your intention to subvert the fundemental Laws of the Land for the great Bulwarks of the peoples Liberty is the Parliament of England and to subvert and root up that which your aim hath been to do would certainly at one blow have confounded the Liberties and the properties of England Truly Sir It makes me call to minde I cannot forbeare to express it for Sir we must deal plainly with you according to the merits of your Cause for so is our commission It makes me I say to call to minde what I have read of a great Romane Emperor a great Roman tyrant may I call him Caligula by name who wished that the people of Rome had but one Neck that at one blow he might cut it off Your proceedings have been something like to this the people of England have been are no where else to be represented but in Parliament and could you have but confounded that you had at one blow cut off the neck of England But God hath reserved better things for us and hath been pleased to breake your Forces and to overthrow your designes and to bring your person in to custody that you might be answerable unto Justice Sir we know very well that it is a question which hath been much pressed by your side By what Presidents we shall proceed Truly Sir for Presidents I shall not at this present make any long discourse on that subject howsoever I shall acquaint them that it is no new thing to cite Presidents almost out of all Nations where the people when power hath been in their hands have not sticked to call their Kings to an account and where a change of Government hath ensued upon the occasion of the Tyranny and misgovernment of those that have been placed over the people I will not waste time to mention France or Spain or the Empire of Germany or any other Countrey Volumnes may be written of it But truey Sir that President of the Kingdom of Arragon hath by some of us been thought upon The Justice of Arragon is as a man tanquam in medio positus it is placed between the people of that Countrey and the King of Spain so that if wrong be done by the King of Arragon the Justice of Arragon hath power to reform that wrong and he is acknowledged the Kings Superiour and bring the grand prisoner of the Priviledges and Liberties of the people he hath prosecuted against the Kings for their misgovernment Sir What the Tribunes were heretofore to Rome and what the Ephori were to the State of Lacedemon we sufficiently know they were as the Parliament of England to the English State and though Rome seemed to have lost her Liberty when once the Emperours were constituted yet you shall find some exemplary Acts of Justice even done by the Senate of Rome on the great Tyrant of his time Nero who was by them condemned and adjudged unto death But why Sir should I make mention of these Forreign Histories and Examples unto you If we shall look but over the Tweed we shall finde Examples enough in your Native Kingdom of Scotland If we look on your first King Forgusius he was an elective King he died and left two Sons both in their minority The elder brother afterwards giving small hopes to the people that he would govern them well so because he endeavoured to have supplanted his Uncle who was chosen by the people to govern them in his minority he was rejected by the people for it and the younger Brother was chosen c. Sir I will not take upon me to express what your Histories do at large declare you know very well that you are the hundred and nineth King of Scotland to mention all the Kings which the people of that Kingdome according to their power and Priviledge have made bold to deal withall either to banish imprison or put to death would be too long a story for this time and place Reges say your own Authors we created Kings at first Leges c. we imposed Laws upon them and as they were chosen by the suffrages of the people at the first so upon the same occasion by the same suffrages they may be taken down again and of this I may be bold to say that no Kingdom in the World hath yielded a more plentifull experience than your Native Kingdom of Scotland on the deposition and the punishment of their transgressing Kings I need not go far for an Example your Grand-mother was set aside and your Father an Infant Crown'd This State hath done the like in England The Parliament and people of England have made bold to call their King to an account therein frequent Examples of it in the Saxons time the time before the Conquest and since the Conquest there have not wanted some Presidents King Edward the second King Richard the second were so dealt with by the Parliament and were both deposed and deprived and truly Sir whosoever shall look into their stories shall not finde the Articles that are charged upon them to come near to the height and the Capitalnesse of the crimes that are laid to your charge nothing near Sir you were pleased the other day to alledge your descent and I did not contradict it but take all together if you go higher than the Conquest you shall find that for almost a thousand years these thinge have been and if you come down since the Conquest you are the four and twentieth King from William called the Conquerour and you shall find one half of them to come meerly from the State and not meerly upon the point of Descent This were easie to be instanced The time must not be lost that way I shall only represent what a grave and learned Judge said in his time who was well known unto you the words are since printed for posterity That although there were such a thing as a Descent many times yet the Kings of England ever held the greatest assurance of their Titles when it was declared by Parliament And Sir your Oath and the manner of your Coronation doth plainly shew that the Kings of England although it 's true by the Law the next person in bloud is designed yet if there were a just cause to refuse him the people of England might do it For there is a Contract and a bargain made betwixt the King and his people and your Oath is taken and certainly Sir the Bond is reciprocall for as you are Leige Lord so are they Leige Subjects and we know very well that Legantis est duplex the one is a Bond of perfection that is due from the Soveraign the other is a Bond of Subjection which is due from the Subject for if this Bond be once broken farewell Soveraignty â—ubjectio trahit c. These things may not be denyed for I speak it the rather and I pray God it may work upon your heart that you may be sensible of your miscarriages for whether you have been as you
into your heart that you had as effectually endeavoured and studied the peace of the Kingdome as in words you seem to pretend but as the other day it was represented to you that actions must expound intentions Your actions have been clean contrary and truly Sir it doth appear very plainly to the Court that you have gone upon very erroneous principles This Kingdom hath felt it to their smart and it will be no comfort to you to think of it for Sir you have been heard to let fall such language as if you had not been subject to the Law or that the Law had not been your Superiour The Court is very sensible of it I hope so are all the understanding people of England That the Law is your Superiour you ought to have ruled according to the law you ought to have done so and your pretence hath been that you have done so But Sir the question is who shall be the expositors of the Law whether you and your party out of the Courts of Justice shall take upon you to expound the Law Or whether the Courts of Justice shall be the expounders themselves Nay this Sovereign and high Court of Justice the Parliament of England who may well be obliged to be the highest expounders of the Law since they are the Sole makers of it Sir for you to set your selfe with your single judgement or for those who adhere unto you to set themselves against the highest Court of Justice there is no Law for it Sir as the Law is your superior so truly there is something that is Superiour to the Law which is the Parent or Author of the Law and that is the people of England For as they are those who at first as other Countries have done did chuse unto themselves this form of Government that Justice might be administred and the peace preserved so they gave Laws unto their Governors according to which they were to govern and if those Laws should have proved inconvenient or prejudicial to the publick they had power in them reserved to themselves to alter as they should finde cause It is very true what some of your side have alleadged Rex non habet parem in regno This Court will affirm the same in some sense that whilest King you have not your Peer for you are major singulis but they will aver again that you are minor universis and the same Author tels you that in exhibitione juris you have no power but they are quasi minimus This we know to be Law Rex haebt superiorem Deum legem etiam Curiam and so sayes the same Author and he makes bold to proceed further Debent ei fraenum ponere they ought to bridle him We know very well the stories of old we cannot be ignorant of those Wars that were called the Barons Wars when the Noblity of the Land did stand out for the Liberty and the property of the Subject and would not suffer the Kings that did invade their Liberties to play the Tryants but did call them to an account for it and did fraenum ponere But Sir If the Nobility of the Land do forbear to do their duty now and are not so mindfull of their own Honour and the Kingdomes good as the Barons of England of old have been certainly the Commons of England will not be unmindefull of what is requisite for their preservation and their safety Justitiae fruendi causa Reges constituti sunt By this we learn that the end of having Kings or Governours is for their enjoying of Justice that is the end Now Sir If the King will go contrary to that end or if any Governour will go contrary to the end of his government he must understand that he is but an Officer in trust and that he ought to discharge that trust and order is to be taken for the animadversion and punishment of such an offending Governour Sir This is not a Law of yesterday since the time of the division betwixt you and the Parliament but it is a Law of old And we know very well both the Authors and the Authorities that acquaint us what the Law was in that point on the election of Kings when they took their Oath to be true unto the people and if they did not observe it there were those remedies instituted which are called Parliaments The Parliaments were they that were to adjudge the very words of the Authors the plainness and wrongs done by the King and Queen or by their Children such wrongs eespecially when the people could have no where else a remedy Sir this is the Case of the people of Eugland they could not have their remedy else where but in Parliament Sir Parliaments were instituted for that intent it was their main end that the grievances of the people might be redressed and truly if the Kings of England had been rightly mindefull of themselves they were never more in Majestie or State than in the time of the Parliament but how forgetfull some have been Histories have informed us and we our selves have a miserable a lamentable and a sad experence of it Sir by the old Laws of England I speake these things the rather to you because you were pleased to affirme the other day that you had as much knowledge in the Law as most Gentlemen of England It is very well Sir and truly Sir it is very sit for the Gentlemen of England to understand the Laws under which they must live and by which they must be governed And then Sir the Scripture sayes they that know their Ma-Masters will and do it not you know what follows the Law is your Master the acts of Parliament the Parliaments were anciently to be kept twice in the year as we find in our old Author that the Subject upon any occasion might have a remedie and a redress for his grievance Afterwards by severall Acts of Parliament in the dayes of your predecessor Edward the third they were to be but once a year What the Intermission of Parliaments in your times hath produced is very well known and the sad consequences of it as also what in the interim instead of Parliaments there hath been by you by a high and arbitrary hand introduced upon the people But when God by his Providence had so far brought it about that you could no longer decline the calling of a Parliament a Parliament was called where it may appear what your ends were against your ancient and Native Kingdom of Scotl but this Parliament of Engl. not serving your turn against them you were pleased to dissolve it Not long after another great necessitie occasioned the calling of this Parliament and what your designes and indeavours all along have been for the crushing and confounding of it hath been most notorious to the whole Kingdom And truly Sir in that you did strike at all it had been a sure way to have brought about that which this Charge doth lay upon you
their consideration how to proceed against you In the mean time they who brought you hither shall return you back again The Court desireth to be satisfied whether this be all the Answer that you will give them or not King I desire that you would resolve me and all the world in this one particular Give me leave to acquaint you that it is a thing of no small importance which you go about I am sworn to keep the peace according to the duty which I ow to God and to my Land and I will here perform it to the last breath of my Body you shall therefore do well first to satisfie God and afterwards the Land by what Authority you do this If you do it by an usurped Authority you cannot defend it God who sitteth in the Heavens will call you and all those who have conferred this power on you to give him an account of it Satisfie me in this and I shall answer you for otherwise I should betray the Faith committed to me and the liberties of my people Wherefore consider of it and I shall be willing to answer you For I do profess it is as great a sin to resist a lawfull Authority as to submit unto a Tyrannicall or any other unlawfull authority wherefore resolve me in this particular and you shall receive my Answer L. President Bradshaw The Court expecteth that you should give them a final Answer and will adjourn untill Munday next If you cannot satisfie your self although we tell you our Authority our Authority will satisfie our selves And it is according to the Authority of God and and the Kingdome and the Peace of which you speak shall be preserved in the Administration of Justice and that is our present work King I give you this for my Answer you have not shewn me any lawfull Authority which may satisfie any reasonable man L. President Bradshaw It is only your apprehension we are fully satisfied who are your Judges King It is not my apprehension nor yours which ought to determine this L. President Bradshaw The Court hath heard you and disposed of you accordingly as their discretions have thought expedient The Court adjourneth to the Painted Chamber untill Munday at ten of the clock in the morning and from thence hither Something that was ominous ought not to be passed by in silence when the Charge was read against the King the silver head of his staff did full off which he much did wonder at and observing no man so officious to assist him he stooping towards the ground did take it up himself As the King returned looking on the Court he said I fear not thee meaning the Sword As he came down the staires the people who were in the Hall cryed out some of them God save the King but the greater part Justice Justice The second dayes proceeding against the King January 22 c. THe Cryer having thrice pronounced his Oyes and silence commanded after that the Judges were called and every one did particulary answer to his Name Silence was again commanded under pain of imprisonment and the Captain of the Guards was ordered to apprehended any that should endeavour to make a tumult At the commanding of the King into the Court there was a great shout and the Court commanded the Captain of the Guards to apprehend and imprison those who should make either a noise or tumult The Court being sat the Sollicitor turning to the President said May it Please your Lordship my Lord President In the former Court on Saturday in the Name of the Commons of England I exhibited and offered to this Tribunal the charg of high Treasons and other grievous crimes against the Prisoner with which I did charge him In the Name of the People of England and his charge was read and his Answer demanded My Lord It pleased him at that time tâ— return no answer at all but instead of answering he questioned the Authority of the High Court My most humble motion to this High Court in the Name of the people of the Kingdome of England is that the prisoner may be compelled to give a positive answer either by way of Confession or Negation which if he shal refuse that the subject of his Charge may be taken for granted the Court proceed acording to iustice L. President Sir you may remember that on the last convention of this Court the cause was expounded to you for which you were brought hither and you heard the charge against you read it being a charge of High Treason and other grievous crimes against the Kingdom of England you heard likewise that it was required in the Name of the people that you should answer to your charge that there should be a proceeding thereon as should be agreable unto Justice you were then pleased to move some scruples concerning the authority of this Court and you desired to be satisfied in your knowledge by what authority you were brought hither you severall times did propound your questions and it was often answered to you that it was by authority of the Commons of England assembled in Parliament who did iudge it requisite to call you to an account for the great and greivous crimes of which you are accused After that the Court did take into their serious consideration those things which you objected and they are fully satisfied in their authority and do conceive it requisite that you should admit it they therefore require that you give a positive and a particular Answer to the charge exhibited against you they do expect that you should either confesse or deny it If you shall deny it it will be proved in the behalfe of the Kingdome the whole world doth approve of their Authority So that the Kingdome is satisfied and you ought thereby to be satisfied your self you ought not therefore to waste time but to give your positive answer King It is true that when I was last here I moved that question and indeed if if it where onely my businesse in particular I should have satisfied my selfe with that protestation I then interposed against the lawfulnesse of this Court and that a King cannot be judged by any superiour jurisdiction on earth but my on interests are not only involved in it but the liberties also of the people of England and pretend what you will I doe indeavor more for their liberties than any whatsoever For if Power without laws can make laws change the Fundamentall laws of the Kingdome I know not what subject in England can be secure of his life or of any thing which he doth call his own Wherefore when I came hither I expected particular reasons that I might understand by what law and what Authority you would proceed against me I should then perceive what most especially I have to say unto you for the affirmative is to be proved which seldome the Negative is capable of but because I cannot perswade you thus I will give you my Reason as briefly as
I can The Reasons for which in conscience and duty which I ow first unto God and afterwards to my people for the preservation of their lives their liberties and their fortunes I believe I cannot answer untill I am satisfied of your legality of it All proceeding against any man whatsoever President Sir I must interrupt you which I would not do but that which you do agreeth not with the proceeding of any Tribunal of Justice you enter into a controversie and dispute against the Authority of this Court before which you appeare a prisoner and are accused as a great Delinquent If you will take upon you to controvert the Authority of this Court we cannot give way unto it neither will any tribunall of Justice admit it you ought to submit unto the Court and to give an exact and direct Answer whether you will answer to your charge or not and what is the answer that you make King Sir I know not the formalities of the law I know the law and reason and although I am no professed Lawyer I know the law as well as any Gentleman in England and I am more eager for the Liberties of the people of England than you are and if I should believe any man without he gives me Reasons what he saith It would be abused but I say unto you that the Reasons which you give is no wayes satisfactory L. President Sir I must interrupt you for it cannot be permitted to you in this manner to proceed you spake of law and reason it is fit that there should be both law and reason and they are both against you Sir the Vote of the Commons of England Assembled in Parliament is the reason of the Kingdome and they ordained this law according to which you ought to Reign Sir It is not lawfull for you dispute against our Authority This again hath been told you by the Court. Sir Notice will be taken that you contemn the Court and this contempt of yours will be recorded King I know not how a King can be interpreted to be a Delinquent but by any law that I ever heard all men whether Delinquent or what you will may lawfully make objections against their Professe this is that which I require and I again desire that my Reasons may be heard If you deny this you deny Reason L. President Sir you have objected something to the Court I will declare unto you their opinion Sir it is not lawfull for you or any man else to dispute against this subject It is Decreed you ought not to dispute against the jurisdiction of this Tribunall If you shall yet do it I must intimate unto you that they are above objections They set here by Authority of the Commons of England and all your Predecessors and you your selfe are bound to be accountable to them King I sdeny that shew me one example L. President Sir you ought not to interrupt but attend whilst the Court speakes unto you This subject is not to be disputed by you neither will the Court permit that you should object against the jurisdiction of it they have considered of their jurisdiction and do approve it King Sir I say that the Commons of England were never a Court of judicature and I would fain know how they came to be made so now President Sir it is not permitted to you to proceed in those discourses Then the Secretary of the Court did read as followeth Charles Stuard King of England you have been accused in the Name of the people of England of High Treason and other grievous Crimes The Court hath determined that you shal answer to your charge King I will answer as soon as ever I shall understand by what authority you do these things President If this be all that you will speake Gentlemen you who brought the prisonner hither take him back again King I demand that I may be permitted to exhibite my Reasons why I answer not unto the Charge and give me time to perform this President Sir it is not for prisoners to demand King Prisoners Sir I am no ordinary prisoner President The Court hath considered of their own jurisdiction and they have also confirmed their jurisdiction If you will not answer we will give order that your Default be recorded King You have not yet heard my Reasons President Your Reasons are not to be heard against the Supreme Jurisdiction King Shew me that jurisdiction in the world where Reason is not to be heard President Sir we shew it you here the Commons of England and the next time you are brought hither you shall understand further of the pleasure of the Court and peradventure their finall sentence King Shew me where the House of Commons was ever a Court of Judicature in that kind President Serjeant take away the Prisoner King Sir Remember that the King is not suffered to declare his Reasons for the Libertie and Immunities of his subjects President Sir That Freedome of speech is not permitted to you how great a friend you have been to the laws and the Liberties of the people let England and all the world judge King Sir by your leave I have alwayes loved the Liberty the Immunities Laws of the subjects If I have defended myself by Arms I have not taken them up against the people but for them President You must obey the Decree of the Court you give no answer to the Charge against you King Well Sir And so was he brought to the House of Sir Robert Cotton and the Court was adjourned to the Painted Chamber untill Wednesday following at twelve of the clock at what hour they intended to adjourn again to Westminster-hal where all whom it doth concern are commanded to be present The third dayes proceedings against the late King at the High Court of Justice Tuesday Jan. 23. 1648. THe Cryer according to the Custome having with his Oyes commanded silence and attention the King being sate Mr. Atturney Genrall turning to the L. President spake in these words May it please your Lordship This is now the third time that by the great grace and favour of this High Court the Prisoner hath been brought to the Bar and yet by reason of his refusall to put in his Answer there is yet no issue joyned in the cause My Lord I did at the first exhibit a Charge against him containing the highest practices of Treason that were ever wrought on the Theater of England That a King of England trusted to keep the Lawes of England and who had taken an Oath so to do had tribute paid him for that end should be guilty of so wicked a design as to subvert our Laws and introduce an arbitrary and tyrannical Government and set up his standard of warre against his Parliament and his people and I did humbly pray in the behalf of the people of England that he might speedily be required to make an answer to his charge But my Lord instead of making an answer he
did then dispute the Authority of this Tribunal and your Lordship being pleased to give him a further day to put in his answer which was yesterday I did move againe that he might be required to put in a direct and positive answer to his charge either by denying or confessing it but he was then pleased to debate the Jurisdiction of the Court although he was commanded to give a positive answer My Lord by reason of this great delay of Justice I shall humbly move for speedy judgement against him I may presse your Lordship upon the known Rules of the Laws of the Land that if a prisoner shall stand in contempt and not plead guilty or not guilty to the charge given against him it by an implicite confession ought to be taken pro confesso as I may instance in divers who have deserved more favor then the prisoner at the Bar hath done But I shall presse upon the whole fact The House of Commons the Supream Authority of the Kingdome have declared my Lord that it is notorious The matter of the charge is true and clear as chrystall or as the Sun that shineth at Noon day in which my Lord President if your Lordship and the Court be not satisfied I have severall witnesses on the behalf of the people of England to produce and therefore I do humbly pray and not so much I as the innocent blood that hath been shed the cry whereof is great for Justice and Judgement that speedy Judgement may be pronounced against the prisoner at the Bar. President Sir you have heard what hath been moved by Mr. Sollicitor on the behalfe of the Kingdome against you Sir you may well remember and if you do not the Court cannot forget the delayes which you have made You have been pleased to propound some Questions and amply you have had your resolution on them you have been often told that the Court did affirm their own jurisdiction that it was not for you nor any other man to dispute the Jurisdiction of the highest Authority of England from which there is no appeal and touching which there must be no dispute yet you did deport your self in that manner that you gave no obedience nor did acknowledge any Authority either in them or the Supream Court of Parliament that constituted this high Court of Justice Sir the Court gives you to understand that they are very sensible of these demurres and that being thus authorised by the High Court of England they ought not to be trifled withall especially seeing if they please they may take advantage of these delayes and according to the rules of Justice proceed and pronounce Judgement against you Neverthelesse they are so favourable as to give direction to me and therefore on their behalfe I do require you to make a positive answer to this charge that hath been read against you Justice knows no respect of persons You are to give your positive and finall Answer in plain English whether guilty or not guilty of the Treason laid to your charge The King having meditated a little did answer in these words When I was here yesterday I desired to speak for the Liberties of the people of England I desire yet to know whether without interruption I may speak freely or not President Sir on the like Question you had yesterday the resolution of this Court you were told that having a charge of so high a nature against you your work was to acknowledge the Jurisdiction of the Court and to answer the charge after you have done that you shall be heard at large to make what defence you can for your self but Sir the Court commands me to make known unto you that you are not permited to run into any other discourses untill such time that you have returned a positive Answer to the matter that is charged upon you King I value not the charge a rush It is the Liberty of the people of England that I stand for For me who am your King and should be an example to all the Courts in England to uphold Justice and maintain the old Laws for me I say to acknowledge a new Court that I never heard of before is a thing that I knowe not how to do You did speak very well on the first day I came hither concerning the obligations that I have laid upon me by God for the maintenance of the Liberties of my people I do acknowledge that I do ow the same obligations to God and my people to defend as much as in me lies the ancient Laws of the Kingdome therefore untill I be satisfied that it is not against the fundamental Laws of the Kingdome I can put in no particulars to the Charge If you will give me time I will shew you my Reasons wherefore I cannot do it and Here being interrupted he said By your favour you ought not to interrupt me How I came here I do not know There is no law to make your King your prisoners I was in a Treaty upon the publick faith of the Kingdome that was the known two Houses of Parliament that was the Representative of the Kingdome and when I had almost made an end of the Treaties I was hurried away and brought thither and therefore I would President Sir you must know the pleasure of the Court. King By your favour Sir President Nay Sir by your favour you may not be permitted to run into these discourses you appear here as a Delinquent you have not acknowledged the Authority of the Court the Court once more doth command you to give your positive Answer M Broughton Do your Duty King Duty Sir M. Broughton reads Charls Stuart King of England you are accused in the behalfe of the Commons of England of divers high Crimes and Treasons which Charge hath been read unto you The Court now requires you to give your positive and finall answer either by way of confession or by deniall of the Charge King Sir I say againe unto you If thereby I may give satisfaction to the people of England of the uprightnes of my proceedings not by way of answer but to satisfie them that I have done nothing against that trust that hath been committed to me I would do it but to acknowledge a new Court against their priviledges to alter the Fundamentall Laws of the Kingdome you must excuse me if I shall refuse to do it President Sir This is the third time that you have publiquely disowned this Court and put an affront upon it How far you have preserved the priviledges of the People your actions have spoke And truly Sir If mens intentions can be known by their actions you have written your intentions in bloody Characters throughout the whole Kingdome But Sir you are to understand the pleasure of the Court Clerk Record the default And Gentlemen you that are a guard to the prisoner take him back again King I will onely adde this one word If it were onely my own particular
I would not say any more nor interrupt you at all President Sir you have heard the pleasure of the Court and notwithstanding you will not understand it you are to finde that you are before a Court of Justice The King going forth Proclamation was made that all persons who then appeared and had further to doe with the Court might depart into the Painted Chamber to which place the Court adjourned being resolved to meet again in Westminster-hall by ten of the Clock the next morning Wednesday January 24. The Court being this day imployed upon Examinations of witnesses and other things in order to their next proceedings did appoint one of their Vshers to give notice to the people there assembled to appear on further summons The last proceedings against the King wherein they pronounc'd Sentence upon him on Saturday January 27. 1648. SIlence being commanded by the Crier the Court was called and Serjeant Bradshaw the Lord President was that day in a scarlet Gown There were present that day sixty and eight Members of the Court. The King turning to the Lord President said I shall desire to be heard some few words and I shall give no occasion of interruption President You may answer in due time heare the Court first King If it please you Sir I desire to be heard and I shall not give any occasion of interruption and it is only in a word A sudden Judgement President Sir you shall be heard as I have told you in due time but you must hear the Court first King Sir What I am to speake will be in order as I conceive to what I believe the Court will say and therefore Sir I desire to be heard A hasty judgement is not so soon recalled President Sir you shall be heard before judgement be given and in the mean time you ought to forbear King Well Sir I shall be heard before the judgement be given President Gentlemen it is well known to all or the greatest part of you here present that the prisoner at the Bar hath been several times convented and brought before this Court to make answer to a charge of Treason and other high Crimes exhibited against him in the Name of the people of England to which charge being oftentimes commanded to answer he hath been so far from submiting to the Court as he hath under tooke to object against dispute the Authority of this Court of the High Court of Parliament who constituted this Court to try and judge him but being over-ruled in that and commanded to make answer he was still pleased to persevere in his contumacie and refused to submit to answer whereupon the Court that they may not be wanting to themselves and to the trust reposed in them nor that any mans wilfulness shall prevent the course of Justice have considered of the contempt and of that consequence which in Law doth arise on that contempt They have likewise considered of the notoriousness of the Fact charged upon the prisoner and upon the whole matter are resolved and have agreed upon a Sentence to be now pronounced against him but in regard he hath desired to be heard before Sentence he read and pronounced the Court is resolved to heare him yet Sir thus much I must tell you before hand of which also you have been minded at the other Courts that if what you are to propose shall tend to dispute the Jurisdiction of the Court you are not to be heard therein you have offerd it formerly and you have indeed struck at the root which is the power and Supream Authority of the Commons of England of which this Court will admit no debate and indeed it would be an unreasonable thing in them so to do being a Court which doth act upon that Authority which they have received from them they will not presume to judge upon their Superiours from whom there is no appeal But Sir If you have any thing to say in defence of your selfe concerning the matter with which you are charged the Court hath given me command to let you know they will hear you King Since I perceive you will not hear any thing of Debate concerning that which I confess I thought most material for the peace of the Kingdom and the Liberty of the Subject I shall wave it and speake nothing of it only I must tell you that these many daies all things have been taken from me but that I call more dear unto me than my life which is my conscience and my Honour and if I had respect to my life more than to the peace of the Kingdom and the Liberty of the Subject I should certainly have made a particular defence for my self for by that at least I might have deferred an ugly sentence which I expect to pass upon me Therefore undoubtedly Sir as a man that hath some understanding some knowledge of the world if that my true zeal to my Countrey had not over-born the care of my own preservation I should have gone another way to work than now I have done Now Sir I conceive that a hasty sentence once passed may sooner be repented then revocked and truly the same fervent desire I have for the peace of the Kingdom the Liberty of the Subject more than my own particulars doth make me now at last move that having something to say concerning both I may be heard before my Sentence be pronounced before the Lords and Commons in the Painted Chamber This delay cannot be prejudicial to you whatsoever I shall utter If I speake not reason those that heare me must be my Judges but if it be Reason and really for the welfare of the Kingdome and the Libertie of the subject I am sure of it it will be well worth the bearing Therefore I conjure you as you love that which you pretend I hope it is real the Libertie of the Subject and the peace of the Kingdom that you will grant me the hearing before sentence be past I onely desire this that you will take this into your consideration It may be you have not heard of it before hand If you thinke well of it I will retire and you may thinke of it but if I cannot get this Libertie I do here protest that so fair shews of Libertie and peace are but pure shews and no otherwise if in this you will not hear your King President Sir you have now spoken King Yes Sir President And this which you have spoken is but a further declining of the Jurisdiction of this Court which is the thing wherein you were limited before King Pray excuse me Sir for my interruption because you do mistake me It is not a declining of it you do judge me before you heare me speake I say I will not I do not decline it although I cannot acknowledge the Jurisdiction of it in this give me leave to say that though I would not though I did not acknowledge it in this yet I protest this is not to
ought to be a Protector of England or a destroyer of England let all England judge or all the world that hath beheld it and though Sir you have it by inheritance in the way that is spoken of yet it cannot be denyed but your Office is an Office of Trust and indeed an Office of the highest Trust that can be lodged in any single person For as you were the grand Administrator of Justice and others were but as your Delegates to see it executed through your Dominions If your great Office were to do Justice and preserve your people from wrong if instead of executing Justice you will be the grand and publick disturber of the peace surely this is contrary to your Office and your Trust Now Sir if it be an Office of Inheritance as you speak of your Title by descent let all men understand that great Offices are seizable and forfeitable as if you had it but for a year or for your life It will therefore much concern you to take into your serious consideration your great miscarriages in this nature Truly Sir I shall not in this place undertake to give you the particulars of the many miscarriages of your Reign whatsoever they have been they are notoriously known It had been happy for the Kingdome and for your self also if they had not been so much known and so much felt as they are every where complained on and reported Sir that we are now upon by the command of the highest Court hath been and is to bring you to your Triall and to judge you for these great offences of yours Sir the Charge hath called you Tyrant a Traytor a Murtherer and a publike Enemy to the Common-wealth Sir it had been well if these terms might rightly and justly have been omitted nay if any one of them all King Ha! President Truly we have been told Rex est qui bene regit Tyrannus qui populum opprimit and if that be the definition of a Tyrant then see if you come short of it in your Actions and whether not the highest Tyrant by that way of arbitrary Government which you sought to introduce and were putting upon the people Examine with your self if that were not as high an act of Tyranny as any of your predecessours were guilty of yea many degrees beyond it Sir the Term Traytor cannot be spared we shall easily conclude that it doth enforce and denote a breach of Trust and it must be supposed to be done by a superior and therefore as the people of England might have incurred that term if they had been truly guilty of it as to the definition of the Law so on the other side when you did break you Trust to the Kingdom you did break your Trust to your superior For the Kingdom is that for which you were trusted And therefore when you are called to an account for this breach of trust you are called to account by your superior Minimus Majorem in judicium vocat And Sir the people of England cannot be so wanting to themselves whom God hath dealt miraculously and gloriously for they having both power and their great enemy in their hand but they must proceed to Justice to themselves and to you For Sir the Court could heartily desire that you would lay your hand upon your heart and consider what you have done amiss and that you would endeavour to make your peace with God Truly Sir These are two high Crimes Tyranny and Treason There is a third if those had not been and that is Murder which is laid to your charge also All the bloody murders that have been committed since the Division twixt you and your people must be laid to your charge Sir It is a hainous and a crying sin and truly Sir If any man will ask us what punishment is due unto a murtherer let Gods Law let mans Law speak I will presume you are so well read in the holy Scripture as that you know God himself hath said concerning the shedding of mans blood Gen. 9. and Numb 35. will tell you what the punishment is and this Court in the behalf of the Kingdome are sensible of that innocent blood that hath been shed and the Land indeed stands still defiled with that blood and as the Text hath it It can no way be cleansed but by the shedding of the blood of him who shed that blood Sir We know no dispensation from this blood in the Commandment Thou shalt do no Murther we do not know but that it extends to Kings as well as to the meanest peasants the meanest of the people the Command is universal Sir Gods Law forbids it mans Law forbids it nor do we know that there is any manner of exception not even in mans Laws for the punishment of Murther in you T is true that in the Case of Kings every private hand is not to put forth its self to this work for their reformation or punishment but the people represented having power in their hands were there but one willfull Act of murder by you committed have power to convent you and to punish you for it The weight Sir then lying upon you in all these respects that have been spoken for your Tyranny Treason Breach of trust and the murders that have been committed surely it would drive you into a sad consideration concerning your eternall estate I know it cannot be acceptable to you to heare any such things as these mentioned from this Court for so do we call our selves and justifie our selves to be a Court and a High Court of Justice authorized by the highest and solemnest Court of the Kingdome as hath been often already said And although you have indeavoured what lay in you to discourt us yet we do take knowledge of our selves to be such a Court as can administer justice to you as wee are bound in duty to it Sir all I shall say before the reading of the Sentence is but this The Court doth heartily desire that you will seriously consider of those Evills that you stand guilty of You said well the other day you wished us to have God before our eyes Truly Sir I hope all of us have so that God whom we acknowledge to be King of Kings and Lord of Lords that God with whom there is no respect of persons that God who is the avenger of Innocent blood that God have we before our eyes that God who bestowes a Curse upon them who is in the case of guilty malefactors that deserve death do withhold their hands from shedding of blood Sir that God we have before our eyes and were it not that the Conscience of our duty hath called us into this place and this imployment you should have had no appearance of a Court here But Sir we must preferre our respect unto God and to the Kingdom above any respects whatsoever and although at this present many of us if not all of us are severely threatned by some of your party what
of the whole Nation who being freely called and freely debating amongst themselves may by Gods blessing settle the Church when every opinion is freely and clearly discussed For the King indeed I will not much insist Then turning to a gentleman whose cloak he observed to touch the edge of the Ax he said unto him Hurt not the Ax meaning by blunting the edge thereof for that he said might hurt him Having made this short digression he proceeded For the King the laws of the land will clearly instruct you what you have to do but because it concerns my own particular I onely do give you but a touch of it As for the People truly I desire their liberty and freedome as much as any whosoever but I must tell you that their liberty and freedom consists in having of government by those laws by which their lives and their goods may be most their own It is not for them to have a share in Government that is nothing Sirs appertaining unto them A â—ubject and a Sovereign are clean different things and therefore untill that be done I mean untill the people be put into that liberty which I speak of certainly they will never enjoy themselves Sirs It was for this that now I am come here If I would have given way to an arbitrary power to have all laws changed according to the power of the sword I needed not to have come hither and therefore I tell you and I Pray God it be not laid to your charge that I am the martyr of the people In troth Sirs I shall not hold you much longer I shall onely say this unto you that in truth I could have desired some little longer time because I had a desire to put this that I have said into a little better order and to have a little better digested it than I have now done and therefore I hope you will excuse me I have delivered my conscience I pray God that you do take those courses that are most for the good of the Kingdome and your own salvations Doct. Juxon Will your Majesty although the affection of your Majesty to religion is very well known yet to satisfie expectation be pleased to speak something for the satisfaction of the world King I thank you very heartily my Lord because I had almost forgotten it In troth Sirs my conscience in Religion I think is already very well known to all the world and therefore I declare before you all that I die a Christian according to the profession of the Church of England as I found it left by my father and this honest man I think will witnesse it Then turning to the Officers he said Sirs excuse me for this same I have a good cause and I have a gratious God I will say no more Then turning to Colonel Hacker he said Take care they do not put me to pain and Sir this if it please you but then a gentleman one Mr. Clerk comming neer the Ax the King said take heed of the Ax Then the King turning to the Executioner said I shall say but very short prayers and when I stretch forth my hands Then the King called to Doctor Juxon for the Nightcap and having put it on he said to the Executioner will my hair trouble you who desired him to put it all under his Cap which the King did accordingly by the assistance of the Executioner and the Bishop the King then turning to Doctor Juxon said I have a good Cause and a Gratious God on my side Doctor Juxon There is but one stage more This stage is turbulent indeed and troublesome but very short and which in an instant will lead you a most long way from earth to Heaven where you shall finde great Joy and Solace King I go from a corruptible to an incorruptable Crown where can be no trouble none at all Doctor Juxon You shall exchange a temporall Crown for an eternall one it is a good change The King then said unto the executioner Is my haire as it should be He then did put off his cloak and his George which he gave to Doctor Juxon saying Remember He immediately afterwards did put off his Doublet and did put on his cloak again and looking on the block he said unto the Executioner you should make it to be steddie Execut. It is so King It might have been something higher Execut. It cannot be made higher now King When I shall stretch forth my hands in this manner then After that when standing he had spoke two or three words unto himself with his hands and eyes lifted up towards Heaven immediately stooped down he laid his neck upon the Block and when the Executioner had again put all his hair under his cap. The King said Stay till I give the signe Execut. So I do if it please your Majesty and after a very little respite the King did stretch forth his hands and immediately the Executioner at one blow did sever his head from his Body Sic transit gloria Mundi THE Illegall proceedings against the honourable Colonell John Penruddock of Comppton in Wiltshire and his Speech Which he delivered the day before he was beheaded in the Castle of Exon being the 16 day of May 1655 to a Gentleman whom he desired to publish them after his death Together with his prayer upon the Scaffold and the last Letter he received from his verteous Lady with his answer to the same Also the speech of that Piously resolved Gentlemen Hugh Grove of Chisenbury in the parish of Enford and County of Wilts Esquire beheaded there the same day Printed by order of the Gent. intrusted 1660. Col. Penruddock being writ to by a friend for an account of his triall writ as followeth SIR THough I received your desires something too late it being but two days before notice given me from the Sheriff of the day of my expiration for I cannot call this an execution it being for such a cause yet in order to your satisfaction I have borrowed so much time from my more serious Meditations as to give you this short account of my Triall wherein you must excuse both the brevity and imperfections it being but the issues of a bad memory UPon Thursday the 19. April 1655. the Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer being sate in the Castle of Exon summoned before them my self Mr. Huge Grove Mr. Richard Reeves Mr. Robert Duke Mr. George Duke Mr. Thomas Fitz-James Mr. Francis Jones Mr. Edward Davis Mr. Thomas Poulton and Mr. Francis Bennet Being all called to the Barre we were commanded to hold up our hands and an Indictment of high treason was read against us and being asked whether we would plead guilty or not guilty to the Indictment in the behalf of my self and of the Gentlemen therein charged I spake as followeth Col. Penruddock My Lords though my education hath been such as not to give me those advantages which the knowledge of the Laws would assisted me with
decline it since I say If that which I shall propound be not for the peace of the Kingdome and the Liberty of the subject then the shame is mine Now I desire that you will take this into your consideration if you will I will withdraw President Sir This is not altogether new that you have offered unto us I say it is not altogether new unto us although it be the first time that in person you have offered it to the Court Sir you say you do not decline the Jurisdiction of the Court. King Not in this that I have said President I understand you well enough Sir Nevertheless that which you have propounded seems to be contrary to that which you have said for the Court are ready to proceed to sentence It is not as you say that they will not hear their King For they have been ready to hear you they have patiently waited your pleasure for three Court daies together to hear what you would answer to the peoples charge against you to which you have not vouchsafed to give any answer at all Sir this doth tend to a further delay and truly Sir Such delays as these neither may the Kingdom nor Justice admit You have had the advantage of three several dayes to have offered in this kind what you were pleased to have propounded to the Lords and Commons This Court is founded upon the Authority of the Commons of England in whom resteth the Supream Jurisdiction That which you now tender to the Court is to be tried by another Jurisdiction a co-ordinate Jurisdiction I know very well how you have expressed your self and that notwithstanding what you would propound to the Lords and Commons yet neverthesess you would proceed on here I did hear you say so but Sir That which you would offer there whatsoever it be must needs be in delay of Justice here so as if this Court be resolved and prepared for the sentence they are bound in Justice not to grant that which you so much desire but Sir according to your desire and because you shall know the full pleasure of the Court upon that which you have moved the Court shall withdraw for a time King Shall I withdraw President Sir you shall know the the pleasure of the Court presently The Court withdraws for half an hour into the Court of Wards Serjeant at Arms the Court gives you command that the prisoner withdraw and that about half an hour hence the prisoner be returned again The time being expired the Court returned and the Lord President commanded the Serjeant at Arms to send for his prisoner The King being come attended with his Guard The Lord President said unto him Sir you were pleased to make a motion here to the Court concerning the desire you had to propound something to the Lord◠and Commons in the Painted Chamber for the peace of the Kingdome Sir you did in effect receive an Answer before the Court adjourned Truely Sir their adjournment and withdrawing was pro formâ tantum for it did not seem to them that there was any difficulty in the thing they have considered of what you moved and have considered of their own Authority which is grounded as it hath been often said upon the Supream Authority of the Commons of England Assembled in Parliament The Court doth act according to their Commission Sir I have received an express Order from the Court to acquaint you that they have been too much delayed by you already and that this which you have now offered hath occasioned some little further delay they are Judges appointed by the highest Judges and Judges are no more to delay than they are to deny Justice they are good words in the old Charter of England Nulli negabimus nulli vendemus nulli deferremus justitiam There must be no delay but Sir the Truth is and so every man here observes it that you have much delayed them by your contempt and default for which long since they might have proceeded to judgement against you therefore notwithstanding what you have offered they are resolved to proceed to punishment and to judgement and this is their unanimous resolution King Sir I see it is in vain for me to dispute I am no Sceptick to doubt or to deny the power that you have I do know that you have power enough Sir I confess I do believe it would have been advantagious to the peace of the Kingdom if you would have been pleased to take the pains to shew the lawfulness of your power As for this delay which I have desired I do confesse it is a delay but it is a delay that is important for the peace of the Kingdom It is not my person that I look on alone It is the welfare of the Kingdom the peace of the Kingdome It is an old saying that we should think on long but perform great matters suddenly Therefore Sir I do say again I do put at your doors all the inconveniences of a hasty sentence I have been here now a full week this day eight dayes was the day in which I made in this place my first appearance The short respite but of a day or two longer may give peace unto the Nation whereas an hasty jugdement may bring such a perpetual trouble and inconvenience upon it that is the Child unborn may repent it And therefore once more out of the duty I owe to God and to my Country I do desire that I may be heard by the Lords and Commons in the painted Chamber or any other place that you will appoint me President Sir you have been already answered to what you have moved it being the same motion which you made before for which you have had the resolution and the judgement of the Court in it and the Court would now be satisfied from you whether you have any more to say for your selfe then you have yet said before they proceed to sentence King I say this Sir that if you will but hear me and give me this delay I doubt not but I shall give some satisfaction to all that are present and to my people that are absent and therefore I require you as you will answer it at the dreadfull day of Judgement that you will once again take it into your consideration President Sir I have received instructions from the Court. King Well Sir President If this must be reinforced or any thing of this nature your answer must be the same as it was before and they will proceed to sentence if you have no more to say King Sir I have nothing more to say onely I desire that this may be entred what I have said President The Court Sir then hath something else to say to you which although I know will be very unwelcom yet notwithstanding they are resolved to discharge their duty Sir you have spoken very well of a precious thing that you call a peace and it were much to be wished that God had put it