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A78251
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The case of the King stated, from the very beginning of the warre to this present day, in relation I. To the two Houses. II. To the Army. III. To the Scots. IV. To the subjects of England in generall. In justification & commiseration of his Majesty in this his distressed condition; and for the satisfaction of the whole kingdom. / By Basilius Anonymus.
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Basilius Anonymus.
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1647
(1647)
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Wing C1099; Thomason E416_5; ESTC R204479
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21,297
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25
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The CASE of THE KING STATED From the very beginning of the Warre to this present day In relation I. To the two Houses II. To the Army III. To the Scots IV. To the Subjects of England in generall In justification commiseration of His Majesty in this his distressed condition and for the satisfaction of the whole Kingdom By BASILIUS ANONYMUS Nemo me impunè lacessit O foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you Gal. 3.1 DIEV ET MON DROIT C. R. HONI SOIT QVI MAY Y PENSE Printed in the Yeere 1647. To the King 's most excellent Majesty SIR THis poore Pamphlet I intended at first should have kissed your Royall hands at Hampton-Court not that I conceived it a Present worthy the acceptance of a King but only I presumed that Loyalty being a precious Jewell in this age could not be unwelcome though presented from the meanest and the most unworthy of your Subjects Some perswasions of your true Friends first put me upon the Enterprise and urged to me a necessity that it should be done out of hand that all your loyall Subjects might be informed in what a sad condition you lay and how miserably you have been abused from time to time so that it being the Production of but a day and a night a little more time than Nature takes to the making of a Mushrome nothing can be expected in it but plaine Truth hudled together without any artificiall method or dressing And yet I hope it will find your Majesty out in this your happy retirement wherein if it speake but any tolerable sence to entertain your Majesty for an houre and such as may take Impression upon the hearts of your Subjects then though done in hast it is well done I. The Case of the King in relation to the two Houses IF we looke upon the ancient Majesty of the Kings of England for which this our native Countrey hath been held in as venerable an esteem as any Kingdom in Europe whatsoever and consider the present despicable condition of our now dread Soveraigne into what an Abysse of misery he is plunged by the Treachery of his own Subjects yet all under the specious pretence of loyalty as there is no generous heart but must lament the Infamie which returnes upon us in the opinion of other Nations so no Tongue or Pen will ever be able to fatham the depth of their vilany no vengeance equall their impiety who first contributed to that cursed designe which God hath permitted for causes best knowne to his unsearchable wisdom to render a pious and glorious Prince a flourishing and obedient People thus wretched and miserable by a most horrid Rebellion It is now more than five yeares since the devouring sword first ranged about the Kingdom full seven yeares since this Parliament began the whole Body whereof I cannot accuse for the Authors of this unnaturall war but to speake mildly and conscionably they were some few Members of it whom it is not my busines to name leaving that to History who first taught our Hands to war and our Fingers to fight Yet he that will trace the designe of this warr to its Originall shall finde it of an elder date than 7. yeares For all the seditious Carriages of the Puritan-Faction so called against the government of the Church in the dayes of Queen Elizabeth King Iames and our Soveraigne that now is were but as so many preparatives to the work in hand or so many throwes in Travaile till the Faction was delivered of the Monster in the yeare 1641. which was then Christned by the name of REFORMATION And whereas in the Reignes of the two former Princes this Faction was with great wisdom and policy kept under Hatches and so not arrived to that height of Impudence they afterward attained their numbers being then not very considerable among the Nobility Gentry and Clergy of the Kingdom and so they wanted men to back them both in the Senate and Pulpit yet in processe of time being very active and industrious as all Innovators must be they drew Disciples after them in all Counties of the Kingdom among all degrees and conditions of men so that then their Reputation increasing with their number and both being mightily advanced by an artificiall and counterfeit piety they daily gathered advantage to cry downe the Government of the Church by Bishops as Anti-Christian to make way for as themselves termed it a glorious Reformation This was made the Stalking horse to the whole designes and through this pretence they the rather prevailed upon the credulous people by reason of the rash and furious carriage of some of the Episcopall Clergy which rendred their Adversaries a daily occasion to add fuell to the fire of zeale among the multitude and prepared them to entertaine any Change though to their owne prejudice Which being quickly apprehended and Counsells mutually communicated by many of the Gentry and a Lord or two some of broken Fortunes but all of ambitious minds they judged then they had met with a fit occasion to repaire and advance their Fortunes and their Friends to the great Offices and Honors of the Kingdom and so became Candidalets of this desperate Faction And knowing that this could never be effected but by surprizing the King's Majesty and the chiefe Officers of State in a Parliamentary way they labored tooth and naile their expectations having been frustrated in former Parliaments to make sure of all in this Parliament And this they mannaged most stoutly partly by canvasing Elections for Creatures of their owne in the Counties abroad partly by working upon the Citie of London with religious pretences and finally upon their owne Members with high promises and that which gave the maine stroke of all was their having the Scots ready at a Call as the world well knew upon all occasions to back them By which meanes having made their party paramount among the Laity and knowing there was little hope but that all the learned Clergie of the Kingdom would stick firme to their owne Principles as they attempted so they prevailed upon few of them But well weighing the Proverb That none is so bold as blind Bayard and that Ignorance is the mother of blind Obedience they knew none so fit to worke to their owne ends as the meanest and most illiterate of the Clergy who were as ready to swallow the great Benefices as themselves the great Offices of the Kingdome and these they imployed both at Presse and Pulpit to libell and raile downe the ancient received government both of Church and State And now the Boutefeu's of the Faction being thus prepared they proceeded to give fire immediately dis-mounted the chiefe Officers of State and chased the Bishops out of the House of Lords and levelled all exorbitant Courts both spirituall and temporall to all which His Majesty gave his Royall Assent as also for Trienniall Parliaments To which speciall Acts of Grace and Favor he added also that highest of all for
his Majesty and with the consent and love of the whole Kingdome when they have restored his Majesty Fifthly their Party being wholly broken here and the Houses likewise themselves there is no hope of serving their ends any longer in a Parliamentary way but upon the King they may and serve him too So that they have no way left to procute an Interest again to any purpose in this Nation but by closing with the King Sixthly notwithstanding their former Parliamentary engagements they are not to seek of a cleanly pretence to stand for his Majesty as long as the Covenant is in being and the Houses and Army have broken that Covenant by their palpable endeavours not only to ruine his Majestie 's Person but also to root out the very Principles of Monarchy both which both They and the Houses have Covenanted to defend Seventhly there can be no doubt of carrying the work through because the miscarriages of the Houses and the Affronts of the Army have wholy made ship wrack of the Affections of the City as for the rest of the Kingdom variety of oppressions hath made them absolutely the Kings own reckoning their own deliverance to depend on his Rostauration Lastly though it may be objected there is a great distance betwixt the Scots and the Royall Party in matter of Church-Government and so little hope of a cordiall uniting betwixt them yet I am bold to imagine that since all the world knowes the Design of a Presbytery by them upon this Nations was only to quell their Adversaries the Bishops that were the only men which vexed them and hindered them from thriving so well as they desired in this Kingdom and so to make a sure footing here by trampling them under it will be no hard matter to reconcile them so far as to let us have Bishops again upon condition they may establish themselves here with them And it is probable they will be contented to save their own souls in their Kirk of Scotland and let us alone with ours if their Bodies and Purses be well provided for in the Common-Wealth of England The Case of the King in relation to all his Loyall Subjects VVHat the Spaniards have often boasted of themselves as the only Nation under Heaven most zealous of the Honour of their Princes might with as much truth and more modesty have bin verified in former times upon the English Nation it having bin an old received Maxime of State amongst them That the glory of the Kingdom consist much in the State and Majestick splendour of their King And God be blessed this Loyall principle is not yet worne out unlesse it be in the hearts and pract ses of some few in these later yeares who have sold themselves to work wickednesse and been Ring-leaders in an open and most horrid Rebellion wherein they had drawn in a great part of their fellow Subjects to serve their own factions and ambitions ends as hath been manifested sufficiently in stating the severall passages betwixt his Majesty the two Houses and the Army Now it remains in the next place to shew how the City of London and the rest of the Kingdome hath been abused likewise as well as the King and what obligation lies upon them all for the immediate entring upon some Course for the Restauration of the King and the deliverance of the Kingdome from the slavery and oppression of a tyrannicall Parliament and a more tyrannicall and insulting Souldiery No way more ready to finde out how the City and Kingdome have been abused than by recounting the innumerable Tricks that have bin used to milk the Purses of the people in pretence of maintayning the Warre when the least part God knowes hath been imployed that that way but either treasured up in the purses of the Members or laid out by them in rich and fair purchases at home or transported to serve their turnes abroad against a rainy day while the Souldiers have pined for want of pay in their religious cause and devoured the poore Countrymen by Free quarter For whereas one or two wayes well ordered would have served the turne they have made use of so various wayes for raising of vast and incredible Summes of money as were never heard of before at a time in one kingdome whereof I will here set down the Catalogue 1 Royall Subsidy of 300000 l. 2 Pole-money 3 The Free Loanes and Contributions upon the Publique Faith amounted to avast incredible summe in Money Plate Horse and Arms Bodkins Thimbles and Wedding-Rings of the zealous Sisters 4 The Irish Adventure for sale of Lands a first and second time 5 The weekly Meale 6 The City-loane after the rate of fifty Subsidies 7 The Assesments for bringing in the Scots 8 The fifth and twentieth part 9 The weekly Assesment for the Earle of Essex his Army 10 The weekly or monthly Assesment for Sir Tho. Fairfax his Army 11 The weekly Assesment for the Scotish Army 12 The weekly Assesment for the British Army in Ireland 13 The weekly Assesment for my Lord of Manchesters Army 14 Free-Quarter at least connived at by the State because the Souldiers having for a time subsistence that way were the lesse craving for pay whereby their Arrears growing stale must at last either be frustrated by a tedious Committee of Accounts discount it out of the Commanders Arrears whereby the State saves it 15 The Kings Revenue 16 Sequestrations and Plunder by Committees which if well answered to the State would have carried on the work which may be thus demonstrated One halfe of all the goods and chatrels and at least one halfe of all the Lands Rents and Revenues of the kingdome have bin Sequestred And who can imagine that one halfe of the profits and goods of the Land will not maintayn any Forces that can be kept and fed in England for the defence thereof 17 Excise upon all things this alone if well managed would have maintayned the warre The Low-Countreys make it almost their only support 18 Fortification money All which amounting to about forty Millions have bin expended heretofore whereto wee may adde since the sale of a great part of Bishops Lands which the unmeasurable summes arising still by Fines for Delinquents Compositions with the continuance of the Excise and yet not so much as a penny disbursed for the pay of the souldiers insomuch that they threaten every moment to come and levy their Arreares within the City of London which is become now the common mark of all intolerable affronts and injuries that the ingratitude of the Houses or the insolent threats of the Souldiers can cast upon them And the Countrey groanes still under those three heavy burthens Excise Taxes and Free-Quarter without hope when or how they shall have remedy But rather on the other side they see nothing but a cloud of perpetuall misery and slavery hanging over their heads ready to fall upon them by the late Votes of the Houses and the generall Councell of the