bodies and in divers ways the more to distract our Armies where you ought to remember that this State hath both in Scotland and the adjacent parts a very considerable force to encounter these Invaders but admit again that the King advances so far as York though you cannot imagine but that he will be fought with twice or thrice over before he comes thither with fresh men and not unlikely rebeaten as at all places he hath been but let us again admit that he sâ—rmounts all difficulties both by Sea and Land and becomes victorious and triumphantly marches towards London and that the States Force cannot withstand him and that on the noise of such sad news the prevailing party as you are pleased to stile them being confoundâ—d with terrour betake themselves to their heels as their ultimum refugium and the best way to shist for themselves and that after this all is left to the Kings absolute disposement as all this not impossible but exceeding improbable what then on such sudden change of fortune think you may be the issnes thereof and what advantage either to your party or the generality of the people and all Countries through which his Armies shall march and Quarter accompaned with so many Nations diveâ—sly affected Prel I confess the people must neâ—essarily suffer and haply in a greater measure then hitherto they have done yet am I confident his Majesty will be very sensible of their sufferings and in prevention of their farther oppression and for settling of all things will immediately call a new Parliament and reduce it to the antient Form and Institution of the three Estates King Lords Spiritual and Temporal with the Commons and then commit all things to a sober legal and Parliamentary discussion and in what manner restitution may be made of his own Lands and goods the Churches Patrimony with the many other loosers of his own party and after all this in detestation of the foulness of the late War and bloodshed to buâ—y all discontents and heart-burnings as Judge Jenkins very jâ—diciously proposes in an Act of Oblivion with free pardon to all except some special persons that had a principal hand in his Fathers death and for all other of his Subjects to spare and cherish them in what possible his affaits will permit Patri Doctor excuse me since I utterly dissent from your opinion for it stands not with reason or with the Kings then present affaires to take a piece of that course which you suppose and should he be willing there would be so many of the old Cavalry attending his person as well Natives as Forraigners which would thrust in to be served and gratified that he should not be suffered to put in practise a title of that which is by you so vainly surmised but you may build upon 't he would take a clean contrary course and such a one as the necessity of his then urgent occasions would inforce and not tie up himself to his own disadvantage by an Act of Oblivion which necessarily must disable him either to help himself or friends when the power is in his hands to do what he pleaseth and carve as he listeth Prel Since you are so diffident of his Majesties good nature and intentions towards his Subjects tell us I beseech you what you conceive he will do for the speedy settling of peace and amity through the three Kingdoms Patri May I obtain your liceâ—ce and a favourable construction of that which I shall deliver I will tender my opinion and leave you all to make your own judgments thereon In the first place I believe that whereas then he comes in by the sword in order to his necessities he would rule by the sword and by an Army with Garrisons throughout the Land as now the States upon the point do and must do if they mean to go through stitch with their work and thenceforth begin a new Government as in like manner the States here intend to do the Laws of the Land which under the present power the people yet enjoy as they were wont to do in quiet and peaceable times would necessarily be subverted and turn'd topsie-turvie and such introduced in their room as should best sute with the will and pleasure of a Prince that comes in by Conquest and by the same power will have them to be no other then agrees with his Affairs and resolutions or as they are in France if not worse and more absolute where a single paper signed under the Kings hand hath the same efficacy as an Act of Parliament in England and in order to this you must expect that his mercenary Souldiers must and would be remembred If you demand in what I answer with the whole plunder of London as the readiest means to give them all content for their service and if this seem strange to you I pray call to minde that in the late Kings time when no occasion of wars or raising of Armies in any reason were necessary to be levied but such as our late Grandees the Earl of Strafford Canterbury and Cottington would have to be raised against the Scots that Earl spake it openly at the Councel-Table 1640 and to no other man then the Lord Mayor Sir Henry Garway and others of the Aldermen upon their refusing to lend the king 100000 l. for the Scotch War It will never do well says he till the King hangs half a dozen of you Aldermen and then put the whole City to ransome Which was proved against him at his Arraignment neither did the king forbear the seizing of the Mint for supply of that needless War so that 't is evident when Princes have power they will make no scruple to act any thing that conduceth to their designs or to take all things where they can finde it as 't is well known he did in the late barbarous War neither will it be impertinent to put you in remembrance of another instance of this kinde when at or before the beginning of the War the king took his journey towards Scotland and overtook the Scotch Army in their march homewards 1641 where he dealt with the principal Commanders to turn head on the Parliament in reward whereof they should have the plunder of London with Jewels for security an overture which some of them were not so dishonest as to conceal but gave notice thereof to the City and their own Commissioners then here residing Now if you farther demand What the present Pretender would do in the pre-supposed case I shall again answer you that in reason of State which with Kings and Conquerors hath an Of the miserable condition that will befal the Nation especially the City of London in case the Scots Pretender comes in by the sword immense latitude he would and could do no less then to take present order for the satisfaction of his Country-men the Scots as also for gratifying the proscribed and fugitive Lords Cavaleers both English Scotch and Irish which first
at Oxford 1642. when to all mens thinkâ—ng the King was in a sairer way to have carried all before him that after the destruction of the Parliament the King undoubtedly was resolved both to alter the Laws and change the Government hang all the Parliament men at Westminster for high Treason and then banish all the Puritans in England and next the design was to take the same couâ—se with the Presbyterians of Scotland as the greatest Enemies to Monarchy and Episcopacy in the World and if ever the King comes to be Master and in the way wherein I doubt not but he shall be with the sword in his hand and we of the Cavalry at his heels if he hangs not ten thousand of these Puritans Independants and Presbyterians I shall for ever hereafter judge him uncapable of the managery of any other Scepter then that of a sweetch or an honâ—st riding rod and be confident Genâ—lemen of the truth of this Story in confirmation whereof I remember that my Master commissioned the chief Justice Heath the Atturney Harbert with divers more of our Lawyers at Oxford to go in their Circuits as I remember they cal'd their Commissions of Oyer and Terminer with Authority to hang all those as they well deserved of the Parliaments party but a pox take them they were so much aforehand with us of his Majesties party that the King was compeld to * The reasons of the late Kings withdrawing of his commissions of Oyer and Terminer retract his Commissions for saving of such of his own party then in the Parliaments custody though one Francklin whom I took prisoner at Marleborough and one Sir Hugh Owins Burgess of Haverford-West both Parliament Members the first whereof indeed dyed in prison at Oxford before his Tryal but as to the other I well remember he was design'd by the King himself to be tryed in his own Country and for High Treason however as afterward I heard he escaped the halter but no otherwise then for the reasons before told you moreover I am confident that if his Majesty that now is comes once to ride on the fore-horse he will not fail to make sure work with all * The late Kings design to quit himself of all Parliaments Parliaments and that neither himself or Successors shall stand in fear to be farther controuled by them or made slaves to their Subjects Prel Gentlemen you have all spoken according to your fancies and affections sure I am 't is very fit that restitution should be made where estates have been been injuriously taken from the right Owners and services rewarded by him for whose use and benefit they were performed and 't is Divinity That the Labourer is worthy of his hire but in case the King cannot come to his own otherwise then by the sword I say that such as shall assist and enable him to obtain that which no man can deny to be rightsully his own ought in all equity to be recompenc't by some means or other for as the present condition of the King now stands I see no other means left him but by seisure of the Parliaments estates and plunder of the City from whom my late innocent Master received his bane and the Parliament the means both to furnish and maintain an Army against him at an instant Patri Pardon me good Doctor since I perceive you somewhat mistake me for I say not that in case the King comes in by the sword he then ought to ransack the City but that of necessity he will be compel'd to do it otherwise the Souldiers will of courle do it of themselves since 't is well known to be the design of the Royal party both at home and abroad to be revenged on the Citizens whensoever opportunity serves them for 't is confest on all hands that in the beginning of the War they voluntarily came in with their moneys jewels and plate and trusted it on the publick Faith without which on an instant the Parliament could not possibly raise and pay such an Army as they did and there is no doubt on 't that in case the King shall make scruple to plunder the City yet am I confident he shall be sufficiently prest and invited to do it or at least to impose such a ransome on it as the Citizens shall never be able to undergo but God forbid either of them should be put in execution Thraso Now Patriotus I perceive your meaning but what you would not should be put in execution rest assured If I can help it on it shall not be left undone and I farther say that in case any such opportunity shall be offered God forbid it should be omitted Neut And I am glad Colonel I know your good meaning towards the City but I hope God will so provide for us as hitherto he hath done that as yet we have not tasted of those cruelties which you of the Kings party have committed in several parts of the Land whereby you have made the Kings memory odious to the present times and future so I doubt not but the same God will preserve and defend us from your malice But I beseech you Patriotus may there not some way or other be thought upon to admit of his Majesty who now is on safe and honourable terms and such as may sute with the security of the Nation Patri Surely in my poor judgement as the late King and present Pretender hath handled the matter there are no hopes left to any of that Family by a peaceable way to re-invest themselves with the Regal Dignity but onely that of the sword and then I have already told you in plain English what in all probability will be the sad issues either continual attempts made on the present power by the Pretender or a perpetual continuation of war so long as any of the Family and dissendants of King * King James the first plotter of absolute soveraignty projector to dissolve destroy Parliaments and this design farthered by the Prelates James remain alive who to speak the truth lead the way to all our miseries and concussions both in the Church and State and his Successor pursuing his principles what through his own inclinations to absolute Soveraignty the Queens Mother and her Daughters Councels furthered by the Bishops and other corrupt instruments so brought it about both to his own ruine and the dis-inheriting of the present Pretender so fatal a thing it is when Princes will be more then of right they should be and will not remember that they are no otherwise to govern their people committed to their tuition but by the same Rules * Daniel in vita Reg. Johannis Laws and conditions as at their first ingress they received their Crowns on Oath and when the Grand father and Son shall forget their own Engagements and recede from their own principles viz. that if * Vide Basilicon Doron Kings would but consider that they are ordained of God for
unnaturally attempting to enslave themselves and their Posterity I shall particularly name some of them Judge * Lex terrae and Mr. Pryns Book Jenkins and another under the name of Mr Prynne which have avouched that the Commons were not summoned or sate in our ancient Parliaments which is a most imputent lye and false assertion as it evidently appears by those old authentick Authorities even now recited and indeed I have spent many an hour in a diligent search into Antiquities to finde out the time when our late form of King Lords and Bishops with the Commons all call'd by Writ from their respective Burroughs had its beginning though it may be enough to satisfie rational men that it hath been at least of 500 years standing if not 600 as by * Archyton Mr Lambert and many other better Authors and far better seen in the Laws then that false Judge Jenkins ever was it manifestly appears Doctor to put a period to this particular let me tell you for your own and the better satisfaction of thousands more of your opinion that new powers will have new Laws new Forms and we of the people must and ought to obey them or smart for our disobedience and so would the King have had you should have found it too true had he prevailed Prel I confess indeed you have given me full satisfaction as well to my first question Whether that relick of the late Parliament was a legal Parliament as to my last concerning the sitting of the Commons in our Antient Parliament but what say you to this new form that meerly is summoned by the power of the Souldiery and almost half Souldiers that now sit at Westminster by what right of a legal Election do they sit as a Parliament for by the Law and right of the people they were to have made choyce of their own Representative Patri By the right of the sword which in all Ages hath been the original foundation of all Laws and Powers and where that weapon hath predominance we must not altogether insist upon Law for silent leges inter arma but look upon Gods Providence with the effects which this power may produce in the issue for the good of the universal Nation since that after the States Army by Gods great blessing had no sooner freed the people from farther bloodshed and rapine the late Parliament being at ease and not playing their parts so dexterously as they might have done but minding their own interests more then that of the publick 't was thought fit by the Councel of war to put a period to their fruitless sitting as formerly they did to the Kings exorbitant Government and for his often breaches of Faith with God and his trust with the whole Nation over whom he was appointed to rule by the Laws of the Land and not by his own will and pleasure for bonus pastor ponit vitam pro ovibus the good Shepherd lays down his life for his sheep he never flayes or destroys them Thraso I hope Sir you cannot say as your intimation imports the King my late blessed Master was ever known to flay his Subjects you 'l never leave the Round-head lyes and slanders Patri No Sir I do not positively say so or that the King was guilty of pulling his Subjects skins over their heads as S. Bartholmew is reported to have been served by his cruel Persecutors but by your favor since you are so captious and uncivil to asperse me with lying and slandring as that you can do when you please on innocent children and then make them good with volleys of dam-mees other fearful Oathes and imprecations 't is well known that before the king levied war against the best Subjects he had some have had their ears cut off by the roots their bodies whipt all over in gore blood and their fore-heads branded with hot Irons no man knows well for what more then to please the great Arch-Prelate who would have it so and the Lords of the Star-Chamber and others of the High Inquisition could do no less or durst do no other then vote as he would have them and as sure it is that you and your Complices under the Kings Commissions kill'd plundered and shaved the poor innocent people wheresoever you march'c or quartered which in many places of the Land you perpetrated without mercy so that by your leave the King himself was the sole Author and cause of all the blood and miseries that besell the three Nations as himself sometimes hath confest but good Sir enough of this for it grows late and a time we must have to retreat as you my good Colonel have had a time to rob plunder and spoyl the poor people though I believe you have not purchased any great store of Lands with the remains of your stoln goods but in case you have any store left you there are yet very good peny-worths to be had of Delinquents estates and you may likewise buy wood and timber if you have any use for it if not that you will keep it by you for some other mischievous purposes and not live quietly and peaceably under the present Government the State you may be sure on 't will finde out a parcel that may serve your turn Neut Colonel I have often told you that he would be too hard for you at this kinde of fencing yet you 'l take no warning do you not understand Patriotus his meaning that the State will soon finde out a parcel of Timber for you if you stir and foment more mischief you may guess at his meaning if not take it into your second consideration that there is an intent of erecting a new Court of Justice which will tell us all our fortunes in case any of us should be over-busie and plot new insurrections Thraso A pox of him and the Court of Justice to boot that ever I saw or heard of either of them I pree-thee Doctor suffer not this round-headed-fellow thus to go away with the Bucklers and to send us away like mutes and with a flie in our ears Prel Colonel to deal plainly your langnage is insufferable at our last conference you gave the first offence and now again you are at your old lock for more boldly and uncivilly yon durst not have spoken when you were in the head of the greatest Army the King ever had the truth is you too much forget your self and think not where you are and to whom you speak should I judge of most that the Gentleman hath said I should be a Witness my self that he hath spoken truth and that with well measured Reason but I beseech you Patriotus pardon the Colonels incivility and be pleas'd to satisfie me in some particulars which I suppose you may do in a few minutes of time then I shall both thank you and wish you a good night and at your better leasure shall not fail to give you a friendly visit Sir in brief King John
was a known Tyrant an Usurper and a murtherer of his own Brothers children an Enemy to the Clergy and the greatest depopulator of the Kingdom that ever before it had and yet the States and Nobility forget all his Tyrannies misdeeds and after his poysoning at Swinsteed admitted of his innocent young Son after call'd by the name of Henry the third and soon quitted the Land of Lewis the Dolphin of France whom before they had call'd in to their assistance and to whom most of the great Lords had sworn fealty In like manner the Parliament after the deposiog of Edward the second for his Tyranny made choyce of his young Son Edward the third who proved a very galland Prince likewise on the Parliaments deposing of Richard of Burdeaux for his misgovernment the State made choyse of his cousin-german Henry of Bulling-brook who though not the next in blood and consequently an Usurper as to the right of Succession yet was he made King by consent of the Parliament and he approved himself a very wise and politick Prince whence it appears that the Parliaments and Nobility of those times had ever an eye on the next Successor or to such a one of the blood-Royal as in their judgements they conceived to be most capable and fit to undertake the kingly Government as it may be instanced in their Election of Steven Earl of Bulloyn in the absence of Maude the Empress next in blood and since that of Henry of Richmon after the killing of that Tyrant Richard of Glocester on these premises I beseech you a little extend your patience and tell me what you conceive to have been the reasons that the late Parliament not only took away the Kings life by a new president and under colour of a legal hearing to the great regret of the major part of the Nation but have rerejected the young Prince of mature years hopeful and able to govern together with the Duke of York and Glocester with all the discendents of King James and have changed the Royal Government into a Common-wealth have sold all the Lands Honours Mannors and Revenues anciently by right belonging to the Crown as the proper Inheritance of the Kings of England Now Sir By what Law of God man or reason of State they have attempted on so strange an enterprise passes my understanding especially the exclusion of the poor innocent Princes goes directly against my conscience yet if you please I shall willing hear what you can say for my better satisfaction Patri Doctor your questions necessarily will require a long search into the reasons wherefore the Parliament enterprized on so high a concernment yet in brief I shall tell you what hath been told me and by some of the late Members on the same Queres you have propounded First they say that on consideration of the Kings seldom calling and often dissolving of such Parliaments as he summoned without their due effects and that for ten years together he refused to summon any but ruled during so long an intermission at will and pleasure whereby the common interest and liberties of the people were so much invaded and so many grievances and oppressions crept both into the Church and State that when this late Parliament was through the extremity of his wants call'd the Assembly was to seek where to begin to rectifie and repair the decays of the Commonwealth which through his own misgovernment the prodigaltie and dissoluteness of the Court and Clergy had befallen the universal Nation which although he wholly then left to their rectification yet immediately thereupon he not onely went from his word and falsified his promise but by the continuance of innumerable practises and his uttermost endevors he sought nothing more then to obstruct their Reformation ruine the Parliament and put all the Kingdom into consusion by a most bloody and destructive war which the Assembly perceiving and that his intent in pursuing his designs full six years together and so long as he was able aimed at the utter overthrow of the Laws and envassaladge of the people and that he had entailed this quarrel on his Son and his Heirs-males in perpetuum how impossible then it was for the Parliament to settle a firm peace throughout the three Kingdoms by re-admitting the King full fraught though a prisoner with his wonted Principles and designs or to take in any of his Posterity afore-hand indoctrinated in their Fathers frauds and subtilties might amaze the wisest of men even Salomon himself to finde out any other way how to free the Nation from peâ—petual Tyranny and bloodshed but by cutting off both the Father and Son which were so deeply interessed in the controversie and to make the same use of their victories for the future security and indemnity of the people as the King himself intended to do in the behalf of himself and his Successor had the fortune of a Conquest befallen him thus much in general as to the grounds of the Parliaments resolution of cutting off the King and his Posterity as to the particular reasons I pray take them in their order 1. They alledge that they had no choyce left them whereby to save the Nation from utter ruine but were by the Law of necessity inforc't upon them by the King himself and of his own seeking both to cut off him and exclude his Postâ—rity 2. That having had so long patience and taken such infinite pains during all the wars after he had lost all and was a Prisoner to satisfie him from time to time in what possibly they could in all things questionable between them and on all his exceptions to reason the case all along with him in their several Answers and Replies to his Papers Expresses and Protestations attested before God and his Holy Angels pretending still how really he meant when by long and sad experience they found all his pretences fraudulent yet could they never satisfie him with any Arguments either of Law or Reason but that his own Reason his Will his Honour his Conscience must be the onely Directory to the Parliament theirs of no esteem with him 3. That notwithstanding their many Addresses and humble Petitions presented unto him after his causless recess from the Parliament for his return with honor and profit with this onely reservation to leave Delinquents to the judgement of his Supream Court they prevailed not but he defended them and was the skreen to most notorious Offendors professing still a willingness to peace and Treaties onely to get advantages when he most intended War and Conquest 4. That such was the obstinacy of his natural inclination which himself miscalls constancy from which they found it was impossible to disswade him or yeeld to any reason never so well measured by them but that they must yeeld to his though never so unreasonably prest by himself 5. That in this wilsull pursuance to obtain his most unjust ends he incorrigibly persisted to the last without the least reluctation
â—or acknowledgement that any fault was in himself until he was a Prisoner but evermore laid all the blame on the Parliament 6. That in this long persistance he had wearied and beggered all his friends and assistants at home and abroad to the desolation of three flourishing Kingdoms by the continuation of his Hostility to the destruction of a million of poor Innocent souls without any remorse of so much blood spilt more then of one man his wicked * Straford Instrument 7. That when he protested most and to the height of imprecation the Parliament at last found by the Testimony of his own Letters under his hand-writing that he meant nothing less and more contrary then to his usual Protestations 8. That neither all the Honors Mannors and Lands of the Crown or his own blood without true repentance could be a sufficient expiation to God or recompence to his subjects for the infinite bloodshed rapines and dilapidatins made on the Natives of three Kingdoms 9. That such was his insensibility of bloodshed that the many Lords Gentlemen and infinite others of inferiour quality slaughtetered in his bloody quarrel he made no other reckoning of them then this viz. that they suffered no more then of duty they were bound to do for their King which he avouched on the death of the Earl of Northampton 10. That those unjust pretences which he made under the notion of his Royal Prerogatives viz. the Militia power of War Peace Leagues Treaties Array of the people his negative Voyce in all Parliaments pardoning of Murderers and Fellons condemned by the Laws of the Land were all at his only disposure whereas by the known Laws of the Realm they have been onely entrusted and conferr'd on our Kings by the indulgence of the people in their Representatives as hereafter shall manifestly appear 11. That all his Treaties with the Parliament for peace were persidious and his Propositions evermore umbrated under â—pecious pretexts subtilties subtersuges and mental reservations as 't was evident in that at Colebrook and Vxbridge and more apparent by his own Letters to the Duke of * Vide The Kings Letters to the Duke of Rich. mond with others to the Queen Richmond viz. Not to forget to cajole well the Scots and by that at Oxford by Registring in the Councel-books his calling them a Parliament with mental reservations though not ex animo so acknowledged yet summoned by his own Writs and often so esteemed and call'd by himself and acknowledged to be a legal Parliament by his own mungril Conventicle at Oxford 12 That in all his Declarations and Expresses to the Parliament he evermore seemed to have a tender regard both towards them and the people when he onely intended his own interests with the advance of the Soveraignty to absoluteness by the power of the sword and to convey his designs to his Successors as in the instance of the * Vide One of the Kings Expresses where he yeelds the Militia during his own life but not sor his Sons Militia is most perspicuous when he perceived that the Parliament would no longer trust so dangerous weapons in his hands 13. That some of his best friends suspected him to be too much vers't in the Florentine Principles as indoctrinated by a French and Italian party constantly resident in his own Court and stickled on by the inâ—usions of the Queen-Mother the Daughter both which had gained a great interest had chiefest influence on his Concels and as'tis well known was wholy governed as the Queen lifted and at last his inclinations so strictly tyed up as that they were not subject to any other alteration then as she prescribed which was a Rule to whatsoever he undretook 14. That he was not wanting to himself for promoting of his arbitrary designs to make use of Machiavels principle Divide impera evermore to sow divisions and to cherish any dissention arising between the Parliament and their friends thereby to ruine them by themselves Thus Gentlemen according to your desires I have given you an accompt of those Reasons which have been given me wherefore the Parliament enterprized on the change of the Government by cutting off the King and his Posterity the premises being so true and undenyable that they satisfied me and prevailed so sar on my belief that I conceive the Parliament could not otherwise possibly have secured the Nation from farther ruine as also that their resolutions therein were directed by the special hand of God considered together with the and great constant charge incident to Monarchy the often pressures and oppressions of the subject through the Tyranny ambition and prodigalitie of most of our Kings the two last having beggered and impoverished them most of all others on which considerations the Parliament in reason of State and as the state of the controyersie then was between them and the King they found it much better to quit themselves and the people of Regal Government and to change it into a Republick as a more safe and cheaper Government rather then any longer to hazard the common liberty on the Rule of any one Prince whatsoever especially not to trust those of the Sotch Nation all our Histories and the Parliaments sad experience having taught them that of late years the Soveraignty by the ambition and artifices of both the late Kings was strain'd and tentered up to so high a pitch that it would not stoop to a lower power then that of absolutenes Now more particularly to answer your Querie as concerning the King of Scots the two Dukes with the rest of the late Kings loyns it seems likewise that the Parliament knowing them to be the Sons of that father who had more wasted the Land then all of the Norman Race before him they had small hopes left them that any of the same line would be much better being tutor'd afore-hand by the Father and at present residing in a French Academy which if admitted to the Government in all likelyhood would be no other then the cause of more blood more charge trouble misery and sorrow to the people very few of our Kings having given the Nation any great cause to be over-much enamoured with their Governments but most of the best much repentance through their Tyrannies and oppressions Prel Sir I profess you have given me fuller satisfaction then I could expect and I believe that you have taken the right measure of the Parliaments foot with the true reasons wherefore they have not onely cut off the Father but excluded all his Discendants onely in the point of their changing the kingly Government into a Republick as more secure and cheaper for the Nation this is a riddle to me for lamentable experience enforms us that all the oppressions and grievances of the people by all or most of our Kings and those so much upbraided and caft in the face of the late King I dare affirm amounts not to the fisth part of the charge and
Protestant to desert that government by Letters under his own hand which on his examination in Parliament wherefor he waved that command he produced for his justification where the reason inserted was for his special service a proper service if you mark it Now if you demand What that service might be I shall instantly tell you to what purpose as 't was then spoken publico consensu neither ever since denyed viz. the same Earl being Owner of one of the strongest * Ragland Castles in those parts seated amidst the greatest neast of Papists of any one place in the Kingdom had private Commmission from the King to raise 6000 of them for his Mâ—jesties service and that service was to convoy the Irish Army on their arival and to joyn with them when the King pleased to transport them for mastering all those Western parts and to be farther employed as his occasions should require for of such kinde of occasions though never so needless unnecessary and destructive through the whole course of his Reign as a fate that followed him to the last he would not be unfurnished Why then the late Earl of Arundel another suspected Papist was at the very same time Commissioned for the North parts you may safely aver there was no very good meaning in these exorbitant undertakings or other reason to be given for their constant pursuance but that they all tended to enslave the three Nations and to subject them all under his Arbitrary Power If any of you here think otherwise as many thousands there are which will not believe it I say no more but that they want wit but more wisdom to make a right judgement not of things doubtful and hidden but of matters visible and acted on the Theater of the Kingdom Therefore Gentlemen be not still blind neither wilfully stupid but lay your hands to your hearts and bethink your selves wherefore the Parliament be-took themselves to their defensive Arms and the Scots on the same grounds to side with them can you imagine for any other reasons then the conservation of their joynt interest the freedoms and liberties of both Nations since all the world can witness that they were not onely first invaded by the King but designed together with the English to envassaladge that on the same design he first bâ—gan the quarrel with the late Parliament and therefore as 't is aforetold you they could not in any reason or with safety of the people trust a perfidious Prince any longer with the Government or admit of any more Kings but in prevention of worse evils which in all probability would happen to the prejudice of the universal Nation to alter the Government as now you see it established in peace and in hopes that in short time it may prove much better safer and less burthensom to the people then the Regiment hath been which you may be sure o' nt would have been much worse had the Kings designs prospered and taken effect whether we look back on all the Motions of his Government before the Wars or forward on that which had he been Victor would necessarily have befallen the Nation as to that God knows he came very near the accomplishment But all of you may evidently see throughout the pursute that Almighty God did not neither could he give a blessing to his bloody designs and that a most fearful fare hath befallen the Prosecutor and his Fathers house together with most of his Assistants in that work of darkness for their bloody and ambitions affectations in opposition to Gods Law the Laws of the Land and that of Natures birth-right so that on a right understanding you which are so much devoted and besotted to magnifie and adore a Tyrant cut off as well by the hand of Gods justice as mans have rather cause with thankfulness to adore his infinite Providence in taking him away likewise to magnifie the Parliament as the instrument ordain'd of God for the preservation of your libertie the common interest of the Nations much rather then to grutch and repine against the present settlement rail and storm against those Magistrates whom God in his great mercy hath set over us under whom he that will may live quietly and contentedly as to such as will not I leave them to their fortune and so Gentlemen for this time I take my leave Thra. I vow Patriotus I never till now understood so much of the Kings intentions I could wish with all my heart I had known his minde twelve years since Sure I am he deceiv'd me and a thousand more of us with as fair words and plausible Protestations as ever could come from a Christian but now I perceive your infallible proofs and many of them as I well remember of his own hand-writing and of my own knowledge that all is not gold that glisters and I protest on the reputatio of a Souldier I now begin to have a better opinion of the Parliaments cause then hitherto I have had Patri Good Colonel I have not the command of your opinion I leave you to your own election to believe and judge as you shall see cause onely as you wish you had known the Kings minde sooner I wish he had known himself rather for this nosce teipsum the knowledge of our selves is the best piece of Philosophy that any of us can possibly learn and as to his fair and plausible language whereby to attract to himself friends and assistants I shall tell you somewhat which I believe you took no notice of for you were deceived in the King who had such a faculty of his own that heretofore you could not say he was ever known to be over-cheap to any whom he found not fit and serviceable for that purpose to which he would employ him but on the beginning of the wars the case was altred for then it stood him upon to be more then ordinarily affable to all you of the Souldiery since he was to make use of your service for the accomplishment of his ends which with all my heart I have often wish't that they had bin better byassed and so Gentlemen we must have a time to depart sinace for these five hours or more we have cost the ball from one to the other and yet at last how different soever in our opinions I joy in this that we shall depart in love and friendship not doubting but this meeting may make way for another of more mirth and less distaste wishing and praying to the God of Peace that in this universal disagreement of opinions in these times that odium and hatred which so unhappily hath been contracted between brethren of one and the self-same English blood upon the late fatal quarrel may yet at length be buryed in that pleasing Sepulcher of a cordial reconciliation and that we may all submit first to Gods good will and pleasure and next to that Government which by many visible manifestations he hath been pleased to establish
work to the enslaving of the Nation Of the Prerogatives Royall which the late King claimed as inseparables of the Crown 1. OF the Royal Power what it is 2. His sole and absolute power over the Militia 3. His Negative voyce in all Parliaments 4. His power to Array the people at will and pleasure 5. His Prerogative to call and dissolve Parliaments at pleasure 6. His Prerogative to pardon Murderers and Fellons 7. His Prerogative to dispose of Wards Mad-men and Lunaticks c. 8. Lastly that Tyrannous assertion of his own and his Father King Iames viz. That they were not bound to give account of their actions to any but to God alone These Prerogatives claimed by the late King as the Royalists say were invaded by the Parliament and the grounds of the late destructive Wars happily after-Ages as well as the present may be inquisitive to know whether they were so legally in the Kings absolute power that he stood bound to uphold them by the sword to the ruine of the Kingdom and whether the Parliament by their trust stood not more obliged to withstand them as encroachments on the common freedoms and liberties of the people We shall therefore for the general satisfaction briefly shew the extent of them all as they are either defined by our ancient Lawyers or confined and limited by our common Laws and Statutes The Royal power what it is FIrst then that this Royal power of our Kings hath never been any other then a limited and intrusted power to govern by Law to which their Coronation Oathes oblige them which may very well satisfie any rational man and save us the labour farther to dispute this point But we shall make it more plain that the highest of this Royal power was never more by the Law of the Land throughout all Ages then in the executive power Ius suum cuique tribuere to give to every subject his right neither can the King otherwise dispence this right or Law to the people but in and by his Courts of Judicature non per se tantum not by himself out of the law of his own breast for that 's plain Tyranny Stat pro ratione voluntas quod principi placuit legis habet vigorem which are the common principles of all Tyrants that That shall be the Law which the king wills which is more then the Grand Signior claims or exerciseth neither can this Royal power whatsoever of late times by flattering Lawyers hath been exposed to deceive the people enable the king to do that which the Law forbids What kings as Tyrants will do makes nothing to the matter in question but what they ought to do and what by the Law their Oath and duty of their Office they are bound to do is the true state of this Question Neither were any of our kings ever so absolute in power and Supremacy but that by the fundamental Laws of this Land they had their Superiours and those which were above them as one of the most eminent and ancient of our * Bracton Lawyers affirms often recited during the late Controversie viz. Rex habet superiorem scilicet legem per quam factus est Rex alterum scilicet curiam comites Barones which is The king hath a superiour to wit the Law by which he is made king another though very much scorned by the late king viz. The Court of Parliament composed of the Earls Barons and selected Gentry of the Land for this Court hath in it the Legislative power or the Authority of making Laws and who knows not the old principle Quod efficit tale est magis tale that which makes the thing is greater then the thing made And another of our eminent and learned Lawyers Fortiscue Chancellour to Henry the Sixth fol. 40. cap. 18. positively delivers it as a fundamental Law that the kings power is no other then that which the Law gives him and that cannot be farther extended or made greater without the assent of the whole Realm for should it be otherwise it follows that the king might then sell or dispose of the kingdom to whom he pleaseth which by the Law he cannot do neither by the ancient Laws of the Land can the king sell or alienate the Regalia and Jewels of the Crown though the late king took the liberty to sell them for Arms against the Parliament neither can the King by his own sole power dispose of the Cities Towns Forts and Castles of the Kingdom as the Scotch Lords 1639 told him in down-right terms on his fortifying of the Castles of Edenburgh and Dunbarton and the reasons they gave were valid both in Law and reason for that those Forts and Castles were built for defence security and safety of the people against Invadors and not for their offence to be man'd and fortified at the Kings pleasure against themselves And the reason of this Law is rendred by a most learned and expert * Novil 85. princi cap. 18. Jurist viz. Quod Magistratus sit nudus dispensator defensor Iurium Regni constat ex eo quod non possit alienare Imperium oppida urbes regionesve vel res subditorum bonave Regni quia Rex Regni non proprietarius Which is that a King or Magistrate is no more then a bare dispensor of the Laws of hâ—s Kingdom and the reason is manifest for that he cannot sell or alenate the Kingdom or the Cities Towns and Provinces thereof neither the Subjects goods or goods of the Kingdom because the King is onely the Director not the Owner and Propriator of the kingdom But Royalists and some jugling * Judge Ienkins Lawyers and ignorant Divines have both taught and written the contrary and made the late king believe that his power was absolute and without bounds which is fearful to imagine and shameful in those which continue to possess the people with such damnable untruths as lamentable it is to see the generality of the Nation to stand still unshaken in their belief that the kings rights were invaded and himself inforc'â— to make war for his own the contrary whereunto that his power stood bounded and limited by the Laws of the Land hath been so often alledged and prest upon him by the Parliament in their Answers and Expresses that the re inforcing of more Arguments on a subject so much overworn would be nauseous to all ingenious Readers To period this particular as 't is the gound-work of all the kings other Prerogative claims I shall onely put all Royalists in remembrance of that which the Earl of Strafford aver'd to the king 1640. viz. * Vide The Iuncto loose and absolved from all the reines of Government whether this assertion amongst other of the Deputies tended not to place the kings power above the known Laws of the Land I appeal to the judgement of any rational man for as a late a worthy * Mr. John Pim in his Speech to the Lords Member of
Parliament observed at the Earls tryal that the Laws were the boundaries and measures betwixt the Kings Prerogative and the peoples Liberty But whether the king throughout the whole course of the late destructive War and â—ome years before was not a prompt disciple in the Deputies doctrine I leave to Royalists to make their own judgement And whether that which after befell the king and his Fathers house was not rather of the justice of heaven then of men I leave to the judgement of all the world Sure we are the best Jurists maintain Si Rex hostili animo arma contra populum gesserit amittet Regnum which is that if a King with an hostile intent shall raise Arms against his people he loseth or forfeits his kingdom Now that the late king assumed to himself such a Royal power as to raise Arms against the great Councel of the Land I suppose no man in his right wits can deny Its most true a moderate Royal power to rule by the Laws is doubtless of Gods Ordinance but a Tyrannical power to cut their throats I am sure is of no Divine Institution and a Dominion fitter for beasts then men yet this is that power which Royalists would have fastned on the king and too many there are which constantly believe that the more injury was done him that he had it not as by the Laws of the Land they erroneously conceive he ought to have had The Power of the Militia how the Kings BRiefly now to the Militia and what kinde of power our kings by the Laws of England have had therein It hath been often told the late king all along the late Controversie that the power of the Militia was in him no other then fiduciary and not at his absolute dispose or that at his own will and pleasure he might pervert the Arms and strength of the kingdom from their proper use and against the intent of the Law as ' its visibly known he did even to the highest breach of trust wherein a king could be intrusted Now for proof that this power was onely fiduciary and by Statute Law first confer'd on * Anno 7. Edw. 1. apud Westminster Edw. 1. in trust and not his by the Common Law is most apparent by the Express words of the Statute it self which as they are commonly inserted were onely for the the defence of the Land and safety of the people salus populi being that grand Law and end of all Laws now such as are verst in our Historie know that this Prince was one of the most magnanimous kings that ever swayd the English Scepter and therefore it cannot be imaginable that he would clip his own power and so great a right belonging to him by the Common Law in accepting a less by Statute Law to his own loss of power or that ever he would have assented thereunto by an after Act of his own as follows in haec verba viz. Whereas on sundry complaints made to us by the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament that divers of the standing Bands have been removed and taken out of their respective Counties by vertue of our Commissions and sent to us out of their Shires into Scotland Gascoyn and Gwoyn and other parts beyond the Seas contrary to the Laws of the Land c. Our Soveraign Lord willeth that it shall be done so no more Agreeable to this we finde Anno 1. Edw. 3d. viz. The King willeth that no man henceforth be charged to arm otherwise then he was wont in time of our Progenitors the Kings of England and that no man be compell'd to go out of his Shire but where necessity requireth and the sudden coming in of strange Enemies into the Realm And in the same kings time there being a peace concluded between him and the French king wherein the Duke of Britain was included whom the French king shortly thereupon invaded whereof complaint was made to king Edward he instantly summons a Parliament and there moves the Lords and Commons both for their advice and assistance whereupon it was concluded that the king should be expeditiously supply'd in ayd of the Britton but the Act was made with such provisoes and restrictions as Royallists happily and others of late years would have deemed them too dishonourable and unbefitting the late kings acceptance howsoever this Act shews that the ordering of the Militia of those times was not solely left to the kings disposure but that which is of more note was that both the Treasure then granted was committed to certain persons in trust to be issued to the onely use for which it was given as also that no Treaty or any new peace or agreement with the French King should be made without the consent and privity of the Parliament By these instances all Royalists may make a clear judgement that the Militia of those times and the power of the Arms of the Kingdom were never so absolutely conferr'd on our kings as that their power therein extended to such a latitude as they might use them as they pleased and to turn that power provided for the onely defence of the people against themselves and therefore wheresover we finde the Militia by other Statutes conferr'd and yeelded to the disposal of our kings without any particular mention of the word trust which is necessarily imply'd or exprest in most of the Statutes or their preambles viz. * Note that these words viz. for the defence of the Realm or common profit are afore inserted â—ither in the Stat. themselves or in their preamb. In these wotds For the honour of God the Church common profit of the Realm or defence of our people No man in common reason can conceive the Militia to be such an inseparable flower of the Crown as if it had been brought into the world with the King and chain'd unto him as his birth-right but onely as a permissive power recommended unto him by the people in their Representatives as the most eminent and illustrious person to be intrusted with such choyce weapons in trust and confidence that he will use them no otherwise then to the end for which-they were concredited unto him as the Soveraign of the people and for their onely safety and defence which trusted him in honour of his person and place Many other Statutes there are though some of them repealed which prove the Militia is onely fiduciary and not absolutely inherent to the Crowns of our Kings Now for our conclusion of this senceless illegal Prerogative as to the absolute power thereof let us in a word take notice of the destructive consequence admitting this power should be left to the Kings absolute disposure it then follows that he may take all that the Subject hath for he that hath the power of the sword on the same ground may command the purse which the late King not onely intended but practised witness the many great sums of money plate jewels and other moveables whatsoever
prejudicial to the Rights and Liberties of the people Now forasmuch as Royalists do still constantly maintain that their first engagements with the King were undertaken on just loyal honourable honest and religious grounds and that the king suffered as an innocent Martyr in his own defence under the specious pretexts of his injustice and Tyranny and that themselves are enforc'â— to live under Powers utterly unlawful usurpatious and tyrannical May they be pleased to give me leave briefly to sum up the whole Controversie intended for their own good the quieting of their distempered spirits the settlement of the universal people in the blessed harmony of peace and unanimity their onely distance and refractory humour to that of the present establishment being the onely cause that the old Rupture cannot be sodred up and cemented as it ought to be between brethren of one stock that the States after their many miraculous Atchievements Victories over so powerful enemies are inforc'c to the great charge and grievance of the Natives to keep in pay so many Armies for the prevention of such dangerous conspiracies as are daily hatcht and seen to flow from the fountain of their malitious hearts whereas their conformity with the rest of the Natives in obedience to the present powers would be the speedy remedy and abatement of those heavie and Monethly Contributions continued on the people wherein themselves would partake in the easement the State and Common-wealth in the happiness and comfort that so many Proselytes should be added to their number Now in as much as the nature of this subject by way of advice will necessarily require some short repetition of the Kings proceedings in the late prodigious War wherein the grounds of their partaking with him are briefly stated I shall intreat the Reader of what garb or party soever not to conceive that herein I take occasion to rake over the ashes of him who is at rest but onely for the better manifestation of truth never more opposed then at present and to let the universal Nation see and understand on what sandy foundations not onely the King but the Royalists themselves built the whole fabrick of his designs how and by whom they were promoted to his own ruine his posterity and most of the Royal party to the irreparable loss of three flourishing Kingdoms Briefly then that the King at his first access to the Crown had it in design as an unhappy legacy left him by his Father King Iames to advance the Regal power to absoluteness conformable to the French Model is a truth so perspicuous as that divers persons of honour then in Court both perceived it and feared the sad issues that would follow the Kings ambitious affectations True it is the design a long time was carried on in the dark and mystical traverses of Court and State but 1638 and 39 the King by his active * Strafford Canterbury Cottington Agents haing prepared all things in readiness for the accomplishment both in England and Ireland the onely rub that then lay in his way of compleating an universal invassaladge over the three Nations and conforming the Church Government of Scotland sutable to the Episcopal Discipline of England was the refractory Presbyterian Scot whom he first tempted with the bait of a new Liturgy and whether they should perceive the meaning thereof or not was amongst the first Projectors of this Innovation here in Court not much reckoned of for that in case of the Scots refusal they very well understood the King was resolved to compel them to submit by force of Arms but the Scots utterly rejecting the Liturgy as an Innovation and Invasion on their National Laws and Liberties the King raised his first Army against them and then the second after a Pacification given them passages so commonly known to both Nations that there needs no farther manifestation of their contrivances But most certain it is that then the Kings grand design began more openly to appear and that those two Northern Expeditions having exhausted his Treasure with all that he could shift for and the extremity of his want of money succeeding produced the first and the late Parliament Where we may not omit to shew how the King at his first entry to the Crown was after misled and most grosly betray'd and by persons of his own choyce from the very beginning of his raign to the last of his power who had chiefest influence on his Councels which principally were the Bishops and his Court Chaplaines which more studied his inclinations then Divinty and then to comply with whatsoever they found most agreeable to his natural appetite which was the usual ladder wherewith they climbed to preferment these sycophants well perceiving the bent and promptitude of his ambition to absolute Soveraingty had learn'â— the faculty of wresting of Scripture answerable to Arbitrary power and made it their ordinary Pulpit-stuff to instill into his apprehensions that the Subject had no other propriety in any thing he enjoyed but at the Kings good pleasure And to these there were another sort of * Lawyers Gown-men that could stretch Law and Statutes to the tenter of the Kings designs neither were there wanting many about his person even from the first to the last of his Power that to gain his favour had learn't the art of compliance so that I am confident to affirm as being often conversant in the Court that no Prince of his time and of his abilities was ever so nurst up what between those Clergy Laquies and his jugling Judges in the principles of Tyranny leaving out those forragn Pedagogues as well masculine as femine always in Court and most near his person insomuch as at last he knew not or would not know the nature and constitution of the English Soveraignty neither what the nature of those Royal Prerogatives he claimed were how intrusted and invested in him but took them for no other then his own proper inheritance to be used as his he should think most conducible to the advance of his absolute power But to return to the late Parliaments first sitting down and to relate what in the first place they fell upon as of highest concernment to be redrest most certain it is that they finding the many grievances of the people with the various innovations disorders and distempers of the State and Church all concentring in the Kings indigence they took it into their serions consultations first of all to call to an accompt such Participants of the Kings Councels as were well known to have been the principal Instruments for promoting of Arbitrary power and then to apply themselves to the redress of the Publick disorders and rectifying of the obliquities both in the Church and Commonwealth crept in through the long dis-use of Parliaments We shall onely touch on the most eminent passages during their first fifteen Months sitting viz. The Attaching and Arraignment of the Earl of Strafford the Archbishop the flight of the Lord
Keeper Finch Secretary Windibank Piercy Jermine Suckling all of them prime sticklers for the advance of the Kings designs c. In the next place the Kings continued practises to corrupt his own Army and that of the Scots inviting them with great rewards and promises of preferment to march against the Parliament which on any conditions he was then resolved to destroy his then succeding journey into Scotland with the breaking out of the Irish Rebellion during his residence there his assault of the House of Commons on his return his then fortifying and manning of White-hall with the Cavaleers and when he found that by none of these artifices he could break the Parliament he leaves them and departs to York sends Eliot for the Great Seal and procures as many as possibly he could of both Houses to falsifie their trust and adhere to him so to divide and destract them and then raises an Army causing the Lords there attending him to attest that he raised that Army onely for a Guard to his Person and not against the Parliament and immediately sends out his Commissions of Array and marches through several Counties to Nottingham where he erected his Standard of War and after marches to Edgehill where he fought with the Parliaments Army notwithstanding that before from Nottingham he would have perswaded the Parliament by an Express of his own that he did not set up his Standard against them all which and much more of his prodigious Stratagems known to all the World makes it apparant that his intent was to destroy the Parliament and consequently to alter the Government and the Laws as he listed and yet there are at present a new sprung-up number of perverse people amongst us besides the old Royal party that impudently deny the premises and take occasion upon this late change and dissolution of the Parliament and the continuation of the Contributions to asperse the present Parliament with most opprobrious language I wish they would look back to the cause and how diffident soever they are of the kings destructive intentions yet may they please to take a review of his after-actions and what horrible cruelties and oppressions were perpetrated throughout most parts of the Land by his Commanders authorized under his own Commissions after he began the War at Edgehill and made Oxford his Head quarters then questionless they may take the true dimensions of a most unfortunate and tyrannical King neither would it be amiss for them to take it into their remembrance what the Parliament in so perplext times were constrained to put in execution as well for their own safeties as the preservation of the Laws and Liberties of the people Thus far in brief we have made a recital of the principal transactions before that fatal battel at Edgehil whence all Royalists and others diffident of the Kings destructive intentions may evidently see unto what plunges the Parliament was put unto upon the Irish Rebellion in relief of their poor distressed brethren in Ireland that affair by the King himself bring wholy recommended to the Parliaments disposement 400000l in Subsidies assented by himself to be levied to that onely use and the Earl of Leycester by his own approbation design'd for that imployment whom he so long protracted that the term of his Commission was near expired before he went over and as to his proclaiming them Rebels to which the Parliament often prest him he would not in a long time suffer his Proclamations to come forth and at last permitted no more then 40 Copies to be printed notwithstanding these his impediments the Parliament with their best Expedition sent over divers Regiments of foot some horse and cloathes by the way of Minyard and Chester The premises considered by any indifferent man with what honour then or justice could the king countermand those Forces and seize the cloathes horses and money sent to the relief of the poor distressed Irish Protestants against his own Act and Assent and by what law or colour of Reason could he in honor grant the remainder of the third part of that Subsidie to his Lieutenant-General of South Wales for raising of an Army there against the Parliament diverting the use thereof for the relief of Ireland What answer can be made to this other then that which with impudence of the highest strain is commonly alledged by Royalists viz. That the king stood bound both in honour and reason of State to support the Rebellious Irish in what possibly he could so to lessen the Parliaments power by what means soever for advance of his own If this be the reason surely then 't is evident that he not onely favoured the Irish but authorized their Insurrection and that his intent was to incumber and cut out as much work for the Parliament as possibly he could invent and in that course to protract the War in Ireland and to pursue it in England as 't is most manifest he did during full six years together neither would he be induced by the Parliaments many and most humble Petitions really to apply himself to a safe and well-grounded Peace for the Nation though still pretending how willing he was to embrace it when as by the sequel he intended to have it no other then as suted to his own will and pleasure and yet all of the Royal party as constantly defends him as himself obstinately persisted so long as his power lasted to embrew all the three Nations with blood fire and devastation and to his last * Vide The Kings Speech on the Scaffold hour stood stiffly in the affirmative that the absolute command of the Militia was his and that the Parliament on that only ground first began the War and not he contrary to his own acknowledgement in the I le of Wight and elswhere viz. That he had been the cause of all the innocent blood spilt throughout the Land I wish he were not guilty of that in Ireland the presumptions being so pregnant as that thousands of honest and knowing men cannot be otherwise perswaded sure enough he was most notoriously guilty of all the blood spilt in England and Scotland We now come to the kings Prerogatives as the basis on which all Royalists ground the lawfulness of their partaking with him in the late War as bound by Oath their Allegiance and in conscience to support his Soveraign Rights We shall for their better satisfaction present them in a Catalogue and answer them in their order forasmuch as they still constantly maintain them to be the kings inseparably united to the Crown and that full sore against his will he was inforc't to uphold them as invaded by the Parliament since then that as Royalists aver the King onely fought to uphold his inheritance and themselves with him let us briefly examine by what Law and right he claimed them together with the destrctive consequences should he have obtained them by the sword and whether then he had not carved out his own