to which On Sunday the 23. of October 1642. for they thought it better to rob God of his Sabbath than lose an opportunity of murthering their Soveraign the Earl of Essex and Parliament-Army powring in from all quarters of the Kingdom upon him had compassed him in on all sides and before the King could put his men in Battel-Array many of whom being young Country fellows had no better armes than clubs and staves in their hands cut out of the hedges and put his two young Sons the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York in the guard of a Troop of horse at the further end of the field and had finished a short prayer a bullet of the Earl of Essex's Cannon grazed at his heels as he was kneeling at his prayers on the side of a bank for Blague a villain in in the Kings Army having a great pension allowed him for it had given notice in what part of the field the King stood that they might the better know how to shoot at him But God having a greater care of his Anointed than of their Rebellious pretences so ordered the hands of those that fought for the King as the Earl of Essex was so loaden with Victories as he left five of his men for one of Kings dead behind him lost his Baggage and Artillery retired back to Warwick and left the King to bless God in the field where he supped with such victuals as the more loyal and better natur'd neighbours sent him when the worser sort refused to do it and lying there all night sent warrants out the next day to the neighbour Parishes to bury the dead drew off his Ordnance and marched to Banbury and yet he could not forget to pity those were at such paines and hazard the day before to murther Him but before he went out of the field sent Sir William Leâ—neve Clarencieux King of Armes to Warwick whither the Earl of Essex was fled with a Proclamation of pardon to all that would lay down armes which though they scornfully received and the Herald threatned to be hanged if he did not depart the sooner cannot perswade Him from sending a Declaration or Message to the Parliament to offer them all that could be requested by Subjects but all the use they made of it was to make the City of London believe they were in greater danger than ever if they sent them not more moneys and recruited the Earl of Essex his broken Army and to cosen and put the people on the more to seek their own misery a day of Thanksgiving was publiquely kept for the great Victory obtained against the King And Stephen Marshall a Factious bloody Minister though he confessed he was so carried on in the crowd of those that fled from the battel as he knew not where he was till he came to a Market-Town which was some miles from Edge-hill where the Battel was fought preaches to the people too little believing the Word of God and too much believing him that to his knowledge there was not above 200. men lost on the Parliaments side that he 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 ye may see Janus Temple wide open though the doors 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 therefore find out though the matter of Fact already represented may be evidence enough of it self who it was that let out the fury and rage of War upon us we shall consider CHAP. II. Whether a Prince or other Magistrate labouring to suppress or punish a Rebellion of the People be tied to those rules are necessary for the justifying of a War if it were made between equals WAr was first brought in by necessity where the determining of controversies between two strange Princes of equal Power could not be had because they have no superiour A Rebel therefore cannot properly be called an enemy for Hostis nomen notat aequalitatem and when any such Arms are borne against Rebels it is not to be called a War but an Exercise of Jurisdiction upon trayterous and dissoyal Persons atque 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 magnos habeant excercitus proinde nec ulla cum illis belli jura saith Besoldus The Romans who were so exact and curious in their publick denouncing of War and sending Ambassadors before they made War against any other Nation did not do 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 War against an enemy or equals as demanding restitution denunciation and the like are not requisite in that of punishing Rebels Pompey justifies tbe War maintained by the Senate against Caesar not then their Soveraign with neque enim vocari praelia justa decent c. Cicero did not think it convenient to send Ambassadors to Anthony nor intreat him by faire words but that it was meet to inforce him by arms to raise his siege from Mutina for he said They had not to do with Hambal an enemy to the Commonwealth but with a rebellious Citizen The resisting of the Kings Authority when the Sheriff of a County goes with the posse Comitatus to execute it was never yet so much as called a War but Rebellion and Insurrection or Commotion were the best terms bestowed upon it such attempts are not called Wars 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 Wars by Henry the 3. and his sending his Sonne the Prince to besiege Warren Earl of Surrey in his Castle of Rygate for affronting the Kings Justices saying That he would hold his Lands by the Sword That which Rich. 2. made to suppress Wat. Tiler H. 6. Jack Cade H. 8. Ket and the Norfolk Rebels and Queen Elizabeth to suppress the Earls of Northumber-land and Westmerland may tell us that they understood it no otherwise than all the Kings and Magistrates of the world have ever practised it by the Laws of England if Englishmen that are Traytors go into France and confederate with Altens or Frenchmen and come afterwards and make a War in England and be taken prisoners the strangers may be ransomed
THE Royall Martyr OR KING CHARLES The FIRST no Man of BLOOD but A MARTYR for His PEOPLE Being a brief Account of His Actions from the beginnings of the late unhappy Warrs untill He was basely Butchered to the Odium of Religion and scorn of all Nations before his Pallace at White-Hall Jan. 30. 1648. To which is Added A Short History of His Royall MAJESTY Charles the Second KING of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. Third Monarch of Great Brittain In all his Sufferings and Solitudes more then CONQUERER Rom. 8. Salus Populi Salus Regis â—ondon Printed for Henry Bell and are to be sold by most Book sellers 1660 TO THE KINGS Most Excellent Majesty Dread Soveraign THe occasion of these few lines is neither to renew your sorrow nor stir up your Majesty to revenge I know you have learned a better lesson from our blessed Lord and Saviour to forgive your enemies neither is it my design to plead for that which I even tremble to write viz. Regicide I know the world expects some should be made examples of Justice God forbid that blood-guiltiness especially of our King should go unpunisht But that Justice mercy might kiss each other These ensuing lines were writ in the midst of your and our sufferings the onely end both in writing and publishing was to Vindicate your Royal Father our Dread Soveraign of blessed memory thereby to make a more easie passage for your most Excellent Majesty to ascend unto the Royall throne of your famous Progenitors And now seeing God at last by his wonderfull and most miraculous Providence hath brought your Sacred Majesty to your just Rights Dominions I make bold in all humility to prostitute both my self and this small Tract at your Royall Feet beseeching your Clemency to accept of this small Mite of my Loyalty begging your gracious pardon for my great presumption beseeching Almighty Jehovah the God of your Fathers to redouble in you your Fathers Graces and Vertues recompence to your Majesty for all your unparalelled sufferrings patience in the perfect obedience and affection of all your Subjests establish your Royall Throne here on Earth and at last give you a Crown of Glory in the highest heavens so prays Your Majesties Loyall Humble and most obedient Subject W. H. B. King Charles the First no Man of BLOOD But a Martyr for his PEOPLE THat there hath been now eighteen years spent in Civill Warrs aboundance of Blood shed and more Ruine and misery brought upon the Kingdom by it then all the severall Changes Conquests and Civill Warrs it hath endured from the time of Brute or the first Inhabitants of it every mans wofull experience some onely excepted who have been gainers by it will easily assent unto No marvell therefore that many of those who if all they alledge for themselves that they were not the cause of it could be granted to be true might either have hindred or lessned it would now put the blame of so horrid a business from themselves and lay it upon any they can perswade to bear it And that the Conquerours who would bind their King in Chains and their Princes with Fetters of Iron and think they have a Commission from heaven to do it the guilt of it being necessarily either to be charged upon the Conquerours or Conquered are not willing to have their Triumphant Chairs and the glories as they are made believe that hang upon their shoulders defiled with it but do all they can to load their Captives with it But howsoever though the success and power of an Army hath frighted it so far out of question as to charge it upon the King and take away his life for it by making those that must of necessity be guilty of the fact if he should have been as in all reason he ought to have been acquitted of it the only Judges of him It may well become the judgement and conscience of every man that will be but either a good Subject or a Christian not to lend out his Soul and Salvation so much on trust as to take those that are parties and the most ignorant sort of mens words for it but enter into a most serious examination of the matter of Fact it selfe and by tracing out the foot-steps of Truth see what a conclusion may be drawn out of it In pursuance whereof for I hope the Originall of this Sea of Blood will not prove so unsearchable as the head of Nile we shall enquire first of all who raised the fears and jealousies Secondly represent and set down the truth of the matter of Fact and proceedings betwixt the King and Parliament from the tumultuous and seditious coming of the people to the Parlament and White-Hall untill the 25 of August 1642. when he set up his Standard at Nottingham and from the setting up of his Standard untill the 13 of September 1642. when the Parlament by their many Acts of Hostility and a Negative and Churlish answer to his propositions might well have put him out of hope of any good to be obtained from them by messages of peace sent unto them Thirdly whether a Prince or other Magistrate labouring to suppress or punish a rebellion of the People be tyed to those rules are necessary to the justifying of a War if it were made between equals Fourthly suppose the War to be made with a neighbour Prince or between equalls whether the King or Parlament were in the defensive or justifiable part of it Fifthly whether the Parlament in their pretended Magistracy have not taken lesser occasions to punish or provide against insurrections treasons and rebellions as they are pleased to call them Sixthly who most desired Peace and offered fairliest for it Seventhly who laboured to shorten the War and who to lengthen it Eightly whether the conditions proffered by the King would not have been more profitable for the People if they had been accepted and what the Kingdom and People have got instead of it CHAP. I. Who first of all Raised the Fears and Jealousies THe desiring of a guard for a Parlament because of a tale rather then a plot That the Earl of Crawford had a purpose to take away the Marquis of Hamiltons life in Scotland the refusing of a legall guard offered by the King and his Protestation to be as careful of their safety as the safety of his Wife and Children The dream of a Taylor lying in a ditch in Finsbury fields of this and the other good Lord and Common-wealths men to be taken away The trayning of Horses under ground and a plague plaister or rather a clout taken from a galled Horse back sent into the House of Commons to Mr. Pym. A design of the Inhabitants of Covent Garden to murther the City of London News from France Italy Spain and Denmark of Armies ready to come for England and a supposition or feaverish fancy that the King intended to introduce Popery alter
defence of the Parlament were according to Law and if any man should arrest or trouble any of them for it he is declared to be an enemy to the Common-wealth And when the King to quiet the Parlament 12. January 1641 was pleased to signifie that for the present he would wave his proceedings against the five Members and Kimbolton and assures the Parlament that upon all occasions he will be as carefull of their Priviledges as of his Life or his Crown Yet the next day after they Declared the Lord Digby's coming to Kingstone upon Thames but with a Coach and six horses in it to be in a Warlike manner and disturbance of the Common-wealth and take occasion thereupon to order the Sheriffs of all Counties in England and Wales with the assistance of the Justices of Peace and trayned bands of the severall Counties to suppress any unlawfull Assemblies and to secure the said Counties and all the Magazines in them 14 January 1641. The King by a second Message professeth to them he never had the least intention of violating the least priviledge of Parlament and in case any doubt of breach of Priviledges remain will be willing to clear that and assert those by any reasonable way his Parlament shall advise him to But the design must have been laid by or miscarried if that should have been taken for a satisfaction and therefore to make a quarrell which needed not they Order the morrow after a Charge and Impeachment to be made ready against Sir Edward Herbert the Kings Attorney Generall for bringing into the House of Peers the third of that instant January by the Kings direction a Charge or accusation against Kimbolton and the five Members c. In February 1641. Seize upon the Tower of London the great Magazine and Store-house of the Kingdom and set some of the train-bands of London commanded by Major Generall Skippon to guard it 1. March 1641. Petition for the Militia and tell him If he would not grant it they would settle and dispose of it without him And the morrow after resolved 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 Parlament and order the Earl of Northumberland Lord high-Admirall to Rig and send to Sea his Majesties Navy and notwithstanding that the King 4 March 1641. by his Letter directed to the Lord Keeper Littleton had signified that he 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 the King had accused the five Members and Kimbolton had by Order of Parliament seized upon the Town 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 York to help him to guard it And the eight of March 1641. before the King could get to York 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 go in person to suppress the Irish Rebellion That was Voted to be against the Law and an encouragement to the Rebells and they Declare that whosoever shall assist him in his voyage thither should be taken for an enemy to the Common-wealth And 15 of March 1641. Resolved upon the Question that the severall Commissions granted under the great Seal to the Lievtenants of 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 be accounted a disturber of the Peace of the Kindom Aprill 1642. Sir John Hotham seizeth the Kings Magazine at Hull and when the King went with a small attendance to demand an entrance into the Town denies him though he had then no Order to do it Notwithstanding all which the 28 of April 1642. they Vote That what he had done was in obedience to the commands of both Houses of Parliament and that the Kings proclaiming him to be 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 mean 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 be imprisoned and put out of their places for it Sir Henry Ludlow could be heard to say in the House of Commons that the King was not worthy to Reign in England And Henry Martin That the Kingly Office was forfeitable and the happiness of the Kingdom 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 be a King or to govern and the Sword which God had given him and his Ancestors for more then a thousand years together had enjoyed and none in the Barons wars nor any Rebellion of the Kingdom since the very being or essence of it durst ever heretofore presume to ask 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 levy men for the defence of themselves and the Kingdom Voted to be illegall The passage at Sea defended against him and his Navy kept from him by the Earle of Warwick whilst the King all this while contenting himselfe to be meerly passive and only busying himself in givinganswers to some Parliament Messages and Declarations and to wooe and 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 do it unless they can make his demanding an entrance into Hull with about twenty of his Followers unarmed in his Company and undertaking to return 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 trained bands of Yorkshire writes his letter to the Sheriff of that County to forbid the trained bands and commands them to repair 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 neer him at Hull as within a days journey of him he moves the County of York for a troop of Horse consisting of the prime Gentry of that County
and a Regiment of the train-bands of Foot to be for a guard unto him caused the oath of Allegiance to be administred unto them But the Parliament thereupon Vote that it appeared the King seduced by wicked Counsell intended to make a war against them and til then if their own Votes should be true must acquitt him from any thing more then an intention as they call it to do it And whosoever should assist him are Traitors by the fundamentall Laws of the Kingdom The Earl of Essex Lord Chamberlain of the Kings Houshould and all other of the Kings Houshould Servants forbid to go to him and the Kings putting some of them out and others in their places Voted to be an injury to the Parliament Messengers were sent for the apprehending of some Earls and Barons about him and some of his Bed-Chamber as if they had been Fellons The Lord Keepers going to him with the great Seal when he sent for him Voted to be a breach of priviledge and pursued with a warrant directed to all Mayors Bayliffs to apprehend him Cause the Kings Rents and Revenues to be brought in to them and forbid any to be 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 Rooms and many of his own Servants tempted and procured by rewards and maintenance to tarry with them and be false and active against him The twenty sixt day of May 1642. a Declaration is sent to the King but printed and published before he 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 peopl have any right The Soveraign power resides in both Houses of Parlament The King hath no Negative voyce The levying of Warre against the personall commands of the King though accompanied with his presence is not a levying of Warre against the King but a levying War against his Laws and authority which they have power to Declare is levying of War against the King Treason cannot be committed against his person otherwise then as he was intrusted They have power to judge whether he discharge his trust or not that if they should follow the highest precedents of other Parliaments Paterns there would be no cause to complain of want of modesty or duty in them and that it belonged only to them to judge of the Law 27 Of May The King by his Proclamation forbids all his Subjects and trayned bands of the Kingdom to Rise March or Muster But the Parliament on the same day Command all Sheriffs Justices of the Peace and Constables within one hundred 50 miles of York to seize and make stay of all Armes and Amunition going thither And Declaring the said Proclamation to bee voyd in Law Command all men to Rise Muster and March and not to Muster or March by any other Authority or Commission and the Sheriffs of all Counties the morrow after Commanded with the posse Comitatus to suppress any of the Kings Subjects that should be drawn thither by his Command Secure and seize upon the Magazines of the Counties Protect all that are Delinquents against him make all to be Delinquents that attend him and censure and put out of the House of Peers nine Lords at once for obeying the Kings summons and going to him 3 June 1642. The King summoning the Ministers Gentry and Free-holders of the County of York declared to them the reasons of providing himselfe a guard and that he had no intention to make a War and the morrow after forbad the Lord Willoughby of Parham to Muster and train the County of Lincolne who under colour of an Ordinance of Parlament for the Militia had began to do it 10. June 1642. The Parlament by a Declaration signifying That the King intended to make a War against his Parlament invited the Citizens of London and all others well affected as they pleased to miscall them within eighty miles of the City to bring money and plate into the Guild-Hall London and to subscribe for Men Horses and Arms to maintain the Protestant Religion the Kings Person and Authority free course of Justice Laws of the Land and priviledges of Parlament and the morrow after send 19 propositions to the King That the great affairs of the Kingdom and Militia may be mannaged by consent and approbation of Parlament all the great Officers of Estate Privy Councell Ambassadors and Ministers of State and Judges to be chosen by them that the Government Education and Marriage of the Kings Children be by their consent and approbation and all the Forts and Castles of the Kingdome under the Command and Custody of such as they should approve of and that no Peers to be made hereafter should sit or vote in Parliament without the consent of Parliament with several other demands which if the King should have granted would at once in effect not onely have undone and put his subjects out of his protection but have deposed both himself and his posterity and then they would proceed to regulate his Revenue and deliver up the Town of Hull into such hands as the King by consent and approbation of Parliament should appoint But the King having the same day before those goodly demands came to his hands being a greater breach of his former priviledges then his demanding of the five Members and Kimbolton it it had not been lawfull for him so to doe could be of theirs granted a Commission of Array for the County of Leicester to the Earl of Huntington and by a letter sent along with it directed it for the present onely to Muster and Array the Trained Bands And 13. June 1642. Declared to the Lords attending him at York That he would not engage them in any War against the Parliament unless it were for his necessary defence whereupon the L. Keeper Littleton who a little before had either been affrighted or seduced by the Parliament to vote their new Militia The Duke of Richmond Marquess Hartford Earl of Salisbury Lord Gray of Ruthen now Earl of Kent and divers Earls and Barons engaged not to obey any Order or Ordinance concerning the Militia had not the Royal assent to it And fourteenth of June 1642. Being informed That the Parliament endeavoured to borrow great summs of money of the City of London and that there was great labour used to perswade his Subjects to furnish horse and money upon pretence of providing a guard for the Parliament By his letter to the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Sheriffs of London disavowing any purpose of making a War declared That He had not the least thought of raising or using of Forces unless he should be compelled to doe it for his own defence and forbiddeth therefore the lending of money or raising
Damer in Com. Darby Shoomaker Humphrey Browne of Whitsundine in Com. Rutland Yeoman David Evans of Abergeveny in Com. Monmouth Smith Robert Holmes of Robert Williams of Samuel Woorden of Lineham in Com. Wilts Gent. Thomas Read of Maidstone in Com. Kent Gent. George Cornwall of Aston in Com. He. reford Forgeman William Jones of Uske in Com. Monmouth Husbandman Arthur Young Citizen and Barber-Chirurgion of London Diogenes Edwards of Carston in Com. Salop Butcher John Bennet of Harwood in Com. Ebor. Glover William Cutbert of Patrington in Holderness in Com Ebor. Gent. Richard Price of London Serivener Henry Gouch of Grays-Inn Gent. The true manner of proceeding to take off the Kings Head according to the Sentence given as aforesaid SIr Hardress Waller Colonel Harrison Commissary General Ireton Colonel Dean and Colonel Okey were appointed to consider of the Time and Place for the Execution of the King according to his Sentence given by the pretended High Court of Justice Painted-Chamber Monday January the 29th 1648. UPon Report made from the Committee for considering of the Time and Place of the Executing of the Judgment against the King that the said Committee have Resolved That the open street before Whitehal is a fitting place And the said Committee conceive it fit That the King be there executed the cuorrow the King having already notice thereof The Court approved thereof and ordered a Warrant to be drawn to that purpose which Warrant was accordingly drawn and agreed to and Ordered to be ingrossed which was done and signed and sealed accordingly as followeth At the High Court of Justice for the Trying and Judging Charles Stuart King of England Jan. 29. 1648. VVHereas Charles Siuart king of England is and standeth Convicted Attainted and Condemned of High Treason and other Crimes and Sentence on Saturday last was pronounced against him by this Court to be put to Death by the severing his head from his body of which Sentence Execution yet remaineth to be done These are therefore to will and require you to see the said Sentence Executed in the open street before White-hall upon the morrow being the 30. day of this instant Moneth of January between the hours of Ten in the morning and Five in the afternoon of the same day with full ef fect and for so doing this shall be your sufficient Warrant and these are to require all Officers and Soldiers and other the good People of England to bee assistant unto you in this service Given under our hands and Seals To Colonel Francis Hacker Col. Huncks and Lievtenant Colonel Phray and to every of them Sealed and Subscribed by John Bradshaw President Thomas Gray Oliver Cromwell Edward Whaley John Okey John Danvers Mich. Livesey John Bourcher Henry Ireton Tho. Maleverer Jo. Blackston Jo. Hutchison William Goffe Tho. Pride Henry Smith Vincent Potter William Constable Rich. Ingoldsby William Cawley John Barkstead Isaac Ewer Val. Walton Peter Temple Tho. Harrison Joh. Hewson Pet. Pelham Richard Dean Robert Titchburn Hump. Edwards Dan. Blagrave Owen Roe Will. Purifoye Adrian Scroop James Temple Aug. Garland Edmon Ludlow Hen. Martin Jo. Alured Robert Lilburn Will. Say Anthony Stapley Gregory Norton Tho. Chaloner Tho Wogan Simon Meyne Tho. Horton Jo. Jones Jo. Moore Hadress Waller Gilbert Millington Ch. Fleetwood Jo. Venn Greg. Clement Jo Downs Tho. Wait. Tho Scot. John Carew Miles Corbet In all Fifty eight Ordered That the Scaffold on which the King is to be executed be covered with black The warrant for executing the King being accordingly delivered to those parties to whom the same was directed Execution was done upon him according to the Tenour thereof about two of the clock in the afternoon of the said 30th of January 1648. The fatall day of the said Execution being Tuesday January the 30. 1648. HIs Majesty continued in prayer all the morning and receive the Sacrament just at Ten of the Clock before noon he was conveyed on foot from St. James's Palace to Whitehall guarded by a Regiment of foot Souldiers part before part behind with Colours flying and Drums beating his private guard of Partizans about him and Dr. Juxon Bishop of London next to him on one side and Colonell Tomlinson on the other being come to Whitehall he continued in his Cabinet Chamber at his devotions refusing to dine only about 12 a clock he eat a bit of bread and drank a glasse of Claret Wine from thence he was conveyed into the Banquetting house and the great window inlarged out of which he ascends the Scaffold the rails being hung round and the floor covered with black His Executioners disguised with Vizards yet was his Majesty not affrighted He shewed more care of the people living then of himself dying for looking upon the people whom the thick guards of Souldiers kept a great distance off and seeing he could not be heard by them omitting probably what hee purposed to have spoken to them therefore turning to the Officers and actors by him he delivered himself in a short but excellent Speech which being ended he meekly went to prayers and after some heavenly discourse between him and the Bishop having prepared himself he lifted up his eyes to heaven mildly praying to himself he stooped down to the block as to a prayer-desk most humbly bowed his generous Neck to God to be cut off by the Vizarded Executioner which was suddainly done at one blow Thus fell King Charles and thus all Britian with him A SHORT HISTORY OF His Royall Majesty our most Gracious SOVERAIGN Charles the Second KING of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. Third Monarch of Great Brittain London Printed by Henry Bell and are to be sold by most Book-sellers 1660. A Short HISTORY OF His Royall Majesty King CHARLES the Second c HAving I hope sufficiently cleared his late Royall majesty from that execrable sin of blood-guiltinesse to every one that is not wilfully blind I shall now crave leave to give the Reader a short account of the Life and hitherto sorrowfull Raign of our most Gracious and Dread Soveraign Charles the Second King of England Scotland France and Ireland Defendeâ—â— of the Faith c. No sooner was this mighty Prince barbarously butchered before his own doors to the astonishment and griefe of the greatest part of his Subjects throughout his Dominions And the three Lords Hamilton Capel and Holland which had taken up Arms in his late Majesties defence but now Monarchy the darling of the people together with the House of Peers is voted chargeable unnecessary and useless and the Government changed into a Free State neither did this mutation happen for want of such as by a lineall discent and according to the usage of this Nation might pretend a Title to the Crown for there was a plentifull issue of his late Majesty both male and female then surviving but from the aspiring greatness of some who had wrested the power into their own hands to this end it was
Ordinance out of the Tower of London to fortifie the Castle of Warwick And 9. July 1642. Order That in case the Earl of Northampton should come into that County with a Commission of Array they should raise the Militia to suppress him And that the Common Counsell of London should consider of a way for the speedy raising of the 10000 Foot and that they should be listed and put in pay within four days after 11. July 1642. The King sends to the Parlament to cause the Town of Hull to be delivered unto him and desires to have their answer by the 15 of that month 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 be forthwith raised for the defence of the Kings person and both houses of Parlament and those who have obeyed their Orders and Commands in preserving the true Religion the Laws Liberties and the Peace of the Kingdom and that they would live and dye with the Earl of Essex whom they nominate Generall in that cause And 12. July 1642. Declare that they will protect all that shal be imployed in their assistance and Militia And 16 July 1642. Petition the King to forbear any preparations or actiōs of War and to dismiss his extraordinary guards to come nearer to them and hearken to their advice but before the Petition could be answered wherein the King offered when the Town of Hull should bee delivered to Him he would no longer have an Army before it and should be assured that the some pretence which took Hull from him may not put a Garison into Newcastle into which after the Parlaments surprise of Hull He was inforced to place a Governour and a small Garrison He would also remove that Garrison and so as his Magazine and Navy might be delivered unto him all Armies and Levies made by the Parlament laid down the pretended Ordinance for the Militia disavowed and the Parlament adjourned to a secure place he would lay down Arms and repair to them and desired all differences might be freely debated in a Parlamentary way whereby the Law might recover its due reverence the Subject his just Liberty Parlaments their ful vigour and estimation and the whole Kingdom a blessed Peace and Prosperity and requiring their answer by the 27. of that July promised til then not to make any attempt of force upon Hull had armed their General 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 General of the Horse 8. August 1642. Upon information that some of the Town of Portsmouth had revolted to Colonell Goring being but sent thither with a message from the King and Declared for his Majestie Order forces to be sent thither speedily to beleaguer it by Land and the Earle of Warwick to send thither 5. Ships of the Navy to prevent any forraign forces coming to their assistance and upon Intelligence that the Earle of Northampton appeared with great strength at Banbury to hinder the Lo. Brooks for carrying the picces of Ordnance to Warwick Ordered 5000 Horse and Foot to be 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 to have the Magazine of the Connty to be delivered unto them Gave power to the Earl of Essex their Lord Generall the Lord Brook and others to apprehend the Marquis of Hartford and Earl 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 two days before declaring the Earl of Essex and all that should adhere unto him in the levying of Forces and not come in and yield to His Majesty within six days to be Travtors◠vote the said Proclamation to be against the fundamental Laws of the Kingdom Declare their resolutions to maintain and assist the Earl of Essex and resolve to spend no more time in Declarations and Petitions but to endeavour by raising of Forces to suppress the Kings Party though all that the Kings loyal Subjects did at that time for Him was but to execute the Commission of Array in the old legal way of the Militia and within a day or two after ordered the Earl of Essex their Lord General to set forth with his Army of Horse upon the Monday following but not so much as an Answer would be afforded to the Kings Message sent from Hull where whilst He 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 Angust 1642. The King though He might well understand the great leavies of Men and Arms 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 be as equally observed as those which most of all concerned His own interest and rights and that his quarrel was not against the Parliament but particular men and therefore desired That the Lord Kimbolton Mr. Hollis Sir Hen Ludlow Sir Arthur Hasilrig Mr. Strode Mr. Martin Mr. Hampden Alderman Pennington and Captain Venne might be delivered into the hands of Justice to be tried by their Peers according to the known Laws of the Land and against the Earls of Essex Warwick Stamford Lord Brooks Sir John Hotham Major General Skippon and those who should exercise the Militia by vertue of the Ordinance he would cause Indictments to be drawn of high Treason upon the Statute of 25 Edw. 3. and if they submit to trial and plead the Ordinance would rest satisfied if they should be acquitted But when this produced as little effect as all other endeavours He had used for peace He that saw the Hydra in the mud and slime of Sedition in its Embrio birth and growth and finds him now erected ready to devour him must now though very unwilling to cast off His beloved Robe of Peace forsake an abused patience and believe no more in the hopes of other remedies had so often deceived Him but if He will give any account to the Watchman 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 judgment and discretion betake Himself to the Sword which God had intrusted Him with and therefore 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
in the matter of fact hath hitherto among the wisest Princes and Commonwealths in the World been reputed a just and warrantable cause of War Homicide by the Lawes of England shall be excused with a fe defendendo when the assaulted hath but simply defended himself or retired in his own defence so far till by some water or wall he be hindred from going any further Death and destruction marching towards the King Hull fortified and kept behind him and all manner of necessitie compassing him in on every side could then doe no less then rouze him up to make his own defence and he must be as much without his senses as care of his own preservation if he should not then think it to be high time to make ready to defend himself and necessity enough to excuse him for any thing should be done in order to it The Parliament and He as this case stood could not be both at one and the same time in the defensive part For they had all the Money Arms Ammunition and strength of the Kingdom in their hands and multitudes of deluded people to assist them and so hunted and pursued from place to place as it was come to be a saying and a by-word among the apprentices and new levied men at London they would goe a King-catching and were not likely therefore to be guilty of so much patience as the King who was so much in love with peace and so thirsted after it as that and his often sending Messages and Propositions for it would not suffer him to make use of any victories or advantages God had given him Twice did he suffer the Earl of Essex to attempt to force him from Oxford and Sir Thomas Fairfax once to beleager him when he had Power enough to have made London or the associate Counties the Seat of the War and it would be something strange that he who when he had raised forces against his Scottish Rebels and found himself in the Head of so gallant an Army as he had much adoe to keep them from fighting and his enemies so ridiculously weak as he might have subdued them but with looking upon them but a fortnight longer could not be perswaded to draw a Sword against them would now begin an offensive warre without any power or strength at all against those that had before-hand ingrossed it or what policy or wisedome could it be in him to begin a War without Money or Men or Armes to goe through with it or to refuse the assistance of his Catholique Subjects and Forrain Friends and Forces or to spend so much time in Messages and offers of Peace to give them time and ability to disarm him and arm themselves if he had not utterly abhorred a War and as cordially affected peace as he offered fair enough for it Or if we could but tell how to say that the King did begin the War when what he did was but to preserve his Regality and the Militia and Protection of his people which the Parliament in express terms as well as by Petitioning for it acknowledged it to be his Own being but that which every private man that had but money or friends would not neglect to do Did he any more in seeking to preserve his Regality then to defend and keep himself from a breach of trust they fought to make him break Or did he any more then seek to defend himself against those did all they could to force him to break it or could there be a greater perjury or breach of trust in the Kingly office than to put the Sword which God had given him into the hands of mad-men or fools or such as would kill and slay and undo their fellow-subjects with it or to deliver up the protection of his people into the hands of a few of their ambitious fellow-subjects did as much break their own trust to those they represented in asking of it as the King would havedone if he had granted it or why shall it not be accounted an inculpata tutela in the King to preserve and defend that by a War the Laws of God and Man his Coronation-Oath Honour and Conscience and a duty to Himself and his Posterity as well as to his people would not permit him to stand still and suffer to be taken away from him But if the King by any manner of construction could be blamed or censured for denying to grant the Militia which was the first pretence of beginning of the War by those that sought to take it from him for till the besieging of Hull the 16. of July 1642. after many other affronts attempts of as high a nature put upon him the most malicious interpretation of the matter of Fact cannot find him so much as at all to have defended himself as to have done any one act of War or so much as like it who shall be in the fault for all that was done after when he offered to condiscend to all that might be profitable for his people in the matter of Religion Lawes and Liberties Or was it not a just cause of War to defend himself and his people against those would notwithstanding all he could doe and offer make a War against him because he would not contrary to his Oath Magna Charta and so many other Laws he had sworn to observe betray or deliver up his people into their hands to be governed or rather undone by a greater latitude of Arbitrary power then the great Turk or Crim Tartar ever exercised upon their enslaved people and put the education and marriage of his own Children out of his power was never sought to be taken out of the hand of any Father who was not a fool or a mad-man nor yielded to by any who would have the credit to be accounted 〈◊〉 wise or because he would not denude himself of the power of conferring honours or vilifie or discredit his great and lesser Seals and the Authority of them from which many mens Estates and Honours and the whole current of the Justice of the Kingdome had their original and refused to perjure himself by abolishing Episcopacy which Magna Charta and some dozens of other laws bound him to preserve Or if that be not enough to justifie him in his own defence had he not cause enough to deny and they little enough to ask Liberty of Conscience and practice to Anabaptists Blasphemers of God denieâ—s of the Trinity Scriptures and Deity of Christ when the Parliament themselves had taken a Covenant to root them out and made as many of the people as they could force to take it with them or had he not cause enough to deny to set up the Presbyterian Authority would not even have taken away his own Authority but have done the like also with the Lawes and Liberties of the Nation and the ruling part of that they now call the Parliament utterly abhor or if all that could not make the War be made to be defensive
out of prison and causing the Souldiers not onely to cut and kill divers of the County of Surrey in the very act of Petitioning the Parliament for a Treaty of Peace with the King and sequester many of them for putting their hands to it with disabling the Citizens of London for bearing any office in the City or Common wealth for but putting their hands to the petition for the Treaty though Cromwel himself had not long before set on som to petition for it and the ruine undoing of 2 parts of 3 in the Kingdome very many of whom did nothing actually in the Wars but were onely sacrificed to their pretended reasons and jealousies of State do sufficiently proclame and remain the woful Registers to after-generations of this lamentable assertion If the King could have gotten but so much leave of his mercy and a tenderheartednesse to his people as to have used but the five-hundredth part of the Parliaments jealousies and sharp and merciless authority in the managing of this Warre so much of his Kingdomes and people had not been undone and ruined nor the Parliament put to so much labour to coyn faults and scandals against him nor to wrest the Lawes to non-sense and the Scriptures to Blasphemy to justifie their most horrid act of murthering him but for seeking to preserve the Lawes and Liberties of his people who are now clearly cheated out of them And here our misery tells us we must leave them and in the next place shall remember for indeed it is so plain it needs no enquiry CHAP. VI. Who most desired Peace and offered fairliest for it TH'bundant 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 he would have done so many Declarations Answers and Messages penned by himself intending as much as his words could signifie and were believed and understood by all at that time that were not interessed or engaged 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 Trial of a King without either warrant or colour of Scripture or the Lawes of the Kingdome 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 be otherwise interpreted unlesse we shall say Ravillac might have justified his killing Henry the Fourth of France if he 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 be as pillars and lasting Monuments of this Truth The King was the onely desirer of Peace and laboured and tugged harder for it than ever Prince or King Heathen or Christian fince Almighty God did his first dayes work did ever doe with Superiors Equals or Subjects and it will be no wrong certainly to David whose sufferings are so much remembred in all Christian Churches complaining so bitterly that he sought peace with those that refused it and in the mean time prepared for War against him To say the King did suffer more and offer more and oftner for peace than ever he did for any thing is extant or appearing to us for surely so many Messages of Peace as one and twenty in two years space from the 5. of December 1645. to the 25. of Decem. 1647. sent to the Parliament after so many affronts and discouragements must needs excuse him that offered all could be imagined to be for the good and safety of his people and condemn those that not onely from time to time refused it but adhered so much to their first intentions as all the blood and ruine 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 term of his life and in a manner to un-king himself and was afterwards content to doe all that his Coronation-Oath Honour and Conscience could possibly permit him to do and to purchase a peace for his people was content to have born the shame reproach of what his enemies were onely guilty of insomuch as the Lord Say himself and most of his ever-craving never safe enough Disciples confessed the King had offered so much as nothing more could be 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 own but the Parliament would never yield to part with any thing was not their own And thus may the account be quickly cast up between the King and Parliament who would have saved the people from misery and who was most unwilling to make an end of it But that we may not too hastily give the sentence to try the businesse aâ— they use to do at the Councel of War or the new invented way of Justice sitting with their Will or the Sword onely in one hand and no Ballance at all in the other We shall in the next place examine CHAP. VII Who laboured to shorten the War and who to lengthen it THe odds was so great betwixt what the Parliament laboured to get and the King to keepe as that which sways the balance in most mens actions will be argument enough to conclude they were more likely to lose by a peace than a war therefore the more willing to continue it and if their own Interests would not put them so far upon it their vain-glory and ambition would be forward enough to perswade them to it and if not that the success of their arms or miscalled providence would make them look as experience tells us they did upon any tenders of peace as Alexander the Great did upon Darius his offer oâ— half his Kingdom and if not that their feares and jealousies now grown greater by wronging of the King than ever they were when they suspected him could never think it safe to let an inraged Lion into his Denne they had so long kept out of it But the King could not fight for his own but he must adventure the undoing of his own and could not but know that so much as was lost of his Subjects would be so much lost of a King and therefore doth all he can to preserve a People had no minde to preserve themselves and before He had gathered up the Bayes He won at Edge-hill sends a Proclamation of pardon to those that the day before did all they could to kill him and in
the Steward or an appeal may take a way the inconvenience of it A way of government worse then to be subject to the rule of so many fools for they might perchance doe that would be just or so many Knaves who but in playing the Knaves one with another or for reward might sometimes do that which was right or Mad-men which at intervals might do something which was reasonable worse then for every subject of England to be put to play at dice for his life or estate or any thing else he should crave a Justice to get or keep for then he might by skill or chance obtain something In fine worse then any example or way of Government the world hath as yet produced and can have nothing worse but Hell it self The Parliament and priviledges of it are destroyed and every mans life and estate in no better a condition then at the pleasure of the next pretenders to it All the Charters and Liberties of Cities and Corporate Towns Corporations of Trade and Companies of Merchants made void all the Merchandise Trade and Manufacture of the Kingdom laid open and in common to every one that will intrude upon it all that is in the Law concerning our Lives Estates Liberties and Religion made void and dependant upon the Arbitrary Independent power all that is in the Law concerning Navigation the Kings Protection of his people certainty of Customes Trade and Entercourse Leagues and Correspondencies with Forrain Princes expired or annihilated and all that our Fore-fathers have obtained by way of Lawes and Settlement and certainty of Estate are now at dispose of our vote-mongers who in stead of a most pious and gracious King governing by known Lawes have set us up 43. or 50. Kings and ten times as many more Knaves and Fools who will govern by no Law but such as they shall call Lawes and make themselves can be accusers witnesses and Judges at one and the same time and if need be condemn and take away mens Estates first and try them after two or three yeares Petitioning for it a bondage slavery in the general more then ever any of our Ancestors tasted of For the Romans whose Justice and Morality at home and Vertue and Temperance abroad made them free enough from Tyranny did but make them as Tributaries The Picts made but temporary incursions and a wall could be made against them The Saxons and Danes brought us good Lawes and William the Conquerour was content to restore them And all that succeeded him since understood a government by Lawes to be their own as well as the peoples security but this which they have now brought upon us and would keep us under is a misery beyond that was suffered under the 30. Tyrants of Athens Spartan Ephori or Romes Decemvirat for there were something of Lawes and Rules to govern by The Children of Israel in the Egyptian slavery had a property in their goods and cattel and were at liberty to serve a better God then that of their Masters and though they had their burdens doubled upon them were not kill'd imprisoned or sequestred for petitioning against the sense of Pharaoh The Jewes in Captivity had so much liberty of Conscience allowed to them as to play upon their Harps and sing the Songs of Sion in a strange Land The frozen Russians though so dull and ignorant as when they are asked any matter of State or difficulty make answer God and the great Duke knoweth breath not under so Arbitrary lawlesse a government The Grecians had not their Lawes Religion and Liberties as we have all at once taken from them nor can the sufferings of them or any other vassals of the Ottoman Port or those that live under the Crim Tartar equal the one half of our English slavery Into which we had never fallen or come at all or so long groaned under had we but served God and the King as we ought to have done and not wrâ—sted the sense as well as the plain words of the Scripture and the Lawes of the Land to enable the sons of Zerviah to be too hard for us and bring all manner of mischief confusion and wickednesse upon us more then Romes and Constantinoples Antichrist ever brought upon a people and from which the King had delivered us if we had not Cursed Reviled Prayed Contributed and Fought against him for endeavouring to Protect us How gracious then was he who endured the heat of the day and cold of the night to preserve a great deal more for us then Nabals sheep could amount unto yet being worse used then ever David was for it could not tell how so much as to threaten to doe that which David had so great a mind to doe but fought as long as he could to Protect them would not so much as defend themselves but did all they could to ruine those that defended him And how much was he beyond Codrus the Athenian King the Roman Curtius or Decii if all that the Ancients wrote of them were true who sacrificed themselves but not their Estates and Posterity to preserve the Publique and how good beyond example or the credit of any History who made himself a Martyr for his peoples lives and liberties and endured so many deaths and suffered more indignities then all the Kings of England put together have ever endured to preserve a people have for a great part of them either by Rebellion or an accursed Newtrality helped to ruine him and when he knew whatsoever Conditions or Propositions he should be forced to yield unto would by the Law of God as well as the Civil and Common Law the Lawes of Nature and Nations and the dictates of every common mans reason and apprehension have been void in the very making of them and could not have reached to his Posterity and that if he would but have surrendred up his people and gone along with their new Masters in their Arbitrary and Tyrannical government as some of his last words upon the Scaffold plainly intimate and sided with 20. or 30. of the Faction and delivered up the sheep to the Wolves he might no doubt have had a good part of the Fleece to his own share or but wirh Sampson have pleased himself with revenge and delivered up a people to Slavery were at so much expence of Treasure and Blood and their own Soules to bring their Soveraign to it might have worn the Title of a King and played the wanton with Sardanapalus in the company and delight of women pleased his palat with Vitellius his pride if he had any with Bassianus his cruelty if he could ever have been guilty of it with Commodus and with Childerick the lazy King of France in a Chariot deck't with garlands whilst others governed for him been at certain times of the year onely exhibited to the people and like the Minotaure of Creete wallowed in the labyrinth of Parliament Priviledges and devoured his people did notwithstanding refuse to