unto him all Armies and Levies made by the Parliament laid downe the pretended Ordinance for the Militia disavowed and the Parliament adjourned to a secure place hee would lay downe Armes and repaire to them and desired all differences might bee freely debated in a Parliamentary way whereby the Law might recover its due reverence the Subject his just Libertie Parliaments their full vigour and estimation and the whole Kingdome a blessed Peace and Prosperity and requiring their answer by the 27. of that July promised till then not to make any attempt of force upon Hull had Armed their Generall with power against Him given him a Commission to kill and slay all that should oppose him in the execution of it and chosen their Generall of the Horse 8. August 1642. Upon information That some of the Towne of Portsmouth had revolted to Collonell Goring being but sent thither with a message from the King and Declared for His Majestie Order forces to bee sent thither spedily to beleaguer it by Land and the Earle of Warwick to send thither 5. Ships of the Navy to prevent any Forraigne forces comming to their assistance and upon Intelligence that the Earle of Northampton appeared with great strength at Banbury to hinder the Lord Brookes carrying the peeces of Ordinance to Warwick Ordered 5000 Horse and Foote to bee sent to assist Him 9. August 1642. Upon information That the Marquis of Hartford and divers others were in Somerset-shire demanding obedience to the Kings Commission of Array and to have the Magazine of the Countie to bee delivered unto them Gave power to the Earle of Essex their Lord Generall the Lord Brooke and others to apprehend the Marquis of Hartford and Earle of Northampton and their complices and to kill and slay all that should oppose them And the day following gave the Earle of Stamford a Commission to raise forces for the Suppressing of any should attempt for the King in Leicester-shire or the adjacent Counties And on the eleventh of August 1642. Upon the Kings Proclamation 2. dayes before Declaring the Earle of Essex and all that should adhere unto him in the levying of Forces and not come in and yeild to His Majestie within 6. dayes to be Traytors vote the said Proclamation to bee against the Fundamentall Lawes of the Kingdome Declare their resolutions to maintaine and assist the Earle of Essex and resolve to spend no more time in Declarations and Petitions but to endeavour by raising of Forces to suppresse the Kings Party Though all that the Kings Loyall Subjects did at that time for Him was but to execute the Commission of Array in the old legall way of the Militia and within a day or two after Ordered the Earle of Essex their Lord Generall to set forth with his Army of Horse upon the Monday following but not so much as an answer would bee afforded to the Kings message sent from Hull where whilst Hee with patience and hope forbore any action or attempt of force according to His promise Sir John Hotham sallied out in the night and murdered many of His fellow Subjects 12. August 1642. The King though hee might well understand the greate leavies of Men and Armes ready to march against Him by a declaration published to all His Subjects assures them as in the presence of God That all the Acts passed by him in this Parliament should bee as equally observed as those which most of all concerned his owne interest and rights and that his quarrell was not against the Parliament but particular men and therefore desired That the Lord Kimbolton Mr. Hollis Sir Henry Ludlow Sir Arthur Haslerig Mr. Strode Mr. Martin Mr. Hampden Alderman Pennington and Capt. Venne might bee delivered into the hands of Justice to bee tried by their Peeres according to the knowne Lawes of the Land and against the Earles of Essex Warwick Stamford Lord Brooke Sir John Hotham Major Generall Skippon and those who should exercise the Militia by vertue of the Ordinance hee would cause Indictments to bee drawne of high Treason upon the Statute of 25. Edw. 3. and if they submit to triall and plead the Ordinance would rest satisfied if they should bee acquited But when this produced as little effect as all other endeavours Hee had used for peace Hee that saw the Hydra in the mud and slyme of Sedition in its Embrio birth and growth and finds him now erected ready to devoure him must now though very unwilling to cast off His beloved robe of Peace forsake an abused patience and beleeve no more in the hopes of other remedies had so often deceived Him but if Hee will give any account to the Watch-man of Israel of the People committed to his Charge or to the People of his protection of them or any manner of satisfaction to his own Judgement and discretion betake Himselfe to the Sword which God had intrusted Him with and therfore makes the best use he could of those few friends were about Him and with the money which the Queen had not long before borrowed and the small supplies He had obtained of His Servants and Friends about Him who pawned and engaged their Plate Jewels and Lands for Him with those Lords and Gentlemen that willingly offered to beare Him Company in His Troubles provides what Men and Armes Hee could in His way towards Nottingham where Hee intended to set up His Standerd But the Parliament about the 23. of August 1642. having received some information that Hee intended to set up His Standard at Nottingham Declare That now it appeares to all the World that there is good ground of their feares and jealousies which if ever there had beene any as there was no cause at all of any more then that meaning to murder and ruine Him they were often afraid Hee should take notice of it and seeke to defend Himselfe there was by their own confession till this time no manifest or certaine ground appearing that Hee intended to defend Himselfe against the Parliament and therefore Order That all that shall suffer in their Estates by any forces raised by the King without consent of Parliament shall have full reparation of their damages out of the Estates of the actours and out of the Estates of all such Persons in any part of the Kingdome who should persist to serve the King in this Warre against the Parliament and That it should bee Lawfull for any number of persons to joyne and defend themselves and That the Earle of Essex their Generall should grant out Commissions for Levying and conducting forces into the Northerne parts And Sir John Hotham the Governour of Hull assist them and Command also the Sheriffes of the Countie of Yorke and the adjacent Counties with the Power of the Counties and Trayned-Bands to aide them and to seize upon all that shall execute the Commission of Array for His Majestie who thus sufficiently beset by those that intended what since they have brought to passe against Him 25
it 1. March 1641. Petition for the Militia and tell him If he would not graunt it they would settle and dispose it without him And the morrow after Resolve upon the Question That the Kingdom be forthwith put in a posture of Defence in such a way as was already agreed upon by both Houses of Parliament and Order the Earle of Northumberland Lord high-Admirall to Rig and send to Sea his Majesties Navie and notwithstanding that the King 4 March 1641 by his Letter directed to the Lord Keeper Littleton had signified that hee would wholly desist from any proceedings against the five Members and Kimbolton Sir John Hotham a Member of the House of Commons who before the King had accused the five Members and Kimbolton had by Order of Parliament seized upon the Towne of Hull the only fortified place of strength in the Kingdom and made a Garison of it summoned and forced in many of the trayned Souldiers of the County of Yorke to help him to guard it And eighth of March 1641 Before the King could get to Yorke it was Voted That whatsoever the two houses of Parliament should Vote or Declare to be Law the People were bound to obey And when not long after the King offered to goe in person to suppresse the Irish-Rebellion That was Voted to bee against the Law and an encouragement to the Rebells and they Declare that whosoever shall assist him in his Voyage thither should bee taken for an enemy to the Common-weale And 15 of March 1641. Resolved upon the Question That the severall Commissions granted under the great-Seale to the Lievetenants of the severall Counties were illegall and void and that whosoever should execute any power over the Militia by colour of any such Commission without consent of both Houses of Parliament should bee accounted a disturber of the Peace of the Kingdom Aprill 1642. Sir John Hotham seizeth the Kings Magazine at Hull and when the King went but with a small attendance to demand an entrance into the Towne denies him though hee had then no Order to doe it Notwithstanding all which the 28 of Aprill 1642. they Vote That what hee had done was in obedience to the commands of both Houses of Parliament and that the Kings proclaming him to bee a Traytor was a high breach of Priviledge of Parliament And Ordered All Sheriffs and Officers to assist their Committees sent down with those their Votes to Sir John Hotham In the meane time the Pulpits flame with seditious invectives against the King and incitements to Rebellion and the People running headlong into it had all manner of countenance and encouragement unto it but those Ministers that preached Obedience and sought to prevent it were sure to bee imprisoned and put out of their places for it Sir Henry Ludlow could bee heard to say in the house of Comons That the King was not worthy to Reigne in England And Henry Marten That the Kingly Office was forfeitable and the happinesse of the Kingdome did not depend upon him and his Progeny And though the King demanded justice of them were neither punished nor put out of the House Nor so much as questioned or blamed for it The Militia the principall part of the Kings regality without which it was impossible either to bee a King or to governe and the Sword which God had given him and his Ancestors for more then a thousand yeeres together had enjoyed and none in the Barons wars nor any Rebellion of the Kingdome since the very being or essence of it durst ever heretofore presume to aske for must now be wrestled for and taken away from him The Commissions of Array being the old legall way by which the Kings of England had a power to raise and levie men for the defence of themselves and the Kingdome Voted to bee illegall The passage at Sea defended against him and his Navy kept from him by the Earle of Warwick whilest the King all this while contenting himselfe to bee meerely passive and only busying himselfe in giving answeres to some Parliament Messages and Declarations and to wooe intreat them out of this distemper cannot be proved to have done any one action like a war or to have so much as an intention to doe it unles they can make his demanding an entrance into Hull with about twenty of his Followers unarmed in his Company and undertaking to returne and leave the Governor in possession of it to be otherwise then it ought to be 5. Of May 1642. The King being informed That Sir John Hotham sent out warrants to Constables to raise the trayned bands of York-shire writes his letter to the Sheriffe of that County to forbid the Trayned bands and commands them to repaire to their dwelling houses 12. Of May 1642. Perceiving himselfe every where endangered and a most horrid Rebellion framing against him and Sir John Hotham so neere him at Hull as within a dayes journey of him moves the County of Yorke for a Troope of horse consisting of the prime gentry of that County and a Regiment of the trayned bands of foot to bee for a guard unto him and caused the Oath of Allegiance to be administred unto them But the Parliament thereupon Vote That it appeared the King seduced by wicked Councell intended to make a War against them and till then if their own Votes should be true must acquite him from any thing more then an intention as they call it to do it And that whosoever should assist him are traytors by the fundamentall Lawes of the Kingdome The Earle of Essex Lord-Chamberlaine of the Kings houshold and all other of the Kings houshold Ser. ants forbid to go to him the Kings putting some of them out others in their places Voted to bee an injury to the Parliament Messengers were sent for the apprehending some Earles and Barons about him and some of his Bed-Chamber as if they had been Felons The Lord Keepers going to him with the great-Seal when he sent for him voted to bee a breach of priviledge and pursued with a warrant directed to all Mayors and Bayliffes to apprehend him Cause the Kings Rents and Revenues to bee brought in to them and forbid any to bee paid him Many of his Officers and Servants put out of their places for being Loyall unto him and those that were ill affected to him put in their Roomes and many of his owne Servants tempted and procured by rewards and maintenance to tarry with them and bee false and active against him The twenty sixt day of May 1642. a Declaration is sent to the King but printed and published before hee could receive it That Whatsoever they should Vote is not by Law to bee questioned either by the King or Subjects No precedent can limit or bound their proceedings A Parliament may dispose of any thing wherein the King or People have any right The Soveraign power resides in both Houses of Parliament The King hath no
in the beginning of this Parliament accepted of one for the Countie of Yorke Gave His People to understand That Hee had awarded the like Commissions into all the Counties of England and Dominion of Wales to provide for and secure them in a legall way lest under a pretence of danger and want of Authority from His Majestie to put them into a Military postuâ—e they should bee drawne and engaged in any opposition against Him or His Just Authority But 21. June 1642. The Lords and Commons in Parliament Declaring The Designe of their Propositions of raising Horse and Moneys was to maintaine the Protestant Religion and the Kings Authoritie and Person and that The Forces already attending His Majestie and His preparations at first coloured under the pretence of a guard being not so great a guard as they themselves had constantly for 6. moneths before did evidently appeare to bee intended for some great and extraordinary designe so as at this time also they doe not charge the King with any manner of action of Warre or any thing done in a way or course of Warre against them and gave just cause of feare and jealousie to the Parliament being never yet by any Law of God or man accounted to be a sufficient cause or ground for Subjects to make a Warre against their Soverainge did forbid all Mayors Sheriffes Bayliffes and other Officers to publish His Majesties said Letter to the Citie of London And declare that if Hee should use any force for the recovery of Hull or suppressing of their Ordinance for the Militia it should bee held a levying Warre against the Parliament and all this done before His Majestie had granted any Commission for the levying or raising of a man and lest the King should have any manner of provision of Warre to defend Himselfe when their Army or Sir John Hotham should come to assault Him Powder and Armes were every where seized on and Cutlers Gun-smiths Sadlers and all Warlike Trades ordered not to send any to Yorke but to give a weekely account what was made or sold by them And an Order made the 24. day of June 1642. That the Horses which should bee sent in for the Service of the Parliament when they came to the number of 60. should bee trayned and so still as the number increased 4. July 1642. The King by His letter under His signe Manuall commanded all the Judges of England in their circuits to use all meanes to suppresse Popery Riots and unlawfull assemblies and to give the People to understand His Resolution to maintaine the Protestant Religion and the Lawes of the Kingdome and not to governe by any Arbitrary way and that if any should give the King or them to understand of any thing wherein they held themselves grieved and desired a just reformation Hee would spedily give them such an answer as they should have cause to thank Him for His Justice and favour But the same day a Declaration was published by both houses of Parliament Commanding That no Sheriffe Mayor Bayliffe Parson Vicar Curate or other Sir Richard Gurney the Lord Mayor of London not many dayes before having beene imprisoned for proclaming the Kings Proclamation against the bringing in of Plate c. should publish or Proclaime any Proclamation Declaration or other Paper in the Kings name which should bee contrary to any Order Ordinance or Declaration of both houses of Parliament or the proceedings thereof and Order That in case any Force should bee brought out of one County into another to disturbe the Peace thereof they should bee suppressed by the Trayned Bands and Voluntiers of the adjacent Counties Shortly after Sir John Hotham fortifieth the Towne of Hull whilest the King is at Yorke seizeth on a Ship comming to Him with provisions for His Houshold takes Mr. Ashburnham one of the Kings Servants Prisoner intercepts Letters sent from the Queene to the King and drowneth part of the Countrey round about the Towne which the Parliament allowes of and promise satisfaction to the owners 5. July 1642. They Order a subscription of Plate and Horse to bee made in every Countey and list the Horse under Commanders and the morrow after Order 2000. men should bee sent to relieve Sir John Hotham in case the King should besiege him to which purpose Drummes were beat up in London and the adjacent parts to Hull The Earle of Warwick Ordered to send Ships to Humber to his assistance instructions drawne up to bee sent to the Deputie-Lievetenants of the severall Counties to tender the Propositions for the raising of Horses Plate and Money Mr. Hastings divers of the Kings Commissioners of Array impeached for supposed high Crimes and misdemeanours and a Committee of five Lords and ten of the house of Commons ordered to meete every morning for the laying out of ten thousand pounds of the Guild-hall moneys for the buying of 700. Horse and that 10000. Foote to bee raised in London and the Countrey bee imployed by dirction of the Parliament and the Lord Brooke is furnished with 6. peeces of Ordnance out of the Tower of London to fortifie the Castle of Warwick And 9. July 1642. Order That in case the Earle of Northampton should come into that County with a Commission of Array they should raise the Militia to suppresse him And that the Common Councell of London should consider of away for the speedy raising of the 10000. Foote and that they should bee listed and put in Pay within foure dayes after 11. July 1642. The King sends to the Parliament to cause the Towne of Hull to bee delivered unto him and desires to have their answer by the 15. of that moneth and as then had used no force against it But the morrow after before that message could come unto them they resolve upon the Question That an Army shall bee forthwith raised for the defence of the Kings Person and both houses of Parliament and those who have obeyed their Orders and Commands in perserving the true Religion the Lawes Liberties and the Peace of the Kingdome and that they would live and dye with the Earle of Essex whom they nominate Generall in that Cause And 12. July 1642. Declare That they will protect all that shall be imployed in their assistance and Militia And 16. July 1642. Petition the King to forbeare any preparations or actions of Warre and to dismisse His extraordinary guards to come neerer to them and harken to their advice but before that Petition could bee answered wherein the King offered when the Towne of Hull should bee delivered to Him hee would no longer have an Army before it and should bee assured that the same pretence which tooke Hull from him may not put a Garrison into Newcastle into which after the Parliaments surprise of Hull Hee was inforced to place a Governour and a small Garrison Hee would also remove that Garrison and so as his Magazine and Navy might bee delivered
hee went out of the field sent Sir William Le-neve Clarenciâ—ux King of Armes to Warwick whither the Earle of Essex was fled with a Proclamation of pardon to all that would lay downe armes which though they scornefully received and the Herald threatned to bee hanged if hee did not depart the sooner cannot perswade him from sending a Declaration or Message to the Parliament to offer them all that could bee requested by Subjâ—cts but all the use they made of it was to make the Citty of London beleeve they were in greater danger then ever if they lent them not more moneyes and recruited the Earle of Essex his broken Army and to cosen and put the People on the more to seeke their owne misery a day of thanks giving was publiquely kept for the great Victory obtained against the Kâ—ng And Stephen Marshall a Factious bloody minister though hee confessed hee was so carried on in the crowde of those that fled from the battell as hee knew not where hee was till hee came to a Marâ—et Towne which was some miles from Edge-hill where the Battell was fought preaches to the people too little beleeving the Word of God and too much beleeving him That to his knowledge there was not above 200. men lost on the Parliaments side that hee picked up bullets in his black Velvet cap and that a very small supply would now serve to reduce the King and bring him to his Parliament And here yee may see Janus Temple wide open though the doores of it were not lift off the hinges or broken open at once but pickt open by those either knew not the misery of the War or knowing it will prove to be the more guilty promoters of it That we may the better therfore find out though the matter of Fact already represented may bee evidence enough of it selfe who it was that let cut the fury and rage of Warre upon us we shall consider CHAP. III. Whether a Prince or other Magistrate labouring to suppresse or punish a Rebellion of the People bee tyed to those rules are necessary for the justifying of a Warre if it were made betweene equalls VVArre was first brought in by necessitie where the determining of controversies betweene two strange Princes of Equâ—lâ— power could not bee had bâ—cause they have no superiour A Rebell therefore cannot properly bee called an enemy for Hostis nomen notat equalitatem and when any such armes are borne against Rebells it is not to bee called a Warre but an Exercise of Jurisdiction upon traterous and dis-loyall Persons at què est ratio manifesta saith Albericus Gentilis qui enim jure judex est superior non jure cogitur ad subeundas partes partis aequalis non est bellum cum latronibus praedonibus aut piratis quanquam magnâ—â— habeant excercitus provide nec ulla cum illis belli jura saith Besoldus The Romans who were so exact and curious in their publique denouncing of Warre and sending Ambassadors before they made Warre against any other Nation did not doe it in cases of Rebellion and defection and therefore Fidenatibus Campanis non denunciant Romani And Cicero that was of opinion that nullum bellum justum haberi videtur nisi nunciatum nisi indictum nisi repetitis rebus stood not upon those solemnities in the Cataline conspiracy for the rules of justifying a Warre against an enemy or equalls as demanding restitution denunciation and the like are not requisite in that of punishing of Rebells Pompey justifies the Warre maintayned by the Senate against Caesar not then their Soveraigne with neque enim vocari praelia justa decet c. Cicero did not think it convenient to send Ambassadors to Anthony nor intreat him by faire words but that it was meet to enforce him by armes to raise his siege from Mutina for hee said They had not to doe with Haniball an enemy to the Common-wealth but with a Rebellious Citizen The resisting of the Kings Authourity when the Sheriffe of a County goes with the posse Comitatus to execute it was never yet so much as called a Warre but Rebellion and Insurrection or Commotion were the best termes bestowed upon it such attempts are not called Warres but Robberies of which the Law taketh no other care of but to punish them The haste that all our Kings and Princes in England have made in suppressing Rebellions as that of the Barons Warres by Henry the 3. and his sending his sonne the Prince to besiege Warren Earle of Surrey in his Castle of Rygate for affronting the Kings Justices saying That hee would hold his Lands by the Sword That which Ri. 2. made to suppresse Wat. Tiler H. 6. Jack Cade H. 8. Ket and the Norfolk Rebells and Queene Eliz. to suppresse the Earles of Northnmberland and Westmerland may tell us that they understood it no otherwise then all the Kings and Magistrates of the World have ever practised it by the Lawes of England if Englishmen that are Traytors goe into France and confederate with Aliens or Frenchmen and come afterwards and make a Warre in England and bee taken prisoners the strangers may bee ransomed but not the English for they were the Kings Subjects and are to be reckoned as Traytors not strangers And the Parliaments owne advise to the King to suppresse the Irish Rebells that ploughed but with their owne Heyfer and pretended as they did to defend their Religion Lawes and Liberties and the opinion also of Mr. President Bradshaw as Sir John Owen called him in his late sentence given against the Earles of Cambridge Holland and Norwich Lord Capell and Sir John Owen whom hee mistakenly God and the Law knowes would make to bee the Subjects of their worser fellow Subjects may be enough to turne the question out of doores But lest all this should not bee thought sufficient to satisfie those can like nothing but what there is Scripture for wee shall a little turne over the leaves of that sacred Volume and see what is to bee found concerning this matter Moses who was the meekest Magistrate in the World and better acquainted with him that made the fifth Commandement then these that now pretend Revelations against it thought fit to suppresse the Rebellion of Corah Dathan and Abiram as soone as hee could and for no greater offence then a desire to bee coordinate with him procured them to be buried alive with all that appertained unto them When Absolom had Rebelled against his father David and it was told him That the hearts of the men of Israel were after him David a man after Gods owne heart without any Message of Peace or Declaration sent unto his deare sonne Absolom or offering halfe or any parte of his Kingdome to him sent three severall armies to pursue and give him battaile When Sheba the sonne of Bichri blew a Trumpet and said Wee have no part in David every man to his Tent ô Israel
to Blasphemy to justifie their most horrid act of murdering him but for seeking to preserve the Lawes and Liberties of his People who are now cleerely cheated out of them And here our misery tells us wee must leave them and in the next place shall remember for indeede it is so playne it needs no enquiry CHAP. VI Who most desired Peace and offered faireliest for it TH' abundant satisfaction the King had offered them from his first summoning of the late Parliament to their dissolving of themselves by dissolving him who gave them all their Life and Being That which he did and all which hee would have done So many Declarations Answers and Messages penned by himself intending as much as his words could signifie were beleeved and understood by all at that time that were not interessed or ingaged against him and by many of the eagrest of them also that had no hand or look't to have any profit in the murthering of him for a tryall of a King without either warrant or colour of Scripture or the Lawes of the Kingdom or the consent of the major part of the People if that could have authorized it cannot nay will not by all the world and after ages bee otherwise interpreted unlesse wee shall say Ravillae might have justified his killing of Henry the fourth of France if hee had but had the wit to have framed or fancied a Supreme Court of Justice and have Sentenced him before he had done it will bee as Pillars and lasting-Monuments of this Truth The King was the only desirer of Peace and laboured and tuggedâ—â—rder for it then ever Prince or King Heathen or Christian since Almighty-God did his first days work did ever doe with Superiors Equalls or Subjects it will be no wrong certainly to David whose sufferings are so much remembred in all christian Churches complayning so bitterly that he sought Peace with those that refused it and in the meane time prepared for warre against him To say the King did suffer more and offer more and oftner for Peace then ever hee did for any thing is extanc or appearing to us for surely so many messages of Peace as one and twentie in two yeares space from the 5. of December 1645. to the 25. of December 1647. sent to the Parliament after so many affronts and discouragements must needs excuse him that offered all could bee imagined to bee for the good and safety of his People and condemne those that not only from time to time refused it but adhered so much to their first intentions as all the blood and riune of the People could not perswade them to depart with the least punctillio of it though the King before the Isle of Wight Treaty offered so much for the Olive-Branch as to part with the Militia for terme of his life and in a manner to un-king himselfe and was afterwards content to doe all that his Coronation-Oath Honour and Conscience could possibly permit him to doe and to purchase a Peace for his People was content to have borne the shame and reproach of what his enemies were only guilty of in so much as the Lord Say himselfe and most of his ever craving never safe enough Disciples confessed the king had offered so much as nothing more could bee demanded of him They therefore that can but tell how to divide or put a difference betwixt white and black night and day and the plainest contraries must needs also acknowledge the King offered all and the Parliament refused all The King was willing to part almost with every thing and the Parliament would never part with any thing The King was willing for the good of his People to give away almost every thing of his owne but the Parliament would never yeild to part with any thing was not their owne And thus may the account bee quickly cast up betweene the King and Parliament who would have saved and kept the people from misery and who was most unwilling to make an end of it But that wee may not too hastily give the sentence to try the businesse as they use to doe at the Counsell of Warre or the new Invented way of Justicel sitting with their Will or the Sword only in one hand and no Ballance at all in the other Wee shall in the next place examine CHAP. VII Who Laboured to Shorten the Warre and who to Lengthen it THe ods was so great betwixt what the Parliament laboured to get and the King to keep as that which swayes the ballance in most mens actions will bee argument enough to conclude they were more likely to loose by a peace then a war therfore the more willing to continue it and if their owne interests would not put them so farre upon it their vaine glorie and ambition would bee forward enough to perswade them to it and if not that the successe of their armes or miscalled providence would make them looke as experience tells us they did upon any tenders of peace as Alexander the great did upon Darius his offer of halfe his Kingdome and if not that their feares and jealousies now growne greater by wronging of the King then ever they were when they suspected him could never think it safe to let an inraged Lion into his den they had so long kept out of it But the King could not fight for his owne but hee must adventure the undoing of his owne and could not but know that so much as was lost of his Subjects would bee so much lost of a King and therefore doth all hee can to preserve a People had no minde to preserve themselves and before hee had gathered up the bayes hee wonne at Edge-hill sends a Proclamation of pardon to those that the day before did all they could to kill him and in all his actions of warre afterward behaved himselfe rather like a weeping father defending himselfe against the strokes and violence of disobedient Children Had the Parliament accepted of his offers before hee came to Beverley or besieged Hull hee had never set up his Standard at Nottingham or had they loved his People but halfe so much as he did their Armies had never seen his Banners displaid at Edge-hill Had they hearkned to his many endeavors for Peace after that battell and not sought to surround or ruine him when hee came so neere as to their very doores to intreat for it they had never beene troubled to frame an accusation against him for defending himselfe at Braynford Had his Treaty at Oxford beene proceeded in with the same desires of Peace hee brought to it the blood that was shed at Caversham-bridge had beene kept for better purposes had hee sought his owne advantages hee had not besieged Glocester or had hee not beene so unwilling to put the People in it to the hazard of a storme might have taken it had they not sent their Generall to assault him at Glocester whil'st hee was as David besieging the strong hold of the Jebusites