of a King A King of England of whose Predecessors the Parliament of England had declar'd That they could not assent to any thing that tended to the dis-inherison of the King and his Crown Sir Ed. Coke 4 Inst 14. whereunto they were Sworn But what could the wisest of Men say to it when the Parliament and the Rabble were both of a side And whether they were so or not witness those Tumultuary Routs from the Men of Essex Colchester Devon Somerset Middlesex Hartford Sir W Dagdale's Short View Fol. â—5 London Apprentices Seamen nay the very Women and all for putting the Kingdom into a Posture c On which follow'd those several Associations for suppressing the Popish Malignant Party though in truth it was to pursue the King with all vehemence Id. Dagd 113. for such are the Words of Essex's Letter to the Houses near that time Nor were the Black Cloaks less wanting to their Parts they could blow the Bellows well enough tho' they car'd not how little they wrought at the Forge And therefore seeing the Reverence of his Government was lost with the People and the Great Ones moving at another rate quam ut Imperantium meminissent 〈◊〉 As it was no less than time for His Majesty to retire and pray for fair Weather so our Answerer instead of snarling and catching at his Words might have suffer'd him to depart in Peace But to go on with him I am saith the King not further bound to agree with the Votes of both Houses than I see them agree with the Will of God my Rights as a King and the general good of my People And better for me to die enjoying this Empire of my Soul which subjects me only to God than live with the Title of a King if it carry such a Vassallage with it as not to suffer me to use my Reason and Conscience in which I declare as a King to like or dislike An use of Reason saith our Answerer If he thereby means his Negative Voice most reasonless and unconscionable and the utmost that any Tyrant ever pretended over his Vassals For if the King be only set up to execute the Law which is indeed the highest of his Office he can no more reject a Law offer'd him by the Common than he can new-make a Law which they reject And yet as reasonless and unconscionable as he pretends to make it this Negative Voice is and ever has been the undoubted Right of the Kings of England For besides what I had the occasion to speak to this matter before it is no Statute if the King assent not to it Because if it were all those Bills that have passed both Houses and for want of the Royal Assent lie buried in Oblivion might as occasion serv'd be trump'd up for Laws And if he may dis-assent it is a sufficient Proof of this Negative Voice and that he may refuse or ratifie as he sees cause And withal shews where this Legislation lies though the use of it be restrained to the consent of both Houses whose Rogation which is exclusive of all co-ordinate Power preceeds the Kings Ratification Then for his if the King be only set up c. If this if be false his whole matter falls with it And that it is so I thus prove it The Parliament-Roll 1 Edw. I. n. 8. says That upon the decease of King Richard the Second 9 Edw. 4. Fol. â— 6 the Crown by Law Custom and Conscience descended and belonged to Edmund Earl of March under whom King Edward the Fourth claimed And Henry the Fourth who had usurp'd upon King Richard the Second makes no other Title but as Inheritor to King Henry the Third Sir J. Hayward's 1st year of â—â—n 4. So the Parliament of the first of King James the First Recognize as say they we are bound by the Law of God and Man the Realm of England and the Imperial Crown thereof doth belong to him by Inherent Birthright and lawful and undoubted Succession The same also for Queen Elizabeth 1 Eliz â— 1. as to her Which shews that Kings are neither set up by the People nor have the Titles to their Crowns from the two Houses but by Inherent Birthright Which needs no setting up And so I think what depends upon this if sinks with it though I shall have a further occasion to speak to it in his next Paragraph And here he taxes the King for saying He thinks not the Majesty of the Crown of England to be bound by any Coronation Oath in a blind and brutish formality to consent to whatever its Subjects in Parliament shall require But where does the Law of England say the King is so bound Tho' yet out Answerer is pleas'd to say What Tyrant could presume to say more when he meant to kiâ—â— down all Law Government and Bond of Oath Least considering what his Majesty subjoyns viz. I think my Oath fully discharg'd is that Point by my Governing only by such Laws as my People with the House of Peers have chosen and my self consented to Nor did the Coronation Promise See the Oath in every Hist of his Reign or Oath oblige him to more than To hold and keep the Laws and rightful Customs which the Commonalty of this his Kingdom have and to defend and uphold them to the Honour of God so much as in him lay Whereas had there been any Obligation upon him to have consented to whatever the Parliament shall require it is not to be doubted but it would have been expressed in the Oath as it is not And yet our Answerer less doubts to say That that Negative Voice to deny the passing of any Law which the Commons chuse is both against the Oath of his Coronation and his Kingly Office in that he makes himself Superiour to his whole Kingdom which our standing Laws gainsay as hath been cited to him in Remonstrances That the King hath two Superiors the Law and his Court of Parliament An excellent Proof in the mean time But we 'll examine it a little The Common-Law saith Omnis sub Rege Sir E. Coke 1 Inst 1. c. Every Man is under the King and he under none but God And to the same purpose Bracton Lib. â— Ed. 55. 2 Inst 496. from whom he quotes it His Prerogative is a part of the Law of the Land All offences are said to be against the Peace of our Sovereign Lord the King c. The Laws of England are call'd the King's Laws The Parliament as is confess'd to my hand his Parliament And therein also the King is sole Judge 22 Ed III. 3. the rest but Advisers His is the power of Calling Proroguing and Dissolving them 4 Inst 46. Id. Inst 3. And by his Death they are dissolv'd of course And why all this but that the King is Principium Caput c. The beginning the head and end of a Parliament As he is also the Head of
That all Kings are the Lord 's Anointed it were yet absurd to think that the Anointment of God should be as it were a Charm against Law I know not what he means by that all Kings Saul was David was and particularly laments the fall of Saul As if he had not been anointed with Oil. 2 Sam. 1.11 And I never found any reason to doubt but that all Christian Hereditary Kings are the same too and consequently exempt from the Law forasmuch as concerneth the coactive force of the Law though not forasmuch as concerneth the directive Power of the Law Lord â—leâ—meâ—'s post â—â—ti 106. Subjects are bound to fullfil the Law by necessity of Compulsion but the Prince only by his own Will in regard of the common good For seeing the Law is but a kind of Organ or Instrument of the Power that governeth Hist of the World 29â— it seems saith Sir Walter Rawleigh that it cannot extend it self to bind any one whom no humane power can controul or lay hold of And therefore till I find better Authority for this his Iustice than he has yet given I shall look upon it as I do on the rest of his Book a thing meerly stuffed out to deceive the People If Subjects also by the Law of the Church so much approv'd by this King be invested with a Power of Judicature both without and against their King it will be firm and valid against him though pretending and by them acknowledg'd next and immediately under Christ Supream Head and Governour But what King or Queen of England besides Henry the Eighth Edward the Sixth and Queen Mary for her two first Years ever us'd that word Head Or in what Age was it that the Church of England ever pretended a power of Judicature both without and against their Kings He says if they are invested with such a Power but shews not that they are and instead thereof tells us that St. Ambrose excommunicated Theodosius the Emperour which he calls a Spiritual putting to death The like did St. German by Vortiger And two other Kings of Wales excommunicated by their respective Bishops Subjects of those Kings And admitting it I never heard that any of those Bishops ever perswaded the People that it was lawful to Murther those Kings or how does it make out this his Iustice against the King 'T is a shrewd sign a Man is sinking when he takes hold of Twigs Then he comes up with the particular Laws and Acts of Greece Athens Sparta Rome c. But what 's that to England must we be govern'd as they were Their Laws were for it the Laws of England directly against it Nor is there any Country whatever but has its particular Laws or Customs If a Man steal an Oxe or a Horse in the Isle of Man it is no Felony 4 Inst 285. for having no Woods the Offender cannot hide them but if he steal a Capon or a Pig he shall be hang'd for it But what need we saith he search after the Laws of other Lands for what is so fully and so plainly set down lawful in our own Where antient Books tell us Bracton Fleta and others that the King is under the Law and inferiour to his Parliament As for Bracton the Words that he means may be perhaps these Rex habet Superiorem Deum scilicet Item Legem per quam factus est Rex Item curiam suam viz. Comites Barones The King hath a Superiour to wit God But doth not say Superiours in the Plural Number Also a Law by which he is made King i. e. He hath a Law but says not a word of Punishment Also his Court to wit his Earls and Barons Not a Court as if it were of some others Constitution but a Court of his own Where the word habet in Propriety of Latin is necessarily understood 1 Inst 1. Or otherwise he would be contradictory to himself when he saith Omnis sub Rege Bra. l. 4. c. 24. S. 5. c. Every Man is under the King and he is under none but God He is not inferiour to his Subjects and hath no Peer in his Realm But saith no where that he is under the Law and inferiour to his Parliament which word his sufficiently denotes where the Superiority lies And for Fleta he saith Lib. 1. c. 17. f. 16. None can judge in Temporal Matters but only the King and his Substitutes Id. F. 66. And he hath his Court in his Council in his Parliaments c. And for the Mirrour of Justice a Book written in Edward the First 's time that says Mirâ— 232. Jurisdiction is the chief Dignity that appertains to the King And for what concerns the King's Oath it has been several times altered since that And what this King's Oath was I have particularly shewn before Chap. 6 Those objected Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy we swore not to his Person but as it was invested with his Authority The same said the Spencers in Edward the Second's time but it was condemned for Treason by two Acts of Parliament 7 Coke 11 12. And Sir Edw. Coke calls it a damnable detestable and execrable Treason For Corps natural le Roy politique sont un Corps Plowd 213.234.242 and are inseparable and indivisible for both make but one King 4 Inst 46. The death of the King dissolveâ— a Parliament Now if this referr'd only to his politick Capacity the Parliament would continue after his Death because a Body Politick never dies And now as the Covenant once help'd the Houses at a dead lift it must do our Accuser the like Job at parting or this his Iustice will be little beholding to it Certainly no discreet Person can imagine it should bind us to him in any stricter Sense than those Oaths formerly And truly I must approve him when he deals ingenuously no certainly it did not for they broke all three The intent of the Covenant as it was to extirpate Prelacy to preserve the Rights of Parliament and the Liberties of the Kingdom so they intended so far as it might consist with these to preserve the King's Person and Authority but not otherwise for that had been to swear us into Labirynths and Repugnancies We vow'd farther to bring Delinquents to open Tryal and condign Punishment So that to have done so by the King hath not broke the Covenant but it would have broke the Covenant to have sav'd him the chief Actor as they thought him at the time of taking that Covenant Ye have heard what he says and I leave it to every Man to apply it as he pleases But because this matter has already taken up a whole Chapter between us I referr my Reader to what I have there said Chap. 14 And now to close all and if there be any Man has a Mind to learn how to break Oaths by Providence and forswear himself to the Glory of God To say Grace to the action be it never so ungodly and give Thanks for the Success be it never so wicked To carry on a Design under the name of Publick Good and make the slavery of a Nation the liberty of the People Or in a word to hold forth any useful though notorious Untruth with convenient Obstinacy until he believes it himself and so renders it no Sin let him read this Book of Mr. Milton's and if he does not improve upon it he may thank God for it FINIS
Self-will they broke down a Wall CHAP. V. Vpon His Majesty's passing the Bill for the Triennial Parliaments and after settling this during the Pleasure of the two Houses PArliaments saith Sir Robert Cotton are the times in which Kings seem less than they are His Reign of Hen. III. p. 1 and Subjects more than they should be A smart Character whether we respect those Paaliaments of Henry the Third of whom it was spoken or that Parliament of 1640. of which we are now speaking And yet they are become so congenial and as it were bred up and embodied with the English Temper which as it naturally relishes nothing but what comes from them so it rarely disputes any thing that is transacted by them that some have thought this might be one reason that inclin'd His Majesty to pass these Bills though for my part I 'll believe no Man against the King when he says That the World might be confirm'd in my Purposes at first to contribute what in Justice Reason Honour and Conscience I could to the happy Success of this Parliament which had in me no other design but the general good of my Kingdoms I willingly passed the Bill for Triennial Parliaments Which as gentle and seasonable Physick might if well applied prevent any Distempers from getting any head or prevailing especially if the Remedy prov'd not a Disease beyond all Remedy And as to the other for settling this during the Pleasure of the Houses An Act saith the King unparallell'd by any of my Predecessors yet granted on an extream Confidence I had that my Subjects would not make an ill use of an Act by which I declar'd so much to trust them as to deny my self so high a Point of my Prerogative c. Whereas saith our Answerer He attributes the passing of them to his own Act of Grace and willingness as his manner is to make Vertues of his Necessities he gives himself all the Praise and heaps Ingratitude upon the Parliament to whom we owe what we owe for those beneficial Acts but to his granting them neither Praise nor Thanks No! and by what Law I would fain know is the King obliged to pass every Bill that is offered him He swears 't is true to defend the Laws i. e. Such Laws as are then in being but that obliges him to no futurity in granting every thing whether good or bad that shall be offer'd him And therefore unless he had shewn at least some one Act of Parliament that had not the Royal Assent to it he might with more Modesty have acknowledged that it was in the King's Option whether to have passed these Acts or not Sir Ed. Coke 4 â—â—nst 25. because neither of the Houses singly not both of them together can make any binding Law without the King's Concurrence which gives the Embryo Life and quickens it into 〈◊〉 Law But saith he The first Bill granted lesâ— than two former Statutes yet in force by Edward the Third that a Parliament should be called every Year or oftner if need were Very well anâ— there being no more in it it is somewhat strange methinks how the King could be necessitated to the passing it or that the Houses eveâ—â— desired it When all that he says to it is Thaâ— the King conceal'd not his unwillingness in testifying a general dislike of their Actions and told theâ— with a Masterly Brow that by this Act he had obliged them above what they had deserved And truly if the King had said it or given thaâ— Masterly Brow for which yet he brings nâ— Voucher but himself those subsequent Acts oâ— Parliament which repeal'd both these Acts have sufficiently evidenc'd their particular dislike of them also in that they nulled them And how well they were pleas'd with their Persons or their Actions the Statute of the 12th of Charles the Second before-mention'd may satisfie any Man And as to the other Act for settling their sitting c. The King saith he had by his ill Stewardship and to say no worse the needless raising of two Armies intended for a Civil War beggar'd both himself and the Publick Left us in score to his greedy Enemies their Brethren the Scots to dis-engage which great Sums were to be borrow'd which would never have been lent if he who first caused the Malady might when he pleas'd reject the Remedy And from thence and other the like dross meerly thrown in to help out Weight which yet he never gives he comes to this That it was his Fear not his Favour drew that first Act from him lest the Parliament incens'd by his Conspiracies against them should with the People have resented too heinously those his doings if to the suspicion of their danger from him he had also added the denial of this only means to secure themselves And now to examine it a little he charges the King with the needless raising two Armies intended for a Civil War What the Houses then intended was afterwards visible by its Effects a Civil War But that the King should intend it and at the same time divest himself of his Power is manifestly ridiculous For as he says himself 1641. this Bill was pass'd in May whereas the King besides his Journey into Scotland retired not from Whitehall till above half a Year afterwards and when he left it considering their respective Conditions might have as truly said Cum baculo transivi Jordanum istum And how then could he intend a Civil War Having as our Accuser says so beggar'd himself For what concerns the King's Enemies and their dear Brethren I refer it to its proper Place And for what relates to the Sums of Money to be borrow'd besides what I have already shewn how they were dispos'd of Chap. 1 I add this That they could not have put the Kingdom into a Posture of a Defence i. e. â—â—â—'d a Rebellion without it And withal considering that the King set not up his Standard till the August following 1642. he must have been much shorter sighted than our Answerer all along endeavours to make him to have design'd a War without Sir Edward Coke's Materials Firmamentum belli Ornamentum pacis which the Houses having taken his Revenue into their Hands all the World knew he wanted But the 〈◊〉 â—ot yet run to the end of the 〈…〉 King taxes them for undoing what they found well done Yet knows they undid nothing but Lord Bishops Liturgy Ceremonies c. judged worthy by all Protestants to be thrown out of the Church But what Protestants were they that so judg'd it Those of the Church of England were I am sure of another Opinion and the temporal Laws of the Kingdom had sufficiently establish'd them And therefore since Interest had so blinded his Intellect that he world not see were he now living I could tell him wherein they had undone what they found well done And because there are many yet in being who perhaps may be willing enough to be satisfied
Governour and upon the King 's coming before Hull attended only with his own Servants and some Gentlemen of the Country audaciously shut the Gates against Him and standing upon the Wall denied him Entrance Upon which the King as by Law he might proclaim'd him Traytor A Cholerick and revengeful Act says our Answerer to proclaim him Traytor before due process of Law having been convinc'd so lately before of his Illegallity with the five Members Goodly goodly and yet at the same time doubts not to tax the King of a Treasonable Act in borrowing Moneys upon his own Jewels Not unlike the Parliament 41 Hen. 3. who took notice of the Lye given to Montfort Daniel's Hist of Eng. 171. and 175. Earl of Leicester by William of Clarence but not of the Lye given the King by the said Leicester But the Point between us lies narrow A Man with Train'd-Bands holds and defends a place of Strength against the King The question is whether this be a levying of War within the Statute of the 25th of Edward the 3d. Sir Edward Coke shall answer for me 2 Inst 10. If any with Strength and Weapons invasive and defensive doth hold and defend a Castle or Fort against the King and his Power this is levying of War against the King within the Statute of 25 Edward 3. And in the leaf before he says It was High Treason by the Common Law to levy War for no Subject can levy War within the Realm without Authority from the King for to him only it belongeth Le Roy de droit doit saver defender son Realm Fitz. N. B. 113. a. c. And therefore this being the Case wherein may it be said that the King was to blame And lastly for what concerns this Gentleman's Catastrophe and whether Hotham were more infamous at Hull or at Tower-Hill no less ignominiously pretended to be answer'd it may be enough to satisfie any Impartial Man that he repented and came in though it were at the last Hour and for the rest he stood and fell to his own Master CHAP. IX Vpon the Listing and raising Armies against the King I Find saith His Majesty I am at the same Point and Posture I was when they forced me to leave Whitehall What Tumults could not do an Army must which is but Tumults listed and enroll'd to a better order but as bad an end To which our Answerer thus replies It were an endless work to walk side by side with the verbosity of this Chapter only to what already hath not been spoken convenient Answer shall be given But what that Answer is see He begins again with Tumults all the demonstration of the Peoples Love to the Parliament was Tumult their Petitioning Tumult their defensive Armies were but listed Tumults and will take no notice that those about him those in a time of Peace lifted in his own House were the beginners of all these Tumults abusing and assaulting not only such as came peaceably to the Parliament at London but those that came Petitioning to the King himself at York Neither abstaining from doing Violence and Outrage to the Messengers sent from Parliament himself countenancing or conniving at them Which is the Substance of what our Accuser says to this verbose Chapter as he calls it An old Figure in Politicks to Calumniate stoutly till somewhat stick to a Prejudice But where lay this Love of the People that they must needs express it in such a Tumultuary way God Almighty is more pleased with Adverbs than Nouns and respects not so much the Justice or Lawfullness of the thing as that it be Justly and Lawfully done and I think the Case was not such here Three or more gather'd together do breed a disturbance of the Peace Mr. Lambert ' s â—irenarchâ— Lib. 2. c. 5. either by signification of Speech shew of Armour turbulent Gesture or express Violence so that the peaceable sort of Men be disturbed or the lighter sort embolden'd by the Example It is Turba a Rout And it has been said Decem So Kitchen page 20. multitudinem faciunt Ten make a Multitude What then must ten times ten not to say Hundreds and Thousands arm'd with Swords Clubbs Staves as many of these Demonstrators of their Love were Chap. 4 and throwing out Seditious Language as I have shewn before the did O but their Business was Petition The same said the Barons and Commonalty at Running-Mead in the 17th of King John But what came these for What but Matters that no way concern'd them Justice Justice against the Earl of Strafford Chap. 2 yet the Parliament of the 14th of Char. the 2d calls them arm'd Tumults as before For putting the Tower of London into confiding Hands Chap. 4 A City Guard for the Parliament And the Kingdom into a Posture of Defence c. But still what was this to them As if a Parliament must be beholding to a Fescue And their defensive Armies saith he were but listed Tumults So that now as a last Shift he turns the Question to a Quis prior induit arma When all the World knows That the Defensive part of it was the King's and the Parliament were the Aggressor's in that they had made their Associations rais'd an Army some Months before and made Essex General thereof the 12th of July 1642. Whereas the King set not up his Standard until the August following But stay say the King in defence of his Right had first drawn his Sword what Law of England warranted theirs When besides what Sir Edward Coke of whom so lately says No Subject can levy War without Authority from the King it appears that the ancient Law of England was ever such or the Parliament had never declar'd That both 1 Cat. 2. c. 2 or either of the Houses of Parliament neither can or lawfully may raise or levy War offensive or defensive against the King c. And will take no notice that those about him were the beginners of those Tumults That the King had his Guards about him was no more than what became the Majesty of a King and that the Loyal Gentry made their Appearances at Whitehall when they saw it beset with a kind of Gebal and Ammon and Ameleck a confus'd conflux of People which also the King had forbidden was but the least of their Duty But when he talks of listing and abusing and assaulting such as came peaceably to the Parliament and doing Violence to the Messengers sent from them it is such a Rapsodie of Stuff that no Man can credit upon his single Authority And therefore I leave it as I do the rest of this Matter it being either such as I have before spoken to or such as no Man that had not a hand in those Mischiefs had ever vented Yet before I go off to another I cannot but take notice how he says The King twits them with his Acts of Grace Proud and unself-knowing Words in the Mouth of any King who
Alij diutius Imperium tenuerunt nemo tam fortiter reliquit Tacit. Histor Lib. 2. c. 47. p. 417 VINDICIAE CAROLINAE OR A DEFENCE OF ἘΙΚΩΠΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΗ THE Portraicture of his Sacred Majesty in his Solitudes and Sufferings IN REPLY To a BOOK Intituled ἘΙΚΟÎΟΚΛΑΣΤΗΣ Written by Mr. Milton and lately Re-printed at Amsterdam Vere magnum habere fragilitatem hominis securitatem Dei Seneca London Printed by J. L. for Luke Meredith at the Angel in Amen-Corner MDCXCII THE PREFACE OUR Author has forespoken his Reader with a long Preface and Custom has so obtain'd that not to take notice of it were to allow it for Truth yet as long soever as it is I may be the shorter in mine in regard there are some things we shall not much differ about As when he begins to discant on the Misfortunes of a Person fallen from so high a Dignity who has also paid his final Debt both to Nature and his Faults is not of it self a thing commendable And I come so near him that I deem it in no wise commendable much less to defend a Party by whose Injustice he fell For Revenge and Envy stop at the Grave and however our Lives are at the Mercy of others even Fortune herself has no Dominion over the Dead But when he says And his Faults and that it is not the intention of his Discourse I referr my Reader to this of mine wherein from the Ordinances of that time and the Law of the Land I have I hope acquitted the King and for the other whatever his intention might be prov'd his Book contrary to what he gives out here He further supposes it no Injury to the Dead but a good Deed rather to the Living to better inform them by remembring them the Truth of what they themselves know to be mis-affirm'd And I agree with him for if a Man may not make the Blind to go out of his way there is this Charity due to a Short-sighted Multitude to point them at least where they first went astray and by bringing them back to the old Paths both shew them how they lost their Way and set them right for the future Yet agree as we will we must part at last for instead of not discanting on the Misfortunes of his murther'd Sovereign and of better informing the People of what he slily insinuates themselves know to be mis-affirm'd by the King the whole drift of his Book is to blast the one and spread a Mist before the other whereas mine is to vindicate the King and what in me lies to clear the Air of that Pestilent Vapour In the mean time and until I come to it I shall briefly consider the matter of his Preface and the manner of putting it together As to the former it is an abstract of his Book written in Scandal to the King's Book and himself And saith he for their Sakes who thro' Custom Simplicity or want of better Teaching have not more seriously consider'd Kings than in the gaudy name of Majesty in behalf of Liberty and the Commonwealth That is to say Licentiousness and Democracy words altogether foreign to the English whose Constitutions know nothing but an Hereditary Imperial Monarchy recognizing no Superiour under God but only the King unto whom both Spiritualty and Temporalty are bound and owe a Natural Obedience Unto which his Notions are directly contrary for if the Soveraignty lay in the People the King were not Supream but himself subject to that Power which is transcendent to his as appertaining to them and then the State of England were Democratical if it lay in the Nobles then were it Aristocratical or if in either or all of them it were in no wise Monarchical which both the Common-Law and Statute-Law of England have ever declar'd this Kingdom to be as shall be shewn in its proper place And yet he doubts not to impose upon his Reader That the People heretofore were wont to repute for Saints those faithful and couragious Barons as he calls them who lost their Lives in the Field making glorious War against Tyrants for the common Liberty As Simon de Monfort Earl of Leicester against Henry the Third Thomas Plantagenet Earl of Lancaster against Edward the Second And truly Siqua est ea Gloria England wants not wherein to Glory though I think neither of these comes under his Character For the first of them a Frenchman by Extraction ran into open Rebellion against Henry the Third whose Sister he had first vitiated then Married Took the King Prisoner and carried him about in the Army as Cromwell did this King and made him own all his the Earl's Actions as the Parliament but ineffectually endeavour'd it also and was at last slain in actual Rebellion at the Battle of Evesham by the Prince our English Justinian the Man who by rescuing oppress'd Laws taught the Crown of England not to serve and first deliver'd it from the Wardship of the Barons These Barons the Descendants of those where the Devil in the Father turn'd Monk in the Son for being conscious to themselves that whatever they had whether of Honour or Possessions had been commenc'd in Conquest and Rapine what better way of securing both than by siding with the People who had by this time forgotten they were the Posterity of those who had beggar'd their Ancestors And for the other of Lancaster he also was taken in a like Rebellion against Edward the Second and being thereof Convicted was Beheaded at Pomfrect nor other than Rebellion do I find any Remark of him but that his Name was Plantagenet and the Mobb call'd him King Arthur And therefore the most that can be said of them is what Aaron of his Calf These be thy Gods O Israel And having laid this Foundation for Matter who could expect his manner of doing it should be better more than that Grapes may be gathered of Thorns or Figs of Thistles Nor has he in the least deceiv'd me in it when though there 's a decency of Language due to the meanest of Men and Mankind insults not over a Slave in Misery yet neither in his Preface or his whole Book doâ—s he ever mention the King or his â—ctions without that irreverence as would put a modest Man to the Blush in reading it What the particular Expressions are I forbear to mention them where I may possibly avoid it and referr the Reader to them as they every where occur lest otherwise I be like him that pretends to answer a Seditious Book and Prints that with his answer that it may be remembred cum Privilegio However this from the whole though the Scripture calls Princes Gods that Prince is yet to be born whose some action or other did not confess Humanity and require Candour Moses was King among the Righteous and David a Man after God's own Heart and yet it cannot be said of either of them In nullo erratum est And therefore instead of raking the Graves of Princes we
what the Memorandum further says That King Charles the Second and the Duke of York did assure him it was none of the said King 's compiling c. An Earl it is said wrote it and I dispute it not but this I say That neither the King nor the Duke could speak it of their own knowledge but as by report from others because the King then Prince of Wales from his Expedition into the West with General Ruthien from whence he went off to France could not have seen His Father in near four Years before His death and therefore it seems improbable that the King should have shewn him a Letter To the Prince of Wales and at the same time told him it was not of his own compiling when yet the Letter says Id. Iâ—â—n 221. Son if these Papers come to your hands c. and concludes Farewel till we meet if not on Earth yet in Heaven And if the King did not tell him so then what he assured the Earl could not be of his own knowledge And for the Duke of York he was under Thirteen at the Surrender of Oxford from whence he was brought to St. James's where he made his Escape for Dort so that except when he saw his Royal Father at Hampton-Court which could not be often he could not have seen him in two Years and an half before his Death Nor seems it probable that the King should communicate his Thoughts with a Person of those Years albeit a Prince and his Son but not his next Heir But on the contrary more probable for both that what they so spake was but by report which young Princes are but too apt to take up from those who to cover their own Ignorance perswade them it smells too strong of the Pedant for a King to take up a Pen when yet the greatest of former Ages are oftner remmembred by their Pens than their Swords Caesar yet lives in his Commentaries M. Aurelius in his Philosophy and we may read Trajan by his Epistles to Pliny But to come nearer home Our Henry the first is as well known by the Name of Beauclerke as of King of England Henry the Eighth's Pen not his Sword gave him the Title of Defender of the Faith And this the Royal Portraict of our murther'd Sovereign shall outlast every thing but it self and Time Lastly And if there yet want some living credible Testimony of that time or matter of Record since Sir William Dugdate an indefatigable Searcher of our English Antiquities and perfect Master of the Transactions of his own Time gives us this gradual account viz. That these Meditations had been begun by His Majesty in Oxford long before he went from Oxford to the Scots under the Title of Suspiria Regalia That the Manuscript it self written with his own Hand being lost at Naseby was restored to him at Hampton-Court by Major Huntington who had obtain'd it from Fairfax That Mr. Thomas Herbert who waited on His Majesty in his Bed-Chamber in the Isle of Wight and Mr. William Levett a Page of the Back-stairs frequently saw it there and not only read several parts of it but saw the King divers times writing farther on it And that that very Copy was by his Majesty's direction to Bishop Duppa sent to Mr. R. Royston a Bookseller at the Angel in Ivy-Lane the 23d of December 1648. who made such Expedition that the Impression was finish'd before that dismal 30th of January on which the King was bereft of his Life As may be better read from himself Sir W. Dugdâ—â—â—'s Short View c. p. 380 381. in his Short View of the late Troubles in England And this further I speak of my own Knowledge That the very next Morning after that horrid Act I saw one of them and read part of it under the Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which it now bears And for matter of Record and that the World may the more undeniably be convinc'd that both King Charles the Second and King James the Second did believe this Book was written by their Royal Father let him that doubts it but look upon Reliquiae Sacrae Carolinae Printed it the Year 1662 or any Impression of this Book since that time and he will find prefix'd to them a Privilege or Patent of King Charlâ— the Second to the said Mr. Royston his Executors c. for the sole Printing and Publishing the Book intituled Reliquiae c. and all other the Works of his said Royal Father and moâ— especially mentions these most excellent Meditation and Soliioquies by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And it so happening that most of that Impression in 1662. coming to be lost in the Fire of London whereby the Book became very dear anâ— scarce to be had King James the Second upon his coming to the Crown reciting those former Letters Patent grants him the like Privilege for the Printing and Publishing the said Book as it had been in the Year 1662. And now what shall an honest Man do in such a Case sâ—aâ— he give Credit to a bare Memorandum of what another said and as 't is most probable by report only or say the Circumstances before were not of weight to two Records For my part I take the King's Certificate to be of high nature yet I should hardly believe thâ— King himself against any one single Record against which the Law of England admits no Averrment and therefore I think no Man ought to make more of a Posthumous Memorandum than what the Law makes of it In a word these Pathetick Meditations no sooner came abroad than the Nation was undeceiv'd concerning the Author the Scales were fallen from their Eyes and they religiously look'd on Him whom in the simplicity of their Hearts they had pierced These our Pharisees saw and confest it themselves but said they if we let it alone the Romans will come and take away our City And therefore finding they could not suppress them they made it their Eusiness what in them lay to blot them Nay to that impudence they were arrived that and I saw it my self this Icon was exposed to Sale bound up with the Alcoran III. What end I proposed to my self in making this Reply And that 's easily shown nor is it forbidden any Man to burn Incense where the Air 's infected That this Royal Martyr has been calumniated is but too visible but how justly I am coming to examine In which I have this advantage to my hand That Time the Mother of Truth has justified her Daughter concerning Him and might have stopt the Rancour of his most inveterate Enemies but that nothing how evident soever can affect those that have a secret against blushing To be short my end is to vindicate this Good this Just however Unfortunate Prince to blow off that Froth that has been thrown on his Memory and according to my strength deliver him to the World as he was A great if not the only steddy
Example of both Fortunes and of a Mind unchang'd in the greatest change of either A Prince Learned Eloquent Affable Courteous and born for the Good of Mankind his Lot had fallen among a better People One iâ— a word who if he had any fault it was hâ— not timely adverting his Father's dear-bough Experience who thus confesses of himself Where I thought by being gracious at thâ— beginning to win all Men's Hearts to a loving and willing Obedience Basilicen Doron p. 23. I on the contrary found the disorder of the Country anâ— the loss of my Thanks to be all my Reward Which how truly it was verified in this Hâ—â— Son will be the Subject of the ensuing Discourse And so I come to this Accuser and hiâ— Book in the examining which I shall follow his own Method and as he pretends to answer the King make him a suitable Reply and thaâ— also with as much brevity as I can for neither needeth so much Barbarity any Aggravation nor so plentiful an Argument as the Vindication of an oppress'd King any Art to inforâ—â— it But I stay too long in the Porch The King's Meditations are thus Intituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is as the English Title speaks it Thâ— Portraicture of His Sacred Majesty And this Answer of Milton's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is the Breaker-in-pieces of that Portraicture Which how he has done Sub Judice Lâ—est CHAP. I. Vpon the King's calling his last Parliament THAT saith he which the King lays down here as his first Foundation Milton p. 1. and as it were the Head Stone of his whole Structure That he called this last Parliament not more by others advice and the necessity of his affairs than by his own choice and inclination is to all knowing Men so apparently not true that a more unlucky and inauspicious Sentence and more betokening the downfal of his whole Fabrick hardly could have come into his Mind And a good mannerly beginning A Man may not say to the King What dost thou and yet it seems may tell him Eccles 8.4 He lyes And without proving any thing but throwing it out boldly that somewhat may stick charges the Court Parasites as he calls them with their averseness to Parliaments and that the King never called a Parliament but to supply his Necessities and having supplied those as suddenly and ignominiously dissolv'd it without redressing any one Grievance of the People And broke off the Parliament at his coming to the Crown for no other cause than to protect the Duke of Buckingham against them who had accused him besides other heinous Crimes of no less than poysoning the deceased King his Father In reply to which it is but necessary to take notice of the condition of that time The Parliament had engaged King James in a War with Spain in which the Parliment 1 Car. 1. deserted his Son He had a large Dominion and a flourishing Kingdom left him but as I said a War and an empty Treasury with it beside which King James died in Debt To the City of London One Hundred and Twenty Thousand Pounds Vid. Annals of K. Charles 1 â—in Râ—â— 1. and â—â—r Râ—â—w Câ—ileet 1 Paâ—â— Fâ— 179. besides Interest For Denmark and the Palatinate One Hundred and Fifty Thousand Pounds For his Wardrobe Forty Thousand Pounds Laid out for his Navy Twenty Thousand Pounds For Count Mansfield Twenty Thousand Pounds For the Expence of his Fathers Funeral Forty two Thousand Pounds For the Queen Forty Thousand Pounds And to equip and pay the Navy for the Expedition for the Palatinate Three Hundred Thousand Pounds And what was worse than all this there had follow'd King James out of Scotland a sort of People whom himself calls Puritans very Pests in the Church and Common-weal whom no deserts can oblige Basâ—â—â—n Dorâ—â— p. 31. nor Oaths or Promises bind breathing nothing but Sedition and Calumnies aspiring without measure railing without reason and making their own Imaginations the Square of their Conscience These Men had by degrees spread themselves through City and Country and watch'd the People like Hawks so long till they could do any thing with them and sow what they pleas'd as they found them napping Nor wanted there some of the same Kidney here among our selves who under the specious pretences of easing the People had got the command of most of their Purse-strings King James 't is true might have helpt it at first if his Beati Pacisici that is Give Peace in our time O Lord had not been too much in his Light by which means all Remedies in his Son's time came too late and joyn'd with the Disease to the destruction of the Body In this Case what could King Charles the First do Monarchy is more Ancient and Independant than Parliaments and yet their Advice and Assistance makes it more compacted He calls a Parliament in the first Year of his Reign which sate not long And another in his Second in which he lets them know his and the Kingdoms condition and particularly that of the Palatinate Instead of answering which they fall into Debates and Reflections against the Duke of Buckingham and at a Conference of both Houses Vid. The 〈…〉 of 〈…〉 in 〈…〉 p. 15. â—â— 1. p. 104. the Commons deliver in an Impeachment of thirteen Articles against him the last of which was That the King being sick of an Ague at Theobald's the Duke had given him a Plaister and a Posset-drink without the Advice and Consultation of his Physicians Three days after the King by message to them takes upon himself as having full knowledge of all those transactions to clear the Duke of every one of those Articles Pâ—â—â— Câ—◠〈…〉 However the Duke makes his Defence to the Lords and puts in his Answer and Plea to the Impeachment made against him by the Commons And to the thirteenth Article says That having been recovered himself of an Ague by a Plaister and Posset-drink given him by a Physician of the Earl of Warwick's the King impatiently press'd to have it but was delayed by the Duke who pray'd the King not to make use of it but 〈◊〉 the Advice of his own Physicians nor till it wâ—â— tryed upon one Palmer of the Bed-Chambeâ— then also sick of an Ague which the King said he would do However the Duke being goâ—â— to London the King would have it and 〈◊〉 took it and upon his return hearing a Rumoâ—â— that the Physick had done the King hurt as that it had been administred by him withoâ—â— Advice the Duke acquaints the King with iâ—â— who with much discontent answer'd thus Theâ— are worse than Devils that say it And so having put in his Answer the Duke moves thâ— Lords that the Commons might expedite the Reply Instead of doing which they Petitioâ— the King against Papists and suspected Papist holding Places of Authority and Trust in thâ—â— Kingdom and draw a Remonstrance againâ— the Duke and Tonnage and Poundage
oâ— which that Parliament was dissolv'd by Commission Whereas this Accuser would peâ—swade the World that the King broke off thâ— Parliament for no other cause than to proteâ—â— the Duke against them who had accused him 〈◊〉 no less than the poisoning his Father And trâ—ly I was once wondring why he said nothing touching the Parliament of the third of King Charles till I considered it was in that Parliament that the King past the Petition of Right with Soit Droit sait come il est desire He found it was not for him and therefore resolv'd iâ— should make nothing against him When oâ—â— the contrary he reproaches the King with illegal Actions to get Money least considering iâ— was the Art of that time to reduce the King to Necessity to the end that being forced to extraordinary means he might attract a popular Odium And here also he quarrels at Straws and rather than not want matter he 'll find a Knot in a Bullrush For what other can he make of those Compulsive Knighthoods Milt p. 2. when the King had the Statute of 1 Edw. 2. De militibus to warrant it In like manner for the Ship-money The Dutch in the Year 1634. had encroach'd upon the Royalty of the Northern Seas upon which the King so loath was He to do any thing that might but seem illegal writes to the Judges and demands their Opinions in Writing whether when the good or safety of the Kingdom in general is concern'd the King may not by Writ under the Great Seal command all His Subjects of this Kingdom to furnish a certain number of Ships and Men for such time as the King shall think fit and by Law compel the doing it in case of refusal And whether in such a case he is not the sole Judge both of the danger of the Kingdom and when and how the same is to be prevented and avoided V. The case and all the Arguments on both sides Printed in 4 to As also in the said Annals from p. 550. to p. 600. To which every one of the twelve Judges repeating the very Words of the King's Letter subscribed their names in the Affirmative And though J. Hutton and J. Crooke afterwards fell off yet upon arguing the matter by all the Judges in the Exchequer-Chamber in the Case of Mr. Hambden the majority of them gave their Opinions for the Writs on which the Barons gave Judgment Then for Monopolies every thing is not a Monopoly that may be call'd so and therefore because he gives no particular instance either as to them or the King 's seizing Naboth's Vineyard as he calls it Inheritances under the pretence of Forest and Crown-Lands and Corruption and Bribery compounded for I say no more but this that Generals imply nothing and consequently deserve no particular Answer But this I know that in the Parliament of 44 oâ— Queen Elizabeth a Bill was preferr'd for Explanation of the Common Law in certain cases of Letters Patents V. Sir Simon D'ewe's Journal of the Commons 44. Eliz. viz. touching Monopolies and was strongly bandied on both sides Oâ— this the Queen sends them a Message That a she was not conscious to herself she had granted Letters Patents of any thing that was Maluâ— in se V. Townsend ' s Câ—llections 44. Eliz. so when it should appear that she had made any such Grant it should be revok'd or otherwise redressed on which the Common make her an humble Address of Thanks and a Grant of Subsidies and yet I do not find the Queen ever did any thing in it But what the King did as to the Grievances for that was the Word I shall come to shew presently The next thing he trumps up is The King'â— having the second time levied an injurious War against his Native Country Milt p. 3. Scotland a Waâ— saith he condemned and abominated by the wholâ— Kingdom and which the Parliament judged one oâ— their main Grievances Nor without reason for that was a cover'd Dish and had been long before cooking for their own Tooth They knew it would keep cold for another time and the King was not yet become necessitous enough to have it opened at present But to observe the wording it The King levied an unjust War c. As if a King might not defend himself against the Rebellion of his natural Lieges For such and no other was the case here But the Story is thus The King in the Sixteenth of his Reign had call'd another Parliament which opened 13. April 1640. at which time the Scots with an armed Force lay upon the Borders His Majesty by Sir J. Finch Lord Keeper tells them of the Scots Insurrection the Summer before V. Rushw Coll. 16. Car. 1. which he had pass'd by upon their Protestations of their future Loyalty instead of which they had now address'd to the King of France to put themselves under his Protection and causes an intercepted Letter of theirs signed by the heads of those Covenanters one of whom was then in Custody to be publickly read and therefore demands a Supply The Commons consider of it and pay it with complaints Innovation in Religion Grievances against Liberty Property and Privilege of Parliament The King sends several times to the Houses and presses to them the danger of the Scots Army but the question is which shall have the Precedency The Supply or Grievances The Lords are for the former and that the King ought to be first trusted The Commons are so long a tuning their Instrument that the King in despair of any good Musick from 'em dissolves them the Fifth of May following From which our Accuser thus infers that strong Necessities and the very pangs of State Milt p. 3. not his own Choice and Inclination made him call this Monstrum Horrendum Informe Ingens last Parliament which began the third of November 1640. when yet he brings nothing to back his Assertion but the scurrillous Language of the General Voice of the People almost hissing him and his ill-acted Regality off the Stage That it was impossible be should incline to Parliaments who never was perceived to call them but for the greedy hope of a National Bribe his Subsidies and never lov'd fulfill'd or promoted the true end of Parliaments the redress of Grievances of which himself was indeed the Author Not doubting also to call it a natural Sottishness fit to be abused and ridden And if this be the Reverence due to Majesty this the Respect we pay the Vicegerent of God sure Job was mistaken when he says Is it fit to say to a King Thou art Wicked and to Princes Job 34.18 Ye are ungodly The interrogation is in the Affirmative and concludes in the Negative No certainly it is not fit St. Paul checks a bare slip of his Tongue toward the High Priest Acts 25.5 Jude v. 9. Zach. 3.2 and the Arch-Angel in Jude brought not a railing Accusation even against the Devil And yet when
His Majesty says He hop'd by his Freedom and their Moderation to prevent Mis understandings See how Spider-like he draws Poison from what the Beâ— would have suck'd Honey And wherefore saith he not by their Freedom and his Moderation But Freedom he thought too high a Word for them and Moderation too mean a Word for him Insolence and if this as it seems to be were the early Moderation of his Masters I the less wonder how they broke down that Wall which at once adorn'd and defended their way However for reply to it the Kingdom was fallen into a Distemper that required a Cordiaâ— more than a Corrosive somewhat to cool not heighten the Fever And if His Majesty did not contribute his part to it let any Man judge When besides his granting The Petition of Right of which before he denied this Parliament nothing they had the confidence to ask him Witness his passing the Bill for a Triennial Parliament Vid. Scobel's Collection of Acts and Ordinances from 1640. and the Statutes at large 16 and 17 Car. 1. For the continuance of this Parliament during the Pleasure of both Houses than which what more could they have demanded but the Kingdom also For the raising Moneys for the disbanding of the Armies of England and Scotland It was but a modest disarming the King and for the Scots they wanted not the Bait to get them together again The taking away the several Courts of the Star-chamber the Presidencies of Wales and the North Dutchy of Lancaster and the Exchequer of the County Palatine of Chester The High Commission and Oath Ex Officio Limiting the Stannary Courts Setting Bounds to Forests The Bill against Ship-Money And what our Answerer calls compulsive Knighthoods Add to this his Consent to a Bill for Two Hundred and Twenty Thousand Pounds for the Supply of the Occasions of our Brethren of Scotland For pressing Soldiers for Ireland Borrowing Four Hundred Thousand Pounds for the necessary defence and great affairs of England and Ireland And another for the encouragement of Adventurers for Ireland So that in effect there remain'd little more for them to ask or His Majesty to grant And now to use the Parable of the Prophet touching his Vineyard Isa 1. v. 1. to v. 8. A Vineyard in a very fruitful Soil He fenced it and gathered out the Stones thereof and planted it with the choicest Vine c. And he looked that it should bring forth Grapes and it brought forth Wild Grapes Judge I pray between the King and his Vineyard the Kingdom What could have been done more to it thaâ— he had not done in it And he look'd foâ— Judgment but behold Oppression for Righteousness but behold a Cry Judge I say between the King and them when they had no sooner gotten an Army anâ— Money together and that for the reducement 〈◊〉 Ireland Vid. His Majesty's Answer to their Irish Papers as was pretended than they drove thâ— King from While hall by Tumults and fought hiâ— at Edge-Hill with those individual Forces They tax'd the King of illegal exactions anâ— grievances which he readily redressed Weâ— see now how they mended it themselves Shiâ— Money which was about Ten Shillings a Month out of a Thousand Pounds a Year was a greaâ— Burthen to the Country and the King took it of They set up the Excise in the room of it whicâ— was Two Hundred Thousand and Ninety fiâ—â— Pounds for one Year besides Eight Thousand Sixty three Pounds paid in the Country to thâ— Army The Country groan'd under Coat aâ—â— Conduct-Money See more of this chap. 13.15 They brought in an Army oâ— One and Twenty Thousand Scots instead oâ— ' em The King granted that Right be donâ— They secur'd Property in Sequestring Mens Estates In a word the Court went awaâ— in the City's Debt They made an Ordinancâ— for the Publick Faith of the Kingdom for the repayment of publick Debts that is such Moneys as they had borrow'd for the carrying oâ— of their Rebellion And for fear the King lightning their Burthens should make the People grow wanton they began with an Assesâ—ment for the twentieth part of their Estates and all this too for the Ease of the Nation And lastly to consider what return they made him Quis talia fando Temperet They first stripp'd him of his Royal Authority and having dealt with the Monarchy it self like Gold-beaters beaten it so thin that there remain'd no more of the Substance than the empty appearance They accuse him in the name of all the Commons of England in which case how could any of them be as Witness when they were both Accusers and Judges Try him with a ridiculous Pageantry that had neither Equal nor Superiour in his Realm Traiterously sentence him and as ignominiously murther him before his own Palace And to fill up the measure of their Wickedness abolish Kingly Government and proscribe his Posterity And so judge also whoever he be that reads me whether they deserv'd not what the Prophet says he will do to his Vineyard I will take away the hedge thereof and it shall be eaten up and break down the Wall thereof and it shall be trodden down I will lay it waste it shall not be pruned nor digged but there shall come up Briars and Thorns I will also command the Clouds that they rain no Rain upon it But to return to our Answerer The King in his wonted Sincerity says The Odium and Offences which some Mens rigour or remissness in Church and State had contracted upon his Government he resolved to have expiated with better Laws and Regulations A healing Proposition one would have thought and a fair step to an Accommodation A King said it nor is it for Princes that they should Lye and therefore could not but be credited by every Honest Man for he that is Vertuous himself believes the same of another But this Answerer according to the fullness of his Heart vomits out these and the like Expressions And yet saith he the work of Misdemeanours committed by the worst of all his Favourites he hath from time to time continued owned and taken upon himself by publick Declarations as often as any of his Instruments felt themselveâ— over-burthen'd with the Peoples Hatred And ye as publick as they are he instances not in any one Particular by which to have examin'd it A Favourite is the same to a King that a Friend is to a Private Man he may unburthen himself to him and it is not the Crowd but agreement makes the Company Nor are all Men of like Merit more than they are of Face and therefore if a King say Euge bone Serve must our Answerer's Eye be evil because the King 's is good But the point lies not there They are not piqu'd that the King might have Favourites but that themselves are not those Favourites and consequently wanting Vertue in themselves not only envy it in others but strike at the Prince through the Sides
about Six Thousand tumultuously flock to Westminster crying Justice Justice against the Earl of Strafford Which within a day or two they second with a Petition On which the Earl less valuing his Life than the quiet of the Kingdom writes a Letter to the King whereby to set his Conscience at Liberty and by his own Consent prays him to pass the Bill which in a few days after was by Commission to the Earl of Arundel and three other Lords accordingly done with this Proviso That no Judge or Judges c. shall adjudge or interpret any act or thing to be Treason nor hear or determine any Treason any other way than they should or ought to have done before the making of this Act and as if this Act had never been had or made A modest Confession and that nothing but an Act of Parliament could affect him Nor unlike that Clause in an Ordinance of the King and Lords for the Banishment c. of the Lady Alice Pierce a Favourite of King Edward the Third's viz. That this Ordinance in this Special Case Mr. Seldâ—n's Privilege of Baronage 71 which may extend to a Thousand other Persons shall in no other case but this be taken in Example However after the Bill was pass'd the King as deeming They will reverence my Son wrote a Letter to the House of Lords with his own Hand and sent it by the Prince of Wales in which he interceeds for that Mercy to the Earl which many Kings would not have scrupled to have given themselves But 't was resolv'd and nothing would do And thus between Accumulative and Constructive Treason nor better prov'd than I have shewn before Sic inclinavit heros caput Taken from Mr. Cleveland Belluae multorum Capitum Merces favoris Scottici praeter pecunias Nec vicit tamen Anglia sed oppressit Or if my Reader had rather have it in English take it from that happy Flight of Sir Richard Fanshaw on that Occasion And so fell Rome herself oppress'd at length By the united World and her own Strength And yet not to leave his Memory in the Dust there is an Act of Parliament that vindicates all I have said in the matter and that is The Act for reversing this Attainder 13 14. Car. 2. c. 29. which says thus That the Bill of Attainder was purposely made to Condemn him upon Accumulative and Constructive Treason none of the said Treasons being Treason apart and so could not be in the whole if they had been prov'd as they were not And the Act further says It was procured by an armed Tumult the names of Fifty nine of the Commons that opposed the Bill posted by the name of Straffordians and sent up to the Peers at a time when a great part of them were absent by reason of those Tumults and many of those present protested against it For which Causes and to the end that Right be done to the Memory of that deceased Earl it was enacted c. That the said Act c. be repeal'd c. And all Records and proceedings of Parliament relating to the said Attainder be cancell'd and taken off the File c. to the intent the same may not be visible in after-Ages or brought in Example to the prejudice of any Person whatever Provided that this Act shall not extend to the future questioning of any Person c. however concern'd in this Business or who had any hand in the Tumults or disorderly procuring the Act aforesaid c. A shrewd suspicion that they thought that Act of Attainder was not so regularly obtain'd as it ought to have been for if it had what needed that Proviso And having duely considered this Act I think the Wonder will cease why the King was so dissatisfied in his Conscience touching the giving his Assent to that Bill of Attainder His Speech on the Scaffold or that the Lord Capel so publickly begg'd forgiveness of God for having given his Consent toward it At least I presume it may startle any Man that from such repeated Calumnies has not yet come to be of our Answerer's Opinion That there may be a Treason against the Commonwealth as well as against the King only A Treason not mention'd in 25 Edw. 3. or in any Statute since saving those of the late Usurper's making inasmuch as no Estate or Estates of the Realm make any thing of themselves but as joyned to their Figure the King And therefore passing the King 's most detested Conspiracy as he calls it against the Parliament and Kingdom by seizing the Tower of London bringing the English Army out of the North c. I leave him and his Stuff together and come to the Third CHAP. III. Vpon His going to the House of Commons I Said ere-while His Majesty might think the Lords would reverence his Son nor was in to be doubted whether the Commons would himself Especially considering the business he went about It was faith the King to demand Justice upon the Five Members whom upon just motives and pregnant grounds I had charged and needed nothing to such Evidence as could have been produced against them save only a free and legal Tryal which was all I desired Which fill'd indifferent Men with Jealousies and Fears yea and many of my Friends resented as a motion rising rather from Passion than Reason See says our Answerer He confesses it to â—an act which most Men whom he calls his Enemies cried shame upon indifferent Men c. as before He himself in one of his Answers to both Houses made profession to be convinc'd that it was a plain breach of their Privilege Yet here like a rottâ— Building newly trimm'd over he represents it speciously and fraudulently to impose upon the simple Reader c. Words insolent enough without adding the rest though it had not been from his Matter if he had told that simple Reader in which Answer of his Majesties he might have found that Profession However for the discovery of the Truth on both sides it may not be amiss to make a few steps backward that considering the occasion we may the better judge of the thing It had been advis'd to the King by the then Privy-Council of Scotland to send the Book of Common-Prayer to be receiv'd and us'd in all Churches of that Kingdom The King's Declaration 1639. which was accordingly order'd And in the Month of July 1637. publickly read in the great Church of Edinburgh The Kirkmen took fire at it nor wanted there some in England to fan the Flame which in a short time got that head that they invade England but finding the design not ripe enough yet they humbly submit and the business is smother'd Whereas had those smoaking Brands been sufficiently quench'd they had not made a greater Eruption the next Year During this time the King had gotten into the matter and calls this Parliament with a real intention of quieting all They begin where the last Parliament
in the matter I shall not be shie in it It is and ever was the Law of England that the sole supream Government Command and Disposition of the Militia and of all Forces by Sea and Land and of all places of Strength is and ever were the undoubted Right of His Majesty and of his Royal Predecessors Kings and Queens of England Or else what means that of Fitz-Herbert Nat. Brev. p. 113. It is the Right of the King to defend his Kingdom To make Leagues and denounce War only belongs to the King 7 Coke 2â— as a Right of Majesty which cannot be conferred upon any other And how can he do it without the power of the Sword that is the sole Command of the Militia To levy War within the Realm without Authority from the King unto whom it only belongeth Id. Coke 3 Inst 9. was High Treason at the Common-Law before the Statute de proditionibus 25 Ed. 3. And a latter Statute not introductive of a new Law but declaratory of the old Law has the very Words touching the sole Command of the Militia 13 Car. 2. c. 2. c. before-mention'd with this farther That both or either of the Houses of Parliament cannot nor ought to pretend to the same nor can or lawfully may raise or levy War offensive or defensive against his Majesty his Heirs and lawful Successors Short View c. Fol. 86. And was confest by themselves when they acknowledg'd the Militia an inseparable Flower of the Crown and subject to no command but his Authority And yet contrary to this known Law these two Houses not only Petition the King That the Tower of London c. as before be forthwith put into such Hands as shall be recommended to him by both the Houses but upon his recess from Whitehall send him a Peremptory Petition That unless the King by those Commissioners then sent assure them of their former desires Mar. 1. 1641. Rushw Col. Fol. 92. they shall be enforced to dispose of the Militia by the Authority of both Houses which upon the King's refusal Sir Will. Dugdale 's Short View p. 85. they Vote a Denial and dispose of it themselves And now they begin to unpin the Mask and publish a Declaration wherein they say That what the Houses declare for Law ought not to be question'd by the King That the Sovereign Power resides in both Houses That the King ought to have no Negative Voice That Treason cannot be committed against the King's Person otherwise than as he is entrusted with the Kingdom and discharges that Trust and that they have a Power to judge whether he hath discharged that Trust or not 7 Coke 11. Fine dainty Law And the Spencers Treason in Edward the Second's time but better improv'd In the May following they fall a-branching it into nineteen Propositions Rushw 307. V. The Statutes at large many of which are but the substance of those Acts pass'd by Edward the Third in the fifteenth of his Reign and revoked by him the same Year as derogatory to his Crown and send them to the King which being refus'd by him they Vote The King intended a VVar upon them and thereupon raise an Army and suffering the Mask to drop off make Essex General thereof 12 Jul. 42. and farther Vote They will live and die with him On which the King sets up his Standard at Nottingham the August following Nor will I carry it further at present because I design not a History but only to shew which of the two the King or the Houses intended a Civil VVar and whether they did not undoe what they found well done In short their Endeavours were to strip the King of what God and the Law had given him the King 's was but to keep what he ought to have and therefore viewing both by a true light How can the King be justly charg'd with intending a VVar when it was in a manner but a suing for his own CHAP. VI. Vpon his Majesty 's retirement from Westminster WITH what unwillingness saith His Majesty I withdrew Westminster let them judge who unprovided of Tackling and Victual are forced to Sea by a Storm yet better do so than venture splitting or sinking on a Lee-Shoar And if the Parallel held not in all its Parts our Answerer had done well to have shewn in which it fell short whereas instead thereof he only says He was about to have found fault with the Simile as a garb somewhat more Poetical than for a Statist and finds it the strain of other of his Essays But what 's this to the matter farther than that in the Words His Essays a Truth slipt from him unawares in confessing them to have been written by the King and not by his Houshold Rhetorician as before But to the Argument saith he and I follow him with this by the way to my Reader That he would consider how the Houses had depriv'd the King of his Friends disrobed him of his Power trampled his Authority affronted his Person baited him with a Rabble and left him nothing but what could not be taken from him a good God and the satisfaction of a Conscience founded on a Compositum jus fasque animo Sanctosque recessus Mentis incoctum generoso pectus honesto And then tell me in what condition he was when he left Westminster I stay'd at Whitehall saith His Majesty till I was driven away by Shame more than Fear to see the barbarous rudeness of those Tumults c. a thing so true for matter of Fact that being not able to deny it our Answerer turns it thus That in the whole Chapter next but one before this the King affirms That the danger wherein his Wife his Children and his own Person were by those Tumults was the main cause that drove him c. Whereas what the King and that but in one place of that Chapter says of it is this That he thought himself not bound to prostitute the Majesty of his Place and Person and the safety of his Wife and Children to those who are prone to insult most when they have objects and opportunity most capable of their rudeness and petulancy With this other from Digby as he calls him who knew his Mind as well as any That the principal cause of his Majesty's going thence was to save them from being trod in the Dirt. And where in the name of Goodness lies the Contradiction The Tumults were such they might have been call'd Legion and well make a King asham'd to see them and not be able to disperse them But a direct Fear it could not be in him whom Ille timorum Maximus hand urget Lethi timor and who refused Life at the price of an inglorious Submission And yet in the Case of a private Person was not this ground enough to apprehend a danger and the consequence of it to be trod in the Dirt How much more then in the Case
single Opinion of my own but the Authority of the Law that I think it needless actum agere Only when he says The Noblest Romans when they stood for that which was a kind of Regal Honour the Consulship were wont in a submissive manner 〈◊〉 go about and beg that Highest Dignity of the Meanest Plebeians which was call'd Petitio Consulatûs He would have done well to have cover'd his Hook a little better if he ever expected to catch any Fish If he had said they chuse their Consuls as we do our Knights of the Shire he that has most Voices carries it bating the Ambitus it had been well enough But when he speaks of a King of England what Mischief brought it into his Head to confound the Irregular Practices of a Democratical State with the settled Constitutions of an Hereditary Imperial Monarchy which this of England is or those several Statutes as well as Common Law of which before are grosly mistaken And therefore for the rest it bring but mere catching at Words whereby to wrest the Sence I had as good leave it and go to somewhat else CHAP. XII Vpon the Rebellion and Troubles in Ireland IT is the Nature of Flies to be ever buzzing and blowing upon any thing that is raw and has been the only design of our Answerer throughout his whole Book not to deliver Things as they truly were but to rake together old exploded Forgeries that having dress'd up the King as like a Tyrant as he can he may have the more to say in Defence of the Parricide It is the Way of Witches to foretell those Storms themselves intend to move Nor had the Contrivers of ours been wanting to that Part of it but the Earl of Strafford's Watchful Eye lay so close for them that nothing could be done unless they first brought his Masts by the Board And having gotten that Point of him and the Rebellion of Ireland falling close upon it they only make an advantage of it and buzze the People that it was done with the King's Privity at least if not by his Commission Whereby to represent him to the World as the more Inhumane and Barbarous Nor is this our Accuser less wanting to insinuate it over again when he says That it cannot be imaginable that the Irish guided by so many Italian Heads should have so far lost the Vse of Reason and common Sense as not supported with other Strength than their own to begin a War so desperate and irreconcilable against both England and Scotland at once without some Authority from England or great Assistance promised them and assurance which they had in private that no remedy should be apply'd against them All which being merely conjectural by the same Reason it may be true by the same Reason also it may be false without there were somewhat more than Words to evince the Truth of it And so taking that for granted which should have been first proved he audaciously Charges the King as the Prime Author of that Rebellion though both here and elsewhere he denies it with many Imprecations but no solid Evidence And how solid his on the other hand are may be worth the viewing It is most certain saith he that the King was ever friendly to the Irish Papists and in his Third Year against the plain Advice of Parliament sold them Indulgences for Money and engaged them in a War against the Scotch Protestants What he means by that Sale of Indulgences I know not nor does any History of ours that I yet met direct me to it The Irish were his Majesty's Subjects as well as the Scots and if he was friendly to them though Papists he did but the part of a prudent Father who seldom chucks one Child more than another for fear of breeding a Quarrel in the Family And besides though the Scots were Protestants there is not any one English Law against Papists i◠Force in Ireland and Sanguinary Law none◠But that the King engaged them in a War against the Scots wants Proof and as such I pass it To this he adds That several of the most active Papists all since in the Head of that Rebellion were in great Favour at Whitehall and in Private Consultations with the King and Queen and that he gave them more than Five Irish Counties at an inconsiderable Rent And for the Proof of all this quotes a Scotch Author but says not a Word who or what this Author was Tho' if he had call'd him Squire Meldrum the Cherry and the Sloe or David Lindsey against Side-Tails it had past not a Jot the worse with the People If they were in great Favour at Court it was no more than what the Scots also were if they had private Consultations c. Charity would have presum'd the best and that it was in order to the Quiet and Peace of that Kingdom and if the King gave them Five Counties he gave but his own which if he had shared among the Five Members we had not perhaps heard a Word of the Story But that they should ungratefully rebel against him how could he more foresee it of them than he did of the Scots And after this if any Vnderstanding Man yet doubts who was the Author and Instigator of that Rebellion I referr them saith he to that Declaration of July 1643 concerning this Matter Very good The Word of a King is but the bare denial of one Man and what is one Man against the Credit of Both Houses though they were Judges Witnesses and Parties I offerred saith his Majesty to go my self in Person upon that Expedition But happy it was that his going into Ireland was not consented to saith the other for certainly he had turn'd his intended Forces against the Parliament Whereas it seems more probable that without this Rebellion in Ireland they could never have rais'd their Rebellion in England For upon the Credit of the Acts for the borrowing of 400000 l. for the necessary Defence of England and Ireland Both of them 17 Car. 1. and for the Encouragement of Adventurers for the reducing the Rebels in Ireland they got ready Moneys into their Hands V. His Majesty's Answer to their Irish Papers In his Large Book f. 537. and rais'd Forces as was pretended for the Relief of that Kingdom but in truth fought the King with them at Edge-hill But enough of this Matter CHAP. XIII Vpon the Calling in of the Scots and their coming AND here again our Answerer lays his Foundation to this Chapter upon what he has so often run off to before and been by me and I hope fully answered That the first Original and Institution of Kings was by the Consent and Suffrage of the People and calls them the entrusted Servants of the Commonwealth but in his wonted way says not a Word how they came by this Power of choosing i. e. whether it were given them by God or they took it themselves If God gave it them he ought one
Limitations Though our Accuser thinks it enough for him to have said Those Limitations were not more dangerous to him than he was to their Liberty and Religion His next is that Antichristian Hierarchy which was there vowed to be cast out of the Church c. Whether God planted it or not is not the question the King's Progenitors had bountifully water'd it and the Law of England set a Hedge about it They held their Possessions in Barony the Statute pro Clero calls them Peers of the Realm and another of Queen Elizabeth 2â— Ed. 3. c. 6. 8 Eâ— c. 1. one of the greatest States of this Realm And for a Fag-end of a Parliament without the King's Consent nay contrary to his Will to take upon them to extirpate so ancient so establish'd an Order and dis-seize them of their Free-hold without a legal Trial whatever the Liberty or Religion of it might be I am sure it was contrary to Magna Charta And himself says it is a Point not to be argu'd but of a clear Moral Necessity to be done And a most expeditious Answer though it may seem much in the dark to every Man but himself and the Actors in it Nor was it saith his Majesty less than superfluous to enjoyn Oaths where former Religious and Legal Engagements bound Men sufficiently to all necessary Duties But it was saith he the Practice of all reforming Churches Israel were bound enough before by the Law of Moses to all necessary Duties yet with Asa their King entred into a new Covenant at the beginning of a Reformation c. And as well might he have prov'd it out of the first Words of Genesis Is the Beginning i. e. In the beginning of Formation the World was Created and in the beginning of Reformation the Covenant was produc'd But to give it a direct Answer This New Covenant of which he speaks was not about Pretended Privileges or disputable Liberties in matters of State nor any Conjectural Fancies in Point of Religion 2 Chron. 15.12.15 but to seek the God of their Fathers in which also the King joyn'd with them and it is said of it that God was found of them and gave them rest round about which cannot be said of ours And which may be further observable of all the Covenants made by the Jews there was no one of them ever Sworn against the Will of the Supream or at least Subordinate Rulers not opposed but rather countenanced by the Supream and the matter of their Covenant was always enjoyn'd by God himself And whereas he further says The Jews after the Captivity without Consent demanded of that King who was their Master took a Solemn Oath to walk in the Commandments of God See how he slurs it upon the unwary People That King c. The Jews from the Captivity to the coming of our Saviour had no Kings of their own but were govern'd by Deputies and Vicegerents who had not Supream Authority in themselves but as it pleas'd the Persian Monarchs and afterward Alexander and his Successors to assign them and these were call'd Heads or Princes of the Captivity of whom Zerobabel was the first and upon the Restauration of the Captivity by Cyrus came back again with them to Jerusalem and Judah and with him Nehemiah as one of the chief of the Fathers For in the third of Nehemiah ver 16. he is call'd a Ruler and in the fifth verse 14. Governour in the Land of Judah With this Nehemiah it was that the Princes and the Priests made the Covenant our Answerer speaks of Nehem. 10.1 and Nehemiah seal'd to it as the Tirshatha or Governour and the People clave to their Brethren their Nobles Ver. 29. and entred into an Oath to walk in God's Laws And now what need was there to demand that King's Artaxerxes Consent when his Vicegerent joyn'd with them In a matter too which terminated in themselves and their own Worship without the least design of extirpating their Masters the Syrians or Babylonians And when he calls it a Solemn Oath what other is it than to wheedle the People into an easier swallow of it and that the Solemn League and Covenant was just such another And yet our Answerer will not away with it when the King says They made their Covenant like Manna not that it came from Heaven as this did agreeable to every Man's Palate For the drift saith he is that Men should loath it Whereas if we truly consider the thing never was Comparison more aptly applicable Exod. 16.15 For when Israel first saw it they said one to another Manna or What is this for they wist not what it was Ver. 20. and if they kept it above a day it bred Worms and stank CHAP. XV. Vpon the many Jealousies rais'd and Scandals cast upon the King to stir up the People against him THere is a great deal of difference between Accusations and Calumnies the first necessary to all Popular States whereby to keep any one's growing too great for the rest as may be seen in the Athenian Ostracism or Banishment for ten Years and the Syracusian Petalism for five Years but Calumnies were ever exploded as the bane and destruction of Common Society And if they are so dangerous to Commonwealths what must they be to Monarchy which is never truly supported but by being at unity within it self And yet such were the Artifices of those times that they rais'd their Babel on no other Foundation and what the effect of it was we have all seen however it must not seem strange that our Answerer bred at the Feet of those Gamaliels should all along Copy so exactly after the Original But to pass his railing and come to his Matter which is so loose and thin that I was once going to throw it away till I better consider'd that the best way to undeceive the People was to undraw the Curtain and shew them how they had been deceiv'd and if in the doing it they have not tack'd together all the shreds and parings of Policy let any Man judge What the Plot of the Play was appears in their last Act and that was by the Murther of their Lawful Soveraign to transform and new model an ancient Monarchy into a Mushrome of a Commonwealth But many things were to be done by the way and without the People it was impossible to effect it They knew the People lov'd the King but had withal taken a discontent at somewhat but what that was not a Man of them could tell Nor were they to learn of what importance the aspersing a Prince is to boil up that discontent to a height fit for a Rebellion To have done this directly had been to betray themselves No they first commend him for a good Prince a King that would do any thing for his People But alas There are some about him The more 's the pity However God in his time can mend all And yet the less they spake of