he had the worst of the day and had much ado to save his Canon and march off orderly from the place followed so hotly the next morning that his own Horse which were in the Reere were fain to make their way over a great part of his Foot to preserve themselves Being returned to Oxford with Successe and Honour he Summons the Lords and Commons of Parliament to attend there on the twenty second day of January then next following and they came accordingly And for their better welcome he advances Prince Rupert to the Titles of Earl of Holdernes and Duke of Cumberland and creates James his second Son born the Thirteenth day of October Anno 1633 Duke of York by which name he had been appointed to be called at the time of his Birth that they might sit and vote amongst them But being come they neither would take upon themselves the name of a Parliament nor acted much in order to his Majesties designs but stood so much upon their terms and made so many unhandsome motions to him upon all occasions that he had more reason to call them a Morgrel Parliament in one of his Letters to the Queen then they were willing to allow of 1644. And now the Summer coming on and the time fit for Action he dismisses them to their severall dwellings and betakes himself unto the Field The frequent traverses whereof the interchangeable taking and losing of Towns by the chance of war are too many in number to be comprised in this short Abstract It must suffice if I take notice of those onely which are most considerable His Majesty prevaling in the North and West 'T was thought fit by the ruling party in the Houses of Parliament to crave aid of the Scots whom they drew in the second time by the temptations of entring into Covenant with them for conforming of this Church with that sharing amongst them all the Lands of the Bishops and sacrificing to their malice the Archbishop of Canterbury as formerly they had done the Earl of Strafford But besides these plausible allurements the Commissioners of that Kingdome were to have so great a stroke in the Government of this that the Houses could act nothing in order to the present war no not so much as to hold a Treaty with the King without their consent Upon these baits they entred England with a puissant Army consisting of one and twenty thousand men well armed and fitted for the service and having made themselves Masters of Barwick Alnwick and all other places of importance on the other side of the Tweed they laid Siege to York where they were seconded by the Army of the Earl of Manchester drawn out of the associated Counties and the remaining York-shire forces under the Command of the Lord Fairfax The news whereof being brought to Oxford Prince Rupert is dispatcht with as much of the Kings forces as could well be spared with a Commission to â—aise more out of the Counties of Cheâ—ter Salop Stafford Darby Leicester and Lancaster So that he came before York with an Army of twelve thousand Men relieved the Town with all things necessary and might have gone away unfought with but that such Counsell was too cold for so hot a stomach Resolved upon the onset he encountred with the enemy at a place called Marston-Moor where the left Wing of his Horâ—e gave such a fierce Charge on the right Wing of the enemy consisting of Sir Thomas Fairfax his Horse in the Van and the Scots Horse in the Reere that they fell foul on that part of their own Foot which was made up of the Lord Fairfax his Regiments and a reserve of the Scots which they brake wholly and trod most of them under their Horses feet But the Princes Horse following the execution too far and none advancing to make good the place which they had left the enemy had the opportunity to rally again and got the better of the day taking some Prisoners of good note and making themselves masters of his Canon So that not being able to do any thing in order to the regaining of the Field he marched off ingloriously squandred away the greatest part of his Army and retired to Bristol After this blow the Affairs of the North growing more desperate every day then other York yielded upon composition on the sixteenth of July being a just fortnight after the fight the Marquesse of Newcastle and some principall Gentlemen past over the Seas and the strong Town of Newcastle was taken by the Scots on the nineteenth of October following In the mean time the Queen being with child began to draw neer the time of her Delivery And it was generally believed that the Earl of Essex with his Forces had some aim on Oxford as the Seat Royall of the King the Residence of his Court and Council and the Sanctuary of a considerable part of the Nobility Gentry and Clergy In which respect it was thought fit that the Queen should remove to Exceter as a place more remote from danger and not far from the Sea by which she might take shipping for France as occasion served On the sixteenth of April she began her journey the King bearing her company as far as Abingdon where they took leave of one another neither of them having any the least presage that the parting Kisse which they then took was to be their last Convoi'd with a sufficient strength of Horse for her security on the way she was received there with as much magnificence as that City was able to expresse and on the sixteenth day of June was safely delivered of a Daughter whom she Christened by the name of Henrietta Assoon as she had well passed over the weaknesses and infirmities incident to Child-bed she committed the young Princesse to the Lady Dalkeith a Daughter of Sir Edward Villiers one of the half Brothers of the Duke of Buckingham and wife unto the Lord Dalkeith the eldest Son of the Earl of Morton Which having done according to some instructions which she had received from the King she took shipping at Pendennis Castle on the fifteenth of July and passed into France there to negotiate for some supplies of money Armes and Ammunition for the advance of his Majesties service and to continue howsoever in the Court of the King her Brother till she might return again in Honour and safety And to say truth her Removall from Oxford was not onely seasonable but exceeding necessary at that time the Earl of Essex and Sir William Wâ—ller with their severall Forces not long after her departure drawing neer to Oxford on whose approach his Majesty leaving the greatest part of his Army for defence of that place marched on directly towards Wales Upon the News whereof it was thought fit by the two Generalls to divide their Armies it being agreed upon that Sir William Waller should pursue the King and that the Earl of Essex should march toward the West for the regaining of those Countries And now
the mystery of iniquity appeared in its proper colours For whereas it was formerly given out by the Houses of Parliament that they had undertaken the war for no other reason but to remove the King from his evill Counsellours those evil Counsellours were left at Oxford unmolested and the Kings Person onely hunted But the King understanding of this division thought himself able enough to deal with Waller and giving him the go by returned towards Oxford drew thence the remainder of his Army and gave him a sharp meeting at a place called Cropredy bridge where he obtained a signal victory on the twenty eighth of June and entred triumphantly into Oxford This done he marched after the Earl of Essex who had made himself master of some places in the West of good importance During this march it happened that one of the Carriages brake in a long narrow lane which they were to passe and gave His Majesty a stop at a time of an intollerable shower of rain which fell upon him Some of his Courtiers and others which were neere about him offered to hew him out a way through the hedges with their swords that he might get shelter in some of the Villages adjoyning but he resolved not to forsake his Canon upon any occasion At which when some about him seemed to admire and marvelled at the patience which he shewed in that extremity His Majesty lifting up his Hat made answer That as God had given him Afflictions to exercise his patience so he had given him patience to bear his Afflictions A speech so heavenly and Divine that it is hardly to be paralell'd by any of the men of God in all the Scripture The carriage being mended he went forward again and trode so close upon the heels of the Earl of Essex that at last he drave him into Cornwell and there reduced him to that point that he put himself into a Cock-boat with Sir Philip Stapleton and some others and left his whole army to his Majesties mercy His Horse taking the advantage of a dark night made a shift to escape but the Commanders of the Foot came to this capitulation with his Majesty that they should depart without their Arms which with their Canon Baggage and Ammunition being of very great consideration were left wholly to his disposing Immediately after this successe his Majesty dispatch'd a message from Tavestock to the two houses of Parliament in which he laid before them the miserable condition of the Kingdome remembring them of those many messages which he had formerly sent unto them for an accommondation of the present Differences and now desiring them to be think themselves of some expedient by which this issue of blood might be dried up the distraction of the Kingdom setled and the whole Nation put into an hope of Peace and Happinesse To which Message as to many others before they either gave no answer or such an one as rather served to widen than close the breach falsely conceiving that all his Majesties Offers of Grace and Favour proceeded either from an inability to hold out the War or from the weaknesse and irresolution of his Counsels So that the Trage-Comedy of the two Harlots in the first of Kings may seem to have been acted over again on the Stage of England The King like the true Mother compassionately desired that the life of the poor infant might be preserved the Houses like the false Mother considering that they could not have the whole voted that it should be neither mine nor thine but divided betwixt them But if instead of this Message from Tavestock his Majesty had gone on his own errand and marched with his Army towards London it was conceived that in all probability he might have made an end of the War the Army of Essex being thus broken and that of Manchester not returned from the Northern service But sitting down before Plimouth and staying there to perfect an Association of the Western Counties he spent so much time that Essex was again in the head of his Army and being seconded by the Earl of Manchester and Sir William VValler made a stand at Newbery where after a very hot fight with variable success on both sides each party drew off by degrees so that neither of them could find cause to boast of the victory Winter comes on which though it be not ordinarily a time of Action will notwithstanding afford us some variety which will not be unworthy of our observation And first a Garrison is formed at Abington a Town within five miles of Oxford by order from the two Houses of Parliament under the command of Colonell Brown the King and Councill looking on and suffering the Intrenchments to be made the Works to be raised and the Ordnance to be planted on the same It cannot be denyed but that Sir Henry Gâ—ge Governour at that time of Oxford and many of the chief Commanders which were then in and about that City offered their service to the King and earnestly desired leave to prevent that mischief which by the Intrenchments of this Town must needs fall upon them But the Lord George Digby not long before made principall Secretary of Estate had perswaded the King unto the contrary upon assurance that he held intelligence with Brown and that as soon as the Town was fortified and furnished with Victuall Arms and Ammunition at the charges of the Houses of Parliament it would immediately be delivered into His Majesties hand In which design he was out-witted and consequently exposed unto some losse of reputation with all sorts of People For Brown having brought his project to the highest round of the ladder as himself expressed it thought it high time to turn it off and to declare himself for the two Houses against the King printing not long after all the Letters which passed between him and the Lord Digby upon this ocasion After this followed the taking of Shrewsbury a place of very great importance to the King as the Gate which opened into Wales situate on a rising ground and almost encompassed round about by the river Severn that part which is not invironed by water being wholly taken up and made good by a very strong Castle By the loss of which Town the Kings former entercourse with His loyall Subjects of North-Wales was not onely hindred but a present stop was given to an Association which was then upon the point of concluding between the Counties of Salop Flint Chester Worcester c. to the great prejudice of the Kings Affairs in those Parts of the Kingdome Then comes the lamentable death of the Arch-bishop of Canterbury kept for four years a prisoner in the Tower of London as before was said but reserved onely as a bait to bring in the Scots whensoever the Houses should have occasion for their second coming as formerly on the like temptation they had drawn them in with reference to the Earl of Strafford The Scots being come and doing good service in
himself was taken prisoner and with him all the Kings hopes lost of preserving Oxford till he could better his condition 1646. In this extremity he left that City in disguise on the 27 day of April Anno 1646. and on the fourth of May put himself into the hands of the Scots then lying at the siege of Newark After the taking of which Town they carried him to Newcastle and there kept him under a Restraint The news hereof being brought to Oxford and seconded by the coming of the whole Army of Sir Thomas Fairfax who laid siege unto it disposed the Lords of the Council and such of the principall Gentry who had the conduct of the Affair to come to a speedy Composition According whereunto that City was surrendered on Midsomer day James Duke of York the Kings second Son together with the Great Seal Privy Seal and Signet were delivered up into the hands of the enemy by whom the young Duke was sent to Westminster and kept in the House of S. James under a Gard with his Brother and Sisters the Seals being carried into the House of Peers and there broke in pieces But long these young Princes were not kept together under that restraint the Princess Henrietta being in a short time after conveyed into France by the Lady Dalkieth and the Duke of York attired in the habit of a young Lady transported into Holland by one Captain Bamfield The Scots in the meane time being desirous to make even with their Masters to receive the wages of their iniquity and to get home in safety with that spoil and plunder which they had gotten in their marching and remarching betwixt Tweed and Hereford had not the patience to attend the leisure of any more voluntary surrendries They therefore pressed the King to give order to the Marquesse of Ormond in Ireland and to all the Governours of his Garrisons in England to give up all the Towns and Castles which remained untaken to such as should be appointed to receive them for the Houses of Parliament assuring him that otherwise they neither could nor durst continue him in their protection To this necessity he submitted but found not such a generall obedience to his commands as the Scots expected For not the Marquesse of Ormand onely but many of the Governours of Towns and Castles in England considered him as being under a constraint and speaking rather the sense of others then his own upon which grounds they continued still upon their guard in hope of better times or of better conditions But nothing was more hotly pressed by the Scots then that the Marquesse of Montrosse should lay down his Commission who with small strength in the beginning and inconsiderable forces when they were at the best had acted things in Scotland even unto admiration For besides many victories of lesse consequence he had twice beaten the Marquesse of Argile out of the field followed him home and wasted his Countrey with Fire and Sword He vanquisht Baily one of the best Souldiers of the Faction commanding over a well-formed Army in a set battell fought between them followed his blow and made himself Master of the City and Castle of Edenburgh releasing divers of his Friends who had been seized and imprisoned there when he first took Arms Had the Lord Digby's Horse come to him he had not onely perfected but assured the conquest of that Kingdome But instead of those aids which he expected he was unexpectedly set upon and his whole Army broken by David Lesley sent from the Scots Army in England with six thousand Horse to oppose the progresse of his fortune whose coming being known to the Earl of Roxborow and Traquair in whom the King continued still his wonted confidence was purposely concealed from him to the end that he being once suppressed and in him the Kings power destroyed in Scotland they might be sure from being called to an account of their former Treasons however he began to make head again and was in a way of well-doing when he received the Kings command to disband his Forces to which he readily conformed took ship and put himself into a voluntary exile These Obstacles removed his Majesty conceived some thoughts of finding Sanctuary in Scotland the Scots having first assured him as he signified by Letter to the Marquesse of Ormond before he put himself into their hands that they would not onely take his person but so many of his party also as repaired unto him into their protection and stand to him with their lives and fortune According to which hopes on his part and those assurances on theirs he had a great mind to return to his Native Countrey his Ancient and Native Kingdome as he used to call it there to expect the bettering of his condition in the changes of time But the Scots hearing of his purpose and having long ago cast off the yoke of Subjection voted against his coming to them in a full Assembly so that we may affirm of him as the Scripture doth of Christ our Saviour viz. He came unto his own and his own received him not The like resolution also was entertained by the Commissioners of that Nation and the chiefe Leaders of their Army who had contracted with the Houses of Parliament and for the summe of two hundred thousand pounds in ready money sold and betrayed him into the hands of his Enemies as certainly they would have done with the Lord Christ himself for halfe the money if he had bowed the Heavens and came down to visit them By the Commissioners sent from the Houses to receive him he was conducted to Holdenby a fair house of his own and one of the goodliest Piles in England scituate not far from Naseby to the intent that he might be continually grieved with the sight of the fatall place of his overthrow but kept so close that none of his Domestick servants no not so much as any of his own Chaplains were suffered to have Accesse unto him In the mean time a breach began betwixt the Presbyterian Party in both Houses and some chief Officers of the Army which growing every day wider and wider one Cornet Joice with a considerable party of Horse was sent to seize on his Majesties Person and bring him safe to their head Quarters There at the first he was received with all possible demonstrations of Love and Duty some of his Chaplains licensed to repair unto him and read the Book of Common-Prayer as in former times and the way open to all those of his party who desired to see him This made the Animosities between those of the two Houses and the Army to be far greater then before the City closing with that party of the Houses which desired the Kings coming to the Parliament and going down in a tumultuous manner required the present voting of a Personal Treaty This made the Speaker and such of both Houses as either held for the Army or had no mind to see the Kings Return
he was committed to the Governance of the Lady Cary as before is said And not long after for his better welcom into England he was on the sixth day of January next following commonly called Twelfth-day invested solemnly with the title of Duke of York by cincture of a Sword imposition of a Cap and Coronet of Gold upon his Head and by delivering unto him a Verge of Gold himself with ten others of eminent Nobility having been made Knights of the Bath with all the accustomed Ceremonies the day before 1606. In the sixth year of his Age he was taken from the charge of his Women though not from the Motherly superinspection of the Lady Cary and committed to the Pedagogy of Master Thomas Murray a Scot by Nation sufficiently qualified for that service but otherwise ill Principled in the Rites and Ceremonies in which the Church of England differed from the Kirke of Scotland 1610. Under this Tutor the young Duke advanced exceedingly in the way of good Letters the weaknesse of his lower parts which made him unapt for Exercises and feats of Activity rendring him more retired and studious and more intent upon his Book then he had been otherwise Which Prince Henry taking notice of as he the young Duke Dr. Abbot then newly made Arch-Bishop of Canterbury with many of the Nobility were waiting in the Privie-Chamber for the Kings coming out the Prince to put a jest upon him took the Arch-Bishops Square-cap out of his hand and put it on his Brothers head telling him that if he continued a good boy and followed his Book he would make him one day Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Which the child took in such disdain that he threw the Cap upon the ground and trampled it under his feet not being without much difficulty and some force taken off from that eagernesse This though at first it was not otherwise beheld then as an Act of Childish passion yet when his Brother Prince Henry dyed and that he was Heir apparent to the Crown it was taken up by many zealous Church-men for some ill Presage unto the Hierarchy of Bishops the overthrow whereof by his Act and Power did seem to be foresignified by it But in that their fears were groundlesse and their conjectures no better grounded then their fears there never being a more gracious Patron to the Church nor a more resolute Champion in behalf of the Hierarchy then he proved to be What is presaged if there were any presaging in it in reference to the Archbishops Person may be shewen hereafter 1611 1612. In the eleventh year of his Age he was made Knight of the most noble Order of the Garter and on the sixth day of November Anno 1612. he lost his Brother Prince Henry whom he immediately succeeded in the Dukedome of Cornwall with all the Royalties Rents Profits and Commodities of it according to the entail which was made thereof by King Edward the third when he conferred it upon Edward the black Prince his eldest Son The first solemn Act which he appeared in after this change of his condition was at the Funerall of Prince Henry on the 7. of Decem. following at which he attended as chief Mourner And on the 14 of February then next ensuing being Sunday and St. Valentines day he performed the Office of a Brideman a Paranymph the Grecians call him to the Princesse Elizabeth his Sister married upon that day to Frederick the Fifth Prince Elector Palatine A marriage which drew him afterwards into many cares and great expences of which more hereafter In his Childhood he was noted to be very wilful somewhat inclining to a perversenesse of disposition which might proceed from that retiredness which the imperfection of his Speech not fitting him for publick discourse and the weakness of his limbs and joynts as unfit for Action made him most delight in But now being grown both in years and state he began to shake off that retirednesse and betake himself to all manner of man-like exercises such as were Vaulting riding great Horses running at the ring shooting in crosse bowes Muskets and sometimes in great Pieces of Ordnance in which he became so perfect that he was thought to be the best Marks-man and the most comely mannager of a great Horse of any one in all three Kingdoms And as he shaked off this retirednesse so he corrected in himself the Peccancy of that humour which had grown up with it there being no man to be found of an evener temper more pliant to good Counsel or lesse wedded then he was to his own opinion 1616. On the third of November Anno 1616. He was at White-hall with all the accustomed Solemnities created Prince of Wales Earl of Chester and Flint and put into the actuall possession of all the Regalities Profits and Commodities belonging to them his Houshould being then formed and constituted and all the officers of State which belong unto him appointed to their severall places And now it was expected that he should break out into more glory then he had done formerly and take upon him as the Heir of so great an Empire But considering very wisely that the forward and enterprizing nature of his Brother Prince Henry the popularity which he affected and the great resort of young Noble-men continually unto his Court had been displeasing to his Father resolved to keep himself at a close ward and not to seem so great as he was that when time served he might appear greater then he seemed to be Old Princes do not love to have their eldest Sons too active and to tread too close upon their heels and therefore many times do enterpose the power of a favorite to keep them at the greater distance A policy much used by King James in the whole course of his Government who for that cause in the life-time of Prince Henry took Sir Robert Carr into his most especiall favour whom he first made Gentleman of his Bed-chamber and on the twenty fifth of March Anno 1611. Created Viscount Rochester and the same year made Knight of the Garter also conferring on him all the power and trust he was capable of that by the greatnesse of the one he might keep down the daring nature and confident Spirit of the other Prince Charles understood this well enough and carried himself with so much prudence that he disputed not the power of his Fathers favourites suffering all Honour Offices and other matters at the Court to be carried by them as best pleased the King Which though it was generally ascribed unto Pusillanimity and the defect of Spirit in him yet was it look'd upon as an Act of the greatest wisedom by more knowing men For had he any wayes crost the designs and Councels either of Carr then Earl of Sommerset or of the Duke of Buckingham his Fathers favourites who at that time did much out-shine him he had not only incurred the Kings displeasure but of necessity must have divided the Court and by consequence the