Parliament by force and remove ill Counsellours from about him long before he put up his Royal Standard and the Generall then nam'd was to live and die with them and very observable it is how that Generalls Father was executed for a Traytor for but attempting such a thing upon Queen Elizabeth I mean to remove ill Counsellors from about her by force 'T is also to be observed that the same Army which was rais'd to bring him to his Parliament was continued to a clean contrary end two years afterwards to keep him from his Parliament 'T is fit it should be remembred who interdicted Trade first and brought in Forraigners to help them and whose Commissions of War were neere upon two moneths date before the Kings 'T is fit it should be remembred how His Majesty in all His Declarations and publick Instruments made alwaies deep Protestations that 't was not against his Parliament he raised Armes but against some seditious Members against whom he had onely desired the common benefit of the Law but could not obtain it 'T is fit to remember that after any good successes and advantages of his he still Courted both Parliament and City to an Accommodation how upon the Treaty at Uxbridge with much importunity for the generall advantage and comfort of his peeple and to prepare matters more fitly for a peace he desired there might be freedom of Trade from Town to Town and a Cessation of all Acts of Hostility for the time that the inflammation being allayed the wound might be curâ—…d the sooner all which was denyed him 'T is fit to remember how a Noble Lord The Earl of Southampton at that time told the Parliaments Commissioners in His Majesties Name at the most unhappy rupture of the said Treaty That when he was at the highest he would be ready to treat with them and fight them when he was at the lowest 'T is fit the present Army should remember how often both in their Proposalls and publick Declarations they have inform'd the world and deeply protested that their principall aime was to restore His Majesty to honour freedom and safety whereunto they were formerly bound both by their own Protestation and Covenant that the two Commanders in chief pawn'd unto him their soules thereupon Let them remember that since he was first snatch'd away to the custody of the Army by Cromwells plot who said that if they had the Person of the King in their power they had the Parliament in their pockets I say being kept by the Army He never displeas'd them in the least particular but in all his Overtures for Peace and in all his Propositions he had regard still that the Army should be satisfied let it be remembred that to settle a blessed Peace to preserve his Subjects from rapine and ruine and to give contentment to his Parliament He did in effect freely part with His Sword Scepter and Crown and ev'ry thing that was proprietary to him Let it be remembred with what an admired temper with what prudence and constancy with what moderation and mansuetude he comported himself since his deep afflictions insomuch that those Commissioners and others who resorted unto him and had had their hearts so averse unto him before return'd his Converts crying him up to be one of the sanctifiedst persons upon earth and will not the bloud of such a Prince cry loud for vengeance Bloud is a crying sin but that of Kings Cryes loudest for revenge and ruine brings Let it be remembred that though there be some Precedents of deposing Kings in his Kingdom and elsewhere when there was a competition for the right Title to the Crown by some other of the bloud Royall yet 't is a thing not onely unsampled but unheard of in any age that a King of England whose Title was without the least scruple should be summon'd and arraign'd tryed condemned and executed in His own Kingdom by His own Subjects and by the name of their own King to whom they had sworn Alleagiance The meanest Student that hath but tasted the Laws of the Land can tell you that it is an unquestionable fundamentall Maxime The King can do no wrong because he acts by the mediation of his Agents and Ministers he heares with other mens eares he sees with other mens eyes he consults with other mens braines he executes with other mens hands and judges with other mens consciences therefore his Officers Counsellors or favorites are punishable not He and I know not one yet whom he hath spar'd but sacrificed to Justice The Crown of England is of so coruscant and pure a mettall that it cannot receive the least taint or blemish and if there were any before in the person of the Prince it takes them all away and makes him to be Rectus in curia This as in many others may be exemplified in Henry the Seventh and the late Queen Elizabeth when she first came to the Crown 't was mention'd in Parlement that the attainder might be taken off him under which he lay all the time he liv'd an Exile in France it was then by the whole house of Parlement resolv'd upon the question that it was unnecessary because the Crown purg'd all So likewise when Queen Elizabeth was brought as it were from the Scaffold to the Throne though she was under a former attainder yet 't was thought superfluous to take it off for the Crown washeth away all spots and darteth such a brightnesse such resplendent beams of Majesty that quite dispell all former clouds so that put case King Iames died a violent death and his Son had been accessary to it which is as base a lie as ever the devil belch'd out yet his accesse to the Crown had purged all This businesse about the playster which was applyed to King Iames was sifted and winnow'd as narrowly as possibly a thing could be in former Parlements yet when it was exhibited as an Article against the Duke of Buckingham 't was term'd but a presumption or misdemeanure of a high nature And 't is strange that these new accusers shold make that a parricide in the King which was found but a presumption in the Duke who in case it had been so must needs have been the chiefest Accessary And as the ancient Crown and Royall Diadem of England is made of such pure allay and cast in so dainty a mould that it can receive no taint or contract the least speck of enormity and foulenesse in it self so it doth endow the person of the Prince that weares it with such high Prerogatives that it exempts him from all sorts of publique blemishes from all Attainders Empeachments Summons Arraignments and Tryalls nor is there or ever was any Law or Precedent in this Land to lay any Crime or capitall charge against him though touching civill matters touching propertie of meum and tuum he may be impleaded by the meanest vassall that hath sworn fealty to him as the Subjects of France and Spaine may against
subject The Parliament sends out clean countermands for executing the said Militia so by this clashing 'twixt the Commission of Array and the Militia the first flash of this odious unnaturall war may be said to break out The pulse of the Parliament beats yet higher they send an Admirall to the Sea the Earl of Warwick not only without but expresly against the Kings special command They had taken unto them a Military gard from the City for their protection without His Majesties consent who by the advice of the Lord Keeper and others had offered them a very strong gard of Constables and other Officers to attend them which the Law usually allows yet the raising of that gard in York-shire for the safegard of His Majesties person was interpreted to be leavying of war against the Parliament and so made a sufficient ground for them to raise an Army to appoint a Generall the Earl of Essex with whom they made publick Declarations to live and die And they assumed power to confer a new Appellation of honour upon him Excellency as if any could confer Honour but the King And this Army was to be maintain'd out of the mixt conâ—…ribution of all sorts of people so a great masse of money and plate was brought into the Guild hall the Semstresse brought in her silver Thimble the Chamber-maid her Bodkin the Cook his Spoons and the Vintner his Bowles and every one somthing to the advancement of so good a work as to wage war directly against the Sacred person of their Soverain and put the whole Countrey into a combustion Peregrin Surely it is impossible that a rationall Christian people shold grow so simple and sottish as to be so far transported without some colourable cause therfore I pray tell me what that might be Patricius The cause is made specious enough and varnished over wonderfull cunningly The people are made to believe they are in danger and a prevention of that danger is promised and by these plausible ways the understanding is wrought upon and an affection to the cause is usher'd in by aggravation of this danger as one wold draw a thred through a needles eye This huge Bugbear Danger was like a monster of many heads the two chiefest were these That ther was a plot to let in the Pope And to 〈◊〉 the civil Government into a French frame It is incredible to think how the Pulpits up and down London did ring of this by brainsick Lecturers of whom som were come from New-England others were pick'd out of purpose and sent for from their own flock in the Countrey to possesse or rather to poison the hearts of the Londoners to puzzle their intellectualls and to intoxicat their brains by their powerfull gifts It was punishable to preach of Peace or of Caesars Right but the common subject of the pulpit was either blasphemy against God disobedience against the King or incitements to sedition Good Lord what windy frothy stuff came from these fanatick brains These Phrenetici Nebulones for King Iames gives them no better Character in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who may be said to be mad out of too much ignorance not knowledg who neverthelesse are come to that height of prophaness and pride that they presume to father all their doctrines all their non-sense raptures and ravings upon the holy Spirit Nor did the Pulpit only help to kindle this fire but the Presse also did contribute much stubble What base scurrilous Pamphlets were cryed up and down the streets and dispersed in the 〈◊〉 What palpable and horrid lies were daily printed How they multiplied in every corner in such plenty that one might say tâ—…er was a superfaetation of lies which continue unto this day One while the King of Denmark was comming over from the Sound Another while the King of France had a huge Army about Calais design'd for England Another while ther was an Army of Irish Rebels comming over with the privity of the King Another while a plot was cryed up and down to burn London Another while ther were subterranean invisible troups at Ragland Castle mustered under ground in Wales and thousands of Papists armed in Lancashire and divers reports of this nature were daily blown up and though the Authors of them were worthlesse and mean futilous persons yet the reports themselves had that credit as to be entertain'd and canvas'd in the High Court of Parliament But these false rumors produc'd one politick effect and it was the end indeed for which they were dispers'd they did intimidat and fill the peoples hearts with fears and dispose of them to up roars and so to part with money Peregrin I know ther be sundry sorts of Fears ther are Conscientious Fears and ther are â—…annick Fears ther are Pusillanimous Fears and ther are Politick Fears The first sort of Fear proceeds from guilt of Conscience which turns often to Phreâ—…cy The second sort of Fear may be call'd a kind of Chymera 't is som sudden surprizall or Consternation arising from an unknown cause Pusillanimous Fear makes a mountain of a mole-hill and proceeds from poverty of spirit and want of courage and is a passion of abject and degenerous minds and may be call'd Cowardise and this Fear is always accompanied with jealousie Politick fear is a created forg'd Fear wrought in another to bring som design about And as we find the Astronomers the comparison is too good do imagin such and such shapes and circles in the Heavens as the Zodiak Equinoctiall Colures Zones and Topiques with others though ther be no such things really in nature to make their conclusions good So the Polititian doth often devise and invent false imaginary Fears to make his proceedings more plausible amongst the silly vulgar and therby to compasse his ends And as the Sun useth to appear far bigger to us in the morning then at noon when he is exalted to his Meridian and the reason the Philosophers use to give is the interposition of the vapours which are commonly in the lower Region through which we look upon him as we find a piece of silver look bigger in a bucket of water then elsewhere so the Polititian uses to cast strange mists of Fear and fogs of jealousie before the simple peoples eyes to make the danger seem bigger But truly Sir this is one of the basest kinds of policy nor can I believe ther be any such Polititians amongst the Cabalists of your Parliament who pretend to be so busie about Gods work a Glorious Reformation for you know ther is a good Text for it that God needeth not the wicked man he abominats to be beholding to liers to bring about his purposes But I pray Sir deal freely with me do you imamagin ther was a design to bring in the Massâ—… again Patricius The Masse You may say ther was a plot to bring in Mahomet as soon to bring in the Alchoran or Talmud as soon For I dare pawn my soul the King is as
three things which are inalienable from the Person of the King They are 1. The Crowne 2. The Scepter 3. The Sword The one He is to carry on His Head the other in His Hand and the third at His Side and they may be termed all three the ensignes or peculiar instruments of a King by the first He Reignes by the second He makes Lawes by the third He Defends them and the two first are but bables without the last as was formerly spoken 1. Touching the Crown or royal Diadem of England ther is none whether Presbyterian Independent Protestant or others now in action but confess that it descends by a right hereditary Line though through divers Races and som of them Conquerours upon the Head of Charles the first now Regnant 't is His own by inherent birth-right and nature by Gods Law and the Law of the Land and these Parliament-men at their first sitting did agnize subjection unto Him accordingly and recognize Him for their Soveraign Liege Lord Nay the Roman Catholick denies not this for though there were Bulls sent to dispense with the English Subjects for their allegiance to Queen Elizabeth yet the Pope did this against Her as he took Her for a Heretick not an Usurpresse though he knew well enough that She had bin declared Illegitimate by the Act of an English Parliament This Imperial Crown of England is adorned and deckd with many fair Flowers which are called royal Prerogatives and they are of such a transcendent nature that they are unforfeitable individual and untransferrable to any other The King can only summon and dissolve Parliaments The King can only Pardon for when He is Crowned He is sworn to rule in Mercy as well as in Justice The King can only Coyn Money and enhance or decry the value of it The power of electing Officers of State of Justices of Peace and Assize is in the King He can only grant soveraign Commissions The King can only wage War and make Out-landish Leagues The King may make all the Courts of Justice ambulatory with His Person as they were used of old 't is tru the Court of Common Pleas must be sedentary in som certain place for such a time but that expired 't is removeable at His pleasure The King can only employ Ambassadours and Treat with forraign States c. These with other royal Prerogatives which I shall touch hereafter are those rare and wholsom flowers wherewith the Crown of England is embellished nor can they stick any where else but in the Crown and all confess the Crown is as much the King 's as any private man's Cap is his own 2. The second regall Instrument is the Scepter which may be called an inseparable companion or a necessary appendix to the Crown this invests the King with the sole Authority of making Lawes for before His confirmation all results and determinations of Parliament are but Bills or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are but abortive things and meer Embryos nay they have no life at all in them till the King puts breath and vigour into them and the ancient custome was for the King to touch them with His Scepter then they are Lawes and have a vertue in them to impose an obligation of universall obedience upon all sorts of people It being an undeniable maxime That nothing can be generally binding without the King 's royall assent nor doth the Law of England take notice of any thing without it This being done they are ever after styl'd the Kings Lawes and the Judges are said to deliver the King's judgments which agrees with the holy text The King by judgment shall stablish the Land nay the Law presumes the King to be alwaies the sole Judge Paramount and Lord chief Justice of England for he whom He pleaseth to depute for His chiefest Justice is but styl'd Lord chief Iustice of the Rings â—…ench not Lord chief Justice of England which title is peculiar to the King Himself and observable it is that whereas He grants Commissions and Patents to the Lord Chancellour who is no other then Keeper of His Conscience and to all other Judges He names the Chief Justice of his own Bench by a short Writ only containing two or three lines which run thus Regina Iohanni Popham militi salutem Sciatis quod constitutmus vos justiciarium nostrum Capitalem ad placita coram nobis terminandum durante beneplacito nostro Teste c. Now though the King be liable to the Laws and is contented to be within their verge because they are chiefly His own productions yet He is still their Protector Moderator and Soveraigne which attributes are incommunicable to any other conjunctly or separately Thus the King with His Scepter and by the mature advice of His two Houses of Parl. which are His highest Councel and Court hath the sole power of making Laws other Courts of judicature doe but expound them and distribute them by His appointment they have but Iuris dati dictionem or declarationem and herein I meane for the Exposition of the Lawes the twelve Iudges are to be believed before the whole Kingdom besides They are as the Areopagites in Athens the chief Presidents in France and Spaine in an extraordinary Iunta as the Cape-Syndiques in the Rota's of Rome and the Republique of Venice whose judgments in point of interpreting Lawes are incontroulable and preferred before the opinion of the whole Senate whence they received their being and who hath still power to repeal them though not to expound them In France they have a Law maxime Arrest donné en Rebbe rouge est irrevocable which is a Scarlet Sentence is irrevocable meaning when all the Judges are met in their Robes and the Client against whom the Cause goes may chafe and chomp upon the bit and say what he will for the space of twenty foure howers against his Judges but if ever after he traduces them he is punishable It is no otherwise here where every ignorant peevish Client every puny Barister specially if he become a Member of the House will be ready to arraign and vie knowledge with all the reverend Judges in the Land whose judgement in points of Law shold be onely tripodicall and sterling so that he may be truly call'd a just King and to rule according to Law who rules according to the opinion of his Judges therefore under favour I do not see how his Majesty for his part could be call'd injust when he leavied the Ship-money considering he had the Judges for it I now take the Sword in hand which is the third Instrument of a King and which this short discours chiefly points at it is as well as the two first incommunicable and inalienable from his Person nothing concernes his honor more both at home and abroad the Crown and the Scepter are but unweildy and impotent naked indefensible things without it There 's none so simple as to think there 's meant hereby an ordinary single sword
Divers Historicall DISCOURSES Of the late Popular INSURRECTIONS In Great BRITAIN And IRELAND Tending all to the asserting of Truth in Vindication of their MAJESTIES By Iames Howell Esquire Som of which Discourses were strangled in the Presse by the Power which Then SWAYED But now are newly retreev'd collected and Publish'd by Richard Royston The first TOME LONDON Printed by I. Grismond 1661. Belua multorum capitâ—…m Plebs vana vocatur Plus satis Hoc Angli â—…uper docuere Popelli 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I H The People is a Beast which Heads hath many England of late hath shew'd This more then any TO HIS MAJESTY SIR THese Historical Discourses set forth in such variety of dresses having given so much satisfaction to the world for the asserting of Truth in Vindication of Your Royal Father of ever blessed Memory and som of them relating also to Your Majesty I humbly conceiv'd might be proper for Your Majesties perusal Patronage Concerning the Author therof his name needed not to have bin prefix'd He being so universally well known and distinguishd from other Writers both at home and abroad by his stile which made one of the Highest Wits of these Times say of Him Author hic ex Genio notus ut Ungue Leo. God Almighty blesse Your Majesty with a continuance of Happiness and daily encrease of Glory so prayeth Your Majesties most loyal and humble Subject ROYSTON A Catalog of the severall Peeces that are here contain'd I. A Dialog twixt Patricius and Peregrin presently after Kintonfield Battaile which was the first Book that came forth for Vindication of His Majesty II. The second part of that Discours III. A seasonable Advice sent to Philip late Earl of Pembrock to mind him of the severall solemn Oaths wherby he was bound to adhere to the King IV. A Manifesto sent in His Majesties name to the Reformed Churches and Princes beyond the Seas touching His Religion V. Apologs and Emblemes in whose Moralls the Times are represented VI. Of the land of Ire or a Discours of that horrid Insurrection in Ireland discovering the tru Causes therof VII The Sway of the Sword or a Disurs of the Common Militia or Soldiery of the Land proving That the Command therof in chief belongs to the Ruling Prince VIII An Italian Prospective through which England may discern the desperat condition she stands in IX A Nocturnall Progresse or perambulation of most Countries in Christendom X. A Vindication of His Majesty touching a Letter He writ to Rome from Madrid in Answer to a Letter which Pope Gregory the 15th had sent Him upon passing the Dispensation for concluding the Match XI Of the Trety of the I le of Wight and the Death of His Majesty XII Advise from the prime Statesmen of Florence how England shold come to Her self again which can be by no other means under Heaven but by calling in the King and that in a free confident way without Articles but what He shall be pleas'd to offer Himself THE TRU Informer WHO DISCOVERS To the World the first grounds Of this ugly REBELLION And Popular TUMULTS In England Scotland and Ireland Deducing the Causes therof in an Historicall Discours from their Originall Neutrum modò Mas modò Vulgus Written in the Prison of the Fleet Anno 1642. CASUALL DISCOURSES AND Interlocutions BETWIXT Patricius and Peregrin Touching the Distractions of the Times VVith the Causes of them Patricius SUrely I shold know full well that face and phisnomy O Heavens 't is Peregrin Gentle Sir you are well met and welcom to England I am heartily glad of your safe arrivall hoping now to apprehend some happie opportunity whereby I may requite part of those worthy favours I received from you in divers places t'other side side of the Sea Peregrin Sir I am as joyfull to see you as any friend I have upon earth but touching favours they deserve not such an acknowledgment I must confesse my self to be farr in the arrear therfore you teach me what I shold speak to you in that point But amongst other offices of Friendship you have bin pleased to do me from time to time I give you many thanks for the faithfull correspondence you have held withme since the time of our separation by intercours of Letters the best sort of fuell to warm affection and to keep life in that noble vertue Friendship which they say abroad is in danger to perish under this cold Insulary clime for want of practise Patricius Truely Sir you shold have had an account of matters hence more amply and frequently but that of late it hath bin usuall and allowed by authority to intercept and break open any Letters but private men need not complain so much since the dispatches of Ambassadors whose Pâ—…ckets shold be held as sacred as their Persons hâ—…ve bin commonly open'd besides some outrages offered their houses and servants nay since their Majâ—…sties Letters under the Cabinet Signet have bin broke up and other counterfeit ones printed and published in their names Peregrin Indeed I must confesse the report hereof hath kept a great noise abroad and England hath suffered much in point of national repute in this particular for even among Barbarians it is held a kind of sacriledge to open Letters nay it is held a baser kind of burglary then to break into a House Chamber or Closet for that is a plundering of outward things onely but he who breaks open ones Letters which are the Idea's of the mind may be said to rip up his brest to plunder and rifle his very brain and rob him of his most pretious and secretest thoughts Patricius Well let us leave this distastfull subject when these fatall commotions cease this custom I hope will be abhorred in England But now that you are newly arrived and so happily met I pray be pleased tâ—… make me partaker of some forraign news and how the squares go betwixt France and Spain those two great wheels that draw after their motion some more some lesse all the rest of the Western world and when you have done I will give you account of the state of things in England Peregrin I thought you had so abounded with domestick news that you had had no list or leisure to hear any forrain but to obey your commands you know that I have been any time these six years a Land-loper up and down the world and truly I could not set foot on any Chrâ—…stian shore that was in a perfect condition of peace but it was engagâ—…d either in a direct 〈◊〉 or collaterall war or standing upon it's guard in continuall apprensions and alarmes of fear For since that last flaming Usher of Gods vengeance that direful Comet of the yeer 1618. appear'd in the heavens some malevolent and angâ—…y ill-aspected star hath had the predominance ever since and by it's maligne influxes made strange unusuall impressions upon the humors of subjects by inciâ—…ing them to such insurrections revolts and tumults which caused a
bloud in open field one brother seeks to cut the others throat they have put division 'twixt master and servant 'twixt Land Lord and Tenant nay they have a long time put a sea of separation 'twixt King and Queen and they labour more and more to put division 'twixt the Head and the Members 'twixt His Majesty and his politicall Spouse his Kingdom And lastly they have plung'd one of the flourishingst Kingdoms of Europe in a war without end for though a Peace may be plaister'd over for the time I fear it will be but like a fire cover'd with ashes which will break out again as long as these fiery Schismaticks have any strength in this Island so that all the premisses considered if Turk or Tartar or all the infernal spirits and Cacodaemons of hel had broken in amongst us they could not have done poor England more mischief Sir I pray you excuse this homely imperfect relation I have a thousand things more to impart unto you when we may breathe freer air for here we are come to that slavery that one is in danger to have his very thoughts plundered Therfore if you please to accept of my company I will over with you by Gods help so soon as it may stand with your conveniency but you must not discover me to be an Englishman abroad for so I may be jeer'd at and kickt in the streets I will go under another name and am fix'd in this resolution never to breathe English aire again untill the King recovers his Crown and the People the right use of their Pericraniums THE SECOND PART OF A DISCOURSE ' TWIXT PATRICIUS AND PEREGRIN TOUCHING The DISTEMPERS OF THE TIMES LONDON Printed in the Year 1661. A DISCOURS or PARLY Continued betwixt Patricius and Peregrin Upon their landing in France touching the civil Wars of England and Ireland Peregrin GEntle Sir you are happily arrived on this shore we are now upon firm ground upon the fair Continent of France we are not circumscrib'd or coopt up within the narrow bounds of a rhumatick Island we have all Europe before us Truly I am not a little glad to have shaken hands with that tumbling Element the Sea And for England I never intend to see her again in the mind I am in unlesse it be in a Map nay In statu quo nunc while this Faction reigns had I left one eye behind me I should hardly returne thither to fetch it therefore if I be missing at any time never look for me there There is an old Proverb From a blacke German a white Italian a red Frenchman I may adde one member more and from a Round-headed Englishman The Lord deliver us I have often Crossed these Seas and I found my self alwaies pitifully sick I did ever and anon tell what Wood the Ship was made of but in this passage I did not feele the least motion or distemper in my humors for indeed I had no time to taink on sicknesse I was so wholly tsken up and transported with such a pleasing conceit to have left yonder miserable Island Peregrin Miserable Island indeed for I thinke there was never such a tyrannie exercised in any Christian Countrey under Heaven a tyrannie that extends not onely to the body but to the braine also not only to mens fortunes and estates but it reaches to their very soules and consciences by violented new coercive Oaths and Protestations compos'd by Lay-men inconsistent with the liberty of Christians Never was there a Nation carried away by such a strong spirit of delusion never was there a poor people so purblinded and Puppified if I may say so as I finde them to be so that I am at a stand with my selfe whether I shall pitie them more or laugh at them They not onely kisse the stone that hurts them but the hands of them that hurle it they are come to that passive stupidity that they adore their very persecutors who from polling fall now a shaving them and will flay them at last if they continue this popular reigne I cannot compare England as the case stands with her more properly then to a poor beast sicke of the staggers who cannot be cur'd without an incision The Astronomers I remember affirme that the Moone which predominates over all humid bodies hath a more powerfull influence o're your British Seas then any other so that according to the observation of some Nevigators they swell at a spring tide in some places above threescore cubits high I am of opinion that that inconstant humorous Planet hath also an extraordinany dominion over the braines of the Inhabitants for when they attempt any Innovation whereunto all Insulary people are more subject then other Citizens of the world which are fixed upon the Continent they swell higher their fancies worke stronglier and so commit stranger extravagancies then any other witnesse these monstrous barbarismes and violencies which have bin and are daily offered to Religion and justâ—…ce the two grand supporters of all States yea to humane Reason it self since the beginning of these tumults And now noble Sir give me leave to render you my humble thanks for that true and solid information you pleased to give me in London of these commotions During my short sojourne there I lighted on divers odde Pamphlets upon the Seamstresses stalls whom I wondred to see selling Paper sheets in lieu of Holland on the one side I found the most impudent untruths vouch'd by publike authority the basest scurrilities and poorest jingles of wit that ever I read in my life on the other side I met with many pieces that had good stuff in them but gave mee not being a stranger a full satisfaction they look'd no further then the beginning of this Parliament and the particular emergences thereof but you have by your methodicall relation so perfectly instructed and rectified my understanding by bringing me to the very source of these distempers and led me all along the side of the current by so streight a line that I believe whosoever will venture upon the most intricate task of penning the story of these vertiginous times will finde himself not a little beholden to that Relation which indeed may be term'd a short Chronicle rather then a Relation Wee are come now under another clime and here we may mingle words and vent our conceptions more securely it being as matters stand in your Countrey more safe to speake under the Lilly then the Rose wee may here take in and put out freer ayre I meane we may discourse with more liberty for words are nought els but aire articulated and coagulated as it were into letters and syllables Patricius Sir I deserve not these high expressions of your favourable censure touching that poor piece but this I will be bold to say That whosoever doth read it impartially will discover in the Author the Genius of an honest Patriot and a Gentleman And now methinks I look on you unfortunate Island as if one look upon a
as Prince For the Parlement-men afterwards made themselfs Land-Lords of the whole Kingdom it hath bin usual for them to thrust any out of his freehold to take his bed from under him and his shirt from off his very back The King being kept thus out of one of his Townes might suspect that he might be driven out of another therfore 't was time for him to look to the preservation of his Person and the Country came in voluntarily unto him by thousands to that purpose but he made choice of a few only to be his gard as the Parlementeers had done a good while before for themselfs But now they went otherwise to work for they fell a levying listing and arming men by whole Regiments and Brigades till they had a very considerable Army afoot before the King had one Musqueteer or Trooper on his side yet these men are so notoriously impudent as to make the King the first Aggressor of the war and to lay upon Him all the bloud that was split to this day wherein the Devil himself cannot be more shamelesse The Parliamenteers having an army of foot and horse thus in perfect Equipage 't was high time for the King to look to himself therefore he was forced to display his royal Standard and draw his sword quite out Thus a cruel and most cruentous civil war began which lasted near upon four years without intermission wherein there happen'd more batta les sieges and skirmishes then passed in the Nether-lands in fourscore years and herein the Englishmen may be said to get som credit abroad in the world that they have the same bloud running in their veines though not the same braines in their sculls which their Ancestors had who were observed to be the activest people in the field impatient of delay and most desirous of battaile then any Nation But it was one of the greatest miracles that ever happen'd in this Land how the King was able to subsist so long against the Parlamenteers considering the multiplicity of infinite advantages they had of him by water and land for they had the Scot the Sea and the City on their side touching the first he rushed in as an Auxiliary with above 20000. Horse and Foot compleatly furnish d both with small and great ammunition and Arms well cloth'd and money'd For the second they had all the Kings ships well appointed which are held to be the greatest security of the Island both for defence and offence for every one of them is accounted one of the moving Castles of the Kingdom besides they had all the other standing stone-Castles Forts and tenable places to boot Concerning the last viz. the City therein they had all the wealth bravery and prime ammunition of England this being the only Magazin of men and money Now if the K. had had but one of these on his side he had in all probability crush'd them to nothing yet did he bear up strangely against them a long time and might have done longer had he kept the campane and not spent the spirits of his men before Townes had he not made a disadvantagious election of som Commanders in chief and lastly had he not had close Traitors within dores as well as open Rebels without for his very Cabinet Councel and Bed-Chamber were not free of such vermin and herein the Parlementeers spent unknown sums and were very prodigal of the Kingdoms money The King after many traverses of war being reduced to a great strait by crosse successes and Counsels rather then to fall into the hands of the Parlementeers withdrew himself in a Serving-mans disguise to the Scots army as his last randevous and this plot was manag'd by the French Agent then residing here A man wold think that that Nation wold have deem'd it an eternal honour unto them to have their own King and Countrey-man throw himself thus into their armes and to repose such a singular trust in them upon such an Extremity but they corresponded not so well with him as he expected for though at first when the Parlamenteers sollicited their dear Brethren for a delivery of the Kings person unto them their note was then if any forein petty Prince had so put himself upon them they could not with honour deliver him much less their own native King yet they made a sacrifice of him at last for 800000. Crownes wherupon Bellieure the French Ambassador being convoyed by a Troop of horse from the King towards London to such a stand in lieu of larges to the souldiers he drew out an half Crown piece and ask'd them how many pence that was they answered 30. He replyed for so much did Iudas betray his Master and so he departed And now that in the cours of this Historical Narration I have touch'd upon France your Eminence may please to understand that nothing almost could tend more to the advantage of that K. then these commotions in England considering that he was embark'd in an actuall war with the House of Austria and that this Iland did do Spain some good offices among other by transport of his treasure to Dunkerk in English bottomes whereunto this King gave way and sometimes in his own Galeons which sav'd the Spaniard neer upon 20. in the hundred then if he had sent it by way of Genoa so that som think though France made semblance to resent the sad condition of her Neighbour and thereupon sent the Prince of Harcour and the foresaid Monsieur Bellieure to compose matters yet she never really intended it as being against her present interest and engagements yet the world thinks it much that she shold publiquely receive an Agent from these Parlamenteeres and that the French Nobility who were us'd to be the gallantest men in the world to vindicate the quarrels of distressed Ladies are not more sensible of the outrages that have bin offer'd a daughter of France specially of Henry the greats But to resume the threed of my Narration the King and with him one may say England also being thus bought and sold the Parlamenteers insteed of bringing him to Westminster which had put a Period to all distempers toss'd him up and downe to private houses and kept the former Army still afoot And truly I think there was never Prince so abus'd or poor peeple so baffled and no peeple but a purblind besotted peeple wold have suffred themselves to be so baffled for notwithstanding that no Enemy appeer'd in any corner of the Kingdome yet above 20000. Tagaroones have bin kept together ever since to grind the faces of the poor and exhaust the very vitall spirits of town and Countrey and keep them all in a perfect slavery Had the Parlament-men when the Scots were gone brought their King in a generous and frank way as had well becom'd Englishmen to sit among them and trusted to him which of necessity they must do at last as they had gain d more honor far in the world abroad so they had gain'd more
their Kings though never so absolute Monarchs In the Constitutions of England there are two incontroulable Maximes whereof the meanest mootman that hath but saluted Littleton cannot be ignorant the first is Rex in suis Dominiis neque habet parem nec superiorem The King in his own Dominions hath neither Peer or Superior The other is Satis habet Rex ad poenam quod Deum expectet ultorem 't is punishment enough for a King that God will take revenge of him Therefore if it be the Fundamentall Constitution of the Land that all just Tryalls must be by Teers and that the Law proclaimes the King to have no peer in his own Dominions I leave the world to judg what capacity or power those men had to arraign their late King to be in effect his Accusers and Iudges and that an exorbitant unsampled Tribunall should be erected with power and purpose to condemn All to cleer none and that sentence of death should passe without conviction or Law upon Him that was the heard and protector of all the Lawes Lastly that They who by their own confession represent but the Common people should assume power to cut off Him who immediately represented God Cui dabit partes scelus expiandi Iupiter Well we have seen such portentous things that former Ages never beheld nor will future Ages ever be witnesse of the like Nay posterity after a Century or two of yeers will hold what is now really acted to be but Romances And now with thoughts full of consternation and horror And a heart trembling with amazement and sorrow for the crying flagrant sins of this forlorn Nation specially for that fresh Infandous murther committed upon the sacred Person of his Majesty I conclude with this Hepastick wherein all cretures though irrationall that have sence yea the very vegetalls seeme to abhor so damnable a fact So fell the Royal Oake by a wild crew Of mongrel shrubs which underneath Him grew So fell the Lion by a pack of Currs So the Rose witherd 'twixt a knot of Burrs So fell the Eagle by a swarme of Gnatts So the Whale perish'd by a Shoale of Spratts In the prison of the Fleet 25. Febr. 1648. I. H. ADVICE Sent from the prime Statesmen OF FLORENCE HOW ENGLAND may come to HERSELF again Which is To call in the KING Not upon ARTICLES But in a Free confident way Which Advice came immediatly upon the Readmission of the Secluded Members And Coppies therof being delivered to the Chiefest of Them It produc'd happy Effects A Letter sent from the City of Florence Written by a Great Counsellor there touching the present Distempers of England wherein He with som of the Prime Statesmen in Florence passe their Iudgements which is the onely way to compose the said Distempers To my Honored and most Endeared Patron IT is no small diminution to my former happinesse that I have not receiv'd your commands any time these two moneths which makes me lodg within me certain apprehensions of fear that som disasteâ—… might befall you in those new Distractions therefore I pray be pleased to pull this thorn out of my thoughts as speedily as it may stand with your conveniency We are not here so barren of Intelligence but we have weekly advice of your present Confusions and truly the severest sort of speculative persons here who use to observe the method of Providence do not stick to say that the hand of Heaven doth visibly stirre therein and that those Distractions in Army State and City are apparent judgements from above for if one revolve the Stories of former Times as I have done many but you more he will find that it hath been alwaies an inevitable Fate which useth to hang over all popular Insurrections to end in confusion and disorders among the chief actors themselfs at last And we have had divers examples thereof here among us which hath caus'd us to be so long in quietnesse and peace But truly Sir give me leave to tell you that your Nation hath lost much of their Repute abroad all the World over in statu quo nunc Som do laugh at you Others do scorn and hate you And som do pitty and comiserat you They who laugh at you think you are no better than Mand men having strange Magots in your brains bred out of the fat of so long wanton plenty and peace They who scorn and hate you do it for your Sacriledge your horrendous Sacrileges the like whereof was never committed on Earth since Christianity had first a hole to put her head in They who pitty you are few and We are of the nomber of Them as well in the common sense of Humanity as for the advantages and improvement of Wealth which this State hath receiv'd by your Trading at Ligorne for that Town doth acknowledge her prosperity and that she is arrived to this flourishing Estate of Riches of Buildings and bravery by the correspondence she hath had this latter Age with England in point of Commerce which yet we find doth insensibly impair every day and I believe you feel it more Therefore out of the well-wishes and true affections we bear unto England some of the most serious and soberest Persons of this place who are well seasoned in the World and have studyed men under divers Climes and conversed also much with Heavenly Bodies had lately a private Junto or meeting whereunto I was admitted for one and two of us had been in England where we received sundry free Civilities Our main businesse was to discourse and descant upon these sad confusions and calamitous condition wherein England with the adjoyning Kingdomes are at present involved and what might extricate Her out of this Labyrinth of Distractions and reduce Her to a setled Government Having long canvased the businesse and banded arguments pro con with much earnestnesse all our opinious did concenter at last in this point That there was no probable way under Heaven to settle a fast and firm Government among you then for the Men that are now upon the Stage of power to make a speedy application to their own King their own Liege Lord and Soveraigne whom God and Nature hath put over them Letâ—… them beat their brains scrue up their witts and put all the policy they have upon the tenterhooks as farre as possibly they can yet they will never be able to establish a durable standing Government otherwise They do but dance in a circle all this while for the Government will turn at last to the same point it was before viz. to Monarchy and this King will be restored to His Royall Inheritances maugre all the Cacodaemons of Hell Our Astrologers here specially the famous Antonio Fiselli hath had notes to look into the horoscope of his Nativity and what predictions he hath made hitherto of him have proved true to my knowledge He now confidently averrs with the concurrence of the rest that the aspect of all the starrs and conjunction of