Court at Bartholmew-Fair ther being all the essentiall parts of a true Parliament wanting in this as fairnesse of elections freedome of speech fulnesse of Members nor have they any head at all besides they have broken all the fundamental rules and Priviledges of Parliament and dishonoured that high Court more then any thing else They have ravish'd Magna Charta which they are sworn to maintain taken away our birth-right therby and transgressed all the laws of heaven and earth Lastly they have most perjuriously betrayed the trust the King reposed in them and no lesse the trust their Country reposed in them so that if reason and law were now in date by the breach of their Priviledges and by betraying the said double trust that is put in them they have dissolved themselves ipso facto I cannot tell how many thousand times notwithstanding that monstrous grant of the Kings that fatall act of continuance And truly my Lord I am not to this day satisfied of the legality though I am satisfied of the forciblenesse of that Act whether it was in his Majesties power to passe it or no for the law ever presupposeth these clauses in all concessions of Grace in all Patents Charters and Grants whatsoever the King passeth Salvo jure regio salvo jure coronae To conclude as I presume to give your Lordship these humble cautions and advice in particular so I offer it to all other of your rank office order and Relations who have souls to save and who by solemn indispensable Oaths have ingaged themseves to be tru and loyall to the Person of King Charls Touching his political capacity it is a fancy which hath bin exploded in all other Parliaments except in that mad infamous Parliament wher it was first hatched That which bears upon Record the name of Insanum Parliamentum to all posterity but many Acts have passed since that it shold be high and horrible Treason to separat or distinguish the Person of the King from His Power I believe as I said before this distinction will not serve their turn at the dreadful Bar of divine justice in the other world indeed that Rule of the Pagans makes for them Si Iusjurandum violandum est Tyrannis causâ violandum est If an Oath be any way violable 't is to get a Kingdom We find by woful experience that according to this maxime they have made themselves all Kings by violation of so many Oaths They have monopoliz'd the whole power and wealth of the Kingdom in their own hands they cut shuffle deal and turn up what trump they please being Judges and parties in every thing My Lord he who presents these humble advertisments to your Lordship is one who is inclin'd to the Parliament of Engl. in as high a degree of affection as possibly a free-born Subject can be One besides who wisheth your Lordships good with the preservation of your safety and honour more really then he whom you intrust with your secretest affaires or the White Iew of the Upper House who hath infused such pernicious principles into you moreover one who hath some drops of bloud running in his veins which may claim kindred with your Lordship and lastly he is one who would kiss your feet in lieu of your hands if your Lordship wold be so sensible of the most desperat case of your poor Country as to employ the interests the opinion and power you have to restore the King your Master by English waies rather then a hungry forrein people who are like to bring nothing but destruction in the van confusion in the rear and rapine in the middle shold have the honour of so glorious a work So humbly hoping your Lordship will not take with the left hand what I offer with the right I rest From the Prison of the Fleet 3. Septembris 1644. Your Lordships truly devoted Servant I. H. HIS Late MAJESTIES Royal DECLARATION OR MANIFESTO TO ALL FORREIN PRINCES AND STATES Touching his constancy in the Protestant Religion Being traduced abroad by some Malicious and lying Agents That He was wavering therin and upon the high road of returning to Rome Printed in the Year 1661. TO THE Unbiass'd REDER IT may be said that mischief in one particular hath somthing of Vertue in it which is That the Contrivers and Instruments thereof are still stirring and watchfull They are commonly more pragmaticall and fuller of Devices then those sober-minded men who while they go on still in the plaine road of Reason having the King and knowne Lawes to justifie and protect them hold themselfs secure enough and so think no hurt Iudas eyes were open to betray his Master while the rest of his fellow-servants were quietly asleep The Members at Westminster were men of the first gang for their Mischievous braines were alwayes at work how to compasse their ends And one of their prime policies in order thereunto was to cast asspersions on their King thereby to alienat the affections and fidelity of his peeple from him â—…notwithstanding that besides their pubâ—…ick Declarations they made new Oaths and protestations whereby they swore to make Him the best belov'd King that ever was Nor did this Diabolicall malice terminat only within the bounds of his own Dominions but it extended to infect other Princes and States of the Reformed Churches abroad to make Him suspected in his Religion that he was branling in his belief and upon the high way to Rome To which purpose they sent missives and clandestine Emissaries to divers places beyond the Seas whereof forren Authors make mention in their writings At that time when this was in the height of action the passage from London to Oxford where the King kept then his Court was so narrowly blockd up that a fly could scarce passe some Ladies of honor being search'd in an unseemly and barbarous manner whereupon the penner of the following Declaration finding his Royal master to be so grosly traduced made his Duty to go beyond all presumptions by causing the sayd Declaration to be printed and publish'd in Latin French and English whereof great numbers were sent beyond the seas to France Holland Germany Suisserland Denmark Swethland and to the English plantations abroad to vindicat his Majesty in this point which produc'd very happy and advantagious effects for Salmtisius and other forrin writers of great esteem speake of it in their printed works The Declaration was as followeth CAROLUS Singulari Omnipotentis Dei providentia Angliae Scotiae Franciae Hiberniae Rex Fidei Defensor c. Universis et singulis qui praesens hoc scriptum ceu protestationem inspexerint potissimum Reformatae Religionis cultoribus cujuscunque sint gentis gradus aut conditionis salutem c. CUM ad aures nostras non ita pridem fama pervenerit sinistros quosdam rumores literasque politica vel perniciosa potiùs quorundam industriâ sparsas esse nonnullis protestantium ecclesiis in exteris partibus emissas nobis
one of their Election And lastly he trusted them with his greatest strength of all with his Navie Royall and call'd home Pennington who had the guard of the narrow Seas so many yeares Peregrin Truly Sir I never remember to have heard or read of such notable acts of grace and confidence from any King but would not all this suffice Patricius No But they demanded all the Land Souldiery and military strength of the Kingdome to be disposed of by them and to be put into what posture and in what Equipage and under what Commanders they pleas'd And this was the first thing his Majesty ever denyed them yet he would have granted them this also for a limited time but that would not serve the turn Hereupon his Majesty grew a little sensible how they inch'd every day more and more upon his Royall Prerogatives And intending to go to his Town of Hull to see his Magazin which he had bought with his own money with his ordinary train he was in a hostile manner kept out Canons mounted Pistols cockt and leveld at him But whether that unlucky Knight Hotham did this out of his fidelity to the Parl. or out of an apprehension of feare that some about the King being mov'd with the barbarousnesse of the action would have pistold him I will not determine Peregrin I have read of divers affronts of this kinde that were offerd to the French Kings Rochell shut her gates more than once against Henry the Great and for the King now regnant they did not only shut him out of many of his Towns but upon the gates of some of them they writ in legible Characters Roy san Foy ville sans peur a faithlesse King a fearlesse Towne Yet in the greatest heat of those warres there was never any Towne refus'd to let in her King provided he came attended onely with his own traine and besides other people abroad I heard the Scot's nation did abhor that Act at Hull But I pray Sir go on Patricius His Majesty being thus shut out of one Towne he might justly suspect that an attempt might be made to shut him in in some other Therefore he made a motion to the Yorke-shire Gentlemen to have a gard for the preservation of his Person which was done accordingly But I am come to forward I must go backe and tell you how the King was driven from Westminster When His Majesty was return'd from Scotland he retir'd to Hampton Court whence upon the Lord Majors and the Cities humble solliciâ—…ation he came back to White-hal to keep his Christmas But when the Bill against Bishops was in agitation which businesse â—…asted neer upon ten weekes a crue of bold â—…turdie mechanicks and mariners came â—…rom the Citie and ruffled before White-hall and Westminster-hall and would have violated the Abby of Westminster so that for many â—…ights a Court of gard was forced to be kept â—…n the body of that Church the chiefest Sanctuary of the Kingdom Moreover His Majesty having impeached some of the Members of both Houses of High Treason and being denied to have them delivered up he went himself to the Lower House to demand them assuring the House they should have as faire and legall a triall as ever men had But as it pleas'd God they were not there but retir'd to London for refuge The Londoners grew starke wilde thereupon and notice being sent to all the adjacent Counties this act of the Kings though it wanted no precedents of former times was aggravated in the highest degree that possibly could be Hence you may easily inferre what small securitie his Majesty had at White-hall and what indignities he might have exposed himself unto by that which had pass'd already from the Rabble who had vilified and cried tush at his proclamations and disgorg'd other rebellious speeches with impunity therefore he retird to Hampton Court as we read our Saviour withdrew himselfe once from the multitude thence to Windsor Castle whence accompanying her Majesty with his eldest daughter to the sea side for Holland and having commanded the Prince to attend him against his return at Greenwich the Prince had been surpriz'd and brought to London had not the King come a little before Thence he removed to Yorke where he kept his Court all the Sommer But to returne to London the very next day after their Majesties departure the Countrey about especially Buckinghamshire being incited by the Câ—…tie and Parliament came in great swarmes and joyning with the London mechanicks they ruffled up and down the streets and kept such a racket making the fearfull'st riot that ever I beleeve was heard of in Parliament time so those Members which formerly were fled into the Citie were brought to the House in a kind of triumph being garded by land and water in warlike manner by these Champions After this sundry troops of horse came from all the shires near adjoyning to â—…he Parliament and Buckingham men were â—…he first who while they express'd their â—…ve to Hamden their Knight forgot their â—…worn oath to their King and in stead of feathers they carried a printed Protestation in â—…heir hats as the Londoners had done a litâ—…le before upon the Pikes point Peregrin This kept a foul noise beyond Sea I reâ—…ember so that upon the Rialto in Venice â—…t was sung up and down that a Midsummer Moon though it was then midst of Winter did raign amongst the English and you must â—…hink that it hath made the Venetian to â—…hrink in his shoulders and to look but ill-favouredly upon us since wee 'l have none of his currans But Sir I heard much of that Protestation I pray what was the substance of it Patricius It was penn'd and enjoyn'd by the Parâ—…iament for every one to take and it consisted of many parts the first was to maintain the tru Potestant Religion against all Popish innovations which word Popish as som think was scrued in of purpose for a loop hole to let in any other innovation the second was to maintain the Prerogative anâ—… Honour of the King then the power and priviledge of Parliament and lastly the Propriety and Liberty of the subject for threâ—… parts of this Protestation the people up anâ—… down seem'd to have utterly forgotteâ—… them and continue so still as if their consciences had bin tied only to the third viz the priviledge of Parliament and never was ther a poor people so besotted never waâ—… reason and common sence so baffled in anâ—… part of the world And now will I go to attend His Majesty at York where as I told you before being loth to part with his Sword though he had half parted with his Scepter before by denying the Parliament an indefinite time to dispose of the Militia alleadging that as the Word so the thing was new He sends forth his Commissions of Array according to the old Law of England which declares iâ—… to be the undoubted Right and Royall Signorie of the King to arm or disarm any
subsidies and the King inclinable to take them The said Vane being the Secretary of State stood up and said His Majesty expected no less then twelve which words did so incense and discompose the House that they drew after them that unhappy dissolution His Majesty being reduced to these straits and resenting still the insolence of the Scot proposed the busines to His Privy Councell who suddenly made up a considerable and most noble summe for his present supply whereunto divers of his domestick servants and Officers did contribut Amongst others who were active herein the Earl of Strafford bestir'd himself notably and having got a Parliament to be call'd in Ireland he went over and with incredible celeritie raised 8000. men who procured money of that Parliament to maintain them and got over those angry Seas again in the compasse of lesse then six weeks You may infer hence to what an exact uncontrollable obedience he had reduced that Kingdom as to bring about so great a work with such a suddennes and facilitie An armie was also raised here which marched to the North and there fed upon the Kings pay a whole Summer The Scot was not idle all this while but having punctuall intelligence of every thing that passed at Court as farre as what was debated in the Cabinet Councel and spoken in the bed-chamber and herein amongst many others the Scot had infinite advantage of us He armed also and preferring to make England the stage of the warre rather then his own countrey and to invade rather then to be invaded He got over the Tweed and found the passage open and as it were made for him all the way till hee came to the Tine and though there was a considerable army of horse and foot at Newcastle yet they never offered so much as to face him all the while At Newburgh indeed there was a small skirmish but the English foot would not fight so Newcastle gates flew open to the Scot without any resistance at all where it is thought he had more friends then foes and who were their friends besides for this invasion I hope Time and the Tribunall of Justice will one day discover His Majesty being then at York summoned all his Nobles to appear to advise with them in this exigence Commissioners were appointed on both sides who met at Rippon and how the hearts and courage of some of the English Barons did boil within them to be brought to so disadvantageous a Treatie with the Scot you may well imagin So the Treatie began which the Scot wold not conform himself to do unless he were first unrebell d and made Rectus in Curia and the Proclamation wherein he was declared Traitour revoked alledging it wold be dishonorable for His Majesty to treat with rebels This treaty was adjourned to London where this present Parliament was summoned which was one of the chiefest errands of the Scoâ—… as some think And thus far by these sad and short degrees have I faithfully led you along to know the tru Originals of our calamities Peregrin Truly Sir I must tell you that to my knowledg these unhappy traverses with Scotland have made the English suffer abroad very much in point of National honour Therefore I wonder much that all this while ther is none set a work to make a solid Apologie for England in some communicable language either in French or Latin to rectifie the world in the truth of the thing and to vindicat her how she was bought and sold in this expedition considering what a party the Scot had here and how his comming in was rather an Invitation then an Invasion and I beleeve if it had bin in many parts of the world besides some of the Commanders had gone to the pot Patricius It is the practise of some States I know to make sacrifice of some eminent Minister for publick mistakes but to follow the thred of my Discourse The Parliament being sate His Majesty told them that he was resolved to cast himself wholly upon the affection and fidelity of his people whereof they were the Representative body Therfore he wished them to go roundly on to close up the ruptures that were made by this infortunat war and that the two armies one domestick the other forrain which were gnawing the very bowels of the Kingdom might be dismissed Touching grievances of any kind and what State was ther ever so pure but some corruption might creep into it He was very ready to redresse them concerning the Ship-money he was willing to pass a Bâ—…ll for the utter abolition of it and to establish the property of the subject therefore he wished them not to spend too much time about that And for Monopolies he desired to have a list of them and he wold damn them all in one Proclamation Touching ill Counsellours either in Westminster-Hall or White-Hall either in Church or State he was resolved to protect none Therefore he wished that all jealousies and misunderstandings might vanish This with sundry other strains of Princely grace he delivered unto them but withall he told them that they shold be very cautious how they shook the fram of an ancient Government too far in regard it was like a Watch which being put asunder can never be made up again if the least pin be left out So ther were great hopes of a calm after that cold Northern storm had so blustered and that we shold be suddenly rid of the Scot but that was least intended untill som designs were brought about The Earl of Strafford the Archbishop of Canterbury the Iudges and divers Monopolists are clapt up and you know who took a timely flight Lord Finch to the other side of the Sea And in lieu of these the Bishop of Lincoln is enlarged Bastwick Burton and Prynn are brought into London with a kind of Hosanna His Majesty gave way to all this and to comply further with them he took as it were into his bosom I mean he admitted to his Privy Councell those Parliament Lords who were held the greatest Zelots amongst them that they might be witnesses of his secret'st actions and to one of them the Lord Say he gave one of the considerablest Offices of the Kingdom by the resignation of another most deserving Lord upon whom they could never fasten the least misdemeanour yet this great new Officer wold come neither to the same Oratory Chappell or Church to joyn in prayer with his Royall Master nor communicat with him in any publick exercise of devotion and may not this be called a tru Recusancie To another he gave one of the prime and most reposefull Offices about his own Person at Court The Earl of Essex and thereby he might be said to have given a Staff to beat himself Moreover partly to give his Subjects an Evidence how firmly he was rooted in his Religion and how much he desired the strenthning of it abroad The treaty of marriage went on 'twixt his eldest daughter and the young
Prince of Orenge Hereunto may be added as a speciall argument of compliance and grace the passing of the Bill for a Trienniall Parliament and lastly which is the greatest Evidence that possibly can be imagined of that reall trust and confidence he reposed in them he passed that prodigious Act of Continuance Peregrin Touching the Trienniall Parliament there may come some whole some fruit out of it will keep all Officers in awe and excite the Nobilitie and young Gentrie of the Kingdome to studie and understand the Government of the land and be able to sit and serve their countrey in this great Senate But for this Act of Continuance I understand it not Parliaments are good Physick but ill meat They say abroad that England is turned hereby from a Monarchy to a Democracy to a perpetual kind of Quingentumvirat and whereas in former times ther was a Heptarchy of seven Kings in her they say now she hath seventy times seven But in lieu of these unparallell'd Acts of grace and trust to the Parl. what did the Parliament for the King all this while Patricius They promised specially upon the passing of the last Act That they would make him the most glorious the best beloved and richest King that ever reigned in England and this they did with deep protestings and asseverations But there intervened an ill-favoured accident which did much hurt viz. A Discourse for truely I think it was no more but a discourse which some green heads held to bring up the Northern armie to check the Puritan partie and the rabble of the citie This kept a mightie noyse and you know who fled upon it and much use was made of it to make that cloud of jealousie which was but of the breadth of a hand before to appear as big as a mountaine Yet his Majestie continued still in passing Acts of grace and complying with them in every thing Hee put over unto them the Earle of Strafford who after a long costly triall wherein he carried himself with as much acutenesse dexteritie and eloquence as humane braine could be capable of for his defence hee was condemned to the Scaffold and so made a sacrifice to the Scot who stayed chiefly for his head which besides those vast summes of money was given him to boot Peregrin Touching the Earle of Strafford 't is tru he was full of ability elocution and confidence and understood the lawes of England as well as any yet there were two things I heard wherein his wisdom was questioned first that having a charge ready against his chiefest accusers yet he suffered them to have the priority of sute which if he had got he had thereby made them parties and so incapable to be produced against him Secondly that during the time of his tryall he applyed not himself with that compliance to his Iury as well as to his Iudges for he was observed to comply only with the Lords and not with the House of Commons Patricius Howsoever as some say his death was â—…esolved upon si non per viam justitiae saltem per viam expedientiae which appears in regard the proceedings against him are by a clause in the Act not to be produced for a leading case or example to future ages and inferiour Courts I blush to tell you how much the rabble of the City thirsted after his blood how they were suffered to strut up and down the streets before the royal Court and the Parliament it self with impunity They cried out that if the Common Law fail'd club law should knock him down and their insolency came to that height that the names of those Lords that would not doome him to death should be given them to fix upon posts up and downe And this was the first tumult that happened this Parliament whereof so many followed after their example being not onely conniv'd at but backed by authoritie for there were prohibitions sent from the Parliament to hinder all processe against some of them These Myrmidons as they termed themselves were ready at a watchword so that one might say there was a kind of discipline in disorder Peregrin Were ther any troubled for delivering their votes in the Houses I thought that freedom of opinion and speech were one of the prime priviledges of that great Nationall Senat. Patricius Yes Those that were the Minions of the House before became now the subjects of popular malice and detraction as the Lord Digby now Earl of Bristol for one because against the dictamen of their consciences they would not vote the Earl of Strafford to death and renounce their own judgments and captivate it to the sense of others yet they stood firm to their first grounds that he was a delinquent in a high nature and incapable ever to beare office in any of His Majesties dominions Peregrin I perceive Sir by your speeches that one of the chiefest causes of these combustions may be imputed to the Citie of London which may be called the Metropolis of all these evils and I little wonder at it for it hath been alwaies incident to all great Townes when they grow rich and populous to fall into acts of insolence and to spurne at government where so many pots so many braines I meane are a boyling ther must needs be a great deal of froth but let her look to her self for Majesty hath long arms and may reach her at last But the truth is that London bears no proportion with the size of this Island for either the one shold be larger or the other lesser London may be well compared to the liver of a cramm'd Italian goose whose fatning emacerates the rest of the whole body and makes it grow lean and languish and she may be well term'd a goose now more then ever for her feathers are pluck'd apace but now that you have done with the Earl of Strafford what is become of all the rest who were committed Patricius They are still in durance and have continued so these two years and upward yet are not proceeded against nor brought to their answer to this very day though all the Courts of Justice have bin open ever since Many hundreds more of the best sort of Subjects have bin suddenly clapt up and no cause at all mentioned in many of their commitments and new Prisons made of purpose for them where they may be said to be buried alive and so forgotten as if ther were no such men in the world wherof the Author was one And how this can stand with Magna Charta with the Petition of Right to vindicat which ther was so much pains taken the last Parliament let any man of a sane judgment determin Yet one of the Judges who hath an Impeachment oâ—… High Treason still lying Dormant against him though he be not Rectus in Curia himself is suffered to sit as Judge upon the highest tribunall of England whereas another for a pretended misdemeanour only is barr'd from sitting ther. Others who were at first
and withstand the same to the uttermost of your power and either cause it to be revealed to himself or to others of His Privy Counsell The Oaths you took when Bedchamber man and L. Chamberlain bind you as strictly to His Person Your Lordship may also call to memorie when you were installed Knight of the Garter whereof you are now the oldest living except K of Denmark you solemnly swore to defend the Honour and Quarrels the Rights and Lordship of your Soveraigne Now the Record tells us that the chiefest ground of instituting the said order by that heroick Prince Edward the Third was that he might have choice gallant men who by Oath and Honour should adhere unto him in all dangers and difficulties and that by way of reciprocation Hee should protect and defend them Which made Alfonso Duke of Calabria so much importune Henry the Eight to install him one of the Knights of the Garter that he might engage King Harry to protect him against Charles the Eighth who threatned then the conquest of Naples How your Lordship hath acquitted your self of the performance of these Oaths your conscience that bosome record can make the best affidavit Some of them oblige you â—…o live and dye with King Charles but what Oaths or any thing like an Oath binds you to live and die with the House of Commons as your Lordship often gives out you will I am yet to learne Unlesse that House which hath not power as much as to administer an Oath much lesse to make one can absolve you from your former Oaths or haply by their omnipotence dispence with you for the observance of them Touching the Politicall capacitie of the King I feare that will be a weak plea for your Lordship before the Tribunall of heaven and they who whisper such Chimeras into your ears abuse you in grosse but put case there were such a thing as politicall capacitie distinct from the personal which to a true rationall man is one of the grossest Buls that can be yet these forementioned Oaths relate most of them meerly unto the Kings Person the individuall Person of King Charles as you are His Domestick Counsellor and cubicular Servant My Lord I take leave to tell your Lordship and the Spectator sees sometimes more then the Gamester that the world extreamely marvels at you more then others and it makes those who wish you best to be transformed to wonder that your Lordship shold be the first of your Race who deserted the Crown which one of your Progenitors said he would still follow though it were thrown upon an hedg Had your Princely Brother William Earl of Pembrock bin living he wold have bin sooner torn by wild horses than have banded against it or abandoned the King his Master and fallen to such grosse Idolatry as to worship the Beast with many heads The world also stands astonished that you shold confederate to bring into the bowels of the Land and make Elogiums in some of your Speeches of that hungry people which have bin from all times so crosse and fatall to the English Nation and particularly to your own honour Many thousands do wonder that your Lordship shold be brought to persecute with so much animosity and hatred that reverend Order in Gods Church Episcopacy which is contemporary with Christianity it self and wherunto you had once designed and devoted one of your dearest Sons so solemnly My Lord if this Monster of Reformation which is like an infernall Spirit clad in white and hath a cloven head as well as feet prevailes you shall find the same destiny will attend poor England as did Bohemia which was one of the flourishingst Kingdoms upon that part of the earth which happen'd thus The Common people ther repind at the Hierarchy and riches of the Church therupon a Parliament was pack'd where Bishops were abolished what followed The Nobles and Gentry went down next and afterwards the Crown it self and so it became a popular confus'd Anarchicall State and a Stage of bloud a long time so that at last when this Magot had done working in the brains of the foolish peeple they were glad to have recourse to Monarchy again after a world of calamities though it degenerated from a successive Kingdom to an Elective Methinks my Lord under favour that those notorious visible judgements which have fallen upon these Refiners of reform'd Religion shold unbeguile your Lordship and open your eyes For the hand of heaven never appeared so clearly in any humane actions Your Lordship may well remember what became of the Hothams and Sir Alexander Cary who were the two fatall wretches that began the War first one in the North the other in the South Plymouth and Hull Your Lordship may be also pleased to remember what became of Brooks the Lord and Hampden the first whereof was dispatched by a deaf and dumb man out of an ancient Church at Litchfield which he was battering and that suddenly also for he fell down stone dead in the twinkling of an eye Now one of the greatest cavils he had against our Liturgy was a clause of a Prayer ther against sudden death Besides the fag end of his Grace in that journey was that if the design was not pleasing to God he might perish in the action For the other Hampden he besprinkled with his bloud and received his death upon the same clod of earth in Buckingham-shire where he had first assembled the poor Country people like so many Geese to drive them gaggling in a mutiny to London with the Protestation in their Caps which hath bin since torn in flitters and is now grown obsolet and quite out of use Touching Pym and Stroud those two worthy Champions of the Utopian cause the first being opened his stomack and guts were found to be full of pellets of bloud the other had little or no brain in his skull being dead and lesse when he was living Touching those who carryed the first scandalous Remonstrance that work of night and the verdict of a starv'd jury to welcome the King from Scotland they have bin since your Lordship knows well the chief of the Eleven Members impeached by the House And now they are a kind of Runnagates beyond the Seas scorn'd by all mankind and baffled every where yea even by the Boors of Holland and not daring to peep in any populous Town but by owle-light Moreover I believe your Lordship hath good cause to remember that the same kind of riotous Rascals which rabbled the K. out of Town did drive away the Speaker in like manner with many of their Memberships amongst whom your Lordship was fairly on his way to seek shelter of their Janizaries the Redcoats Your Lordship must needs find what deadly fewds fal daily ' twixâ—… the Presbyterian and the Independent the two fiery brands that have put this poor Isle so long in combustion But 't is worthy your Lordships speciall notice how your dear Brethren the Scots whom your Lordship so
afford you som satisfaction and enlighten you more in the Irish affaires The allegeance I owe to Truth was the Midwife that brought it forth and I make bold to make choice of you for my Gossip because I am From the prison of the Fleet 3. Nonas April is 1643. Your true servant I. H. Mercurius Hibernicus THere is not any thing since these ugly warrs begun whereof there hath been more advantage made to traduce and blemish His Majesties actions or to alienate and imbitter the affections of his people towards Him to incite them to armes and enharden them in the quarrell than of the Irish affaires whether one cast his eyes upon the beginning and proceedure of that warre which some by a most monstrous impudence would patronize upon their Majesties or upon the late Cessation and the transport of Auxiliaries since from thence There are some that in broken peeces have written of all three but not in one entire discourse as this is nor hath any hitherto hit upon those reasons and inferences that shall be displayed herein But he who adventures to judge of affaires of State specially of traverses of warre as of Pacifications of Truces Suspensions of Armes Parlies and such like must well observe the quality of the times the successe and circumstance of matters past the posture and pressure of things present and upon the Place the inducement or enforcement of causes the gaining of time the necessity of preventing greater mischiefes whereunto true policy Prometheus like hath alwaies an eye with other advantages The late Cessation of Armes in Ireland was an affaire of this nature a true Act of State and of as high a consequence as could be Which Cessation is now become the Common Subject of every mans discourse or rather the discourse of every common Subject all the three Kingdomes over And not onely the subject of their discourse but of their censure also nor of their censure onely but of their reproach and obloquy For the World is come now to that passe that the Foot must judge the Head the very Cobler must pry into the Cabinet Counsels of his King nay the Distaffe is ready ever and anon to arraign the Scepter Spinstresses are become States-women and every peasan turned politician such a fond irregular humour reignes generally of late yeers amongst the English Nation Now the Designe of this small discourse though the Subject require a farre greater volume is to vindicate His Majesties most pious intentions in condescending to this late suspension of Arms in His Kingdome of Ireland and to make it appeare to any rationall ingenious capacity not pre-occupied or purblinded with passion that there was more of honour and necessity more of prudence and piety in the said Cessation than there was either in the Pacification or Peace that was made with the Scot. But to proceed herein the more methodically I will lay downe first The reall and true radicall causes of the late two-yeers Irish Insurrection Secondly the course His Majesty used to suppresse it Lastly those indispensable impulsive reasons and invincible necessity which enforced His Majesty to condescend to a Cessation Touching the grounds of the said Insurrection we may remember when His Majesty out of a pious designe as His late Majesty also had to settle an Uniformitie of serving God in all his three Kingdomes sent our Liturgie to his Subjects of Scotland some of that Nation made such an advantage hereof that though it was a thing only recommended not commanded or pressed upon them and so cald in suddenly againe by a most gracious Proclamation accompanied with a generall pardon Yet they would not rest there but they would take the opportunity hereby to demolish Bishops and the whole Hierarchy of the Church which was no grievance at all till then To which end they put themselves in actuall Armes and obtained at last what they listed which they had not dared to have done had they not been sure to have as good friends in England as they had in Scotland as Lesly himself confessed to Sir William Berkley at Newcastle for some of the chiefest Inconformists here had not onely intelligence with them but had been of their Cabinet-counsels in moulding the Plot though some would cast this war upon the French Cardinall to vindicate the invasion we made upon his Masters dominions in the Isle of Rets as also for some advantage the English use to do the Spâ—…niard in transporting his Treasure to Dunkerk with other offices Others wold cast it upon the Iesuit that he shold project it first to â—…orce His Mâ—…jesty to have recourse to his Roman Catholick Subjects for aid that so they might by such Supererogatory service ingratiate themselves the more into his favour The Irish hearing how well their next Neighbouâ—…s had sped by way of Arms it filled them full of thoughts and apprehensions of fear and jealousie that the Scot wold prove more powerful hereby and consequently more able to do them hurt and to attempâ—… waies to restrain them of that connivency which they were allowed in point of Religion Now ther is no Nation upon earth that the Irish hate in that perfection and with a greater Antipathy than the Scot or from whom they conceive greater danger For wheras they have an old prophesie amongst them which one shall hear up and down in every mouth That the day will come when the Irish shall weep upon English mens graves They fear that this prophesie will be verified and fulfilled in the Scot above any other Nation Moreover the Irish entred into consideration that They also had sundry grievances and grounds of complaint both touching their estates and consciences which they pretended to be far greater than those of the Scots For they fell to think that if the Scot was suffered to introduce a new Religion it was reason they shold not be so pinched in the exercise of their old which they glory never to have altered And for temporall matters wherin the Scot had no grievance at all to speak of the new plantations which had bin lately afoot to be made in Conaught and other places the concealed lands and defective titles which were daily found out the new customs which were imposed and the incapacity they had to any preferment or Office in Church and State with other things they conceived these to be grievances of a far greater nature and that deserved redresse much more than any the Scot had To this end they sent over Commissioners to attend this Parliament in England with certain Propositions but those Commissioners were dismissed hence with a short and unsavoury answer which bred worse bloud in the Nation than was formerly gathered and this with that leading case of the Scot may be said to be the first incitements that made them rise In the couâ—…se of humane actions we daily find it to be a tru rule Exempla movent Examples move and make strong impressions upon the fancy precepts are not so
powerful as precedents The said example of Scotland wrought wonderfully upon the imagination of the Irish and filled them as I touched before with thoughts of emulation that They deserved altogether to have as good usage as the Scot their Country being far more beneficial and consequenly more importing the English Nation But these were but confused imperfect notions which began to receive more vigour and form after the death of the Earl of Strafford who kept them under so exact an obedience though som censure him to have screwed up the strings of the Harp too high insomuch that the taking off of the Earl of Straffords head may be said to be the second incitement to the heads of that insurrection to stir Adde hereunto that the Irish understanding with what acrimony the Roman Catholicks in England were proceeded against since the sitting of our Parliament and what further designes were afoot against them and not onely against them but for ranversing the Protestant Religion it self as it is now practised which som shallow-braind 〈◊〉 do throw into the same scales with Pâ—…pery They thought it was high time for them to forecast what shold become of Them and how they shold â—…e 〈◊〉 in point of conscience when a new Deputy of the Parliaments election approbation at least shold come over Therfore they fell to consult of som means of timely prevention And this was another moâ—…ive and it was a shâ—…ewd one which pâ—…sht on the Irish to take up Arms. Lastly that Army of 8000. men which the Earl of Strafford had raised to be transported to England for suppressing the Scot being by the advice of our Parliament here disbanded the Country was annoyed by som 〈◊〉 those stragling Souldiers as not one in twenty of the Irish will from the sword to the spade or from the Pike to the plough again Therfore the two Marquesses that were Ambassadors here then for Spaine having propounded to have som numbers of those disbanded forces for the service of their Master His Majesty by the mature advice of his privy Counsell to occur the mischiefs that might arise to his Kingdom of Ireland by those loose casheer'd Souldiers yielded to the Ambassadors motion who sent notice hereof to Spain accordingly and so provided shipping for their transport and impressed money to advance the business but as they were in the heat of that 〈◊〉 His Majesty being then in Scotland 〈◊〉 wâ—…s a sudden stop made of those promised troops who had depended long upon the Spaniards service as the Spaniard 〈◊〉 doâ—…e on theirs And this was the last though noâ—… the least fatal cause of that horrid insurrection All which particulars well considered it had bin no hard matter to have bin a Prophet and standing upon the top of Holy-Head to have foreseen those black clouds engendering in the Irish aire which broâ—…e out afterwards into such fearful tempests of bloud Out of these premises it is easie for any common understanding not transported with passion and private interest to draw this conclusion That They who complyed with the Scot in his insurrection They who dismissed the Irish Commissioners with such a short unpolitick answer They who took off the Earl of Straffords head and delayed afterwards the dispatching of the Earl of Leicester They who hindered those disbanded troops in Ireland to go for Spain may be justly said to have bin the tru causes of the late insurrection of the Irish and consequently it is easie to know upon the account of whose souls must be laid the bloud of those hundred and odde thousands poor Christians who perished in that war so that had it bin possible to have brought over their bodies unputrified to England and to have cast them at the doores and in the presence of som men I believe they wold have gushed out afresh into bloud for discovery of the tru murtherers The grounds of this insurrection being thus discovered let us examine what means His Majesty used for the suppression of it He made his addresses presently to his great Counsel the English Parliament then assembled which Queen Elizabeth and her progenitors did seldom use to do but only to their Privy Counsel in such cases who had the discussing and transacting of all foreign affaires for in mannaging matters of State specially those of war which must be carryed with all the secrecy that may be Trop grand nombre est encombre as the Frenchman saith too great a number of Counsellours may be an incumber and expose their results and resolutions to discovery and other disadvantages wheras in military proceedings the work shold be afoot before the Counsels be blazed abroad Well His Majesty transmitted this business to the Parliament of England who totally undertaking it and wedding as it were the quarlel as I remember they did that of the Palatinate a little before by solemn vote the like was done by the Parliament of Scotland also by a publick joynt Declaration which in regard ther came nothing of it tended little to the honour of either Nation abroad His Majesty gave his royal assent to any Propositions or acts for raising of men money and arms to perform the work But hereby no man is so simple as to think His Majesty shold absolutely give over his own personal care and protection of that his Kingdom it being a Rule That a King can no more desert the protection of his own people then they their subjection to him In all his Declarations ther was nothing that he endear'd and inculcated more often and with greater aggravation and earnestness unto them then the care of his poor Subjects their fellow-Protestants in Ireland Nay he resented their condition so far and took the business so to heart that he offered to passe over in person for their relief And who can deny but this was a magnanimous and King-like resolution Which the Scots by publick act of Counsel did highly approve of and declared it to be an argument of care and courage in his Majesty And questionless it had done infinite good in the opinion of them that have felt the pulse of the Irish people who are daily ore-heard to groan how they have bin any time these 400. years under the English Crown and yet never saw but two of their Kings all the while upon Irish ground though ther be but a salt 〈◊〉 of a few hours sail to pass over And much more welcom shold His Majesty now regnant be amongst them who by general tradition They confess and hold to come on the paternal side from 〈◊〉 by legal and lineal descent who was an Irish Prince and after King of Scotland wheras the title of all our former Kings and Queens was stumbled at alwaies by the vulgar His Majesty finding that this royall proffer of engaging his own person was rejected with a kind of scorn coucht in smooth language though the main businesse concerned himself nearest and indeed solely himself that Kingdom being his own hereditary Right
Understanding also what base sinister use ther was made of this insurrection by som trayterous malevolent persons who to cast aspersions upon His Majesty and to poyson the hearts of his people besides publick infamous reports counterfeited certain Commissions in His Majesties name to authorize the businesse as if he were privy to it though I dare pawn my soul His or Her Majesty knew no more of it then the great Mogor did Finding also that the Commissioners imployed hence for the managing and composing matters in that Kingdom though nominated by the Parliament and by their recommendation authorized by His Majesty did not observe their instructions and yet were conniv'd at Understanding also what an inhumane design ther was between them and the Scot in lieu of suppressing an insurrection to eradicat and extinguish a whole nation to make booty of their lands which hopes the London Adventurers did hugge and began to divide the Bears-skin before he was taken as His Majesty told them an attempt the Spaniard nor any other Christian State ever intended against the worst of Savages The conceit wherof inâ—…used such a desperate courage eagerness and valour into the Irish that it made them turn necessity into a kind of vertu Moreover His Majesty taking notice that those royal Subsidies with other vast contributions wherunto he had given way with the sums of particular Adventurers amongst whom som Aliens Hollanders were taken in besides the Scot to share the Country were misapplyed being visibly imployed rather to feed an English Rebellion then to suppress an Irish Nay understanding that those charitable collections which were made for the reliefe of those distressed Protestants who being stripped of all their livelihood in Ireland were forced to fly over to England were converted to other uses and the Charity not dispensed according to the Givers intention Hearing also that those 5000. men which had been levyed and assigned to goe under the Lord Wharton the Lord of Kerry Sir Faithfull Fortescue and others were diverted from going to the west of Ireland and imployed to make up the Earl of Essex Army And having notice besides that the Earl of Warwicke had stayd certaine ships going thither with supplies and that there was an attempt to send for over to England some of those Scottish Forces which were in Ulster without his privity Lastly His Majesty finding himself unfitted and indeed disabled to reach those his distressed Subjects his owne royal armie all his navall strength revenues and magazines being out of his hands and having as hard a game to play still with the Scot and as pernicious a fire to quench in England as any of his Progenitors ever had Receiving intelligence also daily from his Protestant Nobility and Gentry thence in what a desperate case the whole Kingdome stood together with the report of the Committee that attended His Majesty from them expresly for that service who amongst other deplorable passages in their petition represented That all means by which comfort and life should be conveyed unto that gasping Kingdome seemed to be totally obstructed and that unlesse 〈◊〉 reliefe were afforded His loyall Subjectâ—… there must yeeld their fortunes for a prey 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a sacrifice and their Religion for a 〈◊〉 to the mercilesse Rebels His Majesty as it was high time for 〈◊〉 taking into his Princely thoughts those wofull complainrs and cryes of his poore Subjects condescended at last to appoint some persons of honour to heare what the Irish could say for themselves as they had often petitioned and God forbid but the King of Ireland should receive his Subjects petitions as well as the King of Scotland But His Majesty being unsatisfied with what they propounded then the Lord Marquess of Ormond marched with considerable Forces against them and though he came off with honour yet no reliefe at all comming thither for many moneths after from the Parliament here who had undertaken the businesse and had received all the summes and subsidies with other unknown contributions to that end matters grew daily worse and worse To sum up all His Majesty receiving express and positive advice from his Lord Justices and Counsell of State ther that the whole Kingdom was upon point of utter perdition which was co-intimated the same time to the Parliament here by a special letter to the Speaker I say His Majesty finding that he had neither power of himself it being transmitted to others and that those Trustees did misapply that power and trust he had invested in them for the time to make good their undertaking for preservation of that his fruitfull Kingdome being impelled by all these forcible reasons His Majesty sent a commission to the Lord Marquesse of Ormond his Lievtenant Generall a most known sincere Protestant to hearken to a treaty according to their petition and if any thing was amisse in that treaty in poynt of honour as it shall appeare by comparing it with others there was none we know whom to thank For out of these premises also doth result this second conclusion That they who misapplied those moneys and mis imployed those men which were levyed with His Majesties royall assent for the reduction of Ireland They who set afoot that most sanguinary design of extirpating at least of enslaving a whole ancient Nation who were planted there by the hand of Providence from the beginning They who hindred His Majesties transfretation thither to take cognizance of his own affairs and expose the countenance of his own royall person for composing of things They They may be said to be the true causes of that unavoydable necessity and as the heathen Poetsings The Gods themselvs cannot resist Necessity which enforced His Majesty to capitulat with the Irish and assent to a Cessation It was the saying of one of the bravest Roman Emperours and it was often used by Henry the Great of France Her Majesties Father That he had rather save the life of one loyall Subject then kill a hundred Enemies It may well be thought that one of the prevalentst inducements that moved His Majesty besides those formerly mentioned to condescend to this Irish Cessation was a sense he had of the effusion of his own poor Subjects blood the hazard of the utter extirpation of the Protestants there and a totall irrecoverable losse of that Kingdome as was advertised both in the petition of the Protestants themselves the relation of the Committee imployd thither to that purpose and the expresse letters of the Lords Justices and Counsell there To prove now that this Cessation of arms in Ireland was more honourable and fuller of Piety Prudence and Necessity then either the Pacification or Peace with the Scot. I hope these few ensuing arguments above divers others which cannot be inserted here in regard of the force intended brevity of this Discourse will serve the turne 1. In primis When the Pacification was made with Scotland His Majesty was there personally present attended on by the floure of His English Nobility