guilty of the Stubborness that he is falsly accused of by Designers against Monarchy at this time for hearing nothing for a Month together by way of Message after he had parted with the Commissioners he Good man in order to a Compliance sends another Message to them and in it requires as they will answer to God to him and all the World that they will not longer suffer their fellow-Subjects to welter in each others Blood that they will remember by whose Authority and to what end they met in that Council and send such an Answer to His Majesty as may open a Door to let in a firm Peace and Security to the whole Kingdom And after this that if possible a stop might be put to this Bloodshed in the Bowels of his Kingdom he sends another Message for another Treaty wherein he promises them after he had expressed a becoming Pity for the Miseries of the Nation that no Endeavours or Concurrence of his shall be wanting and that he might give infallible Proof that those Desires of his were not feigned and pretended but real and hearty after his defeat of Waller at Croptedy-Bridge he even then by a Message courts the Lords and Commons to a Peace and tells them in these words That from an earnest and constant endeavouring of Peace as no discouragement given him on the contrary Party shall make him cease so no Success on his shall ever divert him Words spoke like a man of true Bowels and Affection to his People And after this from Travestock when he had defeated the Earl of Essex in Cornwal and made so advantagious a Conquest yet so far is he from being puffed up with that Success so far from shewing any inclination to enlarge his Power above what was for his Subjects good that he even then in the midst of his Laurels and Triumphs sends to the two Houses and tells them It having pleased God in so eminent a manner to bless his Arms in those parts with Success yet he did not so much joy in the Blessing for any other Consideration as for the hopes he had that it might be a means to make others lay to Heart as he did the Miserie 's brought and continued upon the Kingdom by this unnatural War and that it may open their Ears and dispose their Minds to embrace Offers of Peace and Reconciliation Which Message after so great a Success certainly argued not the Spirit of a Tyrant as our present Common-wealths-men call him but the Compassion of a tender Father whose Bowels yearned for the Miseries his Kingdom laboured under especially if we add what he a little after said in a publick Proclamation where after he had complained of receiving no Answer to the two former importunate Messages he tells the World he desired a Treaty for Peace in which he does assure all his People upon his Royal Word and the Faith of a Christian which was the greatest Security he could give them that he would insist only upon the Settling and Continuation of the true Reformed Protestant Religion his own undoubted Rights the Privileges of Parliament and his Subjects Liberties and Properties according to the known Laws of the Land And what besides this was truly necessary for the Peoples Happiness truly I cannot divine And thus far things went and these Condescentions the King made when his Affairs were very prosperous and the Scale seemed to be turned on his side which I think was an Argument of Sincerity on his side and will take off all Objections made against his future Offerings for Peace as if bare Necessity drove him when Success fell upon the Parliaments Forces The two Houses therefore at this melancholly juncture apprehending themselves in danger and fearing a severe account hereafter wanting as they thought Forces in England to stemm the Tide which was coming in so furiously upon them they therefore send Commissioners into Scotland to invite the Subjects of that Nation to come in to their assistance and rather than fail notwithstanding all their Protestations and Votes formerly not to alter the Essentials of the Church-Government whereby they swore to dissolve the Frame of the Church as it had been by Law established ever since the first excellent Reformation notwithstanding they knew it was not in their Power according to the known Laws of the Kingdom without the King's Consent And take it they did and by that means procured Twenty thousand of their Brethren as they called them to invade England against the King's Proclamation to the contrary by vertue of which Act I mean taking the Covenant they shut up all the Doors against Peace for they knew at the same time the King was resolved and had often so declared against altering the Government by Bishops as a thing which was directly contrary to the satisfaction of his Conscience and which he could no more recede from than from his Life it self And therefore from this I cannot but perswade my self they were resolved to continue the War and engross all into their own hands let what would become of the King or those Noble Persons that took in with and adher'd to his Just and Righteous Cause But yet that they might pacifie the Minds of a great number of the Nation who groaned under the Miseries of the War and began to see too much of a private Spirit under publick Pretences they afterwards in some precess of time consent to a Treaty and Vxbridge was the place pitched upon for it to which place the King agreed and accordingly sent Commissioners men of Honour and Honesty men of Fortunes and Estates men of great Parts and Endowments who understood the business they went about and were very fond of healing the Nations Breaches and putting things into such a posture as might settle the King upon his just Rights and the People upon their ancient Privileges together with the addition of more such as were necessary for that Time and Season And with what Temper they managed the whole Conference what Offers in the King's Name and by his Authority they made such as our Ancestors never enjoyed nor indeed ever thought necessary to ask let any man judge of by reading the Conference it self It would swell this Book into too great a bulk to run through the whole and I shall therefore give the Reader a taste by which he may guess at all the rest 1. As to Church-Affairs they offered That Freedom be left to all persons of what Opinion soever in Matters of Ceremony and that all the Penalties of the Law and Custom which enjoin these Ceremonies be suspended 2. That the Bishops shall exercise no Act of Jurisdiction or Ordination without the Consent and Counsel of the Presbyters who shall be chosen by the Clergy of each Diocess out of the gravest and most learned of the Diocess 3. That the Bishop keep his constant Residence in his Diocess except when he shall be required by His Majesty to attend him on any occasion and
Tyrant It would be too tedious to entertain the Reader with what His Majesty made by way of Answer to these Propositions and besides swell this Paper beyond its designed bulk therefore I do refeâ—r the Reader to the Royal Papers themselves only thus much I must tell the World That His Majesty thought nothing at this time would so soon conduce to a Peace as a Personal Treaty which therefore he pressed hard for not doubting but by that means they might come on both sides to a true understanding of one another and therefore that he might not fail of having this Request granted him he ends his Letter to them with these words To conclude 't is your King who desires to be heard the which if refused by a King to a Subject he would be thought a Tyrant for it and for that end which all Men profess to desire wherefore His Majesty conjures you as you desire to shew your selves really what you profess even as you are good Christians and Subjects that you will accept this his Offer which he is confident God will so bless that it will be the readiest means by which these Kingdoms again may become a Comfort to their Friends and a Terrour to their Enemies Which words are not the words of a Monster or a Man of Blood as some vile men are now ready to call him the greater is their shame but the words of a truly-compassionate Father of his Country whose Heart bled for the Wounds of his Children and the Miseries of the Nation After all this the Scots notwithstanding all their Promises and Obligations sell him to the English Parliament and His Majesty is put into the Hands of Commissioners appointed to keep and watch his Person and brought by them to Holdenby-House in Northamptonshire where his Conversation was so agreeable and sweet his daily Discourses so strong and convincing that he changed the Opinion of many that were about him so that they became constant Admirers of his Virtues ever after and great Bewailers of having had an Hand in bringing him into those Streights out of which they could not now extricate him Now while he was here let us see what further Offers he made for Peace The first Message to both Houses from this place acquaints us with his bad Condition that his Servants were denied access to him unless it were a very few whom they appointed themselves and that it was a declared Crime for any but the Commissioners or such as were particularly permitted by them to converse with His Majesty or that any Letters should be given to or received from him a condition no man much less a Prince could be proud of Yet he tells them and therefore would not stand upon that That he preferred a Right Understanding betwixt him and his Parliaments of both Kingdoms which might make a firm and lasting Peace in all his Dominions before any Particular of his own or any earthly Blessing And to shew he was in earnest he then makes such Concessions to them as certainly would have been accepted of by any sort of men but such as had not yet satisfied their own Avarice Ambition and other Lusts and therefore were resolved to perpetuate the Distractions of the Kingdom in order to continue themselves in Places of Wealth and Power For he offered to settle their Church-Government for Three Years and at the same time the Assembly of Divines at Westminster and the Directory provided His Majesty and his Houshold were not hindered from the Form of God's Service which they formerly had Further he offers another Act for the better observation of the Lord's Day He consents that the whole Power of the Militia both by Sea and Land for the space of Ten Years be in the Hands of such Persons as the two Houses should nominate giving them a full Power during the said space to change or else to continue the said Persons in their several Offices Which when he had offered he conjures his two Houses of Parliament as they are English-men and Lovers of Peace by the Duty they owe to His Majesty their King and by the Bowels of Compassion they have to their fellow-Subjects that they will accept of this His Majesty's Offer whereby the Joyful News of Peace may be restored to this languishing Kingdom Which Offers had so great an eftect upon the Citizens of London tho' they had none at Westminster that they forthwith petitioned the Lord Mayor and Common-Council and tell them thereby That taking into serious consideration how Religion His Majesty's Honour and Safety the Privileges of parliament and Liberty of the Subject were at present greatly endangered and like to be destroyed and also sadly weighing with themselves what means might likely prove most effectual to procure a firm and lasting Peace without the further effusion of Christian English Blood have therefore enter'd into a solem Engagement and do humbly and earnestly desire that the whole City may joyn together by all lawfull and possible means as one man in hearty Endeavours for His Majesty's present coming up to his two Houses of Parliament with Honour Safery and Freedom and that without the nearer approaches of the Army there to confirm such things as he hath granted in his last Message in answer to the Propositions of both Kingdoms Which Petition you must understand was not presented by them called the Cavalier Party but by such as had ventured their Money and Plate for the Cause and had taken the Covenant and many of them exposed their Persons to fight for that which they through mistake apprehended Religions and the Nations Cause yet these men were so far from thinking His Majesty such a Bad man as some designing men now report him to be that they looked upon his Concessions as every ways answering that for which at first they took up Arms. Well after this the King upon more than ordinary grounds to believe that his Person was in danger at Hampton-Court whither the Army after they took him by force from Holdenby after many removes had carried him makes an escape from them by night but withal leaves a Paper behind him upon the Table wherein he gives an account with what patience he had endured a redious restraint which so long as he had any hopes that this sort of Suffering might conduce to the Peace of his Kingdom or the hindrance of more effusion of Blood he did willingly undergo but finding by too-certain Proofs that this his continued Patience would not only turn to his personal Ruine but likewise be of much more Prejudice than Furtherance to the Publick Good he thought he was bound as well by natural as political Obligations to seek his Safety by retiring himself for some time from the publick view both of Friends and Enemies And after he had appealed to all indifferent men to judge whether he had not just cause to free himself from the hands of those who changed their Principles with their Conditions and who were
A DEFENCE OF King Charles I. Occasion'd by the LYES SCANDALS OF Many BAD MEN of this AGE By Richard Hollingworth D. D. Their Majesties Chaplain at St. Botolph Aldgate London LONDON Printed for Samuel Eddowes under the Piazza of the Royal Exchange in Cornhill 1692. TO THE KING QUEENS Most Excellent Majesties May it please Your Majesties THE Subject of this Discourse being no less a Person than King Charles I. of Blessed Memory and Your Royal Grandfather whose Throne You so happily fill and whose Virtues and Graces You daily imitate I therefore thought the Dedication of it proper for none but Crowned Heads upon which score I humbly presume such as it is to lay it at Your Sacred Feet hoping that it may be serviceable to support the Honour and Reputation of Monarchy in general which I am certain is struck at through the Sides of this Great Prince to preserve the Peace and Happiness of Your Majesties Government and to secure Your Majesties from the Danger as well of flattering and pretending Friends as of publick and open Enemies Which good effect that it may have shall be the constant Prayer of Your Majesties most humble and dutiful Subject and Servant Ric. Hollingworth TO THE READER Reader IF those who have of late made it their Business to Defame King Charles the First will after this repent and do so no more then I promise this Discourse as it is my first so it shall be the last I will put forth of this nature But if they are resolved against Conviction and will act against Noon-day-light and will continue to load this Great and Good man's Memory still with their wonted Calumnies and Reproaches I do here tell them that I have so much more to say in his behalf which I could not crowd into these Papers because I was willing it should be every man's Money that if it be possible will put them to a shame And I do here assure them if they will not suffer Modesty and Good-manners to command them for the time to come they shall have it for I am resolved as long as I can hold a Pen in my Hand I will not drop this Cause namely The Defence of Charles the First I have but one thing more and that is That I cannot believe that man loves me let his Professions be never so great and many nay but that he has a Spight to and Design against me who in all Companies and Places without Cause or Provocation calls my Grandfather Knave and Rascal Farwel A DEFENCE OF King CHARLES the First KING Charles the First was a person whose Life I have diligently look'd into and as seriously considered and in doing both have found my self equally affected with Joy and Grief with Joy to meet with a person under so great and many Temptations as Princes must needs be so admirably tempered so greatly condescending so ready to comply with whatever was presented to him for the Good of his Subjects of so great Patience under the greatest Sufferings and the most horrid Indignities put upon him of so great Constancy to the Religious Perswasions of his own Mind that neither the enjoyment of his Crown nor yet his Life could bribe him to forsake them Further to meet with a Prince of so affable a Conversation and that attended with such pithy and admirable Discourses as made some of those who were his Keepers at Holdenly-House not only love but admire him ever after so that they not only wished endeavoured to put him in a better condition Lastly A Prince of so solid a Judgment as all his Writings and Disputes do testifie and also so serious and awful as well as constant in his Devotions I say when I meet with these true Accounts in History I cannot forbear praising God with the greatest joy that there was such a person of his Degree and in his High station that was born into and lived in the World to be a Pattern to future Princes as well as to all other sort of Persons of true Virtue and real Goodness But on the other hand I have been often overwhelmed as it were with Sorrow and a loading Grief to find this Prince so every ways Great and Good so rudely handled so barbarously used so ignobly and ungenerously refused not only the Liberty of his Body but the free exercise of his Religion in that way which he had so often and also so solemnly declared to be according to the just and well-made satisfaction of his Mind and Judgment to find him libell'd by every petty and sawcy Scribler and those Libels countenanc'd and also spread abroad by a Factious number of Men who designed nothing but by his Ruine to raise themselves into Places of Wealth and Power I say when I meet with these and a thousand more Affronts put upon him enough to have broke any Heart but his I cannot but entertain my self with sorrowful Thoughts nor yet forbear such Resentments as almost force me to break out into undecent Passions and violent Reflections upon those men who once swore Allegiance to him and afterwards forgetting all their Obligations treated him as one of their Slaves or Footboys But however it would be some allay to a man's Grief if he could find the present Generation of this Kingdom especially many of those whose Ancestors had too great an hand in these vile and scornful Treatments of this Great and Excellent Person to make an atonement for the Faults of their Progenitors by bewailing of them and by a constant forwardness to give this Good man that just and true Character that his Worth and Merits do call for at all honest and considering mens hands But alas when I find at this time of the day instead of this these very men who succeed in Principles those who imprisoned and at last murdered him I say when I find so great numbers of them vindicating his Death and in order to that loading his Memory with all the filthy Accusations and groundless as well as false Aspersions that Wit and Malice put together can amasse and heap up never speaking of him but as a Tyrant a Rogue a Rascal nay and a Papist too though he so strenuously asserted and pleaded the Protestant Cause as it is professed by the Church of England and calling the day on which he was murthered and which is appointed by the Supreme Power of the Nation to be religiously observed The Madding Day as it is in a late lewd Pamphlet that goes under the name of Ludlow Why I must needs say this swells my Grief above its usual Bank as well as stirs and raises my just Indignation against such a vile Brood who under pretence of Duty and entire Affections to Their present Majesties believe them who will or can are daily abusing him from whose Loins they came and whose Virtues they daily imitate And therefore from these two Passions of Grief and Anger thus justly grounded I am resolved in the ensuing
both King and Parliament the one to see and hear of the Destruction of his own Children as I may justly call them and the other to hear so frequent Tidings not only of the loss of their Fellow-Subjects Lives but also of the ruine of their Lands and Houses Do not they both strive which should most court each other to Peace And do not they abate of their former Demands as well as stiff Adherencies Methinks the Cries and Losses of the poor innocent Inhabitants of the Kingdom should pierce their Ears and melt their Hearts and make them forget all their former Passions and Resentments Why truly to give the two Houses their due they did at this time send Proposals as if they had been truly assected with the Nations Miseries but in the mean time I am sorry I can say no otherwife they were such Proposals as they could upon all reasonable and fair Considerations and Debates with themselves expect no good Success of because they could not but know before-hand they would be denied insomuch as the King had told them again and again where he would stop and how far he would go especially as to Church-Affairs Nothing less in these Proposals would satisfie them than the abolishing by Act of Parliament the whole Hierarchy to which he was sworn by his Coronation-Oath settling the Militia as they pleased themselves the King 's disbanding his Army made up of the best Nobility and Gentry of the Kingdom and withal which was a greater Assront to Majesty than could be supposed to them in coming to demand the five Members He must be obliged as it were and in effect to beg those Members Pardon for wronging them with what he thought and could by good Evidence prove Matter of Truth Which certainly was but to seem to desire Peace and at the same time to resolve to continue the War But now the next thing to be considered is after these Proposals how the King manages himself and what steps he makes towards a Peace and truly I think according to my poor Judgment he now acts according to what he alwaies pretended and solemnly avowed to wit as a true Father of his Country for he proposes That his Revenue Magazines Towns Ships and Forts may be restored to him that what hath been done contrary to Law and his Right may be recalled and that he will consent to the execution of all Laws concerning Popery or Reformation Nay he further tells them That he had given up all the Faculties of his Soul to an earnest endeavonr of a Peace and Reconciliation with his Subjects So that to me hitherto the Fault lies not at His Majesty's door say the Enemies to his Memory what they please for let them but abate of the rigour of their Demands and not ask him things wholly inconsistent with his Honour and Conscience with his Crown and Dignity and the issue of Blood is stopped presently and the Nation restored to its former state of Peace for still he stands ready and prossers again and again to sign any Bill that in his own and the Judgment of many Wise and Good men about him who were true lovers of their Countrys Licerties and Properties was necessary for making the Nation more happy in its Privileges than it had been in all Ages before And truly it so I see no Cause for continuing a Destructive War in the Bowels of the Kingdom nor for standing upon their Points at that rigid rate they did especially when so many of their Brethren and fellow-Members of both Houses upon great dissatissaction at their Proceedings had left their station and took in out of Principles of Loyalty and Duty with their Master's Cause venturing both their Lives Families and Estates upon it which no man can believe wise men would have done if they had not seen great Reason to question the Integrity of the prevailing part of the Parliament So that hitherto there appears no just Reason for those many scandalous Reflections that in Coffee-houses and other places of publick Intercourse or private Communication are made upon this great and excellent man And thus ended the year 42 all the King's Proposals and Condescentions being neglected and slighted The year 43. begins with a Treaty for Peace at Oxford Commissioners for the Parliament being the Lord Northumberland the Lord Wenmain Mr. Peirepoint Mr. Hollis c. who were civilly treated both by the King himself and many of his great Officers which Treaty was managed not by Commissioners on the King's side but by himself And truly he that reads it over must needs confess that His Majesty deserved the Commendation Mr. Whitlock who was one of them in his Memorials gives of him to wit That in this Treaty the King manifested his great Parts and Ability strength of Reason and quickness of Apprehension with much patience in hearing what was objected against him wherein he allowed all Freedom and would himself sum up the Arguments and give a most clear Judgment upon them This is Mr. Whitlock's Character And to let all the World see his readiness to do every thing which might reasonably answer the Kingdoms Expectation and make it happy he tells these Commissioners That he hath nor denied any one thing proposed to him by both Houses which in Justice could be required of him or in reason expected And the Truth of it is had not their Demands been so very high in this as well as in other Treaties which a man must think were made on purpose by the prevalence of a designing self-interested Party to continue the War I am certain Peace had ensued upon this Treaty for the King still like a tender Father groaned under the Oppressions of his Honour and Conscience were not concerned in order to put an end to that desolating War And therefore that this Treaty had no better effect was not the King's fault but of those that bound up their Commissioners to such narrow limits that His Majesty without doing Injustice to the Essentials of Regality could not comply with the Proposals that were offered And this he complains of himself That they bound up their Committee in that manner as to Time and Power as might wholly render it ineffectual 'T is true after the Commissioners returned home the Lords and Commons put out a Declaration upon the Proceedings of this Treaty which I shall no ways reflect upon but only tell the World the King presently put out an Answer to it which whosoever will be pleased to read will find His Majesty the same person still a man of true Honour and Conscience and ready to serve all the Needs and Conveniencies of his Country and no ways deserving those Reflections which were made by his Subjects at that time to render him odious to his People and I do desire the present Maligners of this Great Person to read over his Declaration in answer to the Parliaments and then tell me whether he designed any Tyrannical and Arbitrary Power and was
prosound Respect to his Royal Grandchildren now happily in the Throne think good to abuse him withal Now after all this the very month following tho' he tells them he needs make no Excuse if he sends no more Messages to them because he knew very well he ought not to do it if he stood upon Punctilio's of Honour yet nothing being equally dear to him to the preservation of his People His Majesty passes by many Scruples Delays and Neglects and once more desires them to give him a speedy Answer to his last Message for His Majesty believes it doth very well become him after this very long Delay on their side at last to utter his Impatience since that the Good and Blood of his Subjects cry so much for Peace Which words how much they look like the words of a Tyrant or a Villain as he is commonly called by our present pretending Patriots I leave any man to judge And in the month following in another Message he says thus Notwithstanding the unexpected silence instead of Answers to His Majesty's many and gracious Messages to both House whereby it may appear that they desire to attain their Ends rather by Force than Treaty which may justly discourage His Majesty from any more Overtures of that kind yet His Majesty conceives he shall be much wanting to his Duty to God and in what he owes to the Safety of his People if he should not intend to prevent the Inconveniencies that may any ways hinder a safe and well-grounded Peace Which words certainly are not the words of a Tyrant Well after these Messages from Oxford His Majesty for Reasons best known to himself leaving Oxford in a disguise and committing himself to the Scotch Army then by Newark pray let us see what he does when in his Enemies Hands Why Good man still he breathes nothing but Peace as you may see by the following account for from Southwell he writes to the two Houses and tells them That he withdrew from Oxford only to secure his own Person and with no intention to continue the War any longer nor to make any Division between his two Kingdoms but to give such Contentment to them both as by the Blessing of God he might see an happy and well-grounded Peace thereby to bring Prosperity to these Kingdoms answerable to the best time of his Progenitors And that he might satisfie them he was in good-earnest and designed no Tricks by way of Postscript he tells them That being dasirous to shun the further Effusion of Blood and to evidence his Real Intentions to Peace he is willing that his Forces in and about Oxford be disbanded and the Fortifications of the City dismantled they receiving Honourable Conditions which being granted to the Town and Forces His Majesty will give the like Order to the rest of the Garrisons And pray let the honest Reader judge where lay the fault now and who rid the Nation and prolonged its Miseries the King or those whom our present Pretenders to the only Loyalty to Their present Majesties call The Old Blades The Brave Fellows The noble Defenders of their Laws and Country though at the same time they trampled them all under their Feet and set up their own Wills in opposition even to Magna Charta if self And surely he that hath but half an Eye may see who were the Continuers of the War and for what reason namely To ride upon the high places of the Earth to kill and take possession And after this the Great and Good man sends a Letter to the City of London in which he tells them That nothing is more grievous to him than the Troubles and Distractions of his People and nothing on Earth is more desired by him than that it Religion and Peace with all the comfortable Fruits of both they may henceforth live under him in all Godliness and Honesty And this Profession says he to the City we make for no other end but that they may immediately know from himself his Integrity and full Resolution to comply with his Parliament in every thing for the settling of Truth and Peace Words becoming the Excellent and Religious Temper of this Great man After this he sends another Message from Newcastle to the two Houses in which among many other things he desires them That the Propositions of Peace so often promised and so much expected may be speedily sent to him that upon consideration of them he may apply himself to give such satisfaction as may be the founddation of a firm Peace And to convince every man who would be convinc'd that he was in all his Desires for Peace the very same man that is True and in Earnest the same day he writes this Letter to the Houses he sends another to the Governours of his remaining Garrisons telling them That having resolved to comply with the Desires of his Parliament in every thing which might be for the Good of his Subjects and leave no means unessay'd for removing all Differences between them therefore he had thought sit the more to evidence the Reality of his Intentions of settling â—… happy and firm Peace to require them upon honourable 〈◊〉 to quit those Towns Forts and Castles iâ—…ed to them by him and to disband all the Forces under their several Commands And pray what Tyranny is there in all this And upon what account is this Great man so basely accused as he is at this time by Thousands of this Nation Certainly when they read all this they must needs fall foul upon themselves for being guilty of so much Unworthiness and Dishonesty to the Memory of so great and good a man as he was But now some may say You talk all for the King here Pray what said the two Houses to all these Messages Were they wholly deaf to his Offers Did they â—…orn any Answer to his Proposals No no that they might seem to be for Peace they sent Propositions to the King at Newcastle but I must tell the Reader they were such as would make any man that wishes well to his Native Kingdom sick to read them such Demands as no man that had any sense of Honour could possibly grant For first he must justifie by an Act of State all that they had unjustly done to him he must be obliged to take the Covenant and sign an Act for others to do so too he must part with the Power of the Sword and indeed be thereby but a meer Cypher in the Kingdom and that which must needs grate upon a generous and noble Spirit such as his was he must pass an Act to except from Pardon and to lay at these mens merciless Feet the best and truest Friends he had in his Kingdom such as from Principles of Honour and Duty had ventured both their Lives and their great Estates in his Service And Good man because he would not sign all these together with many other unreasonable things he must forsooth be called then and now also a
not ashamed openly to intend the Destruction of the Nobility and who had changed and put strict Guards upon him with the discharging most of all those Servants of his whom formerly they willingly admitted to wait upon him After he had said all this with a great deal more â—s the Reasons of that Retirement he concludes the Pâ—… with these words Let me be but heard with Freedom Honour and Safety and I shall instantly break through this Cloud of Retirement and shew my self really to be Pater Patriae And here I cannot forbear again to ask What Tyranny is there in all this and With what Face is this Great man reflected upon so barbarously at this day as he is by some men in all parts of the Kingdom an unheard of thing considering that those that sprung from his Loins are in the Throne Certainly they either never read his Story or if they did they are resolved against Conviction and keep alive in their Breasts such Resentments on purpose to help them to serve another turn when opportunity which God forbid shall offer of the same nature The next News after this we hear of His Majesty is from the Isle of Wright under the Command of Hammond the Governor into whose hands he had committed himself And pray let us see how he carries himself there and whether he did not make all Essays for Peace and the Settlement of the Nation upon a firm and lasting bottom that so King and People might enjoy what belongs to them both without future fear or danger Yes yes we find him again at the same Work labouring with all his Might for Peace For tho' he left Hampton Court but the 11th of Nov. 47 yet on the 17th he sends Propositions for Peace wherein he grants again what he had done before so greatly to the Contentment and Satisfaction of the Citizens of London but alas it seems to be too late now for he had lost his Power and the Faction resolved never to part with it again they had tasted the sweetness of Usurpation and the relish would not casily go out of their Mouths and therefore as he sell low in his Offers so they rose higher and made bigger Demands and to shew their great Desires of Peace or indeed which hath more Truth in it of continuing themselves in Places of Trust and Honour which they thought they could not do without making the Breach betwixt the King and themselves wider and wider therefore the more crafty and subtile Party of the House of Commons which were the Independent Party who had got at that time too great a sway both in the House and Army procure four Bills and Propositions to be sent to the King to sign ready drawn up together with the Heads of 23 more which whosoever will be pleased to read may easily judge of the Spirit that then reigned and the wicked and destructive Designs then on foot Bills that they were assured beforehand if the most solemn Protestations on the King's side could convince them he would never pass and indeed which upon bare Principles of Conscience he could never pass without an utter overthrow of the Peace and Satisfaction of his Mind And so cunning were they to make Demands at this time that might have no effect that the Bills they sent which they could not but foresee the Scots Commissioners protested against to the King and therefore they proposed ahem so high that the King might deny them and the War be thereby prolonged The Answer His Majesty makes to these four Bills is great and admirable to transcribe the whole would be too tedious in short he tells them That he believes it clear to all Understandings that these Bills contain as they are now penned not only the divesting himself of all Soveraignty and that without a possibility of recovering it either to himself or Successors except by repeal of those Bills but also the making his Concessions guilty of the greatest Pressures that can be laid upon the Subject as in other particulars so by giving an Arbitrary and Unlimitted Power to the two Houses for ever and after much more said upon that Subject he concludes his Answer thus That His Majesty is very much at ease within himself for having fulfilled the Offices both of a Christian and a King and will patiently wait the good Pleasure of Almighty God to incline the Hearts of his two Houses to consider their King and to compassionate their fellow-Subject's Miseries Which Answer and Refusal of his to sign these four Bills so causelesly enslam'd the then Lords and Commons that as if they were sole Masters in Israel they vote That they will make no further Addresses or Applications to the King nor that any Address be made to him by any other persons without the Leave of both Houses And to shew their Absolute and Uncontroulable Power they vote That whoever shall make Breach of this Order shall incurr the Penaties of High Treason Nay to pin the Basket up they vote They will also receive no more Messages from the King and enjoyn all persons to receive and bring none from him Here is your Loyalty indeed This is to act as becomes humble and dutiful Subjects with a witness what pity it is that these great Heroes Statues are not set up in every Corner of the Kingdom with this Label at their Mouths No more Addresses to our King But What says the Good man to all this What Resentments hath he upon this great Honour done to him thus to be as it were dethron'd by those who were under the Obligation of Oaths of Fidelity to him and his Posterity Good man he presently makes a Declaration in Answer to these Votes and begins Am I thus laid aside and must I not speak for my self No I will speak and that to all my People and so goes on with Reflections upon his Condition enough to melt the Hearts of any but those who made those hard-hearted Votes or those of the same Principles Now I am under a Necessity of of Brevity or else I would transcribe the whole whereby I am sure I should force Tears from all tender persons Eyes I referr therefore the Reader to the Papers themselves only tell him he concludes it thus It may be easily gathered how these Men intend to govern who have used me thus And if it be my Hard Fate to fall together with the Liberty of this Kingdom I shall not blush for my self but much lament the future Miseries of my People the which I shall still pray God to avert whatever becomes of me After this how these Votes were recalled and a fresh Treaty agreed upon in the Isle of Wight how the Treaty was managed what Strength of Reason and Judgment the King manifested both in his Debates about Church as well as State-Affairs any man may satisfie himself that reads the Accounts from August to December in the year 48 where he will find at last His Majesty for