was he altogether void of Assistance from England being underhand supplied with some Moneys by his Loyal Friends from thence But Scotland was more entirely at his Devotion who having shewed their sad Resentment of his Fathers Death by observing a Publick Fast on that occasion on the 19th of February and chearfully promoted his Succession by the Estates of Parliament there assembled a Proclamation was issued out for the solemn proclaiming and declaring him to be their lawful King and Governour which was as follows His late Majesty being contrary to the consent and protestation of this Kingdom removed by violent Death we the Estates of the Parliament of the Kingdom of Scotland do unanimously in Recognition of his Just Rights proclaim his Eldest Son Prince Charles by the Providence of God and undoubted Succession King of Great Britain France and Ireland whom we are bound by the National and Solemn League and Covenant to obey maintain and defend with our Lives and Goods against all his Enemies But before he be admitted to the exercise of his Royal Power he shall give satisfaction to these Kingdoms touching the Security of Religion the Vnity oâ— the two Kingdoms and the Good and Peace of this Kingdom according to the National and Solemn League and Covenant God save the King Which Proclamation was for the better assuring the truth of their designed Allegiance to the Crown made in a most solemn manner at Edinburgh Cross which was hung with Tapestry all the parliament-Parliament-Lords attending there in their Robes and the Chancellor himself reading the said Proclamation and reciting the Murder of his late Majesty to the King at Arms the night being concluded with all usual demonstrations of Joy and Gladness Which being over they sent an Expostulatory Letter to those at Westminster to give them an Account of their proceedings and require their concurrence therewith In answer whereunto they received Letters stuft with flattery and protestations of Amity and Friendship if they would desist from acting any farther therein and acquiesce and concur with their proceedings in England But they knowing that their Countrys Honour had been lost by the same Traiterous proffers refused to hearken to their overtures protesting in their messages directed to Lenthal the Speaker that they would not enter into any Treaty with them nor own them unless they were a free Parliament consisting of both houses without any force upon or seclusion of their members Wherefore having hereby made the English Parliament implacably their Enemies they endeavor to assure his Majesty to be their Friend ordring Joseph Douglas to repair forthwith to him at the Hague and acquaint him with what they had done and were preparing to do And presently after sent several Commissioners to treat with him about his repairing to them and entring upon the exercise of his Kingly Office Whereupon their Commissioners at London having sent a peremptory Paper to the Juncto withdrew themselves privately from London intending to pass by Sea for Scotland but were intercepted at Graves-end and by a Guard conveyed thither by Land an Envoy going likewise with them to the Scottish Parliament to know if they would justifie the aforesaid Paper who beginning now to be more than ever enraged against the Rump dismist him without any Answer but prepared themselves for defence intending to levy 17000 Foot and 6000 Horse against the return of their Commissioners who landing about the middle of the Summer though they did not bring with them a confirmation of the Agreement yet gave certain hopes of it by a Treaty presently to be commenced the King offering to perform whatsoever his Father had promised for the settlement of Presbytery Upon which Encouragement the Lord Liberton was presently dispatcht to wait upon the King who was then preparing for his return from the Hague through Flanders into France which he did on June 15 in company with his Sister and her Husband the Prince of Orange in their Coach and came early to Rotterdam where he was received by the Bâ—rghers in their Arms and saluted in his passing the Gates with the Artillery Ringing of Bells and all other signs of Joy and Honour and Noblely treated by them From whence he went to Dort where he was received in the same manner and then to Breda and then to Antwerp where by order of the Arch-Duke of Austria he was met and entertained with all possible state and splendor being presented likewise with a rich Chariot with eight Horses suitable thereunto and particularly welcomed by his former Tutor the Marquess of Newcastle who had then fixt his Residence there out of respect to the great Civility which he received from that People who had made him Excise-free and given him several other Immunities and Priviledges And from thence conducted to Brussels where he was as royally entertained with as much grandeur as if he had been the King of Spain himself And the King did afterward acknowledge that Entertainment for the most sumptuous and magnificent and to have in it the most pleasing variety of any that he ever met withal during the whole time of his Exile Which Amplitudes were observed throughout his whole passage For at his departure thence the Duke of Lorrayn gave him the like Entertainment and conducted him on his way toward France where in Compaign the French King accompanied with the most and choicest of his Nobility did receive and welcom him with all the Testimonies of Affection and Honour that became such a Prince and afterward conveyed him in State to St. Germains where the Queen his Mother then resided So that although he was banisht from his Throne yet he wanted not a Kingdom all men whereever he came being so taken with his Virtues that they seemed willing to become his Subjects Nor was his Court much inferiour in numbers and splendor to those of other Princes who were in the actual possession of their Crowns Toward the maintenance whereof his Aunt the Dutchess of Savoy assigned him fifty thousand Crowns per Annum several others contributing likewise thereunto according to their abilities He was very much solicited about this time by the Scottish Commissioners to repair to that Kingdom but finding that the Conditions upon which they were willing to admit him were such as he could not in honour accept of especially the parting with Montross he resolved to steer another course and therefore grants a Commission to Montross to Levy what Forces he could beyond the Sea and with them go and joyn the Lord Seworth Major Straughan and others who had got to Head for the King without the Kirk in the North of Scotland But they being routed before he came by Lisley and himself not long after his Arrival defeated by a Party of the Kirks Forces and taken Prisoner most ignominiously hanged at Edinburgh he was as it were forced by the necessity of his Affairs to comply with their demands which was so much the easier done in regard that about that time
rebuke the unsavoury Speeches that tortured his chaster Ears and condemn those Oaths and Curses which were too common among the vainer Scholars during which time he was visited with the Measels the danger whereof only serv'd to teach us how to prize him the more for that hazard But the War between his Father and the Parliament still growing more fierce he once more left the University and took the Field laying aside his Books that he might handle his Arms and endeavoured to signalize his Valour by appearing in the Head of some Forces in the North which were conducted by the Earls of Cumberland and New-castle wherein he was so successful at first that Victory seemed to wait on his Banner Shortly after he marcht Westward where by order from the Court he was attended by such a Noble Retinue as was most suitable to the Grandeur of a Prince of Wales about which time he cast off his Ich Dien and assum'd his State setting up his Royal Court and making choice of such Officers as were most pleasing to him about which although his Father took some exception yet he protested that he greatly admired the discretion of his choice in general having so brave and well ordered a Family that it was second to none but his Uncle Henrys and King-ship was first exercised within the narrow compass of an Houshold saith Selden which increasing to Cities Kings were content to Reign therein until those Cities swelling into Nations they enlarged the bounds of their Soveraign Rule The King of Portugal about this time hoping to make an advantage of the Kings necessity offered several fair Proposals suitable to his present exigencies and troubles which were ushered in by the offer of a Match between his Daughter and the Prince but for some reasons of State his Father thought not fit to accept the offer but yet returned such an answer as held him in suspence being not willing either to gratifie or displease him The Prince in the mean while was busily employing himself in endeavouring to make up a much happier Match between his Father and the Parliament by some overtures of Peace which he made to Sir Thom. Fairfax the Chief Commander of the Parliament-Forces but was disappointed therein for Fairfax gave him to unstand that those Proposals were fitter to be made to the Parliament than to him who was only their Servant Wherefore he seeing that Fairfax would do nothing himself towards a Peace being resolved to try all possible means for the setling this distracted Kingdom desired leave for the Lord Hopton and Culpeper to attend the King and mediaate with him for a treaty with the Parliament to which Fairfax answered that he would desire the Prince to disband his Army and promised that he would thereupon conduct him with Honour to the Parliament to which request he commanded the Lord Capel to make the following Answer viz. Sir His Highness did not believe that his overture in engaging himself in the Mediation of a Blessed Peace for this miserable Kingdom would have brought him an Inhibition to quit his duty to his Father by dividing his Interest from that of his Majesties or hereby he should render himself unworthy and uncapable of the fruit of that Peace which he laboured to obtain and that of his former propositions might be consented to he hoped God would so bless his sincere intentions and designs as to make him a Blessed Instrument to preserve this Kingdom from desolation but if that were rejected he should give the World no cause to believe that he would forfeit that Honour which only could preserve him in a capacity of doing that service and should with patience attend Gods pleasure until his endeavours might be applyed with the preservation of his Innocency During his abode in the Camp he shew'd himself to be of such an Heroick Temperature that he enjoyed an equal Calm and Peace in the midst of all the Confusions of War and enjoyed his Learned Thoughts as quietly in the Tumults of a Camp as in the Retirements of a School In the exercising of his Arms he did not wholly leave his Books nor forget his Studies especially of the Mathematicks which besides their general usefulness as Refiners of the Mind were more than ordinarily necessary to him to assist him in carrying on the several Stratagems of War in Fortification Sieges Battels c. wherein he was but little below his incomparable Father in these things the exactest Prince in Christendom But not being able to accomplish that Reconciliation between his Father and the Parliament which he designed he returned again to Oxford where he was more successful in another undertaking of the like nature viz. the reconciling his two Cousins Rupert Maurice to his Father accounting it too hard to entertain inward Broils when outward Calamities were so heavy and pressing and that those who had Adversaries enough already ought not to become each others Enemies nor did he only use his Interest with his Father to be reconciled to the two Princes but even to his open and profest Enemies also notwithstanding the failure of his late undertakings as appears by his Letters to the Speaker of the House of Commons of Decemb. 15 26 29. and that of Jan. 25 17 24. and several others But while he was speaking for Peace some whose malice and interest had made implacable guilt rendred desperate were preparing for the Battel whilst this Prince of Peace was negotiating for Peace and in order thereunto prepared to raise the Train'd Bands of his Dukedom of Cornwal by incouragement of his Royal presence Fairfax and Cromwel fall with incredible fury upon his Army commanded by the Lord Hopton at Torrington and vanquisht it Which news being brought to him at Launceston he removed from thence to Pendennis where continually receiving some unhappy news and unwelcome Messages pursuing each oâ—her so fast as the Waves do in a Storm and coming as thick as the Messengers of Jobs calamity was advised to consult his own safety and since he could not by all his suasions procure a pacification either by Art or Arguments dint of Sword or strength of Reason preserve himself the Kingdoms growing hope for happier days wherein he might with more fortunate success apply his soveraign Balm to heal the bleeding Breaches of the three dying Nations Whereupon he went from thence attended by the Lords Goring and Culpepper and Sir Edw. Hide to the Isle of Scilly which still remained in the King's hands where he was no sooner arrived but he received a solemn Invitation from the Parliament in a seeming tender dutiful way to come to them and remain in such places as they should think convenient and entertain such Attendants Counsellors only as should be appointed by them Upon receiving of which Invitation he advised with those about him what was best to be done in that case and they returned the following Answer viz. That it became not him to do any thing
of Parliament they renewed the Vote of Non-Addresses declare the Treaty at the Isle of Wight dishonourable and dangerous and therefore protest against it and then proceeded to disarm the City and Country that so there might not be a Sword drawn for the good and Peace of the Kingdom Which obstacles being thus removed the Army encouraged the Juncto with a Remonstrance wherein they proposed that the People should agree finally to take away the Government by King Lords and Commons whereby they made good those Charges which had formerly been made against the Parliament and their Army and from which they had endeavoured by so many Oaths and Protestations to clear themselves And that they should in the name of the People proceed against all Malefactors from the highest to the lowest wherein they impudently included and chiefly aimed at the King himself who was in order thereunto closely imprisoned and deprived by them of the comfort of his Loyal Attendants and of the Honour of that State and Ceremony that was due to him But these were but essays toward and beginnings of Sorrows to that Pious though unfortunate King First It was moved in the House on the first of the following January that he might be tryed as a Traytor Which horrible as well as senseless Vote was past into an ordinance and sent to the House of Lords Upon which the Earl of Manchester to his Eternal Honour did declare that in regard the King was the chief of the three States in Parliament he could not possibly be a Traytor to the rest since Treason always goes upward and the lowest only are capable of being Traytors to the highest Which Speech the Earl of Northumberland seconded by declaring his opinion that suppose it was without question that the King was first in the War yet they had neither Law Custom or President to make that War Treason in his Majesty and the Lord Say affirmed that he knew not who should to say to Kings Ye are unrighteous or to Princes Ye are ungodly And Kings added Pembroke they say can do no wrong much less can they be guilty of Treason whereupon the Ordinance was immediately thrown out of that Honourable House But the Juncto mad upon their ungodly and destructive project resolved notwithstanding that the Persons impowered therein to try the King should proceed accordingly altho the Lords consented not Which unexpected News being brought the Prince by Seymour together with the Ordinance for his Fathers Tryal he was thereby surprized with so much Passion and Amazement to see their Oaths of Allegiance Covenants Protestations and Treaties for Peace conclude in Paricide and Murder that he knew not how to contain himself until he began to consider with himself that Passion must not be suffered to disturb reason in such an exigency of affairs wherein its consultations were to be imployed in the weighty business of saving a Father a King and three Kingdoms and that it became him therefore to give himself rather to discreet Advice and Council than to sullen grief It being more Princely and Heroick to prevent the mischief than either to be angry at it or revenge it when it was done And in order thereunto he solicits Spain France Holland and the Scots to interpose themselves in his Fathers behalf who accordingly by their respective Embassadors and Messengers did mediate for his Life offering themselves together with the English Peers to become Pledges for him But the Barbarous Juncto were inexorable their guilt having made them so desperate that they thought themselves no otherwise safe from former mischiefs committed by them but by perpetuating a far greater and unparallel'd wickedness those Monsters of Men hurrying his Majesty from the Isle of Wight to bring him to his Tryal as tho they had designed to explain to the wandring World the meaning of that Riddle which was contained in their pretence of defending him whilst they fought against him Being unjustly condemned by the pretended high Court of Justice set up by the Juncto for his Tryal to lose his sacred Head he did upon the near approach of his death take care with good Hezekiah to set his House in order giving charge concerning the same to the Dutch Embassador with whom he was as private as the rudeness of the Souldiers would permit him For the most part of the Saturday in the Afternoon ordering him to carry his Blessing to his Son and deliver him such Instructions as equally declare the greatness of our loss in him and our happiness in his Successor whose actions were always steered according to them wherein he breathed more like an Angel than a Man or at least as one then already entred upon the confines of Eternity and within view of Immortality and Perfection as you may perceive by the Instructions themselves which are as follow Son if these Papers with some others wherein I have set down the private reflections of my Conscience and my most impartial thoughts touching the chief passages that have been most remarkable or disputed in my late Troubles come to your hands to whom they are chiefly designed they may be so far useful to you as to state your Judgment aright in what hath passed whereof a pious use is the best that can be made and they may give you some Directions how to remedy the present and prevent future Distempers This advantage of Wisdom you have above other Princes that you have begun and now spent some years of discretion in the the experience of Trouble and the exercise of Patience wherein Piety and all other Virtues both Moral and Political are commonly better planted to a thriving as Trees set in Winter than in warmth and serenity of times or amidst those delights which usually attend Princes Courts in time of Peace and Plenty which are prone either to root up all Plants of true Virtue and Honour or to be contented only with some Leaves or withering Formalities of them without any real Fruit such as tend to the publick good for which Princes shall always remember they are born and by Providence designed The Evidence of which different Education the Holy Writ affords us in the contemplation of David and Rehoboam the one prepared by many Afflictions for a flourishing Kingdom the other softened by the unparallell'd Prosperity of Solomon's Court and so corrupted both for Peace Honour and Kingdom by those Flatteries which are as inseparable from prosperous Princes as Flies are from Fruit whom adversity like cold Weather driveth away I had rather you should be Charles Le bon than Le grand good than great I hope God hath designed you to be both having so early put you upon that exercise of his Gifts and Graces bestowed upon you which may best weed out all vicious Inclinations and dispose you to those princely Endowments and Employments which will most gain the love and intend the welfare of those over whom God shall place you With God the King of Kings I would
you that grace which will teach and enable us to want as well as to wear a Crown which is not worth the taking up or enjoying upon sordid dishonourable or irreligious terms Do you always keep firm to the true Principles of Piety Virtue and Honour and you shall never want a Kingdom It will be your honour to afford all respect love and protection to your Mother who hath many ways deserved well of me especially in being a means to bless me with so many hopeful Children and being content with incomparable magnanimity to suffer with me and them May you be an Anchor of hope to these weather-beaten Kingdoms your Wisdom Justice Piety and Valour a repairer of what the folly and wickedness of some men have so far ruined as to leave nothing intire to the Crown Nobility Clergy or Commons of Laws Liberties Estates Order Honour Conscience or Lives Let those that love me find me when I am gone in your presence and vertues What good I intended do you perform when God shall put it into your power I pray God bless you and establish your Kingdom in Righteousness your Soul in true Religion and your Honour in the Love of God and your People Farewel till we meet if not on Earth yet in Heaven The good King having thus resigned himself and all his Affairs into the hand of God patiently submitted to his Cross and in a way of renunciation as it were and self-disposition of his Government transferred and bequeathed the Scepter together with his Advice and Direction for his wielding of it He applied himself wholly to the making preparation for his departing from an earthly to a heavenly Kingdom being assisted in his Piety and Devotion by Dr. Juxon Bishop of London And being upon the fatal 30th of January brought upon a Scaffold erected before his own Palace of Whitehall where he was barbarously murdered by his own Rebellious Subjects he delivered himself in the following Speech Being not likely to be much heard I could be silent did not silence intimate a submission to the guilt as well as to the punishment charged upon me But in my duty to my God and Country to clear my self an Honest Man a good King and a good Christian I protest before God to whom I must instantly give an account that as may appear from the date of their Commissions and mine I begun not the War against the Parliament nor intended I any incroachment upon their Priviledges they began with me and the Militia which they confest was mine but thought it fit to have it from me yet I charge not the guilt of these unhappy troubles upon the two Houses for I believe ill instruments betwixt us was the cause of all this Bloodshed however this Sentence is just upon me for an unjust Sentence permitted by me What Christian I am this good Man pointing to Dr. Juxon and others that have been inwardly familiar with me and know me as well as my self may bear witness I die in Communion with the Professors of the Reformed Religion that hath been Establisht in the Church of England in Queen Eliz. and my Fathers time of Blessed Memory and in Charity with all the World forgiving the worst of mine Enemies and praying God that this be not laid to their Charge As a good King I advise my Subjects not to ground your selves in Conquests without a good cause that you would give God the King and the People their dues You may give God his due by the advice of a national Synod freely chosen and freely debating among themselves How you may give the King his due the Law will instruct you and the People have their due when they have that Government and those Laws whereby their Lives and Goods are most their own I have delivered my Conscience I pray God you take those courses that may be for the Kingdoms and your own good Having finisht this Speech and poured forth his Divine Soul to God in Prayer it was sent by death to him that gave it where the great Assembly in Heaven joyfully welcomed that Martyred King and made room for Charles of Great Brittain The Life and Reign of Charles the first being thus determined by this untimely and fatal stroak his Eldest Son who likewise bore his Name immediately Succeeded him by the Title of Charles the Second Who was the Lawful and undoubted Heir not only of all his Dominions but also of his admirable and Heavenly Vertues being endowed with all those Qualifications which are requisite to or could possibly be desired in a Prince and under the influence of whose happy Reign these Nations might have enjoyed as much happiness and felicity as their Hearts would wish had not their own folly and madness for a time prevented it For no sooner had the Fatal Ax severed England and her Liberties by cutting off the Head of her King but the Parliament as the Juncto still presumed to call themselves the better to crush Monarchy and maintain what they had now so far prosecuted issued forth a Proclamation that none under penalty of being deemed guilty of High Treason should presume to Proclaim declare publish or any way promote the Prince of Wales Son to the late King or any other Person whatsoever to be King or Chief Magistrate of England or of any part of the Dominions or any part thereof by Colour of Inheritance Succession or Election or any other claim or pretence whatsoever without the free consent of the People in Parliament and which Proclamation altho not publisht till the 2 of February yet was in part Proclaimed on the very day of the Kings Murder And for the more ensuring and the better carrying on their Government with the more plausibility they publish an Act of State for the alteration of Writs wherein instead of King the Name Stile and Test and Custodes Libertatis Angliae Anthoritate Parliamenti should be used and no other All Writs being ordered to run so and those concerned in the Law required to take notice thereof yet they provided that all Patents granted by the late King should still stand in full force and vertue And having cast off the chief of those three Estates by which the Nation had been so long Governed they think likewise of abolishing the second that so they might usurp the whole power into their own hands in order whereunto having first Voted that they would make no farther Addresses to them nor receive any from them they made an Ordinance for abolishing the House of Lords as dangerous and useless And then having abolished the Ancient Governments of this Kingdom they proceeded to the consideration of Establishing another but found it a work of so much intricacy that they could come to no resolution but only agreed in a Negative Voice that there should for the future be no Government in England either by King or House of Lords and thereupon ordered the old Great Seal to be broken and a new one to
be made which was delivered to the keeping of three Commissioners viz Keeble Whitlock and Lisly and considered of new Oaths to be adminstred to the Judges who thereupon met and upon debate six of them were contented to continue in their Employments provided the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom were not altered For whose satisfaction the Juncto by their Declaration of the Ninth of February did assure them that they were fully resolved to maintain and would uphold preserve and keep the Fundamental Laws of this Nation for and concerning the preservation of the Laws Properties and Liberties of the People with all things incident thereunto They proceeded likewise to appoint such Persons as they thought would be most firm to their Interest to exercise the Offices of Justices of the Peace throughout the Nation and constituted a Council of State consisting of about forty in number whereof five might be Lords And finally to secure all whereas they had before onely repealed they now abolish and make void the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy But notwithstanding all their endeavours to render themselves secure and firm in their Government yet the People began now to be generally discontented And those who had formerly affected them growing sensible of the Inconveniencies that were like to ensue upon the cutting off of their Prince beginning to abhor their practices there was a general Plot carried on against them in all the Counties of England Which obliged them to send Forces into most parts to awe them and thereby the better to keep them in order Notwithstanding which Contrivances of theirs to bar up the way to that Imperial Throne which they had impudently invaded and parted into shares amongst themselves there were some who had Courage and Loyalty enough left them to assert the King's Right and their own Duty in a Printed Proclamation thrown about the Streets And to convince the Juncto at Westminster that all men would not be wheedled to run a gadding after their Calves at Bethel but that there were some still left who would tread in the old Path and beaten Tract of Government in the succession of Charles the Second to the Crown of England which Proclamation was as follows We the Noblemen Judges Knights Lawyers Gentlemen Ministers Free-holders Merchants Citizens c. and other Freemen of England do according to our Allegiance and Covenant by these presents heartily joyfully and unanimously acknowledge and proclaim the Illustrious Charles Prince of Wales next Heir of the Blood Royal to his Father King Charles whose late wicked and traiterous Murder we do from our Souls abominate and all Parties and Consenters thereunto to be by hereditary Birthright and lawful Succession Rightful and undoubted King of Great Brittain France and Ireland and the Dominions thereunto belonging And that we will faithfully constantly and sincerely in our several places and callings defend and maintain His Royal Person Crown and Dignity with our Estates Lives and last drop of our Blood against all Opposers thereof whom we do hereby declare to be Traitors and Enemies to His Majesty and His Kingdoms In testimony whereof we have ordered and caused to be published and proclaimed throughout all Countrys and Corporations of this Realm the first day of February and the first year of His Majesties Reign God save King Charles the Second Which Proclamation although without any Solemnity or indeed open Appearance met with the same chearful Reception and inward Loyal Resolutions as if Vent had been given to a publick manifestation of Duty and Joy by His Majesties present ascending the Throne For it revived the hearts of his mourning and disconsolate Subjects to see the sure and certain Succession thereof asserted and continued in the same most beloved and darling Name the Eldest Branch and descended of their martyr'd Soveraign in whose Ruins the Regicides thought to have rak'd up and buried all Claims and Just Titles to the Imperial Diadem of these Kingdoms The said Out-cries and lamentable Groans sent forth by all Loyal Subjects at the Loss of their Head together with the Martyrs Instructions and his George which were according to his Fathers desire sent him by the Dutch Embassador found him at the Hague in Holland where he then kept his Court and was first saluted King and the horrour thereof so seized his great Soul with wonder and astonishment that it had certainly sunk under the weight of it had not the Religious Consideration that he ought not to sorrow as one without hope buoyed up his Spirit and Reason forbid him to cast away himself with grief who was then become the only hope of three Kingdoms Generous Rage prompting Princes to Revenge rather than Despair which was not to be accomplisht by weeping Eyes but by wise Counsels and valiant Performances Wherefore he bravely cheered up and reassumed his wonted Courage Comfort State and Majesty And for the better managing of his Affairs went soon after to Paris to solicit that Court to embrace his Interest and afford him some Assistance for the recovery of his Right and the redressing his Subjects miseries by discountenancing the English Rebels and furnishing him with that competency of Money Men Arms and Ammunition which might enable him not to Invade his Country but to encourage his own Subjects to rescue themselves from a forced Slavery But the French King being under Age and Cardinal Mazarine who then governed the great Affairs of that Kingdom being no Friend to this banisht and distressed King but holding a correspondence with his rebellious Subjects he was able to procure no Assistance from thence Whereupon he next applied himself to Spain whither he sent the Lord Cottington as his Embassador who upon his arrival there was confronted by a Competitor viz. Ascham who called himself an Embassador from the then New Majesties of England until he was dispatcht by some Switz After which Cottington was dismist with this Answer That were it any thing in the King of Spain's own Dominion which his Master of Great Brittain had desired it should have been no sooner requested than granted But being a Forreign Quarrel he could not interest himself therein in regard it was not reasonable he should busie himself in other mens matters who had so many Irons in the fire himself But in the mean time the Emperor the Princes of Germany the Kings of Denmark and Sweden being acquainted with the present circumstance of his Affairs by his several Embassadors sent to each of them they highly resented his deplorable condition and resolved his speedy assistance and supply And Holland upon his Account and the Interest of his Sister the Princess of Orange did upon terms agreed on between the late King and their Embassador two days before his death resolve not to vail to this younger Sisters State as they had been wont to do to the Kings of England but by the Forlorn of some private acts of Hostility begin that difference which soon after brake out into an open War Nor
Rights which none but such Monsters as themselves would unjustly detain from so great and so good a Prince Wherefore being deeply sensible of their danger they prepare for War but whether it should be Offensive or Defensive was yet a question among them But at last considering that if there must be a War it had ever been a Maxim among the greatest Politicians that it was most prudent to make the Enemies Country the Seat of it They resolved upon an Offensive War hoping that Scotland would quickly be weary of maintaining two Armies since it had so much ado to keep one And that since they were informed their Levies went on flowly they thought that their Forces which were already on Foot might easily go and surprize them before they lookt for them or were half ready to entertain them In order whereunto Cromwel being called out of Ireland was in great state made Captain General of all their Forces raised or to be raised in England Scotland and Ireland The Lord Fairfax who had in him some sparks of Loyalty waving at once that Employment and his own Commission not as some imagine to avoid the hazard of that Expedition for he was one that never turned his back upon danger but because he was unwilling any longer to be subservient to those base and vile Designs which he now began to abhor Whilst these preparations were making in England the King removed from the Hague to Diep in Normandy and from thence to Scheveling from whence after a dangerous Storm and narrow escape of some English Vessels which lay in wait for him he arrived safe at the Spey in the North of Scotland which the Parliament being informed of they sent some Lords to receive and attend him from thence to Edinburgh where he is received by the Parliament and Committee of Estates and Kirk with infinite expressions of Fidelity and Affection the common people like so many Echoes to their Superiors and the whole City sounding nothing but Vive le Roy. But Cromwel being advanced with his Army into Scotland and having been successful in some smaller Encounters and given them a total overthrow at Dunbar they found themselves in a sad and perplexed condition having not only the Enemy raging in the bowels of that Kingdom but being extreamly divided also amongst themselves wherefore they now thought it high time to unite among themselves In order whereunto a general meeting was appointed at St. Johnstons which should consist of King Lords and Commons and the Assembly of the Ministers in which Assembly several Lords formerly in favour with the Kirk were admitted to Commands in the Army and a Liberty to sit in Parliament as Hamilton Lauderdale and others And Major General Massey formerly Governour of Glocester for the Parliament but afterward reconciled to the King was admitted to a Command in the Army And as the perfection of all the Kings Coronation was there resolved upon so that now their wounds began to heal and their breaches to be made up again and it was generally hoped that these Clouds of Division being blown over a serene Sky would immediately follow and the Sun of Prosperity shine on their future proceedings The Parliament of Scotland in pursuance of those resolutions at St. Johnstons having dissolved themselves in order to the Kings Coronation it was performed on the first of January at Schone in as Solemn and Splendid manner as the exigency of the time could bear his Majesty with a great Train of his Nobles and others went first to the Kirk where a Sermon was Preacht by a Scotch Minister whose name was Duglass upon those words then they brought out the Kings Son and put upon him the Crown and gave him the Testimony and made him King and Jehojadah and his Son Anointed him saying God save the King 2 Chron. 23 11. Joined to these words and Jehojadah made a Covenant between all the People and between the King that they should be the Lords People v. 16. Which Sermon being ended he was conducted from his Chair of State which was placed in the Kirk to that erected for his Coronation by the Lord High Constable and the Earl Marshal where being placed he was Proclaimed King by Herald King at Arms and then clad with a Robe of State by the Lord Chamberlain and the Lord Steward After which sitting he consented to the National Covenant the Solemn League Covenant Directory and the Catechisms and promised upon his Royal word to perform them so far as he understood them to be agreeable to the Word of God in his own Family in his Kingdom of Scotland and in all his other Dominions as soon as it should please God to restore him thereunto Which being done the Coronation Oath was next read which was Enacted in the first Parliament of King James and is as follows That His Majesty shall maintain that Religion Discipline and Worship that is most agreeable to the Word of God to the best Patrons of Reformation and is against all Heresy Schism Idolatry Superstition and Prophaneness that he should govern the Kingdom by Law and Equity and that he should maintain the just Rights of the Crown and Priviledges of the People After the reading of which Oath he declared with an audible Voice that he did promise in the name of the great God who Lives for ever that he would to the uttermost of his Power endeavour to do the things contained in that Oath Which done Herald King at Arms went to the four corners of the Stage and demanded of the People four times whether they were willing that Charles the Second Son and Heir of Charles the First should be King over them to which the People answered Long live King Charles God Save the King Then the Marquess of Argile Presented him with the Royal Scepter the Earl of Eglington put on the Spurs the Lord High Constable set the Crown upon his Head and the Earl Marshal having unsheathed the Sword put it into his hand to defend the Faith withal which having held a while he delivered it to the Earl of Glencarn to be carried before him Then the Nobility Gentry and Commons of the Kingdom did as in the presence of the Great God that Lives for ever swear Allegiance Fealty and Obedience to him as to their Liege and Soveraign Lord and the whole Ceremony was concluded by an Exhortation of the Minister to his Majesty to the Nobility to the Clergy and to the Commons the sum and substance whereof was in reference to the Covenant which they then lookt upon as the Center from which every Line both of Soveraignty and the Subjects Duty was to be drawn in their respective Circumstances And for a power to perform what he then exhorted them to the assistance of God is invoked by prayer who being Alpha and Omega they made him the first with whom they began and the last with whom they finished So soon as the Crown was set upon his Head he made a
and hearty thanks for the same and to assure him of their Loyalty and Duty And that they would give him a speedy Answer to his gracious Proposals Resolving moreover that the sum of 50000 l. should be presented him from that House and 10000 l. to each of his Royal Brothers the Dukes of York and Glocester Which Resolves were no sooner reported in London then the Citizens were extreamly transported with Joy The harmony of Bells and the flaming Piles which enlighted every Street surrounded with incredible Shouts and Acclamations being sufficient demonstrations of the infinite Pleasure and Satisfaction which every one took in that no less strange than happy Revolution And the several Countries taking Allarm from London contended which should outvy the other in expressions of Loyalty and Joy And General Mountague having communicated to the Fleet the Letters he received from the King and the Duke of York together with those directed to the Parliament they unanimously declared their Resolution to adhere to him and to live and die in his defence humbly desiring the Generals to present the same to the King whereupon Mountague himself immediately fired a Gun crying God bless His Majesty and the whole Fleet. Thereupon presently appeared in its pride and glory with Pendants loose Guns roaring Caps flying and Vive le Roys loudly ecchoing from one Ships Company to another which were answered by the great Guns from Dale and Sandwich Castles nor was this Joy confined to England but spread it self into Scotland and Ireland also And now the Parliament longing for the King's presence amongst them as the Israelites did for the return of King David drew up a Letter in answer to that which they had receiv'd from him superscribing it to the King 's Most Excellent Majesty wherein they requested his speedy return to the exercise of his Kingly Office appointing Commissioners to go over to Holland and attend him during his stay there and in his Voyage for England There being six appointed for the House of Lords and twelve for the House of Commons to which upon the Request of the Lord Mayor and Common-Council of London was added twenty on the behalf of that City who having receiv'd their Instructions set sail for Holland with several Frigots appointed by the Parliament to attend them the whole Fleet being likewise committed to the King's pleasure the General whereof had Orders from the Parliament to obey such Orders and Directions as he should receive from His Majesty The Commissioners upon their arrival at Breda delivered their respective Messages with all imaginable reverence and veneration according to the Instructions they had received from their Principals beseeching His Majesty in the name of his Parliament and People to return to his Inheritance and re-assume his Crown and Scepter assuring him that he should be infinitely welcome to them without any Tearms which Invitation was gladly accepted and the Commissioners were received by him with a Grace and Port like himself and entertain'd with extraordinary Magnificence and Bounty The Parliament in the mean time proceeded to the Proclaiming of him which was perform'd with all that Joy Splendor and Magnificence that their Loyalty could inspire the Lord General attended by all the Peers the most Eminent of the Commons the Lord Mayor and Aldermen with the Trained Bands of London assisting at the Ceremony The Proclamation being as followeth viz. Although it can no way be doubted but that his Majesties Right and Title to these Crowns and Kingdoms is and was every way compleat by the Death of his Most Royal Father of Glorious Memory without the Ceremony or Solemnity of a Proclamation yet since Proclamations in such cases have been always used to the end that all good Subjects might upon this occasion testify their Duty and Respect and since the Armed violence and other Calamities of many years last past have hitherto deprived us of any opportunity wherein we might express our Loyalty and Allegiance to his Majesty We therefore the Lords and Commons now Assembled in Parliament together with the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common-Council of the City of London and other Freemen of this Kingdom now present do according to our Duty and Allegiance heartily joyfully and Unanimously acknowledge and Proclaim that immediately upon the Decease of our late Soveraign King Charles the First the Imperial Crown of the Realm of England and all the Kingdoms Dominions and Rights belonging to the same did by Inherent Birth-right and Lawful undoubted Succession Descend and come to his Most Excellent Majesty King Charles the Second as being Lineally Justly and Lawfully next Heir of the Blood Royal of this Realm And that by the Goodness and Providence of Almighty God he is of England Scotland and Ireland the Most Potent Mighty and Undoubted King and thereunto we Most Humbly and Faithfully do submit and oblige our selves our Heirs and Posterities for ever At the reading whereof the whole City rang with the Sound of God Save and God Bless King Charles the Second the Shouts and Acclamations of the crowding multitudes being so extraordinary that although all the Bells throughout the City and Suburbs were then Ringing their Noise was not to be heard The King having now by his extraordinary Wisdom and Conduct thus happily contriv'd his return to his Crown and Kingdom without the spilling of his Subjects Blood and having brought his Affairs to their desired Issue prepared to leave Holland and after so long and tedious an Exile returned to his Harass'd and almost ruined Realms being upon his departure Splendidly Treated by the Dutch for a Fortnight together with all the Pomp and Magnificence imaginable and presented with the Richest Bed and Furniture together with Tapestry for Hangings Embossed with Gold and Silver and adorned with Pictures that could be procured and Highly Complemented by all the Forreign Ministers then Resident there For these Noble Entertainments which together with the Present of the Dutch about one hundred Thousand Pounds he gave the States General and those of Holland his Hearty Thanks in their Publick Assemblies whither he went on Foot and having taken his leave of them and commended to them the interest of his Sister and his Nephew the Prince of Orange they delivered their sence of the present circumstance of Affairs and declared the greatness of that joy they conceived for his Miraculous Restauration in the following Speech If one may judge of the content which we have to see your Majesty depart from our Province by the satisfaction we had to possess you we shall have no great trouble to make it known to you your Majesty might have observed in the countenance of all our People the Joy they had in their Hearts to see a Prince cherished of God a Prince wholly miraculous and a Prince that is probable to make a part of their quietness and felicity your Majesty shall see presently all the Streets filled all the ways covered and all the Hills loaden with People which will
under the Command of the Earl of Suffolk a smart Skirmish pass'd between them and continued till Ten at Night when it was renewed again by the return of the beaten Companies from the Fort but the English Horse not being able to come up there was not that execution done upon them which otherwise might have been However the Dutch lik'd not that hot Service well enough to abide their coming but as soon as their Boats were afloat embarqued with all haste and returned to their Ships and sailing for the Humber they engaged a Squadron of the English which they found there but being worsted shewed themselves before Portsmouth and made some slight Attempts in Devonshire and Cornwall And after de Ruyter their Admiral had been civily treated in the West by the Earl of Bath and Sir Jonathan Trelawney and received advice that the Peace was concluded they sailed back for Holland This Peace was concluded at Breda upon the twenty first of June in the Year 1667. when the Articles were signed by the several Plenipotentiaries and upon the fourteenth of the following August the Ratifications thereof interchanged the Mediators first bringing the Ratifications and other Instrustruments of the Dutch French and Danes into the English Embassadors Lodgings and received theirs in exchange which done the English Embassadors went into the apartments of the Dutch and their Allies where they made and received the Complements usual in such cases and the Peace was thereupon immediately Proclaimed before the Doors of the several Plenipotentiaries and on the twenty fourth of that Month at the Exchange which was then kept at Gresham Colledge and other places in London But the Foundation of the Royal Exchange in Cornhil being about that time appointed to be laid the King was pleased to shew his readiness to countenance that Work by being present at and assisting in the solemnity thereof with his own Royal hands as his Brother the Duke of York did shortly after who laid the first stone of the second Pillar which Edifice was in a short time finished and is now the most curious Fabrick of that kind in the whole World About this time that wise and useful States-man and Privy-Counsellor Edward Hide Earl of Clarendon and Lord High-Chancellor of England who had always behaved himself with abundance of Loyalty and Faithfulness to his Master as well before as after his Restauration falling into disgrace with the Parliament was forced to abscond and leaving that Office which he had so long managed with advantage to the King and honour to himself retired into France where he lived in a voluntary Exile 'till he died A sort of idle and licentious Persons getting together in the Holy-days at Easter and pretending former custom took the liberty to pull down some Houses of bad repute about the Suburbs of London under the notion of Apprentices yet others being found guilty of it four of them were apprehended Tryed Condemned and Executed and two of their Heads set upon the Bridge for a terror to others Having dispatch'd the Earl of Carlile as his Embassador Extraordinary to the Court of Sweden with which King he always maintained a friendly correspondence he directed a Letter for the Earl when he was at Copenhagen on his way to Sweden to be by him delivered to the King of Denmark in answer to an obliging Letter he had a little before received from him which Letter of the King 's was so acceptable to the Dane that upon the Earl's request he immediately dispatch'd orders to all his Ports and Towns of commerce especially those in Norway for restoring the English to the same Freedom and Priviledges in Trading thither as they had before the War And the Earl upon his arrival in Sweden presented that King with the George worn by the Knights of the Garter and after his having been entertained in that Court with all imaginable respect upon his Masters account and dismiss'd with particular marks of the King of Sweden's favour and testimonies of the acceptableness of his Embassie he was upon his return home solemnly Installed in that Order at Windsor While the King was diverting himself this Summer with the Duke and others of his Nobles in the new Forrest in Hampshire he received the doleful tidings of his Mothers death at Columbe the thirty first of August she being nobly buried in the December following at St. Dennis And to close the publick affairs of this Year the restorer of the Crown to the King and happiness to the Kingdom George Duke of Albemarle and Lord General of all the Kings Land Forces exchanged his temporary Coronet for an Eternal Crown and the King as a mark of Gratitude to the Father sent his Garter to his Son and Successor the present Duke of Albemarle whom he continued in many of his Honours and Preferments promising withall that himself would take care of his Fathers Funeral which he accordingly did and after he had publickly lain in State at Somerset-House for some time caused his Funeral to be solemnized with that Pomp and Splendor that it is verily believed no Subject was ever honoured with the like In the following Spring the King having a great desire to unite Scotland and England into one Kingdom endeavoured to have it accomplish'd by procuring an Act of Parliament in order thereunto and nominating Commissioners for each Kingdom to meet and treat about it But they not being able to agree it was wholly laid aside and came to nothing The King's Wisdom and Conduct being famed throughout all parts of the World like a second Solomon drew to his Court several Foreign Princes to see and admire him And about this time the Prince of Tuscany came upon the same Errand and was by him treated both at London and Windsor with great Respect and Splendour and by several of his Nobles in his Progress through England the chief Cities whereof he was desirous to take a view of after which he departed for Holland and so returned into his own Countrey where not long after besides his splendid Entertainment of the Earl of Northumberland in acknowledgment of the King's Kindness and Affection express'd to him when in England he built and gave to the King two very stout Galleys for a guard of the Coast about Tangier which were of great importance to his Service in those parts But altho' the King was well pleased with this Princes visit yet he shortly after received a more welcome one from his Sister the Dutchess of Orleans who came to Dover to pay him her last Visit and was there entertained by him with as much Affection and Bounty as the time of her stay which was but short would permit Nor was her stay in this World much longer for soon after her return she died suddenly to his unexpressible grief The King being now at peace at home employed his Naval Forces against the Algerines a People that never keep Peace longer than till they can have an opportunity to break
which he would do so fast that his Courtiers were sometimes forced to run that so they might keep pace with him It being his constant Custom every morning when he was in Town to Walk an hour or more in St. James's Park and he designed to have done so that very morning he fell into his Fit He took great pleasure likewise in Swimming which he could do incomparably well to the Pleasure and Admiration of those that beheld him And indeed all his Recreations as well as those publick and private Actions which had a more direct tendency to the great concerns of his Life as a King gave delight and satisfaction to those who communicated in the sight of them And his very Diversions were so serious and pleasing that every part of his time was thought to be well spent and to deserve Commendation Never was Prince more loving and affectionate to his Queen than he for he ever resented Affronts offered to her His Love and Affection to his Queen as ill as if they had been offered to himself And was as tender of her Honour as of his own He was observed by the Courtiers to be more Rich and Splendid upon her Birth-day than upon his own and to keep it with greater Joy and Solemnity The vast Treasure of Learning and Knowledg which he had acquired by his long Study and Experience was richly set off and adorned by a curious smooth and charming Eloquence whereby he could readily express his Sentiments of things in so good a Language as that with a pleasing kind of Magick it enchanted the listning Ears of those that heard him as sufficiently appeared by his Letters Declarations and Speeches And to conclude all He was every way fitted and made for Government as well as born to be a King and was possessed of all those excellent Qualifications which were we to have had a liberty of choice would certainly have constrained us to have pitched upon him for our Sovereign For the valour of Edward the 3d The Conduct of Henry the 5th the Wisdom of the Seventh Henry the Majesty of his Great Son the Learning of James the 1st and the Justice and Piety of the Royal Martyr and I had almost said the Mercy of God himself all met and were conspicuous in him FINIS EPIGRAPHE Aevitati S. Numinis Majest CAROLI II. Inclyti Magnae Britanniae Genii ac Regis Divi CAROLI Martyris F. Qui Ex Prosapia Deorum oriundus Et ad Anglicani Nominis Aeternitatem Natus Patriae fuit Parens Pius Paciferus semper Augustus In Exilio frendente Rebelli Barbarie Magnanimus Sub Reducis Fortunae auspiciis Albionum Fundator Imperii Literarum Mecaenas Factionis Stator Defensorque Fidius Tam Virtute Fortis quam Pietate Clemens Supra omnes retro Principes Prope XXV Annorum Spatio Amplificatam toto Orbe dedit Remp. Factis Consiliisque Paucis Nihil non inlustre fuit nisi Immortalis Obiit igitur ut Immortalis esset Sexto die Mensis Februarii Anno Regni sui Tricesimo-Septimo Ineunte Annoqque Sospitatoris Nostri 1684. Triumphate tamen etiam Pullati Brittones Neque dum Terram defuncto Principi vovetis Levem Sub onere doloris vestri ingemiscite Vivit enim CAROLUS in Superstite JACOBO Et ut Diu vivat strenuè Precaminor Adesto FAMA Multum tibi Negoti video dari Contemplare JACOBUM II. Reg. Opt. Max. Mavortem Britanicum Et cogita Novam Fatorum Seriem O Referant Divi quoniam non possum Ipsi A Prayer for the KING 's Most Excellent Majesty taken out of the Liber Regalis GOd the unspeakeable Author of the World Creator of Men Governor of Empires and Establisher of all Kingdoms who out of â—he Loins of our Father Abraham didst chuse a King that became the Saviour of all Kings and Nations of the Earth Bless we beseech thee thy Faithful Servant and our Dread Sovereign Lord King JAMES with the Richest Blesssings of thy Grace Establish him in the Throne of His Kingdom by thy Mighty Aid and Proteâ—ion Visit him as thou didst visit Moses in the Bush Joshua in the Battel Gideon in the Field and Samuel in the Temple Leâ— the Dew of thine abundant Mercies fall upon his Head and give him the Blessing of David and Solomon Be unto him an Helmet of Salvation against the Face of His Enemies and a strong Tower of Defence in the Time of Adversity Let his Reign be prosperous and His Days many Let Peace Love and Holiness let Iustice and Truth and all Christian Vertues flourish in His Time Let His People Serve Him with Honour and Obedience and let Him so duly serve thee here on Earth that He may hereafter everlastingly Reign with thee in Heaven through Jesus Christ our Lord AMEN THE END
in a matter of that concern without his Fathers privity advice and free consent and therefore before he could satisfie the Honourable House he desired a Pass might be granted to the L Capel to go to the King at Oxford to take his Advice and hearken to his Royal Pleasure and make some overtures to him in order to a Peace He desired likewise the assistance of the Reverend Father in God the Arch-Bishop of Armagh whose deportment toward the Publick was so moderate and inoffensive that even Jealousie it self entertained not the least suspicion of him But through the ill Influence some persons had on Publick Councils there was nothing done in either of those particulars althô when Providence was pleased to deprive him of Civil Comfort and Secular Attendants it had been but charity to have supplied him with some faithful good and able Chaplain by whose Piety Learning and Prayers he might be the better enabled to sustain the want of all other Enjoyments But they not only refused to gratifie him in that reasonable Request but also by an Ordinance barr'd him from all future converse with such Loyal Attendants as would otherwise have willingly waited on him there to deceive the tediousness of that Solitude so that those who would now adventure to repair to him or supply their unhappy absence by the civil correspondence of a Letter were to die without mercy During his abode there he spent a day or two in viewing the Isle of Gernsey the only remainder of our Rights to Normandy to try if peradventure the persons or the place would furnish him with the knowledge of any thing whereof he was a Stranger before and which he might observe for the future benefit of his Kingdom For as he afterward wrote to the Lord Mayor and Common-Council of London he neglected not any Maritime observations which might be useful to English Traffick the slands commodiousness for Shipping Trade from the Eastern parts to the West in the middle way between St. Malo's and the River Seine the capaciousness of its Harbour together with the smaller Islands Alderneley Lerke and Sarnia After this he betook himself to France to visit his Mother in that Court where he was received with all imaginable demonstrations of Joy where after having received his Mothers Blessing and the Complements of that Court he retired with her to the Louvre But his active disposition rendring him soon weary of a tedious and easie Retirement he desired leave of his Mother to go with the Duke of Orleans into the Field that Summer in the Head of a French Army which then marcht into Flanders against the Spaniards The Queen wrote to the King to know his pleasure about it but he absolutely refused it accounting it beneath the Princes of Great Britain to serve any as those who understood better how to command than be commanded in a Field having formerly had Kings and Emperours in pay under them in regard that our homebred miseries afforded Employment so agreeable with his active spirit that he thought he ought not to spare himself for any dangerous engagements in Foreign Quarrels and therefore advised him to expect Instructions from him how to dispose of himself more to his Kings his Fathers his own and Countreys Service Whereupon in obedience to his Royal Fathers command he quitted his own wishes and waited for farther directions from the King During which time the varieties of Airs he had passed through distempered his tender body brought upon him an Aguish â—ever which continued some weeks until by the goodness of God the care of his Loyal Attendants and the skill of his Physicians he was recovered to so good a temper as to attend his Fathers Affairs according to those Instructions he received from him in an inclosed Commission which was then sent him to be Generalissimo of all the Loyal Forces which had survived those late unhappy defects that declared to the World that good and ill success are no infallible demonstrations of Innocence or Guilt since there is a just man that perisheth in his Righteousness and the wicked sometime prosper in their wickedness The Kingdom of Scotland tender of his Safety Honour Conscience humbly move his Father not to suffer him who was their present hope and their future happiness to be exposed in his younger years to such Foreign Temptations and Dangers as might have those unhappy Influences upon these Kingdoms that the Child unborn might rue for since Princes are so publick that within the Fate of their own single persons are involved the concerns of whole Nations Rex est publica pars major meliorque mei Whereupon the King wrote to him to wait upon his Mother and obey her dutifully in all things Religion only excepted and that he should not stir any whither without his particular directions But not satisfied therewith they write to him themselves by their Committee of Estates to invite him thither protesting that none of the present Calamities except his Fathers distress and restraint afflicted them so much as his absence and seeing their Forces had at first entred England to do their duty to Religion his Majesty and himself they humbly desired his Highness to honour and countenance their Pious and Loyal Endeavours with his gracious presence and Royal Person for whose Safety Honour and Freedom they engaged the publick Faith of that Kingdom which Invitation was signed by Craford and Lindsey But he had learned by too sad experience what faithless Trustees they were of Princes persons and thought it dangerous for the Son to trust himself with those who had betrayed his Father Liberty being so much the desire of all men that it is not reason Princes should hazard Captivity since all free-born Souls embrace a Freedom though it be but to wander like forlorn Exiles in a strange Land rather than a Restraint upon their Persons their Judgments and their Consciences within the Precincts of their own Palaces wherefore he intended to wait with patience till Providence might find out some way for his return to his own Country with more Safety and Honour and sent the Earl of Lauderdale back with this Answer to the States of Scotland That their Civility which might well become the best Subjects should upon the first opportunity have that return from him which might become the best of Princes And in the mean time in pursuance of those Instructions he had received from his Father he negotiated his Affairs in the French Court where by his Mothers assistance he prevailed for some thousands of pounds to be advanced by that Court toward the furtherance of his Majesties Affairs in Ireland as an Earnest of greater Assistance to be afforded hereafter Some remainders of his Cornish Forces now geting to a head and others upon order Marching to him out of Ireland he met them in the Isle of Jersey with such Forces as he had procured beyond the Seas where he possest himself of some Vessels which lay in
they gained another Pass which was disputed between them and the Parliamentarians they retired to Maidstone which they stoutly maintained against the first and second but yielded upon a third Assault though with a great slaughter of their Enemies who obtained that with great loss which they parted with not without extream regret whereupon Rochester is quitted and left to the mercy of the Enemy In the mean time their General the Prince lay in the Downs with his Fleet in a very good condition waiting for that supply of Land Forces which his Brother the Prince of Orange was industriously raising for his Service in Holland and seizing several Merchant Ships not to be released under 200000 l. Intending his Subjects future gain by that present loss by employing of it in the defence of their Laws and Liberties But understanding that the Castle of Deale was in danger of being taken he Landed some Forces for its Relief who were Vanquisht almost as soon as Landed a Rebellion seeming to have chained the Goddess Fortune as the Trojans did of old to its side For it was so deplorably successful that whenever it met with Loyalty it presently vanquisht it But notwithstanding this loss he would have hazarded himself for the relief of Colchester wherein Sir Charles Lucas and the Lord Capel with their Essex-Forces were besieged had he not been disswaded by those about him and informed that Coll. Scroop had undertaken the relief of that City with a greater number of Men than was there under his Command whereupon he desisted from his intention and reserved his hitherto unblemished Reputation to expect a fairer opportunity And still continued at Anchor in the Downs But Fairfax whose actions were performed as soon as thought and whose designs did almost prevent his performances carried on the Siege of Colchester with so much strictness and resolution that he very much striatned those Valiant Worthies who had somewhat weakly imprisoned themselves within a place where they would be sooner tired than overcome when it might have been more discretion to have taken the Field and there have improved their opportunity of performing something to the Honour of their Master and the good of their Country by the gleaning of those Loyal Subjects who would have been continually resorting to them and the taking all advantages against their Enemy or at least they might have died Nobly and revenged However they resolved gallantly to defend the place to the last extremity their Valour being able to suffer whatsoever the Enemy without was able to reduce them to but Famine within became a more prevailing Adversary than Fairfax's Army and when Courage and Resolution would not yield to the one Nature was forc'd to stoop to the other For their want of Provisions were so great that Dogs and Cats were accounted great Rarities so that the Souldier thought it a Relief to be employed where he was most probable to meet with death as weary of the lingring doom of departing by piece-meals and dying daily Yet they yielded not the City till they were informed of the Scots defeat at Preston and that the Navy was revolted from the Prince again it being as unconstant as the Wind and as unstable as the Water that it sailed upon And indeed what could be expected but that those who were Traitors to their first should be unfaithful to their second Master And then those Desperado's resolved to make a general Sally upon the Enemy for since there now remained no Calamity unsuffered which they could possibly fear they thought it was better to go forth and meet their sudden doom than wait for it within the Town but the Souldiers and Towns-men shrinking they were forced to yield themselves to the General as Prisoners of War His brave and War-like Attempts for his Fathers Restauration having thus proved unsuccessful he was forced to content himself with being unhappy since he had approved himself to be Loyal and so he retired to the Hague in Holland where he resided with his Sister the Princess of Orange to avoid the Treachery of Cardinal Mazarine who was dealt withal to trapan him and had for that purpose as himself said as much from those in England as would maintain the Queen and Princess and defray all the incident Charges which they put that Kingdom to As also to avoid Suspicion which the Parliament might have of him during the time of the approaching Treaty About which having heard some uncertain Rumours he wrote to his Father by the Lord Seymour for better satisfaction that so he might manage his Designs and Counsels suitable to his Fathers Exigencies as he exprest in his Letter which was to this purpose SIR Having no means to come to the knowledge of your Majesties Affairs but such as I receive from the Prints or which is altogether as uncertain Reports I have sent this Bearer Seymour to wait upon your Majesty and to bring me an account of it and that I may also assure your Majesty that I do not only pray for your Majesty according to my duty but shall always be ready to do all which shall be in my power to deserve that Blessing which I now humbly beg of your Majesty c. And being now big with expectation of the joyful News of such a setled Peace as might be safe and honourable to his Majesty and advantagious to the Subject he receives Information that the Treaty was begun and so far concluded on such Reasonable Demands of the two Houses and Royal Concessions of his Majesty as upon three days mature deliberation it was resolved that the King's Answer to the Propositions of both Houses was a ground for them to proceed upon for the settlement of the Nation with his Majesties consent Who was in order thereunto to have been restored to the Freedom Safety and Honour that became his place he thereupon assured himself that his Majesty having now in order to an accommodation granted as much as modesty could ask there would undoubtedly follow a Peace and settlement of the Kingdom with an universal satisfaction and that the happiness and not the error of the Government were some Mens grievances which proved but too true For to such a height waâ— the Malice and Impudence of Cromweâ— and some other Officers of the Army now grown that they resolved to employ their Power against those that gave it them and to oppose themselves against the wisht for Peace and Settlement of the Kingdom therefore finding that all the pretence of Authority now failed them by the Parliaments Resolution to set the King at Liberty they now make use of plain Force and boldly adventure to contradict the Resolves of the Parliament it self from whom they had first received their pretended Commissions and presume without Law first to imprison them in their own House and then to sequester as many of them as they please from coming thither Whereby having patcht a Juncto of their own which they still ridiculously called by the name
have you begin the best Government you can attain to is to be subject to his Word and Spirit swaying in your heart Your Glory will be the advancement of God's Glory in the maintenance of true Religion and of the Churches good and in the dispensation of Civil Justice and Honour for the publick good Piety will make you prosperous or at least not miserable whereby in the loss of all you save a Soul to which as to a Creature I see all these black Lines of Affliction drawn This Cup we tast is God's Physick having that in healthfulness in wants and pleasure I would have you above all well grounded in your Religion according to the best Profession of the Church of England which I wish may be judiciously your Religion sealed by your Judgment and Reason persevering iâ— it as the nearest to the Word of Goâ— for Doctrine and the Primitive Examples for Government with such amendment as I elsewhere expressed and often offered but in vain A fixation for Relâ—gion is necessary for your Souls and Kingdoms Peace The Devil of Rebellion can turn himself into such an Angel of Reformation and the Old Serpent can pretend such New Lights that when some mens Consciences accuse them for Sedition and Faction they stop their mouth with the name and noise of Religion When Piety pleads for Peace and Patience they cry out Zeal so that you must be settled or you shall never want Temptations to destroy you and yours Men are so good at putting the best of Princes for the worst of Designs especially when Novelty prevails much attended with Zeal for Religion and 't is a good way to hide their own Deformities by severe censures upon other mens Opinions and Actions Abet no publick Faction against your own and the Churches settled judgment least the advantage you gain in some Mens Hearts who are prone to be of their Kings Religion be lost in others who think themselves and their professions first dispised and then Persecuted by you Either calmly remove the seeming differences and offences by impartiality or order it so in point of power that you need not fear or flatter any else you are undone so quickly will the Serpent devour the Dove There is less Loyalty Justice or Humanity in none than in Religious Rebels whose Ambitious Policies march under the Colours of Piety with security and applause You may hear from them Jacobs Voice but you shall feel they have Esaus Hands The Presbyterian Faction in England while compliant with publick order was inconsiderable in Church and Sâ—ate When discontents drove Men to sideing as ill humors fall to the disaffected part so did all that affected Novelty adhere to that side as the most remarkable note of difference then in point of Religion all lesser Factions until time and success had discovered to them their several advantages being officious Servants to Presbytery What may seem at first but an hand-breadth in Religion by Seditious Spirits as by strong Winds are soon made to cover and darken the whole Heavens and therefore must be suppressed or reformed Next to your care for Religion take care for Justice according to the settled Laws of these Kingdoms which by an admirable temperament give very much to the Subject and yet reserve enough for any King who owns his People as Subjects and not as Slaves Never charge your Head with such a Crown as may oppress the whole Body that it cannot return any strength honour or safety to the head Your Prerogative is best exercised in remitting rather than exacting the just Vigour of the Laws I hope you will never think it safe for a King to gratify any Faction with the perturbation of the Laws in which is wrapt up the publick interest and the good of the Community My Counsel and charge to you is that if it please God to restore you you seriously consider the former real or objected miscarriages which might occasion my troubles that you may avoid them Never repose so much upon any Mans single fidelity and distraction in managing affairs of Religion and Justice as to create in your self or others a diffidence of your own judgment which will prove more faithful to your own and the Kingdoms interest than any Mans. Exasperate no Faction by the asperity of any Mans Passions or humors employed by you about differences in lesser matters wherein a charitable toleration dissipates that strength whom rougher opposition fortifieth provided the differences amount not to an insolent opposition of Laws and Governments our Religion Established as to the essentials of them Always keep up solid Piety and those fundamental Truths which mend both the hearts and lives of men with impartial Favour and Justice Take heed that outward Circumstances of Religion devour not all the Encouragements of Learning Industry and Piety but with an equal Eye and impartial Hand distribute Favours and Rewards to all men as you find for their real goodness both in abilities and fidelity worthy or capable of them This will give you the hearts of the best and most too who though they be not good themselves yet are glad to see the severer ways of Virtue at any time sweetned with Temporal Rewards Time will dissipate all Faction when the roughâ— Designs of some men shall discover themselves which were at first wrapt up under the smooth pretences of Religion Reformation and Liberty For as the Wolf is not less cruel so he will be more justly hated when he shall appear no better than a Wolf under Sheeps clothing And as for the secluded Train of the vulgar who in their simplicity follow those disguises my charge and counsel to you is That as you need no palliations for any Designs so you study really to exceed in true and constant demonstrations of Goodness Piety and Virtue toward the People even those men that make the greatest noise and ostentation of Religion So you shall neither fear any detection as they do who have but the face and mask of goodness nor shall you frustrate the just expectation of your People who cannot in reason promise themselves so much good from any Subjects Novelty as from the goodness of their King And when Factions are by God's Mercy and your Virtue dissipated the abused vulgar will then learn that none are greater Oppressors of their Estates Liberties and Consciences than those men that entitle themselves the Patrons and Vindicators of them only under that pretence to usurp Power over them Let no passion therefore betray you to any study of revenge upon those whose own sense and folly will sufficiently punish in due time But as soon as the Forked Arrows of Factious Emulations is drawn out use all Princely Arts and Clemency to heal the Wounds that the smart of the Cure may not equal the smart of the Heart Where-ever it shall be desired and accepted offer Indempnity to so great a latitude as may include all that can but suspect themselves to be any way
short but pithy Speech to the People telling them that he did esteem the Affections of his good People more than the Crowns of many Kingdoms and should be ready by God's Assistance to bestow his Life for their defence wishing to live no longer than he saw Religion and that Kingdom to flourish in all Happiness with many other expressions of like Love and Affection toward them The Ceremonies of the Coronation being ended and a plentiful Entertainment prepared he sate down at one Table and the Lords at another many Caresses and Testimonies of Joy reciprocally passing between them And Dinner being ended they all returned to St. Johnstons in the same Order and Pomp as they came from thence to Schoneâ— Bonfires Ringing of Bells and the loud Acclamations of the People were sufficient demonstrations of the Publick Joy which the Scots were filled withall and the great expectations they had of Happiness and Felicity under the Influence of his mild and easie Government Having now obtained the actual possession of one of his Kingdoms and being reconciled to that Parliament he was not in the least daunted by the late Miscarriages but as if he had been encouraged by his former Unhappiness and raised in mind like Anteus by his Fall he proceeded to the raising of such an Army as might then have been rather wisht for by the Affectionate than expected by the Reasonable And indeed such was the Confluence of Faithful Subjects that continually resorted to him and were resolved to carry on and if possible maintain an endangered and an endangering Cause against the most successful and hitherto prevailing Interest that he was in a little time Master of a greater Army in the Field than either his own hope or his Enemies guilty fear could suspect Wherefore he bravely appears himself in the management of his own Affairs as Generalissimo of that Army which consisted of two and twenty thousand fighting Men. Nor was his care less employed about his Garrisons than it was about those Forces he had in the Field knowing that it was prudence to provide for a Retreat though he expected a Conquest and not neglect the providing a Refuge in the worst of Dangers whilst according to Reason he need to think of nothing but Safety in the best of Victories Wherefore to hasten the work for every minute of delay was then fatal and cherish the dejected Vulgar who were now somewhat discouraged by lying under the burden of a double Army with the honour and pleasure of his gracious presence He took a progress to view the most considerable of them and see them well fortified and furnisht with all necessary Provisions encouraging the Engineers by his Bounty and directing and guiding them by his Skill But those vast Preparations were too formidable to his Enemies for them to suffer 'em to go on without an Attempt at least to hinder and defeat them Wherefore before the Levies were well compleated Cromwel makes hard toward him thinking each minute tedious that past without some Action But the King prudently declined joyning Battel with him until he might if possible draw him who had a greedy desire of Fighting into some disadvantage which he was in a probability of doing soon after For Cromwel having commanded two Regiments to pass over into a narrrow Island hoping thereby to intercept his passage he sent against them five or six Regiments under the Command of Major General Brown who had certainly cut them all in pieces had not Cromwel hastened thither with a supply in the very last minute of opportunity whereby he rescued his own Forces and beat back Brown although not without a considerable loss on both sides And being flusht with those successful beginnings pursued his Advantage and transporting his Army over Fife marcht immediately unto St. Johnstons which he took almost upon the first Summons Whereupon the King who was not able to beat them back thought it high time to look about him And since Cromwel that successful Rebel had now gained all on the other side Fife took the Earl of Eglington Prisoner possest himself of St. Johnstons and grew every day more powerful he resolved with all imaginable speed to advance into England expecting that the Justice and Equity of his Cause together with the long Tyranny exercised over them by the Juncto would incite his English Subjects to return to their Allegiance and joyn with him against theirs as well as his Enemies And knowing by experience that the Scots always exprest their Valour better in other Countries than at home in their own whereupon Cromwel re-crosses Frith and sends Lambert with a select Party of Horse and Dragoons to fall upon the King's Reer himself following presently after with the Body of his Army The King entred England by the way of Carlisle the Royal Army marching through the Country with that Civility and exact Obedience to Military Discipline that as some affirm the Country was not damaged six-pence by them But whether it were that their former Villanies had left such a deep impression in the hearts of the People or that they were now dull'd and besotted with Slavery and with Issachar's Ass were content to couch under their Burdens or that they were over-awed by an Armed Power which is the most probable few or none came in to his Assistance save only the Lord Howard's Son of Escrick with one Troop of Horse notwithstanding his earnest Invitation The Juncto at Westminster hearing of the King's March were exceedingly terrified therewith and presently raised all the Countries against him and declared it High Treason for any to assist him either with Men or Money But the Earl of Darby who was always Loyal both to him and his Father not fearing their Bug-Bear Threatning brought him a supply of Two hundred and fifty Foot and Sixty Horse out of the Isle of Man He met with no opposition till he came at Warrington in Lancashire where some considerable Forces of the Parliament were ready to cut down that Bridge and dispute his Passage But the Scots falling on them before they were aware prevented the breaking down of the Bridge and by their Valour forced their way over the Planks and put the Adversary to such a confused Retreat that had it been pursued as himself would have had it but was opposed by Lesly it might have proved the Conquest of all England and that unhappy and miserable War might thereby have been ended much sooner than it was From thence he marched toward Worcester in such excellent Order and with so little Damage to the Country that it lookt more like a Progress with his Nobles than a March with an Army which was a great demonstration of the powerful Influence of his goodness and care which could so easily frame Rudeness it self to so smooth and even a temper and form an unruly Camp into a well managed and orderly Court In his way to Worcester he summoned Shrewsbury by a Letter directed to Collonel Mackworth
Rebels whereupon the Lords with their followers faced about and repelled them But when they were got a little beyond Newport some of Lilburn's Regiment meeting them in the Front and other Rebels from Worcester pursuing them in the Rear themselves and Horses being very much beaten out and tired Darby Lauderdale Gifford and some others were taken and carried Prisoners first to Whit-Church and then to an Inn in Banbury from whence Gifford found means to escape But Darby was conveyed to Westchester and there tryed by a pretended Court Marshal held by a Commission from Cromwel grounded on an execrable Rump Act which traiterously pretended to prohibit all correspondence with Charles Stuart under penalty of High-Treason loss of Life and Estate by which he was condemned to lose his Life notwithstanding his just Plea that he had Quarter granted him by Captain Edge who took him Prisoner and was shortly after Executed at Bolton in Lancashire in a most Barbarous and unhuman manner Lauderdale and others were conveyed first to the Tower and afterward to Windsor Castle where they continued divers years But whilst the Rebels were plundering those Noble Persons whom they had taken Prisoners the Duke with Leviston Blague Darcey May and others forsook the Road and betaking themselves to a by-way got into Cessardine Woods not far from Newport where they received some refreshment at a little obscure House and afterward by two honest Labourers whom they met withal in an adjoyning Wood and to whom they communicated the misery and distress which the fortune of War had reduced them to were directed to places of safety The Duke in imitation of his Royal Master quitting his Horse and delivering his George which was given him by the Queen Mother to Mr. May who having preserved it in several eminent dangers restored it to him again in Holland and changing habit with one of the Workmen he was in that disguise conveyed to the House of one Mr. Haley at Bistrop in Nottinghamshire Leviston and the rest all quitted their Horses likewise and severally shifted for themselves The King being safely Landed in Normandy he went forthwith to Diepe where he provided himself with such necessaries as might serve him until he came to his Mother in the French Court who so soon as they heard of his safe arrival sent several Persons of Quality to meet him with great Pomp as became his Person who received him with much gladness and very much rejoyced at his safety conveying him to Paris in the Duke of Orleans his own Coach where he found such a welcom as his Person and Worth deserved and as great as that Court could express for the safety of their best Allie and by his Mother and the two Dukes with as great a joy as became them upon the receiving of him whom they once thought had been lost and perished These Complements being once over he pursued his interest in Holland by the mediation of his Sister the Princess of Orange and his Aunt the Queen of Bohemia indeavouring to prevail with them according to their former promises to undertake a War against the English Parliament which they accordingly did but being not able to cope with the Valour of the English nor prevail against that success which seemed to be entailed to the Rump in all their undertakings they were unsuccessful therein and it contributed very little toward the promoting of his designs The King being once again excluded out of all his Dominions they quickly after reduced Corn-Castle in the Isle of Guernsey the Isle of Man and all other places both in England Scotland and Ireland which stood out for him Which was no sooner done but there happened a strange alteration in the Scene of affairs in England for Cromwel whose ambition was now ripe knowing that he could not expect a fairer opportunity to Usurp that supreme Power which he had so long been aspiring too in regard every one began now to grow weary of the base actions of the Rump whose dilatory proceedings and apparent intentions of perpetuating themselves rendred them hateful to all Mankind he entred into their House attended by some of his principal Officers where having delivered divers reasons why he thought that Parliament ought to be Dissolved and a period put to its sitting He commanded them notwithstanding they were his Masters and from whom he derived his Commission immediately to depart which was done accordingly for how unwilling soever they were to obey yet it was now out of their Power to dispute his Authority so that those who had murthered one King and refused to restore a second were turned out of door and deprived of all Authority and Power by their own Servant Whereat the whole Nation rejoyced and scarce a Man grieved for their Dissolution but themselves every one believing that though the Nation might not peradventure be bettered by that change yet it was almost impossible it should be worse but however Cromwel fearing that some might be discontented with his Proceedings Published a large and specious Declaration shewing his Reasons for his Dissolving of them But his design being only to make himself great he did not intend to give relief by taking away the tyranny but by changing of it only and therefore instead of that Juncto which he pulled down set up another of his own arbitrary election who knowing before-hand what they had to do after having sate a while resigned up their power to him who resolving to make the best of that resignation pretended that the whole Supream Power and Authority of the three Kingdoms both Civil and Military was thereby in course devolved upon him and thereupon calling a Councel of Officers to consult about setling the Government they resolved after several debates to have a Common-wealth in a single person and that person should be Oliver Cromwel by the name and style of Lord Protector c. He at first seemingly refused the Dignity altho' it was the only thing he aimed at but being press'd by the Officers of the Army he consented to accept of it and was install'd with great pomp in the Chancery-Court at Westminster-hall and shortly after concluded a Peace with the Dutch He was afterward importuned by his Parliament to exchange his Title of Lord Protector for that of King which he refused and chose rather to continue the old The King when he came into France found that Court very much embroil'd on the account of some mis-understandings between the Prince of Conde and other Princes of the Blood and the Cardinal Mazarine which he undertook to compose urging his own danger to the King and advising him to beware how he provok'd his Subjects and urging the King's power to the Princes of the Blood whereby he unhappily drew upon himself the jealousies of both parties being suspected by the Cardinal to be for the Princes and by them to take part with him against their interest which they were the more induced to believe because he withdrew the
and Authority against all opposition whatsoever And for the better wipeing away all suspicion of the true intent and design of his Brothers coming he sent his Daughter away with him likewise No sooner had the General dismist his Bother but he received a visit from a Scotch Noble Man viz. the Earl of Nitsdale who after some private discourse with him assured him that the King would be restored within the compass of a very few months without the shedding of one drop of Bloud or the hazard of a cut Finger in the accomplishment thereof and that he lookt upon him as the principle Instrument by whose Wisdom and Conduct it was to be effected which prophettick discourse contributed very much toward his encouragment to push the business forward with the greater earnestness and speed Mr. Monk being safely arrived at London repaired privately to Sir John Greenvile and gave him an account that he had delivered his message to the General and imparted it to none else except his Chaplain only but told him as to the success of it he could give him no account being under an Oath of secresie However Sir John thought that was sufficient and therefore immediately acquainted the King with it who was so well satisfied therewith that he ordered him to wait an opportunity as soon as possible to treat personally with him which he did not long after and received a more full and satisfactory account from him how and in what manner he intended to proceed therein And for the discharging of this new Embassy to the Rump he repaired to Dr. Clergies who was Brother in Law to him and the General and Agent for the Scotch and Irish Armies to whom he was ordered by the General to impart his message to be delivered by him to the Parliament wherewith they were so highly pleased that out of a Sence of the Generals supposed Fidelity and to require his offered kindness they made as it were an expiring vote of revenge when they saw they must be forced to yield to Lamberts ambition and have their usurpt Authority suffer a second Rape wherein they constituted him about the seventh part of a Generalissimo which fell out very happily for the promoting his great and generous design for it was by Virtue of that power that he seemed afterwards to act and give forth Commissions And having received on the 7th of October the certain news that Lambert had by the assistance of the Army once more unhoused the Rump he publickly protested that he would not endure that unjust and arbitrary proceding and was resolved therefore to reduce the Military power to the obedience of the Civil and in order thereunto presently entred the Stage against Lambert and his Armies proceedings dispatching away the trusty adjutant Jeremy Smith who was afterwards Knighted for his Fidelity that afternoon to Edenburgh and Leith to secure those places and under the march of such Troops of Horse on whose Captains he could most rely and having stopt the Packquet which should have gone that Night for England he followed him the next day to Edenburgh where he reformed his Army making Captain Morgan Lieftenant Collonel and Captain Nichols Major of his own Regiment and the next day sent a party of Horse commanded by Captain Johnson to secure Barwick which he knew to be a place of great importance to his new designs which was done in the very nick of time for the Governour had no sooner clapt up his dissenting Officers according to the Generals directions but Collonel Cobbit entred the Town with instructions and Authority to assert and defend their Interest who being brought by Johnson to the General he sent him Prisoner to Edenburgh Castle and having assured the Soldiers to him he dispatched three Letters into England directed to Fleetwood Lambert and Lenthal wherein he acquainted them with his resolution to restore these Kingdoms to the free exercise of their Laws and Liberties which expression had more included than was exprest in it which was well enough understood by the Lord Fairfax and some others who were privy to the design These Letters gave some intimation of hope to the Rump that they should be a second time restored to their Authority and infinitely surprised Lambert and the other Grandees of the Army who did not expect to meet with any such opposition believing it diversly opposite to the interest of the Army in general for any one part of it to be divided against and oppose the proceedings of the rest and that although there should be any amongst the Souldiers who should love their Country better then their pay and that Monk should undertake to back them yet they were assured by some of his Officers who were then at London that his interest was too weak in Scotland to make head against them however to make all sure they sent Dr. Clergies and Collonel Talbut to him whom they intreated and conjured to use their utmost endeavors to allay those suddain heats of his which they affirmed had been kindled by some unhappy mistakes of their proceedings and assure him that he and his army should suddainly receive a satisfactory account about them But that attempt signified little for Talbut could not perswade him of the sincerity of Lamberts Friendship nor the reallity of his offered advantages and Clergies did but prevaricate with them that sent him and informed the General of the true state and condition of the English Army who had but little Money and no means left of raising more when that was spent in regard the Rump who saw their doom hastning had before they were turned out by Lambert voted it high Treason to raise money out of Parliament thereby covering their spite and revenge with the shadow of a pretended tenderness for their Countrys freedom These were soon after followed by Captain Dean Treasurer to the English Army who was sent by Fleetwood as a special messenger of his own with a very kind letter to the General and an offer of what preferment in the Army he would please to accept of if he would concur with them which he refused This messenger in his passage into Scotland dispersed divers papers where he endeavoured to seduce Monk's Soldiers by accusing their General of a design to bring in Charles Stuart upon them by his dividing the Army and told the General to his Face as he sat at dinner with him that Charles Stuart was at the bottom of his design upon which Dr. Price replyed no Mr. Treasurer it is you that will bring him in for by your late actions you have more then justified the late King who demanded only the Members of the House of Commons but ye have dissolved a Parliament And passing by one morning as a Company of Foot was drawing up he told them them that Lord Lambert was coming upon them and that all Monks Army would suffice him for a Breakfast to which he received as blunt an answer That Lambert had certainly a very good
Judicial proceedings And then he return'd to White-Hall where he chose the Lords of his Privy Council amongst whom were several of the long Parliament that had given sufficient Testimony of their sincere repentance and their resolution to be Loyal for the future and he appointed Judges for the Benches and Courts of Judicature Several Addresses were likewise made to him from the Nobility and Gentry of all the Countreys in England wherein they congratulated his Restitution to his Crown and Kingdom assuring him of their exceeding Joy and willingness to maintain his Royal Person and Authority Divers persons that had been eminent for their service and affection to him were about that time also dignified with the honour of Knighthood And several men guilty of his Fathers murder having made their escape beyond-Sea a Proclamation was Issued forth wherein all those persons who had â—ate gave Judgment or any way assisted in that horrid and detestable fact were commanded to surrender themselves within fourteen days to the Speaker or Speakers of Parliament to the Lord Mayor of London or the Sheriff of that County wherein they then resided forbidding all persons to conceal or harbour them under misprision of Treason whereupon divers submitted themselves and were secur'd in the Tower The Commons in drawing up the Act of Oblivion order'd that some others besides those who had actually sate in Judgment upon the late King should be excepted out of it viz. Broughton Phelps Cook Dâ—nby and Hugh Peters which so affrighted others who had a hand in that execrable murder that Col. John Hutchinson a Member of that Parliament and Coll. Frâ— Lussels presented their Petition to them wherein they confest their guilt and declar'd the artifices which were us'd to draw them in by which submission they obtain'd pardon upon some small forfeitures only But Peters being shortly after taken in Southwark was clapt up into the Tower And the Parliament not looking upon themselves nor the people of England free from the guilt nor safe from the punishment which in those unhappy times they had contracted unless they laid hold of the Kings offer of Grace in his Declaration from Breda did therefore resolv'd in a full house that they did in the name of themselves and of all the Commons of England lay hold on the gracious pardon mention'd in that Declaration with reference to the exclusion of such as should be excepted in an Act of Pardon and they order'd a Declaration that their Resolution should be drawn up which was done accordingly and presented to the King by Denzell afterward Lord Hollis some of the most eminent in Office under the late Usurpers having in the mean while to make sure of that Grace gotten their particular pardons exemplified under the great Seal of England To prevent which trouble the King was more than ordinary pressing for the speedy passing the Act of Oblivion taking care to express his grateful sentiments of the Loyalty and services of several Illustrious personages that were principally instrumental in accomplishing his Restauration by dignifying them with Places and Titles of honour And to shew how highly the Generals Loyalty had advanc'd him in his good Opinion he was dignifi'd by him with the Titles of Duke of Albemarle Earl of Torrington and Baron of Potheridge Beauchamp Teyes had his Temples deserv'dly incircl'd with a Ducal Coronet by the hand of his Majesty being thereby invested with the right of Peerage in all the three Kingdoms whose equal Felicity and Honour he had preferr'd before his own and therefore now most deservingly shar'd with them therein by his Investure in those Dignities which were compleated on the 13th of the following July by his taking his place in the House of Lords being attended by the Commons and introduc'd by the Duke of Buckingham Montague was made Earl of Sandwich Ormond Earl of Brecknock and Lord Steward of the Kings Houshold the Earl of Lindsey Lord High Chamberlain Manchester L. Chamberlain of the Kings Houshold Southhampton Lord High Treasurer Greenvile Earl of Bath and Groom of the Stole Sir Frederick Cornwallis Treasurer of the Kings Houshold by an old grant and Sir John Berkley Controller Divers rich Presents were now made to him from the several Cities and Burroughs of the Kingdom in Gold and Plate and the resignation of several Feefarm Rents which had been purchas'd from the Usurpers the City of London among the rest with a Complement of their good Stewardship rendred their grant of new Perk in Surrey and all the Rents accruing at Michaelmas Day were now secured from the late Purchasers of Crown and Church Laws to the utter disappointing of their unjust and covetous expectations from such base and unwarrantable Penny-worths A Peace was now made Proclaim'd between us and Spain and a Splendid Embassy dispatcht from Denmark to congratulate his happy Restauratian The Court of Soissons who had Married Cardinal Mazarines Neece being sent from the French King on the same Errand entring London with all the sumptuous and extraordinary Magnificence imaginable and there was no Prince nor State in Europe but what sent an Embassador thither to congratulate him upon that happy and wonderful occasion And the Parliament having after many debates and disputes alterations and insertions at last finish'd the long desir'd Act of Oblivion which was extraordinary comprehensive and indulgent even to the regret of many injur'd Loyalists who found no better Argument to perswade their acquiescing therein than their unchangeable Loyalty to the King whose special Act that was There were no more excepted out of it but only the Regicides and Murderers of the late King only Lambert Vane and twenty more were thereby reserv'd to such forfeitures as should be afterward declar'd by Parliament the principal whereof was Hazelrick St. John Lenthal the Speaker Philip Nye Burton of Tarmouth and some Sequestrators Officers and Major Generals of the Army among whom was Desbrough Pine Butler Ireton c. They likewise past an Act for the perpetual Anniversary Thanksgiving on the 29 of May which was the day both of his Birth and Restauration and therefore deserv'd a perpetual memorial and to be made by a Parliamentary Canonization the most auspicious in the English Kallender to both which he gave his Royal assent and shortly after at their adjournment to another for disbanding the Army and paying off the Navy which although they once threatned us with a perpetuating our slavery yet were now forc'd by the happy conjunction of his Fortune with his Wisdom and Goodness after many models to submit to its last desolation And the Commons having after the passing of their Bills acquainted him that they had nothing more to ask or offer at that time but that if his Majesties occasions would permit they might adjourn and go into their own Countries where they should endeavour to make his subjects sensible of their extraordinary happiness in having such a King to Rule and Govern them He consented to it telling
thing which would tend to his or the Kingdoms benefit on the 10th of July dissolved it by Proclamation and declared his Resolution to call a new one which should sit on the 17th of the following October In the mean while Sir George Wakeman with Marshall Rumley and Corker three Benedictine Monks were tryed before the Lord Chief Justice Scroggs for High Treason relating to the Plot But the Evidence of Oates and Bedlow beginning now to be less credited than formerly and the ferment of peoples fury being somewhat abated the Jury brought them in Not Guilty and Wakeman was thereupon discharged from his Imprisonment as the other Three had likewise been had they not in their Defence upon their Trials acknowledged themselves to be Priests Wakeman's being thus acquitted startled the Mobille who expected all that were accused of that Plot should have been condemned of course without respect to the Truth or Falshood of the Accusation And the Faction endeavoured to improve their dissatisfaction into Rage and Sedition by several scurrilous Libels wherein they accuse Scroggs of perverting Justice and taking a Bribe of several thousand Guinneas from the Spanish Embassador to save Wakeman's Life from which Aspersions he sufficiently cleared himself in a Speech which he made in the Kings-Bench-Court on the first day of the ensuing Michaelmas-Term During this interval of Parliament the King was violently taken ill of an Ague at Windsor insomuch that his Life was thought to be in some danger Whereupon the Duke as well to demonstrate his Affection to his Brother as to prevent the danger which as things then stood might peradventure have happen'd to him in case the King should have died in his absence came Post from Flanders to Windsor But Heaven designing to lengthen out his Life till he had reduced the great Affairs of the Nation to a better Settlement and could leave his Succession more safe and secure it pleased God that he recovered his Health soon after to the great Joy of all the whole Nation And the City to express the pleasure they took therein sent the Lord Mayor and the Court of Aldermen with a Train of thirty Coaches and about a hundred Horse to Congratulate him upon his Recovery and when he returned soon after to White-Hall many Bonefires were made throughout the whole City attended with great Acclamations of Joy and Expressions of Loyalty Whilst he lay Sick at Windsor the Duke of Monmouth who had been by the Kings favour raised to as high a Station as a Subject was well capable of being then Lord General of all His Majesties Land Forces Master of the Horse and Captain of the Kings Life-Guards not content with the Honours already heaped upon him but aspiring as was thought altho without all Reason in regard of his Illegitimacy to the Crown it self endeavoured to prevail with some great Men at Court to take part with his Interest which being made known to the King by the Earl of Oxford who having for his eminent Loyalty a considerable party of Horse under his Command commonly called the Lord of Oxfords Troop was importuned by Sir Thomas Armstrong as was reported either in direct terms or so as his meaning might easily be understood to declare himself for Monmouth in case the King should dye He conceived a just Indignation against him for that bold and audacious Attempt and discovered his incensed Majesty by taking away his Commission of Lord General and soon after of his remaining places of Captain of the Life-Guard Master of the Horse Governor of Hull c. And to prevent Peoples being deluded by his Chimeâ—ical Fictions publisht a Declaration wherein having first taken notice of the great Industry and Malice wherewith men of seditious and restless Spirits spread abroad a most false and scandalous Report of a Marriage or Contract of Marriage at least between Mrs. Walters who was that Dukes Mother and him designing thereby to fill the minds of his loving Subjects with doubts and fears and divide them if possible into Parties by bringing into question the clear and undoubted Right of his true and lawful Heirs and Successors to the Crown he did to obviate the fatal consequences so dangerous and malicious a report might have in future times upon the Peace of his Kingdoms assure them That having found a former Rumor that there was a writing yet extant and lately produced before several Persons whereby that Marriage or Contracâ— at least would appear was not only revived again but improved also witâ— new Additions by insinuating thaâ— several Lords and others were yet living who were pretended to bâ—â— present at the Marriage hâ— had notwithstanding he knew fuâ—â— well it was impossible there should bâ— any truth in this Report since noâ—â— thing in the World could be morâ— false and groundless than the pretencâ— of such a Marriage or Contract bâ—â—tween him and the said Mrs. Walterâ— alias Barlow called before him anâ— caused to be Interogated in Council such Lords and other Persons as the common rumour surmised to have been present at the pretended Marriage or to know something of it or of the said writing And that tho it then appeared to all his Council upon their hearing the said Persons severally Interrogated and their denial to have been ever present at any such Marriage or to know any thing of it or of any such writing that the raising and spreading that Report which was so inconsistent with it self was the effect of deep malice in some few and of loose and idle discourse in others yet he thought it requisite for the satisfying all in general to publish a Declaration he had made in the January was Twelvemonth written with his own Hand in the following words There being a false and malicious Report industriously spread abroad by some who are neither Friends to me or the Duke of Monmouth as if I should have been either Contracted or Married to his Mother and tho I am confident that this idle Story cannot have any effect in this Age yet I thought it my Duty in relation to the true Succession of this Crown and that future Ages may not have any pretence to give disturbance upon that Score or any other of this nature to declare as I do here Declare in the Presence of Almighty God That I never was Married nor gave any Contract to any Woman whatsoever but to my Wife Queen Katharine to whom I am now Married In Witness whereof he had set his Hand at White-Hall the 6th of January 1678-79 In the Presence of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the two Secretaries Coventry and Williamson And assured them that to strengthen that Declaration he had in the March following made a more publick and solemn Declaration to the same purpose in his Privy Council written likewise with his own Hand and had caused a true Transcript thereof to be entred into the Council Book which for the better Confirmation he Signed with his own hand and caused the Lords
of the Privy Council then present to do so too and had ordered the Original to be kept in the Council Chest where it still remains This Declaration was likewise inserted as it was entred in the Council Books and was as follows For the avoiding of any Dispute which may happen in time to come concerning the Succession of the Crown I do here Declare in the Presence of Almighty God That I never gave nor made any Contract of Marriage nor was Married to any Woman whatsoever but to my present Wife Queen Katharine White Hall the 3d day of March 167 â— â— CHARLES R. And that noâ—e might still remain doubtful or question the Truth of his former Declaration he concluded that Declaration with the following Protestation And we do again upon this occasion call Almighty God to Witness and declare upon the Faith of a Christian and the Word of a King That there was never any Marriage had or made between us and the said Mrs. Walters alias Barlow the Duke of Monmouths Mother nor between Vs and any Woman whatsever our Royal Consort Queen Katharine that is only excepted Requiring and Commanding all his Subjects of what degree soever that they should not presume to utter or publish any thing contrary to the Tenor of that Declaration at their Peril and upon pain of being proceeded against according to the utmost Severity and Rigor of the Law Whereby all the groundless hopes of that Duke and the idle and ridiculous Expectations of many factious and designing Persons were wholly disappointed And he was moreover commanded by the King to depart the Land which he did on the 23d of September and went over to Vtrecbt but returned again privately and without order about the latter end of the next month About this time there was much discourse of a new Plot and several Narratives publisht about it wherein the Papists as was affirmed had contrived to charge the Presbyterians with a conspiracy against the Government the chief Discoverer whereof was one Dangerfield who had formerly been a vile and profligate Fellow and was then newly got out of Newgate Several Persons were accused by him as Conspirators therein the chief whereof was the Countess oâ— Powis Sir Robert Payton Gadbury and one Cellier a Widwife in whose house Sir William Waller pretended to find some Papers that related to the Conspiracy from whence it was called the Meal-Tub Plot and the Effigies of the Pope in all his Pontificalibus was on the Birth-day of Queen Elizabeth which is the 17th of November Burned with much more Pomp and Splendor than it had been in former years it having been a custom for several late years so to do The Effigies of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey was carried on a Horse with a Bell-man to mind the people of his Murder several Priests in Copes with a large silver Cross six Jesuits divers Bishops some in thin Lawn Sleeves and others with their Copes and Miters on and six Cardinals going in procession before him The King having according to his promise called a new Parliament to meet on the 17th of October Prorogues it to the 26th of the following January and toward the latter end of November the Duke of York went into Scotland where his Presence was very acceptable and all Persons declared the great satisfaction they took in having him amongst them The appointed time of the Parliaments sitting drawing near great endeavours were used for the procuring a multitude of Hands to Peâ—itioâ—s which were to be presented to the King for his permitting the Parliament to Sit on the 26th of January according to the last proâ—ogation which petitioning being unwarrantable and tumultuous he order'd the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen to take care for the preservation of his Honour and the Peace and safety of the City and not suffer such Persons that should â—ign such Petitions or go about to get hands to them to escape unpunished and issued out a Proclamation to forbid all such kind of petitioning and another to declare his Resolution for the farther prorogation to the 11th of November notwithstanding which some resolutely went on with their petitioning and not long after one from London subscribed with many Thousand hands and others from York Essex Surrey and Wiltshire were presented to Him which he received indeed but knowing that such kind of Petitions were rather Commands than Requests resolved not to gratifie the unruly Petitioners and therefore on the 26th of January when those Members who were in Town met according to custom at the Parliament-House he acquainted them That when he declared in Council his Intention of putting off the Parliament to a time so remote as November it was not without mature Consideration and that he saw nothing which had hapned since in reference to the Affairs within the Kingdom which gave him occasion to alter or repent that Resolution and that altho he would in regard to the present danger which threatned some of his Neighbours and Allies appoint a day for their meeting again in April yet the Distractions and Jealousies at Home were of such a nature and had been so heightned and improved by the malice and industry of ill men that he was unalterably of an opinion that a longer interval would be absolutely necessary for compoâ—ing mens minds in order to which he feared the most proper Remedies would prove ineffectual without the assistance of some farther time and therefore resolved that at their meeting in April there should be a farther prorogation unless the condition of his Allies abroad did then require their immediate assistance In the mean while Articles of high Misdemeanor were offered by way of complaint to the King and Council against the Chief Justice Scroggs by Oates and Bedlow to which he returned his Answer and so the business fell And in Hillary Term Sir Thomas Gascoigne a Yorkshire Gentleman of 85 Years of Age was arraigned at the Kings Bench Bar on an Information of High Treason the Witnesses against him being Balron and Mowberry two of his own Servants but their Evidence being somewhat doubtful and improbable he was acquitted The King opened the Year 80 which was remarkable for many revolutions though all in the end concluded peaceable and well with calling the Duke out of Scotland who was upon his arrival complemented by the Mayor Aldermen Recorder and Common-Council of London About which time also Secretary Coventry having resigned his office the King made choice of Sir Lionel Jenkins to succeed him and on the 15th of April the King being absent at Newmarket ordered his Chancellor Finch by vertue of a Commission under the great Seal to prorogue the Parliament to the 17th of May from whence it was afterwards prorogued to the first of July And now several Countrys which had been active in promoting petitions began to be ashamed and recant their Actions the City of Westminster leading the way their Grand-Jury by a publick and formal act disowning the Action and charging