these devices many fictitious Letters were composed false Rumours divulged and witnesses suborned to make men suspect that many dangerous Plots and portentous Designs were disguised in these Overtures of Accord Therefore the Commissioners of Parliament were instructed to offer no Expedient for an Accommodation nor hearken to such as were tendred to them in the Name of the King His Majesty seeing and bewailing his Condition that He must still have to do with those that were Enemies to Peace prepares Himself for the War at the approaching Spring and although this Winter was infamous with many losses either through the neglects or perfidiousness of some Officers yet before the season for taking the field was come His Counsels and Diligence had repaired those damages Anno 1645. In April He sends the Prince to perfect the Western Association and raise such Forces as the necessities of the Crown which was His Inheritance did require with Him is sent as Moderator of His Youth and prime Counsellour Sir Edward Hide now Lord High Chancellour of England whose Faithfulness had endeared him to His Majesty who also judged his Abilities equal to the Charge in which He continued with the same Faith through all the Difficulties and Persecutions of his Master till it pleased God to bring the Prince back to the Throne of His Fathers and him to the Chief Ministery of State After their departure the King draws out His Army to relieve His Northern Counties and Garrisons But being on His march and having stormed and taken Leicester in His way He was called back to secure Oxford which the Parliament Army threatned with a Siege But Fairfax having gotten a Letter of the Lord Goring's whom a Parliament Spy had cajoled to trust him with the delivery of it to His Majesty wherein he had desired Him to forbear ingaging with the Enemy till he could be joyned with Him he leaves Oxford and made directly towards the King that was now come back as far as Daventrey with a purpose to fight Him before that addition of strength and at a place near Naseby in Northampton-shire both Armies met on Saturday June 14. Cromwell having then also brought some fresh Horse to Fairfax whose absence from the Army at that time the King was assured by some who intended to betray Him should be effected Nevertheless the King would not decline the Battel and had the better at first but His vanquishing Horse following the chase of their Enemies too far a fatal errour that had been twice before committed left the Foot open to the other wing who pressing hotly upon them put them to an open rout and so became Masters of His Canon Camp and Carriage and among these of His Majesties Cabinet in which they found many of His Letters most of them written to the Queen which not contented with their Victory over His Forces they Print as a Trophee over His Fame that by proposing His secret Thoughts designed only for the breast of His Wife to the debauched multitude and they looking on them through the Prejudices which the Slanders of the Faction had already formed in their minds the Popular hatred might be increased But the publication of them found a contrary effect every one that was not barbarous abhorred that Inhumanity among Christians which Generous Heathens scorned to be guilty of and the Letters did discover that the King was not as He was hitherto characterized but that He had all the Abilities and Affections as well as all the Rights that were fit for Majesty and which is not usual He grew greater in Honour by this Defeat though He never after recovered any considerable power For the Fate of this Battel had an inauspicious influence upon all His remaining Forces and every day His losses were repeated But though Fortune had left the King yet had not His Valour therefore gathering up the scattered remains of His broken Army He marches up and down to encourage those whose Faith changed not with His Condition At last attempting to relieve Chester though He was beset behind and before and His Horse wearied in such tedious and restless Marches yet at first He beat Poyntz off that followed but being charged by Fresh Souldiers from the Leaguer and a greater Number He was forced to retreat and leave some of His gallant Followers dead upon the place After this He draws towards the North-East and commands the Lord Digby with the Horse that were lest to march for Scotland and there to joyn with Montross who with an inconsiderable company of men had got Victories there so prodigious that they looked like Miracles But this Lord was surprised before he could get out of York-shire for His Horse having taken 700 of the Enemies Foot were so wanton with their Success that they were easily mastered by another Party and he himself was compelled to fly into Ireland These several Overthrows brought another mischief along with it for the King's Commanders and Officers broke their own Peace and Agreement which is the only Comfort and Relief of the Oppressed and which makes them considerable though they are despoiled of arms by imputing as it useth to be in unhappy counsels the criminous part of their misfortunes to one another But many gallant Persons whom Loyalty and Religion had drawn to His Service endured the utmost hazards before they delivered the Holds He had committed to their trust and by that means employing the Enemies Arms gave the King time who was at last returned to Oxford to provide for His Safety Hither every day sad Messages of Ruines from every part of the Nation came which though they seemed like the falling pieces of the dissolved world yet they found His Spirit erect and undaunted For He was equal in all the Offices of His Life tenacious of Truth and Equity and not moveable from them by Fears a Contemner of worldly Glory and desirous of Empire for no other reason but because He saw these Kingdoms must be ruined when He relinquished the care of them But that which most troubled Him were the Importunities of His own disconsolate Party to seek for Conditions of Peace which He saw was in vain to expect would be such as were fit to accept for His former experience assured Him that these men would follow the Counsels of their Fortune and be more Insolent now than ever And for Himself He was resolved not to sacrifice His Conscience to Safety nor His Honour to Life This He often told those that thus pressed Him and did profess in His Letter to Prince Rupert who likewise moved Him to the same that He would yield to no more now than what He had offered at Uxbridge though He confessed it were as great a Miracle His Enemies should hearken to so much Reason as that He should be restored within a Month to the same Condition He was in immediately before the Battel at Naseby But yet to satisfie every One how tender He was of the Common Safety He sent
THE Royal Martyr OR THE LIFE and DEATH OF KING Charles I. ROMANS 8. more than Conquerour Bona agere mala pati Regium est LONDON Printed by J. M. for R. Royston Bookseller to His most Sacred Majesty MDCLXXVI BEATAM ETEâ—NAâ— CLARIOR E TENEBRIS CAELI SPECTO ASPERAM AT LEVEM â—â—Râ—STI TRACTâ— In Verbo â—uo Spes mea MUNDI CALCO SELENDIDAM AT GRAVEM 〈◊〉 sculp Alij diutius Imperium tenuerunt nemo tam fortiter reliquit Tacit. Histor Lib. 2. c. 47 p. 4.17 TO THE KINGS most Excellent MAJESTY CHARLES II. By the Grace of God KING of Great Britain France and Ireland c. May it please Your MAJESTY SO Clear and Indisputable is Your Majesties Title to the following Papers that to prefix any other name before them were a boldness next door to sacriledge They had the honour when first published to attend the Works of Your Majesties Royal Father of blessed Memory the greatest part of which Impression collected with great Cost and Care having in the late Conflagration perished in the common flames I was ambitious by reviving this Piece to do some honour to the Memory of so Great a Prince and that the world might see how far Truth and Justice and a better Cause is able to hold out under the most prosperous Triumphs of violence and oppression and that when Villains may be suffered so far to prevail as to despoil Majesty of all advantages of Power and Greatness it can at the same time be secure in the comforts of its own innocence and vertue That Heaven would bless Your Majesty with a long Life and a prosperous Reign with all the blessings of this and a better world is the hearty and incessant prayer of Your Majesties most humbly devoted Subject and Servant Richard Royston CHARLES R. CHARLES the Second by the Grace of God King of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. To all Our loving Subjects of what Degree Condition or Quality soever within Our Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland or any of Our Dominions greeting Whereas We have received sufficient Testimony of the Fidelity and Loyalty of Our Servant Richard Royston of Our City of London Book-seller and of the great Losses and Troubles he hath sustained for his Faithfulness to Our Royal Father of blessed Memory and Our Self in the Printing and Publishing of many Messages and Papers of Our said Blessed Father especially those most Excellent Discourses and Soliloquies by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Know ye That it is Our Royal Will and Pleasure and We do by these presents Grant unto the said Richard Royston his Executors Administrators and Assigns the sole Printing and Publishing of the said Messages Papers and Discourses contained in the Book Intituled Reliquiae Sacrae Carolinae and of all or any other the Works of Our said Royal Father with other Papers and Declarations concerning Our said Royal Father in any Volume or Volumes whatsoever Of which Our Grant and Royal Pleasure We will and require all Our loving Subjects to take notice And that none of them presume to print or cause to be printed vended or put to sale the said Book Intituled Reliquiae Sacrae Carolinae or any part of the said Papers or Works of Our said Royal Father within these Our Realms and Dominions or any of them whether Printed within these Our Dominions or Imported from Forein Parts contrary to Our express Pleasure herein declared without the Licence and Consent of the said Richard Royston his Executors Administrators or Assigns under such Penalties as are by the Lawes and Statutes of this Our Realm imposed upon such Persons as Imprint Import Vend or Put to sale unlicensed and prohibited Books Any Privilege Custome or Usage to the contrary notwithstanding In witness c. Given at Our Court at White-Hall the nine and twentieth day of November in the twelfth year of Our Reign TO THE READER IN these Papers READER thou hast a short Account how this best of PRINCES Lived and Died a Subject that was fit to be writ only with the point of a Scepter none but a Royal Breast can have Sentiments equal to His Vertues nor any but a Crowned Head can frame Expressions to represent His Worth He that had nothing Common or Ordinary in His Life and Fortune is almost profaned by a Vulgar Pen. The attempt I confess admits no Apologie but this That it was fit that Posterity when they read His Works for they shall continue while these Islands are inhabited to upbraid Time and reproach Marble Monuments of weakness should also be told that His Actions were as Heroick as His Writings and His Life more Elegant than His Style Which not being undertaken by some Noble hand that was happy in a near approach to Majesty and so could have taken more exact measures of this Great Example for Mighty Kings rendred it in more full proportions and given it more lively Colours I was by importunity prevailed upon to imitate those affectionate Slaves who would gather up the scattered limbs of some great Person that had been their Lord yet fell at the Pleasure of his Enemies burn them on some Plebeian Pyle and entertain their ashes in an homely Vrn till future times could cover them with a Pyramid or inclose them in a Temple by making a Collection from Writers and Persons worthy of Credit of all the Remains and Memoires I could get of this Incomparable Monarch Whose Excellent Vertues though they often tempted the Compiler to the Liberty of a Panegyrick yet they still perswaded him to as strict an observance of Truth as is due to an History For he praises this King best who writes His Life most faithfully which was the Care and Endeavour of Thine Rich. Perrinchief MAJESTY IN MISERY OR An Imploration to the KING of KINGS MAJESTY in MISERY OR An Imploration to the KING of Kings Written by his late Majesty King CHARLES the First during His Captivity at Carisbrooke Castle Anno Dom. 1648. GREAT Monarch of the World from whose Power springs The Potency and Power of Kings Record the Royal Woe my Sufferings sings And teach my tongue that ever did confine Its faculties in Truths Seraphick Line To tract the treasons of thy foes and mine Nature and Law by thy Divine Decree The only Root of Righteous Royaltie With this dim Diadem invested me With it the sacred Scepter Purple Robe The Holy Vnction and the Royal Globe Yet am I level'd with the life of Job The fiercest Furies that do daily tread Vpon my Grief my Gray Dis-crowned head Are those that owe my Bounty for their Bread They raise a War and Christen it The Cause Whilest sacrilegious hands have best applause Plunder and Murder are the Kingdoms Laws Tyranny bears the Title of Taxation Revenge and Robbery are Reformation Oppression gains the name of Sequestration My Loyal Subjects who in this bad season Attend me by the Law of God and Reason They dare
Earls of Roxbrough and Traquaire pretended to protect who indured some affronts that their Patience might provoke a greater rage in the Multitude which a vigorous punishment had easily extinguish'd For they that are fierce in a croud being singled through their particular fears become obedient And that rabble that talks high against the determinations of their Prince when danger from the Laws is within their ken distrust their companions and return to subjection But it soon appeared that this was not the bare effort of a mutinous Multitude but a long-formed Conspiracy and to this Multitude whose present terrour was great yet would have been contemptible in a short space there appeared Parties to head them of several Orders Who presently digested their Partisans into several Tables and concocted this Mutiny into a formal Rebellion To prosecute which they mutually obliged themselves and the whole Nation in a Covenant to extirpate Episcopacy and whatsoever they pleased to brand with the odious names of Heresie and Superstition and to defend each other against all Persons not excepting the King To reduce this people to more peaceful Practices the King sends Marquess Hamilton one who being caressed by His Majesties Favour had risen to such a degree of wealth and greatness that now he dreamed of nothing less than Empire to bring his power to perfection at least to be Monarch of Scotland to which he had some pretensions by his birth as His Commissioner Who with a species of Loyalty dissembled that pleasure which he took in the opposition of the Covenanters whose first motions were secretly directed by his counsels and those of his dependents Traquaire and Roxbrough for all his Allies were of that party contrary to the custom of that Country where all the Members of a Family espouse the part of their Head though in the utmost danger and his Mother rid armed with Pistols at her Saddle-bow for defence of the Covenant By his actings there new seeds of Discontents and War were daily sown and his oppositions so faint that he rather encreased than allayed their fury By several returns to His Majesty for new Instructions he gave time to the Rebels to consolidate their Conspiracy to call home their Exiles of Poverty that were in foreign Armies and provide Arms for open Force By his false representations of the state of things he induced the King to temporize with the too-potent Corruption of that Nation an artifice King JAMES had sometimes practised and by granting their desires to make them sensible of the evils which would flow from their own counsels Therefore the King gave Order for revoking the Liturgy the High-Commission the Book of Canons and the Five Articles of Perth But the Covenanters were more insolent by these Concessions because they had gotten that by unlawful courses and unjust force which Modesty and Submission had never obtained and imputing these Grants to the King's Weakness not his Goodness they proceeded to bolder Attempts Indicted an Assembly without Him in which they abolished Episcopacy excommunicated the Bishops and all that adhered to them Afterwards they seised upon the King's Revenue surprised His Forts and Castles and at last put themselves into Arms. Provoked with these Injuries the King amasses a gallant Army in which was a very great appearance of Lords and Gentlemen and with these marches and incamps within two miles of Berwick within sight of the Enemy But their present Condition being such as could endure neither War nor Peace they endeavoured to dissipate that Army which they could not overthrow by a pretence to a Pacification For which they petition'd the King who yielded unto it out of His innate tenderness of His Subjects Blood So an Accord was made June 17. Anno 1639. and the King disbands His Army expecting the Scots should do the like according to the Articles of Agreement But they being delivered from Fear would not be restrained by Shame from breaking their Faith For no sooner had the King disbanded but they protested against the Pacification printed many false Copies of it that might represent it dishonourable to the King retained their Officers in pay changed the old Form of holding Parliaments invaded the Prerogatives of the Crown and solicited the French King for an aid of men and money This perfidious abuse of His Majesty's Clemency made those that judge of Counsels by the Issue to censure the King's Facility Some wondred how He could imagine there would be any Moderation in so corrupt a Generation of men and that they who had broken the Peace out of a desire of War should now lay aside their Arms out of a love to Quiet That there would be always the same causes to the Scots of disturbing England and opposing Government their unquiet nature and Covetousness therefore unless some strong impression made them either unable or unwilling to distract our quiet the King was to look for a speedy return of their Injuries Others attributed the Accord to the King's sense that some eminent Officers in His own Camp were polluted with Counsels not different from the Covenanters and that Hamilton His Admiral had betrayed the seasons of fighting by riding quietly in the Forth of Edinburgh and had secret Conference with His Mother the great Nurse of the Covenant on Ship-board But most referred it to the King 's innate tenderness of His Subjects Blood and to His Prudence not to defile His Glory with the overthrow which seemed probable of a contemptible Enemy where the gains of the Victory could not balance the hazards of attempting it Anno 1640. While men thus discourse of the Scots Perfidiousness the King prepares for another Army and in order thereto calls a Parliament in Ireland and another in England for assistances against the Rebels in Scotland The Irish granted Money to raise and pay 8000 men in Arms and furnish them with Ammunition Yet this Example with the King's account of the Injuries done to Him and this Nation by the Scots and his promise of for ever acquitting them of Ship-money if now they would freely assist Him prevailed nothing upon the English Parliament whom the Faction drew aside to other Counsels And when the King sent Sir Henry Vane to re-mind them of His desires and to demand Twelve Subsidies yet to accept of Six he industriously as was collected from His own and His Sons following practices insisted upon the Twelve without insinuation of the lesser quantity His Majesty would be contented with which gave such an opportunity and matter for seditious Harangues that the House was so exasperated as that they were about to Remonstrate against the War with Scotland To prevent this ominous effect of the falseness of His Servant the King was forced to dissolve the Parliament May 5. yet continued the Convocation which granted Him 4 s. in the pound for all their Ecclesiastical Promotions But the Laiety that in the House had not time to declame against His Majesties Proceedings did it without doors for being
dispersed to their homes they filled all places with suspicious Rumours and high Discontents and in Southwark there was an open Mutiny began which was not pacified without much danger and the Execution of the principal Leaders The King thus betrayed defamed and deserted by those who should have considered that in His Honour their Safety was embarqued though He had no less cause to fear secret Conspiracies at Home which were more dangerous because obscure than the Scots publick Hostility yet vigorously prosecuted His undertaking and raised a sufficient Army but could not do it with equal speed to His Enemies who had soon re-united their dispersed Forces and incouraged by the Faction with whom they held Intelligence in England contented not themselves to stand upon the defence but invaded us and advanced so far before all the King's Army could be gathered together that they gave a defeat to a Party of it ere the Rear could be brought up by the Earl of Strafford who was appointed General or the King could come to encourage them with His Presence He was no sooner arrived at His Army but there followed Him from some English Lords a Petition conformable to the Scotch Remonstrance which they called the Intentions of the Army So that His Majesty might justly fear some attempts in the South while He was thus defending Himself from the Northern injuries The King answered the Petitioners That before their Petition came He had resolved to summon all the Peers to consult what would be most for the Safety of the Nation and His own Honour Who accordingly met Sept. 24. Where it was determined that a Parliament should be called to meet Nov. 3. and in the mean time a Cessation should be made with the Scots with whom some Commissioners from the Parliament should Treat Novemb. 3. began that Fatal Parliament which was so transported by the Arts of some unquiet persons that they dishonoured the name and hopes of a Parliament ingulfed the Nation in a Sea of Blood ruined the King and betrayed all their own Priviledges and the People's Liberty into the power of a Phanatick and perfidious Army And although His Majesty could not hope to find them moderate yet He endeavoured to make them so telling them at their meeting that He was resolved to put Himself freely upon the Affections of His English Subjects that He would satisfie all their just Grievances and not leave to malice it self a shadow to doubt of His desire to make this a glorious and flourishing Kingdom He commended to their care the chasing out of the Rebels the Provisions of His own Army and the Relief of the oppressed Northern Counties But the Malignity of some few and the Iguorance of more employed that Assembly in other matters First In purging their House of all such as they conceived would not comply with their destructive enterprises and for such men they either found some fault with their Elections or made them Criminals in some publick Grievance though others of a deeper guilt they kept among them that their Offences might make them obnoxious to their power and obsequious to their commands Then with composed Harangues they declaimed upon the publick Grievances and reckoned up casual Misfortunes amongst designed Abuses of Government every way raising up Contumelies against the present Power and that which was fullest of Detraction and Envy was applauded as most pregnant with Liberty Thus pretending several Injuries had been done to the People they raised the Multitude to hopes of an unimaginable Liberty and a discontent with the present Government After this they set free all the Martyrs of Sedition that for their malignant Libels had been imprisoned and three of them were conducted through London with such a company of people adorned with Rosemary and Bays as it seemed a Triumph over Justice and those Tribunals that sentenced them Then they fell upon all the chief Ministers of State they impeached the Earl of Strafford Lord Lieutenant of Ireland after him the Archbishop of Canterbury the Lord Finch Keeper of the Great Seal the Judges that according to their Oath had determined Ship-money legal and others some of which fled those that were found were clapt in Prison so that the King was soon despoiled of those that were able or faithful to give Him Counsel and others terrified in their Ministery to Him While the Factious thus led the House their Partisans without by their Instructions formed Petitions against the Government in Church and State to which they seduced the ignorant Rabble in the City and several Counties to subscribe and in a tumultuous manner to present them to their Patriots Who being animated by the success of their Arts fell to draw up a Bill for Triennial Parliaments wherein the Power of calling that great Council of the Nation was upon refusal of the King and the neglect of others devolved upon Constables Which profanation of Majesty though the King disswaded them from yet they persisted in and He passed it Anno 1641. After five Months time for so long a space they took to rake up Matter and Witnesses to justifie their accusation and to give leisure to the Court for Overtures of gainful Offices to the great Sticklers against him which not appearing the Earl of Strafford is brought to his Trial in Westminster-Hall before the Lords as his Judges the King Queen and Prince sitting behind a Curtain in an adjoining Gallery and round about the Court stood the Commons His Accusers and Witnesses were English Scotch and Irish and indeed so brave a Person could not be ruined but by the pretended hatred of the whole Empire The English were such as envied his Vertues and greatness in the King's Favour The Scotch because they knew his Prudence able to counter-work their Frauds discover their impudent Cheats and his wise management to overthrow their Force The Irish hatred arose from his just and necessary Severity in his Government whereby he had reduced them from so great a Barbarousness that was impatient of Peace to a Civility that was fertile of Plenty and by Artifices Husbandry and Commerce had rendred that tumultuary Nation so rich that they were now able to repay to the English Treasury those great Debts which their former Troubles and Commotions had contracted Although those of this Nation were Papists and sworn Enemies both of the English name and State and were even then practising and meditating their Rebellion which they hoped more easie when so wise a Governour was removed and so prone enough of themselves to the Crime yet were they much caressed by the Faction that these in the name of the whole Kingdom should press the Earl with envy to the Grave His Charge consisted of Twenty eight Articles that their number might cover their want of Evidence To all which the Lieutenant whose Patience was not overcome nor his nature changed by the Reproaches of his Accusers answers with so brave a Presence of Spirit such firm Reasons and so clear an
they could to raise Horse and Foot to form an Army equal to their Usurpation which was not difficult for them to do for they being Masters of London whose Multitudes desirous of Novelty were easily amassed for any enterprise especially when the entring into this Warfare might make the Servant freer than his Master for such was the Licence was indulged to those Youths that would serve the Cause 20000 were sooner gathered than the King could get 500. The City also could afford them more Ordnance than the King could promise to Himself common Muskets and to pay their Souldiers besides the vast summs that were gathered for Ireland which though they by their own Act had decreed should not be used for any other enterprise yet now dispence with their Faith and imploy it to make England as miserable as that Island and the Contributions of the deluded souls for this War they seised also upon the Revenues of the King Queen Prince and Bishops and plunder the Houses of those Lords and Gentlemen whom they suspected to be Favourers of the King's Cause And in contemplation of these advantages they promised their credulous party an undoubted Victory and to lead Majesty Captive in Triumph through London within a Month by the Conduct of the Earl of Essex whom they appointed General Thus did they drive that Just and Gracious Prince to seek His Safety by necessary Arms since nothing worse could befall Him after a stout though unhappy Resistance than He was to hope for in a tame Submission to their Violence Therefore though He perfectly abhorred those Sins which are the Consequences of War yet He wanted not Courage to attempt at Victory notwithstanding it seemed almost impossible against so well-appointed an Enemy Therefore with an incredible diligence moving from place to place from York to Nottingham from thence to Shrewsbury and the Confines of Wales by discovering those Abilities with which His Soul was richly fraught unto His deluded Subjects He appeared not only worthy of their Reverence but of their Lives and Fortunes for His Defence and in all places incouraging the Good with His Commendations exciting the Fearful by His Example dissembling the Imperfections of His Friends but alwayes praising their Vertues He so prevailed upon those who were not men of many Times nor by a former Guilt debauch'd to Inhumanity that He had quickly contracted an Army greater than His Enemies expected and which was every day increased by those Lords and Gentlemen who refused to be polluted any longer with the practices of the Faction by sitting among them and being Persons of large Fortunes had raised their Friends and Tenants to succour that Majesty that now laboured under an Eclipse Most men being moved with Pity and Shame to see their Prince whose former Reign had made them wanton in Plenty to be driven from His own Palaces and concluded under a want of Bread to be necessitated to implore their aid for the preservation of His and their Rights So that notwithstanding all the Impostures of the Faction and the Corruptions of the Age there were many great Examples of Loyalty and Vertue Many Noble Persons did almost impoverish themselves to supply the King with Men and Money Some Private men made their way through numerous dangers to joyn with and fight under His Colours Many great Ladies and Vertuous Matrons parted with the Ornaments of their Sex to relieve His wants and some bravely defended their Houses in His Cause when their Lords were otherwhere seeking Honour in His Service Both the Universities freely devoted their Plate to succour their Prince the Supreme Patron and Incourager of all Learning and the Queen pawned Her Jewels to provide necessaries for the Safety of Her Husband Which Duty of Hers though it deserved the Honour of all Ages was branded by the Demagogues with the imputation of Treason This sudden and unexpected growth of the Strength of the King after so many years of Slanders and such industrious Plots to make Him odious and Contemptible raised the admiration of all men and the fears of that credulous Party who had given up their Faith to the Faction when they represented the King guilty of so much Folly and Vice and some corrupted Citizens had represented Him as a Prodigie of both in a Scene at Guild-Hall in London an Art used by Jesuites to impress more deeply a Calumny that they could not imagine any person of Prudence or Conscience would appear in His Service and they expected every day when deserted by all as a Monster He should in Chains deliver Himself up to the Commands of the Parliament Some attributed this strange increase in power to the natural Affection of the English to their Lawfull Sovereign from whom though the Arts and Impulses of Seditious Demagogues may a while estrange and divorce their minds yet their Genius will irresistibly at last force them to their first Love and therefore they urged the saying of that Observing States-man that if the Crown of England were placed but on an Hedge-stake he would be on that side where the Crown was Others referred it to the full evidence of the wickedness of His Adversaries for their Counsels were now discovered and their Ends manifest not to maintain the Common Liberty which was equally hatefull to them as Tyranny when it was not in their hands but to acquire a Grandeur and Power that might secure and administer to their Lusts and it was now every where published what Mr. Hambden Answered to one who inquired What they did expect from the King he replyed That He should commit Himself and all that is His to our Care Others ascribed it to the fears of ruine to those numerous Families and Myriads of people which the change of Government designed by the Parliament must necessarily effect But this though it argued that Cause exceeding bad by which so great a part of a Community is utterly destroyed without any absolute necessity for preserving the whole yet made but an inconsiderable Addition to the King whose greatest Power was built upon Persons of the Noblest Extract and the fairest Estates in England of which they could not easily suspect to be devested without an absolute overthrow of all the Laws of Right and Wrong which nevertheless was to be feared by their invasions on the King's most undoubted Rights For when Majesty it self is assaulted there can be no security for private Fortunes and those that decline upon design from the paths of Equity will never rest till they come to the Extremity of Injustice as these afterwards did Besides those that imputed the speedy amassing of these Forces to the Equity of the King's Cause His most Powerful Eloquence Indefatigable Industry and most Obliging Converse there were another sort that suspending their Judgements till all the Scenes of War were passed resolved all into the Providence of God Who though He were pleased to single Him out of all the Kings of the Earth as the sittest Champion to wrestle
with Adversity and to make Him glorious by Sufferings which being well born truly prove men Great yet would He furnish Him almost by a Miracle likewise with such Advantages in the conduct of which His Prudence and Magnanimity might evidence that He did deserve Prosperity and by clearing up even this way His eminent Vertues warn the following Ages from a Credulity to unquiet Persons since the best of Princes was thus infamously slandered From all these concurring Causes each one in their Way and Order did the King's strength so far increase as that He won many Battels and was not far from Conquest in the Whole War had not God seen fit to afflict this sinful Nation with Numerous and most Impious Tyrants and make us feel that no Oppressions are so unsupportable as those which are imposed by such as have made the highest Pretensions to Liberty of which we had bitter experience after the War was sinished that was now begun For there had been some slight Conflicts e're this in the several Counties betwixt the Commissioners of Array and the Militia with various Successes which require just Volumes and compleat Histories to relate and cannot be comprehended in the short View of the King's Life where it is only intended to speak of those Battels in which the King in Person gave sufficient evidence of His Wisdom and Valour The first of which was at Edge-Hill on Octob. 23. For the King had no sooner gotten a considerable Force though not equal to those of His Enemies but He marched towards London and in His way thither met with Essex's Army that were come from thence to take Him The King having viewed their Army by a Prospective-glass from the top of that Hill and being asked afterwards by His Officers what He meant to do To give them battel said He with a present Courage it is the first time I ever saw the Rebels in a body God and good mens Prayers to Him assist the Justice of My Cause and immediately prepared for the Fight which was acted with such a fury that near 6000 according to the common Account but some say a far less number were slain upon the place Night concluded this Battel which had comprehended the whole War had not the King 's prevailing Horse preferr'd the Spoils to Victory and left the Enemy some advantage to dispute for her But the King had all the fairest marks of her favour For though He had lost His General yet He kept the Field possessed the dead Bodies opened His way toward London and in the sight of some part of the Army of Essex who accounted it a Victory that He was not totally routed and killed took Banbury and entred Triumphantly into Oxford which He had designed for His Winter-quarters with 150 Colours taken in sight And having assured that place He advances towards London whither Essex had gotten before Him and disposed his bassled Regiments within ten miles of the City yet the King fell upon two Regiments of them at Brainford took 500 Prisoners and sunk their Ordnance From thence intending to draw nearer London He had intelligence that the City had poured forth all their Auxiliaries to re-inforce Essex's Troops to which being unwilling to oppose His Souldiers wearied with their March nor thinking it safe to force an Enemy to fight upon Necessity which inspires a more than Ordinary Fury He retreats to Oxford having taught His Enemies that He was not easily to be Overcome For in the management of this Battel He did not only undeceive the abused world of those Slanders which His Enemies had polluted Him with but He exceeded that Opinion His own Party had of His Abilities And though He parted from London altogether unexperienced in Martial affairs yet at Edge-Hill He appeared a most Excellent Commander His Valour was also equal to His Prudence and He could as well endure Labours as despise Dangers And by a communication of toils encouraged His Souldiers to keep the Field all the night when they saw He refused the refreshments of a Bed for He sought no other Shelter from the injuries of the Air than His own Coach These Vertues and this Success made such an impression on the Parliament that though they took all courses to hide the Infamy of their worsted Army yet in more humble Expressions than formerly they Petitioned the King for a Treaty of Peace which His Majesty very earnestly embraced But the Faction who were frighted with these Tendencies to an Accommodation cause some of the City to Petition against it and to make profer of their Lives and Fortunes for the prosecution of the War Encouraged by this they form their Propositions like the Commands of Conquerours and so streighten the Power and Time of their Commissioners that the Treaty at Oxford became fruitless which there had taken up all the King's employment this Winter though abroad His Forces were busie in several Parts of the Nation not without honour Anno 1643. At the Opening of the Spring the Queen comes back to England bringing with Her some considerable Supplies of Men Money and Ammunition and Her coming was entertained with such a Series of Successes that the King that Summer was Master of the North and West except some few Garrisons Which so dismayed the Parliament that very many of them were preparing to quit the Kingdom and had the King followed His own Counsels to march immediately towards London and not been fatally over-born at a Council of War which it is said His Enemies at London did assure their Party would so be first to attempt Gloucester He had in the judgement of all discerning men then finished the War with Glory But here He lay so long till Essex had gotten a Recruit from London and came time enough to relieve the Town though in his return the King necessitated him to fight worsted him near Newbery and so bravely followed him the next day that He forced the Parliaments Horse which were left in the Reer to seek their safety by making their way over a great part of their Foot yet lost on His side much Noble Blood as the Earls of Carnarvan and Sunderland and Viscount Falkland This last was lamented by all being equally dexterous at the Pen and Sword had won some Wreathes in those Controversies that were to be managed by Reason and was eminent in all the Generous parts of Learning above any of his Fortune and Dignity After this Encounter the King returns to Oxford to Consult with those Members of both Houses that had left the Impostures and Tumults at London to joyn with Him for the common benefit who being as to the Peers the far greater and as to the Commons an equal Number with those at Westminster they assumed the Name and Authority of Parliament and deliberated of the ways of Peace and means to prevent the Desolations which the Faction so furiously designed who were now resolving to encrease our Miseries by Calling in the Scots to their
Election of Friends he was determinated to the Good and Wise and such as had both Parts and Desires to profit the Church had his closest Embraces if otherwise it happened their frauds not his choice deserved the blame Both Papists and Sectaries were equally his Enemies one party feared and the other hated his Vertues Some censured him of too much Heat and a Zeal for Discipline above the Patience of the Times But his geatest unhappiness was that he lived in a Factious Age and Corrupt State and under such a Prince whose Vertues not admitting an immediate approach for Accusations was to be wounded in those whom He did Caresse But when Faction and Malice are worn out by time Posterity shall ingrave him in the Albe of the Most Excellent Prelates the most indulgent Fathers of the Church and the most injured Martyrs His blood was accompanied with some tears that fell from those Eyes which expected a pleasure at his Death and it had been followed with a more general mourning had not the Publick Miseries and present fears of Ruine exacted all the Stock of Grief for other objects About this time the Faction clove into two Sects the Presbyterian and Independent which hitherto had been united under one name of Patriots or Godly had joyntly conspired War and disturbed the Peace and by various Arts had acted all their lusts under the name and Authority of Parliament For they would either early in the morning before the House was full or late at night when those whose cares were most for the Publick were absent being assured of the Speaker propose and Vote what served for their Design If any thing contrary to it was about to be resolved in a full Assembly they by multitude of Scruples would so disturb the Debates that the determination was deferr'd to a desired Opportunity But if these failed then would they surprise the House with another Vote that should weaken and hinder the Execution of the former When the most conscientious were too numerous for them then would they make necessities to send the less pliant to their wills into the Country Thus the Lesser but more industrious Party did circumvent the Greater that were not so wary nor diligent While they thus joyntly contrive the Publick Ruine they had gotten themselves into the most considerable and profitable Offices of the Kingdom But the Presbyterians having the advantage in Number and Power and the dissension in their Opinions growing still higher by the Animosities of the inferiour and obscurer parts of their Sects there was neither Faith nor Love among them but what Fear and Necessity did force them unto The Independents who comprehended all the several herds of Hereticks Anabaptists Seekers Millenaries c. though they were the Disciples of the other yet excelled their Masters in Art and Industry had their private Junto's and meetings apart to mould their Projects and assign to each of their Confidents their several Scenes and Methods and by proper Applications to mens several humours had exceedingly encreased their strength in the Multitude only they wanted the Power of the Sword and the most useful Offices to perfect their Empire This they effected by those very practices they had learned from the Presbyterians and by procuring the Ordinance of Self-denial as they called it they turned out Essex whom they had before secretly caused to be suspected and who had neither glory in his War nor security or quiet in his Peace from his Generalship and with him also the other Leaders that were favourers of the Presbytery under pretence that it was not fit that any Members of Parliament should be encouraged to a continuance of the War by enjoying the profitable and powerful Offices in the Army to which they would now give a new Module Having by this Artifice displaced those whose Power they feared they brought in as many Candidates of their own Sect as they could to be Colonels and Sir Thomas Fairfax was appointed General This Man both Parties did the more easily consent in because he was known to be of sufficient Personal Valour and of no private Designs obstinate by a natural Melancholy rather than pertinacious in any Interest and rather free from Baseness than ambitious of Vain-glory by all these Qualities they supposed he would be obedient to the Resolves of his Masters But the Independents that were better informed of his ductile Spirit and how easily he might be imposed upon by a Species of Religion got the great Patron of all the wildest and most unreasonable Sectaries Oliver Cromwell at first to be admitted into his Counsels and afterwards to be the Director of all his actions under the title of Lieutenant General For although he likewise by the Self-denying Ordinance was made incapable of any Office in the Army being a Member of the Parliament yet those Troops of Fanaticks whom he had amassed and formerly led under the Command of the Lord Grey of Wark and the Earl of Manchester both which he had cast off were instructed to refuse the Conduct of any one but him He was therefore permitted by the Parliament as the General desired for a time to continue in the Army but he never left it till he had changed that ruined the Parliament and turned out the General that thus was the Author of his unlawful Power For this Man having a long time been poor and necessitous the Patrimony that was left him being profusely spent and nothing remaining but the Instruments of his Crimes a bloody and fierce nature a greedy soul full of bold and unjust hopes yet able to conceal them with a profession of Modesty a contempt of Religion and Friendship yet highly pretending to both till he had smote under the fifth rib those credulous hearts that trusted him he was fitted for the most impious enterprises for vexed by a pressing and tedious poverty he resolved to indeavour the utmost distance from such a Condition though by the greatest wickedness therefore used the Power he had now gotten to overthrow the whole State and establish himself in an absolute and unsupportable Tyranny which is the common issue of assaulting a Just and Lawful Prince with Arms. With these Tragedies and Changes was the Winter spent at London while the King at Oxford waits for the Issue of the Treaty at Vxbridge which as all other Consultations for Peace was vain and fruitless For the Faction would alwayes obstruct those endeavours by their proper Methods If the Condition of their affairs were prosperous then would they make their Demands like Impositions on conquered Slaves detesting to supplicate that the acquisitions of their Swords and Blood should be confirmed by a worsted Enemy In a more humble fortune they would deprecate their drooping Party not then to think of a Reconciliation which their unprosperous Arms must necessarily render harder than their hopes and that it was not for the Honour of a Parliament to seem to yield to any thing by fear or compulsion Besides
to frighten the King and Parliament to hearken to their Pretensions of a lesser guilt Others considering their former Crimes and Injuries both to King and People and their damnable blasphemies of the Almighty God did truly judge that their preceding Iniquities had now habituated and temper'd them for the extremest mischiefs and that having proceeded thus far they would think their Safety consisted in an accumulation of their Sins Only they admired that these men would discredit their ancient Arts of pretending to God's Direction in which they could not so easily by every Vulgar judgement be deprehended by boasting of the Concurrence of the People which was too evident a Cheat for not one in a thousand through the whole Nation but did abominate their practices But others more Speculative knew it was the accustomed Method of the Subverters of a lawfull Magistracy and Invaders of a Tyranny first to seek the favour of the Rabble by high pretences of Liberty and Justice and then to boast of it as though they had it and were entrusted by the People to recover what they presented to their hopes and desires and that these men following the same practices would be the greatest Oppressors of those whom they pretended to vindicate The Parliament though hitherto they had been very obsequious to the Army yet the Members now meeting in greater Numbers than usually and preferring the utmost hazards to a Compliance with this Remonstrance laid it aside and fell to debate the King's Concessions which then lay before them This free and stout Carriage of theirs was much resented by the Souldiers who stormed at the contempt of those whose Grandeur depended upon their Arms. And lest they should miscarry in their Chief Design and lose the Sacrifice to their Ambition they immediately sent a Party of their Army into the Isle of Wight to secure the King these laying hold upon Him with a most Insolent Rudeness not permitting the delay of a Breakfast forced Him from the Island into Hurst Castle an unwholesome and sordid place The other part of their Army they cause to march towards London with all the imaginable signs of terrour as if they went to sack and plunder an Enemies Town When they had entred they were quartered in those Houses of the King and Nobility which were nearest the Parliament-House hoping by the greatness and nearness of the danger so to affright those Members who were not so wicked as to comply with them that they should voluntarily withdraw and hiding themselves leave the possession to their own scanty Party For then the Violence would seem less and give more Authority to their unjust Decrees But the honest Members were more in love with Justice and therefore not terrified with the Menaces and Clamours of the Souldiers but as inspired with some unaccustomed Courage at this time and thinking themselves guarded by the Priviledges of Parliament with a greater boldness than usually they did upon just designs they appear in the House Where the Commoners re-assuming the consideration of the King's Concessions continued that Debate till past Midnight the Factious Party and the Creatures of the Army still raising new Doubts and Scruples multiplying Cavils and by tedious harangues wasting the time that the more Just Party which consisted most of Gentlemen of Fortunes not accustomed to such Watchings and Fastings might be wearied out and leave them to their own Resolves and also that they might give time to the whole Army to march into the City that Night Among the rest Sir Henry Vane who was born to disquiet the world and to be a firebrand of Communities yet still carrying his designs of Confusion under a feigned meekness and simplicity of the Gospel This Man in the Isle of Wight had perswaded the King not to be prodigal in His Concessions that He had already yielded more than was fit for them to ask or Him to grant and undertook to make it evident to the whole world yet now did most fiercely and perfidiously inveigh against the Concessions as designed by the King under the species of Peace to ruine the Parliament and Common-wealth Yet at last notwithstanding those Terrours without and Troubles within the House came to this Resolve that The Kings Concessions were a sufficient ground for Peace Which was carried by Two Hundred Voices and there were searce Sixty Dissenters The next day the same Resolve was passed by the Lords in the very same terms not one dissenting Who immediately adjourned for a week to wait whether this fury of the Army would spend it self after so generous an opposition And the House of Commons sent some of their own Members to acquaint the Lord Fairfax and his Officers of this their Vote This free and publick detestation of the Crime that was designed did extremely enrage the Projectors of it and the Democratick Party in the House mingled Threatnings with their Advices For One of the Chiefs of the Faction could not forbear to assure them that If they continued in this their Resolve they should never after have Liberty of meeting there again Which accordingly was executed for the next day they were to meet there the Colonels had placed a guard of two Regiments of Foot and one of Horse upon the House of Commons who strictly keeping all the Avenues thereto that none might enter without their Licence laid hold upon Forty Members that were Persons of the most known Integrity and highest Resolution they denied admission to One hundred and fifty more and suffered none to enter of whose servile compliance they were not well assured Some that had escaped their observation and got into the House by tickets as from Friends or Servants they invite forth whom being once without doors they violently force away while they in vain pleaded the Privileges of Parliament The imprisoned Members they vex and torture with great Indignities exposing them to the mockeries and insolencies of the Common Souldiers although there were among them many that had before Commanded Armies Brigades and Regiments in the Parliament's cause against the King and others that had been most importunate assertors of their first injustice to their Prince Those that beheld these vicissitudes wondred and acknowledged the just Judgement of God that had thus visibly and properly punished the Injustice of these men against their Lawful Sovereign by the ministry of their own more vile and mercenary Souldiers and did thus upbraid them with the falseness of their Principles by which they acted against the King the very same now serving to honest this violence that was committed on them for both equally pretended to a Necessity of Reformation and Self-preservation Others were inquisitive for the faith of these men who taking up Arms for the Sacred Privileges of Parliament had now left nothing but the Walls of that House For the Number that would serve them was not equal to the Name of a Parliament being scarce the eighth part of that Convention and not much above Forty in
White-Hall and so into the Cabinet-Chamber where He continued some time in Devotion while they were fitting the Theatre of His Murther While these things were acting the Lord Fairfax who had alwayes forborn any publick appearance in the practices of this Murther had taken up as is credibly reported some Resolutions either in abhorrency of the Crime or by the Solicitations of others with his own Regiment though none else should follow him to hinder the Execution This being suspected or known Cromwell Ireton and Harrison coming to him after their usual way of deceiving endeavoured to perswade him that the LORD had rejected the King and with such like Language as they knew had formerly prevailed upon him concealing that they had that very morning signed the Warrant for the Assassination they also desired him with them to seek the LORD by Prayer that they might know his mind in the thing Which he assenting to Harrison was appointed for the Duty and by compact to draw out his profane and blasphemous Discourse to God in such a length as might give time for the Execution which they privately sent to their Instruments to hasten of which when they had notice that it was past they rose up and perswaded the General that this was a full return of Prayer and God having so manifested his pleasure they were to acquiesce in it There was likewise another attempt made by Col. Downes who had disturbed them in their Court to obstruct them in their Execution for it is said that he endeavoured to make a Mutiny in the Army to hinder the Wickedness but the hast of the Assassinates prevented him While these men acted their Wickedness by Prayers to the lasting reproach of Christianity the King after He had sinished His Supplications was through the Banqueting-House brought to the Scaffold which was dress'd to terrour for it was all hung with Black where were attending two Executioners in Disguises and the Axe and the Block prepared But it prevailed not to affright Him whose Soul was already panting after another Life And therefore He entred this ignominious and gastly Theatre with the same mind as He used to carry to His Throne shewing no fear of death but a Solicitude for those that should live after Him Looking about He saw divers Companies of Horse and Foot so placed on each side of the Street and about the Scaffold that the People could not come near Him and those that saw could not be Hearers therefore omitting that Speech which it was probable He would have spoken to the People He spoke to the Officers and those that were then about Him that which is now printed among His Works Having ended His Speech He declared His Profession of Religion and while He was preparing for the Block He expressed what were His Hopes for all the Righteous have such in Death saying I have a good Cause and a Gracious God on my side I go from a Corruptible to an Incorruptible Crown where no disturbance can be no disturbance in the world After this composing Himself to an Address to God having His Eyes and Hands like fore-runners lifted up to Heaven and expressing some short and private Ejaculations He kneeled down before the Block as at a Desk of Prayer and meekly submitted His Crowned Head to the pleasure of His God to be profaned by the Axe of the disguised Executioner which was suddenly severed from His Body by one strong stroke So sell CHARLES the First and with Him expired the Glory and Liberty of Three Nations Thus the King finished His Martyrdom but His Enemies not their Malice who extended their Cruelty beyond His Life and abused the Headless Trunk Some washed their hands in the Royal Blood others dipt their staves in it and that they might indulge their insatiate Covetousness as well as their boundless Inhumanity they sold the chips of the Block and the sands that were discoloured with His Blood and exposed His very Hairs to sale which the Spectators purchased for different uses Some did it to preserve the Reliques of so Glorious a Prince whom they so dearly loved Others hoped that they would be as means of Cure for that disease which our English Kings through the Indulgence of Heaven by Their touch did usually heal and it was reported that these Reliques experienced failed not of the effect And some out of a brutish malice would have them as spoils and trophees of their hatred to their Lawfull Sovereign Cromwell that he might feed his eyes with Cruelty and satisfie his sollicitous Ambition which aspired at Monarchy when the Lawfull King was destroyed curiously surveyed the murthered Carcass when it was brought in the Coffin into White-Hall and to assure himself the King was quite dead with his singers searched the wound whether the Head were fully severed from the body or no. Afterwards they delivered the body to be unbowelled to an infamous Empirick of the Faction together with the rude Chirurgions of the Army not permitting the King 's own Physicians to this Office who were all most implacable enemies to His Majesty and commanded them to search which was as much as to bid them so report whether they could not find in it Symptomes of the French disease or some evidences of Frigidity and natural impotency that so they might have some colour to slander Him who was eminent for Chastity or to make His Seed infamous But this wicked design was prevented by a Physician of great Integrity and Skill who intruding himself among them at the Dissection by his Presence and Authority kept the obsequious Wretches from gratifying their Opprobrious Masters And the same Physician also published that Nature had tempered the Royal Body to a longer life than commonly is granted to other men And as His Soul was fitted by Heroick Vertues to Eternity so His Body by a Temperament almost ad pondus made as near an approach to it as the present Condition of Mortality would permit Failing in these Opportunities of Calumny with more Impudence and Rancor they use other wayes to make Him odious and rase the Love of Him out of the People's hearts They conclude from the outward unhappinesses of His Reign unto an hatred of God against Him and with the same Confidence as they inrolled themselves in the List of the Saints and entred their own names in the Book of Life they blotted His out and placed Him in some of the dark and comfortless Cells of the damned and they commonly professed it among the Disciples of the Faction as an Article of their belief that it was impossible for Him or any of His party to be saved Not content with these Injuries to His Body and Soul they endeavour likewise to murther His Memory For they pull'd down His Statue which was placed at the West end of St. Paul's Church and that other in the Old Exchange and leaving the Arch void they writ over Exit Tyrannus Regum ultimus But the Providence of God hath shewed
had composed and used this motive because it was a small matter He answered Though it seem to you a small thing it is not so to Me I had rather give you one of the Flowers of My Crown than permit your Children to be corrupted in the least point of their Religion Thus though He could not infuse Spiritual Graces into the minds of His Subjects yet He would manage their Reason by Pious Arts and what the Example of a King which through the Corruptions of men is more efficacious to Impiety than to Vertue could not do that His Law should and He would restrain those Vices which He could not extirpate Religion was never used by Him to veil Injustice for this was peculiar to His Adversaries His Justice who when they were plotting such acts as Hell would blush at they would fawn and smile on Heaven and they used it as those subtle Surprisers in War who wear their Enemies Colours till they be admitted to butcher them within their own Fortresses But His Majesty consulted the Peace of His Conscience not only in Piety to God but also in Justice to Men. He was as a Magistrate should be a speaking Law It was His usual saying Let Me stand or fall by My own Counsels I will ever with Job rather chuse Misery than Sin He first submitted His Counsels to the Censure of the Lawyers before they were brought forth to Execution Those Acts of which the Faction made most noise were delivered by the Judges to be within the Sphere of the Prerogative The causes of the Revenue were as freely debated as private Pleas and sometimes decreed to be not good which can never happen under a bad Prince The Justice of His Times shewed that of His Breast wherein the Laws were feared and not Men. None were forced to purchase their Liberty with the diminution of their Estates or the loss of their Credit Every one had both security and safety for His Life Fortune and Dignity and it was not then thought as afterwards to be a part of Wisdom to provide against Dangers by obscurity and Privacies His Favours in bestowing Great Offices never secured the Receivers from the force of the Law but Equity overcame His Indulgences For He knew that Vnjust Princes become Odious to them that made them so He submitted the Lord Keeper Coventrey to an Examination when a querulous person had accused him of Bribery He sharply reproved one whom He had made Lord Treasurer when he was petitioned against by an Hampshire Knight on whose Estate being held by Lease from the Crown that Treasurer had a design and He secured the Petitioner in his Right The greatest Officer of His Court did not dare to do any the least of those injuries which the most Contemptible Member of the House of Commons would with a daily Insolency act upon His weaker Neighbour In the Civil Discords He bewailed nothing more than that the Sword of Justice could not correct the illegal Furies of that of War Though by His Concessions and Grants He diminished His Power yet He thought it a Compensation to let the World see He was willing to make it impossible for Monarchy to have an unjust Instrument and to secure Posterity from Evil Kings Although He proved to a Leading Lord of the Faction That a People being too cautious to bind their King by Laws from doing Ill do likewise fetter Him from doing Good and their fears of Mischief do destroy their hopes of Benefit And that such is the weakness of Humanity that he which is intrusted only to Good may pervert that Power to the extremest Ills. And indeed there is no security for a Community to feel nothing in Government besides the Advantages of it but in the Benignity of Providence and the Justice of the Prince both which we enjoyed while we enjoyed Him Though He was thus in Love with Justice yet He suffered not that to leven His Nature to Severity and Rigour His Clemency but tempered it with Clemency especially when His Goodness could possibly find out such an Interpretation for the Offence that it struck more at His Peculiar than the Publick Interest He seemed almost stupid in the Opinion of Cholerick Spirits as to a sense of His own Injuries when there was no fear lest His Mercy should thereby increase the Miseries of His People And He was so ambitious of the Glory of Moderation that He would acquire it it in despight of the Malignity of the times For the Exercise of this Vertue depends not only on the temper of the Prince but the frame of the People must contribute to it because when the Reverence of Majesty and fear of the Laws are proscribed sharper Methods are required to form Obedience Yet He was unwilling to cut off till He had tryed by Mercy to amend even guilty Souls Thus He strove to oblige the Lord Balmerino to peaceful practices by continuing that Life which had been employed in Sedition and forfeited to the Law Soon after His coming into the Isle of Wight by which time He had experienced the numerous Frauds and implacable Malice of His Enemies being attended on by Dr. Sheldon and Dr. Hammond for they were the earliest in their Duties at that time a Discourse passed betwixt His Majesty and the Governour wherein there was mention made of the fears of the Faction that the King could never forgive them To which the King immediately replyes I tell thee Governour I can forgive them with as good an appetite as ever I eat My Dinner after an hunting and that I assure you was not a small one yet I will not make My self a better Christian than I am for I think if they were Kings I could not do it so easily This shewed how prone His Soul was to Mercy and found not any obstruction but what arose from a sense of Royal Magnanimity He sooner offered and gave life to His captive Enemies than their Spirits debauched by Rebellion would require it and He was sparing of that blood of which their fury made them Prodigal No man fell in battel whom He could save He chose rather to enjoy any Victory by Peace and therefore continually sollicited for it when He seemed least to need it than make one triumph a step to another and though He was passionate to put all in Safety yet He affected rather to end the War by Treaty than by Conquest The Prisoners He took He used like deluded men and oftner remembred that God had made them His Subjects than that the Faction had transformed them to Rebels He provided for them while in His Power and not to let them languish in Prison sent them by Passes to their own homes only ingaging them by Oath to no more injuries against that Sovereign whom they had felt to be Gracious for so He used those that were taken at Brainford But yet the Casuists of the Cause would soon dispense with their Faith and send them forth to die
such wicked Arts and was judged by all men though He wanted yet to deserve Prosperity as to humane judgement which as some think is the truest Happiness To these Doubts there appears no Resolution so obvious as that into the Pleasure of the Divine Majesty who provoked by our sins which had profaned his Mercies and abused the Peace and Plenty he gave us would chastise us by the scourge of Civil War the corrective of too much felicity and taking away the best of Kings leave us to the Pride and Violence of the basest of men And that it was a wrath directed against us was apparent because the misfortunes and fall of that Incomparable Prince opened upon us an avenue for all those miseries that a Community is obnoxious unto in the want of a lawful Government while the Almighty secured the Glory of the King even in His Sufferings provided for the Support and Honour of the Royal Family in its lowest Estate and miraculously preserved the Chief of it from innumerable dangers and made us to see afterwards in the Series of his Providences that he had not withdrawn his loving-kindness from the House of King CHARLES by restoring it to its primitive Grandeur And this he was pleased to signifie to the King by a Passage that appeared little less than a Miracle For while He was at Oxford and the Earl of Southampton now Lord High-Treasurer of England a Person of unquestionable Honour and Veracity of an eminent Integrity A Presage of His Fall and the future State of the Royal Family above the Flattery of Princes who doth attest this Occurrence as Gentleman of the Bed-chamber lay one Night in the same Chamber with Him the Wax Mortar which according to Custom the King alwayes had in His Chamber was in the night as they both conceived and took notice of it fully extinguished But my Lord rising in the Morning found it lighted and said to the KING Sir this Mortar now burns very clearly at which they both exceedingly wondred as fully concluding it had been out in the Night and they could not imagine how any of the Grooms or any other could possibly light it the Door being locked with a Spring within This busying the wonder of both for the present the King afterwards when He saw the Malice of His Enemies press hard upon His Life and Ruine reflecting upon this Occurrence drew it into this Presage That though God would permit His Light to be extinguished for a time yet He would at last light it again which was verified in the Event for though God suffered the Faction to spill His blood yet after many years of Troubles and when he had permitted those Monsters to bring us to the brinks of destruction he restored His Son to the Crown in as much Splendour and Greatness as any of His Predecessors As His Abliities for the Publick Administration of Government were all apt to raise Admiration His Recreations so His Recreations and Privacies gave a Delight to such as communicated in the sight of them and there needed no more to beget an Honour of Him than to behold Him in His Diversions which were all serious and there was no part of His time which either wanted benefit or deserved not Commendation In His younger dayes His pleasures were in Riding and sometimes in breaking the great Horse and He did it so gracefully that He deserved that Statue of Brass which did represent Him on Horse-back Besides this He delighted in Hunting an active and stirring Exercise to accustom Him to toils and harden that body whose mind abhorred the softness of Luxury and Ease which Vicious Princes think a part of Power and the Rewards of Publick Cares but He used this as the way whereby the Antient Heroes were habituated to Labours and by contending with some beasts in Strength and others in Swiftness first to rout then to chase their flying Enemies When the season of the year did not permit this sport then Tennis Gough Bowls were the wayes of His Diversions and in all these He was wonderfully active and excellent His softer pleasures were Books and of His time spent in these there were many Monuments In His Library at Saint James's there was kept a Collection of His of the excellent Sayings of Authors written with His own hand and in his Youth presented to His Father King JAMES and there is yet extant in the hands of a Worthy Person His Extracts written with His own hand out of My Lord of Canterbury's Book against Fisher of all the Arguments against the Papists digested into so excellent a Method that He gave Light and Strength to them even while He did epitomise them into a sheet or two of Paper The same Care and Pains He had bestowed in reading the most Judicious Hooker and the Learned Works of Bishop Andrews out of all which He had gathered whatsoever was excellent in them and fitted them for His ready use When He was tired with Reading then He applyed Himself to Discourse wherein He both benefited Himself and others and He was good at the Relation of a Story or telling of an Occurrence When these were tedious by continuance He would either play at Chess or please Himself with His Pictures of which He had many choice pieces of the best Masters as Titian Rafael Tintoret and others with which He had adorned His most frequented Palaces as also with most antique pieces of Sculpture so that to those that had travelled it seemed that Italy was Translated to His Court. As His Spirit was thus accomplished so His Body had its Elegancies His Stature was of a just height The Features of His Body rather decent than tall His Body erect and not enclining to a Corpulency nor meager till His Afflictions wrought too strongly upon it to a Leanness His Limbs exactly proportioned His Face full of Majesty and His Brow large and Fair His Eyes so quick and piercing that they went farther than the Superficies of men and searched their more Inward parts for at the first sight He would pass a judgment upon the frame of a Man's Spirit and Faculties and He was not often mistaken having a strange happiness in Physiognomy and by reason of this He would remember any one He had seen but once many years after His Complexion was enclining to a Paleness His Hair a brown which He wore of a moderate length ending in gentle and easie curles upon His left side He indulged one Lock to a greater length in the youthful part of His Life His Beard He wore picqued but after the Faction had passed those Votes of No Addresses He permitted it to grow neglectedly and to cover more of His face His Gestures had nothing of affectation but full of Majestick Gravity His motions were speedy and His gate fast which shewed the Alacrity and Vigour of His Mind for His Affections were temperate He was of a most healthfull Constitution and after the infirmities of His