The Royall Apologie OR AN ANSWER TO THE DECLARATION OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS the 11. of February 1647. In which they expresse the Reasons for their Resolutions for making no more Addresses nor receiving any from HIS MAJESTY AT PARIS Imprinted in the Yeere 1648. TO MY GOOD COUNTRY-MEN of ENGLAND and fellow-Subjects of SCOTLAND IRELAND I Shall not in this Epistle tell you that by the Word of God he that resisteth the Powers ordained over us shall receive to himselfe Damnation nor that by the Law of the Land it is High Treason to levy War against the King to depose Him from the Government to imprison Him to adhere to His Enemies to reforme Him by force or to doe any thing with intention to alienate the Hearts and affections of the People from Him neither shall I tell you that it is Perjury and against our solemne Oathes and Protestations not to beare unto the King true Faith and Allegeance and not to defend His Person and Honour and not to maintaine all His just Rights I shall onely put you in mind of that which if we were no Christians but Heathens if we had no regard of Lawes or Oathes yet as Men would bind us which is the Law of Nature by which we are taught to doe as we would be done unto Let every man in his owne particular consider that if he were accused of Tyranny and Oppression of all sorts of cruelties of intending bloody Massacres of mercylesse Torturings of Perjury of a continued Track of Falshood and breach of Vowes and Promises through his whole life of conniving at his Fathers death and dishonouring of his Mother and in them all not one word of truth would he not think it a most barbarous irrationall and inhumane proceeding that he should not onely be used as if he were guilty of them all but that he should be rendred odious to the world and infamous to posterity without ever being heard or admitted to the means of making any Answer whereby to cleare his Innocency and Honour This is your Kings case who notwithstanding this libellous Declaration and His great misfortunes is one of the most pious temperate couragious and just Princes that our Nation ever had If He may be afforded no other right let Him not be denyed that naturall Justice which every man would think due unto himselfe of not being condemned unheard and undefended for whatsoever is set downe in this Answer is but one private mans knowledg and information But when you shall see the Kings owne perfect Answer I am most confident your hearts will be on fire to see so good a King so ill used IN regard that some particulars relating to the same matter are spoken of in severall places of this Declaration for the avoyding of confusion in the Answer they are answered together so that in some things the place of them is not exactly kept but sometimes that which is before in the Declaration is after in the Answer therefore in this Index each particular is set down and in what page the answer to it shall be found THe Introduction Page 1 2 That their former Addresses to the King have been fruitlesse 3 They could have no confidence that words should be more perswasive with the King then sighs and groanes c. 4 That they have made seven Addresses to the King ibid. In what sort the Scotch Commissioners joyned with them and the Reasons why they conceal the Scots present dissent from them 5 6 That the King never made any offer fit for them to accept 7 They say they cannot expect that new ingagements should prevaile more with the King then His Oath of Coronation and severall other Vowes which He hath frequently broken 8 That the King in His Speeches and Declarations hath laid a fit maxime for all Tiranny by avowing that He oweth account of His Actions to none but God 9 The match with Spain 10 The Kings having an Agent at Rome ibid. The passages concerning the death of King James 10 11 12 13 Touching the betraying of Rochell 13 14 The bringing in of German Horse 15 Torturing of our bodies with rackes and pillories c. 15 16 The Lording over mens souls 17 Searching of Cabinets ibid. Monopolies and Ship-money 18 The Kings summoning this present Parliament to have assistance against the Scots 19 The King so passionately affected to His malignant Counsellors that He would rather desert His Parliament and Kingdome then deliver them to Law and Justice 19 20 21 The bringing up of the Northern Army 21 22 The Rebellion of Ireland answered together 23 24 25 26 The Kings denying of Commissions to the Lord Wharton Lord Brook 26 They say they need not tell the world how the Scots entred the Kingdom ib. The Lord Digby's attempting the Country with armed Troops 26 The Lord Digby's man hiring a Skipper to be Pilot to a Fleet preparing in Denmarke 27 The Kings Letters to the K. of Denmark touching the Queen his Mother ib. That the King sent away with the Qu. the ancient Jewels of the Crown ib. The King sent a specious Message of renewing a Treaty but His Messenger was to have managed a bloody Massacre pag. 27 28 Touching the Kings march to Brainford pag. 28 The Kings denying to receive their Petitions ibid. All things concerning the Queen answered together pag. 28 29 Touching the Letters written to the Pope pag. 30 The Kings offer of the plunder of London and foure Northerne Counties to the Scots pag. 30 31 Fire works found in Papists houses pag. 31 Of putting the Tower into such hands at the City could not confide in ib. The Track of open force begun in the Kings coming to the House and charging some Members of Treason 32 That the King entred into the Councel-booke that the calling of them a Parliament did not make them so 33 Their standing amazed at the Kings solemne Protestation of having no thought to make War against his Parliament c. ibid. That the King endeavoured to get Powder and Cannon out of Hull ib. That the King proclaimed them Traitors and Rebels and set up his Standard against his Parliament 34 That the King called a Mock-Parliament at Oxford ib. The Kings breach of Trust with the Protestants of France Scotland Ireland c. and His endeavours to enslave them by German Spanish French Danish c. 35 That the King having protested that He would never consent to a Toleration of the Popish Religion nor taking away the Lawes against Recusants did yet by His Letters signifie His consent to the taking of them away ib. That notwithstanding that the Houses and Scotch Commissioners did declare that they held a Personall Treaty not safe yet the Houses yeelded to it 36 That they intimate that the signing of the foure Bils was onely for their security during the Treaty ib. Of the justnesse honourablenesse and necessity of the foure Bils 37 38 That in refusing this their last Application the
Certainly they have done ill to passe by their many reasons for these few have been much too weak to support so great a weight as the wickedness of their deposing their King and the using of Him as they do and it is to be beleived that they would make use of the best of those reasons having so great store out of which to make their choice In the next place they say They will notwithstanding indeavour to settle the present Government as may best stand with the Peace of the Kingdome It is likely indeed to be a righteous Government and to last long that a prevalent party in the House of Commons shall settle without the King and against all Law WHAT hath been hitherto said hath been to shew how free the King is from the Aspersions endeavoured to be cast upon him by this Declaration together with the great malice and falshood of it First many things in matter of fact are most untrue as that the King should have a hand in the Irish Rebellion That there was a Designe of a generall Massacre of all the Protestants in England That the Spanish fleet that came into the Downes 1629. was to enslave the Subjects c. with many more such ridiculous falshoods Other things are perverted by false application of the facts as that the Horse that were spoken to be raised in Germany were for the enslaving of England whereas the truth is that if that designe had gone forward as it did not it had been to recover the Palatinate In other things were the facts untrue by concealing part of the truth and the circumstances which do clearly justifie the said fact The Malice and Fraud of the Declaration is made most apparent as when they speak of slitting of noses branding of faces cutting off eares the facts were true But they conceal that all these things were done by course of Justice against notorious Malefactors And so that which they should have called Justice they now bring for an instance of Cruelty Fourthly it is remarkable that all the greivances complained of throughout the Kings whole Reigne though wholy redressed according to their own desires yet they are recharged and the redresses not spoken of So likewise are all the Objections which they have formerly made either of the passages of the War or concerning the Treaties although they have by the King been formerly fully answered yet they obtrude upon the people all the said objections and conceale from them the Kings satisfactory Answers and all this in so venomous and spitefull a language that it is plainly to be seen that their end is to make differences irreconcileable and the King odious that they may have the more colour to destroy Him It will now be necessary to speak a few words of their other Proposition viz. that a King that should be culpable of those Crimes suggested in this their Declaration may be proceeded against as they do now proceed with the King for to that end they have written this Declaration as conteining the reason of their Resolutions and Proceedings This position is worse and more dangerous then their present Rebellion for that by Gods goodnesse may soon have an end but this Position is a source a seed-plot and nurcery of perpetuall Rebellions So much hath been written by all sorts of Christians against this damned Maxime that here it shall be very briefly spoken of and onely shewed that it is full of Impiety Perjury and Treason Impiety towards God who hath in his holy word so often commanded obedience to the Powers by him ordained over us and hath prohibited Resistance upon pain of Damnation and that to Heathens Tyrants and Persecutors of his Church even to that monster of mankind Nero Perjury by breaking so many Oathes Protestations and Covenants of bearing unto the King true faith and allegeance of defending His Person and Honour with all His just Rights and Dignities Treason the levying War against the King the adhering to His enemies the indeavouring to alienate the hearts of the Subject from the King to remove the King from the Government or to imprison His Person to subvert the Lawes to indeavour to change the government either Ecclesiasticall or Civill to reforme the King by force and many other things are by the Lawes and Acts of Parliament and not by Ordinances declared to be Treason and most of them so confessed by themselves this Parliament to be so and for the pretence of some of them the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and the Earle of Strafford lost their lives And here I shall leave that damned Position that Subjects may depose their lawfull hereditary King for so the King is in effect upon suggestions of His failings or any other cause whatsoever It remains yet to speak something of the Scope of their so bitter railing and reviling of the King with so foul a pen as Tyranny Cruelty betraying breach of Oaths c. which is to make Him odious for answer whereunto there shal be only offered unto the world and them such truths of the King and his Deportments as the fiercest of His enemies shall not deny He is known to be a Prince of a most pious life which He daily sheweth by His constant practice of all Acts of devotion as Prayers Sermons and frequent receiving of the holy Sacrament No blood hath been drawn by his Anger or Revenge no noble Family dishonoured by His Lust no Debauchery or Excesse hath received encouragement by His Example no Oathes or Profanesse have been heard to come out of His mouth His prudence ability invincible courage and industry are not unknown to themselves nor His patience and composedness of minde in the highest afflictions and wrongs that have ever almost befallen any King and lastly his goodnesse and clemency in desiring to put all by-past Injuries into perpetuall oblivion Let these His known and undenyable vertues besides His Royal Deâ—â—â—â— and undoubted Title for six hundred years in England and of 108 Kings in Scotland be put into the ballance against all those malicious and 〈◊〉 Aspersions that have been raked together against Him and then let it be judged whether it will not be an ill change for the people to leave the subjection and Government of such a Prince to put themselves under the Tyrannie and Arbitrary Power of such a Parliament and such an Army One thing more shall onely be offered to the consideration of the People whether if the Houses should condescend to a Peace upon no more then what the King offereth besides all the Concessions He hath granted this Parliament and what He hath offered from Holdenby from Hampton Court and Carisbrook Castle before cited the English Nation should not be the freest and happiest Subjects in Europe And whether if they continue under the present usurped Power of the House of Commons and the Army for the Lords serve now onely to be subservient unto them they shall not be the most miserable of all people by having their Religion Lives Liberties and Lawes changed and to be disposed of by the Wils and Arbitrary Power of their fellow-Subjects It is againe desired as it hath been in the beginning of this Answer that what is herein set down may onely stay mens judgements and put them into a deliberation untill the King who hath perfect knowledge and information of all the particulars which in many things are wanting to the Writer hereof shall Himselfe set forth His full Answer which is not likely to be long for that those who have the worst opinion of the Proceedings of the House of Commons cannot suppose them to be so irrationall and barbarous as not to let the King have a sight of this their Declaration and to afford Him all necessary means of making and publishing His Answer FINIS
they say That the Kings offers are not fit for them to accept in that certainly they declare the truth if they make their own unlimited aimes and ambitions the measure of what is fit for them for they will no wayes content themselves with such a narrow and unlimited Soveraignty as our former Kings have had restrained in our Laws in our liberties in our proprieties but they pro arbitrio wil levy what forces they please without limitation of number or distinction of persons or quality raise what moneys they please for the support of this their military dominion and make what lawes they list without any other assent but their own and remain everlastingly a representative of the people whether they will or not so that really making their aimes and intentions the measure of what is fit for them to accept no offers or conditions can be fit for them that shall not establish them in a more absolute power and dominion then ever any King of England had or any King of Christendome hath or the Grand Seignior himselfe doth practice They then say They cannot see how it should be expected that a new engagement could prevaile on Him or engage Him more then the solemn Oath at His Coronation with severall other vowes protestations and imprecations so frequently broken by Him during His whole Reign Let it be calmly considered of whether this be a modest and decent way of a House of Commons thus upon generals to charge their King as a perjured man whom they have ever professed they would make a glorious King especially when their said charge is as false in the matter as shamefull in the manner for they are not able to fix upon the King any one particular wherein He hath broken His Oath or Protestation when the truth of the fact and circumstances shall be truly set down on the behalfe of the King as well as their false relations of the said fact with their inferences strains and malitious glosses thereupon and doubtlesse if the King were not highly punctuall religious in the observance of the said Oath He would not suffer those miseries hazards which He doth rather then infringe it But let the breaking of Oaths Protestations be with equality looked upon let the obligation of their naturall Allegiance the Oathes of Supremacy and Allegeance without taking whereof they cannot be Members of their House Let the solemn Protestation taken by them at the beginning of this Parliament in which they did promise vow and protest in the presence of God with their life power estate according to the duty of their Allegeance to maintain and defend His Majesties Royall Person Honour Estate which how well it hath been performed let their own consciences tell them Let their Solemne League and Covenant taken with their hands lifted up to God never to depart from that blessed union conjunction as they shall answer it in the presence of God the Searcher of all hearts at the dreadfull day of judgement how they have kept it let their brethren of Scotland tell them M. Martin who stiles it an Almanack of the last year out of date and the Answer of the Scots Declaration that termeth it absurd hypocriticall humane so alterable Let them remember all these and their often repeated Protestations of making the King a glorious King and consider their present usage of His Person their endeavours by this Declaration of rendring Him infamous to the world and to all posterity Let them likewise consider that their present animosity against the King is cheifly because they cannot make Him consent to be perjured He hath sworn to maintain the Laws to protect His Subjects to defend the Church to maintain the Religion established by the Laws to uphold the just rights inherent in the Crown or legally thereunto annexed and because He will not consent to be perjured in them all which He must be if He should consent to their demands He must be declared unworthy to governe and as hath been said by some among them not worthy to live be close imprisoned and debarred of all comforts of life God in his due time will be Judge between them and the King and so will be all sober and disinterested men Then they say That the King in His publick Speeches and Declarations hath laid a fit foundation for all tiranny by this most destructive maxime or principle which He saith He must avow That HE OWETH AN ACCOUNT OF HIS ACTIONS TO NONE BUT GOD ALONE AND THAT THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT JOYNT OR SEPARATR HAVE NO POWER TO MAKE OR DECLARE ANY LAW For the first part of this Maxime the King avoweth but that which the Law of God and the Law of England avoweth and what all the Monarchs and States of Christendom that have Soveraign Supream power will avow and would punish as high and capitall offenders any that should avow the contrary As for the second clause the King hath often declared That He doth not pretend to the making of Laws singly of Himselfe but by the advice and consent of the two Houses neither can the Houses joynt or separate nor He with the consent of either House alone make a Law but there must be a concurrence of all three The two Houses first to consent and pray and then the King maketh it a Law by his declaring the Royall assent by Le Roy le veut As for the declaring of the Law that it is the interpreting of the Law in dubiis obscuris vel si aliqua dictio duos contineat intellectus If the words of the Law be doubtfull and obscure or may bear two senses the Iudges in their Courts may interpret and declare the meaning of the Law and the same is done in Parliament upon Writs of Error but that is in the high Court of Parliament before the King and the Lords and not before the Commons who are no Court But this Declaration must not be understood of plain and cleer cases nor to the overthrowing of the literall sense nor of the equity of the Law otherwise to declare and to make a Law were all one in effect But not to enter upon any moot Case or contestation of a Law point Let it be judged whether upon this Maxime it be a sober or dutifull expression that the King hath laid a foundation for all tiranny but especially whether from this charge any just or colourable ground may be laid for the justifying of their Votes or their present proceeding with the King They then speak of the Articles for the intended match with Spain which were treated of 25 yeers since by King James And likewise of the Articles of the match with France which certainly should be without their cognizance for the Houses of Parliament have declared often the the making of peace and war and the marriage of the Kings Children belong wholy to the King And it is well known that Queen
beleived that they that have forborn nothing that they could imagine might turne to His dishonour would conceal any thing that might cast any Aspersion upon Him in this of Rochell As for that plot presupposed to be many years since designed of bringing in an Army of German Horse to have compelled the Subjects to have submitted to an arbitrary Government they might have remembred that thinking thereby to have raised a hatred against the King they have published this Aspersion in severall of their Papers and Declarations and particularly upon the breach of the Treaty at Oxford May 18. 164â— whereunto His Majesty made answer as appears by His Declaration printed and published by their own Order in the second volume of their Orders and Ordinances Pag. 109. wherein He saith That he esteemes his condition more miserable then any of his Subjects when he sees a few factious persons have obtained that power as to publish to all his people in the name of both Houses of Parliament a charge which comming forth with a semblance of such Authority may much worke with them against Him and yet do not which is certainly because they cannot tell any one proof or particular either whence whether or when or by whom or by whose designe those horse should have been brought they confesse it is many years since and it seemes it is so many that these particulars are worn out of the memory of man Now what a strange Impudency and malice must it appear to all equall men that being challenged and provoked by the King even with scorn and derision to instance in any one of the above specified particulars if they could they doe now again revive the same aspertions without giving satisfaction by the producing of any one proof or giving instance in any one particular especially when it is well known unto the world that such persons as they themselves had whispered to be the men that were imployed in the said designe have been highly imployed in their service and nothing would have been kept from them if any thing might have been found to the Kings prejudice but it was thought fit by them that this should be now concealed since it is apparent that the chief end of this Declaration is to accumulate all things that they conceive may asperse the King or make Him odious for those men might have told them the mistery of that businesse for that the Parliament having Declared a war for the recovery of the Palatinate and given way for the raising of 10000. foot in England to serve Count Mansfeild in that imployment it was in discourse how to furnish them likewise with horse which was thought could no where fittingly be done but in Germany but the King of France denying passage to Count Mansfeid all that businesse came to nothing Then they speake of the torturing of our bodies by cruell whippings cutting off eares racks and pillories c. They might have added hanging drawing and quartering and hanging in chaines for all these have been done in the Kings Reigne but executed upon Traytors theeves seditious and impious libellers by established Courts of Justice and according to the knowne course of the Laws which were made by former Kings his Predecessors with the consent of Parliament for they are not able to produce any one Law made in the Kings reign tending to blood or cruelty how many have been made for the ease and enlargement of the Liberty of the people they have often themselves confessed them to be more then by any of his Predecessors And shall the doing of Justice according to the Laws by his Judges and Ministers of Justice be charged upon him as acts of cruelty shal the burning of theeves in the hand or rogues in the forehead or shoulder or what Mr. Gregory doth at Tyburn in the due execution of legall sentences be stiled cruelty for such have been all these whippings rackes pillories which they speake of And they are challenged to instance in one drop of blood drawn by his Majesty or any one Act of cruelty committed by Him in his whole raign or by his Judges or Ministers whom He hath not left to the Justice of the Law For it will not be denied that from the 3. of November 1640. untill the 12. of Jan. 1641. when he was driven from London all His Judges were wholly left unto them many of them being impeached of Treason and Judge Berkley whom they thought the most criminall arraigned for Treason who made a defence so honest and so able that they were forced to wave their legall Triall of him and to pick his purse by their arbitrary power Was there ever so strained a malice especially if they looke how themselves have proceeded not to speake of those multitudes that have been slaine in the War how many of the Kings honest loyall Subjects have they murthered in cold blood by no Law but their owne arbitrary power with how many new Treasons have they ensnared the subject by the single authority of some hasty and angry Ordinances notwithstanding that the Law telleth us what shall be Treason and nothing else but by Act of Parliament what cruelty hath been used in point of imprisonments where many have dyed for want or ill usage and how many persons of quality both Divines and others hath been by them sent a ship-board and kept under deck and seeing a person of quality and a Judge of great years and reverence out of heat and indignation sent to Newgate a prison for Rogues Theeves and Cutpurses how many Gentlemen and Peers did they Vote to death and losse of their whole estates and to be excepted from pardon and mercy without summons hearing tryall or conviction how many Noblemen Gentlemen Judges and divers of great age have they forced out of England to begge their bread in strange Countries not allowing them one penny out of great estates which they have seized to keep them from contemptible poverty notwithstanding that the Law alloweth to the highest Traytors a conveniency for food and raiment for themselves and family And yet these men have had the face to fix upon their King these odious markes of cruelty when they cannot deny but in his reigne there hath been lesse blood by attainder and fewer confiscations then in any such space of time since the Conquest As for the lording over mens souls The Laws for the government of the Church not established by this King but by his Father and Queen Elizabeth were put in execution with so much mildnesse and moderation that they can scarcely instance in the punishment of any Separatists or Sectary if his Recusancy for the Law maketh them Recusants as well as Papists hath not been accompanied with some crime or some scandalous or seditious preaching or writing against the present government whereas they may remember and see in the new book of entries 5. Paschae 35. Eliz. fol. 252. that Pendry for publishing two scandalous books against the Church Government
of levying men by way of presse without consent of Parliament although it had beene alwayes used by His Predecessors But such was their art by the inserting of the said Clause that they would either gain the disclaiming of that power to presse men or else would render the King odious by publishing his refusall to doe that which by the Houses was thought necessary for the suppressing of that horrid Rebellion This artifice hath been since used by clogging most Bills which would be plausible to the people with some clause or parenthesis of great prejudice unto the King which He hath been often forced to passe by to avoid the distaste which the denying of those plausible Bils would have brought upon Him so He did in this Besides this his concurrence in all that was desired of him being at Yorke having some beginning of power he offered to have passed in person into Ireland for the subduing of those Rebells and to let the world see that He desired rather ro imploy those forces against the Rebels in Ireland then by them to raise the least jealousie of raising a war in England But this His Majestyes offer was by the Houses rejected and the King did then see that the forces and the moneys that were levyed by his consent and Commission were in part imployed against Himselfe to strengthen pay the forces that were designed to march against Him whereby the War of Ireland which had beene most prosperous under the wise and faithfull Conduct of the Marq. of Ormond for which the Houses sent him publique thanks a present began to be very dubious by their neglect their applying of the moneys forces pretended for Ireland against the King so by degrees the English Armies in Ireland were reduced to those great streights for want of pay provision by the ill Conduct of the Houses that after many sollicitations both to the King and Parliament by which little or no releife was obteined there was a necessity of coming to a cessation of Armes for one yeare which was done by the advise of the Councell of Ireland at the earnest petition of the Lords of the cheif Officers of the Army of whom the Lord Inchiquin was one as appeares by their own booke of Exact Collect. page 344. To 2. where likewise the necessity of the said cessation is at large set downe And the King seeing Himselfe much over-power'd like to be overborne by the Rebels in England was inforced to make use of the forces offered Him from Ireland who were there ready to sterve which certainly would have beene a great imprudence in Him not to have done and is as great an impudence in them to charge this as a fault or crime upon the King to assist Himselfe of His own Subjects for His defence when they at so great an expence to the kingdom have hired in a forraign Nation the Scots to subdue Him Next they alleag concerning the proclamations That though they declared that the Rebels in Ireland stiled themselves the King Queens Army yet they could not obtain a proclamation against them in divers moneths then also but 40 Copies might be printed c. The first perfect advertisement of the Rebellion of Ireland came to his Majesty Counsell in England from the Lords Justices Sir William Parsons and Sir John Burlace and Councell of Ireland wherewith they sent the draught of such a Proclamation as they conceived best for the suppressing thereof and because those Rebells did pretend that what they had done was for the service of the King and not without some authority from him it was by the said Lord Justices Letters desired that 20 copies of those Proclamations might be sent over signed by the Kings own hand whereas the usuall course was to send over only one so signed that besides those which they were there to print and publish after the usuall manner they might send some of the Originals so signed to some of the chiefe of the Rebells to manifest the falshood of the said traiterous pretence And though Proclamations which the King Signes either for England or Ireland never use to be printed yet it was now for better expedition held fit by his Majesty the Lords of his Councell whereof divers of those now sitting in the house of peers at Westminst. were then present that those 20 proclamations his Majesty was to signe should be printed and the Secretary being directed to cause it to be forthwith dispatched did accordingly presently send a warrant to the Kings Printer to print about 40 Copies and to send them to him for his Majesties service and to deliver out none to any other for that those were to be Originals for the Kings signature only to be by them reprinted in Ireland according to the usuall course And to have any copies of them dispersed in England before they were proclaimed in Ireland where they were principally of use as it was never practised so it was conceived it might have bin of some prejudice for that the said Irish Rebels who had forged the former false pretence might if they had gotten any Copy thereof before they had bin proclaimed in Ireland have divulged some other traiterous fiction to have rendred the Proclamation of lesse credit with their party so have frustrated the good which His Majesty and his councell of both Kingdoms did hope that proclamation would have effected And whereas it is alleaged as a fault that there were but 40 of those Proclamations sent into Ireland it is well known to the Lords of the Councell now sitting at Westminster that it was twice as many as was desired And whereas they say that the Irish Rebels called themselves the King and Queens Army It is the constant practice of all Rebels at the begining to countenance their Rebellion with the pretence of the Kings service and that they take Armes against the oppressions of evill Councellours and Ministers that seduce the King The like was done by themselves at the beginning who only pretended to remove Malignants and evill Councellors and to bring Delinquents to punishment and then their war was in the name of King and Parliament as some of their own have not of late forbore to put them in mind But now it is to remove the King from the government and to settle another of their own making without the King or against Him For the disbanding the Irish Army although the King had great reason to demur upon it yet such was his desire to gratify them that He condescended unto it themselves consented that they should take any forreign imploiment whatsoever but afterward would not give way to the transporting of them by that meanes much strength was added to the Irish Rebellion all which they themselves cannot deny And upon such malicious false inferences as these depend all or most of their instanced Accusations in this their Declaration They say the
this Declaration concerning her Majesty they shall in this Answer be set down here together that the cleerer Judgement may be made of them They say first That by that time the queenes pious Designe to advance Popery was ready for the Byrth That Designe was most industriously examined by them and they had before them in the House of Commons Sir Kenelme Digby Mr. Montague and divers others and upon the narrowest sifting of that Businesse they thought it then fit to proceede no farther in it But now they make use of it to cast Aspersions upon the king and queene when they could finde no cause to punish the chiefe Actors in the said Businesse Secondly they say That there was a great Designe amongst the Papists for a generall massacre in Ireland and England and that a great Royall Person had a hand in it It is to be wondered at that they should on a suddain become so modest as not in plain words to name the Queen whom they had formerly impeached by name with all Her titles of high Treason and sought Her life And now they would slily insinuate into the people that she had a hand in so execrable a Designe as to massacre all the Protestants of two Kingdoms And that upon information given unto the late Lord of Canterbury without a telling by whom the said information was given or when neither set they down by whom the said massacre should have bin acted or by what Plot It is to be thought that it should have bin performed by the same hands that so many of the Peers and of the House of Commons should have bin slain had it not bin prevented by the Tailors discovery in Moorefeilds Thirdly they say That the king confesseth He had sent the Queen to Holland It seemeth that she was an obedient Wife and He a carefull Husband of Her when He saw that most barbarous and inhumane usage of Her that Her very Bed-chamber could not be priviledged but her Nurse and her Confessor must be examined against Her They adde That with the Queen He sent the Jewels of the Crown In whose hands could He better trust His own goods which He saw likely to be taken from him as his Houses Furniture and whole Revenue and that of the Queen and Prince had bin by them Neither could He expect that His Jewels should have bin safer then his liveries for His Guards have bin of late And certainly his Jewels were better disposed of if they were pawned for Powder and Ammunition then His Guard's Coats that are ordered to be sold outright for fire and candles for Souldiers at Whitehall Then they say the Queen many moneths before Her voyage to Holland was going beyond the Seas had not their Motion to the King stayed Her It seemeth then that the King was willing to gratify them although it were with the crossing of the queen's desires and that the King's sending of Her afterward into Holland was not untill she could not remain any longer amongst them with Safety or Honour For they themselves doe beleive that the King could have bin very well pleased to have enjoyed Her Company These are the particulars that they set downe concerning the queene in which there is little remarkable but their detestable malice for were it to bee expected that the queene bred up a Roman Catholick and by Capitulations and the Kings Oath to enjoy the use of her Religion in such sort as was agreed should not looke to enjoy it Especially her carriage ever since her coming into England having beene with that Prudence and Moderation that the great Officers of her Court and most of the Ladies of her Bed-chamber have beene Protestants enjoying daily the use of their Religion in Her Court without beeing pressed by her to the least Act in waiting upon Her or otherwise that might offend or strain their Consciences But that a Princesse of so high Extraction as the blood of France Daughter of the great Henry the fourth and their Kings Wife that never had done any person wrong but obliged all whensoever it was in Her way should finde such usage from Subjects as to have all malicious false Libels countenanced against Her to be questioned for Her life only for the assisting of Her husband to be forced to fly the Kingdom to have all Her Revenue taken from Her and now as though she had intended a generall massacre to be rendred odious by this malicious Libell authorized by the name of the House of Commons it cannot but be held a most inhumane and barbarous proceeding as indeed it is by all the World but themselves Touching the Letters written to the Pope King James sent His Sonne then Prince into Spain being about 20. years of age and instructed Him and the Duke of Buckingham that waited upon Him in all things touching the Negotiation of the Prince's marriage which was then in Treaty for a Daughter of Spain And of all that passed the Prince gave the King His Father almost daily advertisment by expresses and He received from Him likewise directions upon all emergent occasion neither sent He any Letter to the Pope without His Fathers privity and allowance King James likewise Himselfe at the same time did write Letters to the Pope which He publiquely avowed saying The Pope was a Temporall Prince and He would write unto Him upon any occasion in secular Affairs as freely as He did to the great Magor or to the great Turke when He wrote against him in point of controversies in Religion He would then He said give him those Appellations that the Cause required but in His letters missive He would give Him those Respects and Civilities that befitted one temporall Prince towards another And certainly King James was no Papist although He were no freind to Sectaries and Separatists but had written more in the defence of the Reformed Religion and to the displeasing of the Pope then all the Princes of Christendom had done since the Reformation and when He dyed scarcely left a wiser man behinde Him But they are brought to great streights when they are driven to take in the Fathers grave dead 25. years past to finde matters for their malice against the Sonne For the Letters spoken of to be written to the Pope on the behalfe of the Duke of Lorraign I must confesse I want Information in the point of the fact But if it were so He could not have written for a Prince that was nearer allyed to Him And whereas it is said that in requitall an Army to invade England must be raised by Him It is a very unlikely Story that the Duke of Lorraign should be in condition to raise an Army to invade England But if He could afford His Kinsman Auxiliaries or any other supplyes He should he much to blame if He did it not For the Kings offer to the Scots of the plunder of London if they would advance or of 300000. pounds and foure Northern Counties only to stand
could when hee pleased have dissolved them But if they have committed Treason or Felony and that that which their Oracle Sir Edw. Cooke Mr. Solicitor and that reverend old Eleazar Judge Jenkins doe say be true That Treason and Felony do supersede all priviledges of Parliament And although a Corporation cannot commit Treason yet every person of the Corporation may and if one then ten if ten then a hundred and so all And if that House have had the ill lucke to commit Treason or Felony although the King by reason of His restraint should not dissolve it yet it may become Felo de se and may destroy it selfe And it is much doubted whether the King can raise them from the dead Then they come to their standing amazed at the Kings solemn Protestation of having never any thought of bringing up the Northern Army or levying of forces to wage war against his Parliament or to invade the rights of his Subjects or bringing in of forreign forces They should have done well to have set downe the date of the said Declaration as likewise the particulars wherein He hath satisfyed His said Protestations and not to have kept themselves still upon the fraud of generalls nor confounded the times before they had entred into Armes with the times after the King had proclaimed them Traitors and Rebells times and circumstances do often justly alter Councells and make those Actions necessary and good which without them might have appearance of blame But if the particulars shall be set down with the times and circumstances the falshood as well as the malice will appeare of their so often reiterated reproaching their King with breach of Oaths and protestations They doe farther then charge the King that He endeavoured to get out Cannon Powder and Shot out of his own stores and they have a letter to that effect to Sir Iohn Heyden They say likewise that Hee did attempt to have forced Hull in an hustile manner Two such faults in the King as doe marvailously justify their resolutions and usages of him which they set down to be the Scope of this Declaration In the one the King would have imbezel'd His own proper goods and in the other He would have come into his own Town had not the Traitor Hotham kept him out for which they have given him such a reward as others may justly expect if their repentance and the Kings goodnesse doe not prevent it It was not long they say before the King proclaimed them Traitors and Rebels and set up his Standard against the Parliament which never King of England did before Himselfe Herein they are mistaken for the King did not set up his Standard against His Parliament His Parliament was never named at the setting up of His Standard but it was set up against those whom Hee had first proclaimed Traitors and Rebels which hath bin often done by the Kings of England And so did His Majesty now against an Army marching toward Him to surprise His Person and that within few dayes after gave Him a battell and did their best to have slain Him under the command of the Earle of Essex with whom they had all sworne and protested to live and dye But that which they say that never any King before set up His Standard against his Parliament it is true for no King ever needed a Standard against His Parliament for that at their pleasures they could dissolve it with a breath and so might his Majesty have done now had not His goodnesse and unprovident desire of gratifying them restrained Him by assenting unto that Act for the continuance of this present Parliament which they themselves protested in one of their Declarations they would never make use of to the Kings disservice but only to the ends for which it was granted viz. to be a security for the raysing and paying of moneys which how they have performed let the world judge it is then said the King called a mock-Parliament at Oxford It is true that the King having declared the Members sitting at Westminster to be Traitors and Rebels and Treason as themselves have often acknowledged discharging all Priviledges Qualifications Capacitie or abilities to act as a Parliament the King was enforced to call to His Councell and Assistance His loyall Members of both Houses that had bin wrongfully or by force and tumults driven from the Houses at Westminster and to require of them in His so great distresse their helpe and advice but it is conceived that they will not be able to shew that the King ever stiled it his Parliament but an Assembly of the Members of the Lords and Commons convened at Oxford And for that which they instance of private letter intended only for the sight of the Queene His Wife they will faile of the end for which they produce it which is to withdraw the affections of His faithfull Servants which they call His own Party from Him by telling them that they may perceive what reward they may expect when they have done their utmost and ship wrack't their faith and consciences to His will and tyranny But his party as they terme it which are His faithfull and loyall Subjects as they have already most of them lost their Estates and Fortunes for their Conscience and Loyalty to Him so they will sacrifice their lives willingly for His service and restitution And as for that by-name of a mock-Parliament which they give unto that Assembly They may remember that there was double the number of Peers more then remained at Westminster and for the Members of the House of Commons they much exceeded in their Estates and Fortunes all those that were left behind them They may likewise remember that they have not wanted their by-names in print as the Jugles Hocas-pocuses at Westminster and by some who have ever adhered to them have been stiled a Linsey-wolsoy-Parliament and their own Army in their Declaration have called them a Parliament swayed by a factious prevolent party that governed by an arbitrary tyrannicall Power These things I must confesse are set down by me that have been a Member of the House of Commons with great grief remembring the respect and reverence which in former times was born unto that House and now changed into so great Scorn and Derision as weekly comes forth in print They then adde His often breach of trust with the Protestants of France Scotland Ireland and England with all other His unjust oppressions and His often endevours to enslave them by German Spanish Lorraign Irish and Danish and other forrein forces Those other forces must certainly be of Turks Swedes or Polands for they have particularly recited almost all other Nations when now in all this their Declaration except such from Ireland who were His own Subjects and who were bound in duty to come to the succour of their King being invaded by a forreign Nation called in by them to conquer Him they have not been able to instance in so