cleared and those difficulties explained to him which he then conceived to be destructive to his just regal power in case he should give a full consent to those Propositions as they then stood Engaging himself to give his chearful assent to all such Bills as should be really to the good and peace of his people and to prefer the happiness of this Kingdome before his own particular And as a farther means to work a confidence in them of his own sincerity in these things he offered again to trust them with his own person conjuring them as they were Christians and Subjects and as they were men who desired to leave a good name behind them so to receive and make use of that his Answer that all issues of bloud might be stopped and those unhappy distractions peaceably setled But as his former gracious and frequent offers so this could not then find any acceptance at all with them by reason that it tended to the composure of those lamentable distractions which tended to the utter ruine of the King and Realm their aims at first and continued resolutions still being to share the spoyl which by their strength and power they had most unjustly got Nay in stead of any kindness or comfort which he might rationally expect from their many and most solemn promises and protestations they perpetually tormented his pious Soul with incessant importunities to take their hypocritical Covenant and sent for several of their most rigid Preachers to terrify him with their Kirk-censures upon his refusal thereof In which sad and disconsolate condition I shall for a while leave him and take a short view of the transactions betwixt the Members sitting at Westminster and those at Edenborough with their respective Commissioners The principal work being now done here in England by the help of the Scots the Grandees here as well as others began to be weary of their dear Brethren and for the sooner riddance of them passed a Vote that a Message should be sent to the Scottish Army that in regard they were not usefull in this Kingdome for the present and that the payment thereof would be a great burthen thereto they should with all convenient speed return into their Country But the Scots never intending to be loosers by their journey hither knowing full well how to make the best use of those advantages they then had gave their dear Brethren very good words telling them in their answer to the demands made in pursuance of that Vote that their earnest desires were the setling of Religion and Church Government which as it was the principal ground of their engagement in this Cause so would the perfecting of it be their chiefest joy and Glory of both Kingdomes it being the constant resolution of that Kingdome against all opposition to strengthen and cherish the Brotherly kindness between the Kingdomes and Peace setled with Truth and those things performed by the Honourable Houses which by Treaty they were obliged unto to recall their Army with as great alacrity as they were ready to send the same into England for the assistance of their Brethren And in another Letter speaking of the Arrears due to their Army they had these words This Kingdome lyeth under the burthen of great and vast expence in raising and entertaining of Armies and hath with the lives of many precious men set their own Houses on fire to quench the flame of yours And seeing by the seasonable assistance afforded by this Kingdome to you and by the late successes wherewith God hath blessed your Armies you are in a great measure freed of your troubles and are in a far better capacity to pay the moneys due to our Armies in England and Ireland than you were at any time since the beginning of these Wars we demand of the honourable houses to make payment of the summs of money duly owing to this Kingdome ¶ The state of things standing thus made the Game now to be play'd betwixt these great Masters not a little difficult to each the chief business of the then predominant party at Westminster being to gain the person of the King into their own hands and in case he should not upon the matter totally quit his Regal power to them by taking their Covenant and assenting to those their destructive propositions before-mentioned then to keep him close prisoner and exercise the same power without him And the design of the Scots not onely to use the like Regal-power in Scotland but to get a large sum of mony to boot considering that having the King in their hands the Grandees there were able to make their own terms on the behalf of themselves as to Riches and Honours There was therefore no means unessayed by each for accomplishing their respective ends But the Arguments and debates about this business continuing no less than six months before all things were fully agree'd I shall reserve my observations upon them till then and in the mean time take notice of what else did occur that is most remarkable in order to the carrying on their main work and divide the same into two parts the one touching their attempts upon the King in relation to the Covenant and Propositions the other towards the advancement of the Scepter of Iesus Christ for by that title they called their Presbyterean Doctrine and Discipline As to the first About the beginning of September Iames Duke Hamilton Lindsey Earl of Craford the Earl of Cassiles and some others from the Estates of Scotland came to Newcastle to the King and there earnestly solicited him to take the Covenant and sign the Propositions To second which motion there was a petition presented to His Majesty from the general Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland for Reformation of Religion according to the Covenant and uniformity of Church government denouncing God's anger upon him and the hazard to lose the Hearts of his good subjects in case he assented not thereto Soon after which Mr. Andrew Cant Mr. Robert Blayre and Mr. Iames Douglass came thither also to press him to the same purpose To torment him likewise yet more one of these violent men I mean a rigid Presbyterean-preacher besides many rude and uncivil expressions in his Sermon there before the King called for the 52. Psalm to be sung by the congregation which beginneth thus Why do'st thou Tyrant boast abroad thy wicked works to praise Whereupon His Majesty instantly stood up and called for the 56. Psalm beginning thus Have mercy Lord on me I pray for men would me devour Which the people readily sung waving the other Nay the fierceness of these Scottish-presbyters against His Sacred Majesty was such as that upon certain Proposals made to those of them who were Commissioners from the general Assembly viz. If the King shall come into Scotland and that the Kingdome of England shall exclude him of the Government there for his leaving them without granting the Propositions Whether or not
to all Kings from their Subjects and from them to their dread Soveraign after a more special manner but meerly to preserve their Religion and Liberties of the Kingdom and that whatsoever course they should take it should be no imputation to them being constrain'd thereto for best securing that Kirk and Kingdom from the Extremity of confusion and misery taking God and man to witness that they would be free of all outrages and Insolencies that should be committed in the mean time And then they began again to levy and raise Forces in several parts of the Realm in great numbers excercised train'd and assign'd them a Rendezvouz as also a day to be in readiness to march making Provisions of Artillery Amunition and Armes in great quantities from forreign parts laying Taxes and Impositions of ten marks in every hundred upon all the Subjects of that Kingdom according to their several Revenues for support of their Rebellion exacting the same with the greatest rigour that could be imagined spreading sundry Papers and Pamphlets scandalous to the King's proceedings block'd up the Castle of Edenborough and fortified divers places imprisoned the Earl of Southeske one of his Majesties Privy-Council there and sundry others of quality for not adhering to them in their Rebellious courses endeavouring to settle Intelligencers in parts beyond-Sea and practising to let in forreign power inclining rather to prostitute themselves to a forreign Government and different in Religion than yield obedience and conformity to his Majesty their natural Soveraign as appears by their Addresses and Letter to the French King By what hath been said it appearing that the first glimpse of this grand and destructive Rebellion shew'd it self at Edenborough upon the three and twentieth of Iuly an 1637 the scum of the people then taking fire at thâ— reading of that Service-book which was sent over by his late Majesty of blessed memory as a proper Liturgy for the Church of Scotland and most nearly suting with this of England Forasmuch therefore as from those Sparks the ensuing flames arose which from and after that time continued burning for the space of many years until they had overspread and much wasted the cheif parts of this great Isle to make the Bishops of both Kingdoms odious there are not a few who either out of malice to their sacred function or ignorance as to matter of fact have imputed the original of all this mischeif unto them as the first Authors or procurers of that Book which they would have believed to be the first rise thereof To the end therefore that those reverend persons soon after ruin'd and since dead may be fully vindicated from being primarily instrumental therein though had they so been no person of upright judgment could justly have blamed them from endeavouring an uniformity in the service of God in both Kingdoms I shall desire my Reader to cast his eye upon that faithful Narrative written by the command of our late Soveraign King Charles the first and corrected throughout with his own hand as many yet living can testify whereby he will clearly discern that the then Lords of the Privy-Council of Scotland were the men who advised the King to commend a Service-Book to be received and used in all the Churches of that Realm of which there was no little want every man being left to his own giddy fancy Now whether this advice of those Lords was not with purpose to trepan his Majesty to do that which as they resolv'd to order the business should occasion a tumultuous Insurrection by the rabble whence their grand Design of raising a general flame of war might ensue let the Reader judge when he looks back upon their discontents upon his Majesties Revocation of such things as had been passed away in prejudice of that Crown especially by some of his Progenitors in their minorities though not without advice of those who were then his Privy-Councellors in that Realm as hath been already observed And withall consider what combinations were driven on divers years before betwixt the most considerable persons of the Puritan-party in England and the Grand-Contrivers there Mr. Knightley's house in Northampton-shire being the chief place where that restless faction had their frequent meetings whence a Gentleman of quality was sent into Scotland afterwards a great Parliament-man here who residing there for some time before the troubles broke out represented to those which had the chief Interest there that the business of the Ship-money and Habeas Corpus with divers other things whereof there was much noise made afterwards had so irritated the greatest part of the English Nation that if they made sure work at home they needed not to fear any thing from England Moreover how earnestly and eagerly after that Tumult at Edenborough was so raised all sorts of people took advantage thereof the Kirkmen laying about them in their Pulpits so that the Citizens Gentry and Nobles speedily put themselves in Armes entring into a rebellious Confederacy called the Covenant And lastly that when his Majesty most gratiously offered to recall the Service-Book which was the great business at which they seem'd to take offence they were no whit lenified It will be visible enough to any person of judgment who doth not wilfully shut his Eyes that the hatching of this Rebellion was of a much elder date than that Service-Book But I now return to England CHAP. VI. HIs Majesty thus seeing his danger from Scotland and hoping of help from his English Subjects resolv'd of calling a Parliament here But no sooner were Writs out for that purpose than that the Schismatical Party used all possible endeavour to strengthen their side by choosing of their own faction for Knights and Burgesses And to accomplish the same spared for no pains in packing of Voices and making parties wherein their Seditious Pulpit-men bestir'd themselves to purpose such being then their fury that those meetings for Elections appeared more like riotous tumults than orderly conventions nevertheless the Nation was not then so generally tainted but that many good men were chosen Which Parliament began at Westminster upon the thirteenth day of April wherein his Majesty declared to both Houses the indignities receiv'd from his Scotish Subjects and to suppress their Rebellion proposed a Supply of twelve Subsidies in lieu whereof he was content to forbear Ship-money than which nothing seem'd so grievous Had not that Parliament been broke by the subtile artifices of the Grand-Contrivers in the immediate Rebellion no doubt but all those miseries which were thereby soon after brought upon this Realm might have been easily prevented and that the breach thereof was wrought by them is plain enough For Sir Henry Vane Senior a member of the House of Commons at that time and one of his Majesties principal Secretaries of State having by the King's appointment moved for a Supply of twelve Subsidies yet with power to stoop to eight when he saw an inclination
the Parliament House crying No Bishops and calling them the limbs of Antichrist And on the same day to accompany so good a work they presented to the King by the hands of the Earl of Holland their grand Remonstrance of the Grievances of the Kingdom which had been ordered to be brought into the House the twelfth of August past thereby to blast all those gracious condescentions which they had obtained from him before Whereunto his Majesty soon after made a full and clear Answer and publish'd his Royal Declaration thereupon for the satisfaction of all his good Subjects to the end they might not be deluded by those undutiful false and scandalous aspersions cast upon his Government by that malicious Libel And soon after for the better prevention of any more such dangerous tumults and uproars at or near the Houses of Parliament he directed his special Writ according to the Statute unto the Sheriffs of London to place a Guard at Westminster But the House of Commons deeming this Guard thus legally placed by the King no way conducing to their Design presently voted it to be a breach of their priviledges and an offence of an high nature and thereupon not only order'd that the said Watch should be discharg'd but that the Justices of Middlesex for their obedience to his Majesties commands herein should be question'd whereupon Justice Long was committed to the Tower That there was a most factious party in the City of London which were great Instruments in raising the ensuing Rebellion is plain enough Nor is it less observable that they acted their parts therein by colour of Authority viz. by outing all the Common-Council which were men of worth and bringing men of desperate fortunes in their rooms Wherein they had such furtherance by the help of the multitude who aim'd at their own advantage by any change of Government that they then introduced Fowkes Ryley the Boddies-maker Perkins the Lord Say's Taylor Normington the Cutler Mills the Brick-layer and divers other such mean fellows instead of Mr. Drake Mr. Roger Clarke Sir George Bynion Mr. Roger Gardner and several other worthy Citizens whose loyalty they well knew could not be corrupted These being the principal agents in all the Tumults which stood them in much stead for accomplishing of their chiefest aims And therefore plain it was to be seen what design they had when they urged the passing of the Bill for not Adjourning or Dissolving of that Parliament without their own consents having such a party in the City to back them upon all occasions Having thus dissolv'd the Guard so appointed by his Majesty there came another Tumult of the Citizens to Westminster Whereupon some Members of the House of Commons making complaint of the danger whereunto they were subject by those riotous people and how that already they had been assaulted and evil intreated by them at the very door of the House desired that some course might be taken for restraining and punishing them for the same But instead thereof divers spoke in justification of them and commended their affections saying they must not discourage their friends this being a time to make use of them all And Mr. Pym added God forbid that the House of Commons should proceed in any sort to dishearten the people for obtaining their just desires in such a way And accordingly there was a paper delivered by some or other to the Minister that preach'd at Christ-Church the Sunday following desiring that Prayer might be made to God to assist the Apprentices with strength to root out Superstition and to extirpate the Innovations of the Bishops and Clergy After which matters were every day carried with a more high hand than before the Tumultuous people having as apparent countenance from the House as before they had private encouragement Insomuch as the Lord Mayor of London came to Whitehall and acquainted the King that he discerned if Sir Thomas Lunsford whom he had newly made Lieutenant of the Tower were not removed the Apprentices would rise and pull him out So that his Majesty to prevent such an insurrection took the Keys from Sir Thomas Lunsford and constituted Sir Thomas Byron in his room with whom the factious Spirits were as ill satisfied tho they knew not well what to object against him till at last Lieutenant Hooker the Aquavitae-man and Nicholson the Chandler complained in the Common-Council that since Sir Iohn Byron came to be Lieutenant of the Tower the Mint to the great prejudice and dishonour of the Kingdom stood still Yea so insolent were these tumultuous people grown that upon the Kings Proclamation grounded upon a Penal Law to dissipate them in contempt thereof they came early the next morning in greater numbers than ever divers of them being arm'd with Swords and Halberts and towards the evening assaulted the great Church at Westminster threatning to pull it down So that the Bishops thenceforth thought it not safe for themselves to come any more to the House The News whereof so pleased those unruly people that on the morrow they came again crying No Bishops notwithstanding another Proclamation issued out by the King to restrain them And in their return making a stand before Whitehall said that they would have no more Porter's Lodge there but would speak with the King when they pleased Which rebellious uproar caused his Majesty forthwith to place a Guard for his own safety at the Court-gates But the main cry of danger was by the House of Commons as if they themselves had been the only men in peril of their lives and therefore to make the greater shew of their own fears they order'd that Halberts should be brought into their House for defence of the Members and then they made a noise of new discoveries of farther dangerous conspiracies one by a Letter from France intimating great intelligence held betwixt England and Rome and no small likelihood of dreadful plots in agitation against this Kingdom Also of another Letter at the same time found in a Jesuit's Study of great troubles which should befall this Realm And the more to amuse the people they adjourn'd to sit in a Committee at Guild-Hall to draw up a Remonstrance of the many dangers this Kingdom had undergone within the space of three years Where being met another Letter pretended to be brought from Italy was read discovering divers Plots by the Papists here Whereupon they consider'd about drawing up of another Remonstrance laying open the peril of the Spanish Fleet the coming over of the Queen-Mother the Pope's Nuncio as also several other Plots in agitation by the Jesuits and a Romish-party Which subtil practices being set on foot by some particular persons of both Houses through whose influence chiefly others were guided caused his Majesty out of a desire to prevent the ensuing calamities which he clearly foresaw must by these means inevitably follow to demand the persons of the Lord
it would be lawful to that Kingdome to assist him for the recovery of the Government he not granting the Propositions concerning Religion and the Covenant and not giving a satisfactory answer to the remanent Propositions Their Answer The Quaere presupposeth the King's coming into this Kingdome which case for the reasons expressed in our late warning we humbly conceive should not be put into the Question and therefore desire your Lordships to go about all means for the present preventing of it as a matter of most dangerous consequence to Religion this Kirk and Kingdome and to the King himself and his posterity But if the Question be stated simply without supposing such a case in these termes If the King be excluded from Government in England for not granting the propositions concerning Religion and the Covenant and for not giving a satisfactory Answer to the remanent propositions whether in that case it be lawfull for this Kingdome to assist him for the Recovery of the Government Or if it be not lawfull being put to it we cannot but answere in regard of the Engagement of this Kingdome by Covenant and Treaty Negative 1. Resolv'd upon the Question That the Kingdome of Scotland shall be governed as it hath been these five years last past all means being used that the King may take the Covenant and pass the Propositions 2. Resolv'd that the taking of the Scottish Covenant and passing some of the Propositions doth not give warrant to assist him against England 3. Resolv'd that upon bare taking the National Covenant we may not receive him 4. Resolv'd that the Clause in the Covenant for defence of the King's Person is to be understood in defence and safety of the Kingdomes 5. Resolv'd that the King shall not execute any power in the Kingdome of Scotland untill such time as he hath granted the Propositions concerning Religion and the Covenant and given satisfactory answer to both Kingdomes in the rest of the Propositions presented to him by both Kingdomes at Newcastle 6. Resolv'd that if His Majestie refuse to pass the Propositions he shall be disposed of according to the Covenant and Treaty 7. Resolv'd that the union be friendly kept between the Kingdomes according to the Covenant and Treaty By what hath last been instanc'd t is easy enough to be discern'd that bargain so long in driving on was by this time concluded in reference to the person of the King I mean the certain price for which the Scots did sell him which prompted them so eagerly and frequently to press his taking their Covenant and consent to those destructive Propositions which they well knew he could never do without apparent hazard to his Soul and that he had manifestly confuted the Arguments of Mr. Alexander Henderson whom they brought to convince him therein I shall therefore need to say no more of that matter then to set down the Quaeres which His Majestie delivered to the Commissioners of Scotland upon their last importuning him thereto when they threatned to deliver him up to the Parliament of England as they then called those Members at Westminster in case of his refusal It is a receiv'd opinion by many that Engagements Acts or Promises of a restrained person are neither valid nor obligatory How true or false this is I will not now dispute but I am sure if I be not free I am not fit to answer any of your Propositions wherefore you should first resolve me in what state I stand as in relation to freedome before I can give you any other Answer The Reason of this my Question the Governour can best resolve you But if you object the loss of time and urgency of it certainly in one respect it presses none so much as my self which makes me also think it necessary that I be not to seek what to do when this Garrison shall be surrendred up to demand of you in case I go into Scotland if I shall be there with Honour Freedome and Safety or How being ready to give you a farther and more particular Answer so soon as you shall have resolv'd these two Quaeres Whereunto they give this insignificant Answer 1. To the first in what state you stand as in relation to Freedome the Parliaments of both Kingdomes have given such orders and directions as they have thought fittest for the safety of your Majesty and the Kingdomes to the General and Governour 2. To your second Quaere of your going into Scotland we shall humbly desire that we may not be put to give an Answer but if your Majesty shall either deny or delay your assent to the Propositions we are in that case to represent to your Majesty the resolutions of the Parliament of England ¶ Having now done with their attempts upon His Majesty in reference to the Covenant and Propositions I come to their farther Progress for the establishing of Presbytery Wherein I am to look back a little About the latter end of August a Bill for Ordination of Ministers being the third time read in the House of Commons at Westminster and thence transmitted to the Lords not long after they received a Petition from the County of Lancaster subscribed by twelve thousand hands for setling of the Classes in those parts with the names of such as they had made choyse of and presented to the House for ordering thereof Nor were the Assembly of Divines sitting at Westminster less active who having fram'd a new Confession of Faith were hard at work in adding quotations of Scripture in the Margent of their Copies for justification thereof And that this blessed Presbytereal Government might be the more secure from danger the Houses at Westminster passed an Ordinance not onely for abolishing the name title and dignity of Arch-Bishops Bishops c. but nominated Trustees in whom their Lands should be setled Likewise for the fitter moulding this new Confession of Faith Copies thereof purposely printed were delivered to each Member of both Houses at Westminster to the end they might consider of the same and advise the better therein But notwithstanding all this holy Reformation there were some who had not onely the Conscience to adhere unto the Liturgy establisht by Law in the Church of England in their publick service of God but the Courage to prosecute those by Indictment which neglected the reading thereof in their Parish-Churches In so much as upon notice of this high presumption from Buckinghamshire an Ordinance was forthwith voted to be brought in for repealing the Statute which enjoyn'd it At which time the House also ordered that all Malignant Ministers for so were the Orthodox called should be disabled from Preaching and an Ordinance to be brought in for that purpose And though by an Order of the House of Commons Mr. Sydrach Sympson one of their Assembly of Divines and an eminent stickler for the Cause was for some opinions and expressions savouring of Independencie to have been
Debate resolv'd against In the Case of the Bishops the Lords first Voted that they should retain their Voices in Parliament For taking the Protestation throughout the Kingdom the Lords first cast out the Order And notwithstanding their Order and Declaration for the due Observance of the Book of Common-Prayer the Commons made and set forth a contrary Order thereto appointing it to be dispersed and published in all the Churches throughout the Kingdom Likewise though the Lords refused to joyn with the Commons for Petitioning his Majesty that the Cinque-Ports might be secured Yet were they afterwards by terror constrain'd thereto So Likewise though they refused to join with them in their consent for removing the King's Magazine from Hull yet afterwards through over-awing did it And though they concurr'd not with them in that case of the Militia the House of Commons Voted that they did agree therein Thus we plainly see that the Breach of those antient Priviledges for Freedom of Debate and Vote in Parliament was not made without some difficulty But these subtile Men having by the help of those Tumults from the Londoners opened the gap went afterwards smoothly through with all their unjustifiable Practises which in the end brought Confusion both of Parliament and Kingdome So that by these Devices having effected whatsoever they had a mind to they stuck not to deliver it for a Breach of Priviledge that the Lords should dissent to any thing they had Voted as is manifest from that of the New great Scal wherein the Lords had the same measure put upon themselves as they had offered to the King in joyning with the Commons to Vote his Majesties Dissent to the Bills they tendred to him a Breach of their Priviledges CHAP. XLV BY what hath been already said I doubt not but it is apparent enough that these great pretended Champions for the Protestant-Religion the Laws of the Land the Liberty of the Subject and Priviledges of Parliament made use of those specious pretences for no other end than to Captivate the People and by that means get the Power of the Sword into their Mercyless Hands Now forasmuch as they were not asham'd in the midst of all their Vile Practises to cry out that they sought nothing but that Religion Liberty and Peace of the Kingdom should be preserved Having already shewed how well they regarded Religion and the Peoples Liberties let us see how much they endeavoured that generally wished for Peace Did they not order that the King's Proclamation of Pardon to all that would lay down Arms and return to their Obedience should not be Proclaim'd in London and Westminster And when divers Cittizens met at Guild-Hall to frame a Petition to present to the Members at Westminster for Peace was not there a Troop of Horse sent amongst them which with their Swords drawn and terrible Menaces caused them to Disperse for safeguard of their Lives And afterwards when a Committee of the Petitioners were by appointment attending the Court of Aldermen and Common Council at Guild-Hall did not more than Twenty Souldiers rush in amongst them with drawn Swords Crying On on strike now or never Let us destroy these Malignant Doggs that would have Peace Let us cut the Throats of these Popish Rogues And accordingly fell upon the Petitioners in a cruel manner beating and wounding divers of them And when the Petitioners being many disarm'd those Souldiers and shut up the Hall Doors was not there then a Troop of Horse which Discharg'd their Pistols in at them threatning to kill any that issued out And did they not presently bring two great Guns and plant them against the Doors so that the Petitioners were constrain'd to fly up to the Common-Council Chamber for Protection and beg for their Lives to be dismissed with safety Which being granted and they let out did not many lye in wait for them with drawn Swords who pursued them with bitter Execrations the Multitude kicking and striking at them in their Passage crying Hang them cut their Throats Whereupon divers of them were sore hurt and some drag'd to Prison Did not their House of Lords refuse a Petition for Peace from the Inhabitants of Westminster and the Suburbs And was not there a Constable in Westminster Committed for having a hand in that Petition And when His Majesties Commissioners of Array in Cheshire and the Parliaments Committee in that County for Exercising the Militia out of an earnest regard to prevent the Miseries of War in those parts had made an Agreement against any farther Hostility and to preserve the Peace of the Country did not they at Westminster make a publick Declaration against the same whereby they Renounced that Agreement as prejudicial and dangerous to the whole Kingdom and declared it void And was not Sir William Brereton thereupon sent down in all hast with a Troop of Horse a Regiment of Dragoons and four Field Pieces for raising new Forces in that County to serve the Parliament And was not the like Revocation and Disclaymer made by those Members at Westminster against the Agreement in York-shire by the Earl of Cumberland and others the Commissioners of Array there for His Majesty and the Lord Fairfax and others for the Militia Was not Mr. Nicholls and Prideaux two of their Members ordered to go down to break the like Pacification made by the Gentry and others in the Counties of Devon and Cornwail notwithstanding that the Commissioners had taken a Solemn Prorestation and received the Sacrament for Observation thereof And when His Majesty had sent a Gracious Letter and Declaration to the Sheriffs and City of London with Direction that it should be read in their Common Hall was not there an Order in the Name of both Houses to forbid their meeting for to hear it Read And divâ—â—s Discharg'd by Order of the Houses who met accordingly Likewise when His Majesty sent a Message to them for a Treaty with free Trade did not the Members in the House of Commons signify to the Lords at a Conference that it would prove destructive to the Liberty of the Subject and to the Kingdom And when the Women came in great Numbers to Westminster to cry for Peace were they not beaten and abused and three of them killed Were not there certain Propositions read in their House of Commons which were found in Mr. Salâ—marsh his Trunk near Hull First that all means should be used to keep the King and his People from a suddain Union Secondly to cherish the War under the notion of Popery as the surest means to engage the People Thirdly if the King would not grant their demands then to root him out of the Royal Line and collate the Crown upon some body else How hard a matter it was like to be to obtain Peace from these Men therefore let Stephen Marshall tell you whom Mr. Case
taken the Suburbs and sackt them The Convention of Estates thus met at Tours put out a Declaration in behalf of the King And that at Paris Publisht another against him After which contrary Declarations the Schollars being as eager to contend for their several Parties as the Souldiers there were publish't many Ordinances of Parliament infinite Writings of particular Men Decisions of the Sorbon Letters of the Pope's Legate Answers of the Bishops that adhered to the King and such a number of Books every where dispersed that it was a clear case there was not a Witt in the Kingdom but was Imploy'd Not a Pen but writ in defence of the Reasons of one side or other but with so much Obstinacy of Mind in their Arguments that it was easy to discern that the Arms of the Spirit when they are distorted and misused in divers manner in the Heat and Incogitancy of Wars are more apt to administer new Fewel to the Flame than quench the Fire already begâ—n At this time the Affairs of the League were in a very tottering condition the diversity of Pretensions and contrary ends of the Confederates much disturbing the course of their Enterprizes holding not only their Councils but the Effects and Actions of their common Interests in suspence Which in regard of the speedy Expedition and Resolutions of the King could not admit of delays The Duke of Mayne being Prince of the Faction and head of the Design who by the Authority of his Person Prudence of his Government and experience in Marshal-matters bore the chief burthen of their Affairs conceiving that the reward and fruits of his Paines did of Justice belong to himself projected therefore either to transfer the Crown upon himself or upon some of his House But in case he could not obtain so much then at least to set it upon the Head of some such Prince as might totally and absolutely be beholding to him for it being resolv'd that the Kingdom should not be divided much less that it should fall into the Hands of a Forein Prince On the contrary the King of Spain who in the beginning secretly but now openly protected and fomented the League and had of late Years laid out two Millions in the Service of the Confederates and was now to contribute vast Sums of Money both in publick and private besides his maintaining of Foot and Horse seeing that without his Assistance which they desired might be great and strong not only the main Design was like to come to nothing but the League could not long subsist without being Dissolved thought more than reasonable and more than just that as the Expences and Losses were his so the Fruits and Benefits should be his also And therefore besides an under-hand secret Design of Uniting the Crowns and gayning that of France to his Daughter Isabella the Infanta whom he had by his Queen Elizabeth King Henry the 3 ds Eldest Sister he farther endeavoured to get himself publickly declared Protector of the Crown of France with Sovereign Power and Authority to dispose of the Offices of the Crown to choose the Governours and Captains of the Armyâ— to conferr Bishopricks and to have all the Prerogatives pertaining to an absolute Prince All which was demanded and publickly Sollicited by his Agents Mendoza Mornea c. But the Citizens of Paris who perceived well that the main strength of the Faction consisted in them not only in regard of the Multitude of their People and Power of the City but by reason of their continual Contributions from whence the Sinews of the War were derived thought it was come to their share to dispose of the Crown And being all apay'd with the Duke of Mayne's bad Success in the Wars the same fate which the Earl of Essex had with the Londoners Imputing the loss of their Suburbs to his slackness whom they called Coward and Block-head p. 741. and that the City was now in a manner Besieged and much straitned for want of Provisions by reason of his want of Care inclin'd to submit themselves to be ordered by the Spaniards hoping by the help of their Forces to destroy the King's whose very Name was odious to them and to extirpate the Religion of the Huguenots whereunto they were naturally Enemies and by means of the Spanishâ—-Gold to be eased of the insupportable burthen of Contributions For the King of Spains Ministers bore them in hand and went about cunningly with fair Promises and big Words both in publick and private in order to their Assistance On the other side the Nobility which took part with the League in whose hands were the Arms and Forces of the Kingdom were much averse from submitting to the Spanish-Yoke inclined to the Duke of Mayne conforming themselves to his Pleasure to be guided by his Authority But in this great distraction of the Kingdom divers of them were not without their own particular Designs And of such variety of Councils was the League composed that by clashing with one another they interrupted the course of their Affairs and abated the heat by which they first Conspired in that Band which seemed to have no other end but Religion The King therefore taking advantage of these their Divisions dismissed the Marquess of Belin upon his Parole whom he had taken Prisoner at the Battel of Arches with Commission in his name to proffer Peace to the Duke of Mayne and to exhort him as a Prince of an honest and moderate temper not to assent to the Pernicious Designs of Foreigners but freeing himself from the base usage of the Vulgar and cunning of the Spaniard that he would hearken to an honest and safe Peace whereupon answerable to his Merit and Honour he should have as great a share in the Kings Favour as himself could desire When the Marquess made this overture to the Duke the Opinions of the Councillers about him were much divided some favouring it others declaming against it Telling how the War was founded upon the point of Religion and therefore nothing must be done in it without the Popes Approbation Also that the Duke of Mayne being not absolute Prince of the League but only the Head of his Party ought not to adventure upon such an Important Action without the joynt consent of all those that followed that Party and all the Princes that adhered to or favoured the League who if they should not follow his deliberation might choose another Head and he be left destitute of the support of the Catholick Party to the will of his Enemies And that this was but a trick of the Kings to work a diffidence in the Dukes Party and to sow Divisions and Suspitions amongst the Confederates though the King might promise Golden-Mountains to the end he might dissolve the Union of the League yet there was no security but that so soon as he should be Established King in Peace he would not observe the least Tittle of his promises The Duke therefore on the one side
having form'd sundry congregations as at Francfort Strasburg Geneva and other places they devised such new models of Discipline but all of them more or less favouring of those Tenets as upon their return after the death of that Queen not a few both of the Clergy and Laity were unhappily tainted therewith And at length through the countenance of some chief Ministers of State who then seemed to favour them for certain private respects became dangerous Enemies not only to the Doctrine and Discipline of this Church but to the very temporal Government of the Realm as by their heterodox opinions which they boldly promoted and spread under the specious Title and name of the Gospel will evidently appear of which I have here thought fit out of their own Books and Writings to give a Taste Lay men may teach to get Faith Lay men may preach to Congregations to exercise their abilities Every member of the Church hath power to examine the manner of administring the Sacrament That to have a Liturgy or form of prayer is to have another Gospel Some Protestants are of opinion that Ordinances cannot be performed but by a Prelate or at least by Ministers only without whose Imposition of Hands it were no Ordination as if it did confer such an order whereas the prime and proper conferring of this Order is by Christ himself inwardly calling and gifting a man for the work of the Ministry To the people belongeth the laying on of Hands as a token of their approbation and confirmation of him that is chosen Arch-Bishops and Bishops are superfluous members of the Body of Christ. They are unlawful false and bastardly Governours of the Church they are the ordinances of the Devil yea they are petty-Popes petty-Antichrists Bishops of the Devil and incarnate Devils If the Hierarchy be not removed and the Scepter of Christ's Kingdom namely his own Discipline advanced there can be no healing of the sore If the Parliament do not abrogate the government of Bishops they shall betray God the Truth and the whole Kingdom Though the Parliament be for Bishops yet all the Godly and Religious will be against them If the Brethren cannot obtain their wills by Suit nor Dispute the multitude and people must work the feat Reformation of Religion belongs to the Commonalty Christian Sovereigns ought not to be called Heads under Christ of the particular invisible Churches within their dominion They ought not to meddle with the making of Laws Orders and Ceremonies for the Church The people may well enough be without Kings for there was none till Cain's days These therefore being their Principles that their continued Practises have been sutable thereto is not unknown to many viz. to subject all Princes and Governours to their own Rule and Authority and in ordine ad Spiritualia to determine in temporal matters Hence I shall proceed a little farther and out of their own Writings make manifest what a noise they have made that their Discipline founded on these Principles might be firmly setled The establishing the Presbytery saith T. Cartwright is the full placing of Christ in his Kingdom The Presbyterian Discipline is the Scepter of Christ swaying his own House according to his hearts desire the Soul the Cheif Commander in the Camp Royal. Huic Disciplinae omnes orbis Principes Monarchas fasces suas submittere parere necesse est There is a necessity that all Princes and Monarchs should submit their Scepters and obey this Discipline This Discipline ought to be set up and all Princes ought to submit themselves under the yoke of it Yea what Prince King or Emperor shall disanul the same he is to be reputed God's Enemy and to be held unworthy to reign above the people This Discipline is no small part of the Gospel it is the substance of it This Discipline is the Gospel of the kingdom of God They that reject this Discipline refuse to have Christ reign over them and deny him in effect to be their King or their Lord. This Discipline is the eternal Council of God If any refuse to have the Lord Jesus set up as Lord i. e. to submit to this Discipline let him be Anathema Maranatha Aut hoc aut nihil is their Ensign They who hinder Discipline bring the Estate at length to an extreamly desperate point None but Enemies to Christ are Enemies to this Government Strike neither at great nor small but at those troublers of Israel Smite that Hazael in the fifth rib Yea if Father or Mother stand in the way away with them Down with the colours of the Dragon Advance the standard of Christ. Those mine Enemies who would not that I should reign over them bring hither and slay them before me Strike the Basilic vein Nothing but this will cure the Pleurisy of our State And Gibson threatned King Iames that as Ieroboam he should be rooted out and conclude his race if he maintained Bishops Which dangerous positions being thus maintained by this sort of men occasioned Mr. Perkins an eminent Divine of those times thus to express There is in England saith he a Schismatical and indiscreet Company that would seem to cry out for Discipline Their whole talk is of it and yet they neither know it nor will be reformed by it They are full of pride thinking themselves to be full when they are empty to have all knowledg when they are ignorant and had need to be catechised The poison of aspes is under their Lips They refuse not to speak evil of the blessed servants of God And as the German Sectaries upon the Principles before mention'd did act in those parts so did the Scots upon those Documents they had received chiesly from Iohn Knox who told his Countrymen in print that the Nobility and Commonalty ought to reform Religion and in that case might remove from Honours and punish such as God hath commanded of what estate condition or honour what soever Hereupon taking an Oath of confederacy and Subscription under hands to some agreement for a Reformation much strength was added thereunto by the Sacrilegious hoping thereby to swallow up the Church-Revenues Next without the authority of Sovereignty or knowledg of it those Confederates prescribed orders for Reformation of Religion to be observed and practised throughout the whole Kingdom Then preach'd against the Queen-Regent and Parliament and wrote to the Bishops and Clergy that except they did desist from dealing against them they would with all force and power execute just vengeance and punishment upon them likewise begin the same war which God commanded Israel to execute against the Cananites And lastly arriving at the highest pitch of Rebellion they deposed their Queen By that which hath been said it is no less apparent what those Disciplinarians in Queen Elizabeth's days did also aim at had their
Eyes and Screw'd faces do they make And pag. 41. l. 3. Again how like a company of Conjurers do they mumble cut the beginning of their Prayers that the people may not bear them and when artificially they have raised their voices what a pulling do they make But that which afforded them no little advantage was that horrid Gun-powder Plot which happened in the third year of King Iames being hatch'd by those fiery-spirited men of the Romish-perswasion whom the bloudy-minded Jesuits had influenc'd for that most wicked practise For after this to terrify the people with the Church of Rome their Sermons were little less than Declamations against the Papists aiming thereby to represent them formidable and odious insinuating to the world that all the fear of danger was from those of that Religion whilst they themselves in the mean time did insensibly poyson the people with such other unfound Doctrines as became at length the fountain of this late unparallel'd Rebellion which terminated in the execrable Murther of our late gracious King and would have put a Period to this famous and long flourishing Monarchy had not almighty God of his great mercy miraculously prevented it But how far the Principles of these Holy Reformers do differ from the most rigid of the Romish profession against whom they have so long and loudly clamoured these ensuing observations will briefly manifest The Jesuits Tenets In Regnis Hominum potestas Regis est a populo quia populus facit Regem In the Kingdoms of men the power of the King is from the People Potestas immediate est tanquam in subjecto in tota multitudine si causa legitima adsit potest multitudo mutare Regnum in Aristocratiam Democratiam The power is immediately as in the subject in the multitude and if there be lawful cause the multitude may change the Kingdom into an Aristocracy or Democracy De side certum est quemcunque Principem Christianum si a Religione Catholica de flexerit alios avocare voluerit excidere statim omni potestate dignitate idque ante prolatam Papae sententiam posseque debere subditos si vires habeant istiusmodi Haereticum Hominum Christianorum dominatu ejicere It is certainly a matter of Faith that whatsoever Christian Prince shall depart from the Catholic Religion and shall withdraw others doth immediately fall from all power and dignity even before the Popes sentence given and that the Subjects may and should if they have strength cast forth such an Heretick from the dominion of Christian men Talis consensu omnium potest imo debet privari suo dominio Si hoc priscis temporibus minus factum sit causa est quia deerant vires Such a King by the consent of all may yea ought to be deprived of his dominion If this in old time was not done the cause was for that they had not strength Non dissimulandum esse c. This is not to be dissembled that it is the most expedient and safe way if a public meeting may be granted to deliberate what shall be done by common consent First of all the Prince is to be admonished and to be brought to his wits again c. If he reject the Medicine and no hope of his recovery be lest when the Sentence is passed upon him the Common-wealth may first refuse his command And because of necessity there will be a stirring up for war they may unfold their Councils for defence thereof and shew that it is expedient to have weapons and to command the people to advance moneys for the charge of the Wars And if the matter will suffer and the Common-wealth cannot otherwise defend it self with the same right of defence but with a better authority and peculiar of their own Principem publice Hostem declaratum ferro perimere They may kill the Prince he being publickly declared an Enemy The Presbyterian Tenets Populo jus est ut Imperium cui velit deferat The people may confer the Government on whom they please Without the Prince the people may reform and must not tarry for the Magistrate Not Kings and Magistrates only ought to punish crimes against God but the whole body of the people and every member of the same to his ability must revenge the injury done to God If Princes be Tyrants against God and his Truth their Subjects are free from their Oath of Obedience Subjects do promise obedience that the Magistrate might help them which if he do not they are discharged of obedience Evil Princes ought to be deposed and inferior Magistrates ought chiefly to do it Subjects must withstand wicked Princes they must take up Arms against them God hath appointed the Nobility to bridle the inordinate appetite of Princes and in so doing they cannot be accused as Resisters of Authority Judges ought to summon Princes before them for their crimes and proceed against them as against all other offenders When Magistrates cease to do their duties God giveth the Sword into the peoples hands Let every Soul be subject to Superiors Paul says he wrote this in the Infancy of the Church There were but few Christians then not many of them rich or of ability so as they were not ripe for such a purpose As if a man should write to such Christians as are under the Turk in substance poor in courage feeble in strength unarm'd in number few and generally subject to all kinds of injuries would not he write as Paul did So as the Apostle did respect the men he wrote unto and his words ought not to be extended to the body or people of a Common-wealth or whole City If Paul were alive and did see wicked Kings reigning in Christian Common-wealths Paul would say that he accounted no such for Magistrates he would forbid all men for speaking to them and from keeping them company He would leave them to their Subjects to be punished neither would he blame them if they accounted no such longer for their Kings They may kill wicked Princes as Monsters and cruel beasts And if neither the Magistrate nor the people do their office in deposing or killing them then the Minister must excommunicate such a King Any Minister may do it against the greatest Prince A private man having some special inward notion may kill a Tyrant In other things also were it not for brevity the like parallel might be made in what those of the Romish Perswasion and the Presbyterians do hold as that the Office of Priests and Bishops is one and the same as is judiciously observed by the learned Author of the History of the Reformation of the Church of England printed at London 1679 pag. 366 whereunto I refer my Reader CHAP. III. And having thus demonstrated that the Principles by which this sort of men be unhappily guided are most dangerous and destructive to
speech to both Houses did again put them in mind of their engaging his Father in that war for recovery of the Palatinate upon promise of their assistance in a Parliamentary-way and that they themselves then appointed a Council of war and Treasurers He also acquainted them with the expence of the three Subsidies and three Fifteens then given And further expressed that he had thus reassembled them upon the death of his royal Father to receive their farther advice and aid for proceeding in that wherein by their Councils his Father was engaged as also that they had granted unto him two Subsidies then ungathered which were far short of setting forth the Navy at that time preparing And the Lord Conway and Secretary Cook did then more particularly declare unto the House of Commons the state of Affairs as they at that time stood manifesting that much more then the two Subsidies already given though not paid had been disbursed Moreover that the Fleet was then at Sea hastening to their Rendezvouz the Army at Plymouth expecting their Commanders his Majesties Honour Religion and the Kingdoms safety engaged That the King had certain advice of his Enemies intentions to infest his dominions in Ireland and the English Coasts and of their increase of Shipping in all parts as also that the present charge of his Army and Navy did amount to above four hundred thousand Pounds The Lord Treasurer likewise representing to them the late Kings debts Viz. To the City of London 120000l besides Interest For Denmark and the Palatinate 150000l For his Wardrobe 40000 l. All which did then lye upon his Majesty And that his then Majesty was indebted to the City of London 20000l That he had laid out upon his Navy 20000 l. For Count Mansfeild 20000l For Mourning and his Father's Funeral Expences 42000 l. For Expences concerning the Queen 40000 l. And that the pay of the Navy during the time intended for that present Expedition with the setting forth thereof would amount to 300000 l. But the Commons instead of that calm and temperate Consideration of the present Exigencies which his Majesty expected fell into very high debates and alledg'd that the Treasure was misimploy'd that evil Councils guided the King's designs that his Necessities grew by improvidence that they had need to petition the King for a straight hand and better Council to manage his affairs and that though a former Parliament did engage the King in a war yet if things were managed by contrary designs and the Treasure misimploy'd that Parliament was not bound by another Parliament to be carried blindfold in designs not guided by second Councils Adding that it was not usual to grant Subsidies upon Subsidies in one Parliament and no grievance redressed Notwithstanding which objections it was earnestly pressed by some Members of the House that two Subsidies and two Fifteens might be given his Majesties Honour and the Necessity of Affairs requiring it as it then appeared out of Considerations which had been frequently represented But these motives little avail'd for instead of hearkening thereto the Commons then publish'd a plausible Declaration wherein they solemnly protested and vowed before God and the world with one Heart and Voice that they were all resolv'd and did thereby declare that they would ever continue most loyal and obedient Subjects to their most gracious Sovereign Lord King Charles and that they would be ready in convenient time and in a Parliamentary-way freely and dutifully to do their utmost endeavours to discover and reform the Abuses and Grievances of the Realm and State and in like sort to afford all necessary Supply to his most excellent Majesty upon his present and all other his just Occasions and Designs The King therefore plainly perceiving that the House did not incline to any Supply and that in their debates they reflected upon some great persons near unto him dissolved that Parliament upon the twelfth of August Which done he resolved that the Fleet should speedily put to Sea and entred forthwith into a League with the United Provinces against the Emperour and King of Spain for restoring of the Liberties of Germany But being in great and present Want of moneys he issued out Letters under his Privy-Seal for borrowing to supply those Necessities and summon'd another Parliament to meet upon the sixth of February ensuing which was four days after his solemn Coronation Soon after the sitting of which Parliament the Earl of Pembroke at a Conference of both Houses represented how the affairs of Christendome stood before the breach of the Treaties with Spain and how at that present as also the condition of the Palatinate and likewise the King of Denmark's engagement in the quarrel with the forwardness of the Swedes and contract with the Hollander and that the Fruits of all these would be lost unless a speedy Supply were resolved on But notwithstanding all this the Commons still delay'd the giving of any Supply which occasion'd the King by a Letter to the Speaker to press them again thereunto and to remind them of their promises withall assuring them that he would willingly apply fit and seasonable remedies to such just Grievances as they should present unto him in a dutiful and mannerly way without throwing an ill odour upon the present Government or upon the Government of his Father Unto which Letter they made a specious general answer intimateing that they really intended him Supply and accordingly voted three Subsidies and three Fifteens but gave them not Not long after this His Majesty by the mouth of the Lord Keeper took notice to the House of Commons of a seditious expression made by Mr. Clement Coke one of their members as also of Dr. Turner's unparliamentary carriage in reference to the Duke of Buckingham likewise of suffering his Council of State to be censured and traduced in their House by persons whose Years and Education could not judge of things that forreign business had been entertain'd in the House to the hindrance and disadvantage of his Majesties Negotiations yea that upon the first day of his Inauguration they suffered his Council Governours and Servants to be parallel'd with the times of most Exception that their Committees had also presumed to examine the Letters of his Secretaries of State nay his Majesties own Letters and sent a general Warrant to his Signet Office commanding his Officers there not only to produce and shew the Records but their Books and private Notes which they made for his Majesties service Next he told them that they had been made acquainted with the greatness of his Majesties affairs both at home and abroad with the strong preparations of the Enemy with the Importance of upholding his Allies strengthening and securing both England and Ireland besides the encountring and annoying the Enemy by a powerful Fleet at Sea and the charge of all And that this being calculated unto them they had professed unto his Majesty by the
the same subject which under colour of a desire to search after his death for some Writings in his Study were by certain Clergy-men who stood disaffected to the Discipline of the Church unhappily lurch'd away they did at length gain those very Books into their hands and not long after the beginning of this late unparallel'd Rebellion for the better accomplishing their long studyed ends most shamefully corrupted them in sundry places omitting divers passages which were unsutable to their purposes and instead thereof inserting what they thought might give countenance to their present evil practises amongst which was this in terminis that though the King were singulis major yet he was universis minor and having so done caus'd them to be publish'd in Print By which fallacy divers well meaning people were miserably captivated and drawn to their Party And at length were not ashamed in that Treaty which they had with his Majesty in the Isle of Wight to vouch the authority of this venerable man in derogation of his Supremacy and to place the Soveraign power in the People that great Antimonarchist William late Vicount Say and Sele being the person who boldly urged it Whereunto the good King answered that though those three Books were not allowed to be Mr. Hookers yet he would admit them so to be and consent to what his Lordship endeavoured to prove out of them in case he would assent to the judgment of Mr. Hooker declared in the other five Books which were unquestionably His. But as to these their indirect dealings in thus corrupting the works of that excellent man whose memory for his profound learning singular piety and most exemplary life will be ever precious to succeeding ages and his necessary vindication therein I shall for more full satisfaction to my Reader refer him to that seasonable Historical discourse lately compiled and published with great judgment and integrity by that much deserving person Mr. Isaac Walton containing a perfect Narrative of the life and death of this right worthy person Of which I hold it necessary that special notice should be taken by reason that since the happy Restauration of our present Soveraign K. Charles II. Dr. Gawden then Bishop of Exeter upon the reprinting those five genuine Books of Mr. Hooker together with the other pretended three taking upon him to write a Preface to the whole and therein to give an account of Mr. Hooker's life hath not only with great confidence used divers Arguments to satisfie the world that those three Books were penn'd by Mr. Hooker notwithstanding those poysonous assertions against the Regal power which are to be found therein but much misreported him in the Narrative of his life representing him to have been a single man with many other gross mistakes as whoso compares it with Mr. Walton's History of him may easily see Moreover well knowing that the City of London in respect of its Riches and Populousness must be the principal stage for this Tragic-Action there was no small care taken for fitting all places of Authority therein especially the Common-Council with such active men as might advance this blessed work Wherein having made a fair and succesful progress but discerning that the Sword must at length be made use of they then began to frequent the Artillery-yard and to be diligent Practisers of military Discipline in which they grew in a short time so great Proficients that most of the cheif Officers in that School were men of that stamp and got into their hands the best and choicest Arms. And that they might make the more secure progress in this their long studyed design they laid the Scene at first in Scotland the Subjects of that Realm being most tainted with Presbytery so that in case this their contrivance should speed there they might the more boldly adventure upon the like here The first thing therefore that was made use of towards their Master-piece in Scotland was an exception or rather cavil by divers eminent persons in that Kingdom at his Majesties Revocation of such things as had been passed away in prejudice of that Crown especially by some of his Progenitors in their minorities though not without example This being advised by those that were then his Majesties Privy-Councellers and Officers of State in that Realm whose late Actions have sufficiently manifested what effect they desired it should produce did accordingly occasion much repining by divers principal persons who thereupon infused into his Subjects a distaste of his Government And though the King was pleased to wave his interest therein and to remit as well the Equity as rigour of the Laws in that point the Male-contents would not be satisfyed but still endeavoured to work a disaffection in the people thereto And whereas his Majesty out of his pious care of the Clergy who had been much opprest by the Laity that pay'd Tythes being pleased to grant out Commissions in their behalf had so good issue therein as that both Parties were abundantly satisfyed the maintenance of the Clergy being thereby improv'd and the Laity freed from a dangerous dependance upon Subjects yet the Nobility and Lay-Patrons fretting privately for being rob'd as they conceiv'd of the dependance of the Clergy and Laity bent their envy against the Bishops under pretence that they were the principal causers thereof To quiet therefore these discontents in the year 1633 his Majesty made a progress into Scotland and was there crowned having not been personally there till then since the death of his Royal Father at which time he also held a Parliament in that Realm wherein great suggestions were made of fears that dangerous Innovations in Religion would be attempted as also instead of acceptance of an Act for Ratification of all other Acts concerning the Religion professed and established it was dissented to by divers of the after-chiefest Covenanters And no sooner was he returned back into England but that infinite Libels were disperst abroad to impoyson the People with his Majesties proceedings at that Parliament Of which Libellers amongst others the Lord Balmerino was found guilty by his Peers and accordingly should have receiv'd sentence of death for it nevertheless through his Majesties goodness was not only pardoned but enlarg'd and afterwards became an eminent Covenanter Which Insolency of the Scots did not a little animate and encourage the Puritan-faction here who loudly declaimed against the Discipline of the Church as it then by Law stood establish'd and to beget a greater contempt thereof in the generality of the people represented it to be superstitious and like to usher in Popery dispersing many scandalous seditious and libellous Pamphlets to that purpose infusing likewise into them strange apprehensions that their Liberty and Property were in no little danger and the better to give colour to their pretended fears of these approaching Evils they took ready hold of this following occasion The Soveraignty of the Brittish-Seas by antient right justly appertaining to the Crown
the Bishop of Galoway and the Lord chief Justice of that Kingdom were assaulted by the multitude and the Lords beset in the Council-house the people in their clamorous noises crying God defend all those who will defend God's cause and God confound the Service-book and all the maintainers thereof And so great were their outrages that they pull'd down the Lord Treasurer took his Hat Cloak and White-Staff from him and set upon the Provost as he was entring his own House These with the like were the beginnings to their intended glorious work of Reformation as they call'd it which they 〈◊〉 God even to a miracle had so graciously prospered in their Hands In which last Tumults none were more forward than two of those who were lately Bayliffs of Edenborough and had subscribed the before-mention'd Letters to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury Subsequent to which Tumults two Petitions were presented to the Lord Chancellour and Council against the Service-book the first in the name of all the Men Women Children and Servants of Edenborough the second by the Noblemen Gentlemen Ministers and Burgesses suggestions being made to the people of the King's inclination to Popery Of which stirs in Scotland the King having advertisement he sent over the Earl of Roxborough Lord Privy-Seal into that Kingdom Whereupon a Proclamation was set forth there by his Majesties appointment for dispersing of the dangerous multitudes got together at Sterlyn But against this Proclamation the Earl of Hume and Lord Lindsey with many others of all ranks made a Protestation which Protestation they published at Lithgow and afterwards at Edenborough forcing the Heraulds that proclaim'd the same to stay and hear the Protestation against it So that 't is observable that the first Tumult was by the name of Rascals and Scum of the people The second by the best sort of Citizens and the third by the Nobility Gentry and Magistrates After which Protestation they erected public Tables of Advice and Council for ordering the affairs of that Kingdom in contempt of his Majesties authority entring into a formal Combination which they call'd a Covenant against all that should oppose them Which Covenant Mr. Andrew Cant in his Sermon at Galsgow told the people he was sent to them with by a Commission from Christ to bid them Subscribe it being Christ's contract and that he himself came as a wooer to them for the Bridegroom and call'd upon them to come to be hand-fasted by subscribing that contract Adding that he would not depart the Town till he got all the names of those who should refuse to subscribe that Contract of whom he promised to complain to his Master The King therefore hearing of the increase of those troubles sent over the Marquess of Hamilton with Commission for composure of them Who on the sixth of Iune following arrived at Dalkeith where the Lords of his Majesties Council of that Kingdom were then assembled for safety as 't was pretended in regard of the combustions at Edenborough which daily increased But the cheif of the Covenanters grew daily more violent in their courses increased the meetings of their Tables subdivided them into several Committees augmented their Provisions of Armes and infusing fears and jealousies into the people by seditious Sermons caused Edenborough-Castle to be girt with strong Guards hindred all persons to go to the Marquess to treat or speak with him in the business for which he was sent giving out that there was a Plot to blow them up with Gunpowder if they should go to Dalkeith and received in two Ships-lading with Armes and Amunition at that time Whereupon at the request of the Citizens of Edenborough the Marquess took his journey from Dalkeith to Haly-Rood-House But before he got thither the Covenanters meeting him on the way with multitudes that made great Exclamations against Popery and Bishops required a General Assembly of the Church and then a Parliament justifying their Covenant as being more available and usefull to them as they said than all the Laws and Acts of Parliament which had been enacted in that Kingdom since the time of Fergus the first King thereof The Peoples fury also growing more hot than ever new Guards were clap'd upon the Castle of Edenborough the Pulpits rung of Libellous Sermons and Prayers yea so insolent they were that they sent a Prohibition against reading the English-Service in the King 's peculiar Chappel where the Marquess his Majesties Commissioner and the Council were to be Which Tumults as 't was said occasioning the Marquess to go back to Dalkeith the Covenanters sent Letters to every one of his Majesties Council requiring their Subscription to the Covenant And understanding that the Marquess did resolve to publish a Declaration of his Majesties forwardness to maintain the Religion professed in that Kingdom and his aversness to Popery disswaded him as he tendred the King's honour his own safety and peace of the Publick from doing it But not withstanding these arguments the Marquess did cause his Majesties Proclamation to be publish'd by Heraulds at the Market-Cross in Edenborough declaring his resolution to maintain the true Protestant-Christian-Religion And for farther clearing of scruples assured them that he would neither then nor thenceforth press the practise of the Canons and Service-Book otherwise than in such a fair and legal way as should satisfy his loving Subjects that he neither intended Innovation in Religion or Laws warning all his good people to beware of disobedience But all this no whit sufficed them for in open affront thereto they caused multitudes of people to fill the streets especially near the Cross in an hostile equipage with Pistols and Swords out of their Belts giving out that if this Proclamation were hearkned unto it would bring undoubted ruine to their Religion Laws and Liberties and upon a Scaffold erected for that purpose they mounted with a Rebellious Protestation in defence of their Covenant which they published openly concluding that if his Majesty would not allow their proceedings they themselves would call a General Assembly justifying all their doings to be most necessary and an orderly means agreeable to the Laws and practise of that Church and Kingdom Whereupon the Marquess returning into England to acquaint the King with what had passed resolving to be back again before the Fifth of August with new instructions they in his absence inform'd the People that he was well satisfied with their Covenant Against which calumny upon his return he publish'd a Manifesto in Print And having direction from his Majesty to indict an Assembly sent to divers of the principal Covenanters concerning some Propositions to be resolv'd upon before the meeting thereof But this Message was receiv'd with so much choler and contempt that they blazed it abroad for a proposition tending to the utter ruine of the Laws and Liberties of that Church and Kingdom Which much startling the Marquess he told them of his resolution to go
the Ecclesiastical and Civil Laws of his Kingdom of Scotland he did not only agree to the same but should always protect them to the utmost of his power they yielding him in the mean time such civil and temporal obedience as could be justly required of loyal Subjects Upon this Petition therefore Articles of Pacification were concluded on at Barwick whereby his Majesty was contented not only to confirm whatsoever his Commissioner had promised in his name but that all Ecclesiastical matters should be determined by the Assemblies of the Kirk Likewise matters Civil by the Parliament and other inferior Judicatories establish'd by Law Moreover that for setling the distractions of that Kingdom he was willing to grant a free general Assembly to be kept at Edenborough the sixth of August ensuing and after that a Parliament the twentieth of August for ratifying what should be concluded in the Assembly being graciously pleased to declare that upon disbanding of their Forces dissolving all their pretended Tables restoring his Forts Castles and Amunition c. To his good Subjects their Liberties Lands Goods c. detained since the late pretended general Assembly he would recall his Fleet retire his Land-forces and make restitution to them of their Ships and Goods arrested c. Which Agreement was entertained by them with so much outward acceptance that by the Subscriptions of the chiefest of them it was promised they would ever in all things carry themselves like humble loyal and obedient Subjects But instead of performance of their parts at the very publishing the Articles in their Camp a Protestation was made dishonourable to his Majesties Government to the further encouraging of the People in their disobedient and mutinous ways And at the same time they delivered into the hands of some of the English Nobility and spread among others a scandalous Paper intituled Some conditions of his Majesties Treaty with his Subjects of Scotland wherein were contained such untruths and seditious positions and so contrary to what was concluded in the Articles of Pacification that howsoever they pretended a desire of peace yet they intended nothing less and instead of disbanding their Forces within forty eight hours after publication of those Articles they kept great parts of them together and held in pay almost all their Officers continuing their unlawful meetings and conventicles to the great vexation and trouble of all such his Majesties good Subjects as did not adhere to their rebellious Covenant and Act of the pretended Assembly at Glasgow keeping up all their Fortifications Yea such was the fury of the People animated by that Protestation with divers scandalous Papers and seditious Sermons that they deterred his Majesties good Subjects from going to their dwellings threatning them with loss of their lives if they repaired to their own Houses labouring also to pervert them in the choice of the Commissioners for the general Assembly appointed by anticipating their voices in making them swear to and subscribe the approbation of the same Assembly at Glasgow and Acts thereof deterring others from repairing thereto So that by these new disorders the peace and quiet of his Subjects was greatly disturbed great Insolencies being offer'd to the Earl of Kinnowl his Majesties high Treasurer as also to Sir Iames Hamilton Justice-general and other his Majesties Councellors and good Subjects so that the King sorbore to come to Edenborough such of his Loyal Subjects as attended his Person and adhered to him being branded by them with the vile aspersion of Traitors to God and their Country and threatned to be proceeded against with censures accordingly And lastly shaking off all respect due to sacred Majesty protested that all members of the Colleges of Iustice and Leiges were not to attend the Session and that all Acts Decrees and Sentences therein past against any of them should be null void and ineffectual contrary to the King 's express Warrant for the down-sitting thereof and the heavy damage of his good Subjects who were thereby frustrated of Justice And having laid these insolent and seditious foundations for a Parliament it could not be expected but that the structure must be full of confusion as indeed it proved their Actions and demands favouring of nothing but undutifulness and disloyalty for they stuck not to deny to his Majesty the most essential and inherent Prerogatives of his Crown striving by all means to change and alter the constitutions of the Parliament and frame of Government Likewise to restrain his power in point of coinage custody of Castles grants of Honour and Commissions-Justiciary or Lieutenancy And his Majesty by his Commission having allow'd them the liberty of convening and meeting until a certain day for distributing of their pretended charges amongst such as should willingly condescend thereunto they did not only without Warrant continue their Conventicles and Tables since that Commission expired contrary to the positive Laws of that Kingdom the Act of Pacification and their own acknowledgment in petitioning for the aforesaid Commission but urged that all those his good Subjects who adhered to him in defence of his Royal authority against their rebellious commotions should be made equal if not more liable to the defraying of their pretended charges Which might imply his Majesties countenance and justification of all their Rebellions and Treasons The King therefore discerning their persistance in such unsufferable demands return'd to England signifying to the Earl of Traquier his Commissioner that it did evidently appear unto him that their aim was not now for Religion as they always pretended but rather the alteration of the Government of that Kingdom and withall the total overthrow of Royal authority commanding his said Commissioner to prorogate the parliament till the second of Iune next following Notwithstanding which Prorogation they continued their sitting at Edenborough and sent their Deputies over into this Kingdom to make Remonstrance of their doing without knowledg of his Commissioner Whereupon his Majesties Commissioner came over and acquainting him with those Insolencies also by his command relating them at his Council-board the King there proposed to the consideration of the Lords then present whether it were not more sit to reduce them to their duty by force than give way to their demands so much prejudicial to his Honour and safety Which being unanimously voted in the affirmative his Majesty resolved to call a Parliament soon after In which Interim the Scots lost no time but making fair pretences by their Remonstrance protested against this Act of Prorogation and declared that the same was contrary to the Constitutions and practise of all precedent Parliaments contrary to the liberties of that Kingdom and repugnant to the Articles of the late Pacification and that it was ineffectual and of no force to hinder their proceedings professing that it was never their intention to deny his Majesty any part of that civil and temporal obedience which is due
in the House tending thereto first by a Proposal of four then five nay six were mention'd and the motion not dislik'd told them peremptorily that it was in vain for them to think of less than twelve in regard he knew under that number would not be accepted And having by that sinister dealing kept such distance betwixt his Majesty and his good Subjects was by some other of the faction so seconded with a hideous representation of their Grievances together with dangerous Innovations in Religion and fears of introducing Superstition besides certain motions as did not without cause put strange apprehensions in the Queen of peril to her person or at least some others very near unto her that his Majesty was constrain'd to dissolve that Parliament And taking consideration of the Scots rebellious Insolencies which every day increased proposed the business of money to his Privy-Council who contributed a considerable sum to his aid his domestic-Servants and Officers making good addition thereto The Earl of Strafford Lord Lieutenant of Ireland speedily hasting into that Kingdom where he call'd a Parliament raised an Army of eight thousand men with money to maintain them and within the space of six weeks return'd into England That the meeting of these Members of Parliament from all parts of the Realm being many of them men of turbulent Spirits and principles totally Antimonarchical gave opportunity for those contrivances which afterwards were put in Action there is nothing more sure For in the first place they took care to infuse Fears and Iealousies into the people every where that the Government was then design'd to be Arbitrary and Popery like to be introduced to promote which Scandals many seditious Preachers took no small pains in their Pulpits especially in and about London Whereupon several tumultuous meetings were made in divers parts of the Suburbs and a Paper set up in the night at the old Exchange animating the Apprentices to sack Lambeth House Which took such effect that two nights following it was beset with above five hundred of the rascal multitude and an attemt made thereon though without success some of them being taken and imprisoned in Southwark But here they rested not for within a few nights after they broke open the White-Lion and King's-bench Prisons and let out their fellows The Scots also having made such preparations for a second Rebellion continued likewise their Parliament according to the Fundamental Laws as their phrase was having enacted a Band to be subscribed by all men before the first of September to maintain it to be a free and lawful Parliament whereupon they form'd another Army and knowing certainly what store of well-wishers they had in this Kingdom as also how easy the work was like to be made through the subtile contrivances of the factious party here from whom they were sufficiently instructed and animated by private Invitations and large promises invaded this Realm passing the Twede at Barwick But the King being slow to believe what they designed was not so forward as to encounter them upon the Borders his Army which he rais'd that Summer lying at that time about New-Castle of which the Earl of Northumberland was made General who alledging himself to be then ill in health staid in London His Majesty therefore having certain advertisement that the Scots were ready to enter Northumberland intended to have made the Earl of Strafford General who declin'd it out of an honoured respect to the Earl of Northumberland but being much pressed in regard of this present occasion desired to serve as Lieutenant general under him and had his Commission accordingly On Thursday the twentieth of Aug. the King set forwards from London towards the North and on Munday following the Earl of Strafford having in that short time fitted himself for his journey posted from London by Coaches and arriving at York the Wednesday after though then much troubled with the Stone rode to Topcliffe on Fryday At that time the Lord Conway was General of the Horse and at Newcastle with the Army Where by reason of the General 's and Lieutenant-General's absence he had the cheif command thereof but made such slender resistance that the Scots forc'd their passage over the River of Tine at Newburne that very Friday and entred Newcastle without opposition himself then retreating with the Army towards York and in some confusion And now that the Scots had thus possess'd themselves of Newcastle they began to strengthen that place and bring all those Northern-parts under contribution Which strange passages made most men amazed scarce any man knowing whom to trust or speak freely to Much labour indeed there was to make the people believe that all this did work for their good and that the Scots were their surest friends this being the certain way to have a Parliament and that the undoubted cure of all things amiss both in Church and State And truly such a burthen was Ship-money then esteem'd to be and some few other extraordinary Impositions so wanton were many grown being surfeited with that plenty which long peace had produc'd that the Scots then had not a few well-wishers in all parts of this Realm their piety and goodness being so cried up by the whole Puritan-party His Majesty therefore in this difficult Labyrinth took resolution to summon a meeting of the Peers at York a course which had anciently been used especially when exigencies were so great that the Convention of a Parliament could not be staid for and at the meeting of this grand Council represented to them the present danger of this Invasion with desire of their advice touching the maintenance of his Army as not safe to be disbanded whilst the Scotish-Forces were on foot as also what course was fittest to be taken to get them out Whereupon without long deliberating a Treaty was determin'd on and for that end sixteen of the Lords then present were assign'd on the King's part to meet with Eleven of the Scots with power to compose and conclude all differences Whereunto the Scots assented upon condition that the King should first revoke his Proclamation whereby he had declared them Traitors COMMISSIONERS Of the English these Francis Earl of Bedford William Earl of Hertford Robert Earl of Essex William Earl of Salisbury Robert Earl of Warwick Iohn Earl of Bristol Henry Earl of Holland Thomas Earl of Berkshire Philip Lord Wharton William Lord Paget Edward Lord Kymbolton Robert Lord Brook Iohn Lord Paulet Edw. L. Howard of Escrick Thomas Lord Savile Francis Lord Dunsmore Of the Scots these Iohn Earl of Rothess Ch. Earl of Dumfermeling Iohn Lord Lowdon Sir Patrick Hepburne of Waughtone Sir Will. Douglas of Cavers William Drummond of Riccarton Iohn Smith Bailiff of Edenborough Alexand Wedderburn Clerk of Dundee Hugh Kennedy Burgess of Aire Alexander Henderson Archibald Iohnstone Which Treaty began at Rippon upon the ninth of October but what good effect it was like to produce we
now plainly see Eleven of those sixteen English Lords which were chosen on his Majesties part being afterwards Actors or Assisters in the late war against him The first demand there made by the Scots Commissioners being no less then forty thousand pounds a month for maintenanne of their Army during the Treaty Which tho not directly granted was so far yielded to as that the Assessment impos'd by them upon the Countie of Northumberland Bishopric of Durham and Town of Newcastle should stand good for the raising of Eight hundred and fifty pounds a day allowance for the space of two months to begin upon the sixteenth of that instant October And that there should be a cessation of Arms the Scots Army to be confin'd on the North part the River Tese and the English to the South thereof CHAP. VII WHich footing thus gotten by the Scots in the North gave no small encouragement to their well-wishers in the South especially in London who in contemplation also of the ensuing Parliament which by his Majesty was summon'd to meet upon the third of November following were not a little animated in divers bold Enterprizes for scandalous papers and Libels were frequently thrown in the streets against the Bishops Yea so bold were the multitude grown by the example of the Scots in an 1637 and through the incitation of many Citizens and others of note who would not then shew themselves that on the 22th of October a rabble of no less than Two thousand Brownists and the like Sectaries entred St. Paul's Cathedral where the high Commission Court then sat tore down all the Benches and cried out No Bishop No High Commission To the consideration of which Parliament begun on the third of November accordingly did the King represent the safety and security of this Realm earnestly desiring that care might be speedily taken for riddance of the Scots which had thus invaded the North and to satisfy their just Grievances promised his hearty concurrence desiring that his Army might not be suffer'd to disband for want of pay before the Rebels for so he then call'd the Scots were put out And that they would lay aside all suspicions to the end it might become a happy Parliament resolving to cast himself wholly upon the love and affection of his English Subjects But the house of Commons consisting of the same or persons worse affected then those in April before the prevalent party purging the House of divers persons whom they concieved would not comply with their destructive enterprises for such they either finding fault with their Elections or making them criminals as to some public Grievances though others of a deeper guilt were not touch'd whose offences might make them obnoxious to their power or obsequious to their designs went slowly on with what his Majesty had proposed to them for the busy-party who were the great Actors in the ensuing Tragedy then fell to contrivance about the accomplishment of their long desired work To which purpose the Treaty at Rippon was soon after remov'd to Westminster to the end that there they might have the Scots Commissioners at hand and the power of the Londoners to assist them for it had been impossible without the conjunction and help of the Prevalent and factious party in that City ever to have accomplish'd the ruine of the establish'd Government and destruction of the King as they afterwards did In order whereunto the first step they made was the entertaining Petitions of Grievances from all parts of the Realm which made such a noise as if the Subjects of England had suffered under the greatest slavery and oppression that had ever been heard of and being devised and framed by themselves were receiv'd with such great acceptance as that the People began to shew no small expressions of Joy in their new Reformers Who to win them the more besides the Impeachment of the Earl of Strafford which was within two days following whom they had made sufficiently odious by representing him to be one of the greatest causes of their oppressions and an especial Enemy to Parliaments expell'd divers Projectors and Monopolists out of the House of Commons impeach'd the Archbishop of Canterbury the Bishop of Ely and Lord Keeper Finch for Treason against the State having in order thereto by libellous Pamphlets and Pictures rendred them hateful to the People Damn'd that hideous Grievance of Ship-money by vote Pass'd a Bill for a Triennial Parliament as also impeach'd Justice Berkley of High Treason for his activeness in the business of Ship-money And to try how safely they might adventure to strike at the establish'd Government of the Church which might make the easier way for ruine of the State they brought Pryn Burton and Bastwick in triumph to London who had been censured in the Star-Chamber for Libels against the Hierarchy countenancing a Petition exhibited to them by Alderman Penington against Episcopacy and Church-Discipline Yet that there might be no doubt of their zeal and dutiful affection to the King they sent a Message to his Majesty to desire leave that they might advance and settle his Revenue offering to make him the richest King in Christendom And having thus gain'd a strong confidence with the people what blessed Patriots they were like to be that they might also seem as zealous for God's cause they exhibited a Remonstrance in the name of both Houses to his Majesty grounded upon divers Petitions which they had subtilly procured from all parts of the Realm of the increase of Popery Also that the danger thereof might the more amaze the world they then began to open their Cabinet of Plots and Conspiracies four of the House of Commons imparting to the Lords a a discovery of an horrid design by many thousands of Papists in England Ireland and Wales Moreover because of the great complaint of Innovation in Religion increase of Popery and growth of Superstition they appointed Commissioners for removing Rails from about all Communion-Tables throughout the Realm Likewise to the end that the Bishops might the better attend their Spiritual functions they voted that none of them should have voice in Parliament nor meddle in temporal affairs And to assure the Scots whose Army they as yet thought not fit to part with till their work was brought to more maturity they gave them three hundred thousand pounds towards a supply of their losses and Necessities Which signal favour got them the stile of Brethren and thanks from the Scotish-Commissioners who seem'd so tender of our good that they desired the Treaty might be accelerated and the Kingdom eased of the burthen of the two Armies by their returning home The next thing wherewith they went in hand was the Trial of the Earl of Strafford for 't was resolv'd he must be cut off being a person of such integrity to the King and known abilities To which purpose
Kineton against the King And lastly how averse they were to any peace or cessation with them though never so necessary as appears by those earnest and bitter incitements used by their Commissioners in the Treaty at Uxbridge for the prosecution of that war It is likewise farther to be noted that these high provocations met with a concurrent opportunity of those eight thousand disbanded Irish not permitted to be transported into Spain and other parts though desired by that King's Ambassador and assented to by his Majesty who being out of employment were ready for any desperate enterprize As also with the want of a Lieutenant in that Kingdom by reason that the Earl of Strafford was so cut off who had kept them in such exact obedience And lastly what an Example they had from their Neighbours the Scots who sped so well by their own Insurrection that they not only obtained their full demands even to the introducing a new Religion and new moulding the whole form of their Government both in Church and State but when they rebelliously invaded England with an Army were treated as good Subjects had three hundred thousand Pounds given them with an Act of Pacification and Oblivion to boot Whereunto I shall add what a late Writer in his Short view of the life and reign of King Charles the First hath expressed Of this Rebellion saith he for it must be call'd a Rebellion in the Irish though not in the Scots the King gives present notice to the Houses of Parliament requiring their Counsail and assistance for the extinguishing of that flame before it had consumed and wasted that Kingdom But neither the Necessity of the Protestants there nor the King's importunity here could perswade them to levy one man towards the suppression of those Rebels till the King had disclaimed his power of pressing Souldiers by an Act of Parliament and thereby laid himself open to such acts of violence as were then hammering against him Which having done they put an Army of Scots their most assured friends into the Northern parts of Ireland delivering up into their hands the strong Town and Port of Carick-Fergus one of the chief Keys of that Kingdom and afterwards sent a small Body of English to preserve the South Which English Forces having done notable service there against the Rebels were kept so short both in respect of pay and other necessaries by the Houses of Parliament who had made use of the money rais'd for the relief of Ireland to maintain a war against their King that they were forced to come to a Cessation and chearfully returned home again to assist the King in that just war which he had undertaken for his own defence CHAP. IX BUT notwithstanding all these instances forbearing to give any censure therein I shall now proceed and trace them in farther practises for accomplishing their designed ends and give instance in the Militia for obtaining whereof I find my self best guided by their feigned Plots and Conspiracies the first of which was Mr. Pym's Letter delivered to him at the Parliament House by a Porter from a pretended Gentleman on Horseback in a gray Coat which having in it a contagious Plaister taken from a Plague-sore the Letter it self also being full of invectives against Mr. Pym gave occasion for publishing of a Pamphlet intituled The discovery of a damnable Treason by a contagious Plaister c. and afterwards of a Report to the House made by Mr. Pym that there were divers Posts come several by-ways from Scotland and that the Papists had many meetings in Hâ—nt-shire Moreover within few days following one Iohn Davis discovered to the House that the Earl of Worcester had large Stables under ground at Ragland-Castle and a number of Light-Horse in them likewise Arms for an hundred and forty Horse and two thousand men whereof seven hundred were then in pay and Ammunition proportionable And one Thomas Beale of White-Cross-Street declaring that he heard some who were walking late in Moor-fields discourse of their intentions to murther certain Members of the Parliament and amongst others Mr. Pym order was presently given that the Lords and some other Members should have part of the Trained-Band of Middlesex to conduct them to their Lodgings that night Also the next day upon the discovery of another Plot to kill some Noblemen of which one who lay in a ditch pretended to hear two Gentlemen speak it was order'd that the Earl of Worcester's House and Sir Basil Brookes House should be guarded all Papists disarmed Soldiers raised with speed to secure the Isle of Wight and two Lords appointed to raise Forces one beyond â—rent and the other on this side â—rent And within five days after this there was a discovery of another conspiracy by the Papists in Cheshire viz. that certain of them were in Arms at the Lord Chomley's House and had attempted the surprizal of Chester But advertisement being given that the King was upon his journey from Scotland and would be at London within three days the hunting after any farther discovery of Plots was for awhile laid aside and that scandalous Remonstrance beforementioned which was brought in the twelfth of August was read again in the House Against the passing and publishing whereof many worthy Gentlemen freely express'd their minds Nevertheless after long dispute and much ado the factious party prevailed partly by tyring out some for they sate up all night and partly by promises or threats to others insomuch as it was carried by Eleven voices So that though there was the greatest shew of gladness by the Citizens of this his Majesties arrival as that solemn reception of him by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen on Horsback did import who feasted him with the Queen and Prince at Guild-Hall the Companies all standing in their Liveries to congratulate his safe coming home as he rode through the streets yet had he little joy thereof for instead of that happy progress which he expected that the Parliament had made in the great affairs of the Kingdom during his absence he found the people not a little disturb'd with strange apprehensions and Guards set upon the Houses of Parliament Which so astonish'd him that he forthwith sent to the Lords desiring that for the prevention of farther jealousies and fears the Train'd-Bands might be discharged But no sooner did those Citizens take notice of that Message then that great numbers of them in person offer'd to attend the House of Parliament in their Arms. Nay so forward thenceforth were they upon all occasions to act their parts for hast'ning that general confusion which soon after ensued that on Munday following a multitude of them made a hubbub in Westminster-Hall crying Down with Antichrist and the Bishops adding that if they could not then be heard they would have a greater number next day to back them And so they had many of them coming tumultuously to the doors of
whose endeavours were to kindle that combustion in England which they had in so great a measure effected in Ireland and which nothing could do as they said but the granting that Petition Which Petition together with an Ordinance of both Houses setting forth a most dangerous and desperate design upon the House of Commons and many discoveries importing fears of rebellious Insurrections by Papists and other ill affected persons in this Kingdom they then exhibited Whose answer thereunto being that for the City of London and other Corporations which by any antient Charters had power of ordering the Militia he conceiv'd it unfit to alter their government but that he could not consent to the indefinite time propounded for this Posture Whereupon they forthwith voted this Answer to be a flat denial and that his Majesties advisers thereto were Enemies to the State and mischeivous Projectors against the defence of the Kingdom Also that this denial was of such dangerous consequence that it would hazard the peace and safety of all his Kingdoms unless some speedy remedy were applyed by the Parliament And immediately dispatch'd another Petition to his Majesty then at Theobalds wherein they protested that if he did not speedily pass his assent to the satisfaction of their desires they should be inforced by authority of both Houses to dispose thereof and that they did accordingly so resolve to do Farther voting that the Kingdom should be forthwith put into a Posture of defence by Authority of both Houses that the Navy should be speedily rigg'd and a Declaration of their just Fears and Jealousies speedily drawn up with the grounds of their former votes for putting the Kingdom into a Posture by authority of both Houses to clear the Parliament of all mistrusts And to carry out all this under colour of the Peoples desires New Petitions were brought from several Counties viz. one from Staffordsh pretending such dread of the Papists rising there that every man was constrain'd to stand upon his Guard not daring to go to Church unarm'd Others from Worcestersh Berksh Norfolk Norwich Lynne Royston Salop all of them earnestly desiring this Posture of Defence And the very next day the Ordinance for ordering the Militia of the Kingdom by authority of both Houses sent to his Majesty 22 Febr. was assented to by the Lords and thereupon new Lieutenants were assign'd throughout all England and Wales And having in a grand Committee at Merchant-Taylers Hall contrived the Declaration mention'd in their Votes of March the second wherein they made a very great noise of a design to alter Religion in this Kingdom and that the wars with Scotland and Ireland were framed to that end they presented the same to his Majesty at Newmarket within few days after voting the King's Commissions of Lieutenancies in the several Counties illegal as also that there was an urgent and inevitable Necessity for putting his Majesties Subjects into a Posture of Defence and that the Ordinances of both Houses for the Militia being obliging to the People ought to be obeyed by the Fundamental Laws of this Kingdom And lastly that the Earl of Warwick should be appointed Vice-Admiral of his Majesties Ships And having now by these their exorbitant courses together with the Tumults so much endangered his Majesties Royal person that he was forced for safety of himself and the Prince to retire into the North they voted that they would go on with their former Votes concerning the Militia Also that when the Lords and Commons in Parliament should declare what the Laws of the Land be to Question it was a high breach of the Privilege of Parliament After this within few days they sent a Petition to York which was there presented to his Majesty by the Lord Willoughby of Parham and others wherein they alledged that his Majesties denial to their petition for disposing the Militia was a great hinderance to their other proceedings and justified the Tumults at Westminster by taxing his Majesty with denial of such a Guard to them as they might confide in aspersing his Government for many continued Acts of violation of Laws c. And to keep the people still awake by allarming them with new dangers they caused Letters to be read in the House which were said to come from Amsterdam intimating intelligence from Denmark of a great Army ready prepared there to be transported for England and to land at Hull upon some dangerous enterprize The like Letter pretended to come from Newmarket then produced and another from France Whereupon having receiv'd a Petition from the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common-Council of London in which great Thanks was given to the House for ordering the Militia of the City as they had done with their resolutions therein signified to obey the same As also another from the Cinque-Ports desiring that those places might be strongly guarded and fortified and the Kingdom put into a Posture they ordered that every of his Majesties Forts and Castles should be presently fortified with an Hundred men of the Trained Bands next adjoining to them and ten pieces of Ordinance to each place Also that no Forces should be admitted into Hull without the consent of the Lords and Commons and that Instructions should be sent thither for the farther fortifying of that place Likewise upon another pretended discovery made by one Mr. Cartwright and the Speaker of the House of Commons that they were advertised by Letters from France of an Army preparing there to come for England or Ireland the Lords sent a message to the Commons to let them know that they had designed the Earl of Warwick Vice-Admiral of the Fleet. Whereupon both Houses joyn'd in a Message to the King to inform him of the grounds and reasons of their sending out that Earl as Vice-Admiral without his Majesties consent The King therefore discerning that they had got the Royal Navy into their hands thought it high time to make sure of his Magazine which had been laid up at Hull about two years before part for the service of Ireland and the rest for the security of the North and accordingly rode from York thither for the disposal thereof But when he came to the Gates of that Town Sir Iohn Hotham a member of the House of Commons being a confiding man with the factious party there and by their contrivance got privately thither with Souldiers refused him entrance affirming that in so doing he had the authority of Parliament to bear him out For which insolent act he was declared traiterous by his Majesty and by a special Message so signifyed to both Houses with demand of Justice against him according to the Laws But instead thereof they forthwith not only publish'd a bold Declaration with Votes and order of assistance in the name of both Houses of Parliament justifying Hotham therein
but sent down the Earl of Stanford and Lord Willoughby of Parham with four of the House of Commons as a Committee to assist Sir Iohn Hotham there voting that his Majesties declaring Sir Iohn Hotham Traitor was an high breach of the Privilege of Parliament against the Liberty of the Subject and Laws of the Land And now that by their feigned Fears and Jealousies with other subtile devices they had sufficiently amused the people and possess'd themselves of the Royal Navy Forts Ports and Magazine and within a few days following set forth a Declaration signifying their purpose to put in execution their Ordinance for the Militia they answered that Message from his Majesty of the 24 th of April touching Hotham with sundry foul aspersions taxing him with hearkning to wicked Counsels which had practised to put the Kingdom into a combustion and again justifying Sir Iohn Hotham expressed their intentions to settle the Militia according to their Ordinance for suppressing the wicked and malignant Party desiring his Majesties return to be near his Parliament And as the Citizens of London out of their ambition to be a free State were the first and cheif Instruments to set forward this grand work so in this of the Militia they gave example to all other parts of the Kingdom executing the same in Finsbury-feilds with twelve thousand men in Arms ordered by Serjeant Major General Skyppon the members of both Houses being present to give countenance thereto who thereupon voted that having shew'd so much obedience to the Ordinance of Parliament concerning the Militia they had done it according to the Laws of the land and that they should have the assistance of both Houses of Parliament against any that might oppose or molest them therein CHAP. XI ABout this time therefore the King discerning no small danger to his person by reason of these hostile preparations and Actions having not any Guard but with a thin retinue residing at York and withall observing that in most parts of the Kingdom the schismatical Party under colour of putting themselves into a Posture of Defence had provided Arms as also trained and exercised themselves contrary to the Laws of the land sent his Summons to the Gentry of Yorkshire to attend him at York Where being met he shew'd them divers reasons why he conceiv'd it fit to have a Guard for his own Person desiring their assistance therein Whereupon most of them yeilding cheerful obedience he signified to them by his Letters that he should take it well if they would personally attend him in such sort followed and provided as they should think fit for his better safety But before the knowledg thereof could possibly come to them at Westminster having some private advertisement of what was intended they publish'd a Declaration in the name of both Houses of Parliament setting forth That it was against the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom that any of the Subjects thereof should be commanded to attend his Majesty at his pleasure excepting such as were bound thereto by special service And that if the Trained Bands or any other his Majesties Subject should upon any pretence be drawn together in a posture of war the Sherifs of such a County ought to raise the power thereof to suppress them And having forthwith voted that the Magazine of each respective Shire in the Realm of England and dominion of Wales should be presently put into the power of such Lord-Lieutenants of those Counties as the Parliament did confide in they publish'd a Declaration scandalizing his Majesties gracious Messages Answers and Declarations taxing him with breach of his word and promises as also with continued oppressions and violation of the Laws countenancing the Rebellion in Ireland and with intent to bring up his Northern-Army to awe the Parliament And having so done voted that the King seduced by wicked Counsel intended to make war against his Parliament who in all their Consultations and Actions had proposed no other end unto themselves but the care of his Kingdom and the performance of all duty and loyalty to his person Next that whensoever the King maketh war upon the Parliament it is a breach of the Trust reposed in him by his people contrary to his Oath and tending to the dissolution of this Government and that whosoever should serve or assist him in such wars were Traitors by the Fundamental Laws of this Realm the very same day sending down the Knights and Burgesses of Buckinghamshire by special Order to see their Ordinance for the Militia put in execution in that County And having proceeded thus far setting also forth another large Remonstrance in justification of all their practises in which they had this bold expression that now they had brought their work to such an height and degree of success that nothing seem'd to be left in their way able to hinder the full accomplishment of their desires unless God in his justice should send a grievous curse upon them within three days following they sent a Petition to the King in the name of both Houses which was delivered to him at York Wherein they boldly reproacht him with his many fair promises and pretences and desired him to disband his Guard it being a cause of great jealousie and danger to the whole Kingdom Otherwise they told him that they should employ their care and utmost power to secure the Parliament and to preserve the peace and quiet of the Realm And shortly after publish'd a third Remonstrance justifying their former Actions farther reproaching him in every thing and challenging the Obligations of his Oath upon that ungrammatical construction of quas vulgus digerit to pass all Bills which they should tender unto him About this time also removing the Magazine form Hull to the Tower of London The King therefore discerning what preparations they had made in every respect in order to the forming of a rebellious Army did by his Royal Proclamation bearing date the xxvijth of May expresly forbid all and every of his Subjects belonging to the Trained-Bands or Militia of this Kingdom to rise march muster or exercise by vertue of any Order or Ordinance of one or both Houses of Parliament without consent or warrant from himself upon pain of punishment according to the Laws And plainly discerning through these their subtile practices what advantages they made to themselves upon the smallest pretences as also by casting Scandals upon all his Actions he summon'd the Gentlemen and Free-holders of Yorkshire to come to Heyworth-Moore upon the third of Iune Where he declared unto them the reason of his reâ—siding at that time amongst them being driven away from Whiteâ—Hall by Tumults with his purpose to maintain the true Protestant Religion and Laws and that the Guard he there had for the safety of his Royal person consisting of the chief Gentry of that County and one Regiment of the Trained Bands could
give no just cause of fears to the people But whilst he was thus zealous to satisfy his good Subjects of his real Intentions the Members at Westminister now confident of their own power sent down a Petition with Nineteen Propositions to his Majesty By which they demanded no less in effect than to yield up all his Regal power into their Hands Unto which he soon after returned a full and clear Answer by the Marquess of Hertford and Earl of Southampton To second which Propositions within four days ensuing they set forth a bold Declaration against his Proclamation of the xxvijth of May affirming it to be void in Law and in opposition thereto requiring all Officers to muster levy rise march and exercise according to their Ordinance assuring them for so doing of protection by both Houses of Parliament And within few days after sent out an Order in the name likewise of both Houses with Proposals for the bringing in of Money and Plate as also for providing Horse Horse-men and Arms in pursuance of their solemn vow and Protestation for suppressing the Traiterous attempts as they call'd them of those wicked and malignant Counsellers who sought to engage the King in a war against his Parliament and likewise with Instructions for the Deputy-Lieutenants to proceed therein themselves making Subscriptions accordingly the very same day Nor were the Lecturing-Preachers and other of that strain less active every where in this desperate and afterwards bloudy Scene the cheif of which throughout all England were then got into London Westminster and the Suburbs of both it being very well known both bâ— their public Sermons and sediticus Pamphlets what endeavours they sedulously used to stir up all persons able of Body to take up Arms and others to give aid with their Purses towards the advancing that Glorious work as they call'd it And for the better quickning the Members of Parliament therein they forthwith repaired to each man's particular House or Lodgings in and about those Cities to excite and animate them thereto as some of those Members have since acknowledged the drift and design of those Pulpiteers therein being the alteration of Church-government and inriching themselves with the lands and possessions of the Bishops and their Cathedrals as is very well known Whose Rebellious documents had such success that the Houses of Parliamen sent down divers of their most active Members to execute their Ordinance for the Militia in the Counties of Leicester Lincolne Essex Kent c. Who infused into the people strange fears and apprehensions of very great dangers to the end that they might be the better prepared to rise in the ensuing Rebellion But to return to the Propositions for bringing in of Horse Money and Plate Of this so soon as the King had notice he dispatch'd a Letter to the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Sheriffs of London intimating to them that if they should give or lend any money or provide or raise any Horse or Arms under pretence of a Guard for both Houses grounded upon those scandalous votes by which they had presumed to declare his intention to levy war against his Parliament he should look upon it as the raising of force against himself and to be done in malice and contempt of his authority But this came too late for the Londoners were so forward in their compliance with these Propositions that the very same day they brought in great sums of Money for which by a special Order they had public Thanks returned Which sums if we may credit one of their own Party did with their Plate Rings c. in London Middlesex and Essex amount to above Eleven millions of pounds besides vast sums from the rest of the Counties and otherwise So that all the effect his Majesties Letter produced was only an Order in the name of both Houses that the Deputy-Lieutenants throughout the Kingdom should tender Propositions to the several Counties for raising of Horse for the service of the King and Parliament and soon after that a Declaration of both Houses was issued out whereby they justifyed their raising of Forces alleadging the same to be for maintenance of the Protestant Religion the King's Authority and Person in his Royal dignity the free course of Justice the Laws of the Land priviledge of Parliament c. forbidding any Officers whatsoever to spread that Paper for so they stiled his Majesties Letter justifying their Votes that the King intended to levy war against his Parliament intimating that neither his Majesties commands nor threats could withdraw or deter such as were well affected to the public from contributing Money Horse and Plate And so indeed it proved for as they had deluded the people large proportions were daily brough in the County of Essex contributing twenty seven thousand pounds and upwards and eight hundred Horse Hertfordshire eight thousand pounds and three hundred Horse c. as appears by the calculation thereof made upon the twentieth of August ensuing The King therefore taking into consideration these their violent practises and that they had set up Lieutenants and Deputy-Lieutenants in all Counties declaring his Commissions of Lieutenancy illegal upon mature deliberation and advice about this time issued out Commissions of Array into all parts of the Realm which course had been anciently used by his Royal Progenitors for prevention of Invasions or suppressing of any Insurrections and approved by divers Statutes and thereupon set forth a Proclamation informing all his loving Subjects of the lawfulness and use of them commanding their obedience thereunto Which Commissions the Earl of Derby in Lancashire the Earl of Huntingdon and Mr. Henry Hastings his Son afterwards Lord Loughborough in Leicestershire with others in those Counties to whom they were directed did first put in execution But hereupon the Members at Westminster published a large Declaration in the name of both Houses representing those Commissions of Array to be contrary to the Laws of the Land destructive to the Liberty and Property of the Subject yea so full of danger and inconvenience that it would bring an heavier yoke of bondage upon them than any that had been taken away that Parliament Their sactious Emissaries employ'd in sundry parts of the Realm perswading the people that those Commissions were to reduce the Estates of all the Yeomanry of England to ten pounds a year and to enslave them beyond expression And lest those who were thus seduced by these their subtil illusions should receive any satisfaction from his Majesties gracious Declarations whereby the uprightness of his Actions and candor of his Intentions might appear they sent out Orders strictly to prohibit the publishing of them promising Protection from the Parliament to those who should refuse so to do Moreover because the King out of his great sense of those imminent dangers which daily more and more threatned his safety desired a
Subscription of those Lords and other loyal persons then attending him at York for levying Horse in his own defence as also for safeguard of the two Houses of Parliament and the Protestant Religion they order'd that ten thousand pounds of the money which had been brought in upon the Propositions unto Guild-Hall should be forthwith laid out to buy Horses and that ten thousand Foot should be speedily raised in London and the parts adjacent to be employ'd according to the direction of the Parliament As also that Arms should be taken out of the Tower for their present occasions to be disposed of by authority of Parliament Likewise that the ten thousand men so raised should be forthwith listed under Officers trained entred into pay and march into any part of the Kingdom by direction and authority of Parliament And of this Army thus speedily to be raised they appointed that the Earl of Essex should be General with whom they voted that they would live and dye Likewise to the end that this great affair might yet carry a specious shew to the world they set forth two more Declarations in the name of both Houses Whereby they pretended their whole endeavour to be for his Majesties Honour and Safety the regaining the ancient Laws Rights and Liberties of the Kingdom so much invaded setling the Protestant Religion in peace and purity c. Taxing the King with endeavour of a change in Religion and Government as also with breach of his solemn Protestations and Imprecations and that he had already begun a war against them being seduced by Jesuitical Counsel and Cavaliers who had designed all to slavery and confusion which gave them occasion thus to raise Forces for defence of Religion and Laws And having given authority to the Earl of Warwick to command his Majesties Navy at Sea they made an Order for him to take provisions for the same out of the Kings stores at Chatham notwithstanding his Majesties command to the contrary Likewise for the better increase of their Army they made Orders for encouragement of Voluntiers within this Kingdom and dominion of Wales to exercise and discipline themselves in a military manner which promises of the Authority of both Houses for their indemnity As also that the Earl of Essex should go on to make all speedy preparation for the raising of Forces according to his Commission appointing Commissioners out of the Common-Council of London to assist him in raising Voluntiers within that City and the Liberties thereof And lastly that a Declaration should be published to satisfy the people concerning their proceedings herein as also to stir them up to afford all speedy aid towards the raising of Forces upon the Propositions for the intent aforesaid and for removing the evil Counsellers from his Majesty How forward and active the Londoners were to promote this Rebellion can hardly be imagined people of all sorts pouring out their Treasure as if it had been for the most advantageous purchase in the world thronging in with their Plate and Rings and not sparing their very Thimbles and Bodkins Neither were they backward in the adventure of their lives five thousand of them listing themselves under the Earl of Essex the next day in Moor-Feilds Which with the other Voluntiers then in readiness amounted to near ten thousand men being forthwith committed to Officers and distributed into Regiments were ordered to be daily exercised and to have constant pay But all these Forces and preparations were raised and made for the King's safety and preservation as 't was pretended though at the same time certain Provisions of Wheat and Wine for his Majesties own Table passing by water towards York were seized by Sir Iohn Hotham and that seizure approved of by the Houses at Westminister with encouragement to do the like upon occasion And as they took all care to hinder the King's good Subjects from the sight of his Declarations and Proclamations lest they should continue stedfast in their old obedience to his Majesty and the Laws as is evident from their imprisoning the Lord Mayor of London as also of the Mayors of Salisbury and St. Albans for the publishing of them according to their duties so were they not slack in spreading and divulging their own as is apparent from their frequent dispersing them And therefore though they had often vented the like before yet now again to remind the people of what was in hand they set forth another bitter Declaration whereby they taxed the King with a design to alter the Government both in Church and State and that the time for effecting thereof was then come to ripeness as did appear by the preparation of Arms made by his Majesty as they alleadged Scandalizing him with giving countenance to the Rebellion in Ireland and therefore declared that they were necessitated to take up Arms for the defence of all these which must otherwise perish The King therefore observing that in pursuance of their Votes and Declarations they had thus form'd a powerful Army and that they had already beseig'd the Town of Porstmouth did set forth a Proclamation declaring the Earl of Essex and all his adherents Traitors with pardon to such as should return to their obedience within six days But this gracious offer was so much contemn'd that so soon as it came to their notice they publish'd a Declaration in the name of both Houses of Parliament containing many shameful invectives against his Majesty declaring all such to be Traitors that were Contrivers or Countenancers of this last Proclamation of August the ninth And that if his Majesty would disband his Forces abandon those wicked Counsellers and hearken to the wholsome advice of his great Council they would endeavour to make him and his posterity as great and rich as any Prince that ever sway'd the Scepter CHAP. XII BUt what this specious offer meant the King by woful experience being sufficiently sensible and of all other helps in small hope publish'd another Proclamation declaring his purpose to erect his Standard-royal at Notingham upon the twentieth of August requiring the aid and assistance of all his Subjects on the North of Trent and twenty miles Southwards for suppressing the power of those Rebels which were then on their march against him And therewithall a Declaration setting forth their evil practises and proceedings from the beginning of that Parliament But the Rebels for so I shall now call them having brought their work to this height and for their better support therein having seized on an hundred thousand pounds of the money rais'd by Act of Parliament for the service of Ireland having also deposed Sir Richard Gurney Lord Mayor of London as also committed him to the Tower and by their own authority set up another they sent Forces into several parts of this Realm viz. into Kent putting them into Cotham-House as also into the Block-house
aid from any man nor protection from Heaven when he willingly should fail in these particulars Which pious intentions of his thus declared were of no small advantage to him at that time his Army increasing daily beyond expectation The Rebels therefore hearing which way the King moved beâ—t their course speedily towards him making their Head-quarter in and about Worcester from the four and twentieth of September till the nineteenth of October following Near to which place upon their approach some few Troops of his Majesties under the command of Prince Rupert most happily defeated a far greater number of the Rebel 's principal Cavalry Colonel Sandys Major Douglas and other Commanders with divers other being there slain six Cornets of Horse taken and all this with the loss but of one man Which being the first notable encounter that his Majesties forces had with them and so successful did not a little amaze most of the Rebels party Lest therefore the truth thereof being divulged should dishearten their friends in London and other remote parts they not only caused divers printed Papers to be spread about bragging of it for a special victory but that it might gain the more credit ordain'd a public Thanksgiving in London for the same And to hinder his Majesty from the assistance of his good Subjects under one pretence or other though they had cryed out against his raising an Army by the help of Papists to destroy the Protestant Religion they were not ashamed to make a public Order that if any Papist would bring in considerable sums to them upon the Propositions it should be accepted of As by these subtile devices they had rais'd the flames of Rebellion to this height and deprived the King of all visible means here for the quenching thereof so did they use their utmost endeavours to prevent any help that might be obtained for him from forreign parts as appears by their negotiation with the States of the Vnited Provinces wherein they imploy'd one Walter Strickland with a special Declaration to them complaining of the Prince of Aurange for countenancing the Lord Digby in his making warlike Provisions in those parts for the King's use and in favour of that Lord and other wicked Counsellers and Incendiaries to have licensed experienced Officers and Souldiers to resort into this Kingdom in aid of his Majesty against the Parliament Scandalizing the King also that his Councils were corrupted by a Jesuitical faction and that he had drawn his sword for the destruction of his people desiring therefore that his Majesty might have no manner of Supplies from thence and withall insinuating how near a relation there was betwixt that model into which they aimed to cast this Government and the State of those Provinces and that therefore they expected assistance from them Nor did they rest here as is evident from those Instructions which were brought up by a Committee to be sent into Holland for this Mr. Strickland upon the 29th of February an 1643 by which he was to represent to the States of those Provinces that the Parliament of England did only strive for Reformation of that Religion and State they live in and therefore desired those States that they would now afford them their Brotherly assistance as they had formerly assisted them As also that they would enlarge their union to other Princes and lend them some money upon the public faith of both Kingdoms and the rather because they made Reformed Churches the pattern of their endeavours Neither could they be silent at home but the more to stir up the people inculcated to them that the King had raised an Army by the help of Papists the corrupt part of the Clergy the Delinquent Nobility and Gentry and some notable Traitors beyond-Sea that they had liberty to rob and spoil all sorts of people as also to exact Money and Plate from Corporations by threatning Fire and Sword to the refusers that he had hired a Scotchman to murther Sir Iohn Hotham that by violent oppressions he had exhausted the parts about Shrewsbury and that the Cavaliers were hungry for the wealth of London and the fruitful Counties adjacent that if he should prevail there was no expectation but that all would be exposed to the malice and rapine of his ravenous Souldiers and all honest and religious mens throats cut And therefore that the means of curing and preventing these dangers must be by Loan and contribution to the Earl of Essex's Army which was not inferior in number to the King 's besides better armed full pay'd c. but above all well encouraged and instructed in the Cause by the labour of many Godly and painful Divines and therefore that all Trained Bands Voluntiers c. in all places should assist the Lord General c. Whereunto they added these ensuing Votes viz. 1. That such persons as should not contribute to the charge of the Common-wealth in this time of Necessity should be held sit to be secured and disarmed 2. That the Fines Rents c. of Arch-Bishops Bishops Deans c. and of such notorious Delinquents who had taken up Arms against the Parliament or had been active in the Commission of Array should be sequestred for the use and service of the Common-wealth 3. That the King's revenues should be brought into the several Courts and other places where they ought to be paid in and not issued out until farther order was taken by both Houses of Parliament And to sum up all they set forth another Declaration and Protestation wherein they did in the presence of Almighty God protest and declare to this Kingdom and the whole World that no private passion or respect nor evil intention to his Majesties person no design to the prejudice of his just Honour and Authority had engaged them to raise Forces and take up Arms c. that they had professed their Loyalty by several Remonstrances that they had passed by ignominious Slanders c. that for the avoiding of blood they had directed the Earl of Essex by himself or others to cause an humble Petition to be delivered to his Majesty to return in peace to his Parliament that his Majesty had refused to yield safe conduct for the delivery thereof that he was engaged to the Popish-party for suppression and extirpation of the true Religion and exposing the wealth of this Kingdom to be plundered and spoil'd by Cavaliers c. contrary to his solemn Oaths Protestations and Execrations and therefore that they resolved to enter a solemn Oath and Covenant to defend this Cause with the hazard of their lives against the King's Army And that they expected help from the Brethren of Scotland herein His Majesty therefore having in a very short time and beyond expectation raised an indifferent Army though his wants of many accomodations were very great finding no means of Peace or Safety but by the hazard of Battel which the Rebels eagerly sought casting himself wholly upon
that though the Committee which were sent to bring in the Scots went but lately thither yet the Brethren there having had former advertisements how great a necessity here was of them to the end their Friends should not faint hasted over a Declaration hither whereby they signified that whereas the Kingdom of England had a long time suffered by the Popish and malignant Counsels about his Majesty and that the miseries in England were but preparations to theirs they therefore did resolve to assist the Parliament of England And high time it was for their forces in most parts going by the worst it put them upon new contrivances every day So that Sir William Waller was fain to come again to the House and take the Covenant a second time to encourage some that had not taken it before And though the Committee which met at Merchant-Taylor's-Hall for raising the people of the land as one man did give direction to the Aldermen and their Deputies in every Ward with the Ministers Common-Council-men and others to promote the work as being the last Refuge of the people for so they express'd and no vain bait or allurement yet saw they so little fruit of this great endeavour that they were constrain'd to effect that by their power which they could not do by perswasion and therefore ordered the raising of two thousand men in Norfolk Suffolk and Cambridgshire every man to have a months pay in his pocket And for a speedy supply of more they passed two Ordinances One that the Committee for the Militia of London with the Deputy-Lieutenant's and Committees of Parliament in every County throughout the Kingdom should have power to raise levy and impress such numbers of Souldiers as should be appointed by both Houses of Parliament The other for pressing no less than twenty thousand men with so many Gunners Trumpets and Chirurgeons as should be thought fit for the six associated Counties of Norfolk Suffolk Essex Cambridg Hertford and Huntington with the City of Norwich and Isle of Ely to be rais'd within the said Counties for the service of the Kingdom and Parliament And notwithstanding all this being in a declining condition by reason that their moneys were spent their men wore out and no small discontents amongst themselves in order to some recruit they made an explanation of their old Ordinance for Sequestration of Delinquents with certain enlargements wherein is set forth who were to be reputed Delinquents over and besides such as were described in the former Ordinance with power to examine upon Oath for discovery as also Rewards to Discoverers And likewise passed another Ordinance relating to a former for the speedy raising of a body of Horse for the Preservation Peace and Safety of the Kingdom to resist the Insolencies and outrages committed by the Souldiers of the King's Army those being the words thereof By which they farther ordained that Tenants should pay the Assesments out of their Landlords estates and defalk them out of their Rents But that which they then chiefly look'd on being the assistance of the Scots whereon they principally depended as their last refuge to keep up the hearts of their then drooping party they made it their business therefore to cry up loudly the aid of these their dear Brethren For which respect it will not I suppose be impertinent to make here a short digression in shewing by what means they were dealt with in order to this their second Invasion CHAP. XVI AFter the English Committee was arriv'd in Scotland and had made large promises to the Brethren of an advantagious journey viz. the lands of the Church by the extirpation of Episcopacy the Scots well resenting so beneficial an offer did set forth a Proclamation whereby pretending the King's Person their Religion and Priviledges of Parliament to be in no small danger for preservation of these they required that all persons in that Realm of what sort quality or degree soever between sixteen and sixty years of age should forthwith fit themselves with fourty days Victual Amunition Arms and all other warlike Provision under penalty of confiscation of their whole Estates and to be punished as Enemies to Religion King and Kingdoms And having set forth a plausible Declaration shewing the reasons of such their intended assistance to the Parliament of England against the Papists and Prelatical party as they therein express'd they passed an Act in their convention of Estates for putting that Kingdom into a Posture of Defence naming therein the principal Colonels and Officers for that purpose To accomplish likewise their cheif design of enjoying the Church-Lands they fram'd a new Oath called the solemn League and Covenant Which was forthwith sent over into England and read in the House of Commons at Westminster thence to be transmitted to the Assembly of Divines for their approbation and being by them approved was remitted to the House of Commons And that the grand Contrivers at Westminster might the more ingratiate themselves with those their Brethren of Scotland they passed an Ordinance for demolishing all Monuments of Superstition and Idolatry as they intituled it In which was particularized the removal of all Communion-Tables from the East end of the Chancels in every Church as also for taking away the Rails which defended them levying the Chancels where the East part was higher with removing of Tapers Candlesticks and Basins For the speedy raising of more Moneys they likewise passed another Ordinance for fourteen thousand pounds to furnish one or more Magazines of Arms and Amunition and for raising of Horse c. Which sum was to be levied within the Hamlets of the Tower City of Westminster Burrough of Southwark and other places of Middlesex and Surrey within the lines of Communication Hitherto it was only pretended that those new Regiments of Voluntiers rais'd by the Ordinance of April the xiith for the better security of the City of London should not go out of the Lines of Communication But as Mr. Pym in his Epistle to Sir Iohn Hotham concerning Excise wrote that they must be used to it by little and little so now they began to shew them what they must trust to and passed another Ordinance to enable the Committee for the Militia of London to command forth one or more Regiments of the Trained-Bands or Auxiliaries within the Liberties of London and Westminster to go forth under the command of Sir William Waller and upon occasion to be assistant to the Lord General And herein I cannot but observe an excellent expression made to the House of Commons by Mr. Oliver St. Iohn sometime his Majesties Sollicitor General but then a dear Member and special Contriver in this great work in answer to Mr. Iohn Pym who seemed to stand strict for observing the Ordinance of April the xiith alleaged that though those men by that Ordinance raised only for the defence of the City were not to
Scotland much revived their drooping Spirits for winter being over they fram'd an Ordinance that Sir William Brereton in Cheshire should have authority to take Subscriptions for raising more forces in that County and soon after imposed a new Excise upon Allom Coperas Monmouth-caps Hats of all sorts Hops Saffron Starch all manner of Silks and Stuffs and on several other commodities made or growing in England not formerly charged And having by their many and great grievous Taxes thus largely provided for welcoming in the Scots those their dear Brethren advanced Southwards and with the Earl of Manchester laid siege to the City of York The loss of all the North being by this means thus in great peril and Prince Rupert coming with the chief of all His Majesties forces to the relief thereof he was encountred with the greatest strength that the English Rebels then had the joynt forces under the command of Ferdinando Lord Fairfax and the Earl of Manchester with the whole Scottish Army commanded by Leslley which drew off from their siege of York whereupon in a bloudy Battle fought at Marston-moore about four miles from that City though at first he utterly routed the Scots and the Earl of Manchester yet following the chase too far presuming the day his own through the onely conduct of Cromwell then Lieutenant General to Manchester with a fresh body of Horse the rest of the royal Army after a valiant and â—harp dispute being much over-powered was totally shattered and vanquisht So that he was constrain'd to quit the field and march Southwards with what Horse he had left exposing York hopeless of relief to the power of the Enemy which by reason thereof was delivered up to Cromwell within few days after But of this fatal Action the King then far remote knowing nothing at present His royal Heart incessantly minding the preservation of his people from further spoil by the wars sent to the Members at Westminster desiring as formerly that they would appoint such and so many persons as they should think fit sufficiently authorized by them to attend him upon safe-conduct given and there to conclude how all things in question might be fully setled Which gracious Message though not then regarded so much were they elated with that their success at Marston-moore yet after that grand defeat of their old General the Earl of Essex in Cornwal which hapned on the first of September next following His Majesty then reminding them of that his Message from Evesham they did vouchsafe within two months following to send him certain propositions but such as did still apparently manifest their confidence to carry on the work by power through the ayd of the Scots with whom they had entred into so firm a combination for assistance by their solemn League and Covenant For by these propositions amongst others they had the boldness to make these following Demands viz. that the King should swear to sign that Instrument called the solemn League and Covenant adding according to the example of His Royal Father of happy memory for so they had the face to say though Mr. Nye had exprest that it was such an Oath as for matter persons and other circumstances was never in any age before And not onely so but that an Act of Parliament might be passed for to injoyne the taking of it by all His Majesties Subjects within His three Kingdomes Next that a Bill should be passed for the utter abolishing of Episcopacy without which Goverment it is well known that no National Church ever was since the Apostles times And that their Ordinance for the calling and sitting of their Assembly of Divines should be confirm'd by Act of Parliament Also that an Act should be passed for confirming their Treaty for bringing in the Scots-Army into England and for establishing that their disloyal Declaration made by themselves and the Scots bearing date 30. Ian. 1643. whereby Prince Rupert and Prince Maurice His Majesties Nephews Iames Earl of Derby William Marquess of Newcastle Iohn Earl of Bristol with divers other of his Nobility the Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop of Ely then their prisoners with a multitude of other worthy persons both of this Kingdome and of Scotland were excepted as to life and their estates doom'd to pay publick Debts Likewise that a great number more whose names are there exprest together with all those Loyal Members of Parliament which attended his Majesty at Oxford should be removed from His Majesties Councils and never to come within the Verge of the Court but by their permission Then that all Judges Serjeants Councellors Attorneys Doctors Advocates and Proctors in the Law-common or Civil who had adhered to the King should be made uncapable of any practice publick or private and all Clergy-men whatsoever who had also adhered to the King to be incapable of any preferment or imployment in the Church or Common-wealth Moreover that the Forces by Sea and Land for the Kingdomes of England and Scotland should be setled by Act of Parliament in Commissioners nominated by both their Houses of Parliament and that the education and marriage of the King's children as also the making Peace or War with any forreign Princes should be with the advice and consent or Parliament Furthermore that by Act of Parliament the Deputy or chief Governour of Ireland be nominated by both Houses of Parliament and in the Intervals of Parliament by Commissioners to continue during the pleasure of both Houses And that the Lord Chancellour Lord Keeper Lord Treasurer Commissioners of the great Seal or Treasury Lord Warden of the Cinque-ports Chancellour of the Exchequer and Dutchy Secretaries of State Judges of both Benches and Barons of the Exchequer for the Kingdomes of England and Ireland should be nominated by both Houses of Parliament to continue quamdiu se benè gesserint and in the Intervals of Parliament by the before-mention'd Commissioners The like for the Kingdome of Scotland adding the Justice-general and in such manner as the Estates in Parliament there should think fit Divers other Propositions also they then sent no less unreasonable than these which for brevities sake I omit So that in short the summe of all was no less than that His Majesty should condescend to the utter destruction and overthrow of the Religion by Law established in the Church of England which he had sworn to maintain and whereunto all the reverend Clergy of the Realm had likewise subscribed sacrifice the Lives and Estates of divers of his most faithful subjects to the avarice and ambition of these men subject all those loyal persons learned in the Laws Common and Civil to their malice Give up the power of the Sword totally into the hands of his greatest Enemies therewith not onely to oppress his good subjects at home but according to their own pleasure to molest and annoy his Friends and Allies abroad and prostitute the Education of his dear
Majesties Garrisons In the same month of May Dudley castle in Staffordshire was delivered up to Sir William Brereton by Colonel Leveson and soon after Carnarvon Town and Castle to Major General Mitton and Major General Langhorn the Lord Byron being then Governour there Likewise Ludlow in Shropshire to Sir William Brereton and Borstall house near Oxford Oxford it self also soon followed Sir Thomas Glemham being then Governour As also Farringdon in Berkshire Sir George L'isle being Governour Next Lichfield close in Staffordshire Then the City of Worcester besieg'd by Colonel Whalley and Colonel Raynsborough Colonel Washington being Governour Also Wallingford castle Colonel Blague being Governour Gotherich Castle likewise in Hereford shire and Pendennis-castle in Cornwall whereof Iohn Arrundel of Trerise was Governour Conway Castle in Flintshire being storm'd by Major General Mitton In the next month after a long siege by General Fairfax Sir Trevor Williams and Colonel Langhorn Ragland castle in Monmouth shire was yielded to them And soon after the Isles and Castle of Scilly were given up As also the Castles of Denbigh and Holt Whereupon Generall Fairfax advanced triumphantly towards London And on the first of February next following the Scots having effectually received the whole Sum of two hundred thousand pounds for which they sold the King they marcht over Twede into Scotland His Majestie having thus cast himself upon the loyalty of those touching whose large professions and protestations to him I have already taken notice let us now behold the blessed Fruits of Presbytery by the subsequent Practises of these Zelots which doth amply make good what King Iames long since declared of that Sect viz. that no deserts could oblige nor Oaths or Promises bind them For notwithstanding those their solemn Oaths and Protestations they most perfidiously acted contrary to them hastning thereby that farther ruin which soon afterwards befel the Church of England and at length terminated in the wofull murther of their native Sovereign as is notoriously known to the World carrying on all this under the colour and veile of their Solemn League and Covenant In order whereunto the first thing observable is a plausible Letter directed to the Committee of Estates at that time residing with the Scotch Army wherein they tell them that their earnest desire being to keep a right understanding between the two Kigndomes did move them to acquaint them with that strange providence wherewith they were then surprised together with their carriage and desires thereupon and to endeavour to improve his Majesties being there to the best advantage for promoting the work of Vniformity for setling of Religion and Righteousness and attaining of Peace according to the League and Covenant and Treaty c. affirming that they had a Witness from Heaven and that there was nothing more in their desires than in all their resolutions and proceedings to adhere to the Covenant and Treaty ¶ What hopes this specious Letter might give his Majestie for promoting his earnest endeavours for such an happy peace as he desired is hard to say considering what relation it had to the Solemn League and Covenant but his former assurances in order to his coming to them as I have already observed being such as they were he became so confident thereupon as that shortly after he sent unto the two Houses at Westminster his xi th Message whereby because they had made so great a noyse of setling Religion That together with the Militia and the War of Ireland being the chief things insisted on in their former Propositions he recomended to them the advice therein of those Divines in both Kingdomes whom they had assembled at Westminster And for the Militia offred that he would be content to settle it as they themselves proposed in the Treaty at Uxbridge viz. that all persons who should be trusted therewith might be named by the two Houses of Parliament for the space of seven years and after that time to be regulated as should be agreed on by his Majestie and his two Houses of Parliament And touching Ireland that he would do whatsoever was possible for him to give full satisfaction to them And that if those his free offers would not serve then he desired that al such of their Propositions as were then by them agree'd on might be speedily sent to him he being resolved to comply with them in every thing that might conduce to the happiness of his subjects and removing all unhappy differences which had produced so many sad effects Farther offring that all his forces should be forthwith disbanded and Oxford with the remainder of his other Garrisons rendred into their hands upon honourable conditions and dismantled But to this gracious Message as to his former they turn'd a deaf ear there being then another Game to be play'd which was the getting of the King's person out of the Hands of the Scots suspecting as they had cause that those their dear Brethren would make no little advantage thereof Notwithstanding the Votes at Westminster that he should be disposed of as they should desire and direct Concerning which Votes at Westminster and debates of both Houses thereupon it will not be amiss here to take notice how they alledg'd that the Scottish Army in England was theirs id est under their pay Also that the King ought to be near to his Parliament whereby they might have recourse to him and obtain such things as should be most necessary for the Kingdomes Likewise that by Covenant they were sworn to preserve the Rights and Priviledges of Parliament but to detein the King from his Parliament was altogether inconsistent with the Covenant Of which Votes the Scots seem'd to take little notice but in stead thereof and for diversion amused the Members at Westminster with several Letters which they caused to be written to them one from the general assembly of the Kingdome of Scotland wherein they told them that their success against the Enemy id est the King's Forces did lay a strong obligation upon them to improve the power put into their Hands for the advancement of the Kingdome of Christ and bringing forth the head-stone of his House And therefore did earnestly intreat and beseech them in the Bowels of Christ to give unto him the glory due to his name by a timeous establishment of all his Ordinances in full integrity and power according to the Covenant c. Saying that the Searcher of Hearts knew how they desired to keep their Covenant c. concluding with their desires to the Parliament to endeavour all the ends of the Covenant The other to the Assembly of Divines sitting at Westminster wherein they expressed their Thanks for their constant endeavours and labours in the work of setting up the Ordinances of Christ desiring that they would go on in the sedulous promoting of that blessed work The third was to the Lord Mayor
each differing from other in divers material points but all centring in opposition to Presbyterie which strange opinions no less absurd than various were so inconsistent with the zealous Disciplinarians who termed them Heretical and Blasphemous that they spared for no pains in endeavouring to suppress them As to the Tenets and practices of these Independent Libertines let this one instance serve for a Tast one Mr. Gregory of Colonel Rich his Regiment preaching at a Widows house near Northampton told his Auditors that he thought he was obliged to unfold the Scripture as it was revealed to him Likewise that he hoped to see the Shop-windows open on the Lord's day Also that the Psalms were no Scripture and that the Parson of that Parish was a Minister of Antichrist But notwithstanding this apparent danger to the Disciplinarians from this blessed brood of their own hatching some confidence they yet had of putting a stop to their farther growth to that end therefore as to their former notable pranks they frequently did by a special Ordinance they caused a day to be set a part for humbling themselves and seeking of God as they term'd it by fasting and prayer the preamble whereof I have thought fit here to insert We the Lords and Commons assembled in the Parliament of England having entred into a solemn Covenant to endeavour sincerely really and constantly the Reformation of Religion in Doctrine Discipline and Worship and the extirpation of Popery Superstition Heresie Schism Prophaneness and whatsoever shall be found contrary to sound Doctrine and the power of Godlyness And having found the presence of God wonderfully assisting us in this Cause especially since our Engagement in pursuance of the said Covenant have thought fit lest we partake in other mens sins and thereby be in danger to receive of their plagues to set forth this our deep sense of the great dishonour of God and perillous Condition that this Kingdome is in through the abominable Blasphemies and damnable Heresies vented and spread abroad therein tending to the subversion of the Faith contempt of the Ministry and Ordinance of Iesus Christ. And as we are resolved to imploy and improve the utmost of our power that nothing be said or done against the Truth but for the Truth So we desire that both our selves and the whole Kingdome may be deeply humbled before the Lord for that great reproach and contempt which hath been cast upon his name and saving Truths and for that swift destruction which we may justly fear will fall upon the immortal Souls of such who are or may be drawn away by giving heed to seducing Spirits In the hearty and tender compassion whereof we the said Lords and Commons do order and ordain that Wednesday being the tenth day of March next be set apart for a day of publick Humiliation c. And to back this their Godly Exercise forasmuch as their solemn League and Covenant had effected such great matters otherwise the House of Peers soon after voted an Ordinance to be brought in for disabling every person whatsoever from bearing any office Civil or Military that should refuse to take the Covenant But that which they deemed above all not onely to get a hand over this many-headed-Monster Independencie but to establish to themselves a lasting dominion over the persons and Estates of all other people was to gain the King's person into their power concerning whom they had been trucking with the Scots for the space of six months at the least his Majestie being all that while at Newcastle upon Tine and their Army quartered in the Adjacent Counties not without some Heart-burnings towards those their dear Brethren for keeping him so long and continuing their Army in this Realm at so vast a charge and intollerable a burthen to those Northern parts having had no use thereof at all after the render of Newark Nor did this deteiner pass without some quick disputes betwixt them the Grandees here affirming and insisting stiffly upon it that the Kingdome of Scotland had no right of joynt exercise of interest in disposing the person of the King in the Kingdome of England urging likewise that forasmuch as he had deserted his Parliament and People entred into and continued in a bloudy and dangerous war against them had not granted those Propositions which by both Kingdomes were sent unto him as a means of a safe and well-grounded peace he was not therefore at present in a condition to exercise the duties of his place or be left to go or reside where and when himself pleased Farther objecting that the Commissioners of Scotland at a conference with theirs had declared that it would be prejudicial to both Kingdomes for the King to go into Scotland But after much dispute the Scots in brief told them that their Army by the Oath of Allegiance their Committee of Estates by their Commission and their Officers by their Military Oath ought to defend the King from harms and prejudices Often affirming that the King came to their Army for shelter and defence Adding that it was the Law and common practise of all Nations not to deliver the meanest subject fled to them though for the greatest crimes and that if the meanest were not to be delivered how would the world abroad condemn them for so base and dishonourable an act the King having cast himself into their hands They likewise said if it be considered that the Scottish Army was invited and called into this Kingdome by both Houses of Parliament in a Treaty for prosecuting the ends of a solemn League and Covenant whereof one Article is to preserve and defend his Majestie 's person there can remain no doubt concerning this exercise of that Right and Interest in this Kingdome And therefore said it seemed very strange that when upon invitation they were come into England as for other ends so to defend his Majestie 's person their being in England should be made use of as an Argument why they should deliver up the person of the King to be disposed of as both Houses should think fit Whereunto the English Commissioners replyed that the Scotch-Army came in hither as Auxiliaries under pay and therefore they ought not to capitulate herein at all And that whereas the Scots did so much urge their Obligation by the Covenant to preserve and defend the King's person and Authority they told them that they left out the principal Clause which was relative viz. in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdomes without which the other part ought never to be mention'd But the plain truth is that all this fencing with Arguments came at last to a meer Money-business For whereas the Grandees at Westminster by stipulation with the Scots for their Expedition into England had promised to pay them after the rate of thirty thousand pounds per mensem so long as they should have occasion to make use of their
Army and all being done to give them for the pains hazzard and charges which the said Army should undergo a due recompence by way of Brotherly Assistance Towards the performance of which agreement though these Grandees did manifest that besides much free Quarter the Scots-Army had monthly received nineteen thousand and seven hundred pounds and for the last year ending ultimo Octobris seventy two thousand nine hundred seventy two pounds two shillings and eleven pence for the Customes and other Impositions upon coals onely the Brethren nevertheless having then the better end of the staff in their hands as being possess'd of the King delivered in unto them an account of Arrears besides losses of no less than a Million of money their free Quarter reckoned but with a kind intimationâ— that they would accept of a less sum in gross for a full discharge of all Whereupon a Committee being appointed to treat with them thereon and times of payment they then stoop'd to the one half viz. five hundred thousand pounds whereof two hundred thousand pounds to be paid upon the departure of their Army and the rest within twelve months Much dispute indeed they had about this business yea some high words but at length four hundred thousand pounds was the sum agree'd on the one half in hand upon delivery up of the King Which sum without more ado stop'd the mouths of those Vultures and put a period to all this hot contest All their Oaths and Obligation whereon they had so much insisted meerly to heighten the price of their Sovereign being then set aside as 't is notoriously known Being therefore thus sold and delivered to the Earls of Pembroke Denbigh and Lord Mountagu of Boughton Sir Iames Harington Sir Iohn Holand Sir Walter Earl Sir Iohn Cook Iohn Crew Esq and Major General Brown Commissioners from the Members at Westminster to be carried to Holdenby-House in Northamptonshire his Majestie hoped that he might have two of his own Chaplains admitted to attend him in this sad and disconsolate condition having not one servant of his own about him but that request would not be granted though again seconded ¶ Thus did the bonny Scots part with their native King leaving those Northern countries miserably beggar'd by many grievous Taxes imposed on them by their Army and most lamentable oppressions by Free-Quarter Which burthens were so heavy that the Inhabitants of Cleveland by their petition to the Members at Westminster and Letter therewith sent complained that their oppressions were greater than those who suffered by the Turks both their persons and Estates those under the Turk being quit for a fifth part whereas they in one year did pay their whole Revenues seven times over We are say they in their Letters the absolutest slaves that ever was read of for they assess us at their pleasures leavy as they please If they bid us go and ride none dare refuse The Kill us in hot bloud beat us in cold c. In a word our stock is already wasted our little corn we had ill gotten in by reason of the great moisture we are now thrashing it for the Scots We are eating our last bread Who have been able to get away are gone c. The perfect Diurnal further adds The Country puts up many complaints Bedall a little Town in Yorkshire of 57 li. old Rent and Ayscough a lesser Village of 42 li. have put up their several complaints that they have in less than five months last past paid to the Scots Army quartering upon them almost two thousand pounds besides former Billettings and Taxes by which sad sufferings some have left their Houses others at the point of leaving theirs also Lâ—tters from Richmundshire did likewise intimate that two Constableries of that County the Rent whereof amounted to no more than ninety nine pounds per annum were assessed by the Scottish Army and paid in Free Quarter no less than nineteen hundred pounds in four months But having made such a fair Market of the King leaving those Countries thus harrassed they march'd back over Tweed upon the eleventh of February ¶ Hereupon the Grandees at Westminster having to the view of the World finish'd their great work by getting the person of the king into their power they imployed Phillip Earl of Pembroke Basill Earl of Denbigh Edward Lord Mountagu of Boughton Sir Iames Harington Sir Iohn Holand and Sir Iohn Cook Baronets Sir Walter Earl Knight Iohn Crew Esq and Major General Brown as already hath been observed to bring his Majestie from Newcastle to Holdenby in Northampton shire Who coming to Newcastle upon the 22. of Ianuary after their stay there till the last day of that month they set forwards on the Journey and on the sixteenth of February got to holdenby where they kept him under a strict restraint Colonel Richard Greaves a most confiding Presbyterean having the chief command of his Guards not suffring any of his own servants to come near him no not so much as one Chaplain for performance of such divine offices as common charity could not have denyed to the greatest criminal though often and earnestly moved by his Majestie thereto Which being done they thought of nothing more than singing a Requiem to their Souls In order whereunto in the first place they concluded on the new modelling of their Army lest the tender Independent who grew up apace might otherwise overtop his Presbyterean-parent and therefore resolv'd to cull out those who were not Covenant-proof and send them for Ireland there to encounter as well with hunger and cold as other miseries and hardships of war Then to disband others and make a new establishment consisting of such onely as were pure Covenanters and firm to the good old Cause And next to the end that with more plausibility to the people and security to themselves they might have the full sway of all their drift was to extoâ— the King's consent he being then their prisoner 〈◊〉 this their new designed Dominion For the accomplishment whereof according to their wonted praâ—â—â—ses they caused a petition to be exhibited to the two Houses at Westminster by the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common Council of London Wherein was contained a subtil insinuation of their desires that God would bring his Majestie 's Heart nearer to his chief and greatest Council the Parliament and that he would be perswaded to joyn with them in the National League and Covenant and give satisfaction in the Propositions which the Parliaments of both Nations should make unto him for the full assurance of his People for the future and firm establishment of the Peace and Vnion of the Kingdomes in Church and Commonwealth In which Petition it was also desired that for security to the Parliament and City such as had been in opposition to the Parliament id est loyal to the King might be removed out of the City and kept at a
distance from his Majestie 's Royal presence Declaring likewise to the whole world that they still were and resolved to remain in their zeal as fervent to the Parliament as ever And according to the Covenant did next under God rely upon the Wisdome and Justice of the Parliament for settlement of their Peace and Prosperity And discerning the Independent-party of the Souldiery beginning to be then predominant had drawn the Army neerer to the City of London than the Grandees at Westminster did well like it was by them farther petitioned that the Army might be forthwith removed and with all convenient speed disbanded As also that the Court of Common-Council might have authority to elect Members for the Militia of the City in pursuance of a former Petition of theirs to that purpose Whereupon after much debate and quick dispute the Presbyterean-party in the House being at that time most numerous it was resolved that the whole Army Horse and Foot should be disbanded onely five thousand Horse one thousand Dragoons and some few Fire-locks to be continued in pay for the safety of this Kingdome and some to be sent for Ireland Which vote so awakened the Souldiery that no less than eight Regiments of Horse soon sent up a Counter-Petition to the Parliament wherein they give reasons why they could not engage in the service of Ireland for thither 't was resolved they should go upon their disbanding and complained of many scandalous suggestions which had been raised against them and their proceedings as also that they saw designes put upon them and upon many of the Godly party in the Kingdome Signifying likewise that they could not engage for Ireland till they were satisfied in their expectations and their just desires granted But these things as yet being not publickly insisted on nor own'd by any other than the common Souldiers it was ordered that Major-General Skyppon Lieutenant-General Cromwell Commissary-General Ireton and Colonel Fleetwood should be speedily sent down to the Army to acquaint them that there should be a considerable sum of money provided for them before their disbanding and that their Accompts should be audited as also an Act of Indemnity for all the mischeif they had done in the time of warr it being expected that this bountiful and gracious offer would quiet their stirring Spirits and incline them to submit tamely to the pleasure of their great Masters And so confident at that time were the Presbyterean-party in the two Houses at Westminster to baffle their Independent offspring by this artifice of disbanding the Army that to make room for them in Ireland upon their riddance here they fram'd an Ordinance for clearing that Kingdome of those Scottish forces which were then imploy'd there as Auxiliaries against the Irish-Rebels And soon after did accordingly order that the Army should be disbanded beginning first with the General 's Regiment then at Chelmesford in Essex and that so many of them as would engage for Ireland should be presently taken on and a fortnights pay advanced to them together with two months pay of their arrears The like for the rest of the Army at their respective Rendevouzes But whilst these now distinct parties of Godly men were thus striving for Masteries the King who still was kept at Holdenby under a most deplorable restraynt and the whole Kingdome under grievous oppressions finding no sense at all in them neither of His nor his peoples miseries sent his sixteenth Message wherein complaining of his disconsolate condition there his Servants being denyed access to him none admitted to bring or receive any Letters from him nor any other but the Parliaments Commissioners who were then his Spyes as well as Guardians to converse with him by which means he was not Master of those ordinary Actions which are the undoubted right of every free-born-man how mean soever and so not qualified to make any concessions nor give Answers as himself did then most rationally observe yet so much was he desirous of peace that unto those Propositions which they sent to him at Newcastle when he was in custody of the Scots viz. 25. Iune An. 1646. and whereupon he then gave a general Answer with desire to be admitted to treat personally with them at Westminster that presuming they might insist upon the same still he did then by this his 16th Message as to Religion offer to confirm the Presbyterean-government the Assembly of Divines at Westminster and the Directory for three years being the time required by those Propositions so that himself and his Houshold were not hindred from that order in Gods service which they had formerly used Offering that a free consultation should be had with those their Divines at Westminster twenty of his own nomination being added thereto whereby it might be determined what Government in the Church should be after those three years But as to the Covenant he told them that he was not satisfied therein desiring that upon his admission to London he might be assisted with the advice of such of his own Chaplains and other Divines as he should think fit to consult with farther signifying to them that the Militia by Sea and Land in case it were onely as a security for preservation of the peace of his Kingdome after due performance of all other Agreements then to be considered of should be for the space of ten years in the hands of such persons as the two Houses should nominate And as to the prosecution of the War in Ireland other things being agree'd he would give them satisfaction therein those being the most material of these Propositions But to be short the guilt of these men being like that of Cain greater than in their own opinion could ever be forgiven they still cryed out that His Majesty was averse to peace and never yet pleased to accept of any tender fit for them to make nor to offer any fit for them to receive And their preachers were still taught to pray that God would incline the King's Heart to come to His Parliament ¶ Leaving His Majesty therefore out of all hopes to obtain any good by these his earnest and incessant Messages I now return to the Grandees of the Army who had about this time a considerable Game to play the most active of them being then become Independent whose main work was to avoid disbanding yet not to be seen therein in the least manner themselves To which end as at the first beginning of this woful Rebellion the rabble and baser sort of people in Scotland were piped up by the zealous Kirkmen to lead on the Dance the Gentry next and Nobility last as they discern'd the way following after the same Musick So were the Common-souldiers here taught to appear in opposition to those Orders of the Parliament whereupon at Bury in Suffolk in the first place they alledg'd that they were at that time no less than fifty six weeks pay in arreare so
under that disguise pretending their desire to make peace with the King presented him with the same Propositions in effect as he had formerly received from the Grandees at Westminster when he lay at Newcastle in custody of the Scots Whereunto he made answer that unto some of them he could not consent without violation of his Conscience and Honour nor to some others for that they were disagreeable to the present condition of affairs as things then stood and destructive to the main and principal Interests of the Army and of all those whose affections concurr'd with them And therefore desired that the Proposals of the Army might be likewise treated on in order to the setling of a lasting peace still urging his desires of a personal Treaty But to this vouchsafing him no reply at all they cast off that veile and proceeded yet farther in brideling the City by Impeaching the Lord Mayor divers Aldermen and some eminent Citizens for having an Hand in the Petition Engagement and Force upon the House of Commons upon the xxvith of Iuly before-mention'd who were thereupon committed to the Tower About this time also for the better encouragement of those that had a mind to buy Bishops Lands they passed an Ordinance whereby the Purchasers were promised to have their Bargains comfirm'd under the great Seal of England And to the end that the multitude of Wild-headed Schismaticks Limbs of this monstrous Independent-Body whose help they might need at a desperate pinch might propagate the more throughout all parts of the Nation a Petition was fram'd and Subscriptions got to it by many thousands of the Godly-party in the City of London and presented to the Houses at Westminster for sending of able gifted men as they call'd them though not of the Clergy to preach the Gospel throughout the whole Kingdome Whereupon Thanks was return'd to the Petitioners by the Houses About this time likewise an Ordinance was brought in to the House of Commons for setling the Church-Government in a Presbyterean-way with a Clause for tender Consciences and such as were Godly and made Conscience of their ways Wherein upon large debate had it was resolved that all manner of Sects should partake of this Indulgence excepting those of the Church of Rome and such as should make use of the Common-prayer according to Law establisht in the Church of England It is not the least observable that as at this time the Independent Grandees were laying the foundation of their own future dominion So the Presbyterean Brethren though then under Hatches were as busy as in such a condition was possible setting on the old-Covenanters in Scotland to make a loud noise as appears by a Letter from their Commissioners then residing at Westminster sent to the two Houses of Parliament chiefly concerning their Lord and Sovereign the King for so they call'd him wherein they took notice that he was still under the power of the Army and of the many Professions and Engagements made by the said Houses to the Kingdome of Scotland viz. that they would take care of the preservation of his person and of his just Power and Greateness which both Kingdomes had sworn as that Letter did import not to diminish Also that they were Informed of some intentions by the Army to remove His Majesty from Hampton-Court And finding that their stability and happiness did so much depend upon the safety and preservation of his royal person being resolv'd that the alteration of affairs should never ☜ separate them from the duty and allegiance they did owe unto him nor from their constant resolution to live in all loyalty under his Government they had often shewn their earnest desires and contributed their utmost endeavours towards the composure of those unhappy differences And that the Houses at Westminster having by their Votes of October the xxvith intimated unto them their resolution to apply themselves to His Majesty as also that they were preparing Propositions to be tendred to him they desired that they might be expedited and communicated to them that according to their many Engagements and relations there might still be a conjunction of Councils in those things which were for the Common-peace and joynt Interest of both Kingdomes And therefore that for the assisting of them in clearing His Majestie 's doubts and for giving mutual satisfaction to each other they desired in the name of the Kingdome of Scotland that there might be a Personal Treaty with His Majesty as the best and readyest means to obtain the joynt desires of both Kingdomes And to that end that the King might be invited to come to London with that Honour Freedome and respect as was due to His Majesty or at least remain at Hampton-Court and not to be under the power and restraynt of the Souldiers But this project of the Scots for a Personal Treaty which might in any sort tend to the good of His Majesty or the people was then set on foot too late the Grandees of the Army at that time driving on another designe in order to his absolute destruction wherein the common Souldiers were to act their parts by those pernicious Instruments called Adjutators which was by making shew to frame certain Articles in order for setling the Liberties of the people and Interest of the Army and this to be called the Agreement of the people To which end they chang'd their Guards putting such upon him as were more strict and discharging well nigh all his Servants whom they had formerly admitted to wait on him The tenor of which Instrument called the Agreement of the people was to this effect 1. That there should be a more equal distribution by Counties Cities and Boroughs for election of their Representatives in Parliament 2. That the Parliament then sitting should be dissolved upon the last day of September anno 1648. then next ensuing 3. That the people might of course choose a Parliament for themselves every two year and to begin on the first Thursday in April then next following and to end upon the last of September ensuing 4. That the people were thenceforth to be declared the Supream-power whereunto that and all future Representatives should be subordinate and accountable This not pleasing the Members at Westminster was by them voted to be the very destruction of the Parliament and fundamental Laws of this Kingdome But no less active were they themselves though in private in framing an Impeachment against the King by the name of Charles Stuart a Committee being appointed to collect together all His Majestie 's Letters and other Papers taken at Navesby or elsewhere to the end they might be ready when the House should have occasion to use them Yet all this while Cromwell who was the very Soul of that party did so play the Ambodexter that he sometimes made shew to the King how well he was pleased with his late Answer to those Propositions from the Houses
authority before consideration should be had thereupon in a Treaty might afterwards hazard the security it self 3. That these Bills did not onely contain the devesting himself of all Sovereignty and that without possibility of recovering it either to Himself or his Successors except by Repeal of them but also making his Concessions guilty of the greatest Pressures that could be upon his Subjects as in other particulars so by giving an arbitrary and unlimited Power to the two Houses for ever to raise and levy Forces for land or sea service of what persons without distinction of quality and to what numbers they should please and likewise for levying money for their Pay So that these their Proposals being thus destructive to Himself and his Successors he in that his Answer declared That neither the desire of being freed from that tedious and irksome condition of life he had so long suffered nor the apprehension of what might befall him in case they would not afford him a personal Treaty should make him change his resolution of not consenting to any Act till the whole Peace were concluded still earnestly pressing for a personal Treaty with them It being now visible enough that Independency grew up every day more and more the Brethren of Scotland became so sensible thereof that the Assembly of Divines of that Kirk wrote to those sitting at Westminster passionately desiring them to adhere unto the Covenant and constantly to endeavour the extirpation of Heresie and Schism in the Church of England And to second that came another Letter to the Members of both Houses sitting at Westminster from the Scotish-Commissioners wherein was inclosed a large Declaration in which are these Expressions There be some things which properly concern the Kingdom of England their Rights Laws and Liberties But there be other matters which in their own nature as being common to both or by Covenant or Treaty concern both Kingdoms wherein unless we should forget our duty to God to the King's Majesty to our native Kingdom and to this Nation our common Concernment and Interest cannot be denyed For as Scotland was invited and engaged in this War upon grounds and reasons of common Interest so we trust it will not be offensive that in making Peace we claim from the Houses an improvement of the very same principles and a performance of the Treaties they have made with us that the same measure of conjunction of Interest be given to us which was had of us and promised unto us wherein the very Law of Nations and the Rules of common Equity doth plead for us Yet in the application of this Rule we shall not stretch our selves beyond our lines the express condition of our Solemn League and Covenant the duty of our Allegeance and the Treaties and Declarations between the Kingdoms which are so many strong Obligations as all who have Honour or Conscience must acknowledge should be inviolably observed Having laid this as a most just and solid ground of our proceedings we shall speak of the best and most probable means to procure a good agreement with the King for setling Religion and a lasting peace and next to the Propositions which are to be the foundation of the peace and safety of both Kingdoms And it is still our opinion and judgment that the most equal fairest and just way to obtain a well-grounded Peace is by a personal Treaty with the King and that his Majesty for that end be invited to come to London with Honour Freedom and Safety And as it is far from our thoughts and intentions in expressing our differences upon the Propositions to provoke or give offence so we trust that our freedom in discharge of the trust committed to us proceeding from our Zeal to Religion Loyalty to the King and Love to Peace shall receive a candid interpretation from the honourable Houses and that they will in their Wisedoms not slight the desires of a Kingdom who in the time of England's greatest danger esteemed no hazard too hard for their assistance and are now seeking nothing but the performance of the mutual Obligations Declarations and Treaties between the two Kingdomes and to prevent the danger which may ensue upon the violation and breach of so solemn Engagements The Houses of Parliament have frequently professed that the cheif end of their wars was the Reformation and Establishment of Religion according to the Covenant and they have often promised and declared to the King and to all the world not without deep attestations of the name of God that no trouble or success should ever make them wrong or diminish the power of the Crown which were the chief motives and arguments that induced Scotland to engage with them in this war Let therefore that be given to God which is God's and to Caesar that which is Caesar's whereby it may be evident that you are not unmindfull of the solemn Vows you made to God in the time of distress for Reformation of Religion and it may also really appear that the advantages and power which success hath put into your hands hath not lessened your loyalty to the King And according to our many professions and near relations let us really and cordially cherish and strengthen the union between the two Kingdomes under His Majesty by all pledges of reciprocal kindness that so Religion and Righteousness may flourish and both Kingdomes languishing under the heavy pressures and calamities of an unnatural war may live in peace and plenty As we cannot agree to this way of sending those four Bills to His Majesty for his assent before any Treaty upon the rest of the Propositions so we are extremely unsatisfied with the matter of those new Propositions lately communicated unto us for the reasons expressed in our answer unto them which we do herewith deliver unto your Lordships to be presented to both Houses of Parliament And we do desire that they would take the whole business into their farther consideration and that there be a personal Treaty with His Majesty here at London upon such Propositions as shall be agreed upon with advice and consent of both Kingdomes according to the Treaty This in general was their Declaration but the particular desires which they exhibited were these viz. that the honourable Houses would establish the solemn League and Covenant and that His Majesty be desired to give his royal assent for confirming the same by Act of Parliament That the setling of Reformation and an uniformity in Religion in the Kingdomes of England and Ireland be inserted in the new Propositions And in particular that the Confession the Directory for worship form of Church-Government and Catechisme agreed upon by the Assembly of Divines be established That effectual course be taken by Act of Parliament for the suppressing of Blasphemy Heresy and Schisme and all scandalous Doctrines and practises as are contrary to the light of Nature or to the known principles of Christianity or the power of Godliness or which may
be destructive to order and Government or to the peace of the Church or Kingdome That the Ordinances concerning the calling and sitting of the Assembly of Divines be desired to be confirmed by Act of Parliament That the Proposition for the confirmation of the Treaties betwixt the two Kingdomes and the proceedings betwixt them be expressed And that Treaty for the return of the Scots Army of the date of Decem. 23. 1646. be inserted amongst the rest That His Majestie 's assent be desired to what the two Kingdomes shall agree in the prosecution of the Articles of the large Treaty which are not yet finished and that all other things be inserted concerning the joynt Interest of both Kingdomes or the Kingdome of Scotland in particular That the Armies in both Kingdomes which were raised for the preservation of Religion and defence of the King's person may be disbanded now the war is ended and have due satisfaction for their arrears That speedy releif may be sent to Ireland and that an Act of Oblivion may be agreed upon to be passed in the Parliaments of both Kingdomes That His Majesty be restored to His Rights and that in the Propositions a conclusion may be added promising all real endeavour that His Majesty may live in the splendor and glory of his royal progenitors as beseemeth his royal place that so all differences and troubles may end in a mutual confidence and rejoycing Upon debate of which Message from His Majesty Nov. 16. and of that Declaration and those Proposals by the Scottish-Commissioners the House of Commons passed these following Votes 1. That no more addresses be made from the Parliament to the King nor any Letters or Message received from him 2. That it should be Treason for any person whatsoever to deliver any Message to the King or receive any Letter or Message from him without leave from both Houses of Parliament 3. That the Members of both Houses and the Committee of both Kingdomes had power to sit and act alone asformerly the Committee of both Kingdomes had for the safety of the Kingdom 4. And that a Committee should be nominated to draw up a Declaration to be published to satisfy the Kingdome of the reasons of passing these Votes To back which Votes the General and Council of the Army did put forth a Declaration signifying their Resolutions to adhere to the Houses for setling and securing the Parliament and Kingdome without the King and against him or any other that should thereafter partake with him And sent Thanks to the House of Commons for those Votes To shew the people likewise the Reasons of those four Votes the Grandees at Westminster appointed a Committee to search into the King's conversation and errors of his Government and to publish them in a Declaration to the World wherein they objected as high crimes against him his father's death the loss of Rochell and the Massacre and Rebellion in Ireland Which Declaration being printed by their authority was afterwards ordered to be dispersed throughout the whole Kingdome by the several Members of the House of Commons in those Countries and places for which they did serve CHAP. XXVIII THE King therefore seeing himself thus layd aside penned a Declaration with his own hand for the satisfaction of all his people which soon after was made publick by the Press Whereby representing his sad and most disconsolate condition through a long and strict Imprisonment together with his earnest endeavours to have composed all things by an happy peace whereunto he added most just cleer and undeniable Reasons why he could not assent to pass those four dethroning Bills before-mentioned farther shewed what usage he had endured by Colonel Hamond the Governour in whose custody he then was most of his servants being by him discharg'd the Guards redoubled and himself restrain'd of that Liberty which before he had been allowed Appealing also to the world how he had deserved that dealing from his subjects having sacrificed to them for the peace of the Kingdome all but what was much more dear to him than his life viz. his Conscience and Honour and desiring nothing more than to perform it in the most proper and usual way viz. by a personal Treaty Taking notice likewise of the often repeated professions and Engagements made to him by the Army at Newmarket and St. Albans for asserting his just Rights in General by their voted and revoted Proposals which he had reason to understand should be the utmost that would be expected from him yea that in some things he should be eased And conlcuded that if it were peace they desired he had shewed the way thereto being both willing and desirous to perform his part in it by a just complyance with all cheif Interests Was it plenty and Happiness Those were the inseperable effects of peace Was it security His Majesty who wisht that all men would forgive and forget like him did offer the Militia for his own time Was it Liberty of Conscience He who wanted it was most ready to give it Was it right administration of Iustice Officers of Trust were referred to the choyse of the two Houses Was it frequent Parliaments He had legally and fully concurred therewith Was it the Arrears of the Army Upon a settlement he told them that they would be certainly payd with much ease but before that there would be found much difficulty if not impossibility in it But all this was then to no purpose for having got the power of the Sword into their hands the Voice of an Angel from Heaven could have been nothing regarded for on they went with their great worke In order whereunto a Pamphlet was publisht by authority that is to say licensed by a publick Imprimatur where the Prophet Ezekiel was produced to discover what they intended Thus saith the Lord God concerning the prophane wicked Prince whose day is come when Iniquity shall end Remove the Diadem Take off the Crown This shall not be the same Exalt him that is low and abase him that is high And to cajole the Presbyterean having formerly secured themselves from the reach of their Holy Discipline they passed an Ordinance for the speedy dividing and setling the several Counties of this Kingdome into distinct Classical-Presbyteries and Congregational Elderships And desiring to seem men of the greatest Sanctity imaginable they constituted a Committee for the enumeration of great crying sins appointing that they should daily meet and do their utmost endeavour to suppress them And passed another Ordinance for suppressing of Stage-plays and demolishing Play-Houses But all these devices were meerly circumstantial those which more immediately tended to the carrying on their grand work being the chief viz. the approbation which the people then had or seem'd to have of their Votes for no more Addresses to the King Towards the obtaining whereof having been not a little sollicitous they imploy'd their most busy Emissaries and
confiding-friends in all parts of the Realm Who acted for them so vigourously as that from Launton a populous corporation in Somersetshire they had very great Thanks for the same So likewise from the Godly-party in Buckinghamshire who also made large promises to adhere to and stand by them in the farther prosecution thereof to the utmost of their abilities against all opposers desiring that they would proceed to a speedy setling of the civil Government in such a way as might best conduce to the freedome and happiness of this Nation and that they would put forth their power for promoting of Religion according to the word of God to give due encouragement to all Godly and able Ministers to cast out such as were scandalous and unfit for the work of the Ministry and to be tender of the Consciences of such whose conversations were as becometh the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For which the Petitioners had not onely thanks thereupon rendred unto them for their constant affections to the Parliament but an order was forthwith made that the Petition should be printed to the end that the world might take notice of the singular affections of the Petitioners and that they might be an example for other Counties of the Kingdome Which transactions here so awakened the Brethren of Scotland that seeing no good could be effected by words they resolv'd to dispute the business otherwise and therefore agreed of raysing an Army But the general Assembly of that Kirk endeavouring to oppose them therein the estates of Parliament there declared that the breaches of the Covenant and Treaties should be represented and reparations sought for the same Next that the War which they were to make with England should be for strengthning the Union betwixt the two Kingdomes and encouraging the Presbytereans and well affected there Moreover that they would declare His Majestie 's concessions concerning Religion not to be satisfactory And that whereas Religion had been and they trusted should be the principal end of all their undertakings so they would be carefull that the then present question to be stated should contain security and assurance to be had from His Majesty by his solemn Oath under his hand and Seal that he should for himself and for his successors give his royal assent to pass Acts of Parliament injoyning the League and Covenant establishing Presbytreal Government the Directory for Worship and Confession of Faith in all his Dominions and that he should never make opposition to any of these nor endeavour any change thereof As also that this security should be had from him before his restitution to the exercise of his royal power All this notwithstanding the Kirk was not one jot satisfied but earnestly urged that the Parliament should declare against His Majestie 's concessions positively without any condition and presently without delay they being as they exprest so prejudicial to the Cause and Covenant And when they discerned that Forces were levying throughout that Kingdome they so much feared that His Majesty and his good Subjects might receive any benefit thereby that they did put up a large Petition to the Parliament there wherein they earnestly desired the Lords as they would answer the contrary at the great day of Judgment that they would not proceed so as to give any encouragement unto the prelatical or malignant party in England nor be any grief to the Presbyterean Party nor to restore the King untill he had resolved the settlement of Presbytery and that what they intended on the King's behalf might be with subordination to those ends exprest in the Covenant Whereupon the Parliament there declared that they would be so far from joyning or associating with the popish prelatical or malignant-party if they should again rise in Arms either to oppose or obstruct all or any of the ends of the Covenant that on the contrary they would oppose and endeavour to suppress them as Enemies to the Cause and Covenant on the other side Likewise that in regard His Majestie 's late concessions and offers concerning Religion were not satisfactory and that the principal ends of all the undertakings of that Nation had been and they hoped should be to see Religion in the first place setled and that as they should endeavour the rescuing of His Majesty from those who malitiously carryed him away from Holdenby-House against his own will and the declared resolutions of both Kingdomes and did still detein him close prisoner to the end he might come with honour freedome and safety to some of his Houses in or about London where both Kingdomes might make their application to him for setling of Religion and a well grounded Peace So they did resolve not to put in His Majestie 's hands or in any other whatsoever such power whereby the ends of the Covenant or any one of them might be obstructed or opposed Religion or Presbyterean-Government endangered but on the contrary that before any Agreement should be made His Majesty should give assurance under his solemn Oath and under his Hand and Seal that he should for himself and his successors give his Royal assent and agreement to such Act or Acts of Parliament of both and either Kingdomes respectively for enjoyning the League and Covenant and fully establishing Presbyterean-Government Directory for Worship and Confession of Faith in all his Dominions and that he should never make opposition to any of these nor endeavour any thing thereof Moreover that if any war should be made as it should be on just and necessary grounds so did they resolve to give the trust and charge of their Armies and Committees to none but such as should be and were of known integrity and against whom there was no just cause of exception Also that the Parliament was willing to subscribe for the grounds of their undertaking an Oath wherein both in the framing of it and otherwise they were willing the Church should have interest as had been in the like case And that the resolutions of the Parliament thereupon might be the more effectual and in regard of the then present condition of affairs it was their opinion that the Kingdome of Scotland should be put in a Posture of Defence as it was in the year 1643. And like as they had drawn that Act of Posture which being allow'd in Parliament and sent to the Shires they thought it fit time to send their demands to the Parliament of England and that some descreet man should be sent with the same and a limited time appointed for his return with answer ¶ I shall not stand here to give instance of such particulars as further happened betwixt the Grandees at Westminster and the Scots upon this business for all those passages were to no other end than by thus fencing with each other to prevent any censure in their respective Actings and consequently to obtain the peoples assistance upon occasion For in short the state of the business stood thus the
â—wordsâ— this Ordinance and others likewise presented to hiâ— alterations should be made of some expressions in them which did reflect on former establisht Laws it being therefore necessary that they should be penned in other termes 7. That he would pass an Act for prevention of saying Mass in Court or other places provided onely that his Queen might have free exercise of her Religion for her self and her ordinary servants according to the Articles of Marriage made between the two Crowns France and England 8. Lastly that for the Covenant he could not in Conscience take it himself nor impose it upon others therefore hoped that it should not be insisted on in regard the imposing thereof could not tend to peace a great part even of the Parliaments-party being utterly persuaded against it And further because all the ends of the Covenant would be obtained if an agreement were made in the rest of the Propositions These were the chief referring the rest untill his coming to Westminster where he might personally advise with his two Houses and deliver his opinion with the reasons thereof which done he would leave the whole matter of those remayning Propositions to the determination of his two Houses But as His Majesty had formerly well observed the humours of these impious men to be restless ever altering and changing their Principles with their success So did he then find the greatest and most wofull experiment thereof For having by the defeat of D. Hamilton's Army the reducing of Colchester and subduing the Welch in Pembrokeshire cleared all opposition which any could make against them they then did openly manifest to the world that nothing should suffice but the absolute destruction of the King and utter extirpation of Monarchy Towards the accomplishing of which execrable designe a prodigious Remonstrance was contrived by Cromwel and his son Ireton with some other venemous-minded officers in the Army then at St. Albans and presented to the House of Commons by Colonel Evre and seaven other Officers of the Army whereby they fiercely declaymed against any peace at all with the King and likewise against his Restauration demanding that he should by a Tryal be brought to Iustice. So likewise against those Members of Parliament as had been impeached the year before and all others that sate when the Speaker and Members fled to the Army that they might be excluded the House Requiring that the Souldiers arrears should be paid out of the King 's and Dean and Chapters lands Moreover that a certain terme should be prefixed to that present Long-Parliament as also a more equal number of persons as Representatives of the People to be thenceforth elected in whom the supreme power should thereafter reside In which Remonstrance it is not unworthy observation that they said whereas it might be objected that by the Covenant they were obliged to the preservation of His Majestie 's person and authority it was with this restriction viz. in the preservation of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdome So that considering Religion and the publick Interest were to be understood the principal and supream matters engaged for and of the King's person and authority as inferiour and subordinate thereto As also whereas the preservation of his person and authority was not consistent with the preservation of Religion and the publick Interest they were therefore by the Covenant obliged against it And the better to illustrate this they instanced the practice of the Parliament all along the late wars which not onely opposed his Majesty and his authority but really endeavoured to kill and destroy both his person and authority by Bullets and otherwise in order to the preservation of Religion and Liberties of the Kingdome Which Remonstrance was soon after presented to the House of Commons and tendred to the consideration of the whole Kingdome But three days after they Treaty having continued fourty days whereunto they limited it ended And here it is not improper to take notice that as they had frequently used to procure Petitions from sundry places to countenance the carrying on of any notable design which they had in hand So now having publisht this wicked Remonstrance they obteined Congratulations from those called the Well-affected in several parts to the end that others might be the more danted from any opposition thereto CHAP. XXX THIS business of the Treaty being therefore thus over I come now to the last Act of this afflicted King's life A Scene indeed of much sorrow and which cannot well be represented without great lamentation and the deepest expressions of sadness wherein I shall be as brief as well may be pointing chiefly at the times of the most notable passages therein but leaving the larger Narrative thereof to such of our Historians as have already or shall hereafter set forth the Life and Sufferings of this incomparable Prince As an Introduction whereunto it may be sit enough to observe that though the Parliament had been garbled as before is shewed whereby the Remnant of the Presbyterians was totally disheartened Yet did the Invasion from Scotland and Risings in other Parts about that time put so much Life and Courage into the drooping Spirits of that Party as that having with no little difficulty carryed the Vote for a Treaty they strugled to their utmost for such an issue thereof that the King might be at some better Liberty than he was at that time and the Administration of his Authority in the Two Houses as formerly And then though the Army stood not right to them at present the Majority of Votes might some time or other so alter the case as that the sweetness of Dominion might return to them again To second therefore what they had so vigorously begun discerning that the Army in pursuance of their late Remonstrance were on their March towards London they Voted a Letter to the General forbidding his nearer approach Which Vote so irritated the Souldiary that immediately they publisht a sharp Declaration therein accusing the Parliament with Breach of Trust Inconstancy and Indiscretion saying that they would appeal from them to the People threatning forthwith to advance up to Westminster and there to do what God should enable them and accordingly came up to the corner of Hide-park Where upon it was put to the Question in the House whether that approach of the Army were not prejudicial to the Freedom of Parliament But into such a terror were the Presbyterian Members then 〈◊〉 that they durst not hold up their Heads to give their Votes therein Nevertheless within two days following they took better heart and set on foot a debate touching the satisfactoriness of His Majesties Answer to the Propositions in the late Treaty And though the same day the General entred Westminster with Four Regiments of Foot and Six of Horse taking up his Head Quarters at White-hall and that soon after the King was seized on in his Bed-chamber and carryed to Hurst-Castle
Laws of the Land and to the Liberties and Properties of the People Whereof one was that he should pass an Act for keeping on Foot their Army during the pleasure of such as they should nominate to be entrusted with the Militia with power from time to time to recruit and continue them to the Number of Forty Thousand Horse and Foot under their present General and Officers and that the Council of War should have power to make choise of new Officers and Generals from time to time as occasion should happen and they think fit as also to settle a Tax upon the People by way of Land-rate for supporting the same Army to be Collected and levyed by the Souldiers themselves And for the establishing a Court-Marshal of extraordinary extent But so soon as His Majesty had read some few of those Tyrannous Proposals he threw them aside saying that he would rather become a Sacrifice for his People than thus betray their Laws Liberties Lives and Estates with the Church the Common-wealth and Honour of the Crown to so intolerable a Bondage of an Armed Faction And such a Sacrifice they really made him upon the Tuesday following which was the Thirtieth of Ianuary having the more to affront and deject him had it been possible built a Scaffold for His Murther before the Great Gate at White-Hall whereunto they fixed several Staples of Iron and prepared Cords to tye him down to the Block had he made any resistance to that Cruel and Bloody stroke To which place they then brought him on Foot from St. Iames's attended by Guards of Souldiers having filled all the Streets from Charing-Cross to Westminster with Troops of Horse and Companies of Foot Whereon being ascended with the Greatest Christian Magnanimity imaginable he told them that they were in a wrong way to the Kingdoms Peace their design being to do it by Conquest in which God would never prosper them Farther declaring to them that the right way thereto would be first to give God his due by regulating rightfully the Church in a National Synod freely call'd and freely debating Secondly the King his Successor his due wherein the Laws of the Land would sufficiently instruct them Thirdly the People theirs in such a Government whereby their Lives and Gods might be most their own It was for that quoth he I come now hither for would I have given way to an Arbitrary sway to have all Laws changed according to the power of the Sword I needed not to have come here Telling them farther but praying God it might not be laid to their Charge that he was the Peoples Martyr And then most Christianly forgiving all praying for His Enemies he meekly submitted to the stroke of the Axe It is not unworthy of Observation and therefore not finding a more proper place for it I have thought fit to insert it here that some of those most Impious Regicides who sate and gave judgment of Death upon this Blessed Martyr when after the happy Restoration of our present Soveraign they were brought to their Tryals for that unparallel'd Murther stuck not in justification of themselves to plead that they were not within the compass of Treason as it is declared by the Statute of 25. E. 3. For that questionless said they must intend private Persons Councilling Compassing or imagining the Death of the King but you know said they that the War was first stated by the Lords and Commons the Parliament of Enlgand and by virtue of their Authority was raised they pretending by the Laws that the right of the Militia was in them whereupon accordingly they rais'd a Force making the Earl of Essex General and after that Sir 〈…〉 This therefore they insisted on for a legal Authority because said they that this Parliament was called by the King 's Writ and that the Members thereof were chosen by the People Adding that the Persons which acted under that Authority ought not therefore to be question'd as Persons Guilty because if that which they acted was Treason then the Lords and Commons in Parliament began the Treason Having thus finisht their Grand and long designed work they permitted the Duke of Richmond the Marquess of Hertford the Earl of Southampton and Earl of Lindsey to Interr his Corps in the Collegiate Chapel within the Castle at 〈◊〉 refusing him Burial with his Ancestors in the Church of Wesâ—minster under colour of preventing such confluence of People which out of a superstitious respect might resort to his Grave reserving that place therein which had been built by King Henry the Seventh purposely for the Sepulture on himself and his Posterity for the Bones of his chiefest Murtherers Some of which being afterwards accordingly there deposited have since been Translated and laid more properly under the Gallows Being thus come to the Period of this incomparable Prince's Life I may not omit to take notice that the time was when these Monsters of men did publickly declare that they would make his Majesty a Glorious King which now we see most truly verifyed though not as they then seem'd to intend it So Glorious indeed as Mortal man never was more First In that he suffered as an Heroick Champion for the Rights of the Church the Laws of the Land the Liberties and Properties of the Subject and Priviledges of Parliament in stoutly to his utmost withstanding the conjunctive Power of his Rebellious Subjects which under the colour of asserting these most Trayterously assaulted him in divers sharp Battels Next by his cheerful undergoing the many hardships of a destructive War and a tedious Imprisonment Thirdly by his patient enduring the many insolent affronts of this subtile false cruel and most implacable Generation in their Barbarous manner of conventing and Condemning him to Death and to see his most blood-thirsty Enemies then Triumph over him And that no part of true felicity might be wanting to him they have made him Glorious in his Memory throughout of the World by a Great Universal and most durable Fame and Glorious by his enjoyment of an Immortal Crown with the Blessed Saints Martyrs and devout Confessors in the highest Heavens CHAP. XXXI AND here having made a mournful stop for a while to contemplate the unspeakable loss of this excellent Prince and the direful actings of these matchless Conspirators I begin to consider that the Presbyterians may possibly take much exceptions at this Historical Narrative in regard that by the Life of the King was not taken away by them but by that Sect which are usually called Independants Whereunto I answer that it is not denyed but that he was actually put to death by those who in common discourse do pass under that name But whether the Presbyterians can clear themselves from the Guilt of his Murther as I know not how to excuse them so am I somewhat doubtful thereof For in the First place I would ask whether they were not the men which Originally put themselves in Armes
Protector and his said Council both to make new Laws and raise Moneys for the present Exigencies That all the Lands Forrests and Iurisdictions not then sold by the Parliament whether they had belong'd to the King Queen Prince Bishops or any Delinquent whatsoever should thenceforth remain to the Protector That the Office of Protector should thenceforth be Elective but that none of the King's Line should be ever capable thereof and that the Election should belong to the Council That for the present Oliver Cromwel should be Protector That the great Office of the Common-wealth viz. Chancellor Keeper of the Seal Governour of Ireland Admiral Treasurer in case they should become void in Parliament time to be filled up by the approbation of Parliament and in the Intervals by the like approbation of the Council That the Chrisian Religion as it is contained by Holy Scripture should be the Publick Profession of the Nation and that those who were to have the care thereof should have their support from the Publick so that it be with some other more convenient maintenance and less subject ot envy than by Tithes That no man should be by any Fine or Penalty what soever forced to comply with the said publick Profession otherwise than by perswasions and Arguments That no man professing Faith in Christ should be prohibited the Exercise of his own Religion so that he disturb not any other but that neither Popery or Prelacy should be permitted the least favour or License and that all Laws to the contrary should be void That all Agreements made by Parliament should be firm and stable All Articles of Peace made with Domestick Enemies made good That all Protectors in their Order should be obliged by Oath at their first taking upon them the Government by all means to procure the Peace Welfare and quiet of the Common-wealth by no means to violate the present Agreements and lastly to his power to Administer all things according to the Laws Statutes and Customs of England After which solemn Inauguration he was publickly proclaimed Protector First in London and then throughout all the three Kingdoms And now that by this transeendent subtilâ—y this egregious Imposter had cherisht so many Sects of desperate Schismaticks in the Army and elsewhere by whose help he first pull'd down the Presbyterian and then Murthered the King it was not his least skill so to manage these unruly Spirits that none of them by clashing with each other might endanger the publick nor that any of them upon occasion should be unserviceable to his designs To which end as well to ballance them equally as to rule them how he listed he made choice of the most active and leading Men into his Council by whose Influence he had the guiding of all the rest of each Faction The like course he took for the chief Officers of his Army And being thus setled in this his new Dominion he set forth an Ordinance declaring what Offences should be adjudged Treason And likewise another for repealing those Acts and Resolves of Parliament which had formerly been made for Subscribing the Engagement the preamble whereof I have thought fit here to Insert Whereas many general and promissory Oaths and Engagements in former times Imposed upon the People of this Nation have proved Burthens and Snares to tender Consciences and yet have been exacted under several Penalties Forfeitures and Losses In consideration whereof and out of a tenderneâ—â— of requiring such obligations be it ordained by his Highness the Lord Protector by and with the consent of the Council that one Act of Parliament published in Print 2 Jan. an 1649. Intituled an Act for subscribing the Engagement and certain Orders intituled Resolves touching the subscribing an Engagement c. And all and every Clause Branch Article and Sentence in them c. be absolutely Repealed c. And being Invited by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London to dine at Grocers-Hall upon Ashwednesday to the end he might have the greater Veneration from the People it was contriv'd that he should Ride through the city in State to that Feast which was accordingly perform'd as followeth First the several Companies of London having order to meet at Guild-Hall in their Liveries went thence and placed themselves according to their Superiority in the Streets from the lower end of Cheapside to Temple-Bar within Rayles hung with blew Cloath the City Banner and Streamers belonging to the respective Companies being set before them Then the Lord Mayor with his Mace Sword and Cap of Maintenance attended by the Aldermen in Scarlet and their GoldChaynes Rode to Temple-Bar Where meeting the Protector with his Military Train he delivered up the Sword to him making a short congratulatory Speech to his Highness Which being ended they proceeded towards Grocers-Hall thus First the City-Marshal and some other Officers Then six Trumpets After them his Highness Life-guard Then eight Trumpets more Next the City Streamers Red and White Then the Aldermen After them the two Shireeves Next his Highness Heraulds with rich Coats adorn'd with the Common-wealths Arms viz. the Cross and Harp Then the Mace and Cap of Maintenance Next the Lord Mayor bare-headed carrying the Sword After him two Gentlemen Ushers Then his Highness the Protector with twelve Footmen in Gray Jackets laced with silver and black-silk Lace After him Rode Major General Skyppon and the rest of the Council Then the Officers of the Army And lastly divers other on Horseback and in Coaches Being thus come to Grocers-Hall the Recorder made a Speech to him letting him understand how happy that City did account themselves under his Government and likewise in the enjoyment of his presence there with them that day Which done he Knighted the Lord Mayor and then dined at the midst of a long Table in the great Hall the Lord Mayor sitting at some distance on his Right hand and his Son Henry on his left and on each side of them his Council of State But notwithstanding this great Entertainment well knowing that all the Bloodshed and confusion which had formerly been as 't was chiefly accomplisht by the Pulpits so by the like means his new establisht Rule might easily be shak't he fram'd another Ordinance whereby certain Commissioners were appointed for approbation of publick Preachers the preamble whereof with the Names of the reverend Tryers I have also added Whereas for some times past hitherto there hath not been any certain course Established for the supplying vacant places with able and fit persons to Preach the Gospel by reason whereof not only the Rights and Titles of Patrons are prejudiced but many weak scandalous Popish and ill affected persons have intruded themselves or been brought in to the great grief and trouble of the good people of this Nation For remedy and prevention whereof be it Ordained by his Highness the Lord Protector by and with the consent of his Council that every Person who shall from and after the 25th
viz. at Dunbar and Worcestrer it will not be amiss to take notice of somewhat concerning his Carcase which was wholly preternatural viz. that notwithstanding it was Artificially Embowelled and Embalmed with Aromatick Odours wrapt also in six-fold Cerecloth and put in a sheet of Lead with a strong wooden Coffin over it yet did it in a short time so strangely ferment that it burst all in pieces and became so noysom that they were immediately necessitated to commit it to the Earth and to celebrate his Funeral with an empty Coffin Which solemnity was performed from Somerset-House in the Strand unto King Henry the Sevenths Chappel at Westminster with that Grandeur and State upon the 23. of November following that it did equalize the greatest and most glorious of our Kings amongst which they laid the Corps of this infamous Regicide CHAP. XXXIX HEre should I go on in the path of my Story but because that reports have been so various and uncertain touching his Parentage and course of life before he became an Actor in this unparallel'd Rebellion it will not be improper to make a short digression and as briefly as may be to say somthing of both That his Extraction by the Fathers side was from Sir Richard Williams Kt. a Gentleman of eminent note in the Court of King Henry the VIII and son to Morgan ap William a Welchman by Sister to Thomas Lord Cromwel Earl of Essex the chief Agent in those days for the dissolution of the Monasteries is not to be doubted Who being by his Uncle preferred to the service of King Henry was for that cause and no other called Cromwel as is apparent enough from Testimonies of credit however some have fancyed otherwise which Sir Richard thereupon writing himself Cromwel alias Williams was then in such Favour and Grace with the King that having received the dignity of Knighthood for his Heroick behaviour at a Tilting in 32. Hen. VIII he had also the great Abby of Ramsey the Nunnery of Hinchinbroke with the Priories of Sautrey and Huntington given to him upon the disposal of the Monastery Lands All which he left unto Sir Henry Cromwel Kt. his Son and Heir Who making Hinchinbroke his principal Seat as more pleasantly situate than Ramsey is left Issue Sir Oliver Cromwel made Knight of the Bath at the Coronation of King Iames and Robert Cromwel a younger Son with some other Children Which Robert though he was by the countenance of his elder Brother made a Justice of Peace in Huntingtonshire had but a slender Estate much of his support being a Brew-House in Huntington chiefly managed by his Wife who was Sister to Sir Robert Steward of the City of Ely Knight and by her had Issue this our famous Oliver stiled Protector of England Scotland and Ireland as hath been observed In his Youth he was for some time bred up in the University of Cambridg where he made no great proficiency in any kind of Learning but then and afterwards sorting himself with Drinking-Companions and the ruder sort of people being of a rough and blustering disposition he had the name of a Royster amongst most that knew him and by his exorbitances so wasted his Patrimony that having attempted his Uncle Steward for a supply of his wants and finding that by a smooth way of application to him he could not prevail he endeavoured by colour of Law to lay hold of his Estate representing him a person not able to govern it But therein failing for lack of better mantenance his aim was for New-England purposing there to fix as is very well known Observing therefore that most of those unquiet Spirits who were refractory to the Church-Discipline by Law Establisht here were the principal persons which had stored that new Plantation and that none but such Schismaticks were welcome guests thither for his better furtherance from those of that gang and the fairer acceptance upon his arrival there through the recommendation of those Godly Brethren he forthwith quitted his old Companions and betook himself to the acquaintance of the pretended Holy Tribe most formally canting in their demure Language and affected tone and frequenting the Sermons of the fiercest Boutefeus Amongst which as a blessed Convert in whom they much gloried he gained in short time a very high Reputation So that having better Natural parts than the most of that Sect and confidence enough to put forth himself upon any fit occasion he was especially made choice of by those who ever endeavoured the undermining of Regal Authority to be their Orator at Huntington unto the late Kings Commissiones of Sewers there in opposition to His Majesties most commendable design for the general drayning of that great and vast level of the adjacent Fenns In which adventure his boldness and Elocution gained him so much credit as that soon after being necessitated through his low condition to quit a Country Farm which he held at St. Ives and betake himself to mean Lodgings in Cambridg the Schismatical party there chose him a Burgess for their Corporation in that unhappy Long-Parliament which began at Westminster upon the third of November 1640. Wherein he bestirred himself with as much violence and heat as any Schismatical Bankrupt did in that mischievious Convention being well aware that a general imbroilment of the Kingdom by an intestine War might be of advantange to such necessitous and desperate people Whereupon in short time he did accordingly obtain his long desired ends for being one of the first of those who put themselves in Arms against the King he was made a Captain of Horse in the Earle of Essex's Regiment and afterward Lieutenant General to the late Earl of Manchester In which service his great strength of Reason accompanyed with no less Courage soon gained him such experience in the Discipline of War as that taking strict care for the well Arming of his men and preventing their disorder upon any hot pursuit such success attended him upon all occasions as at length gained him the Reputation of a skilful Commander by reason whereof he arrived to much higher advancements Where soon discerning the general humour of the Souldier and that many of them were possessed with conceited Revelations some expecting a personal Reign of Christ here on Earth fancying themselves the men who were to make way for his coming and to that purpose that they were to destroy the wicked and possess their Estates he chiefly applyed himself to the humor of those desperate Fanaticks and by his subtle arts in Praying Preaching Groaning and Howling amongst them got himself no less Credit than Mahomet of old did with his Followers And so by degrees ascending those steps of Command and Power whereof instance hath been given in the precedent Story raised himself at last to the highest pitch of Soveraignty as hath already been observed CHAP. XL. I Now proceed to Richard his Son Proclaimed Protector upon his death as hath been said Whose Title was for a
Rebellion That the first Seeds of it were sown in Queen Elizabeth's time grew up in K. Iames and came to perfect ripeness in K. Charles his Reign is proportionably true of the Holy-League The first Platform of that was laid in the time of K. Charles the Ninth soon after the Reformation of Religion got footing in France It broke out in K. Henry the third's time and was at last suppressed by K. Henry the Fourth So that it infested the Reigns of three Kings no less than this of ours The cheif pretended occasion of it was the defence of Religion which the Ring-Leaders of that Faction did if not conceive themselves yet labour to perswade the People to be in danger of utter Ruine and Extirpation And that by reason of some Indulgence and Toleration granted by Charles the ninth and the Queen Mother and continued by Henry the third unto the Huguenots or Protestants who were as odious to them as Papists were with our Men though the truth was those Princes did as intirely detest the Religion of Protestants as the most zealous among ours can do the Papists And what they did in favour of them was meerly to preserve the Peace of the Kingdom Before the League was fully hatch't the State of that Kingdom was not much unlike this of ours before the late Troubles Some Grievances there were which waited upon it into the World For besides the Toleration of the Huguenots which distasted the Zealots the greatness of some new Men at Court bred an high discontent in divers of the Nobility And the heavy Taxes and Impositions upon the Common-People made them generally dissaffected with the present Government And this Variety of Malignant Humors rising from several Springs all met in the same Stream and bent their course to the same common end Innovation and Subversion of the Establish't Government A Parliament for so I shall take leave to call the general Assembly of the three Estates in France not according to the modern use of the Word in that Country from whence this Kingdom borrowed at first the name and thing but in compliance with our own Language was thought to be a sure Remedy at a pinch for â—etling the publick Distractions And though such Assemblies had been long intermitted in that Realm and the Kings of later time were grown out of love with them as conceiving that while they who represent the whole Nation are convened together with such Supream Power the Royal Authority in the mean time remained little better than suspended Yet upon a consultation had with a Council of Peers like that of ours at York and a motion from them to that purpose Francis the second was content to call a Parliament at Drleans which was quietly Dissolved by his Death before the States had done any thing but only shew'd their Teeth against the Protestants taking a solemn Protestation for Defence of their Religion and by that excluding all others from any Vote in that Assembly By the like exigence was Henry the third driven to have recourse to the like Remedy which proved indeed worse than the Disease For after his Intimation of a Parliament to Commence at Bloys the Duke of Guise and his Allies laid the Foundation of the League who being the most Popular and Powerful Subjects in the Kingdome sought by that means to augment their own greatness and secure the State of Religion which was so straitly twisted with their Interests This Duke besides his Ambition which prompted him sufficiently to those Turbulent Undertakings has formerly received some disgust at Court not much unlike that of Philip Earl of Pembroke for the Keys of the Pallace were taken from him and bestow'd upon the King of Navarr With which disgrace he was extreamly vexed and his Brother the Cardinal much more though they cunningly Dissembled and made a shew as if nothing troubled them but the Toleration of and connivence at Calvinisme by that means veiling their own Passions and Private Interests with an honest Cloak and colour of Religion So by little and little the Factious among the great ones were confounded with the differences in Religion and instead of Male-Contents and Guisards they put on the name of Catholicks and Huguenots Parties which under colour of Piety ministred so much the more Pernicious Fewel to all the Succeeding Combustions and Troubles The League was ushered in with Declarations Remonstrances and Protestations to the same effect and much in the same Language with this of our Covenanters We the Princes Noblemen Gentlemen and Commons Parties to that League profest that nothing but pure Zeal and Sincere Devotion which we bear to the Honour of God his Majesties Service the Publick Peace and Preservation of our Lives and Estates together with the Apprehension of our utter Ruine and Destruction hath necessitated us to this Resolution which we are constrained to put on for which we cannot any way be taxed or traduced for Suspition of Disloyalty Our Councils and Intentions having no other Design but meerly the Maintenance and Advancement of the Service of God Obedience to his Majesty and Preservation of his Estate And perceiving by what is past that our Enemies have not nor ever had any other aim but to Establish their Errors in the Kingdom to extirpate Religion and by little and little to undermine the King's Authority and totally alter the Government we can do no less in discharge of our Honours and Consciences than withstand the Sinister Designs of the Supream Enemies of God and his Majesty by a common Covenant and Association it being no more than time to divert and hinder their Plots and Conspiracies for all Faithful and Loyal Subjects to enter into a Holy Union and Conjunction which is now the true and only means left in our Hands by God for restoring of his own Service and Obedience to his Majesty The chief Heads of the League to which they swore were either altogether or in Proportion the same with those in our English Covenants viz. 1. To Establish Religion the Law and Service of God in its Pristine State according to the form and usage of the Catholick Roman-Church there as of the Protestant Reformed-Church here 2. As our Covenanters swore in the second Article to extirpate all Popery Heresy c. So did the Leaugers Renounce and abjure all Errors contrary to their Religion 3. As our Men in the third Article swore to preserve the Rights and Priviledges of the Parliament and Liberties of the Kingdom and to preserve the King's Person and Authority but with a Reservation in the Preservation and Defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdon So did they to preserve Henry the third of that Name and his Successors the Most Christian Kings in the State Splendour Authority Right Service and Obedience which are due unto him from his Subjects but with this Abatement according as is contained in
certain Articles which shall be presented unto him in the Parliament which at his Coronation be swears to observe with Protestation to do nothing contrary to what shall be proposed unto him and ordained by the States As also they swear to Reestablish in all the Counties of the Kingdom their Ancient Priviledges Preheminencies and Liberties 4. As in the fourth Article of the Covenant our Men Swear the discovery of all such as have been or shall be Incendiaries Malignants or evil Instruments by hinding the Reformation c. That they may receive condign Punishment not in any ordinary way of Justice according to the Law of the Land but as the Degrees of their Offences shall require or deserve Or in case they neither require not deserve as the Supream Iudicatories of both Kingdoms or others having Power from them shall think convenient Just so the Leaguers Swear in case there shall be any hindrance or Opposition in the fore-mentioned Particulars preservation of Religion c. by whomsoever it be made all the Confederates shall imploy their Lives and Fortunes for the bringing of all such to Punishment and that either by way of Iustice or of Arms without any respect of Persons 5. The like mutual defence of all that enter into their Covenant and their constant Perseverance in it all the Days of their Lives not to suffer themselves directly nor indirectly to be withdrawn by whatsoever Combination Perswasion or terror c. The promoting of it against all Impediments and revealing of all Designes to the contrary Which our Men Swear in the first Article Just so the Leaguers protest thaâ— if any of their Confederates shall be molested or troubled all the rest shall be bound to Revenge his Cause against any Person whatsoever and to discover whatsoever they shall know Prejudicial to their Association they Swear by Almighty God and promise upon their Lives and Honours to continue in this League even to their last drop of Bloud and not to depart from it or go against it upon any Command Pretence Excuse or Occasion whatsoever 6. As ours profess in each Article to take the Covenant Sincerely c. So each of them Swears that he enters into this Holy League Loyally and Sincerely 7. As our Men in the close of the Covenant did make a general Confession of their Sins and Profeâ—s and Declare before God and the World their unfeigned desire to be bumbled for them and to amend their Lives in all Duties they owe to God and Man and each one to go before another in the example of a real Conuersation and likewise invite other Christian-Churches to joyn in the same or like Association and Covenant with them So did the Leaguers in the close of their Declaration intreat all Persons of what condition soever not yet confederate with them that they would fauour them and to their Power assist them in the Execution of so good and holy a work Professing they will receive into their Association all good Men that have a Zeal to the Honour of God and his Church and to the Welfare and Reputation of Religion Concluding thus Seeing of necessity all our help must come from God we intreat all good Catholicks to put themselves in good condition to God-wards and be Reconciled to his Divine Majesty by a thorough Reformation of their Lives so to appease the Wrath of God and to call upon him with an upright Conscience both in publick and private Prayers and Devotions to the end that all our Actions may be referred to the Honour of God and his Glory who is the Lord of Hosts and from whom alone we look for strength and certain deliverance And the Parliament at Bloys though at the first meeting it seem'd to concurr in the same intentions with the King yet the effect was nothing less For it was an Assembly packt up of Persons dissaffected to the present Government the greatest part of the Commissioners of Shires being such as had underhand Subscribed the League and had given themselves up to be guided by the Councils of the Duke of Guise Besides the Knights or Commissioners of divers Counties and the Burgesses of several Cities were either not returned or neglected to come or were departed And therefore the Prince of Conde when certain of their Members were sent unto him with a Message in Writing as from the States-general or Parliament he refused to open the Letters or to acknowledge them to be a Parliament affirming that such a Congregation as that where the Commissioners of so many Cities Shires and Counties were wanting in which they went about to force Mens Consciences to Oppress and Extirpate the Total Line and Violate the Prerogative of the Crown of France to comply with the Humours of some Strangers whose Hearts were set on Fire with an unsupportable and Pernicious Ambition could by no means be call'd a Parliament being indeed nothing else but a Conventicle of a few Suborned Persons corrupted by the Disturbers of the publick Peace If we consider the quality of the Persons engaged in that League we shall find them much of the same make with these of ours They were principally of two much different sorts the first for the most part consisted of Noblemen and Persons of Quality such as were ill satisfied with the Power and greatness of the King's Dominion and could not endure to see themselves past by in the disposal of Preferments and Court-Favours and therefore sided with the Faction partly out of discontent and partly out of hopes of Innovation thinking that by putting down the present that they should raise their private Fortunes to a better condition and at last arrive to the height of their Desires The second sort whereof the League was Composed were Persons who for Quality seemed to be much inferior to the former but for use and profit were not a whit below them For these were they that won the Cities the common People and the Tradesmen generally over all the Kingdom These for the most part were Men of a free and good nature passionately affected to the Catholick Faith and most intestine haters of the Huguenots Some of them believing in good earnest that their Religion was in danger of utter Ruine Other desirous to see the destruction of Heresy did not only readily engage themselves in the League in their own Persons but contributed their utmost endeavours to draw on the common People and to win others to the Faction With these fell on as a third sort some of the long Robe Preachers and Lawyers who under colour of Religion did hide either their fickle and inconstant nature or their Ambitious or Covetous Desires of their own Greatness and Preferment To which we may add a fourth sort of Men which were moved either out of private Spleen against some Court-Favourites or were drawn in to side with the League meerly upon their fair Pretences never dreaming that their aimes were against
the King or the Government With which bait some Wise Men were allured into the snare among whom Villeroy the chief Secretary of State was one and Brissonius Primier President of the Parliament of Paris another the former entring himself one of the League out of a private grudge to the Duke D'Espernon desired the Duke of Guise's Faction might prevail that Espernons might be abated never imagining nor could be ever believe that the League would ever attempt any thing against the King's Person but only had an aim to cashiere his Minions and endeavour to extirpate the Huguenots The later though he had been at first a principal Instrument for the League fell off when he perceived that the ends of the Ring-leaders were not so sincere for the publick good as he at first had fancied And divers other there were as there will be in all Factions where great Men are engaged who adhered to that Party not out of any ends or Inclinations of their own but by reason of their Alliance with or dependence on the House of Lorrein and other chief Men of the League Having thus laid the grounds of their League upon these fair Pretences to gull the People their means of advancing it were such as our Men have transcribed from their Copy Not any thing of moment having been used here which was wanting there to increase their own and undermine the King's Power and Authority They had their Feares and Iealousies of dangerous Plots against their Persons at home of Designs to seize upon the City of Paris to overawe them by armed force and put an hundred of the chief to Death of Practises with Forrein Princes against them and their Religion and of suddain Invasion intended from abroad They had Reports broacht upon on grounds and Tumults raised in the City upon no other occasion than those Reports They had their Preachers h to amaze and fright the People out of their Witts by Strange and Miraculous Stories and out of their Allegiance by traducing and inveighing against the present Government They had their Scandalous Libels and Pictures first Published in the City and thence dispersed abroad to Poison the Countrey They neglected no means of courting and winning the Common-People by rubbing up their sores of new Taxes and Impositions and promising relief unto them by crying up the Fundamental Laws and Liberties of the Subject by rendring the King's Person contemptible and his Actions Odious in the Eyes of his People setting forth Declarations and Remonstrances of the State of the Kingdom of such a tenor as it will be no new thing to Translate what they at Westminster have in a manner already done to my hand They wounded the King's Honour through the sides of his Councellers they stained the sincerity of his Professions and Protestations in point of Religion they went about to supplant his just Power and Authority by their new and insolent demands such as those of ours in the Nineteen Propositions Whil'st they seem'd to maintain his Authority they rob'd him of it transferring it wholly to the head of their League And though their Parliament in that point more moderate than ours waived that antient Question and would not contend about it viz. Whether the King or the Estates concerned in Parliament be Superior a point determinable by the very form of holding Parliaments and ever carried by the King in all former times yet they thought fit to Petition the King that for the more expedition and general satisfaction of all differences he would please to make choice of a certain number of Judges such in whom the States might confide who together with XII of their Members might hear and receive the several motions from the several Estates And whatsoever those Judges and XII Commissioners should jointly agree upon to have the force and strength of a Law without any Power in the King to alter or repeal it When this would not be granted by the King upon grave reasons of State which we need not here set down the Heads of the Faction and their Adherents took a new course to restrain the King's Power by proposing that the number of the Kings Council should be limitted to XXIV the very next number which our Lords and Commons in the second of their Nineteen Propositions would limit his Privy-Council to viz. not to exceed XXV and they to be chosen not by the King at pleasure but by every County of the Kingdon They required that all Moneys to be raised upon the Subject by way of Subsidy or Impost should be imployed for the defence of the Kingdom and that by all means at Free-Parliament should be called every three years at the least with full Power to any Man to present his Grievances to the States so Assembled They charged upon the King his Oath taken at his Coronation not only to be obliged to preserve the Antient Laws and Liberties of the Subject but such better Laws and more Commodious as should be presented unto him Their first grand Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom was cast in the same Mould with that of ours Which though it were the Contrivance but of a few chief Men of the League yet was it published in the name of all the Lords and Commons of France only signed by the Cardinal of Bourbon whom they made a Stale to their Ambition By this they declared that France had been miserably tormented by a Pestiferous Sedition raised for the Subversion of the antient Religion of their Fore-Fathers That no Remedies had been applyed but such as were more proper for nourishing than curing the Disease That the Catholick Religion being in great danger it was most necessary to take some speedy prudent course for prevention of the imminent ruine thereof That Agents were sent to practise with the Protestant Princes of Germany for Suppressing the Persons of Honest Men and pulling down the Catholick-Religion and an endeavour to destroy the great Men who had the principal places of Honour That the King's Favours whose Majesty was and ever should be Sacred to them and Government of the State were engrossed by such who had drained his Coffers and placed Officers in the Exchequer for their own private advantage That though some Rays of hopes appeared by that Assembly of the States-General at Bloys the antient Remedy for all Domestick-Wounds yet after their great Labours and Expences in that meeting no Fruits were Reaped by reason of the evil-Council of those Men so dissaffected to God and the good of the Common-Weal So that the abuses which by little and little at first stole upon them did then burst in like an Impetuous Torrent ready to overwhelm the Kingdom the Church of God being prophaned the Nobility scorn'd and vilified and every day opprest with Innumerable Grievances and Illegal Exactions And that upon these just Causes and Considerations they declared
his Government and in their Manifesto's reflected upon his Person To which he publisht an Answer wherein having first inform'd his People that though he had several times heretofore both by his Letters and Commands admonished them not to suffer themselves to be perswaded or perverted by such as endeavoured to raise Insurrections amongst them and to draw them into their Party and by so doing to turn them out of the ways of Peace And had also proferred and promised Grace and Favour to all such as being already engaged should return to their Obedience after they should truly understand his Intentions Nevertheless with great grief of Heart perceiving that notwithstanding his Commands and Gracious Advertisment some of his Subjects did not forbear to engage themselves in that Faction being drawn into it by several Interests But the most of them purely transported and blinded with the fair and specious Colours which the Authors of those Seditions put upon their Designs he thought it a part of his Duty for the general benefit of all his Subjects and in discharge of his Conscience to God and Honour to the World to oppose the clear light of the Truth to those Artifices of his Adversaries To the end that his Subjects being guided by the clearness of that Light might in time and without any Impediment discern and know the grounds and ends of those Troubles and by that means avoid the Miseries and Calamities both publick and private which were like to grow upon those Commotions After this Preface he proceeds to shew the Vanity of their Pretences and to remove the occasions of their Fears and Iealousies First in point of Religion appealing to his own constant practise of and endeavours for the Religion Established the dangers and hazards he had undergone for the defence of it That he should not refuse to conâ—ent to any Laws for the securing of it so they were just and possible in themselves and profitable for his Subjects Nor did he refuse any that were offred to him by the Parliament at Bloys in favour of it Nor did there ever any the least thought enter into his Heart of Countenancing Heresy in his Dominions Secondly in point of Justice and Defence of the Laws be shewed what he had done since his coming to the Crown in favour of it what good Laws and Constitutions he had made and how desirous he had been that they should be observed But if any default were in the Execution of them the blame must rest upon his Officers not upon him whose particular care had been so great for the Rebuilding of those two Pillars Religion and Iustice which the violence of former times had pull'd down and Level'd with the ground He likewise intreated all his Subjects to open their Eyes and consider the dangerous Consequences of these Wars which would not be ended so soon as they imagined and not to stain their Loyalty by suffring themselves to be made Instruments of their Countries ruine to their Enemies advancement Thirdly as touching the disposal of places of Honour and trust in the Kingdom first he stood upon his Prerogative that as all his Predecessors so he might freely confer such places upon whom he pleased being not restrained by any Law to make choice of one more than another Appealing to the People how groundless that Calumny was when they might see those that most complained and were the Authors of those Troubles to be such as had been most preferred by him Fourthly for the Grievances of the People he professed he had already begun and promised his continuance to relieve them Fifthly for the secret Plots and Conspiracies which the Heads of the Faction pretended to be laid against their Persons for preventing whereof they said they were inforced to take up Arms his Majesties known Clemency might sufficiently secure them from any on his part who was naturally so far from all desire of revenge that no Man living had ever the least cause to complain of him in that respect notwithstanding what ever Provocation he had from any But very many have had sufficient proof of his natural Bounty and Mercy Therefore his Majesty prayed and intreated the Heads of that Faction to Disband their Forces to relinquish their League and return to their Duty and Loyalty and so doing he promised to receive them into his favour But after the King and the Leaguers had for a long time bandied Writing one against the other they so far incensed each other that it was now full time either to come to Action and not to multiply any more words The Forces of the Kingdom which adhered to the King were very weak for he had not time sufficient to ripen his Designs being prevented by the sagacity and forwardness of the House of Guise his own Followers and those of his Favourites were divided sometaking one part some another And those which stood with the Royal Authority were very cold and slow their Courages being much daunted by the bold attempts of the Consederates Nay some of the King 's own Party and who had been highly favoured and preferred by him were revolted from him to the League But that which Afflicted the King above all was his feares of the City of Parts a just Parallel of our London which was indeed the Head of the Kingdom but a Head so great and Powerful that which way soever it inclined it was sure to turn the Scales This Citty was not only united with the general League but had entred into a particular League and Covenant amongst themselves And having secretly provided themselves of Arms was ready to revolt upon the first occasion and if need were to seize upon the Kings Person which very much troubled him For if he should stay in Paris he could not do it without great danger to himself being liable to every affront from the inconsiderable headiness of the Multitude And if he should abandon it it was sure to revolt To secure his stay there he was therefore forced to call all the Souldiers of his Ordinary Guard to their Colours and farther made choice of forty five Gentlemen in whom he could repose confidence whom he maintained at the charge of an hundred Crowns a Month besides their Expences at Court to attend continually upon his Person Yet for all this he lived in continual Jealousies and Affliction of Mind seeing himself upon such an Head-strong Beast as was not possible for him to manage Wherefore he endeavoured all fair means of accommodation with the Leaguers profering them all security The Citty of Paris erected a new Council of Sixteen as London new-moulded theirs which were the most interested and affected to the League according to the number of Wards in that Citty who were to manage all the affairs and dispose the minds of the People with whom were joined one of every Mistery in the City who made their Addresses to and
received their Orders from the Sixteen as well concerning the defence of the City and Service of the League as to counterpiose the Kings Designs When there was no hopes of accommodation left with the Leaguers the King began to raise Forces too and summon'd all the Nobility to assist him Wherein he met no where with so much Opposition as from the Turbulent Citizens of Paris where the Preachers and Council of Sixteen never ceased to provoke and incense the People and raise frequent Tumults in the City so as the Magistrates was set light by and trod under foot with danger of an open revolt which those Men desired and endeavoured Nor did it stand with the present condition of the King to chastise the Authors of those Tumults for fear of ministring any occasion to the City of revolting from him Whereupon they Multiplyed their Practises with much boldness which had doubtless arrived at that end which the Leaguers designed but that the fear of the German-Army and the Kings Protestation and Oath for defence of Religion against the Huguenots which he had solemnly taken upon New-years day 1587. did contain them within some bounds of Moderation The King therefore having with great Dexterity and Moderation many times stilled those Reports which had been raised on no grounds being likewise heartily vexed at the Ringleaders of those Tumults but deeply concealing his Passion left the Lord Villaclere to be Governour and the Queen-Mother Regent in Paris and departed thence about the end of Iuly 1587. Thus was that King driven from Paris by the Tumults The House of Lorrein who were the prime Men in the League puft up with the Opinion of their own Power forgot all Moderation and spread their Sailes to vast hopes talked of nothing but utter extirpation of the Huguenots of deposing the King and thrusting him into a Cloyster as they found in Stories that King Chilperick had been served of expelling all Favourites from the Court sharing the great places of the Kingdom amongst themselves and Governing all France as they pleased And so high were they in their own Conceits that their Councils were not bounded either by Justice or Possibility For supposing all things to be now in their own hands they imagined their Merit to be such as they might lawfully undertake and their Power no less as that they might easily perform any the highest and most advantagious atchievement what soever What was this other than as our Men told his Majesty If they should make the highest Precedents of former Parliaments their Patterns it would be no Breach of Modesty To which purpose they caused or suffred those Infamous Stories of King Richard the Second's time to be Published in Print When all their Plots were now ripe and they in readiness for Execution they took the very same course and upon the very same Grounds as our Men did actuate their Designs which was forsooth by an Humble Petition For they agreed that the Duke of Guise and other Lords of the League should not immediately set upon the King with open force But to make a shew as if the nature of the Affairs themselves did carry them on to their Designed end they should present a Petition which should contain manydemands very advantagious to themselves and such as would necessitate the King to declare himself to the full For if he granted their Requests without more ado than they had their end but if he should hold off and be unwilling than he would give them occasion to make use of their Armes and to take that from him by force which he was not willing to part with of his own accord The chief Heads of their Petition presented to the King by the Duke of Guise after many Preambles and Reasons couched together with a great deal of cunning were these viz. That the King would cordially Ioyn with the League for Extirpation of the Huguenots His Majesty join wirh his Parliament for defence of Religion That he would dismiss from his Privy-Council and other places of Trust and Command and from the Court and their several places all such Persons as they should name such as were suspected by them Such as they could not confide in dissaffected to the Catholick Religion That he would grant the Confederates some places of Strength wherein they might place Garrisons for their own security and those to be maintained at the charge of the Crown That an Army should be maintained on the confines of Lorein to hinder any Forreign Invasion and that to be commanded by one of the confederates This the Militia just That he would confiscate and cause to be sold all the Goods of the Huguenots Papists and Prelates and with the price of them defray the Charges of the former War and help to maintain the Leaguers for the future To this Petition which was presented to the King in the beginning of February Anno. 1588. his Majesty was not hasty to return an Answer nor did the Duke of Guise much desire it because the ends of their Demands were only to make the King contemptible and odious to his People as also suspected as a Favourer of Hereticks And in the mean time to give occasion to the League to rise in Arms and Prosecute their Designs while Fortune smiled upon them The Citizens of Paris being led away by their new Council of Sixteen could no longer endure the Kings Government but were full of Scandalous Libels politick Discourses Satirical Verses and feigned Stories wounding the Kings Honour The Preachers likewise after their usual manner but with more freedom speaking against the present State of things filled the Peoples Eares with new strange and miraculous Stories Which poison being derived from the Citty of Paris as from the Heart spread abroad into all other parts of the Kingdom all Counties being possess'd with the like Impressions in favour of the League and disadvantage of the King The Duke of Guise purposing to devive all the Kings Authority upon himself and his Adherents applyed himself mostly to the Parisians being inform'd by the Sixteen that the City was at his Devotion with Twenty Thousand Armed Men under Sixteen Commanders of their several Companies ready for any Imployment But not confiding in those Commanders he thought fit to lessen the number and sent them five Captains to regulate and Command the Popular Arms viz. Brissac Boisdaufin Chamois Escaroles and Colonel St. Paul with whom was joined the Lord of Menevil as the prime instrument of the Plot. And though the King in his own Person was a most Rigid Opposer of the Huguenots and none more Zealous in his Religion than himself yet did they defame him to the People as a Favourer of Hereticks yea and to Forrein Princes too Traducing him saith Thuanus who was otherwise a most intestine Enemy to the Protestant cause both in France and with Forrein Princes as if what he did for
the Peace and Quiet of his Kingdom he had done it in favour of the Protestants Touching the point of Placing and Displacing Councellors as their Demands and Colour for them were alike with our Mens so was the Kings Answer not much different It was the publick discourse of the Guisards in Paris that the Kingdom could never be setled in Peace nor the Minds of true Catholicks at ease so long as they saw the Kings Person inviron'd with non-confiding Persons and of uncertain resolutions in point of Religion The King made answer he was very willing to any thing that might conduce to the settlement of Religion and that he was heartily inclin'd to the Extirpation of Huguenots there being no Prince in Christendom that more hated and desired the Suppression of Hereticks than himself And that for those about his Person they had never suggested to him any Councils to the contrary That all Kings had ever enjoyed the free Liberty of preserving and favouring whom they pleased and to choose their Companions according to their own Gust Were it not so the liberty of Kings should be chained and limitted to that which private Men enjoy free and without restraint there being no person so mean but hath Power to live and converse with whom he please according to his own Genus and liking But if it should be proved against his Ministers that they had in any thing demeaned themselves with less Sincerity than they ought he would be ready to punish them accordingly to the quality of their Offence but would not Banish them from his Court to humour other Men. When the King by reason of the Tumults in Paris had as was said for his own Security enlarged the number of his Guard the Duke of Guise and his Partisans spread a Rumour in the City that the King had a purpose to put a Hundred and Twenty of the Principal Catholicks to Death and to put Garrisons in the chief places of the City to awe the Citizens and therefore that it was necessary for them to stand upon their Guard Upon this Succeeded the Barricados at Paris when the King was in a manner wholly in the Duke of Guises Power But yet he made a shift to slip away privately from his Palace the Louere attended only with Sixteen Gentlemen The Duke not taking care to prevent the escape whether out of Honesty of which he pretended to be the Protector or that he desired to cloak all his Designs with the Mantle of Piety and Religion or that he intended nothing more but his own safety and Reformation of the Government promising to himself that all would fall into his Lap by means of his cunning Carriage and that he needed not to make use of open Force brought the King to such a low Ebb that he must of necessity yield up himself to his Disposal and condescend to such Conditions as he desired which he doubted not but would be approved by the general consent of the People The King being desirous of an accommodation imploy'd the Queen Mother to treat with the Duke of Guise and his Adherents Which had the like success as his Majesties Message from Nottingham to those at Westminster But the Duke's demands were extream high and Exorbitant more like an absolute Conquerour than a Subject viz. That the King should declare him his Lieutenant-General over all the Provinces of his Dominions That a general Assembly of the States should be called at Paris and this Authority being then confirm'd to him by them that the Taxes and Impositions upon the People should be moderated That for removing all suspition of Innovations all Forms of Government should be setled in such a way as it might not be lawful for the King to make any alteration That the Duke D'Espernon and several other Ministers of State as persons suspected to keep Intelligence with the Hereticks and to be continually hammering out new Projects should be put out of their Places and Commands and for ever Banished from the Court That to remove the Jealousies generally conceived of too remiss Proceedings against the Hereticks the sole managery of that War should be Committed to the Duke That to take away the suspition of any Tyrannical Intentions or Actions srom the King he should dismiss his Guard of forty six and interdict them all his Majesty to return to the Court and content himself with such an ordinary Guard as his Predecessors used to have That Griglion the Captain of the Guard should be displaced and another put in his room in whom the Catholicks could confide That the forts of Provence should be consign'd to the Duke D'Aumarle and others to others of the League and that the King should deposite in the hands of certain Lords of the League six other strong Holds such as they should nominate which should be Garrison'd by them and have such Governours as were to their liking That a convenient Assignment should be made to the Cittizens of Paris for reimbursing the Expenses they had been at And that the Government of the City should be confer'd upon the Count of Brissac the Duke of Mayne made high Admiral and de Chatres Ldâ— Mareschall When the Duke of Guise failed of his Intentions upon the Kings Person by reason of his escape and his Design of obtaining from him as his Prisoner what Conditions he pleased was by that means crushed he bent his thoughts to the securing himself of the Command of the City of Paris For perceiving that he must now go to War with the King he knew very well that he could have no stronger Foundation than the Power and Assistance of the Parisians Therefore to assure himself of the City he got into his Hands the Bastile dispossessing Testate who held it formerly for the King but was now forc'd to surrender it into the hands of the People who instantly made the Duke Governour of it The Duke therefore loosing no time call'd the People together in a Common-Council and caused Hector Perose provost of the Merchants a place answerable to that of Lord Mayor of London to be deposed as a dependent on the King Committed him to the Bastile and made Capello Martell to be chosen Provost in his place he being a Principal Incendiary among the People and chief Minister of the League Just a Pennington for a Gurney The Duke of Guise seeing the King was got out of the toyl and that he could not bring his first Design about endeavoured to make it appear that it was done with his consent the King's Escape though it hapned by his Inadvertence Therefore with many fair words and plausible reasons laid down in several Writings both to the King and People of France he strove to make them believe that all his Actions had no other aim but the benefit of the Kingdom Allegiance and Obedience to the King and Zeal to the publick good That the Tumults in Paris were
occasion'd by the fears of the People without any consent of his That his Intentions were ever most Inclin'd to Loyalty and all due Obedience desiring nothing but that Evil Councillers might be removed and due care taken for the securing of Religion And though says my Author his Actions were for the most part quite contrary to his Professions yet the colour of Religion was so lively and plausible he knowing so well how to demean himself that the People generally believed him still a Loyal Subject to the King and that all he did was only out of Zeal to Religion and an Ardent desire for promoting the publick good of the Kingdom When things were in this State there followed the face of an accommodation betwixt the King and the Leaguers and for the composing of all differences another Parliament was convened at Bloys 16. Oct. 1588. In the Election of Members to assist at it though both parts laboured to have such chosen as were their own dependents yet those of the League prevailed by much above the Kings Party For the Commons being vexed with their pressing Grievances their end being mainly to shake off that Burthen did willingly adhere to the Kings Enemies who promised and professed an earnest desire of easing the People of their unsupportable burthen by Taxes and Contributions In this Parliament all the States took a Solemn Oath or Protestation for defence of Religion with the Kings Person and Authority Which Oath they ordered to be taken by all the Subjects of the Kingdom Notwithstanding all which Obligations whereby the Leaguers bound themselves to abandon their former Practises and to apply themselves to a sincere obedience of the King yet did they not remit any thing of their former Machinations For not only the Duke of Guise aspired to obtain the express Title of Lieutenant General which he could not before accomplish though he had the Power but the rest ceased not to tamper with the States that the Government migt be reformed in such a manner as that the King should have no share left him in it but the bare name and shadow of a Prince the whole Power to be transferred to this Duke and his Dependents of the League Nay the very number of the States which equaliz'd ours in the House of Commons engaging themselves in the Interests of the Faction did contend and squable for the same ends with them without any regard of their so many and Solemn Oaths in evident contempt of the Person Name and Majesty of the King The Commons in this Parliament notwithstanding they had resolv'd upon a War with the Huguenots which must needs be expensive Yet demanded from the King a moderation of Taxes and diminution of new Impositions which like that of Ship-money amounted to two Millions of Crowns yearly as also the Reformation of many Offices erected about the Customes and the total abolishing of some other Grievances They declared the King of Navarr who was next Heir to the Crown incapable of Inheriting and Sollicited the King to make a new Decree upon it unto which they would have him swear as a Fundamental Law After many other Plots and Practises in this Factious Parliament when business was now fully ripe and the Duke of Guise having sufficiently canvassed and prepared the States both in general and particular Grown now secure and bold upon confidence of former Experience he began to bring his Plot upon the Stage of being made Lieutenant-general at the Request and by the Authority of the Parliament which was the last end of his present hopes But those hopes were quickly frustrate by His untimely Death After which his Brother the Duke of Maine took up Arms to Prosecute that design of the League And though the King wrote kind Letters to him yet were they of no force to make him hearken to any Concord For making himself Head of the Holy Union he was by the Parisians declared Lieutenant General of the State and Crown of France with the same authority and power wich is naturally inherent in the King abating only the name which Power was intended to continue until the States-General should think fit to alter it Upon the possession whereof he entred 22. Febr. 1589 Having taken a Solemn Oath to Protect and defend the Catholick Religion against all Persons whatsoever to preserve the Estate belonging to the Crown of France to defend the Priviledges of the three Estates of Parliament the Clergy Nobility and Commons to cause the Laws and Constitutions of the Realm to be observed and the Authority and Power of the Courts of Justice Having done this he chose and setled the Council of the Union like a close Committee consisting of fourty the chief and most eminent Persons of the League to manage all the most Important Affairs with his Assistance leaving still the Government of the City of Paris with the Sixteen And as our Men had their Committies in several Counties which received Directions from and sent Informations to their great Council So did these of the League ordain that there should be six eight twelve or more of them nominated in several places of the Kingdom to propose what was fitting to the Council and having received Directions from them to act accordingly Nor hath scarce any act of Insolence been Commited by our Men in which they might not urge these for an Example What hath been done to Justice Mallet taken off the Bench and Committed to the Tower the like was done in Paris For they in a Tumultuous manner beset the Hall of the Pallace where the Judges than sate seiz'd upon Harle and others whom they deem'd to be well affected to the King and Committed them Prisoners to the Bastile The King upon like Motives as his Majesty Adjourn'd the Term from London to Oxford adjourn'd the Courts of Justice the Parliament of Paris to Towrs that of Roan to Cane that of Dijon to Chalon And that nothing might be wanting in this Rebellion which was in that As our Men took upon them to make a new great Seal ransackt the Kings Pallace at White-hall seiz'd all his Revenues Forts and Magazine into their own hands usurped his Authority and called in a Forreign-Nation the Scots to their Assistance their Parliament Voting it and their Preachers being the Trumpeters of War against the King So our own Camden tells us the Leaguers of France did Populus ubique Magistratibus parere dedignatus Regias aedes Lutetiae diripuit Conjurati novo consilio instituto novo Sigillo ad res administrandas confecto Regiam sibi authoritatem arrogarunt munitissima quaeque loca immo integras Provincias sibi raptarunt Regni redditus interceperunt Auxiliares Hispanos è Belgio evocarunt Parliamentis suffragantibus Ecclesiasticis Bellum in Regem ubique buccinantibus The King after all this being straitned for Money and entertaining no Thoughts but of Peace and Accommodation procured the Popes Legate to Interpose
for that end promising to refer all difference to his Holiness Which when the Legate moved to the Duke of Maine he refused to hearken to it alledging it to be but a shift of the King to gain time in regard he found himself at present unprovided and unarmed All hopes of accommodation therefore fayling the King being persuaded that he had used all means possible on his part and that not without descending far below the honour of his person began to alter his Opinion And to the end he might not be surprized without assistance by the Power of his Enemies the urgency of his necessities constraining him perforce to look about for some Supplies he began to hearken to an accord with the King of Navarre a Professed Protestant Certain it is that in his own Inclination he was ever averse from such an accord his nature being incompatible with all Commerce with the Huguenots But there being an evident necessity that he could not then do otherwise all his Councillers with one voice told him he must needs resolve and side with one Party unless he would stand alone in the midst of his Potent Enemies one on one side the Loyre and the other on the other side having possess'd themselves of all What Moneys what Friends what Armies what Forces had he sufficient to grapple with such Factions at the same time T is clear which way soever he could turn himself he must have one Enemy before his Face and another behind his back His Kingdom also being divided and Forrein Princes likewise divided betwixt two Religions he a new Example should have both averse both Enemies to him would he continue in this distraction without Forces without Moneys While one side Invades one part another side another part of the Regal Authority He is now what he was always affraid of in the midst of two Violent Torrents He did as much as man could do for Peace He forgot his own Honour to be reconcil'd with the Seditious and gave the Rebels and Despisers of his Authority that satisfaction which they little deserved With unheard of Patience he endured all the Injuries of the People the Invectives of their Preachers the Villanous Insolencies of the Factious Commons and the bold Decrees of the Sorbon submitting his Royal Majesty to the inordinate desires of the Reliques of the Guises He did that which never King before him would have endured to have done What could he do more unless to please the Spaniards he would patiently wait without providing any defence till he were miserably torn in Pieces by his Enemies and the like outrages Committed upon his Person as had been already done to his Statua's both in Paris and Tholouse It is more then time therefore that he shew he hath the Heart of a Lyon and making use of the King of Navarr's Assistance de Inimicis suis vind care Inimicos suos to revenge himself of his Enemies by his Enemies this being no new nor unheard of Course His Brother K Charles many times and himself sometimes when Necessities were less pressing had made Peace with the Huguenots Why should he not therefore seek all just means to restrain the Seditious to recover his own Power and now at last to restore Peace and Rest to his Kingdom Upon this then followed several adverse Declarations of the King 's justifying his own Proceedings The like by the Duke of Mayne in behalf of the League After these Instigations of his Councillers the King beginning to incline to an accommodation with the King of Navarr and the Huguenots Though all his followers desired that he should not come to an accord with them yet such was the obstinacy of the Duke of Mayne and the Leaguers and such the State of the Realm by reason of the present Seditions that none of them could blame him though they all abhorr'd it Seeing therefore that of necessity he must take up some resolution and that his Affairs were in danger of utter ruine if he did not he concluded a Truce for one Year with the King of Navarr upon these Conditions 1. That the publick Exercise of the Catholick Religion should be restored in all places under the Command of the Huguenots without Exception 2. That the Clergy should be restored to their Means and the Prisoners which they had in their hands should be set at Liberty 3. That the King of Navarr should be obliged to serve him in Person with four Thousand Foot and twelve Hundred Horse wheresoever he should be Commanded 4. That all Cities Countries and places of his Party should observe all the Laws and Constitutions of the Kingdom obey the Courts of Justice and the Kings Magistrates and receive such Orders as the King had or should hereafter give them On the other side it was agreed that the King of Navarr should have the City of Samur and keep it as a free pass for him upon the River Loyre but be bound to yield it up again at the Kings Pleasure How fully applicable is this to the Cessation made in Ireland by his Majesty Hereupon the King set forth a Declaration against the Duke of Maine and his Adherents who had caused the Cities to revolt and were then up in Arms intimating to them that if they did not return to their Obedience within the space of XV. days and forbear to trouble the Realm by making Levies as also not lay down Arms they should incurr the Crime of Rebellion and all their Goods be Confiscate Like to this was his Majesties Proclamation against the Earl of Essex from York 9. Aug. 1642. Which Writings were attended with Actions sutable as his Majesty did set on foot his Commissions of Array the King granting out Commissions to several Governours in sundry Provinces for making of Levies and drawing the People together in Arms. Nevertheless he still continued his Inclinations to Peace and having excused the Truce which he was necessitated to make with the King of Navarr and promised to persevere constant in the Catholick Religion he intreated the Pope's Nuncio once more to trye the Mind of the Duke of Maine and by conferring with him in Person to labour him to an Accommodation in regard that neither by the Duke of Loreyne's means to whom he had Written nor the Dutchess of Nemurs who had been imploy'd to that purpose he could at all work upon him to lend the least Ear to any Treaty for Peace And to make it evident to the World how desirous he was to be free'd from the necessity of an accord with the Huguenots he delivered to the Cardinal a Paper Written with his own Hand wherein was contained what things he would be content to grant to them of the League Offring to make the Prince of Loreyne Governour of Metz Tul and Uerdun to Marry the Inheritrix of Bullion with the Cities of Games and Sedan to the Count of Vaudemont To the Duke of Mayne he was content to
by the disdain which he had conceived against the Inconstancy and Impertinency of the Citizens of Paris and the want of Money to pay his Souldiers was troubled much But above all the Subtilty and surliness of the Spaniard vexed him most who having caused Seignior de la Mot the Governour of Gravelin to come out of Flanders with their Forces to the confines of the Kingdom refused to let him advance one Foot further or to issue any Moneys for the maintenence of the War unless the Catholick King was first declared Protector of the Crown of France with Authority to dispose of the Principal Dignities as well Ecclesiastical as secular which they called marks of Justice whereby he desired to have Dominion and Superiority over the League Which demands seemed so Exorbitant unto him so prejudicial to the Crown and so dishonest that he could not endure to think of them himself Nor did he believe that any one Man of the Confederates from the Parisians downwards would ever condescend to Decree them Knowing that this were to put the Bridle into the King of Spaine's hands to let him carry all things to such ends as he pleased himself Nor did the Brethren of Scotland sell their Assistance at a much cheaper rate as is plainly to be seen by their Treaty of the 29th of November 1643. For their advance into England and their second demands for their managery of the Government of Ireland But on the other side his Fears of being abandoned and left alone his distrust of the Kings Sincerity in his Promises and the Antient grudge he bore to him but especially his hopes of getting the Crown for himself would not suffer him to hearken to those overtures made by the Marquess of Belin whom he sent back to his Imprisonment with some Ambiguous and General Expressions and cut off the Negotiation for any Accord So still the King seeks but the Faction declines all occasions of Peace For the People of Paris were so far Transported with Zeal to the Cause by reason of the continual denunciations from the Pulpits that there could be no Peace or accommodation made unless they would damn their own Souls that they were resolved to endure any thing rather than to hearken to an Accommodation Insomuch as many who had inconsiderately slipt a Word or two out of their Mouths saying that Accommodation was better than starving and rather Peace than a Siege were in the Rage and Fury of the People either publickly Condemn'd and Executed or without more ado thrown into the River as damn'd Miscreants Enemies of the Catholick Religion and infected with the Poyson of Heresy It is not unworthy Observation what Artifices the Heads of that Rebellion used to abuse the People During the Seige of Paris both the Duke of Mayne without and other Lords within the City imploying all their Art and Industry in giving out Reports and spreading News sometimes of a strong Power from Flanders coming to raise the Seige sometimes of great Provisions of Victual for Relief of the City sometimes of some Accident in favour of their Party Letters and Messengers coming in every day with a Mixture of true and False Reports together Which being Published in their Pulpits and divulged amongst their Guards served to feed the People for a few days And when there were certain Commissioners sent from Paris to treat with the King about an Acommodation Notwithstanding his Majesties Answer was returned in Writing with much sweetness of Language and proffer of all security and possible satisfaction upon return to their Obedience with Letters to the same effect to the Duke of Nemure and others exhorting them to Peace and assuring them that they should receive more from his Grace than they could desire Yet upon return of the Commissioners the Duke of Nemure and other great Persons dissaffected to Peace would not permit the true Copy of the Kings Answer to be Published to the People but caused Reports to be given out that the King would not have any Peace but upon condition of an absolute Submission and that the Duke of Mayne and other Lords of the League should not be included in the Pardon The King of Spaine therefore upon the Duke of Parma's Advice finding how much those of the League relyed upon his ayd and the necessity thereof endeavoured to prolong the War That by the weariness and weakness of the French he might at length compass those ends upon them which he saw it was impossible for him at first to obtain The Duke of Parma himself also to win the more upon the People when he came into France with his Army in assistance of the Leaguers considering that the name of a Spaniard was there odious strayn'd himself with all possible earnestness of Mind for to order his Army as that his Souldiers should not commit any Outrage or Oppression nor give any occasion of offence to the French The War thus Prolonged and the charge thereof grown heavy occasioned much repining in the People against the Duke of Mayne notwithstanding all his Faithful Services and Paines taken for the League against whom none complained more than the Cittizens of Paris who Accused the Duke of misgovernance of an over greediness to keep all things in his own Power and too much profuseness of other Mens Means With them Concurred the Ministers of Spain who liked not to see such a Supream Power in the hands of the Duke of whose Affection to their Designs they had no good Opinion Besides these discontents Brissonius Primier President of the Parliament at Paris who had been at first a principal Instrument for the League when he perceived as his Friends said that the ends of the Grandees were not so sincere for the publick good as he at first had conceived of them or as his Enemies reported being corrupted by large proffers made unto him on behalf of the King by some who were Prisoners in the City or as it was generally believ'd out of the Levity and Inconstancy of his nature began to favour the King's Party who taking heart unto them by means of his Protection making a considerable Body began to Plot how to bring the City to revolt and to reduce it to the Kings Obedience One of which Revolters who had been a chief Fomenter of the League being discovered for holding Intelligence and Plotting for the King was by the instigation of the Sixteen hurried to Prison But whilst they made slow proceeding to his Tryal he escaped which so vexed the Sixteen as that supposing the Judges had a hand therein they furiously raysed the People in Arms and upon the XV th of November beset all the Passes to the Palace of Justice seized upon three of the Judges Brisson Archier and Terdiu hauled them to Prison and there without any Legal Process Strangled them the same day Hang'd up their Bodies upon the Gallows next Morning and like Mad Men ran
themselves adding that hereafter he should learn to know the Policies of Spain to be no less than those of Navarr And therefore Intreats them for their Honours Sake and Credit of the Holy-Cause to desist from all Thoughts of altering the Fundamental the Salique-Law of France by Transferring the Crown upon a Woman and Submitting the Kingdom to the Dominion of a Stranger But this Proposal of the Spaniard was resented with no less Indignation by most of the Members of the State than by the Bishop of Saintliz who scorned that Strangers should rule over them as if they were either so base as to make themselves instantly Slaves or so foolish as not to understand their own Interests Above all they of the House of Lorrein were netled at it who thought to have shared the Cake amongst themselves Yea the very People of Paris being wearied out with necessities and wants and having tasted a little of the Sweets of Peace by means of a cessation concluded during the time of the Treaty at Suren did impatiently desire an Accord with the King and began to threaten the States unless they would hearken to an Accommodation The Spaniards being now grown so odious to the Parisians as that their Embassadors could not peep abroad in the Streets but they were entertain'd with Scoffs and Curses though but two Years before they were so high in their Books and gracious in their Eyes that they of Paris thought to have yielded the City freely to be under the Subjection of the King of Spain No sooner was this great Mystery of Spanish Policy and Ambition revealed and publickly made known through the Kingdom and that Assembly of States which was Call'd in Rebellion Dissolv'd in Disorder but that the Cities which formerly held for the League and Governours of the Garrisons made hast to return by their Obedience to the King Meaux led the way Peron Pontois Orliens Bruges Lyons and Aix followed after and Paris it self was not long behind Roan and Amiens and the rest came flocking in and were all received to Grace The Spaniards therefore when they saw their main Project for the Crown thus to fayl had thoughts to reimburse themselves by getting Possession of as many strong places upon the Frontiers of France as they could either by Force or Fraud La Fera in Picardy Capella Croisill and Blavet in Brittany and Calais they Surprized By which means they had so strengthen'd themselves as that the Dukes of Guise and Mayne after they had made their Peace with the King and other Leaders of the League were now content to joyn their Forces to beat them out as Enemies whom they had formerly call'd in as Friends And surely if our Covenanters had been as truly sensible of the Honour of the English Nation and Scottish-Practises as the French Leaguers were of theirs they wanted not as just Provocations on one side from the Scotts and fair Invitations on the other from the King to joyn with him in delivering this exhausted and bleeding Kingdom from the Misery which it did at that time suffer and from that Slavery which most good Men feared was at first intended by the Scotts who had solemnly sworn to subdue this late flourishing Church to the Tyranny of a Scottish-Presbytery And not content with that demanded in effect the Supream Command of Ireland to be put into their Hands As also to have an equal share in the Government of England Which Designs of that insolency in them and dishonour to us were such as our Fore-Fathers would not have endured the mention and at the Memory whereof our Posterity will doubtless blush And to bring these their ends about 't is very well known that they made themselves Masters of the strongest Cities in this Kingdom upon their own confines viz. Barwick Newcastle and Carlisle Out of which and such other Footing as they had gained here how they were got the Precedent Story doth sufficiently manifest whereof I shall not give any touch that of the Spaniards departure out of France having no resemblance therewith For the King of Spain found while he was Fighting to gain the Neighbour Kingdom of France he had almost lost his own in the Low-Countries Likewise that neither his Forces nor Moneys were sufficient to maintain two such Expensive Wars at the same time And that he did not gain so much in France but the Hollanders by occasion of that diversion got as much of him in Flanders and therefore was willing to hearken to a Treaty for Peace And the French whose Kingdom was now miserably wasted by a long Civil War not unwilling to imbrace the motion Whereupon a Peace was concluded betwixt those two Crowns at Uervins upon the second of May Anno. 1598. Whereby the Spantard was to restore all the Towns he had taken in the French Dominion and go away only with Bagg and Baggage It is not unworthy of Observation that in all the several Compositions which the Leaguers made with the King upon their Reconcilement and in all the Articles of the Treaty at Uervins for the general Peace there is not the least mention of Religion or Extirpation of Heresy though that was the great Cause for which they ever pretended to take up Arms Only they were careful to preserve their secular Interests and to secure their Persons and Estates upon as good Terms as they could A plain Evidence that Religion was but the Stale Honours and Preferments being the Mark which they aimed at Yet the Protestants whom they had devoted to Destruction in their Holy-League fared in the end never the worse for it For the King was content to confirm and Republish in Anno. 1595 the same Edict in favour of them which Henry the third had granted in Anno. 1577. and which had been the chief Eye-sore to the Papists and a ground of their League Which Edict he caused to be verified in the Parliament at Paris where Coquilius one of the Judges formerly a Violent Leaguer was a special Instrument to further and facilitate the Publication and reception of it in the Parliament And and when the Kingdom had some Liberty to Breath and Recover her Senses even those that were professed Papists did not much repine at the Toleration of Protestants and enlargement of their Priviledges by the Edict of Nantz Anno. 1598. Which the Historian relating labours in part to excuse by discoursing to the Reader That the Common Peace of France Pressed and almost Oppressed with the Tragical Impetuosities of Schisms and Divisions made every thing that was just to be thought necessary and all that was profitable be esteemed just So that seeing the torrent of Religion could not be stopt without a Breach in the State that the Disease was inveterate and a hard matter to remove what was so deeply setled That the Restauration of a Church is the work of God as well as the Plantation Men must be content to do no
being too strong But no sooner was the King gone than that the turbulent Spirits in the House of Commons set to work in framing a bitter Remonstrance of the general Grievances of the Kingdom to make his Majesties Government seem odious to his Subjects which was ordered to be brought into the House Whereupon grew great debates and disputes which lasted from three of the clock afternoon the whole night following and till ten of the Clock on the morrow But at length many who disliked and opposed it partly by reason of their age of infirmity of Body being wearied out and departing others through sloth or timorousness leaving the House it was voted by some few voices divers of the factious party being fetcht out of their Beds to assist This Remonstrance being a compendium of all the mistakes and misfortunes that had hapned since the beginning of his Majesties reign to that hour objected to him the Actions of some and the Thoughts of others reproacht him with such things of which he never knew and reviled him to his people complained also of the House of Peers and ascribed all the Acts of Grace already passed in that Parliament to their own wisdom in procuring with intimation of their despair in setling the distractions of the Kingdom by reason of the power of a malignant-party and want of concurrence by the House of Peers wherein so many Bishops and malignant Lords then sat This being done their next work was to get the whole command of the Militia which being had nothing afterwards could be difficult to them For the better effecting thereof they therefore had again recourse to those shadows of Conspiracies and Plots which had stood them in good stead before The first of them being a new pretended Treason by the Earl of Craford and others against the Marquess of Hamilton then in Scotland and other Peers of that Realm this being signified by Letters from their Committee in Scotland dated 14 Oct. Whereupon that the like here might be prevented orders were directed to the Sheriffs of London Middlesex and Surrey for setling strong Guards of armed-men in places of moment Likewise the whole Trayned-Band of Westminster was brought into the Palace-Yard on the morrow and there attended all that day giving this reason for that order viz. Because the mischeivous designs and conspiracies lately discovered in Scotland against some principal and great men there by some of the Popish-faction gives just occasion to suspect that they may maintain correspondency here and practise the like in this Realm In like manner the same Trayn-Band of Westminster was brought into the Palace-Yard on the morrow and attended all that day until the Houses rose And the next day following Mr. Pym made a large Speech at a conference to lay open the Conspiracy Neither wanted they the Pulpits to advance their designs their Lecturers in several parts being men neither of learning nor conscience insinuating to the People all those falshoods and scandals which might work in them a dislike towards his Majesty depraving the conformable-Clergy charging them with Revolt from the Protestant Religion with purpose to introduce Popery one of them preaching to the Brotherhood in the Artillery-Garden expressing that for the defence of Religion and Reformation of the Church it was lawful to take up Arms against the King As a preparative whereunto a Bill was brought into the House for putting all the Forts and Castles and the whole Militia of the Kingdom into such hands as they might confide in CHAP. VIII IN this time the Rebellion in Ireland breaking forth it will not be improper to say somewhat thereof wherein though I shall not charge our grand Conspirators here with having any hand as to matter of council or contrivance with the Ring-leaders of that barbarous Insurrection yet can I not at all excuse them from giving great occasion for it and not without suspicion of Design if all be true that I have seen in a brief discourse thereof publish'd in print in an 1644. Which I shall leave to the better judgment of such as then lived and well observed the Actions of those times The substance of which Narrative is this viz. That the Irish being a people born and bred in the Romish Religion which they did glory to have derived from their Ancestors for no less than Thirteen hundred years and wherein they had connivence ever since the Reformation it could not be imagined when they saw such a Storm approach them by the harsh proceedings of the Parliament then sitting at Westminster against those of their profession in England who were daily cavill'd withall charg'd with sundry forged Conspiracies and Plots to render them odious and distastful to the world the wardship and education of their children voted to the disposal of others their votes as Peers in Parliament endangered and the large Progress made in England and Scotland towards the extirpation of the Protestant Religion as it then stood establish'd by Law in both Realms under which they had enjoyed their estates though upon certain penalties with the charge whereof they were well acquainted but they had cause enough to fear that their own misery was not far off especially discerning that the Insolency of the Scots did daily increase toward them whose large footing in their Kingdom having an inveterate hatred towards the Natives might endanger their shouldring them out Considering likewise the frequent Reports given out in that Kingdom to extirpate their Religion and Nation as also that Orders were made by the Houses of Parliament in England incroaching upon their priviledges of Parliament in Ireland and that their Committee after nine months attendance on his Majesty who was graciously pleased to hear their grievances being referr'd to the Houses of Parliament here upon his departure from London towards Scotland 10 Aug. 1641 was constrain'd to return without any redress through the prevalency of some leading Members who before had all they could misinterpreted to his Majesty the proceedings and Actions of the Parliament in Ireland It was therefore not a little fear'd by some that those provocations were purposely exercised to exasperate the Irish to take up Arms that so under colour of suppressing them as Rebels they might be utterly destroyed and eradicated Nor was it without suspicion by others considering how eagerly that Act for confiscation of their Lands was prosecuted by those Members at Westminiter at the very beginning of that Insurrection Also how his Majesties going over in person after the same brake out was hinder'd which in probability might have quencht that flame Moreover how they ingrossed that war into their own hands thereby to have the power to employ any forces raised or levied for it to assist in pursuance of their design upon this Kingdom as they should see cause as was evident by those under the command of the Lord Wharton and others which were in the Battel of
of that Diocess of Coventry and Litchfield In order whereunto when he had march'd within half a mile of Litchfield he drew up his Army and there devoutly pray'd a blessing upon his intended work withall earnestly desiring that God would by some special Token manifest unto them his approbation of that their design which being done he went on and planted his great Guns against the South-East Gate of the Close himself standing in a Window of a little House near thereto to direct the Gunners in their purposed Battery but it so hapned that there being two persons placed in the Battlements of the chiefest Steeple to make shot with long fouling Guns at the Cannoniers upon a sudden accident which occasioned the Souldiers to give a shout this Lord coming to the door compleatly harnessed with Plate-Armour cap a pe was suddenly shot into one of his Eyes but the strength of the Bullet so much abated by the glance thereof on a piece of timber which supported a Pentiss over the Door that it only lodg'd in his Brains Whereupon he suddenly fell down dead Nor is it less notable that this accident fell out upon the second day of March which is the Festival of that sometime famous Bishop St. Chad to whose memory Offa King of the Mercians first erected this stately Church and devoutly dedicated it The next thing whereof I shall take notice is that on the nineteenth day of the same month of March was that feirce Skirmish at Hopton-Heath in the same County of Stafford where the right loyal and valiant Spenser Earl of Northampton encountring Sir William Brereton and Sir Iohn Gell though he had the better of the day being unhappily fallen from his Horse amongst Coney-Burrows was barbarously murthered CHAP. XV. AS to this year's Actions considering that money is the Sinews of war the first thing of note in order to the gaining thereof which the Members at Westminster did was the sequestring of Delinquents i. e. the Royalists estates And finding the poor Country-people very weary of the war and apt to run away having also had so much experience of the Cities forwardness in all things tending to their service to the intent that upon any sudden occasion they might draw out considerable numbers thence they passed an Ordinance that the Committee for the Militia of London and the Suburbs should raise new Regiments of Voluntiers for the better security thereof So likewise for the better support of two other of their Generals viz. Sir William Waller and Sir Arthur Haselrig they passed an Ordinance for engaging the Public Faith to such as should lend either Horse Men or Money unto them in that service But by this time the private Discontents and repinings which these large Exactions caused beginning to make the great Masters in this Tragic Scene to doubt a revolt in the people considering how frequently the King by sundry gracious Proclamations of pardon and all other good means had woed them To carry on the work therefore the more smoothly they were constrained after the example of their Brethren the Scots to make an Engagement by a solemn Oath for continuing their assistance therein And in this as the Citizens of London who in all other occasions had been their principal Instruments did readily tender their service by Sir Henry Mildmay who reported to the House that they would lend the fourty thousand pounds demanded for now they were borrowing again provided that the Holy League and Covenant before spoken of might be made and imposed upon the whole Kingdom And rather than their Blessed Cause as they call'd it should suffer it was moved by the Sub-Committee at Sadler's Hall in Breadstreet that all persons who were willing to promote their own Safety should spare one meal weekly towards the provision of Horse and Arms for the new rais'd Auxiliaries about London Also because they found some slackness in the people to bring in money upon the Propositions they appointed Committees in the several Counties to tax such for their fifth and twentieth part as had not contributed or lent accordingly and passed another Ordinance for taking Horses for the service of the Parliament It is not unworthy of note that this thrifty contrivance for sparing one meal a week was the usher to that then formidable Imposition called Excise never before heard of by many thousands in this Kingdom which the trivers at Westminster durst not shew the people till they were sufficiently tamed under the yoke of other Exactions knowing full well how displeasing it would be to them Nay so fearful were they themselves after they had form'd their first Army lest the people should apprehend any suspicion thereof which might then have endangered a Revolt that when it was but whispered by some what they foresaw would happen they made an Order in their House of Commons for punishing such Malignant persons as had cast aspersions upon that House that they intended to assess any man's Pewter and lay Excise upon that and other Commodities But now that they saw the people by degrees so patiently submit to many other burdens they began to debate in their House of Commons how fit and necessary it would be for them to impose Excise upon Wine Beer Tobacco and such petty Commodities Whereupon Mr. Pym by his Letter to Sir Iohn Hotham signifyed that they had proceeded in the Excise to many particulars and intended to go on farther but that it would be necessary to use the people to it by little and little And because this Ordinance before-mention'd for taking Horses for the service of the Parliament should not pinch upon their friends they passed another by which they appointed certain persons to levy such Horses for the service of the Parliament but with special direction that the Horses taken from the well affected should be valued and repaiment secured upon the Public faith Having thus laid such a sure foundation for the support of more Forces they then sent out a Declaration to their Lord Lieutenants and Deputy-Lieutenants of Kent Canterbury and the Cinqueports that they should associate and raise an Army of a thousand Foot-Voluntiers and one or more Troops of Horse and to appoint a Major General and give Battel to any Forces not raised by authority of both Houses But the Oath formerly mentioned by Sir Henry Mildmay being by this time framed was now thought fit to be set on foot as of high concernment to oblige all those that were well affected and for the better discovery of other well-wishers to the Cause a work therefore of this high consequence being not fit to be brought into the world naked they had a Committee who made report of a treacherous Conspiracy discovered upon the last day of May being the Fast-day viz. of a pretended design to destroy the Parliament and well affected party of the Kingdom to subject Religion
Laws and Liberty of the Subject to establish Popery and to set up an arbitrary Government for prevention whereof both Houses and the whole Realm should enter into a solemn Covenant never to lay down Arms so long as the Popish-party for so they called the King's forces were on foot and Papists and Delinquents protected from the Justice of the Parliament but to assist the Forces rais'd by authority of the two Houses of Parliament against the Forces rais'd by the King Which solemn Oath and Covenant thus drawn up was then taken by both Houses and within ten days following throughout all the Parishes of London And because the poor Country-people might throughout England be all caught upon one day they passed an Order of both Houses that a Public Thanksgiving should be made throughout the whole Kingdom on Thursday the thirteenth of Iuly following for the discovery of the late Plot at which time this Oath and Covenant should be tendred to every man in the several Parishes Also to secure the Pulpit-men the more cordially to them and to make them the more active in stirring up the people upon all occasions they made an Ordinance for calling an Assembly of Divines in order to the setting up of the Presbyterian Government Which Assembly was to consist of ten of the House of Lords and twenty of the House of Commons whose names are therein express'd and the rest Ministers all of the Presbyterian gang excepting three or four whom though for the more credit of that Convention they nominated there was little reason to expect any of their company The Preamble of which Ordinance runs thus Whereas amongst the infinite blessings of Almighty God upon this Nation none is or can be more dear unto us then the purity of our Religion And for that as yet many things remain in the Liturgy Discipline and Government of the Church which do necessarily require a farther and more perfect Reformation than as yet hath been attained And whereas it hath been declared and resolved by the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament that the present Church-government by Arch-Bishops Bishops their Chancellours Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-Deacons and other Eccleastical Officers depending upon the Hierarchy is justly offensive and burthensome to the Kingdom a great impediment to Reformation and growth of Religion and very prejudicial to the State and Government of this Kingdom and that therefore they are resolved that the same shall be taken away and that such a Government shall be setled in the Church as may be most agreeable to God's holy word and most apt to procure and preserve the peace of the Church at home and neerer agreement with the Church of Scotland and other reformed Churches abroad c. be it ordained c. 'T was no marvail indeed that they at Westminster bestir'd themselves so hard for by this time the success of his Majesties Armies was such that he had by God's blessing regained the greatest part of the North and West parts of this Realm and did daily so increase in strength that to uphold their Cause they bethought themselves of calling in their Brethren the Scots for aid Wherefore having prepared a Declaration to discover another dangerous Plot to extirpate the Protestant Religion in England Ireland and Scotland they agreed that some of their Members viz. the Lork Grey of Wark Sir William Ayrmia and Mr. Darley should go into Scotland to desire help from thence and prepare Instructions for them with Letters of Credence with promise that they should have allowance for the charge of such forces as they should send and that the debts they already owed them should be paid out of the lands of the Papists and Prelatical party in Northumberland Cumberland and Bishoprick of Durham Which Commissioners did accordingly set forwards upon the xxith of Iuly But about this time the Earl of Essex their General made complaint to them by Letters for want of Horse Arms c. and proposed to them a Treaty for peace Whereunto answer was soon made by the resolution of their House of Commons who debated the same that by their late Vow and Covenant they had bound themselves never to lay down Arms so long as the Papists for so they call'd the King's forces which were then in Arms against them should have protection from the Justice of the Parliament sending him word that they would recruit his Troops according to his desire And to complement their Western General Sir William Waller whose heartiness to the Cause suted so well with theirs they ordered five thousand pounds to be sent down to him and given as a Largess to his Souldiers the more to encourage them in that service But the certain charge of their Rebellious Armies did so vastly increase as was truly foretold by Mr. Green Chairman to their Committee for the Navy upon the sixth of December before viz. that the maintenance of the Lord General 's Army would for the ensuing year amount to above a million of Money that of the Navy having been two hundred and forty thousand pounds for the year passed and that without delay they must of necessity settle a round and constant Tax for maintenance thereof they therefore passed an Ordinance for Excise or new Impost upon Wine Beer Ale Cider Perry Raisins Figs Currans Sugar Spices wrought and raw Silks Furrs Hats Laces Lether Linnen of all sorts Thread Wier c. and for sweetning its relish with the people gave it out that part of its income should pay Debts for which the Public faith was engaged Moreover to raise men as well as money their Western-Army being then destroy'd at Round-way-down the Citizens had a meeting at Grocer's Hall where they made new Subscriptions to set up Sir William Waller again For the better furthering whereof there were new Petitions framed from London Westminster and Southwark and presented to the House of Commons that all the Kingdom might rise as one man against the Common Enemy and that the Parliament would give power to a Committee to list so many of the Petitioners as were willing to go out in their own persons as also to take the Subscriptions of others for the raising a considerable Body of Horse and Foot and that the like course might be taken throughout the Kingdom by a confiding Committee In pursuance whereof both Houses made an Ordinance for raising seven thousand Horse in London Middlesex and the Counties adjacent to be commanded by the Lord Kymbolton afterwards Earl of Manchester and of Eleven hundred Horse in the Counties of Bedford Buckingham Northampton and Hertford to be commanded by Sir Iohn Norwich In Norfolk and Suffolk Eleven hundred by Sir Miles Hobart in Surrey Sussex Southampton and Berkshire fourteen hundred by Colonel Richard Norton And all these thus to be rais'd to resist the Insolencies of the King's Army Certain it is