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england_n	army_n	king_n	scotland_n	7,134	5	8.6838	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88231	The peoples prerogative and priviledges, asserted and vindicated, (against all tyranny whatsoever.) By law and reason. Being a collection of the marrow and soule of Magna Charta, and of all the most principall statutes made ever since to this present yeare, 1647. For the preservation of the peoples liberties and properties. With cleare proofs and demonstrations, that now their lawes and liberties are nigher subvertion, then they were when they first began to fight for them, by a present swaying powerfull faction, amongst the Lords, Commons, and Army, ... so that perfect vassalage and slavery (by force of armes) in the nature of Turkish janisaries, or the regiments of the guards of France, is likely (to perpetuitie) to be setled, if the people doe not speedily look about them, and act vigorusly for the preventing of it. / Compiled by Lievt. Col. John Lilburne, prerogative prisoner in the Tower of London, and published by him for the instruction, information and benefit of all true hearted English-men.	Lilburne, John, 1614?-1657.	1648 (1648)	Wing L2153; Thomason E427_4; ESTC R202741	121,715	88

unto the power of the House in committing me J stooped but at their doore desired to be committed by a legall Warrant which by their own Law published in Sir Edward Cooks institutes Votes and Ordinances all warrants of commitments whatsoever ought expresly to containe the certaine particular case wherefore a man is committed and ought to conclude and him safely to keep till he be delivered by due course of Law and for the full proof of this read the 68 69. pages of the following discourse and the 11 12 13 14 15 pages of Mr. Iohn Wildmans late defence called Truths Triumph or Treachery anotamised But if the Warrant be in generall words and be also to keep him during their pleasure and made by the Parliament the prisoner is murthered and destroyed by such an imprisonment For he must either stoop to their wills and so betray his liberties and sin against his own soule or else he must remaine in prison till he starve and rot before any Iudge in Westminster Hall will grant him a Habeas Corpus to bring him up to the barre of Justice either to receive his punishment according to Law or else his liberties as uniustly imprisoned and this made me the other day at the House of Commons to contest for a legal warrant before I would go to Prison but that mercinary Turkish Ianisary Col. Baxster laid violent hands upon me telling me expresly he was not either to reason or dispute the Houses commands but to obey them caused his Soldiers to draw their swords upon me in halling of me away by force violence he stabed Magna Charta the Petition of Right c. to the very heart and soule did asmuch as in him lyes by that act destroy all our Lawes and liberties for if authority must be backt with the sword to put in execution all their unjust commands then farwell all law and liberty forever and accursed be the day that ever the Parliament raised an Army to fight for the preservation of our lawes and liberties if now they convert their power and turne their swords and guns against us by force of armes to destroy our lawes and liberties John Lilburne 6. Feb. 1647. In the third yeare of the reign of Charles King of England Scotland France and Ireland AT the Parliament begun at Westminster the seventeenth day of March An. Dom. 1627. in the third yeare of the reigne of our most gracious Soveraigne Lord Charles by the grace of God of England Scotland France and Ireland King Defender of the Faith c. And there continued untill the 26. day of Iune following and then prorogued unto the 20. day of October now next ensuing To the high pleasure of Almighty God and to the weale publique of this Realme were enacted as followeth The petition Exhibited to his Majestie by the Lords Spirituall and Temporall and Commons in this present Parliament assembled concerning divers Rights and Liberties of the Subiect with the Kings Majesties royall answer thereunto in full Parliament To the Kings most Excellent Majestie HVmbly sheweth unto our Soveraigne Lord the King the Lords Spirituall and Temporall and Commons in Parliament assembled That whereas it is declared a●d inacted by a Statute made in the time of the reigne of King Ed. the first commonly called Statutum de Tallagio non concedento a a 34. Ed. 1. chap. 1. That ●o tallage or aid shall be laid or levied by the King or his Heires in this Realme without the good will and assent of the Arch B●shops Bishops Earles Barons Knights Burgesses and other the free men of the Commonalty of this Realme And by authority of Parliament holden in the five and twentieth yeare of the reigne of King Edward the third b b 25. Ed. 3 Rot. Par. it is declared and inacted That from thenceforth no person should be compelled to make any loanes to the King against his will because such loanes were against reason and the franchise of the Land And by other Lawes of this Realme it is provided that none should be charged by any charge or imposition called a Benevolence nor by such like charge c c 25. Ed. 1. 6. 1. Ed. 3. 6 11. R. 2. 9. 1. R. 3. 2. by which the Statutes before mentioned and other the good Lawes and Statutes of this Realme your Subjects have inherited this Freedome That they should not be compelled to contribute to any tax tallage aid or other like charge nor set by common consent in Parliament 1. R. 3. 2. Yet neverthelesse of late divers Commissions directed to sundry Commissioners in severall Counties with instructions have issued by meanes whereof your people have been in divers places assembled and required to lend certaine summes of money unto your Majestie and many of them upon their refusall so to do have had an oath administred unto them not warrantable by the Lawes or Statutes of this Realme * * Oaths Ex Officio unlawfull and have been constrained to become bound to make appearance and give attendance before your privie Councell and in other places and others of them have been therefore imprisoned confined and sundry otherwayes molested and disquieted And divers other charges have been laid and levied upon your people in severall Counties by Lord Lievtenants Deputy Lieutenants Commissioners for Musters Iustices of Peace and others by command or direction from your Maiesty or your privie Councell against the Lawes and free customes of the Realme * * All Magistracy in England is bounded by the law thereof e e 28. Ed. 3. 3. And where also by the Statute called THE GREAT CHARTER OF THE LIBERTIES OF ENGLAND d d 9 H. 3. 29. It is declared and enacted f f 25. Ed. 3. That no free man may be taken or imprisoned St. 37. Ed. 3. 18. St. 38. Ed. 3. 9. St. 42. Ed. 3. 3. St. 17. R. 2. 6. or be disseized of his Free hold or Liberties or his free Customs or he outlawed or exiled or in any manner distroyed but by the lawfull iudgement of his PEERS or by the Law of the Land And in the eight and twentieth yeare of the reigne of King Edward the third e it was declared and enacted by authority of Parliament That no man of what estate or condition that he be should be put out of his Land or Tenements nor taken nor imprisoned nor disherited nor put to death without being brought to answer by due processe of Law Neverthelesse against the tenour of the said Statutes and other the good Lawes and Statutes of your Realme to that end provided f divers of your Subiects have of late been imprisoned without any cause shewed * * Imprisonment without cause shewed is illegall See also Cooke 2. part institutes upon the 29. chap Magna Charta And when for their deliverance they were brought before your Iustices by your Majesties Writs of Habeas corpus there to undergoe and receive as the

them and the said agreement or opinion of the greater part of the said Iustices and Barons and the said Iudgement given against the said IOHN HAMPDEN were and are contrary to and against the Lawes and Statutes of this Realm the right of property the liberty of the Subiects former resolutions in Parliament and the PETITION OF RIGHT made in the third yeare of the Reign of his Maiestie that now is And it is further declared and enacted by the authority aforesaid That all and every the Particulars prayed or desired in the said PETITION OF RIGHT shall from henceforth be put in execution accordingly and shall be firmly and strictly holden and observed as in the same PETITION THEY ARE PRAYED AND EXPRESSED and that all and every the Records and Remembrances of all and every the Iudgement Inrolements Entry and proceedings as aforesaid and all and every the proceedings whatsoever upon or by pretixt or colour of any of the said Writs commonly called Shipwrits and all and every the Dependents on any of them shall be deemed and adiudged to all intents constructions and purposes to be utterly void and disannulled and that all and every the said Iudgement Inrolments Entryes Proceedings and Dependents of what kind soever shall be vacated and cancelled in such manner and forme as Records use to be that are vacated Anno XVII Caroli Regis An Act for the prevention of vexatious proceedings touching the Order of Knighthood VVHereas upon pretext of an antient custome or usage of this Realm of England That men of full age being not Knights and being seised of Lands or Rents of the yearly value of forty pounds or more especially if their seising had so continued by the space of three years next past might be compelled by the Kings writ to receive or take upon them the order or dignity of Knighthood or else to make Fine for the discharge or respite of the same Severall Writs about the beginning of his Majesties reign issued out of the Court of Chancery for Proclamations to be made in every County to that purpose and for certifying the names of all such persons and for summoning them personally to appeare in the Kings presence before a certain day to be there ready to receive the said Order or Dignity Vpon returne of which writs and transmitting the same with their Returns into the Court of Exchequer and upon other Writs for further inquiry of the names of such persons issuing out of the said Court of Exchequer Processe by Distringas was thence made against a very great number of persons many of which were altogether unfit in regard either of estate or quality to receive the said Order or Dignity and very many were put to grievous Fines and other vexations for the same although in truth it were not sufficiently known how or in what sort or where they or any of them should or might have addressed themselves for the receiving the said Order or Dignity and for saving themselves thereby from the said Fines Processe and vexations And whereas its most apparent that all and every such proceedings in regard of the matter therein pretended is altogether uselesse and unreasonable May it therefore please your most Excellent Maiestie that it be by authority of Parliament declared and enacted And be it declared and enacted by the Kings most excellent Maiestie and the Lords and Commons in this Parliament assembled and by the authority of the same That from henceforth no person or persons of what condition quality estate or degree so ever shall at any time be distrained or otherwise compelled by any writ or processe of the Court of Chancery or Court of Exchequer or otherwise by any meanes whatsoever to receive or take upon him or them respectively the Order or Dignity of KNIGHTHOOD nor shall suffer or undergoe any fine trouble or molestation whatsoever by reason or colour of his or their having not received or not taken upon him or them the said order or dignity And that all and every Writ or Processe whatsoever and all and every proceeding which shall hereafter be had or made contrary to the intent of this Act shall be deemed and adiudged to be utterly void and that all and every Processe proceeding and Charge now depending by reason or colour of the said pretended custome or writs aforesaid or of any the dependants thereof shall from henceforth cease and stand be and remain discharged and utterly void Any former Law or Custome or any pretence of any former Law or Custome or any other matter whatsoever to the Contrary in any wise notwithstanding I shall conclude this collection at present with the Bill of Attainder past against Thomas Earl of Strafford this present Parliament as I find it printed in the 303. pag. of a book printed for Will. Cook at Furnifalls Inne gate in Holbourne 1641. called Speeches and Passages of this Parliament from the 3. Novemb. 1640. to this instant Inne 1641. which thus followeth The Bill of Atainder that passed against Thomas Earle of STRAFFORD WHereas the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons in this present Parliament assembled have in the name of themselves and of all the Commons of England impeached Thomas Earle of Strafford of high Treason for endeavouring to subvert the Antient and Fundamentall Lawes and Government of his Maiesties Realms of England and Ireland and to introduce an Arbitrary and Tyrannicall Government against Law in the said Kingdoms and for exercising a tyrannous and exhorbitant power over and against the Lawes of the said Kingdomes over the Liberties Estates and Lives of his Maiesties Subiects and likewise for having by his own authority commanded the laying and asseising of Soldiers upon his Subiects in Ireland against their consents to compell them to obey his unlawfull commands and orders made upon paper Petitions in causes between party and party which accordingly was executed upon divers of his Maiesties Subiects in a warlike manner within the said Realm of Ireland and in so doing did LEVIE WARRE against the Kings Maiestie and his liege people in that Kingdome And also for that he upon the unhappie Dissolution of the last Parliament did slander the House of Commons to his Maiestie and did councell and advise his Maiestie that he was loose and absolved from the rules of Government and that he had an Army in Ireland by which he might reduce this Kingdome for which he deserves to undergoe the pains and forfeitures of high Treason And the said Earl hath been also an Incendiary of the wars between the two Kingdoms of England and Scotland all which offences have been sufficiently proved against the said Earle upon his impeachment Be it therefore enacted by the Kings most Excellent Maiesty and by the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament and by authority of the same that the said Earl of Strafford for the hainous crimes and offences aforesaid stand and be adiudged and attainted of high Treason and shall suffer such pain of

The peoples Prerogative and Priviledges asserted and vindicated against all Tyranny whatsoever By Law and Reason BEING A COLLECTION of the Marrow and Soule of MAGNA CHARTA And of all the most principall Statutes made ever since to this present yeare 1647. For the preservation of the peoples Liberties and properties With cleare proofs and demonstrations that now their Lawes and Liberties are nigher Subvertion then they were when they first begun to fight for them by a present swaying powerfull Faction amongst the Lords Commons and Army that have already de facto levelled our Lawes and Liberties to their Arbitrary and Tyrannicall Wills and pleasures so that perfect Vassilage and Slavery by force of Armes in the nature of Turkish Ianisaries or the Regiments of the Guards of France is likely to perpetuitie to be setled if the people doe not speedily look about them and act vigorusly for the preventing of it Compiled by Lievt Col. John Lilburne prerogative Prisoner in the Tower of London and published by him for the instruction information and benefit of all true hearted English-men LONDON Printed in the yeare when some of the mercinary Officers and Souldiers of Sir Thomas Fairfaxes Army that were pretendedly raised for to fight for the Liberties and Freedomes of England avowedly drew their Swords at the House of Commons doore to destroy those that really stood for their Lawes and Liberties 1647. To all the peaceable and well minded people of the Counties of Hartfordshire and Buckinghamshire who desires present peace freedome justice and the common right and good of all men but more particularly to all those honest Nown substantive men that were the promoters and managers of that affectionate Petition for my self and Mr. Richard Overton to the House of Common about 12. moneths agoe which is printed in the 10. and 11. pag of the second edition of our book called the Outcryes of oppressed Commons But in a most especiall manner to my honest friends in and about Watford that lately were in trouble severall Sessions at St. Alb●ns for not comming to their parish Church to heare Common prayer c. WOrthy Gentle men and dearest Country-men The sencible knowledge of the sufferings of you last named by your severall times sending to me and comming to me for advice drew out my heart according to my weake talent to bend my braines to the study of something that might be for the effectually future good of yours to whom I have so many indeared obligations and all the rest of your neighbours which I here present unto your courteous acceptation in this following discourse or small collection of Statutes being necessitated to acquaint you that J have not a little been tossed and tumbled by the mallice of corrupt minded men who because their deeds are evill and therefore cannot endure they should come to the view of the Sun and the presses have been as much us I or else you had some weeks ago had it presented in print to your view but being upon the 19 of Ian. last by the House of Commons clapt by the heeles for traiterous and seditious practises against the State that is to say is I interpret it for my earnest and honest endeavouring to promote a righteous iust and gallant petition for the good of my poore Country which I sent unto you some weeks agoe with a letter which letter partly for my vindication I am necessited here to insert which thus followeth virbatum WOrthy Gentlemen and deare Friends The fervency of your love to me and your endeavours for my freedome by petitioning the Parliament hath taken such deep impression upon my heart that I cannot but often renew my thankfull acknowledgement and study to serve you in particular while I endeavour to serve my whole Country in Generall And truly the best service that I can doe you in this iuncture of time in my opinion is to study your peace For if the red Horse of Warre should againe enter into our gates the paile Horse of famine will certainly tread upon his heeles and then nothing can be expected but desolation now the only effectuall meanes to establish your peace is the healing of divesions and that only can be effected by uniting in the common principles of freedome and iustice and for that end is the Petition which I have sent you framed certainly if all the people did but heare the freedome which we petition for opened And if you did informe them that those you account the price of your blood and that you should never disagree nor think any thing worth a war if those principals of freedom justice were setled if it were cleared to them of how great concernment it is to ga●ie the spec●● settlement of those if I say some paines were taken in this way I am perswaded al people would ioyne together as one man to cry uncessantly to the Parliament for establishing those foundations of iustice and freedome that their peace might be secure to them O my friends that God would give you light and power to see and endeavour after the things which belong to your peace and freedome before they be bid from your eyes there is now an opportunity and if this be neglected I feare God will not betrust us with another and in reason if we doe not act speedily and vigorusly it will be impossible to prevent Warre and confusion Now in your actings in this businesse I desire if my advice might be of any weight with you First that in such places as you cannot gaine liberty to have the Petition read on the first day in the week in the meeting house there desire as great a meeting of the people some other day as you can get and read the Petition and explain it and then select some active men as Trustees to take care for gaining subscriptions 2. Engage as many persons as possible you can to come to London with the Petition and to cry resolutely to the Parliament Iustice Iustice and we intend to give you notice when we intend here to deliver it that at the same time you may come up 3 If you can chuse an Agent to reside here at London constantly to give you constant Intelligence of all affaires and to send you books for your information bought by a publique stock which you should be trust with your Agent J conceive this would be of great concernment to your peace and welfare I have no more to trouble you with at present but only to tender you the service of Your most faithfull servant that now againe earnestly desires you with all your might to promote the Petition Iohn Lilburne London this 8th of Janu. 1647. A proeme to the following collection and discourse WHen Israel would turne their backs upon God who alone was their King 1 Sam. 10.19 chap. 12. v. 12.17.19 and be like all the Heathen and Pagan natitions round about them to have a King to rule over them Deut. 17.14 God himself layes

Lord or for him that tooke them Bro. Riot 2. 3. 52. H. 3. 3. 13. Ed. 1. 39. V. N. B. fo 43. 44 Regist fo 85. 52. H. 3. 21. Regist fol. 81. Fitz. N.B. fo 68. F. for to answer and make the deliverance after such time as the Lord or taker shall be admonished to make deliverance by the Sheriffe or Bailiffe if he be in the Country or neere or there whereas he may be conveniently warned by the taker or by any other of his to make deliverance if he were out of the Countrey when the taking was and did not cause the Beasts to be delivered incontinent that the King for the trespasse and despite shall cause the said Castle or Fortresse to be heaten down without recovery And all the damages that the plaintife hath sustained in his beasts or in his gainure or any otherwise after the first demand made by the Sheriffe or Bailiffe of the beasts shall be restored to him double by the Lord or by him that tooke the beasts if he have whereof and if he have not whereof he shall have it of the Lord at what time or in what manner the deliverance be made after that the Sheriffe or Bailiffe shall come to make deliverance And it is to wit that where the Sheriffe ought to return the Kings writ to the Bailife of the Lord of the Castle or Fortresse or to any other to whom the return belongeth if the Bailife of the Franchise will no● make deliverance after that the Sheriffe hath made his return unto him then shall the Sheriffe doe his office without further delay and upon the foresaid paines And in like manner deliverance shall be made by Attachment of the plaintife made without writ and upon the same paine And this is to be intended in all places where the Kings writ lyeth And if that be done in the Marches of Wales or in any other place where the Kings Writs be not currant the King which is soveraign Lord over all shall doe right there unto such as will complain Now after this businesse of Tyths which by the universall complaint against it all over the Kingdome appeares to be an intollerable and insupportable burthen I shall a little open unto you another mischiefe of far more dangerous consequence and that is the subvertion of our fundamentall lawes and liberties and the exercising of an Arbitrary Tyrannicall government which I find to be the principall crime laid to the charge of the late Earl of Strafford for which he lost his head upon the Tower Hill at London in the yeare 1641. And that it was his principall crime appeares clearly to me by his Bill of Attainder which you may read before pag. 29. and by the fi●st Article of his impeachment which as I find it printed in the 117. pag. of a book called Speeches and Passages of this Parliament from the 3. of Novemb. 1640. to Iune 1641. printed for Will. Crook at Furnifalls Inne gate in Holbourne 1641. The very words of which thus followeth That he the said Thomas Earl of Strafford hath traiterously endeavoured to subvert the fundamentall lawes and government of the Realmes of England and Ireland and in stead thereof to introduce an Arbitrary and Tyrannicall Government against law which he hath declared by trayterous words councells and actions and by giving His Majestie advice by force of Armes to compell his loyall Subiects to submit thereunto Now whether this very traiterous crime of the Lord of Strafford be not really acted since the warres ended both by the present House of Lords and by the present Grandees in the Army I thinke is obvious to every knowing rationall understanding unbiosed mans eye in England in that both of them have taken upon them to meddle with things not within their cognizance or jurisdiction and to out men of their lives liberties and properties without any legall processe and proceeding all the ordinary Courts of Iustice in England being open where only and alone all causes whatsoever between party and parties desidable by the lawes of this land are to be tryed and determined and no where else it being as lawfull for a Iudge Iustice of peace or a Constable to make Laws as for a House of Lords to execute Laws their legall and proper work at most upon their own usurped principalls being to make new laws repeal old laws to give their consent to raise mony for the preservation of the publique and to see it be rightly disposed of but they themselves ought not in the least to finger it much lesse by votes to give it to each other it being contrary to the Law of England for Fofees in tru●t which they would have us to believe they * And it ● but a b● belief s● I say an● wil maintain it against a● the proc●ers of th● present ● House o● Lords hav● in England tha● they have no more right to their pretended legislative ● power the● a thiefe that by force tak● my purse● from me Nor no more right to b● called th● legislator● of England the● a man to be called an honest womans husband that by force and violence robs her of her virginitie and so commits a rape upon her and by threat to save her life compells her to hold her peace And I desire all the Commons of England seriously to consider how the Lords that flow from William the Conquerers sword and the meer will of his successors can rationally pretend to a legislative power when in their joynt Declarations with the present House of Commons they have declared the King their Creator hath none but is bound by his Coronation oath to pass● all such lawes as the folk or Commons shall chuse and what greater evill can there be in the world the● seeing that all legislative power in the nature of it is Arbitrary that for life an arbitrary power should b● placed in the Lords and heriditary in their sons be they fooles or knaves therefore up with them by the roots and let no power hereafter be exercised in England but what acknowledgly flowes as a trust from th● people or their Representatives and who are subiect as other men to the Lawes are to give any thing to themselves to punish all mayle Administrators of Iustice and to heare and redresse all appeares upon eronious judgements given or made in any of the Courts in Westminster-Hall or elsewhere Yet notwithstanding have they Arbitrarily and Tyrannically summoned and convened men before them for things desideable and determinable only at Common Law without any due processe of Law and have taken upon them contrary to all law Iustice equitie and conscience to be both Informers Prosecutors Witnesses Parties Iurie and Iudges and thereupon have past most illegall arbitrary and tyrannicall censures upon the free Commons of England and thereupon have distroyed and outted them of their lives liberties properties free holds and estates when as by the fundamentall law of the Land no Iudge

whatsoever can be Iudge of matter of Law and fact both it being the proper right of the Iury of 12. men of a mans Peers or Equalls to be Iudge of matter of fact which must be proved by legall witnesses duly sworne and not by the Complainer Prosecutor or Partie and then the Iudge is only to be Iudge in matter of Law But in the first place I shal begin with the Grandees or Councel of war of the Armie who have the most desperatest apostatised from their principles that it is possible for men to do and from their pretended patronising of the peoples liberties and Arbitrarily and Tyrannically have sought the ruine and utter destruction of all those amongst themselves that have stuck close to the interest of the People although they themselves made use of the very same persons and Principalls to preserve themselves against that which they themselves called Tyranny in Mr. Hollis and Sir Phillip Stapleton c. And that they have so done I prove by the Pleas of Will. Thompson a late Corporall in the Army Iohn Crosman a Trooper John Engram late Capt. Lievt of the Life Guard and the Plea for the late Agents made in Novemb. 1647. Which thus followeth A Defence for the honest Nown substantive Soldiers of the Army against the proceedings of the Gen. Officers to punish them by Martiall Law First THe arbitrary Government of the Army by Law Martiall which is only necessary when an Army is marching against its enemy or when no other Court● of Iustice in a Land are open and free was wholly dissolved at the Rendezvouz at New market upon the 4. and 5. of Iune last and this I prove by these following reasons 1. They associated themselves only as a company of free Commons of England to stand together upon the just principles and law of nature and nations to recover their own and all the peoples just rights and liberties See the solemn Engagement upon Iune 4. The words are these We the Officers and Soldiers of the Army subscribing hereunto doe hereby declare agree and promise to and with each other that we shal not willingly disband nor divide nor suffer our selves to be disbanded nor divided untill we have security that we as private men or other the free-born people of England shall not remaine subject to the like oppression iniury or abuse as have been attempted Compare the latter end of page the 4. with page 5. And upon their march towards London in prosecution of this design whereupon they associated the General declared in his letter to the City that they as English men insisted upon the settlement of the peace of the Kingdome and the liberty of the Subject which they had right to demand See the letter from the Generall and the Generall Officers at Royston upon Iune 10. page 2. 3. And in their further opening of their meaning and intentions in their agreeing together or associating as before they declared upon Iune 14. That they were not a mercenary Army hired to serve the arbitrary power of a State but continued in armes in judgement and conscience for the defence of their own and the peoples lust rights and liberties Now the Army thus refusing to serve the Arbitrary power of the State and agreeing together as English men to stand upon Principles of Right and Freedome From hence 1. It s cleare that the Officers and Soldiers kept in a body and so were an Army not by the wil of the State but by their own mutuall Agreement 2. From thence it s as cleare that they not being an Army by the States will they were not under those rules of Martiall Government which were given by the will of the State to rule those which were a Military body or Army by their will and power 3. From thence it s also as cleare as they continuing an Army at that time not by the States will power or Command but their mutuall Agreement they could be under no other government as an Army but such as they did constitute or appoint for themselves by mutuall agreement and this leades to 22. Reason proving the dissolution of the Armies government by Martiall Law 4. The Soldiers with some Officers of the Army having by mutual agreement gathered themselves into or at least continued themselves a Military body or Army to stand upon principles of right and freedom did by the same mutual agreement with or engagement to each other frame constitute or appoint a forme of government for themselves in their prosecuting that iust design of common right and freedome fo● themselves and the nation The wordes of the Engagement pag. 4. 5. are these Wee doe hereby declare agree and promise to and with each others that wee shall not willingly disband nor divide nor suffer our selves to be disbanded or divided without satisfaction in relation to our grievances and desires heretofore presented and security that we as private men or other the free born people of England shall not remaine subject to the like oppression and iniury as have been attempted and this satisfaction and security to be such as shall be agreed unto by a Councell to consist of those generall Officers of the Army who have concurred with the Army in the premises with two Commission Officers and two Soldiers to be chosen for each Regiment who have concurred and shall concurre with us in the promises and in this agreement Hereby a new Councell was constitutes contrary to all Martiall Law and Discipline by whom only they ingaged to be ordeered in their prosecution of the ends for which they associated and by consequence seeing they continued an Army by their own wils and only to prosecute those ends of common right and freedome this Engagement to be ordered only by that new Councell in their prosecution of those ends extends to a whole rule of them as an Army Now that this Councell was wholly new and in a way diverse or different from all Martiall Courts or Councels of Warre that ever the Sun beheld in a mercenary Army and as different from the Councell by which this Army was formerly governed appeares thus 1. The Members of this Councell by which they ingaged to be ordered are different wholly from the Members of all former Councells in the Army 1. The quallity of them is different none but such as concurred in disobeying the Parliament and in the Principles of common right and freedome upon which they stood were to be Members of this Councell neither the Generall nor the Lievtenant Generall themselves were to be Members of this Councell unlesse they had concurred in owning the Regiments refusall to disband and in their ingagement or association and by consequences they had been no Officers as will appeare hereafter In this all the Orders of Warre and Martiall Lawes were broken for if the Generall Lievtenant Generall and Commissary Gen. Ireton had not concurred they could not all have cashiered one Officer that did concurre all the Soldiers

Right in the third of the King and the Statutes that abolished the Starre-Chamber and Ship money made this present Parliament and Lievtenant Col. Iohn Lilburnes Book called the Resolved mans Resolution p. 2. 3 8 9. and his Grand Plea against the Lords pag. 7 8 9. error Therefore Sir for you who are a Generall of an Armie and other of your Marshall Officer's who are are no Civill Court of Iustice nor authorized with the least legall power in the world to administer Iustice and execute the law of the land upon or unto any of the Commoners of England to dare or presume to restraine imprison trie or meddle with me as you have done who am in no other capacitie in the world but barely and altogether as a Commoner of England is the height of arbitrary tyranny injustice and * * Well saith Sir Edward Cook in the 2. part of his Institutes fol. 48. that every oppression against law by colour of any usurped authority is a kind of destruction for when any thing is forbidden all that tends to it is also forbidden and it is saith he the worst oppression that is done by colour of justice See also Lib. 10. fo 74. in the case of the Marshalsea oppression and an absolute destruction of the very fundamentall Lawes of England the bare endeavouring of which cost the Earl of Strafford his head And what the doome of him is that destroyes the fundamentall Lawes of the Land I shall give you out of the very words of your own friend Mr. St. Iohn in his Argument of law concerning the Bill of Attainder of high Treason of Thomas Earl of Strafford at a conference in a Committee of both Houses of Parliament printed by G. M. for John Bartlet at the signe of the gilt Cup neer St. Austins Gate in Pauls Church Yard 1641 who in the 70. page thereof saith That the destruction of the Lawes d●ssolves the arteries and ligaments that hold the body together ●he that takes away the Laws takes not away the allegiance of one Subiect alone but of the whole Kingdome it was saith he made treason by the Statute of the 13. El. for her time to affirme that the Lawes of the Realme doe not bind the discent of the Crowne no Law no descent at all No Laws saith he no Peerage no ranks or degrees of men † † And therefore you with your dealings with me that am meerly a free Commoner of England and so not in the least under your Marshall Discipline but solely and only under the discipline of the known declared and established Lawes of England by your arbitrary tyrannicall actings upon me have absolutely as much as in you lyes destroyed the fundamentall Lawes of England and therefore are as absolute Hedge breakers and Levellers as ever were in this Kingdome the same condition to all It 's treason to kill a Iudge upon the Bench this kills not the Iudge but the Iudgement And in page 71. he saith Its felony to imbezell any of the Iudiciall Records of the Kingdome this viz. the destruction of the law sweeps all away and from all It s treason to counterfeit a twenty shilling piece here is a counterfeiting of the Law we can call 〈◊〉 the counterfeit not the true coyne our own It s treason to counterfeit the great Seale for an Acre of Land no property hereby viz. the destruction of the Law is left to any Land at all nothing treason now either against King or Kingdom no law to pun●sh it And therefore I advise you as a friend to take heed that you goe no further on in your illegall arbitrary tyrannicall and law-destroying practises with and towards me least when for your own lives you claime the benefit of the Law you be answered in the words of your foresaid friend in pag. 72. That he in vaine calls for the help of the Law that walkes contrary unto Law and from the Law of like for like he that would not have others to have law why should he have any himself why should not that be done to him that himself would have done to another it is true saith he Ibid. we give law to Hares and Deers because they be beasts of chase but it was never accounted either crueltie or foule play to knock Foxes and Wolves on the head as they can be found because these be Beasts of Prey the Warrener set traps for Poulears and other vermin for preservation of the Warren And in pag. 76. he saith in the 11. R. 2. Trisilian And some other attainted of treason for delivering opinions in the subvertion of the Law and some other for plotting the like * * Read also to this purpose Mr. Iohn Pyms Speech against the Earle of Strafford the 12. of April 1641. printed for Iohn Battler but especially p. 5. 6. 8. 9. 13. 18. 23. 24. But if you shall object that you deale with me as you are a Generall and Officers of an Army by Marshall Law for endeavouring to make mutinies or tumults in your Armie or by bi●●●ing and defaming your reputations and so drawing your Soldiers from their affection and obedience unto you I answer in the first place there can in this Kingdome be no pretence for Martiall Law but when the Kingdome is in a generall hurly burly and uproare and an Armie or Armies of 〈◊〉 enemies in the Field prosecuting with the sword the destruction of the whole and thereby stopping the regular and legall proceedings of the Courts of Iustice from punishing offenders and transgressors But now there being no Armie nor Armies of declared enemies in the field nor mo●● prisons in the possessions of any such men nor no generall hurly-butlies and uproars by any such men in the Kingdome but all such as are visibly subdued and quieted and all Courts of justice open and free to punish offenders and transgressors and therefore even to the Armie is selfe and the Officers and Soldiers therein there is no reason or ground for exercising of Martiall Law much lesse over Commoners that are not under the obedience of the Army which is my case And that in time of peace there neither is nor can be any ground of exercising and executing of Martiall Law I prove out of the Petition of Right which was made in the third yeare of the present King and is printed in Pultons Collection of the Statutes at large fol. 1431 1432. * * And in the 1. 2. 3. pages before which expresly saith that by authority of Parliament in the 25. year of the Reign of King Edward the 3. it is declared and enacted That no man shall be forejudged of life or limb against the forme of the great Charter and the law of the land and by the said great Charter and other the lawes and Statutes of this Realme no man ought to be adiudged to death but by the law established in this Realm † † See the 9. H. 3. 29. 5. Ed. 3.9

25. Ed. 3.4 28. Ed. 3.3 And whereas no offender of what kind soever is exempted from the proceedings to be used and punishments to be inflicted by the lawes and Statutes of this your Realme Neverthelesse of late divers Commissions under your Maiesties great Seale have issued forth by which certaine persons have been assigned and appointed Commissioners with power and authority to proceed within the land according to the iustice of MARTIALL LAW against such Soldiers and Marriners or other diss●lute persons ioyning with them as should commit any MVRDER ROBBERIE FELONIE MVTINIE or OTHER outrage or misdemeanor whatsoever and by such summarie course and order as is agreeable to Martiall Law and as is used in Armies in time of Warre to proceed to the tryall and condemnation of such offendors and them to cause to be executed and put to death according to the Law Martial By pretixt wherof your Maiesties Subiects have bin by some of the said C●●mission put to death when and where if by the lawes and Statutes of the land they had deserved death by the same lawes and Statutes also they might and by no OTHER ought to have been been iudged and executed † † Yet it is very observable that at the very time when this Martiall Law complained of was executed the King had warres with France a forraign enemie but there is no such thing now and therefore the Army or the grand Officers thereof have not the least shadow or pretence to execute it in the least or to deale with me a free Commoner as they haue done And also sundry grievous offendors by colour thereof claiming an exemption have escaped the punishment 〈◊〉 to them by the lawes and Statutes of this your Realm by reason that divers of your Officers and Ministers of Justice have uniustly refused or forborn to proceed against such offenders according to the same laws and statutes upon 〈◊〉 that the said offendors were publi●able only by Martiall Law and by authority of such Commissioners as aforesaid Which Commissions AND ALL OTHER OF L●●E NATVRE are wholly and directly contrary to the fall lawes and Statutes of this your Realm Therefore Sin if you have any cat● of your own heads and lives though you have none of the Liberties and Freedomes of England I againe as a friend advise you to take heed what you doe unto me any further in your illegall arbitrary and tyrannicall way that hitherto you have proceeded with me● for I largely understand that Canterbury and Strafford were this Parliament questioned for their arbitrary and tyrannicall actions that they did and acted many years before and the Lord Keepers Finch was by this Parliament questioned for actions that he did when he was Speaker of the House of Commons in the third of the present King An. 1628. and forced to flie to save his head In the second place I answer that if since the warres ended it was or could be judged lawfull for your Excellencie and your Councell of Warre to execute Marshall Law yet you have divested your self of that power upon the 4. and 5. of June last at New market Heath you owned the Souldiers and joyned with them when they were put out of the States protection and declared enemies and further associated with them by a mutuall solemn ingagement as they were a Company of free Commoners of England to stand with them according to the Law of Nature and Nations * * See the late Plea for the Agents printed before pag. 42 43 44. to recover your own and all the peoples Rights and Liberties the words are these We the Officers and Soldiers of the Army subscribing hereunto doe hereby declare agree and promise to and with each other that we shall not willingly disband nor divide nor suffer our selves to be disbandad nor divided untill we have security that we as private men or other the free borne people of England shall not remain subiect to the like oppression iniury or abuse as have been attempted † † See the ingagement in the Armies book of Decl. pag. 24 25. 26 27. Hereby it appeares that from this time you and the Souldiery kept in a body and so were an Army not by the States or Parliaments will but by a mutuall Agreement amongst all the Soldiers and consequently not being an Armie by the Parliaments wills they were not under those rules of Martiall Government which were given by the will of the Parliament and your Excellency could no longer exercise any such power over them as was allowed you by those Martiall lawes nay the Soldiers keeping in a body and continuing an Army only by mutuall consent did by their mutuall Agreement or Ingagement constitute a new kind of Councell whereby they would be governed in their prosecution of those ends for which they associated and made every Officer incapable of being in that Councell which did not associate with them in that Ingagement The words of the Agreement or Ingagement are these we doe hereby declare agree and promise to and with each other that we shall not willingly disband nor divide nor suffer ourselves to be disbanded or divided without satisfaction in relation to our grievances and desires heretofore presented and securitie that we as private men or other the free-born people of England shall not remain subject to the like oppression and injury as hath been attempted and this satisfaction and security to be such as shall be agreed unto by a councell to consist of those generall Officers of the Army who have concurred with the Armie in the premises with two Commission Officers and TWO SOVLDIERS to be chosen for each Regiment who have concurred and shall concurre with us in the premises and in this Agreement So that your Excellency is so farre from having a power to exercise the old Martiall Discipline that you would have been no Officer or Member of the Councell appointed to governe them unlesse you had associated with them and by that Association or mutuall Ingagement the Soldiers were so far from allowing to their Generall who ever it should have been for at that time it was uncertaine the power of exercising the old Martiall D●scipline that according to the Ingagement no Officer or Soldier can be rightly cashiered unlesse it be by the Councell constituted by that Engagement so that your Excellency by your owne Engagement have put a period to your power of exercising your old Martiall Discipline and whatsoever D●scipline shall appeare to the Army to be necessary must be constituted by the mutuall consent of the Army or their representatives unlesse you and they will disclaim the Engagement at New market and those principles upon which you then stood * * And if you do what are you better then a company of Rebels Traytors to the Parliament for your then opposing their power authority orders and ordinances and yeeld up your selves to the Parliaments pleasure as their hirelings to serve their

their Diurnall Mercuries sufficiently blown and sounded over London to salve up their own reputations and credits which than was very much blasted and to preserve their own lottering greatnesse the tumbling down of which they were afraid of by the great Hatchers the Scoth strook at their roots with in their thundring discourse for the King and his answering of the lare 4. bills before they were sent him both of which were se●●●all demonstrations to high and mighty Cromwell and Ireton that the Scots would on this them and get away their late admired and do●● upon darling the King from them † For opposing whose interest till the peoples liberties were first setled they sought the ruine and destruction of all those in the Army that appeared against it and then spoil all their expected Court greatnesse in wearing a welsh Gue Gue the George and a blew ribbin with the title of at least Earl of Essex and Lievtenant or Generall Field Marshall of Ireland and so perceiving thereby that the interest of the Scots was likely to be joyned with that of the Kings and so Royallisme and Presbytery would shortly swallow up forceable and factious Independency especially if the interest of the honest Nown-Substantive Levellers as the King their Quandum good Lord in his message left at Humpton Court when they sent him to the Isse of Whight lately christned them as he had severall times done the Parliament in his severall Declarations published the beginning of these warrs should not be indeavoured to be united to them againe that so now in their necessity and straights they might once againe make close stooles of them to shit in and when they had done to throw them behind the doore as formerly they had as unfit to remaine in their sight till they needed them againe And therefore to kill two birds with one stone upon their fast they release the prisoners as the mind of God when without doubt they had resolved it before as the only expedient to reinbalm their justly lost reputation And secondly as the only meanes to reimpinloante them into the good thoughts of those men they and their late royall friends lately christned Levellers and to add strength unto the last the two chiefe of the Grandees Cromwell and Ireton came to the Parliament to heighten them in their votes against the King because he had forsaken his first love and would not be content with that price that they would give him to let them reign and rule under him the which if he would have taken no doubt but he might have com'd in to have joyntly with them oppressed and rid the people but because it may be the Scots feared if he came in by the Grandees of the Army they and hee might joyn together to chastise them for all their old former provocations given unto both and therfore out of meer safety it may be to themselves outbid the Grandees to gaine the Kings affection at which they are mad and therefore to preserve their own greatnesse and to gaine if it be possible the lost affections of the honest Nown-Substantive English men they flie high both against him and the Scots that so they may if possible induce them to joyne with them in a new war which is their interest and trade without giving or offering unto the people the least valuable consideration for all the blood they have already lost and are more amply like to loose upon the ingaging in a new warre yea or intending them any which for my part I doe abhorre † Which is clearely evident by both their pleading and plotting for the supportation of the Lords usurped Legislative power which J will maintaine it against Cramwell and Ireton they have no more right to instrict justice then a thiefe and robber hath to apurse which he takes by force upon the high way which pretended Legislative power alone hath brought all the warrs upon this Kingdom for if they at first had concurred to the Ordinance of the Militia the King could never have been able to have raised an Army and to continue an arbitrary power for life and also hereditarily to their heires be they fooles or knaves is the greatest vassalage and bondage that can be therefore I say again down with them and shall disward and hinder by all the interest I have in England not to undertake unlesse the antient hereditary just and native right of all Englishmen indiffinently be particularly and clearly holden out unto them and secured with strong and good security that so Englishmen as Englishmen may be united and then when that is done my heart blood I will venture against any interest in the world that shall fight against it For to fight as hitherto we have done to pull downe own sort of Tyrants to set up another as bad if not worse then the former I think is the greatest madnesse in the world Now having at present done with the Grandees of the Army there being so much truly declared of them in that most notable book called Putney Proiects the truth of which the brazed lacest of their Champions dare not with his pen deny no not forsworne Lievtenant Edmond Chillington himself their choice darling that it here saves 〈◊〉 a labour But before I come to touch upon the arbitrary tyrannicall proceedings of the present House of Lords I shall first insert another piece of injustice which should have come in before of the Iudges in Westminster Hall from whose grose and habituated injustice ariseth the principall miserie of this Nation from age to age who immediately before this Parliament gave away all the estates of all the free men of England at one judgement to the King for by the same right he by his wil could by his Ship-writs take six pence from us he may take all we have and by the same right he takes our estates he may take all our lives And if for that judgement they had all been hanged that had a hand in it as by the practice of this Kingdome in like or lesser cases Iudges hath been these that now survive them would have been wary so visibly to forsweare themselves by doing palpable iniustice as they doe For the fore mentioned learned Author Andrew Horne in his merror of justice pag. 238. devision 108. saith expresly That it is an abuse that Iustices and their Officers who kill people by their false iudgement be not destroyed as other murderers which King Alfred caused to be done who caused 44. Iustices in one year to be hanged as murderers for their false iudgements The case that I shall set down is Mr. Henry Moores my Quandum fellow prisoner in the Fleet and the most lamentable and deplorable unjust dealing of the Iudges with him you may briefly understand by his Petition which thus followeth To the Right Honourable the Lords and Commons assembled in both Houses of Parliament The Humble Petition of Henry Moore Merchant SHEWETH That whereas your Petitioner