels In what manner The Commanders of the Army pretend to be pleased with Peace They stir up the common Souldiers against it and to destroy the King The souldiers are drawn together near London Ireton makes a Remonstrance against the Peace And that in name of the Army The Army being called together And a Fast appointed ☞ Which was often abused by them It is read and approved And presented to the Parl. in name of the Army and People Nevertheless the Lower House persists in considering of the Kings Concessions at which the Commanders of the Army are angry and carry the K. away from the Isle of Wight They march to London and post themselves about the Parliament-house Yet the Members meet And debate about the Kings Concessions They vote them to be a sufficient ground for a Peace The House of Lords agreeing to it This incensed the Oligarchick Rebels The Commanders of the Army beset the Parl. house imprison many Members debar others from entering Some they carry away by force out of the House And abuse the Captives The Oligarchick Faction to the number of about forty men snatches the Authority Who are still over-ruled by the souldiers They enact concerning the highest affairs and of bringing the King to a tryal They confirm the Votes of None Addresses and rescind that concerning a Conference with the King They pass Votes preliminary to the Kings murder * M. Horatius Cons of Rome caused a Law to pass Ut quod tributim plebes jussisset populum teneret that is That what Laws or Orders the Com-Counc or Tribes of Rome should make should oblige the body of the Common-wealth by which the Senate Nobility lost their power way was made for the turning that State into a Democracy to the ruine of it Liv. l. 3. c. 55 They erect a Trib. of subjects against the K. And appoint 150 Judges of their own Faction to do the fact Some Nobles and Judges also Commanders of the Army Members of the House of Com. Mechanicks Bankrupts All obnoxious men The Vpper H. is slighted But the Republicans send them their Bills to be confirmed They are rejected as hurtful and unlawful Wherefore the Lords are dashâ— out of the number of the Kings Judges And the Judges of the Kingdom as contrary to their Bill They chuse a President of the Court And an Attorney-General In the mean time the Presbyterian Ministers cry out against it The Scots also protest against it The States General intercede English Loâ—ds offer themâ—ves Hostages for the King The whole People rages Burghill lies in wait for Bradshaw But in vain and with danger of his life But all attempts are in vain Peters from the Pulpit encouraging the Judges Accusers and Witnesses against the K. are cited by a Herald The King is brought to the Bar. Is indicted in name of the People of England The Lady Fairfax publickly contradicting it He calls into question the Authority of the Court. Which the President affirming to be derived from the People that chuse the King the King denies it * But then that neither one nor both the Houses nor any other Tribunal upon Earth had any power to judge the King of England much less a parcel of pack'd Judges of the Lower House who were masked onely with the oppressed power of that Court. The King is again and a third time brought to the bar And being about to alleadge Reasons against the Authority of the Court The President