contributing any remedy to the evils will not complain of their neglect of him and delays of Answer but sends these Propositions this way which he intended by the forementioned persons For conceiving that the former Treaties hitherto proved ineffectual chiefly for want of power in those persons that treated as likewise because those from whom their power was derived not possibly having the particular information of every several debate could not give so clear a judgment as was requisite in so important a business his Majesty therefore desires that he may have the engagement of the two Houses at Westminster the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland the Mayor Aldermen and Common-Council and Militia of London of the chief Commanders in Sir Thomas Fairfax his Army for his Majesties free and safe coming to and abode in London or Westminster with such of his Servants and Train not exceeding the number of three hundred for the space of forty days and after the same time for his free and safe repair to any of his Garrisons Oxford Newark Worcester c. which he shall appoint there to have a Personal Treaty with his two Houses to begin with the three heads which were Treated on at Oxford And for the better ingredience and expedition thereto will commit the great trust of the Militia for seven years into the hands of a mixt number of his own and their party and calls God to witness of his sincere intentions to Peace and adjures them likewise to the same To this he is instant with them for an answer and for the facilitating of the way to a Treaty and their better inducement without any expostulation which he says he purposely forbears he adds now more particularly and to the respective interests That upon his repair to Westminster he doubts not but so to joyn his indeavours with his two Houses of Parliament as to give just satisfaction not onely concerning the business of Ireland but also for the setling a way for the payment of publique debts as well to the Scots as to the City of London and others and resumes his desire afresh for a Personal Treaty and that they would accept of his former offers But the House of Commons resolved to keep to their first Answer not to treat but to send Propositions the main whereof was an absolute avoydance of the Kings concession as to the Militia which they would have solely vested in themselves and no other And to give colour to this unreasonable stifness and to obstruct a Personal Treaty they Vote how great danger there is already to the Parliament and City in the resort of so many Cavaliers to London and thereupon an Ordinance is made anew setling the Militia thereof and requiring them to provide for the safety of the City and to search for Delinquents and to expel them the Lines of Communication and then on the 14 of Ianuary returned his Majesty this Answer They repeated the innocent blood spilt by his Majesties Command and Commission Irish Rebels brought over and more with Forraign Forces on coming the Prince of Wales heading an Army in the West and Garrisons kept against them and Forces likewise in Arms for him in Scotland That for that reason until satisfacton and security be given unto both Kingdoms his coming cannot be convenient nor do they conceive it can be any way conducing to Peace that his Majesty should come to his Parliament for a few days with thoughts of leaving it especially with intentions of returning to Hostility against it And do note likewise that his Majesty desires not onely the engagement of the Parliament but of the Lord Mayor and the Officers of the Army and the Scotch Commissioners which is against the honour and priviledges of Parliament those being joyned with them who are subject and subordinate to their Authority They insist upon their Propositions as the safest and surest way to settle Peace as well in England as in Scotland of which Kingdom in his Letters he makes no mention In proceeding according to these just and necessary grounds for the putting an end to the bleeding calamities of these Nations his Majesty shall have the glory to be the principal instrument in so happy a work and they however misinterpreted shall approve themselves to God and man But what Before this came to hand the King sends another Message to know the reason of the detention of his Trumpet and farther offers the free and publique use of the Directory as commanded by the Parliament and then practised in some parts of the City of London to such as shall desire it and testifies to God and the World who they are that not only hinder but reject this Kingdoms future happiness it being so much the stranger that his Majesties coming to Westminster which was the first and greatest pretence of taking up Arms should be so much as delayed much less not accepted or refused But his Majesty hopes that God will no longer suffer the malice of wicked men to hinder the Peace of his too much afflicted Kingdoms From Oxford Ianuary 15. In the mean while some Papers concerning the Kings Transactions about a Peace in Ireland were published on purpose by the Parliament to cast a scruple into the minds of men as if while the King Treated he meant a new War by Ayds from thence and so to prejudice him in his peoples minds who began to murmur at the averseness and delays of the Parliament which news coming to the Kings ears he sends them a stinging and sharp Message which was the next day after he had received their Answer His Majesty thinks not fit to Answer those aspersions which are returned as Arguments for his not admittance to Westminster to a Personal Treaty because it would enforce a stile not sutable to his end being the peace of these miserable Kingdoms yet thus much he cannot but say to Those that have sent him this Answer That if they had considered what they had done themselves in occasioning the sheding of so much inocent blood by withdrawing themselves from their duty to him in a time when he had granted so much to his Subjects and in violating the known Laws of the Kingdom to draw an exorbitant power to themselves over their fellow-Subjects to say no more to do as they have done they could not have given such a false Character of his Majesties Actions That his Majesty with impatient expectation requires their Answer to his desire of a Personal Treaty as the onely expedient For certainly no rational man can think their last Paper can be an Answer to his former Demands the scope of it being That because there is a War therefore there should be no Treaty for Peace And is it possible to expect that the Propositions mentioned should be the ground of a lasting Peace when the persons that send them will not endure to hear their own King speak But what ever his success this way hath
by the Scots Commissioners first because they were not the same with those formerly sent to Oxford and Vxbridge Secondly Because all the additions omissions and alterations made in them are in those things which concern the joynt interest and union of both Kingdomes And thirdly the danger of wholly excluding the King and his Posterity and so the Crown from their right to the Militia which was an alteration of the Fundamental Laws And fourthly the uncertainty of the Religion the Parliament would establish they refusing to give their Brethren the Scots the particulars thereof Presbytery being then piece-meal offered by the Assembly of Divines to the Parliaments consideration In this point the Scots urged how many promises of UNIFORMITY the Parliament had made at their instances to them throughout the War and that this Uniformity might be extensive and become the Discipline of the Reformed Churches every where and so be the Catholick Rule had ordered the Covenant as a Model or Pattern to be printed in most of the Forrain Languages that it should be a sin and shame to England that all sorts of Heresies Sects and Schisms should be so multiplied Liberty of Conscience not onely pleaded for but in place already and all the kindnesses done them so unhandsomly slighted And as to the Presbyterial Government to be established here Exceptions were taken at the subordination of Church-Assemblies to Parliament in the words prescribed lest it should be interpreted as if the Civil Power were not onely conversant about matters of the Church and Religion but were formally Ecclesiastical and to be exercised Ecclesiastically and be counted such a Supremacy in the Church as in the Pope and the late High-Commission of England Next they scrupled their Provincial Commissioners for judging of Scandal there being no such Warrant for such a mixture of Lay with Spiritual Officers which they suppose may be the laying of a New Foundation of the said High-Commission or Episcopacy Thirdly That admitting the Power of calling and convening a National Assembly be in the Civil Magistrates as positive yet they cannot allow it privative or destructive and that therefore such Assemblies may not be restrained to times of Session the safety of the Church being the supreme Law That therefore it should not be left ad libitum to the pleasure of the Civil Power but that fixed times for their meeting might be appointed From this the English perceived that the Scotch Yoak would not fit their necks and though they could be content with their Spirituals there was no enduring of their Temporals which consideration with those Cavils printed and published produced a Declaration of the House of Commons wherein being now in no need of further assistance having no Enemy left but that Army they come to a point and withal thus gird their gude Brethren we shall repeat onely one Paragraph Concerning Church-Government we having so fully declared for Presbyterian Government having spent so much pains taken up so much time for the settling of it passed most of the particulars brought to us from the Assembly of Divines called onely by us to advise of such things as shall be required of them by the Parliament and having published several Ordinances for putting the same in execution because we cannot consent to the granting of an arbitrary and unlimited Power and Jurisdiction to near TEN THOVSAND IVDICATORIES to be erected within this Kingdom and this demanded in a way INCONSISTENT with the FVNDAMENTALS of GOVERNMENT excluding the POWER of PARLIAMENT in the exercise of that IVRISDICTION nor have we resolved yet how a due regard may be had that TENDER CONSCIENCES which differ not in any Fundamentals of Religion may be so provided for as may stand with the word of God and peace of the Kingdom And let it be OBSERVED that we have had the more reason not to part with the Power out of our hands since all by-past Ages manifest that the Reformation and purity of Religion and the preservation and protection of the people hath been by Parliament and the exercise of this power our endeavours being to settle the Reformation in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the Word of God and the example of the best Reformed Churches and according to our COVENANT That 's the burden of the Ditty but how that comes to be set in opposition to the Scotch Model of Presbytery may be left to the distinguishing Expositors between Bell and the Dragon The Poets Fiction concerning Proteus was certainly a meer vaticination and prediction of this variable Monster for the King the Kirk the Parliament the Sectaries for every thing according to its present interest as the Camelion appears in the colours that are neerest it A serious Kirk-fallacy made a Parliament-Riddle Come we now to those long-hammered Propositions sent to the King at Newcastle Iuly 11. as aforesaid which were twenty three in number First That his Majesty would pass an Act for nulling all Declarations and Proclamations against both or either Parliaments of England or Scotland Secondly The King to sign and swear the Covenant and an Act for all persons in the three Kingdoms to do the like Thirdly An Act to take away Bishops c. Fourthly To confirm by Act the Assembly of Divines at Westminster Fifthly To settle Religion as the Parliament shall agree Sixthly In Vnity and Vniformity with Scotland as shall be agreed by both Parliaments Kill Episcopacy point-blank and shoot at Scotch wild-fowl at randome Seventhly An Act to be confirmed against Papists Eighthly Their Children to be educated in the Protestant Religion Ninthly For taking away part of their Estates Tenthly Against saying of Mass in England Eleventhly And the same in Scotland if they please Twelfthly For observation of the Lords day against Pluralities and Non-residents and for Visitations and regulating the Vniversities Thirteenth That the Militia of the three Kingdoms be in the hands of the Parliament for twenty years with power to raise money and suppress all Forces c. Fourteenth That all Honours and Titles and Dignities conferred on any since the great Seal was conveyed from the Parliament May 21 1642. be nulled and that those who hereafter shall be made Peers by the King shall not sit in Parliament without consent of both Houses Fifteenth That an Act be passed to confirm all the Treaties between England and Scotland and a Committee of both Houses to be nominated Conservators of the Peace between both Kingdoms Sixteenth An Act for the establishing the Declaration of both Kingdoms of the THIRTIETH of JANUARY 1643. touching Delinquents with other qualifications added now which were so comprehensive that they seemed accommodated for the fatal prognostick of that days Revolution in 1648. when accumulative treason a word invented by themselves against the Earl of Strafford was extended to other the Kings Friends as to number and in the amassed guilt of all impiety afterwards practised upon
Newcastle what he must trust to if he will not comply with the offers of the Parliament If you refuse to assent you will lose all your friends in Parliament lose the City and all the Country and all England will joyn against you as one man they will process and depose you they will charge us to deliver your Majesty to them to render their Garrisons and to remove our Armies out of England and so both Kingdoms for eithers safety to agree and settle Religion and Peace without you to the Ruine of your Majesty and posterity and if you lose England you will not be admitted to come and Reign in Scotland We confess the Propositions are higher in some things than we approved of but we see no other means of closing with the Parliament And immediately thereupon Instructions are sent them from Scotland concerning the giving over of the King It had been debated in their Parliament and from thence sent to the Assembly for their advice by whom it was remitted in the affirmative and carried but by two voices in the Parliament and was accordingly transacted at Newcastle and London But the Scots were not so willing to be rid of the King as the Northern Counties were to be rid of the Scots of whom besides free quarter that Army had levied 20000 l. a month an unheard-of rate and a most unreasonable Several general complaints had been made but now they made up a charge of particulars with variety of imputation upon them which being also Printed the Scots Commissioners desired the suppression thereof or some other reparation which was as one may think well repaid in the sums of money they received upon this Contract which at first demand was no less than a Million but in consideration of a present round sum abated to 400000 l. whereof 200000 l. to be paid at two payments the first upon quitting Newcastle and marching beyond the River Tine the other upon the delivery of the King and their departure out of England and surrendring Carlile and Berwick to the performance on either part Hostages to be given The Scots insisted upon security for the remaining 200000 l. naming very conscionably and brotherly the sale of Delinquents estates but the Parliament would not so undervalue their credit nor prostitue it to their lustful eye cast upon so fair a partage of their Conquest nor buy the King and sell his friends The money they had was enviously enough bestowed on them being the sacrilegious rapine of Church-Lands then exposed to sale by Ordinance of Parliament but conveyed in pomp to the place of payment in thirty six Waggons six Regiments of the Army by the order of the General going with it for its Convoy and according to the agreement the first 100000 l. was paid at Northallerton in December Not to prosecute this subject further through so many diversities and change of countermines nor to touch on those irreverend Declarations from the Scotch Parliament and Assembly and their Reasons as unmannerly of not admitting the King into that his Kingdom it will suffice to say that at last they acquainted the Parliament having received their money that they were now upon going home and desired to know what service the Parliament would command them to the Parliament of Scotland which the King foreseeing and that he should be thus basely abandoned by them he betakes himself afresh to his sollicitation of his English Parliament wherein he saith That he had endeavoured by his Answer of the 24th of July last to their Propositions delivered him in the Name of both Kingdoms to make his intentions fully known But the more he endeavoured it he more plainly saw that any Answer be could make would be subject to misinformations and misconstructions which upon his own explanations he is most confident will give such satisfaction as to establish a lasting Peace He proposeth therefore again his coming to London upon security of both Houses where by his personal presence he may not onely raise a mutual confidence betwixt him and his people but also have all doubts cleared c. To conclude it is your King who desires to be heard the which if refused to a subject by a King he would be thought a Tyrant for it and to that end which all men did profess to desire Wherefore he conjures them as they desire really to shew themselves what they profess as good Christians or subjects that they accept this his Offer which he is confident God will so blâ—ss as to a happy Settlement c. A Reply was sent to the former by Sir Peter Killigrew one who had been the Parliaments Messenger throughout but none to this the two Houses being taken up with the business of disposal of his person somewhere else which was wholly remitted to them by the Negative Resolves of the Parliament of Scotland upon the Question of the Kings coming into that Kingdom That the Government shall be managed in the same manner and way as it hath been these five years last past and that fresh Assays and all means in the interim shall be used to make the King take the Covenant That if he shall do so yet the taking of it or passing the Propositions will not warrant them to assist him in England nor is the bare taking of it sufficient otherwise That the clause in the Covenant for defence of the Kings person is to be understood of the defence and safety of the Kingdom That if he refuse the Propositions he shall be disposed according to the Covenant and Treaty That he shall execute no power or Authority in Scotland till he do signe them and take the Covenant and that the Vnion be kept between both Nations His Majesty guessing at this their desperate and perfidious desertion of him had sounded their Commissioners then attending him in what condition or estate he was among them whether at Liberty or a Prisoner and put the Dilemma upon them If at liberty why he might not dispose of himself any-whither if in restraint what did they mean by his assenting and signing the Propositions which in no case could be valid or binding if agreed by him while a Prisoner To this the Scots had nothing to say but their Covenant with the English which they might not contravene and that according to the above mentioned Resolves which they now declared he was to be rendred to such hands as the Parliament of England should appoint who were expected every day upon that errand They further excused themselves from their reception and admission of his Majesty into Scotland from the danger and hazard they might incur his party being not yet so disbanded but that by his neer presence and advantage of his person they would resume their Arms and Courages and put that Nation in a worse broyl than before and for conclusion they told him they were in no condition to entertain him in that state and dignity
having worried one another in this despiteful manner they fly as freely as if there had been no such quarrel His Majesty after several removes by direction of the Council of Officers was brought to Hampton-Court whither on the 7 of September the Houses having hammered out the same substance of the former Propositions into a new but stranger shape sent Commissioners to whom were joyned some Scots in the like quality from that Kingdom The names of both were as followeth the Earls of Pembroke and Lauderdale Sir Iohn Holland Sir Charles Erskin Sir Iohn Cook Sir Iames Harrington Major-General Brown Mr. Hugh Kenedy and Mr. Robert Berkley The preface to which Propositions omitting themselves as recited before was this May it please your Majesty We the Lords and Commons Assembled in the Parliament of England in the name and in the behalf of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland c. Do humbly present unto your Majesty the humble Desires and Propositions for a safe and well-grounded Peace agreed upon by the Parliaments of both Kingdoms respectively unto which we pray your Majesties Assent and that they and all such Bills as shall be tendred to your Majesty in pursuance of them or of any of them may be Established and Enacted for Statutes and Acts of Parliament by your Majesties Royal Assent in the Parliaments of both Kingdoms respectively And never a good word after To these his Majesty being accustomed to the unreasonableness of the men in two days returns this Answer For the SPEAKER of the House of Lords c. C. R. HIs Majesty cannot chuse but be passionately sensible as he believes all his good Subjects are of the late great distractions and still languishing and unsetled state of this Kingdom And he calls God to witness and is willing to give Testimony to all the World of his readiness to contribute his utmost endeavours for restoring it to a happy and flourishing condition His Majesty having perused the Propositions now brought to him finds them the same in effect which were offered to him at Newcastle To some of which as he could not then consent without violation of his Honour and Conscience so neither can he agree to others now concerning them in many respects more disagreeable to the present condition of his Majesty than when they were formerly presented to him as being destructive to the main principal interests of the Army and of all those whose affections concur with them And his Majesty having seen the Proposals of the Army to the Commiâ—sioners from his two Houses residing with them therewith then to be Treated on in order to the clearing and securing the Rights and Liberties of the Kingdom and the settling of a just and lasting Peace to which Proposals as he conceives his two Houses are not strangers so he believes they will think with him that they much more conduce to the satisfaction of all interests and may be a fitter Foundation for a lasting Peace than the Propositions which at this time are tendered unto him He therefore Propounds as the best way in his judgement in order to Peace that his two Houses would instantly take into consideration those Proposals upon which there may be a personal Treaty with his Majesty and upon such other Propositions as his Majesty shall make hoping that the said Proposals may be so moderated in the said Treaty as to render them the more capable of his Majesties fuâ—l Concession wherein he resolves to give full satisfaction unto his People for whatsoever shall concern the settling of the Protestant Profession with Liberty to tender Consciences and the securing of the Laws Liberties and Properties of all his Subjects and the just Priviledges of Parliament for the future And likewise by his present Deportment in this Treaty He will make the world clearly judge of his intentions in matter of future Government In which Treaty his Majesty will be well pleased if it be thought â—it that Commissioners from the Army whose the Proposals are may likewise be admitted His Majesty therefore conjures his two Houses of Parliament by the Duty they owe to God and his Majesty their King and by the Bowels of compassion they have to their fellow-Subjects both for the relief of their present sufferings and to prevent future miseries That they will forthwith accept of this his Majesties offer that hereby the joyful news of Peace may be restered to this distressed Kingdom And for what concerns the Kingdom of Scotland mentioned in the Propositions his Majesty will very willingly Treat upon those particulars with the Scotch Commissioners and doubts not but to give reasonable satisfaction to that his Kingdom The Kings hâ—rping upon those Proposals of the Army acknowledging a greater equity and just mensuration and comprehensiveness of them and that they did much more conduce to the satisfaction of all interests and were a fitter foundation for a lasting Peace than the Propositions seemed very pleasing to Cromwel who complemented the King with the Armies glad sense of his preferring their ways and method to Peace before the Parliament's which would no doubt credit them likewise to the People not sticking to upbraid the Members with their disloyal and peevish carriage toward the King and yet secretly He enraged the Vulgar against him The Traytor yet knew that the King did but shew them Art for Art for that it was impossible to produce any thing out of that Chaos of their Proposals without a Divine Fiat which being made to serve onely as a temporary shift a bone of contention could not beyond the purpose of the Contrivers be durable it will be requisite therefore to take a short view of them that posterity may see what curious Legislators these Souldiers were and how well capacitated for Government Bless us from the Goblin this idaea of STRATOCRACY The first principle is the dissolution of the Parliament a preposterous beginning where Nature ends but yet not intended by them till they had served their own ends lust and ambition from whence these structures 1. That there be Biennial Parliaments and at more certainty than these 2. Each Biennial Parliament to sit 120 days certain afterwards adjournable or dissolvable by the King 3. This Biennial Parliament to appoint Committees to continue during the interval for such purposes afore mentioned in the Proposals 4. That the King upon the advice of the Council of State in the Intervals call a Parliament extraordinary with limitation of meeting and dissolving that the course of the Biennial one may never be interrupted 5. That a better rule of proportion may be observed in Electing all Counâ—ies to have a number of Parliament-Members competent to their charges as they are rated to the publike that no poor Boroughs have any more Elections and that an addition of Members may be allowed great Counties that have now less than their due proportion and that effectual provision
mens Fates did usher out what their devices had introduced as great Events never go unattended the Solemn League and Covenant first invented by Arguile and his Complices which had raised such a Combustion in the three Kingdoms was Sacrificed to the Flames by a Vote in Parliament the common Hang-man in ample manner burning it in several places in London which also was done all the Kingdom over with great Acclamations which being omitted hitherto when so often unwelcome occasion hath been given to recite it take it now in this its Mittimus A Solemn League and Covenant for Reformation and Defence of Religion c. WE Noblemen Barons Knights Gentlemen Citizens Burgesses Ministers of the Gospel and Commons of all sorts in the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland by the providence of God living under one King and being of one Reformed Religion having before our eyes the Glory of God and the Advancement of the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ the Honour and Happiness of the Kings Majesty and his Posterity and the true Publick Liberty Safety and Peace of the Kingdoms wherein every ones private Condition is included And calling to minde the Treacherous and Bloody Plots Conspiracies Attempts and Practises of the Enemies of God against the true Religion and Professors thereof in all places especially in these three Kingdoms ever since the Reformation of Religion and how much their Rage Power and Presumption are of late and at this time encreased and exercised whereof the deplorable Estate of the Church and Kingdom of Ireland the distressed estate of the Church and Kingdom of England and the dangerous Estate of the Church and Kingdom of Scotland are present and publick Testimonies We have now at last after other means of Supplication Remonstrance Protestations and Sufferings for the Preservation of our selves and our Religion from utter Ruine and Destruction according to the commendable practice of these Kingdoms in former times and the example of God's People in other Nations after mature deliberation resolved and determined to enter into a Mutual and Solemn League and Covenant wherein we all subscribe and each one of us for himself with our Hands lifted up to the most High God do Swear 1. THat we shall sincerely really and constantly through the Grace of God endeavour in our several Places and Callings the Preservation of the Reformed Religion in the Church of Scotland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government against our Common Enemies The Reformation of Religion in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the Word of God and the Example of the best Reformed Churches and shall endeavour to bring the Churches of God in the three Kingdoms to the neerest Conjunction and Vniformity in Religion Confession of Faith Form of Church-Government Directory of Worship and Catechising That we and our Posterity after us may as Brethren live in Faith and Love and the Lord may delight to dwell in the midst of us 2. That we shall in like manner without respect of persons endeavour the extirpation of Popery Prelacy that is Church-Government by Arch-Bishops Bishops their Chancellors and Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-Deacons and all other Ecclesiastical Officers depending on that Hierarchy Superstition Heresie Schism Prophaneness and whatsoever shall be found to be contrary to Godliness and sound Doctrine and the power of Godliness left we partake in other mens sins and thereby be in danger to receive of their plagues And that the Lord may be one and his Name one in the three Kingdoms 3. We shall with the same sincerity reality and constancy in our several Vocations endeavour with our Estates and Lives mutually to preserve the Rights and Priviledges of the Parliaments and the Liberties of the Kingdoms and to preserve and defend the Kings Majesties person and Authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms That the World may bear Witness with our Consciences of our Loyalty that we have no thoughts or intentions to diminish his Majesties just Power and Greatness 4. We shall also with all faithfulness endeavour the discovery of all such as have been or shall be Incendiaries Malignants or evil Instruments by hindering the Reformation of Religion dividing the King from his people or one of the Kingdoms from another or making any Faction or parties amongst the people contrary to this League and Covenant that they may be brought to publick Trial and receive condigne punishment as the degree of their offences shall require or deserve or the supreme Iudicatories of both Kingdoms respectively or others having power from them for that effect shall judge convenient 5. And whereas the happiness of a blessed Peace between these Kingdoms denied in former times to our Progenitors is by the good providence of God granted unto us and hath been lately concluded and setled by both Parliaments We shall each one of us according to our place and interest endeavour that they may remain conjoyned in a firm Peace and Vnion to all Posterity and that justice may be done upon the wilful opposers thereof in manner expressed in the precedent Article 6. We shall also according to our Places and Callings in this common Cause of Religion Liberty and Peace of the Kingdoms assist and defend all those that enter into this League and Covenant in the maintaining and pursuing thereof and shall not suffer our selves directly or indirectly by whatsoever Combination Perswasion or Terrour to be divided and withdrawn from this blessed Vnion and Conjunction whether to make defection to the contrary part or to give our selves to a detestible indifferency or neutrality in this Cause which so much concerns the Glory of God the good of the Kingdoms and Honour of the King but shall all the daies of our lives zealously and constantly continue therein against all opposition and promote the same according to our power against all Lets and Impediments whatsoever And what we are not able our selves to suppress or overcome we shall reveal or make known that it may be timely prevented or removed All which we shall doe as in the sight of God And because these Kingdoms are guilty of many sins and provocations against God and his Son Iesus Christ as is too manifest by our present distresses and dangers the fruits thereof We profess and declare before God and the World our unfeigned desire to be humbled for our own sins and for the sins of these Kingdoms especially that we have not as we ought valued the inestimable benefit of the Gospel That we have not laboured for the Purity and Power thereof and that we have not endeavoured to receive Christ in our Hearts nor to walk worthy of him in our Live◠which are the Causes of other sins and transgressions so much abounding amongst 〈◊〉 and our true unfaigned purpose desire and endeavour for our selves and all others under our Power and Charge both in publick and
Commanders in the like nature besides Plundrings what hath been taken going out of the Land to the King Lastly Monthly Taxes upon all the Lands in the associated Counties and the Cities of London and Westminster besides what they took for Contribution in their Garrisons c. which came to 60000 l. a month and so given in if not more and by the year amounts to 720000 l. and in five years comes to 3600000 l. and is 360 Waggons loading of silver at 10000 l. a Waggons loading And this higher afterwards This in five years time amounted besides the Customs and the Kings Revenues and Ecclesiastical Profits sequestred in their hands to neer 20000000. But he that is able to reckon what the Sales of the same lands of King Queen and Prince Bishops Deans and Chapters the Nobility and Gentry as Delinquents together with the Monthly assessment at the same time of 100000 and 120000 per mensem come to Erit mihi magnus Apollo I mention not Decimation nor the Piedmont-Sacriledge nor other slier Artifices of Cromwel nor the Prize-money c. But if an estimate be taken of their gettings by their spending let that almost insuperable debt left upon the Kingdom and discharged by the King upon his Return be the unenvied testimony thereof Vale. A CHRONICLE OF THE CIVIL WARS OF ENGLAND SCOTLAND and IRELAND THE FIRST PART BEING The Commons War NO higher or greater cause can be assigned for this War setting aside the sins of all Times and Nations to which the Justice of Heaven is seldome long a Debtor but the fate and catastrophe of Kingdoms and Monarchies which do at certain periods of time taste of that vicissitude and mutability to which all other sublunary things are more frequently subjected The secondary causes of it are so many and so uncertain so variously reported and believed that it would spend much of the paper allotted to this History in ascertaining them Therefore to contain and keep within the limits of this designment something onely shall be said of them that was obvious to every eye not savouring of partiality or affection Many disorders and Irregularities no doubt there were in the State contracted through a long and lazy peace bolstred up with an Universal trade which procured a general wealth the Parents of Wantonnesses the excess of National riches being but as the burden which the Ass carries and mistakes for provender people being onely the better able to sustain their future misery with their present plenty These conceived abuses in the manage of the State like ill humours where they finde an equal resistance or over-power of nature sunk and descended upon the Ecclesiastical Regiment too impotent to sustain those general assaults which were given it No storms or tempests can be raised or maintained below without the Celestial influences or disturbances in the upper Region nor often are there any Commotions or Wars among or in Nations where Religion which ought to be the peaceablest and most innocent perswasion is not the Primum Mobile the great mover of the Machine of Destruction Quantum Religio potuit suadere malorum Nothing from abroad could any way break off that continued series of peace we had so long enjoyed we had made the Nations round about us to wonder at and to dread the putting forth of that strength which had been matured and ripened by the sunshine of so great a prosperity so many years together while the world about us was hurled into the confusions of Ruine and War ready to become a prey to the next potent Invasion Strange moreover it is That the miserable Distractions and Confusions which ensued should be derived from no greater beginnings then a few Ceremonies in the Church that War which stands upon none should be founded and fixt upon them and yet nothing more certain can be charged with the guilt of so much misery as these Kingdoms so long suffered under but the Cavils Discontents and disputes about them A grudging there was for many years before in the Raigns of Queen Elizabeth and King Iames in whose days and at his first assumption to this Crown a Conference was before him managed by the Reformists about them where that learned King so justified the use of them that for a while all obâ—oquâ—es against them were silenced and the Church and State enjoyed its greatest blessings of Peace and Uniformity Nor was there much noise about them in the beginning of the Raign of King Charles but towards the middle it began to threaten a storm in the year 1635. towards the conclusion whereof some Uproars and Commotions were raised decrying those Ceremonial Rites used and practised in the Church such being the ushering in by a general murmur what was plainly and distinctly declared in the beginning of the year 1637. from whence this Chronicle takes its rise by Mr. Pryn Dr. Bastwick and Mr Burton seconded and asserted by that famously known person Iohn Lilburn These men though questionless from different grounds and respects as this age hath lived to see by Mr. Pryn who proved a great and happy instrument in the Kings Restitution and consequently the resettlement of the Church printed several Books against the aforesaid Ceremonies for these Books they were apprehended which were charged also to be full of Invectives against the Bishops and Episcopal Government and were severely censured in the Star-Chamber to the exasperation of a great part of the Kingdom They were all three sentenced to be set in the Pillory and to have their ears cut off Mr. Pryn to be stigmatized on both cheeks each of them fined five thousand pounds apiece to the King and to be imprisoned during the Kings pleasure which was accordingly executed in every point of the sentence and as valiantly and stoutly undergone by these sufferers who after they had stood in the Pillory three thereof being set up in the Palace-yard at Westminster were sent to remote Castles in the adjacent Isles of Guernsey and Iersey from whence as we shall see hereafter they were brought back to London I may not dis-joyn the story of Iohn Lilburn from theirs though divided by time he suffering the year after being whipt at a carts tail for imprinting and vending several Books of the same purport and contents against the Bishops This man proved a great trouble-world in all the variety of Governments afterward being chief of a faction called Levellers he was a great proposal-maker and modeller of State which by his means was always restless in the Usurpation He died a Quaker and such as his life was such was his death This year also Dr. Williams then Bishop of Lincoln and Dean of Westminster formerly Lord Keeper relapsed again into the Kings disfavour for some dishonourable words uttered against the King which were taken hold of and prosecuted in the Star-Chamber where he was fined ten thousand pounds though his enemies would rather have had him resigned his
Bishoprick and Deanery but he was of too great a spirit to relinquish either of them as being places conferred on him by Patent from his bountiful Master King Iames and so chose to pay the aforesaid fine which upon a new score was soon after doubled These harsh proceedings against him so exasperated his mind that in the troubles ensuing he openly sided with the Parliament In effect this whole years revolution as to matters of importance was concerned in Episcopacy But this smoak and smother in England concerning Ceremonies broke out into fire in Scotland these petty and particular discontents here being blown up there into a National dislike and abhorrence of them so that this here was but the forerunner of that conflagration there which afterwards laid waste Three Kingdoms And because of the remarkable and strange eruption and effects of it I think fit to give those Scotish Troubles their particular Narrative connext and intire together Which here follows The Troubles and Tumult in Scotland about the Service-Book Book of Canons High-Commission and Episcopacy THe great and long designed Union of the two Kingdoms of England and Scotland had taken its desired effect by the assumption of King Iames the Sixth to this Crown and the National feud between the two people thereof well allayed if not wholly extinguished being both as one body under one supream Head and Governour That King at his departing from that his Native Kingdom had left it in a very flourishing condition as ever it boasted of the State well provided for by wholsom Laws and the management thereof committed to the prudentest and most honourable of the Nobility the Church-Regiment under a godly and a learned Orthodox Episcopacy reverenced and well accepted by the people All things both in Church and State being well ordered supported and maintained by that accession of power and greatness to their Soveraign in this Kingdom that Nation continued in a firm and unvariable quiet till about the middle of the Reign of King Charles the first of blessed memory by whom as also by his Royal Father several endeavours were used for the better strengthning and perpetuating the Union aâ—oresaid by conforming the Discipline of that Church to the pattern of this Religion being the most sure and indissolvable tie and mutual security In the time of King Iames those memorable Five-Articles were made by the Assembly at Perth whereby the High-Commission the Book of Canons and other Rites and Ceremonies were introduced and established By King Charles the First the Book of Service or Common-Prayer was endeavoured likewise to be brought in it having constantly been used for twenty years before in his Majesties own Royal Chappel in that Kingdom before his Majesties Ministers of State and the Nobility and Gentry attending them And now all things appeared Retro sublapsa referri to precipitate into Confusion and Disorder the period of that peace was come which had so long blest that Kingdom Not that really and singularly that Book was the cause of those Commotions but accidentally ministring the male-contents of that Kingdom an occasion of revolt and disloyalty For the seeds of that Sedition were sown by the Plotters of the Covenant which was afterwards so magnified under the pretence of Religion long before any of the grievances or pretended innovations in Religion complained of by them were ever heard amongst them The true Original of these Tumults was a Revocation made by King Charles the first of such things as had passed away in prejudice of the Crown especially by some of the late Princes in their minorites by this course some of the principal Contrivers of this Covenant found their Estates within the danger of the Laws And though the King to rectifie that proceeding of his had made appear his clemency in waving all the advantages which the Laws afforded him not one of his Subjects being damnified by the said Revocation yet for all this the principal persons laboured a disaffection to the Government laying the envy of procuring that Revocation upon the Prelates who in this were as innocent as the thing it self onely because they hoped that the very name of Church-men or Religious persons should in the point of Faction have that operation with their followers which they conceived the Church or Religion it self might have had if they could have seen how to have perswaded them that by this Revocation either of them had been endangered Other things there were relating to the Ministers themselves the Gentry and their Farmers who paid the Tythes to the Nobility being the burthen of Impropriations This the King thought to remedy by granting out a Commission to a great number of the prime of all estates and degrees to relieve if they should see cause both the Ministers and others who suffered by that grievance This Commission was called The Commission of Superiority and Tythes which effected as to the agrieved its intended effect and for which all possible thanks were rendred to his Majesty Nor were the most of the Nobility unsensible of the advantage by this means to matter of profit but they fretted privately for being robbed of that Lordliness over the Clergy and Laity which by right of Tythe they enjoyed and therefore had recourse to the former fetch of making the Bishops when indeed it was obtained by the importunity of Clergy and Laity the Procurers also of this Commission The last ingredient to this bitter Cup which was prepared in Scotland for the three Nations was matter of Honour and Title For the King going to his Coronation there in 1631. a Parliament being called to honour the same wherein an Act passed that gave his Majesty power to appoint such Vestures for Church-men which he should hold most decent and another for ratifying all Acts heretofore made concerning the established Religion and the liberties and priviledges of the Church his Majesty finding some principal men who were suitors at the same time for the Dignities aforesaid dissenters to the confirmation and allowance of the said Acts did not confer such expected Honours but passed those by and justly advanced more Loyal persons at which they then muttered but mutined not till his Majesties departure Then they with Seditious private Libels taxed this Parliament with prevarication and obliquity in their proceedings as if it had been pack'd and also that the voyces were not truly numbred but that some Acts were past without plurality of Votes This being sifted by the Kings Privy Council there the Author was known who fled but the principal engager the Lord Balmerino was apprehended His Father had been raised by King Iames to his Barony and Fortune but for the most ungrateful of Treasons was condemned by his Peers His Son at his time fell into the same crime and condemnation but both by their Majesties favour and clemency restored to Life Honour Liberty and Estate But all these devices could not serve
business of Ireland wholly to the two Houses and will make no Peace but with their consent And further in order to this desired Personal Treaty he offers the Militia for seven years with such limitations as were expressed at Uxbridge the 6 of February 1644 all Forces disbanded and Garrisons dismantled and then all things to be in Statu quo That the Houses shall nominate the Admiral Officers of State and Iudges to hold their places during life or quamdiu se bene gessâ—rint which shall be best liked And likewise liberty to Tender Consciences behaving themselves peaceably with a general Act of Oblivion in both his Parliaments of both Kingdoms respectievly These Concessions extending likewise to his native Realm of Scotland And now his Majesty having so fully and clearly expressed his intentions and desires of making a happy and well-grounded Peace if any person shall decline that happiness by opposing of so apparent a way to attain it he will sufficiently demonstrate to all the World his intention and design can be no other than the total subversion and change of the ancient and happy Government of this Kingdom under which this Nation hath so long flourished This was followed with two Messages more the first of the 26 of February where he saith that he needs make no excuse though he sent no more Messages unto them for he very will knows he ought not to do it if he either stood upon punctilio's of honour or his own private interest but nothing being equally dear unto him as the preservation of his People he passeth by many scruples neglects and delays and once more desires a speedy Answer which he provokes by a second Message of the 3 of March complayning of their unexpected silence and offering upon the faith of both Houses for the preservation of his honour person and estate and liberty given to all who adhered to him to go quietly to their houses without any manner of Sequestration and not to be compelled to take any Oath save what was warranted by the Laws of the Land to disband his Forces and dismantle his Garrisons and with no Martial but Royal attendance return to his two Houses and there reside with them And Concludes with a tender of an Act of General Pardon and Oblivion Yet notwithstanding all these forcible and reasonable perswasions and as many obliging Caresses and Condescentions with which never Subjects or Parliaments of England were so treated they continue inflexible and rather the worse and more arrogant than at his first overture for they resolved to proceed in their own method spending their spare time in wrangling and debating their most quarrelsome Propositions and on purpose totally to obviate and preclude the Kings designe if he should so resolve of coming to London they throw these rubs in the way thither by this Ordinance in the first place That in case the King shall contrary to the advice of Parliament already given him come or attempt to come within the Lines of Communication that then the Committee of the Militia of the City of London shall have Power and are hereby enjoyned to raise such Forces as they shall think fit to prevent any Tumult that may arise by his coming and to Suppress any that shall so happen and to apprehend and secure any such as shall come with him and to secure his Person from danger That all persons whatsoever that have born Arms against the Parliament are to depart the City and Lines of Communication by the 6 of April or to be taken for Spies and proceeded against according to the Rules of War in such cases This Order to continue for a month and no longer Which shewed it was a sudden Legislative by-blow made temporary according to their present apprehension fear and occasion And then to bear the people in hand and to seem to intend their satisfaction they promise to dispatch their Propositions with all speed and to make this shew to appear more real as if they were about a Settlement they resolve to vouchsafe to give the Prince a like account of it That Commissioners shall forthwith be sent c. Which Letters and Cajole were turned afterwards into another deeper fetch or invitation upon his Majesties going to the Scotch Army of the Prince to the Parliament whom it was spread by the Faction if the King should by his complyance prevail upon the Scots to take upon them his Interest they would set up as a balance to his Majesties Authority having the Scale of indubitable Succession on their side against the quarrelled and perplexed possession of the Crown and the Person of the King on the Scots But these were but sudden emergent thoughts pro re nata and to be used onely if the Rebellion came to such extremity And here we may wonder how through so many patches of policy and the changes of designes one single Usurper attained the compleat intire result of so many inconsistent devices and practices The Prince was then departing for France when this sollicitation was intended and we shall see how soon their mind changed Exeter being delivered while the General was before Barnstable with the other part of the Army that Town and Fort also rendred it self upon Terms so that now there was nothing left the King in the West and very few places elsewhere the Garrisons that were yeilded this month being no less than six and those considerable viz. Ruthen-Castle Exeter Barnstable St. Michaels Mount Woodstock and Dunster-Castle to Major-General Mitton the General Colonel Hammond Colonel Rainsborough and Colonel Blake And this Iune also the Arch-Bishop of York declared himself for the Parliament and maintained his House for them at Purin in Wales Dudly-Castle May the thirteenth Surrendred by Colonel Levison to Sir William Brereton General Fairfax having done here marched now East-ward and on the 19 of April came to Newbury and advanced directly to Oxford from whence the King as before escaped Upon his approach he summoned a Council of War to advise which way to proceed by whom it was agreed that considering the strength of the place they should make a Line and Starve them for that it would be very hazardous to attempt it by Storm to which was added another reason pretence of their Civility lest by Batteries they should demolish the Colledges and destroy the Library by their Shot and Granadoes preceding the assault To this purpose a regular Circumvallation was finished and a great Fort raised upon Hedington hill within half a mile and less of the City Eastward thereof and a Battery likewise but to little effect Sir Thomas Glemham was Governour who to his everlasting Honour had so well defâ—nded York and made very honourable Conditions but to the wonder of Valour and Gallantry had defended the City of Carlile against the Scots which was forgot to be mentioned in its place other Actâ—ons câ—owding it out for nine moneths and upward against Sickness Famine
least Syllable they wrâ—â—â—â—r uttered in his behalf They desire not to be misunderstood and it is impossible for any man to understand them aright their Language and Actions being so distanced yet so plausible and swimmingly they carried it that no Party was disobliged save the Presbyterian with whom upon any slâ—nder pretenceâ— they desired and had offered to be at open defiance But their conclusion of this Epistle bewrayed all and gave some light to thâ—se designes in the dark behind in that they so voluntarily offered to disband and to take it for an honour to be dismist thoâ—gh with a Reserve of a Settlement when as a more honourable service and a most Christian work of assisting their poor Countrymen in Ireland was with so much indignation and mercilesness upbraided and refused by them But of this enough The Armies now thinking the King securely confident turned their designes upon the City which seeing they could not separate from the Parliament and because the late purge of the 11 Members had not awed them sufficiently though they had patiently enough put it up considering their insolence to the King on his demand of their Five Members the Country being lulled also by their pretences they by a Remonstrance demand the Militia of London to be put into other hands which insolent bravado inâ—â—â—gated this Petition to the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor c. of the City of London being stiled The humble Petition of the Citizens Commanders Souldiers and Officers in the Regiments of Trained-bands and Auxiliaries Apprentices Sea-Commanders Sea-men and Water-men of the same City That your Petitioners taking into serious consideration that their Religion his Majesties Honour and Safety the Priviledges of Parliament and Liberties of the Subject are at present greatly endangered and like to be destroyed and also sadly weighing with our selves what means might likely prove the most effectual to procure a firm and lasting Peace without a further effusion of Christian English-blood We are therefore entred into a solemn Engagement which is hereunto annexed and do humbly desire that this whole City may joyn together by all Lawful and possible means as one man in hearty endeavours for his Majesties present coming up to his two Houses of Parliament with Honour Safety and Freedom and that without the approach of the Army there to confirm such things as he hath granted in his Message of the 12th of May last which was his Answer to the Prâ—positions from Holdenby not inserted because insignificant to that unreasonableness of the Parliament being loth to weary the Reader with the Kings unwearied desirâ—s after Peace to no purpose in Answer to those Propositions of both Kingdoms And that by a personal Treaty with his two Houses of Parliament and the Commissioners of Scotland such things as are yet in difference may be speedily settled and a firm and lasting Peace established All which we desire may be presented to both Houses of Parliament from this Honourable Assembly The Solemn Engagement so was it called run thus Whereas we have entred into a Solemn League and Covenant for Reformation and Defence of Religion the Honour and Happiness of the King the Priviledges of Parliament c. All which we do evidently perceive not onely to be endangered but ready to be destroyed we do therefore in pursuance of our said Covenant Oath of Allegiance Oath of every Free-man and Protestations Solemnly engage our selves and Vow unto Almighty God that we will to the utmost of our power ardently endeavour that his Majesty may speedily come to his 〈◊〉 Houses of Parliament to the end here specified For effecting whereof we do protest and re-oblige our selves as in the presence of God the searcher of all hearts with our Lives and Fortunes to endeavour what in us lies to preserve and defend his Majesties Royal person and Authority the Priviledges c. and the Cities of London and Westminstâ—r and Lines of Communication and all other that shall adhere to us in the said Engagement Nor shall we by any means admit suffer or endure any kind of Neutrality in this common Cause of God the King and Kingdâ—m as we do expect the blessing of God whose help we crave and wholly devolve our selves upon in this our undertaking This was the honestest and most genuine aspect as to the fair pretences of the Covenant Presbyterâ— ever appeared in here being some realities of those many semblances that Party had made before and shewed that there was a sober misled number and that for the major part too who were onely Church-dissenters hurt onely in their opinions not festered or corrupted in their affections to the State the Kings Person and Government For they prosecuted this Confederacy so vigorously and with all manner of diligence openly averring the justice and equity of his Majesties offers listing and encouraging all men to a present undertaking of his quarrel of which more particularly by and by that the Indâ—pendents perceiving the sudden dangerous consequence thereof they prevailed upon the Houses in a Vote which they wire-drawed by arguments of the indignity and affront and breaches of Priviledge of Parliament by such illegal and Tumultuous Combinations and got it digested in a Declaration â—orbidding all subscriptions to the said Engagement See it here transcribed Saturday 14 Iuly 1647. The Lords and Commons having seen a printed Paper entituled A Petition to the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor c. and the names of divers Citizens c. together with a dangerous Engagement of the same persons by Oath and Vow concerning the Kings present coming to the Parliament upon terms far different from those which both Houses after mature deliberation have declared to be necessary for the good and safety of the Kingdom casting reflexions upon the proceedings both of the Parliament and Army and â—â—nding to embroil the Kingdom in a new War And the Lords and Commons taking notice of great endeavours used by divers ill-affected persons to get subscriptions thereunto whereby well-meaning people may be misled do therefore declare That whosoever after publication or notice hereof shall proceed with or promote or set his name to or give consent that his name be set to or any way joyn in the said Engagement shall be deemed and adjudged guilty of high Treason and shall forfeit Life and Estate as in cases of high Treason accustomed Mark how eagerly they fall upon men the very same persons credibly whom at first they had put upon the very same course to commence our Confusions that is now by their Authority high Treason which by their Lawless perswasions then was but the Liberty of the Subject the birth-right of English Free-men A good caution for the Vulgar and for such Democraticks also how they imbibe or how they instil such dangerous and leud suggestions not warranted by Law which every unhappy emergency or displeasing event may retort upon their own heads as was most apparent in the ensuing Tumults which
actions therein The third was An Act whereby all Titles and Honour of Peerage conferred on any since the 20 of May 1642. being the day that the Lord Keeper Littleton deserted the Parliament and carried away the Seal were Declared Void And it was further to be Enacted that no person that shall hereafter be made a Peer or his Heirs shall sit or Vote in the Parliament of England without the consent of both Houses of Parliament The fourth was An Act concerning the Adjournment of both Houses of Parliament whereby it was Declared that when and wither the two Houses shall think fit to Adjourn themselves the said Adjournments shall at all times be valid and good and shall not be judged or deemed to end or determine the Session of this Parliament The Proposals were 1. That the new Seal be Confirmed and the old Great Seal and all things passed under it since May 1642. be made Void 2. That Acts be Passed for raising moneys to pay publike Debts 3. That Members of both Houses put from their places by the King be restored 4. That the Cessation in Ireland be made Void and the War left to both Houses 5. That An Act of Indempuity be passed 6. That the Court of Wards be taken away and such Tenures turned into common Soccage 7. That the Treaties between England and Scotland be confirmed and Conservators of the Peace and Vnion appointed 8. That â—he Arrears of the Army be paid out of Bishops Lands Forfeited Estates and Forrests 9. That An Act be passed for abolishing Bishops and all appendants to them 10. That the Ordinance of disposing Bishops Lands be confirmed by Act. 11. That An Act be passed for the sale of Church-lands 12. That Delinquents be proceeded against and their Estates disposed of according to their several Qualifications 13. That an Act be passed for discharge of publike Debts 14. That Acts be passed for setâ—ling the Presbyterian Government and Directory Fâ—urteen of the 39 Articles revised by the Assembly of Divines Rules and Directions concerning suspension from the Lords-Supper 15. That the chief Officers in England and Ireland be named by both Houses 16. That an Act be passed for the conviction of Popish Recusants 17. That an Act be passed for the Education of the Children of Papists by Protestants 18. and 19. Against Papists for levying penalties and prohibiting the hearing of Mass. 20. An Act be passed for Observation of the Lords-day 21. A Bill for Suppressing Innovations 22. And Advancement of Preaching 23. And against Pluralities and Non-residencie Withâ—l The Commissioners were to desire His Majesty to give His Royal Assent to those four Bills by His Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England Signed by His Hand and Notified to the Lords and Commons Assembled together in the House of Peers it not standing then with the safety of the Kingdom for His Majesty to do it otherwise to wit at London and a Bill to be drawn for such Letters Patents to be presented Him and then a Warrant to Edward Earl of Manchester c. whereupon a Committee shall be sent to the Isle of Wight to Treat with Him only It was not intended to shew these shapeless abortions of Laws but that they should have been buried in their Chaos yet being the though unprepared matter of this beautiful Form of the Kings Answer the darkness of the one occasioning and preceding the light of the other they are here represented in this unreasonable lump an◠〈◊〉 Nothing indeed shews them better or it may be said worse so that they 〈…〉 Paraphrase or Comment Give me leave only to insert thâ— Scots sense of 〈◊〉 Bills and Proposals The Commissioners of Scotlanâ— having understood the proceeding of the Parliament in the business now 〈◊〉 publikely protested against it here and immediately followed the Commissioâ—ers to the Isle of Wight where they likewise presented His Majesty with this Paper There is nothing which we have more constantly endeavoured and do more earnestly desire than a good Agreement and happy Vnion between Your Majesty and your Parliaments of both Kingdoms neither have we left any means unessayed that by united Councils with the Parliament of England and making joynt applications to Your Majesty there might be a composition of all differences But the new Propositions communicated to us by the two Houses and the Bills therewith presented to Your Majesty are so prejudicial to Religion the Crown the Vnion and Interest of the Kingdoms and so far different from the former proceedings and engagements betwixt the Kingdoms as we cannot concur therein Therefore we do in the name of the Kingdom of Scotland dissent from these Proposals and Bills tendred to Your Majesty Lowden Lauderdale Charles Erskin Kennedy Berclay This was the first equal and good Office meant the King though they had greater concerns of their own but it something served to justifie the King to His people in His refusal to Sign them The Kings Answer was as followeth For the Speaker of the Lords House pro tempore to be Communicated c. CHARLES REX THe necessity of complying with all engaged Interests in these great distempers for a perfect Settlement of Peace His Majesty finds to be none of the least difficulties he hath met with since the time of His afflictions which is too visible when at the same time that the two Houses of the English Parliament do present to His Majesty several Bills and Propositions for His Consent the Commissioners for Scotland do openly protest against them so that were nothing in the case but the consideration of that difference His Majesty cannot imagine how to give such an Answer to what is now proposed as thereby to promise himself his great End A Perfect Peace And when his Majesty further considers how impossible it is in the condition he now stands to fulfil the desires of his two Houses since the onely ancient and known ways of passing Laws are either by his Majesties personal Assent in the House of Peers or by Commission under his Great Seal of England He cannot but wonder at such failings in the manner of Address which is now made unto him unless his two Houses intend that his Majesty shall allow of a Great Seal made without his Authority before there be any consideration had thereupon in a Treaty which as it may hereafter hazard the security it self so for the present it seems very unreasonable to his Majesty And though his Majesty is willing to believe that the intention of very many in both Houses in sending those Bills before a Treaty was onely to obtain a Trust from him and not to take any advantage by passing them to force other things from him which are either against his Conscience or Honour yet his Majesty believes it's clear to all understandings that these Bills contain as they are now Penned not onely the devesting himself of all Soveraignty and that without possibility of recovering it either to him or his
Tyburn at two Sessions A new Council of State was as their annual change required now constituted Basil Earl of Denbigh being first named in the Act by which it was appointed by whom Mr. Anthony Ascham and Mr. Charles Vane were sent Agents to the respective Kings of Spain and Portugal in the Fleet with General Blake Care was likewise taken for another Fleet to be presently equipped which should consist of 30 great Men of War and several Frigats of great Force were now upon the Stocks and preparation made for others the Names of most of the former Navy being changed taking their new Names from the several places of the Parliaments Successes and Victories others relating to the Dignities of the Government as the President and the Faithful Speaker now newly lanched so that the Dutch began to look about them Several Complaints were now made to them from some that had suffered for their disloyalty in the Isle of Barbadoes as also from other of the Loyal American Dominions except New England that yet kept in Statu quo whereupon the State decreed to send a Fleet thither to reduce that place it being now Governed by the Lord Willoughby of Parham sent thither by the King from Holland whither his Lordship had withdrawn from the violence of the Army being one of those Peers whom they questioned for Treason in 1647. And Act came now out likewise Commanding all Royallists to depart London and twenty miles beyond it with an injunction not to stir five miles from their own habitation and to give notice to the next Officer of their arrival there and to make through work with them the Parliament was now in Debate of exposing several of their Estates to sale and such in the first place who were then beyond Sea and to raise these unhappy forfeitures to their greater advantage ordering that no Estate not Compounded for in the Delinquents life-time should be now Compounded for by his Heirs but should accrue entire to the State Against several Branches of this and other harsh usage particularly of that restraint and confinement within five miles of their dwelling the kinder Army interposed their desires as not consistent with their former Proposals but they well knew they were not to ask and must be disobeyed in that particular yea even in this most reasonable request of Liberty to those who had the benefit of Articles and had Compounded Another High Court of Iustice was now a forming which though the Act that Constituted it bore date the 5 of April in the year ensuing yet we mention it here because Montrosses Expedition and final defeat do challenge an entire space of time to register them Of this Court Keble one of the Commissioners of the Seal was now made President Bradshaw being too high to do that Journey-work any longer being President of the Councel of State it was erected in revenge of Ascham's and Doristaus's death as a Vote and Declaration of the States angrily expressed An Act passed likewise for the better managing of Estates under Sequestration which trust was committed to Samuel Moyer Iames Russel Edmund Winstow Iosias Barners William Mullins Arthur Squib and Rowland Moor names so terrible and Haberdashers-Hall their Court or Judicature so hated and infamed for the violences done by these persons there that they are not to be passed without a mark to Posterity They likewise Enacted the outing of all Officers who should not nor had taken the Engagement another Act against Mariners serving of Forrein Princes which still carried an ill aspect towards the Dutch another according to their tenour of professed Sanctity against Fornication which was passed in April but was not to take place till the 24 of Iune ensuing the first Reading thereupon was Harry Martin's who said it was made to catch Fools for that there was a Clause in it That no person should be convicted without the joynt-testimony of two witnesses yet an Old Man and an Old Woman of above 80 years old apiece suffered afterwards for it and for the open guilt whereof they had turned out Gregory Clement one of their Members though others lewd enough kept their Seats and finally one for the levying of 90000 lib. per mensem for the three first and 60000 l. for the three last months by which they hoped to ingratiate with the people now heavily complaining of the pressures and the ruine of their Trade And so we conclude this first year of the Government of our Novel Free States Anno Dom. 1650. WE begin the Year with the end of one of the Noblest Gallantest Persons that Age saw amongst all the Wars and Broils in Christendom A Captain whose unexampled Atchievements have fam'd a History and were its Volume ten times bigger it would yet be disproportionate to the due praises of this matchless Heroe Enter and Exit the glorious Marquess of Montross whose most lamentable Fare and Catastrophe we will here sum up in this no way competent compendious Narrative After his departure out of Scotland as you have read he betook himself to the Court of France where he was proffered the Captainship of the Scots Guards to that King a place of great Honour and Revenue but being delayed by Cardinal Mazarine who affected not that Nation and his spirit aiming at his own Princes Service he betook himself to the King then at the Hague where he endeavoured after the Murther of King Charles the first a like new Commission for Scotland but being thwarted therein by Duke Hamilton then residing there likewise and his confident Friends the Earls of Lauderdale and Calendar who was aemulous of his former glories in the Government and late War of that Kingdom he betook himself to the Emperor at Vienna where he was presently proffered the Command of an Army of 10000 men and to be independent of any other General but the Peace being concluded betwixt the Swede and the Emperour he departed upon pursuit of his adventure into Scotland having obtained a Commission from the King and in order to that Expedition was furnished with four ships from the Duke of Holstein some supplies from the King of Denmark and 1500 Arms from the Queen of Sweden and some Horse promised under General King from thence and a little neat Frigat â—or his own conveyance some monies also were disburst to him which were transmitted to Amsterdam for other the like occasions and necessaries and there falsly and basely squandred away by one Colonel Ogilby an old friend and now entrusted by the Marquess in that affair unfortunately and unhappily enough a limb of the Designe being thus broken With these the Marquess as is supposed fearing lest he should have an express command to desist from his purpose because the Treaty betwixt the Prince and the Scotish Commissioners was now very neer a conclusion did precipitate himself and those that were with him into a most inevitable ruine Now all those great
1644. which was the reason it was late ere he suffered and beyond his appointed time by three hours piously spent by him He most Christianly and worthy of all Memory gave up his Soul to his Redeemer being a little troubled at his longer detainer in this Vale of misery by the Executioner's missing the Signe And this sad occasion will direct us to a further account of those English Royalists who were taken in and after the same defeat among whom were besides others mentioned the Lord Grandison Sir Iohn Packington Colonel Blague the late Governour of Wallingford Colonel Broughton after Sir Edward and Colonel Massey who having escaped the fate of that day at Worcester and being tired with Riding having wounds yet green threw himself at last upon the Countess of Stamford engaging his parole for his true Imprisonment in her House till he was cured when he was removed likewise to the Tower and by a disguise shortly after made an escape The often-to-be-with-Honour-mentioned Colonel Wogan came off and got away untouched and recovered the Highlands with an indesistible courage of prosecuting the Kings quarrel even where Nature had fixt her non ultra while Iames Hinde the famous High-way-man some time before in England for Robbing of the Parliament-party adventuring Southward was betrayed in Fleet-street at his lodging and being from Newgate carried to the next Assizes of Abington and Worcester was at the last place when none would come in to swear against him either to Felony or Treason in the late Invasion as 't was called by the King betrayed by a Minister of their sending whose name I cannot get and by his Evidence Convicted and Hanged Drawn and Quartered in that City An Act for sale of Delinquents Lands had passed some time before now their Trustees with Boon Courage resolved to proceed the danger of voiding their Trusts and the Authority conferred on them being now past and some more Grist being like to come into their Mill by new Forfeitures wherefore they appointed the 8 day of September for their sitting down in pursuance of those powers granted by the said Act of Sale and chose Drury-house the Mansion of the Lord Craven for the place of their Sitting where they made several conveniencies for their Registers Accountants Cashiers and Clerks like to any other legal Office and there with other Estates exposed that Lord 's to common sale The Members had appointed the second of October for the Thanksgiving-day for this Worcester-Victory but because they would have it Celebrated with the greater solemnization by notice thereof throughout the three Kingdoms together they adjourned it till the 24 of the same Month in the Evening whereof General Popham one of their Admirals at Sea deceased on the 19 of August before attended by Cromwel and most of the Members was Interred in Westminster-Abbey This day was without any more scruple punctually observed the Presbyterians who were in the best Livings generally and indeed no body else scarce in any not offering to mutter against the Command of these their not-to-be-contended-with Lords and Superiors The Scotch affairs were now the consultation of the Parliament for having reduced that Kingdom to neer a plenary Conquest no English Forces or scarce a single man having passed so far as their Army was now Quartered and in Garrison the Civil Government was very fit to be considered of and how it should be managed In the beginning of the raign of King Iames much pains and endeavours were used by Him about the draught and accomplishment of an Union between both Kingdoms which might be so comprehensive as to be equally advantagious to both people and the Lord Bacon writ an Elaborate discourse and project of it but all came to nothing so many Scotch proud and surly difficulties were thereupon raised but now one Weeks work finished that mighty matter in a short Vote and Resolution That England and Scotland shall be Incorporated into one Commonwealth and Commissioners were named to go into that Kingdom viz. Oliver Saint Iohn Sir Henry Vane Alderman Titchburn Major Salway Major-General Dean Colonel Fenwick and General Monke before whose arrival onely Major-General Lambert and Dean were upon perambulation of the limits already gained and receiving submissions and granting terms several of the Scotch Nobility whose Ancestors thought the English Union a diminution of their Greatness and disdainfully rejected all tendencies thereunto came quietly in having made a bluster of doing something in the Highlands such were the Marquess of Huntly who to be repaired of some injuries done him by Arguile though his neer Kinsman thought good to prevent him by a timely acquiescence upon pact of having right done him in the said controversie the Lord Balcarris the Earls of Weems Angus and Calendar and Arguile himself was now in Treaty but to shew himself more considerable held it on foot almost half a year guarding his Castles the County and Levying Assessments like a Prince upon the Country The late Marquess of Montross his Children and Family were honourably taken into protection by General Monke Nor were the Royal Party half so averse and intractable to the English Usurpation for they had as they well hoped shaken off the insupportable Tyranny of the Presbytery and could hardly suffer more by any power whatsoever which might in time veer about unto its lawful Scepter as the Kirkmen and that brood who having lost their Arbitrary and most Tyrannical sway over the Consciences Estates and Lives of men raged at this Change the rather for having fooled and bewitched themselves into an opinion that they should be able by the Keys of the Kirk which they doubted not to re-establish in that Kingdom to oversway the Sword of the Sectary and to bring him to conform there being such a proximity in many of their Principles assigning to themselves that time-serving Complement of Oliver's The good people of the Nation of Scotland that were to be preserved in their Rights Civil and Spiritual and accordingly the Grandees of the Western Remonstrants took upon them to indict an Assembly and there they damned all which had been done by the late Parliament and Assembly and published a Fast with the grounds wherefore they were to humble themselves which being ridiculous Crambs of miscarriages about the King are purposely omitted and proceeded afterwards to that boldness as to expostulate and refuse in Print the Tender of Union for several Reasons which we shall hint in its proper place In Ireland while the Deputy Ireton lay before Limerick which Siege had continued most part of the Summer the Irish played pranks offering at a redemption of their losses but were too far spent for though Colonel Venables Hewson and Reynolds were out in parties to attend their motion Sir Walter Dungan Stormed Ross-Town and Castle-Iordan and had carried the Castle of Ross but for want of Provision which made him in hast to retreat into his Fastnesses where the Marquess
A CHRONICLE OF THE Late Intestine War IN THE THREE KINGDOMS OF ENGLAND SCOTLAND and IRELAND WITH The Intervening Affairs of TREATIES And other Occurrences relating thereunto As also the several Usurpations Forreign Wars Differences and Interests depending upon it to the happy Restitution of our Sacred Soveraign K. CHARLES II. In Four Parts Viz. The COMMONS WAR The DEMOCRACIE The PROTECTORATE The RESTITUTION By JAMES HEATH Gent. The Second Edition To which is added A Continuation to this present year 1675. Being a brief Account of the most Memorable Transactions In England Scotland and Ireland and Forreign Parts By I. P. LONDON Printed by I. C. for THOMAS BASSET at the George neer Cliffords-Inne in Fleetstreet MDCLXXVI To the most Illustrious and Magnanimous GEORGE Duke of Albemarle Earl of Torrington Baron Monck of Potherige Beauchamp and Teys Captain-General of all his Majesties Land-forces Garrisons Forts and Castles within any of His Majesties Kingdoms or Dominions Master of the Horse Knight of the most Noble Order of the Garter and one of His Majesties most Honourable Privy Council May it please your Highness I Presume to offer your victorious hands this Fragment and minute Portion of Time from the encouragement of that Axiome That by Moments Approaches are made to Eternity to which the Duration of your Glory is most adaequate and Commensurate I am most humbly conscious that this Historiola this piece of a Chronicle is a most incompetent and incongruous Present to Your Highness and of all the meanest and vilest that ever obtruded or excused themselves to Princes the most unpardonable But such is the Fate of this way of writing and upon this Subject that whosoever shall dare to increase our Annals must either injure your Greatness by intitling you to his Endeavour or else disoblige his Nation who owe and own their Laws which is more than their History to your Prudence and Puissance Besides Great Sir the Genius that walkt and wandred in the contexture and account of this War like the Ghost of murdered persons never left importuning and urging me to address its groans to you the Vindex and Avenger of that blood which hath been so barbarously and unnaturally spilt Your Highnesses blessed Conduct traced and overtook the guilt of the late Sanguinary times and Expiated those dire Effusions You have reconciled our Review to those abhorrences and with innocence given us the Representation of the Impiety of the late Age You have given Form and Beauty to the Chaos of our Confusions made the lineaments thereof in its derivation to Posterity lovely and amiable from a ghastly and mangled Spectacle not to be owned or known by our selves you have perfected and concinnated it to its proportions and from a Medly of our Distractions brought forth a Beautiful Rationale And now under that your Highnesses Signature this little Chronicle is ambitious to pass and to commend it self to the world I would not be guilty of so much vanity as to pretend in this Address any respect or regard to your Renown and Fame raised beyond the reach of our most exalted praises as being the same with the Miracles your Highness hath instrumented the highest Transcendencies of Language do with advantage disappear into silent Extasies and our Raptures convert into the Forms of Blessing and lose themselves in Adoration Besides the Oracle the Wisdome of the Kingdome in Parliament hath engrossed all the utterance of Gratitude in their publick Acknowledgments transcribed into the sacred Records and Rolls of that supream Court So Heaven was pleased not onely to sum up the vertues and felicities of all the Generals in our Civil Wars integrating and accomplishing the Loyalty Conduct Courage Success Renown and Triumphs contra-opposed and divided among them in your Heroical person making you the Compleat Compendium as well as the absolute Conclusion of the menage thereof which to your Honour and Memory shall be eternally celebrated but also to center the general hope and confidence in your single Vertue to unite or at least cement and amuse different Parties and Perswasions to an acquiescence in your Resolutions and Designe and then at last to Crown them with universal Satisfaction Content and Delight the three Nations being inspired with One voice and gratulatory Shout at your Redemption of us from Slavery But while I please my self and the Reader with the memory of that ravishing Kindness I forget I do displease your Highness with this rude and tedious Boldness which I would religiously avoid May you graciously be pleased to vouchsafe a Reception of this Essay to the honour of the Times you have made wherein Truth hath recovered her Reputation and dare maintain it and it is the onely justifiable part of the ensuing Work as far as Humane Frailty may be indulged while I doubt not but mine and the General Prayers to Heaven shall be accepted for Your and your Posterities long Temporal and endless Eternal Felicities Your Highness's Devoted and most Obedient Servant JAMES HEATH THE PREFACE TO THE READER THe custom and obligation which lies upon all publick Writings to bespeak the benevolent and favourable judgement of those who shall vouchsafe them their perusal doth with great advantage like the auspicious invocation of a Deity assist those humble and submiss acknowledgments I am bound to render of the ensuing Collections It is most certain that Books of this nature bring an Imputation of their own like original guilt with them into the World and that it is an impossible labour to wipe it off though the felicity of former times and debonarity of their manners have transmitted a few more innocent and less obnoxious Histories to a most piacular and guilty Posterity but the crimes with which the Current of our Annals are imbittered and the effects thereof Odium Timor Ira Voluptas Nostri est Farrago Libelli those many animosities and irreconciled Feuds besides the depravity of the late age leave such a dreadful prejudice upon this attempt that like the atcheivement of the Augaean labour nothing but Rivers of Oyl can asswage or mitigate and purge the distemper And that course I may presume to have steered saving in that parricidial Fact the abhorrence of the world an impiety of such a magnitude that it cannot be heightned by any aggravation no more than lessened by any excuse as Sir Heneage Finch excellently observed indeed such an unmeasurable wickedness save that it filled up the measure of its iniquity as infinity of time can never parallel unless such unexampled and unfortunate Vertue and Innocence dare appear again and therefore to clear and free the Nation and expiate the infamy of that treason the individual persons of that Conspiracy are marked and branded with their Character As to other persons I have used the severest cautions I could that I trespassed not upon their name by any wrong sinister single or injurious report nor willingly at all but where such account was of great evidence light and satisfaction to the
their turn without Religion and such specious pretences were pleaded to the subversion of the Government therefore the Service-Book opportunely offering it self though in 1616. at Aberdeen a piece very like it had passed by the General Assembly onely altered in some places lest in totidem verbis some factious spirits might have misconstrued it as a badge of dependance of that Church upon England to the prejudice of the Laws and Liberties and by their own Bishops afterwards and revised by the King who observed many of that Nation reverently here to use it and also that it had been read in the Koyal Chappel in Scotland as aforesaid being enjoyned to be read on Easter-day 1637. in Edinburgh but deferred for some reasons though no opposition appeared then till the twenty third of Iuly on that day such a Tumult and Riot happened the heads of the vulgar being secretly prepossest as deep waters run smoothest till they come to some breach as for everlasting notice and memorial of so paltry an introduction to the grandest and miraculous change and subversions which followed it is here briefly though satisfactorily transcribed ON the Twenty third of July being Sunday according to publique warning given the Sunday before the Service-Book was begun to be read in Edinburgh in St. Giles Church called the Great Church where were present as usual many of the Privy Council both the Archbishops and other Bishops the Iustices and the Magistrates of Edinburgh No sooner was the Book opened by the Dean of Edinburgh but a number of the vulgar most of them women with clapping of their bands cursing and outcries raised such a barbarous hubbub in the place that none could bear or be heard The Bishop of Edinburg who was to Preach stept into the Pulpit which is immediately above the place where the Dean was to read intending to appease the Tumult by putting them in minde of the sacredness of the place and of the horrible prophanation thereof But then the rabble grew so enraged and mad that if a stool aimed to be thrown at him had not been providentially diverted by the hand of one present the life of that Prelate had been endangered if not lost The Archbishop of St. Andrews the Lord Chancellor with divers others offering to appease the multitude were entertained with such bitter curses and imprecations that not being able to prevail with the people the Provost Bailiffs and divers others of the Council of the City were forced to come down from the Gallery on which they usually sit and with much ado in a very great Tumult and confusion thrust out these disorderly people making fast the Church-doors After all which the Dean proceeded to read Service which was devoutly performed being assisted by the Lords and the Bishops then present Yet the clamor rapping at Church-doors and throwing of stones in at the Church-windows by the rabble without was so great that the Magistrates were constrained to go out and use their endeavours for to appease the multitude After a little pause and cessation the Bishop of Edinburgh Preached and after Sermon done in his going from Church was so invironed with a multitude of the meaner sort of people cursing and crowding him that he was near being trod to death if he had not recovered the stayrs of his Lodging where he was again assaulted and was like to have been pulled backwards if the Earl of Weems from his next Lodging seeing the Bishops life in danger had not sent his servants to rescue him who got the Bishop almost breathless into his Chamber In other Churches the Minister was forced to give over reading And so that Morning passed Between the two Sermons consultation was held how to suppress those out-rages and ' was so ordered that the Service was quietly read in St. Giles other Churches in the afternoon But yet the rabble intermitted nothing of their madness for staying in the streets at the comming home of the Earl of Roxborough the Lord Privy Seal with the aforesaid Bishop in his Coach they so fiercely assaulted him with stones that he had like to have suffered the death of the Martyr St. Stephen so that if his footmen had not kept the multitude off with their drawn Swords their lives had been very much indangered Thus the Reformation began there with such terrible profanations of the Lords day and of the Lords House an ill omen what in future would be the conclusion and this done by the same many-headed Monster that in like manner began the troubles in England nor ever was the Union more perfect and streight then in such mischiefs To prevent and redress these ills the Privy Councel set forth a Proclamation thereby discharging all concourses of people and tumultuous meetings in Edinburgh under pain of death at which time the Magistrates of the said City before the Council-Table professed their detestation thereof and profered their utmost power in the discovery of the principals in that uproar though they afterwards shamefully failed in their promise and appeared among the chief of the Covenanters even while they were glozing with the King and the Archbishop of Canterbury in England by letters full of duty and affection to his Majesty and his Churches service All businesses of note for a time seemed to be hushed and calmed by reason of the long Vacation which in that Kingdom beginneth always on Lammas-day and the Harvest which drew all sorts of people from Edinburgh except the Citizens so that all was quiet till the ensuing October and then the conflux of all sorts soon enlivened the tumults again the Ministers who undertook the reading of the second Service-book publiquely relenting their forwardness and recanting and reneging it and to that purpose presented a Petition desiring it might not be imposed on them this being backt with such an Universal rendezvous of all sorts gave the Council the fear of an Insurrection for prevention whereof a Proclamation again was published which under pain or Rebellion commanded all persons except they should show cause of their further stay about their particular affairs to depart the City and return to their Houses Seconded also with another whereby his Majesties Council and Session which is the Term were declared to be removed from Edinburgh to Dundee and a third for seizing and discovering of a certain seditious Book against the English Ceremonies which second book was ordered to be publiquely burnt upon the seizure These Proclamations were next day overtaken with another Insurrection For on the 19 of October 1667. the Bishop of Galloway and Sir William Elphinston Lord chief Justice of that Kingdom being appointed by the Lords of the Council to examine witnesses in a Cause depending before them passing through the streets to the Council-House were suddenly encountred and surrounded with an enraged multitude the Bishop hardly by the means of one of the parties in that Suit getting safe to the Council where through the like irreverence
to that Tribunal he could find no Sanctuary being threatned instantly with death Upon report of this outrage the Earls of Traquair and Wigton came with their followers to his relief where with much ado they got entrance but found themselves in no better case than the Bishop the peoples rage being thereby the more increased The Lords and the Bishop being thus beset sent privately to the Lord Provost and Bailiffs of Edinburgh for relief who sent them word that they themselves were in the same condition if not worse if the Lords attempted not to appease the people who had forced them in their Council-House for fear of their lives to subscribe a Paper then instantly presented them which contained three particulars First that they should joyn with them in opposition to the Service-book and in petitioning to the King Secondly that by their Authority they should restore Mr. Ramsey and Mr. Rolloch two lately silenced Ministers Thirdly that they should restore one Mr. Henderson a silenced Reader which three persons were notable Ringleaders of the faction three most important grounds for so fearful a Commotion Thereupon the Lords resolved to go and confer with the Magistrates and either by their authority or perswasion to reduce the people to obedience and reason but all in vain for at their return re infecta to the Council-Table again they were set upon the Earl of Traquair being troden down losing his white Staff the Ensign of his Office of Treasurer with his Hat and Cloak and so with much ado got back again to the Council who seeing the impendent danger from the fury of the people were forced to apply themselves to some Noblemen who were of the faction by whose influence upon and respects from the people they with the aforesaid Bishops were conveyed to their respective dwellings but the Provost was pursued with threats rayling and danger unto the yard of his own house This Mornings storm being blown over another Proclamation was made against further unlawful Assemblies and meeting in the streets of that City under the most severe pains the Laws in those Cases had provided but so little regard was thereunto given that the next day they demanded of the Lords what they had demanded of their Magistrates and to that purpose two Petitions as well from the Rabble as also now from greater hands the chief Citizens Gentry and Nobility were presently tendred to the Lord Chancellour of that Kingdom which imported the whole substance of the present Commotion the English Service-book still bearing the burthen Withal in this last petition making their greivances swell adding their dislike of the book of Canons to their former distast of the Service-book so one demand ushered in another till they had nothing to ask but what they resolved to take the parallel of our troubles These petitions were afterwards sent up to the King who by a Proclamation resented the injuries and affronts done his Royal Authority by those attemps upon his chief Ministers and also declared his firm intentions to maintain the Protestant Religion commanding also all persons to forbear further meetings and petitions of this nature upon pain of treason But this Proclamation was encountred with a Protestation made by the Earls of Hume and Lindsey two great Covenanters who avowed therein the whole action with a resolution added to adhere to them to the last requiring also some of the Bishops to be removed from his Majesties Councel and such other more unreasonable expostulations which yet came short still of those that they made afterwards their number and power still increasing their peremptory and haughty designes upon the Government Soon after this sedition began to arm it self and assume another name they of the faction took the authority of the Kingdom to themselves erected four Tables as they called them of the four ranks of Noblemen Gentry Burgesses and Ministers out of all which was formed one general Table that was supreme This Table after some consultation and reports from the other resolved upon a Covenant to be taken throughout the Kingdom which for substance was the same with that Solemn League afterwards taken in England onely Bishops in express terms were not therein then abjured but implicitely no doubt included and more plainly their sitting in civil Judicatories The King was most highly incensed against this Usurpation of his Royal Authority especially at the obtruding this Covenant wherewith the greatest part of the Nation were already infected and others through compulsion and force scared into a compliance with it though with a great deal of stir and reluctancy Wherefore to obviate the imminent danger it threatned the King dispatcht away the Marquess of Hamilton as his Commissioner to that Kingdom to apply some present remedy to the distemper he being a person of great honour and influence on that Nation Before his arrival of which the Covenanters had timely notice they made the more hast to engage the people against any accommodation Nor did they with the usual respect entertain the Commissioner but after some few days stay after some overtures by him made on the Kings part towards them and his demands of them particularly their deserting and relinquishing their Covenant he received a slighting answer that they would descend to no particulars of their part till a general Assembly should be called But as for the Covenant they would sooner part with their lives than abate a syllable of it and resolved never to hear more against it And thereupon new guards were by them clapt upon Edinburgh Castle the Watches of the City multiplied and the Ministers began to convert all their Sermons into Libels warning the people to take heed of Crafty Compositions when they were resolved against any These difficulties caused the Commissioner to repair to London having first received order to publish the Kings Declaration against the supposed Popery and removed also the Term for the further satisfying of the City of Edinburgh back thither again which indeed was for a while magnified by the Citizens as an Act of favour but presently was undervalued as a trick to cajole them so instructed by those who grudged the King any esteem or love in the minds of his people The Kings Declaration bearing Date Iune 20. 1638. was soon after published which contained his dispensation of the Service-book and Canons with a promise of calling a general Assembly and Parliament with all convenient Expedition requiring his subjects to contain themselves in their duty and not further to hearken to any Rebellious suggestions As soon as the Herauld had proclaimed it the Covenanters were ready upon a Scaffold there erected with a Protestation against it having before possest the People that if this Declaration were hearkened unto it would bring undoubted ruine to their Religion Laws and Liberties which they publiquely read importing some new additions to their former demands and cavils at the
English Lords and to perswade them of the honest intentions of the Scotch Nation were therefore for a while committed but soon after set at liberty having in part effected their errand and insinuated a good opinion of their proceedings withal begot an intelligence and correspondence with some of the Peers who before were well inclined to their cause This appeared soon after in the English Councils of War where the first Gallantry and Resolutions of the Principal Commanders were seen to flag and abate and dissolve into more soft and pliable dispositions to peace The English Army being far superiour in Arms men and bravery was encamped near Barwick and the Scots at Dunslo when by mediation of the persons aforesaid a Treaty was begun which ended presently in a short-lived Peace upon several Articles which being not performed on the Scots part are needless here to repeat In the mean time the Parliament of Scotland according to the Kings Proclamation when he also summoned their Assembly met on the appointed 15th of May and was prorogued till the last of August at which time they sate four days and therein formed four demands for the King The Assembly also sate a little before and abolisht Episcopacie the Liturgy and the Book of Canons with the High Commission c. These things coming to the Kings knowledge together with a Pamphlet prevaricating the conditions of the late Treaty their Letters to the King of France for aid their new Provisions for Arms their levying of Taxes of ten marks per Centum and continuing their Officers and Fortifications induced him by his new Commissioner the Earl of Traquair to command the Adjournment of the Parliament until the second of Iune next ensuing upon pain of Treason Against which Command the Covenanters declare and send a Remonstrance to the King by the Earl of Dumfermling and the Lord Loudon the Chancellour of that Kingdom afterwards who coming without Warrant from the Kings Commissioner Traquair were sent back again Whereupon Traquair a person suspected to have abused his trust comes himself and advising with Hamilton they both propound to the Council the affairs of Scotland being so desperate whether it were not more expedient the King should go himself in person into Scotland than to reduce them by Arms which after many politique considerations was Resolved in the Affirmative That nothing could reclaim them to their duty but force of Arms. This again brought the Earl of Dumfermling and the Lord Loudon to London with two other Commissioners where before the King again they insisted upon the justification of their innocence and withal desired that the King would ratifie and confirm their proceedings and that their Parliament might proceed to determine of all Articles or Bills brought to them to the establishing of Religion and Peace But instead of an Answer to their requests the King charged them with the aforementioned Libel and their Letters and Intelligence held with the French King which then came to English light and were known by the Characters to be the writing of the Lord Loudon who was thereupon committed for a short time but released upon the mediation of the Marquess Hamilton After his release he and Dumfermling presented their Assemblies and Parliaments Remonstrance to the King and the Commissioner returned also and gave a full account of the state of that Kingdom All three of them being admitted unto the Council together the matter was there managed with so much anger and sharpness that the King and the Scots were more exasperated against one another than before The Prince Elector Palatine the Kings Nephew by the Queen of Bohemia about this time came into England having utterly lost his interest in the Palatinate by the late defeat given him there by Count Hatsfield the Emperours General where Prince Rupert so famous afterwards in our Wars and the Lord Craven were taken he staid not long here but departed again and was taken at Lions by the French having past so far undiscovered he was soon after released and returned into England where by the Parliament he had 8000 l. a year assigned him out of his Uncles the Kings Revenue till after His Murther he departed home upon the Articles of Munster-Treaty by which he was restored to his Dignities and Sovereignty being conveyed hence in 1649. in a man of War to the Brill in Holland This year was signalized also by a famous Sea-fight between the Flemings and the Spaniards in the Downs Don Antonio Ocquendo was Admiral of the Spanish Fleet which consisted of seventy Sail of great Ships and Gallions on which were put aboard as the report went twenty five thousand men designed for the service of the Spaniard against the Dutch of the one side and the French on the other and were ordered to be landed at Dunkirk with money for the paying of his Armies then afoot On the 17th of September they were met by the Vice-Admiral of the Holland-Fleet who engaging them in the Chanel was worsted but getting to windward kept near them continuing firing to give Van Trump then before Dunkirk notice of their approach Betwixt Dover and Calice the two Dutch Fleets joyn and attaque the Spaniard the English Fleet under the Command of Sir Iohn Pennington looking on the while who being sore bruised was forced to the English Coast where the Spanish Ambassadour desired they might be protected for two Tides by the Kings Ships but that could not be allowed for the Kings Neutrality between both Whereupon in the night some part with the most of the Treasure and fourteen Ships got safe to Dunkirk the rest Van Trump being recruited with an hundred Ships in an instant almost of time set upon and dispersed sinking and taking and stranding very many so that few escaped home This was the second luckless Armado of the Spaniard on which the malecontents of this and the Kingdom of Scotland grounded many false and scandalous surmises against the King To return again to Scotland where I may not omit one fatal passage On the 19th day of November being the Anniversary of his Majesties Birth part of the Walls of the strong Castle of Edenburgh fell down which was likewise interpreted for an ill Omen such another though more unhappily and nearly significant was that of the fall of the head of his staff at his Tryal before the pretended High Court of Justice For the repairing of these ruines the King sent the Lord Estrich Col. Ruthen and others who were resisted by the Covenanters as men not qualified for the service No hopes for these and other reasons being conceivable of treating and perswading the Scots to obedience a Resolution was taken vigorously to prosecute the War commenced the year before to which purpose it was debated at a Cabinet-Council where none were present but the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Earl of Strafford and Hamilton and there agreed that a Parliament
some through fear others out of compliance with the major part agreed to the ensuing Articles which for an envious remark I have transcribed First That there be a Cessation of Arms both by Sea and Land from this present Secondly That all Acts of Hostility do thenceforth cease Thirdly That both parties shall peaceably return during the Treaty whatever they possess at the time of the Cessation Fourthly That all such persons who lived in any of his Majesties Forts beyond the River of Tweed shall not exempt their Lands which lye within the Counties of Northumberland and the Bishoprick from such Contributions as shall be laid upon them for the payment of eight hundred pound per diem Fifthly That none of the Kings Forces upon the other side of Tweed shall give any impediment to such contributions as are already allowed for the competency of the Scotch Army and shall fetch no victuals nor forage out of their bounds except that which the inhabitants and owners thereof shall bring voluntarily to them and that any restraints or detention of Victual Cattel or Forage which shall be made by the Scots within those bounds for their maintenance shall be no breach Sixthly That no recruit shall be brought into either Armies from the time of the Cessation and during the Treaty Seventhly That the contribution of eight hundred and fifty pounds per diem shall be onely raised out of the Counties of Northumberland Westmerland and the Bishoprick and the Town of Newcastle and that the not payment thereof shall be no breach of the Treaty but the Counties and Towns shall be left to the Scots power to raise the same but not to exceed the sum agreed upon unless it be for charges of driving to be set by a Prizer of the forage Eighthly That the River Tweed shall be the bounds of both Armies excepting always the Town and Castle of Storkton and the Village of Egyshiff and the Counties of Northumberland and the Bishoprick be the limits within which the Scotish Army is to reside having liberty from them to send such Convoys as shall be necessary onely for the gathering up of the Contribution which shall be unpaid by the Counties of Northumberland and Cumberland Ninth and Tenth Articles of private injuries Eleventhly No new Fortifications to be made during the Treaty against either Party Twelfthly That the Subjects of both Kingdoms may in their trade of Commerce freely pass to and fro without any stay at all but it is particularly provided that no member of either Army pass without a formal Pass under the hands of the General or of him that commands in chief This was the sum of that unlucky Cessation which was afterwards at London concluded in a Treaty soon after the sitting of the Parliament who in February next paid the Scots off giving them the stile of their dear brethren which much pleased them but the money which accrewed by an arrear of 124000 l. was a great deal more acceptable And thus with their pay and dismission out of this Kingdom I dismiss them for this time from any further Narrative and look home to our own affairs in England The Parliament sate down on the third of November and immediately fell to questioning several chief Ministers of State Bishops and Judges pretending thereby both to satisfie this Nation and the Scots Monopolies also were voted down and much more good was promised and expected from the Parliament The principal of those Grandees that were accused was the Earl of Strafford against whom Mr. Pym is sent from the Commons to the Lords with an Impeachment of High Treason whereupon he was sequestred from sitting as a Peer and his Privado Sir George Ratcliff was sent for out of Ireland by a Serjeant at Arms. Soon after the aforesaid Earl was committed to the Usher of the Black Rod and so to the Tower in order to his ensuing Tryal yet he obtained the assignation of Councel and a Sollicitor for the better managing his defence The Bishop of Lincoln contrariwise was released out of the Tower and Mr. Pryn Dr. Bastwick and Mr. Burton returned from their kind of banishment in great pomp and bravery attended by many hundreds on Horseback with boughs in their hands to London for the Tide was turned and ran strong the other way In the interim the Lord Keeper Finch and Sir Francis Windebank Secretary of State both charged with no less than High Treason wisely withdrew themselves into Forein parts and weathered the storm that would have sunk them One Iohn Iames the Son of Sir Henry Iames of Feversham in Kent and of the Romish Religion audaciously adventured to stab Mr. Howard a Justice of Peace in Westminster-Hall the said Mr. Howard being about to deliver to the Committee for Religion a Catalogue of such Recusants as were within his liberty The House of Commons now Voted the Assesment of Ship-mony about which there had been so much ado and so many contests together with the Opinions of the Judges and the Writs for it and the judgment of the Exchequer against Mr. Hambden to be all illegal and the Arguments of the two Justices Crook and Hutton shewing the illegality thereof to be Printed and also ordered a Charge of High-Treason to be drawn up against eight others of the Judges Which business of Ship-money being made so accessary to our ensuing Troubles I have thought fit to insert these Records concerning the same The Case as it was stated by the King to the Judges CHARLES REX WHen the good and safety of the Kingdom in general is concerned and the whole Kingdom in danger Whether may not the King by Writ under the Great Seal of England command all the Subjects in this Kingdom at their charge to provide and furnish such number of Ships with Men Victual and Munition and for such a time as he shall think sit for the defence and safeguard of the Kingdom from such danger and peril and by Law compel the doing thereof in case of refusal and refractoriness And whether in such cases the King is not sole Iudge both of the danger and when and how the same is to be prevented and avoided Their Opinions MAy it please your most excellent Majesty we have according to your Majesties command severally and every man by himself and all of us together taken into serious consideration the Case and Questions signed by your Majesty and enclosed in your Letter And we are of opinion that when the good and safety of the Kingdom in general is concerned and the whole Kingdom in danger your Majesty may by Writ under the great Seal of England command all the Subjects of this your Kingdom at their charge to provide and furnish such a number of Ships with men victual and munition and for such time as your Majesty shall think fit for the defence and safeguard from such a danger and peril and that by law your Majesty may compel the doing thereof
departed a contented King from a contented people The Parliament at Westminster had scarce yet sat in a full House from their Adjournment curiously prying into the Errors and male-Administration of the Government here but the fearful news came of a horrid Rebellion broke forth in Ireland It seems no sooner that careful diligent eye of the Earl of Strafford was first distorted by the Scotch affairs and after put out and extinguished by the English envy but the Irish resumed their wonted desires after liberty which they never yet attempted upon a less foundation than a total Massacre and utter extirpation of the English in that Kingdom so that in effect however the Parliament threw the odium of that Rebellion there upon the King Questionless it can be no where imputable ab extra from without but from their unwarrantable proceeding against the said Earl whose name and presence alone would have been sufficient to have prevented it or his wisdom and power able to have suppressed it This affrighting news when the Kingdom was already in a trepidation labouring with its own fears and pretended dangers soon brought the King from Scotland with all possible haste to London where notwithstanding those troubles he was most welcomly and as magnificently entertained the Citizens on Horseback with Gold-chains and in their several Liveries in Rayles placed along the streets chearfully receiving him the sober part of the Nation not valuing the Irish troubles if the King and his Parliament should but happily agree if the breaches could be but closed here there was no doubt of stanching the wound there But it was otherwise meant by the faction who added that conflagration as fuel to this suggesting to the multitude that what was acted against the Protestants there was likewise intended to be put in Execution here the Authors of one being also so of the other sinisterly traducing the King as inclining to Popery which they point-blank charged upon the Archbishop of Canterbury which imputation diffused it self afterwards upon the whole Order This torrent of the multitude was swelled so high even at this reception of the King that one Walker an Iron-monger as his Majesty passed from Guild-Hall where he was most sumptuously feasted at the City-charge Sir Richard Gurney being then Mayor threw into his Coach a scandalous Libel Intituled To your Tents O Israel which indignity the King complained of and thereupon Walker was put in Prison yet afterwards he Libelled a great deal worse both in Press and Pulpit But since the settlement of the Church he procured a lawful Ordination I mention this man as the shame of that zealotry which so furiously commenced this unnatural War The first business transacted with the King by the two Houses was an account of the Irish Rebellion the King having acquainted them in a short Speech of his composure of the Scotch troubles and soon after conjuring them to joyn with him in the speedy suppressing of the Irish whose dangers grew every day greater Iobs Messengers perpetually bringing over worser and worser news from that Kingdom where most of the Nobility were confederated in that horrid revolt having made Sir Phelim Oneal the chief of the family of Tyrone the late famous Rebel there in the latter part of the Raign of Queen Elizabeth and bred in Lincolns-Inn and then a Protestant but turned a bloody Papist though a most sneaking and silly Coward the supreme Commander of their Forces which then were raised in great numbers throughout all the Provinces Deep waters run stillest and with the least noise so was it with this Plot. It was very strange that a designe of such vastness of so great mischief and horrour should be concealed among a multitude that were concerned in it But this devilish secrecy was imputable onely to the ancient irreconciliable malice of the Irish against the English whose yoke sundry times they had attempted to shake off not for any oppression they were under but out of a natural desire of being Lords and Masters of their own liberty But nevertheless it pleased God that it came in the very nick of the execution of their Plot to be revealed by one of that Nation or otherwise that Kingdom had been in danger to be lost as Sicily was from the French by a sudden massacre The chief Instrument in carrying on this horrible Plot was one Roger Moor descended of an ancient Irish family but allyed to most of the Gentlemen of the English Pale He made several journeys into all the four Provinces of this Kingdom communicating his intelligences from forrain Popish Courts and the transactions of their Priests and Fryars there to the encouragement of this Revolt Another of the greatest confidents and complices in this designe was the Lord Viscount Gormanston of the English Pale which generally sided with the Rebels as being inoculated into Irish stocks and were Papists generally though against all opinion of the Council for that they had been such enemies to the Earl of Tyrone in his grand Rebellion But the menacing speeches and denunciations of the English Parliament against Papists in both Kingdoms especially in this where they threatned a total extirpation cannot be denyed to be one if not the principal cause why they made this defection from their Country and Allegiance The 23 of October was the day pitcht upon for the general rising and the Lord Macguire Col. Mac Mahon Col. Plunket and Capt. Fox Hugh Birn and Roger Moor were appointed for the seizure of Dublin-Castle which would at once have done their work those persons with a competent number of men to their assistance came one day before to Town and had conference together at the Lyon-Tavern near Copper-Ally where one Owen O Conally an Irish Gentleman but a retainer to Sir Iohn Clotworthy was admitted and by Mac Mahon informed of the conspiracy After a large drinking to their next mornings success O Conally privily repaired to the Lord Justice Parsons to whom and Sir Iohn Borlace the other Justice the Government was committed after my Lord Straffords death The Lord Dillon was likewise named and constituted but to avoid the jealousie and grudgings thereat the King had disauthorized him and very disturbedly and confusedly by reason of the drink and his horrour at the story revealed the chiefest part of it It was thereupon advised by the said Lord Justice for a fuller and certainer account to send him back again to the said Mac Mahon commanding him to return that night again to him which he did from the said Tavern and company who would have kept him there all night by pretending to ease himself and thence leaping over a wall and a set of pales into the streets In the mean time the Lord Justice Parsons went to the Lord Borlaces house and there assembled a Council by the coming of Sir Thomas Rotheram and Sir Robert Meredith who resolved first to attend the return of O Conally who in his
seems and appears he had the Kings express command to fight that Army with all convenient speed and advantage Accordingly it was his intention to fight them that morning or at least by noon marching in view of them on the plain called Marston-Moor But it proved seven at night before both Armies Engaged The Parliamentarians had taken the advantage of a Corn-hill on the South-side of Marston-Moor four miles from York so that the Prince accepted of what fighting ground they had left him His Army was divided into Wings whereof the Marquess of Newcastle commanded one the Prince the main Battel though he charged in the left Wing where was General Goring Sir Charles Lucas and Major-General Porter Son to Mr. Endymion Porter of the Bed-Chamber Being thus resolved and drawn in Battalia ready to charge and begin the Encounter it was resolved upon the signal that the Princes left Wing should commence the Battel whither some new Reserves were brought to enforce and assist them The right Wing of the Parliamentarians Horse which consisted of the L. Fair-fax's Troops in the Van and of the Scotch Cavalry in the Rear against which the Prince had a more peculiar indignation was at the first Onset of the Kings left Wing of Horse commanded as aforesaid put to Total rout the Royalists following them in the pursuit so far as it was their unhappy custom that thereby they became the overthrow of their own Army The Scots some of them ran ten miles an end and a wey bit crying out Quarter with other lamentable Expressions of Fear During this Slaughter and Conquest in that part of the Field the Victory stood dubious on the other where the Earl of Manchester's Horse were on the Left Wing of their Army These were Raised out of the Associated Counties of Bedford Cambridge Suffolk Buckingham c. commonly called the Eastern Associates and both for Arms Men and Horses the compleatest Regiments in England They were more absolutely at the command of Colonel Cromwel then Lieutenant-General to Manchester an indefatigable Souldier and of great courage and conduct of whose â—â—â—ions we should have spoken before and have mentioned how he first secured those Counties for the Parliament purging that is to say extinguishing the University suppressing several endeavours for the King namely taking Sir Thomas Barker Sir Io. Pettus and Capt. since Sir Thomas Allen Admiral of the Seas and other the prime Gentlemen of Suffolk Prisoners at Lowestoft in Suffolk as they were met at a Rendezvous there to promote the Commission of Array as he did Sir Henry Connisby at Saint Albans soon after having reclaimed himself from the open vanities of Youth and taken up the secret Vices of Old men so that certainly a stranger change was never wrought in any man each Vice skipping over its medium of vertue which he touched not at all becoming the contrary extream his youthful Debaucheries proving in his Old Age all manner of Atheistical Prophaness as Perjury Hypocrisie Cruelty in a word what not so that indeed they had no more parallel than his as strange Fortunes He was born April the 25th in Saint Iohns Parish in the Town of Huntingdon and was Christened in that Church the 29th of the same month Anno Dom. 1599. where Sir Oliver Cromwel his Uncle gave him his name being received into the Bosom of the Church by her Rites and Ceremonies both which he afterwards rent and tore and ungraciously and impiously annulled and renounced That I may use my own words in his Life and Death lately printed and transcribe a Paragraph or more which are of use here for the information and satisfaction of Posterity That year 1599 was the last of that wonderful Century and did just precede the famous and celebrated Union of the two Kingdoms of England and Scotland under King Iames as if it were congenial to Crowns as to other lesser accessions of Felicity in private persons to have at the same instant a temperament and allay to their Lustre and Greatness thâ—â—â—s Fortunes right hand presented a Scepter so her left hand was ready with a Scourge to wreak her Envy and fury upon the glory and Grandeur of that renowned Succession to and accrument of Dominion The subtilties Arts and Policies of his that Goddess under the name of Providence potently and irresistibly conspiring with his as close Treasons and dissembled Treacheries to the ruine and overthrow of this Church and Kingdom singly and insensibly accomplished by the mean and unobserved hand of this bold and perjurious Politique Every thing hath its Good and Evil Angel to attend it and that grand and happy Revolution was to be afflicted and persecuted by this Fury to an almost dissolution of its well-composed and established frame He was descended of a very ancient Knightly Family of his name in the County of Huntington where for many Ages they have had a large and plentiful Patrimony it will suffice therefore to deduce him from no further Originals then Sir Henry Cromwel his Grandfather a Gentleman highly honoured and beloved both in Court and Country who had issue Sir Oliver his eldest Son Henry Robert and Richard and Sir Philip the youngest whose Son upon suspicion of Poysoning his Master was accused thereupon convicted and hanged some thirty five years ago This our Oliver was Son of Mr. Robert Cromwel the third Son of Sir Henry a Gentleman who went no less in esteem and reputation that any of his Ancestors for his personal worth until his unfortunate production of this his Son and Heir whom he had by his wife Elizabeth Steward the Niece of Sir Robert Steward a Gentleman of a competent fortune in this County but of such a maligne effect on the course of this his Nephews life that if all the Lands he gave him as some were Fenny ground had been irrecoverably lost it might have past for a good providence and a happy prevention of those Ruines he caused in the three Kingdoms For that estate continued him here after his debauchery had wasted and consumed his own Patrimony and diverted him from a resolution of going into New-England the Harbour of Nonconformists which design upon his sudden and miraculous conversion first to a civil and Religious deportment and thence to a sowre Puritanism he straightway abandoned by the former Repentance he gained the good will and affection of the Orthodox Clergy who by their perswasions and charitable insinuations wrought him into Sir Robert Steward's favour insomuch that he declared him his Heir to an Estate of four or five hundred pounds a year by his second change to Non-conformity and Scrupulous Sanctity he gained the estimation and favour of the Faction some of the Heads whereof viz. Mr. Hambden and Master Goodwin procured him the Match with a Kinswoman of theirs Mistris Elizabeth Bowcher the Daughter of Sir Iames Bowcher and afterwards got him chosen a Burgess for Cambridge by their interest
Assembly was ordered to bring in their Model of Church-Government and those Resolves were urged afterwards by many hundred Petitions and the Covenant prest to be universally taken Towards the end of this month they had licked up the form of their Directory but could not agree about the receiving of the Sacrament which dispute was then committed Hereupon the Parliament procâ—eded and voted the abolishing of the Common-Prayer-Book which gave some satisfaction to the Scots yet not fully contended them they had in the beginning of our Troubles openly named the Archbishop of Canterbury and prosecuted him as an Enemy to their Country as the great Incendiary of the broyls between both Nations and did not desist while they had him safe in the Tower now they would have his life also as a gratification of their assistance His head must be danced off like St. Iohn Baptist's at the Musick of their Bag-pipes This they publikely demanded so that an Ordinance for the Parliament durst not venture his Tryal at the Common-Law as was thought by some because of the clause of that Bill of Attainder against the Earl of Strafford that his Case should be no precedent and they knew the Judges though they might pack a Jury that should would never venture to condemn him And his tryal by Peers they vouchsafed not as alike dangerous passed the House of Commons whereby he was declared guilty and that sent up to the Lords for their concurrence who bogled at it as a very ill precedent so that it stuck for a while until Sir David Hawkins with his veterane Troops of Justice-cryers came bawled at the Lords House for speedy Execution of Delinquents And then a new Expedient was set on foot for the better dispatch that the Lords should come and sit in the House of Commons as to this business and make one work of it which some of them unworthily did an ill Omen or Presage what that degenerateness would come to when after some of the same persons sate there as Commoners By this trick after several brave Defences made at the Bar of the Lords House where with might and main his Enemies prosecuted his Innocence he was condemned the main Argument against him being used by Serjeant Wild That he was so guilty an offender that he wondred the people did not pull him in pieces as he came to and fro to his tryal and on the tenth of Ianuary brought to Tower-hill from a most sound and sweet repose that night till awakened by Pennington the Lieutenant of the Tower to go to his Execution whereat he was no whit dismayed his colour being as fresh in his Face as ever it was in his life which continued to his last minute At his death he made a Funeral-sermon for himself which was in lieu of a Speech where this is as he hinted it to be observed that though other Arch-bishops had lost their lives in this manner yet not the same way He being the first English-man that ever was condemned by an Ordinance of Parliament His body was decently interred in Alhallows Barkin London according to the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England of which he had been the chief Defender and Assertor leaving Sir Iohn Robinson his Nephew since Lieutenant of the Tower to inherit the remains of his Estate and the rewards of his great Services and Munificences to this Church and Kingdom Abington had been made a Garrison ever since the Earl of Essex marched into Cornwal and became so troublesome a neighbour to Oxford and the Country adjacent by the continual excursions of the Horse which were never less than a Regiment that Colonel Sir Henry Gage to prevent this perpetual annoyance no man daring to travail upon any of the Roads towards Oxford with provisions or other business more especially hindering the intercourse betwixt Oxford and Wallingford resolved to build a Fort at Culham-bridge within a mile of Abington on the London-road to repress the boldness of those parties who were constantly out thereabouts upon designes In the attempt thereof and to obstruct so dangerous an obstacle to their Eruption the Abingdon-forces under Colonel Brown Sally out Engage and maintain a short fight with the Royalists with little hopes of prevailing till an Unfortunate shot wounded Colonel Gage in the head of which he dyed as soon as he came to Oxford and so that project was laid aside The King had so closely prosecuted his intentions for Peace that it being in the depth of Winter both Armies in their quarters and the two Factions of Presbytery and Independency jealous of one another the modelling of the Army requiring also some gain and advantage of time a Treaty so often proposed by the King was now admitted to be managed at Vxbridge by Commissioners on both sides The Kings Commissioners were as Follow Duke of Richmond and Lenox Marquess of Hertford Earl of Southampton Earl of Kingston Earl of Chichester Lord Capel Lord Seymore Lord Hatton Lord Culpeper Sir Edward Nicholas Sir Edward Hide afterwards Lord Chancellor Sir Richard Lane Sir Thomas Gardiner Sir Orlando Bridgeman Mr. Iohn Ashburnham Mr. Ieffery Palmer Dr. Stuart and Dr. Hammond Divines The Parliaments Commissioners were Earl of Northumberland Earl of Pembroke Earl of Salisbury Earl of Denbigh Lord Wenman Mr. Denzil Hollis Mr. William Pierpoint Sir Henry Vane Jun. Mr. Crew Mr. Whitlock Mr. Prideaux Mr. Vines a Minister The Scotch Commissioners Lord London Sir Charles Erskin Mr. Dundas Mr. Brackley Mr. Alexander Henderson Minister The main things first to be treated of were first Religion second Militia third Ireland For Religion the King would not alter Government by Bishops but would give way to some amendments in the Liturgie upon advice For the Militia he would consent some Forts and Garrisons should remain in the Parliaments hands pro tempore for security of the agreement the King having the nomination of half the Commissioners For Ireland the King would not abrogate the Cessation until he were sure the Rebellion here were at an end having to avoid that popular demand and to prevent any insisting upon that point given Order to the Marquess of Ormond to conclude a Peace but however to continue the Cessation for a year for which he should promise the Irish if he could have it no cheaper to joyn with them against the Scots and Inchiqueen for by that time the King said he hoped his condition would be such as the Irish should be glad to accept of less or he enabled to grant more The Parliament on the contrary side insisted as to Religion upon the taking away of the Kings Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction his Donations and Temporalties of Bishopricks his First-fruits and Tenths of Bishops Deans Deans and Chapters not offering to constitute the least dependance of the Clergy upon the King to the Presbyterian mode compensating him with Bishops Lands in lieu of all those which of
themselves if dissov'd belong unto the Crown For Ireland the King should annul the Cessation and leave the management of that Kingdome to the Scots And for the Militia that it should be managed altogether by such Commissioners as they should appoint so that the King should not have the least power of his own to assist his Neighbours and Allies or defend himself at home They had also so obstructed any hopes of a conclusion by limiting the time of the Treaty to twenty days and trying up the Commissioners with such limitations that the good effect thereof was despaired at the entrance into it Much perswasion was used by the Kings side to the Parliaments Commissioners that they would gain longer time and that the Treaty might be revived but all to no purpose And to this matter notable is that of one Mr. Love who by some private means or other was admitted to Preach before the said Commissioners there where he said It was as possible for Heaven and Hell as the King and Parliament to agree strange words to be uttered in such a juncture and in such a place and before such an Assembly but the end of that man shewed him the folly and wickedness of that expression So after two and twenty dayes Conference the Treaty ended in vain The Kings Commissioners complained of this Love but answer was made he was none of their train but the Parliament should be informed of him who would do justice upon him but the business was husht In the interim the Lord Macguire and one Colonel Mac Mahon who were as was said before seized in Dublin the night of the breaking forth of the Rebellion in Ireland and had been Prisoners in the Tower ever since and some while before broke out from thence and wading over the Moat escaped away being found in Drury-Lane London at a private house were brought to the Kings-Bench-Bar though Macguire pleaded his Priviledge of Peerage and insisted peremptorily on it while over-ruled by the Court and Parliament together and there after a Tryal both sentenced for their Treason to be hang'd drawn and quartered which they underwent with a great deal of stoutness and their way of Piety clearing the King from any privity to that Rebellion Shrewsbury a most important and strong Garrison for the King was by some treachery not yet brought to light betrayed just at the conclusion of the Treaty aforesaid to Major General Mitton for the Parliament It seems the Parliament rather tampered under-hand than dealt fair above-board and openly during the time thereof For this good service the said Major-General Mitton being a Member of the House of Commons at his coming thither had the thanks of the same given him by Mr. Speaker Abundance of Persons of Quality were surprized in this place as thinking it one of the securest Retreats in these parts the List of whom I find after this sort Eight Knights and Baronets forty Colonels Majors and Captains 200 private Souldiers some few slain About this time also Scarborough and Weymouth were taken for the Parliament and Plymouth-Siege for a while raised and a day of Thanksgiving therefore set apart Sir Marmaduke Langdale an eminent man for the King in the North was sent from Oxford to relieve Ponfract-Castle in York-shire Besieged by the Forces of the Lord Fairfax This Expedition he so prudently and valiantly underwent that in his way thither he routed Colonel Rossiter who opposed him at Melton-Mowbray and passed forward and with resolution though twice inferiour in number so charged the Besiegers that after a sharp conflict he beat them from the Siege and having relieved the Castle departed back again to the assistance of the King then threatned with a fresh and potent Army from London For the Earls of Essex Manchester and Denbigh had resigned their Commissions in the House of Peers few of their Officers also continuing in their service for whom the General Essex in a Speech when he laid down his said Commission desired that the Parliament would take care of their Debentures which they abundantly promised but performed thinly leaving them the unsatisfied name of Reformado's Their General himself having lost the opportunity of Blessing the Kingdom with a Peace when it lay in his power to which he was courted by the King a while before at Lestithiel seeing how the Pulse of the times beat and what Counsels were likely to prevail withdrew himself in a Discontent to Eltham-House in Kent where not long after he deceased as in due time shall be declared At that same time that Shrewsbury was thus surprised the Kings Forces had a Success for the handsomness though not for the consequence of it very Notable The Kings Forces had Garrisoned a repayred Castle at the Devises and Colonel Devereux had a Garrison at Roudon-House between Malmsbury and that which therefore for its inconvenience was Besieged Colonel Stephens of Glocester-shire came to its Relief with 200 Horse and as many Foot from Malmsbury and forced his passage with provision into the House While he stayed to take further order for the security of the place the Royalists surround the House again cast up a Work where he entred and keep him in and Sir Iacob Ashley comes to second the Siege with 3000 men Massey understanding this did what he could to draw off Sir Iacob by facing Cyrencester and sending a Party of Horse from Glocester which were to joyn with a like number from Malmsbury again but all in vain the besieged were compelled at last to render themselves upon very hard terms and conditions About this time there was a kind of Faction in the Kings Court at Oxford and some altercations betwixt the parties concerning the Kings Council so that some Lords Savil Percy and Andover were confined and the Parliament that this the Members of the same Houses at Westminster who adhered to the King who by the Kings Order were the year before convened at Oxford were for some Reasons and Discontents arisen about the Army Adjourned till the 10 of October But that Parliament signified nothing The House of Commons Voted that in their new Generals Commission the words For preservation of his Majesties Person should be left out and accordingly they were so And so ended the year 1644. the last of the Kings Felicity Anno Dom. 1645. WE will begin this year though we post-date the time that we may recite all the exploits in Scotland together with the actions of the renowned and ever-glorious Marquess of Montross appointed Governour of that Kingdom The year before he came into Scotland attended onely by two Mr. William Rollock and Mr. Sibbalds in whose company he came at last to his Cousin Mr. Patrick Graham in the Sheriffdom of Perth with whom he staid a while disguised till he had sent to discover the State of the Kingdom He had all along given the King information of the Scots Rebellions and siding
with the Parliament but Hamilton was over-trusted Much ado he had to pass the ways being so strictly guarded while the Scotch Army was in England At his arrival in the Highlands being supplyed with 1100 men from the Marquess of Antrim out of Ireland and another addition under the Lord Kilpont and the Earl of Perths Son he marched to find out the Army of Covenanters then gathered under the command of Tullybarn the Lord Elch and Drummond consisting of a great Force into Perth-shire where at Tepper-Moor he obtained a great Victory his Souldiers for want of Arms and Ammunition making use of the Stones lying advantagiously on the Fighting-ground Here he killed no less then 2000 men whereupon Perth-City opened its Gates to the Conquerour To withstand and repress so dangerous an Enemy within the Bowels of the Kingdom another Army was raised and put under more Experienced Captains In the mean while Montross had fallen into Argyles Country where he made miserable havock intending utterly to break the Spirits of that people who were so surely Engaged to Arguiles side Here the Earl of Seaforth followed him with an Army and the Marquess of Argyle had another of the other side Montross therefore resolved to fight with one first and so fell upon that party under Argyle which he totally routed killed 1500 on the place the rest escaped and so the Marquess of Montross bent his way after the other Army which he defeated at Brechin being newly put under the command of Colonel Hurry afterwards offers Battel to Bayly who had another Army ready to fight him but he waited for advantages whereupon he marches after Hurry who had recruited and was pressing upon the Lord Gourdon having taken Dundee in his way and at Alderne discomfits him killing 1800 and dispersing the rest He seeks out Bayly to whom was joyned the Earl of Lindsey and at Alesford-hills forced them to fight utterly routed them and obtained a remarkable Victory But that which lessened the Triumph was the death of the Lord Gourdon one that was as the right hand of Montross A very Loyal Right Noble Gentleman being Eldest Son to the Marquess of Huntley After this he comes to St. Iohnstons where he alarm'd the Parliament there sitting and so into the Lowlands where the Kirk had another Army in readiness under the command of the aforesaid Bayly At a place called Kilsith both Armies met and a cruel Battel it was but in conclusion Success and Victory Crowned Montross's Head and almost 6000 of his Enemies were slain in this fight the pursuit being eagerly followed for a great way the Covenanters at first fighting very resolutely but the fortune of Montross still Prevailed The Nobility now every where readily assisted him and the Towns and Cities declared for him so that the Kingdom which afforded men and assistance for the Invasion of another Kingdom was not now able to defend it self the Governour so was Montross dignified being seized of all places almost of strength even as far as Edinburgh where some Royal prisoners were delivered to him The Estates of Scotland therefore sent for David Lesley while Montross expected Forces from the King under the Lord Digby which staid too long and were afterwards defeated at Sherburn in York-shire Upon the arrival of Lesley most of the Forces under Montross not dreading any Enemie so soon out of England were departed home so that Lesley finding Montross in a very weak condition at Philips-Haugh fell upon him before he could retreat almost before his Scouts could give him intelligence and there routs him He at first resolved to lose his life with the field but being perswaded of better hopes he resolutely charged thorow and brought the flying remains of his Army safe into the High-lands where he began new Levies But the fortune of the King failing every where he was the next year ordered by the King then in the Scots custody to disband and depart the Kingdom And so we leave him till a more unhappy revolution of time In the beginning of this year Colonel Massey received a defeat at Lidbury the manner thus Prince Rupert who had for some time quartered thereabouts to make new Levies had intercepted some Scouts and by them understood the Col. had taken up his quarters there intending to fall upon Sir Iohn Winter who had been his restless adversary throughout the War in Gloucester-shire and who being called into the Army had tired his house which he had maintained as a Garison against all opposition When the Prince was within half a mile of the Town Massey took the Alarm commanded his Horse to mount and gave order for his Foot to march that the Royalists might not get before them which the Prince aimed at A furious Charge the said Horse maintained consisting principally of Officers among whom was Kirl that betrayed Monmouth at last Massey was forced to flye narrowly escaping taking Major Backhouse his great second being mortally wounded with divers others and some common Souldiers taken Prisoners the rest fled to Gloucester in haste with the Governour But that which deservedly ought to begin the year was the investiture of Sir Thomas Fairfax in the supreme Command of the Army It was the first of April when he received his Commission and on the twenty third of April he went from London to Windsor to perfect the new Model where he continued in that troublesome affair to the end of the month In the mean time Colonel Cromwel who had been commanded out of the West by the Ordinance of the Parliament against Members continuance in any Military command whose limitations of forty days was then expired came thither to salute the General and next morning was stopped there with a dispensation from his attendance on the House for forty days longer which was extended to the length For Prince Rupert and his brother Maurice had gathered a competent Army of Horse in Worcester-shire and the confines of Wales and were ordered by the King to come and fetch him off with his Infantry and Train of Artillery from Oxford To which purpose a Convoy of Horse was presently dispatched consisting of near 2000 being the Regiments of the Queen the Earl of Northampton the Lord Wilmot and Colonel Palmer while the Princes advanced in a body after them Upon advertisement thereof the Committee of both Kingdoms recommended it to the General to send Lieutenant-General Cromwel with some Horse to march beyond Oxford and lye on the way to Worcester to intercept the same Convoy With a party of Horse and Dragoons therefore then on the field neither mustered nor recruited as of the new Model Cromwel immediately marched found the enemy and engaged them neer Islip-bridge routed them took 400 Horse and 200 Prisoners and the Qeens Standard And to make up this a kind of a victory presently summoned Blechington-house within four miles of Oxford where Colonel Windebank
with General Poyntz for Passes and Terms according to their respective qualities This was first agitated at Worton-house some fourteen miles from Newark and was accordingly entertained by the Parliament who gave Colonel Rossiter order to give such Passes and Conditions the severest whereof was That all persons going beyond Seas by Warrant of either Houses and after returning shall have neither pardon nor quarter given them by the Parliament The King staid at Newark about ten days it being reputed the safest Garrison he had for that there was no considerable enemy neer it and the Souldiers within were numerous and resolute and the place known to be tenable and well provided and besides lay most advantagious for the King to draw together any Force having lost and drayned most of his Garrisons in other Counties But upon this Feud and untowardness of his affairs he in the beginning of November departed from hence with a Convoy of 600 Horse to Oxford so free and safe was the passage in that part of England from any Armies while the Westermost Counties were full of them and labouring to be delivered But though the King escaped any Encounter the said Convoy returning home were set upon by General Poyntz and routed the sixth day of November and so shifted away to their Garrison while the Victor sets down before Belvoyr-Castle where Sir Gervas Lucas was Governour for the King summoned it and assaulted it but both to the like purpose till after a siege of four months the House and Castle was delivered up to him on the 2 of February upon honourable Conditions Sir Gervas and his Officers being convoyed to Litchfield Fairley-Castle in Somersetshire the Devises Lacock-House to Colonel Pickering Châ—pstow-Castle delivered to the Parliament the last to Colonel Morgan Governour of Gloucester and Berkley-Castle where Sir Charles Lucas commanded to Colonel Rainsborough after a Noble defence when the Out-works were taken and two Summons refused Sir Charles saying he would eat Horse-flesh first and mans flesh when that was done before he would yeild But upon the planting of the Guns upon those Works against the Castle was glad to Surrender and spare those dainties for another extremity when he made good his Bill of Fare The Devises and Winchester after a breach made in the Castle thereof by the great Guns surrendred by the Lord Ogle to Lieutenant-General Cromwel there marched out thence to Woodstock 700 men the chief whereof were the Governour Sir William Courtney Sir Iohn Pawlet and Doctor Curl Bishop of that Diocess to whom Hugh Peters offered some civilities A Reverend Prelate who resided amidst his Flock even in these days of danger and trouble and quitted not his Charge while he was suffered no longer to continue in it The period of the glory and honour of Basing-house was now approaching for thither next came Cromwel who after his Batteries were placed setled the several posts for the Storm Colonel Dalbeir on the North-side of the House next the Grange Colonel Pickering on his left and Sir Hardress Waller's and Colonel Mountague's Regiments next him The Storm was October the 14 at six in the morning Pickering stormed the new house passed through and got the gate of the old house whereupon the defendants beat a Parly but it would not be hearkened to In the mean time Mountague and Waller's Regiments assaulted the strongest Works where their Court of guard was kept which they resolutely recovered with a whole Culverin and drawing their Ladders after them got over another Work and the House-Wall before they could enter Sir Hardress Waller was slightly wounded here many of the defendants were put to the Sword being about one hundred and one Virgin Doctor Griffith's Daughter whom the enemy shamefully left naked of note Major Cuffle slain by the hands as supposed of Major since Major-General Harrison There were taken Prisoners 400 with their Officers among whom the Noble Marquess of Winchester himself and Sir Robert Peak the Governour who with the Colours also taken were sent up together to London This Fortress of Loyalty the place being called by that name Love Loyalty being written in every window of that spacious house which Mr. Peters said who gave the relation of its taking to the house of Commons would become an Emperor to dwell in by the spite and fury of a Rebellious crew was turned into Ashes to the incredible loss of the Marquess who notwithstanding in the very ruining of it was heard to say That if the King had no more ground in England but Basing-house he would adventure as he did and so maintain it to the utmost It was commonly called Basting-house and that truely enough but now it must needs crumble under the heavy load of the Kings adverse fortune which brought three Kingdomes with it to no less a ruine Great and rich was the plunder here one Common Souldier getting 300 pounds in silver and was left in an instant by his Camerades worth but one Half-crown of it all And no less was the quantity of provisions which were enough to suffice for some years All which came into the Conquerours hands entire with a Bed worth 1400 pounds who unhandsomly enough seized and disposed of them the account whereof will one day be as justly required These Services being over and the Western-Road cleared Cromwel was commanded to attend on the General now advanced after the Lord Goring in his way thither he came and besieged Langford-house belonging to the Lord of Colerain neer Salisbury and upon Summons had it delivered to him upon fair and equal Conditions October 18. While the General on the 19 intending to storm Tiverton the Chain of the Draw-bridge by one unlucky shot broke in two and let down the bridge whereupon the Souldiers ran in and seized all but the Church and Castle which were presently yeilded and quarter upon their asking for it given but plundered they were even to their skins Here was taken one Major Sadler an active valorous fellow who had revolted from the Parliament-side and had now held intelligence and proffered them the like service he had done the King for his pardon notwithstanding he was condâ—mned and yet made a shift to escape to Exeter where upon the same score of Treachery to them having understood of his practices by collusion no doubt of both parties and for deserting of his post at Tiverton he was sentenced and executed Here was also taken Sir Gilbert Talbot the Governour and 4 Majors and 200 Common Souldiers who were made Prisoners of War There was nothing now left the King in the West but what lay in the farthermost parts of Devonshire and Cornwal and 6000 Horse of whom the onely fear was left they might break through and get Eastward The Country therefore was commanded to keep diligent Watch and to be assistant in intelligence if the Royalists should attempt it and because it was Winter-time and the Army
Volume as would scarce be imagined In the interim of this March Colonel Rainsborough who had beleaguered Wood-stock and attempted it by storm with very great loss it being manfully defended and as well fortified had it at last Surrendred to him upon such Articles as manifested the Governours worth and honour in the acknowledgments thereby given him from his Enemies The King foreseeing that Oxford was the next place which they designed not to make his own Court his Prison what ever should be done by his Enemies if it should please God to reduce him to that distress resolved to withdraw himself in time to the Scotch Army who as was reported and generally believed had given him some assurance that not onely his Majesty but all others that adhered to him should be safe in their persons honours and consciences in their Army yet not to lay more upon them having so much already I can hardly credit it The manner of the traverse of the King is thus related He went out of Oxford as Colonel Rainsborough informed the Parliament who no doubt were well acquainted with it before for they had no other means to be rid of the Kings instances for Peace of which hereafter together that continually sounded in their ears so neer hand than to have him removed from so neer a convenience of personal accommodation in the disguise of a servant to Colonel Iohn Ashburnâ—am who was accompanied with one Mr. Hudson a Minister who for his singular Loyalty and fidelity was intrusted in the menage of that affair and for which he deserves a better remarque than this Chronicle can contribute or set upon him losing his life afterwards in the same Cause in 1648 in the Commotions of that unfortunate year By his Examination upon this business it appeared that the King came first to Henly then to Brainford and so neer London removed back to Harrow on the hill there being a general Training of the City-Forces in Hide-Park whither the King was expected to come General Essex being them in the field and his Majesty almost perswaded to venture himself into their hands but other Counsels prevailing he departed to St. Albans and thence to Harborough in Leicestershire where he expected the French Agent with some Horse to meet him and conduct him to the Scots but he mssing the King went yet uncertain and irresolute what to do to Stamford in Lincolnshire and thence to Downham in Norfolk from whence the examinant was sent to the Agent and upon his return they three passed into the Scotch Army where for the present we shall leave him with this account of it from the General of that Army to the Parliament at London which imported thus much That out of a desire to keep a right understanding between the two Kingdomes he acquainted them with a strange providence with which his Army was surprized together with their carriage and desires thereupon That the King came the 4 of May in so private a manner that after they had made some search for him upon the surmises of persons who pretended to know his face yet they could not find him out in sundry houses Trusting to our integrity we are so far perswaded that none will so far misconster us as to make use of this seeming advantage for promoting any other ends than are expressed in the Covenant We do ingenuously declare that there hath been no Treaty nor Capitulation betwixt his Majesty and us nor in our names leaving the ways and means of Peace unto the Parliament of both Kingdomes And with such twilight of language concluded This was the happiest oportunity that ever offered it self to do honour to the Scotch Nation who had the Peace of three Kingdomes but their own particular glory at their sole Arbitrement and how miserably they abused this advantage and how they debauched their duty to their Prince and their reputation to the World we will not descant upon since the Parliament of Scotland in the year 1661 have so passionately protested against the conduct of this business and have exempted from pardon whomsoever shall afterwards be found guilty of this most base and disloyal usage of the King of which in its time Before this adventure which the King would have avoided if the insolence of the prevailing Houses at Westminster could have been by any means rebated his Majesty had courted the Parliament to a Peace by several Letters and Messages from Oxford the abstracts whereof it will not be tedious to recite The first of them was soon after the aforesaid overture from the Prince by the Lord Fairfax and was onely to desire a Pass or Safe-conduct for the Duke of Richmond the Earl of Southampton John Ashburnham and Jeffery Palmer Esquires for their journey and continuance at Westminster being furnished with such Propositions as his Majesty was confident would be the foundation of an happy Peace To this Address if I may so term it though the Houses thought lesser of it as appears by their Answer they retort That had his Majesties intentions been the same with his pretences and expressions a happy Peace had been settled long since That they cannot agree to his desires as to the coming of those Lords and Gentlemen into their Quarters in regard the designe for Peace may be of dangerous consequence That they are in debate of Propositions which they will draw up and send to be signed by way of Bill by his Majesty This was in December 1645. The Reader will excuse this retrospection because we will repeat this transaction in its own series To this the King ten days after replies with more quickening Language That his Majesty cannot but extremely wonder that after so many expressions on their part of a deep and seeming sence of the miseries of this afflicted Kingdom and of the dangers incident to his person during the continuance of these unnatural Wars their many great and so often-repeated Protestations that the raising of these Arms hath been onely for the defence of Gods true Religion his Majesties honour safety and prosperity the peace comfort and security of his people they should delay a Safe-conduct to the persons mentioned in his Majesties Message of the 5 of this instant December which are to be sent unto them with Propositions for a well-grounded Peace A thing so far from having been denyed at any time by his Majesty whensoever they have desired the same that he believes it hath been seldome practised among the most avowed and professed Enemies much less from Subjects to their King But his Majesty is resolved that no discouragements whatsoever shall make him fail of his part in doing his utmost indeavours to put an end to these Calamities c. And therefore doth once again desire a Safe-Conduct This would not do neither the King therefore aggresseth them anothe way and offers a personal Treaty ten days after His Majesty laying aside all expostulations as rather losing time than
need of the Army of their brethren the Scots in this Kingdom and that the sum of one hundred thousand pounds should be advanced and paid to that Army as followeth viz. 50000 l. after their surrender of Newcastle Carlile and other English Garrisons possessed by them in England and the other 50000 l. after their departure into Scotland and order should be taken for the payment of their Arrears This was a good come on and a handsome induction to greater sums in the mean while the Scotish Commissioners with their Omne tulit punctum qui miscuit utile Dulci address themselves to the Parliament with their glozing oratory protesting the good intention of their Army and Nation and obtesting some speedy satisfaction of money that they might not be burdensome to the Country assuring them on one hand of their complying with the Parliament according to Covenant and offering something for the King too a la Mode the same Covenant like the man in the Fable that could blow hot and cold with the same breath But where so many words pass between buyer and seller a man may suspect little honesty or reason in either To confirm this their firm adherence in all fairness to the Covenant Mr. Alexander Henderson the Moderator formerly in that illegal Assembly at Glasgow in 1639. and Commissioner here in England afterwards a famed preacher Scholar and Presbyter was set upon the King at Newcastle whom the King handled with that acuteness both in private Conferences and Disputes as also in discussive Papers of the Controversies of the Discipline of the Church of England and so well plyed him his Majesties prudent and laborious undertaking of this person serving to stop the weaker yet more malapert assaults of his English Reformists who followed this grand Pattern by asserting the practice and universal consent of the Primitive Church beyond any private or modern opinion whatsoever that it is more than credible that Mr. Henderson convinced in his conscience of the errours he had maintained to the promoting of Schism and Rebellion from such a Church and against so excellent a Prince whose Learning Clemency and Courtesie were alike eminent not long after upon his return or rather sending home into Scotland languished with grief and anxiety of mind and with plain symptoms thereof and no other outward cause dyed Mr. Stephen Marshal another Presbyterian Minister and a famous Teacher of the Covenant was there also but the King would not be troubled with his discourses having such cause of offence at his prayers which made him afterwards wholly decline any intercourse with him the Papers wherein he had so rationally refuted the same principles with Mr. Henderson being publike and therefore he might well be disobliged from further trouble in that Controversie Nor were the disputes less between the Scots Commissioners and the Parliament which every day came in Print being politick subtile wranglings for nothing de lana Caprina each party endeavouring to cajole the other into absurd beliefs meer names of things and distinctions as the Person of the King c. wholly imploying those State-Logicians with whom Majesty and duty were nonâ—Entia Into these frivolous jars Cromwel and his Army-Fellows put in their Pleas and suborned some serious fools to throw in their considerations of the matter which reflected bitterly on the Scots not by way of Reason but bold impudent aspersions and indeed as to them ungrateful and unmannerly dictâ—ries Those the Commissioners take notice of complaining to the Parliament but in vain the Independant party laughing secretly at the pudder they made for such trifles as Religion and Government which so forwardly and designedly they themselves had overthrown and aukwardly and scrupulously they would now seem to intend and establish It being generally received by them as proclaimed by others That all was but a Juggle and the conclusion credited that report Setting aside other punctilio's between them concerning Presbytery which now laboured grievously in the birth being ready for the Midwifery of an Ordinance and was hereby retarded A Proviso for Tender Consciences being to be added as a superfaetation of that Discipline by the Independents and rejected as an after-birth inlet and receptacle of all Heresies Sects and Schisms by the Scots of which there will be occasion hereafter matter of State shall be first related as coming first to the Kings consideration in the Propositions after ten months time sent to him by Commissioners while he was at Newcastle To omit also all their disputes concerning the obligations of the Covenant as to mutual interests and polity of Government whereby the one Kingdome might not act without the concurrence of the other insisted on by the Scots and waved by the Members because these shadows and the Covenant it self is vanished and the best friends of it would be loath to have these absurdities and clashings of the said League revived the Confederates as at the building of Babel such our after-Commonwealth being divided within three years time among themselves in the very language of it and some great promoters of it then calling it now an Old Almanack I say not to rake in this unconcerning matter which is intended to be forgotten let 's proceed onely with this due insertion of another matter That Cromwel seeing how the Scots drove at money for pay to ripen a division betwixt them and the Houses set Poyntz's Souldiery and Garrison of York where he was Governour to mutiny for pay and to force it as the Scots did whose example they pleaded and with the same blow to discard Poyntz first from the affection and then from the command of his Forces one suspected to be honester than the designes of the Army could suffer On the 11 of Iuly the Propositions were finished and sent to the King by the Earls of Pembroke and Suffolk Mr. Goodwyn Sir Walter Earl Sir Iohn Hippesly and Mr. Robinson who met on the way with a Message from the King to the Two Houses in answer to their demand for the Marquess of Ormonds disbanding in Ireland wherein he desires their Propositions as the readiest and safest way to gratifie them in that and other things conducing to the Peace of the Kingdom A little while before this also Monsieur Bellieure a French Ambassador being sent to accommodate the difference between the King and Parliament received thanks from the Parliament to whom he first addressed but the interposition of his Master was wholly denyed whereupon he did the like fruitless office to the King and having had some private Audience with him after many good morrows departed To keep a punctual account of the Prince his Son's peregrination the first forrain place we find him in is about this time at the French Court in Paris of which the Queen then there also gave notice to the King by Mr. Montril the French Agent residing there The Propositions sent now to the King were quarrelled at
due to his person the Treasure exhausted and his Revenews eaten up so that there was but one way for his Majesty to turn which he might make hereafter large and convenient enough by a present speedy complyance with his two Houses at Westminster This made the King to look about him and to cast about which way to prevent and eschew this streight in which the baseness of the Scots had thus engaged him A design was therefore thought on of his escape from them but it was presently discovered and the surrender of him the rather expedited for the Scots were such honest dealers that having received their money upon the bargain they would not defeat their Chapmen of their purchase A wretched advantage to either the Scots never thriving after it but being totally at last vassalized and subdued and the Presbyterians in England every day growing less and less till they were swallowed up in the Anarchy and Medly of the following times and benighted in the succeeding confusions and Schisms We will leave the King thus in the Ballance between England and Scotland and cross over to Ireland of which little mention hath been yet made but shall now be remembred in its own series In the first four months of that Rebellion no less than 150000 Men Women and Children were Massacred there by the Irish Rebels an account whereof hath been published taken by the Rebels themselves lest they should have seemed more Cruel and Barbarous than indeed they were Some of these Murders were committed by old English Families Grafted upon Irish stocks and thereby became Roman-Catholicks such as were the Lords of the Pale who openly sided with the Irish and were their Chief Officers and Leaders The Earl of Leicester had been appointed Lord Deputy and he hastned thither but some difficulties intervening he by Commission appointed the Earl afterwards Marquess then Duke of Ormond to be his Lieutenant-General in that service who after many successful Encounters with the Irish whose numbers maintained the War more than their Valour though raised by the greatest incentive imaginable Natural desire of Libertie from the pressing Calamities of the Protestants there and the urgency of his Majesties affairs in England had concluded a Cessation by order of the King in 1643. Notwithstanding the Parliament-party and the Scots still carried on the War And to shew the Irish what they should trust to the Parliament in 1644 had Arraigned Mac Mahon and the Lord Macquire who a little before had broke out of Prison and after a months hiding were taken at the Kings-Bench Bar where Macquire insisted mainly on his Peerage but was over-ruled and both by a Jury of Middlesex-Gentlemen found guilty and sentenced for High-Treason for which soon after they were Executed as Traytors at Tyburn The Lord Inchiquin and the Lord Broughil condescended not likewise to this Treaty but with intermixed success stood out against the whole power of the Rebels and were at last greatly distressed To remedy this the Lord Lisle Son to the Earl of Leicester was now ordered to go for Ireland with an Army of 8000 men the Lord Muskerry was likewise General for the Irish in the Southern parts of the Kingdome who took several places of strength in a short time whereupon the Marquess of Ormond proceeded to make that Cessation a kind of Peace it being judged by the Lords of the Council there not onely an expedient for their safety for the Rebels threatned to besiege Dublin but also to divide them against one another the more moderate of them who had some sence of the Kings condition and had not altogether Renounced their Loyalty being for a composure but the Popes Nuncio and the inveterate Irish such as the Family of Oneal and Masquire and generally the Popish Clergy Opposing themselves thereto Notwithstanding it took some effect for the Marquess perceiving that no good could be done at present with the Parliament of England with whom he had Treated for supplies and assistance and had in lieu of it offered the Surrender of the places he held upon conditions to them and the Forces they should send came to agreement with the Rebels there and though the King had by his Letters from Newcastle ordered him not to proceed farther to any conclusion with them according as the Parliament had desired him yet seeing the necessity of falling into the hands of the Rebels or the Parliament and considering that the King when he writ this was in restraint and so his Commands might be dispensed with and that the Kings intention was to be judged better by them who saw the necessity of it upon the place and so not give way to other mens designs and false representations of it to his Majesty received these Propositions for Peace following being signed in November 1646 from the haughty Irish who thought themselves absolute First That the exercise of the Roman Catholick Religion be in Dublin and Drogheda and in the Kingdom of Ireland as free as in Paris or Brussels Secondly That the Council-Table consist of Members true and faithful to his Majesty and who have been enemies to the Parliament Thirdly That Dublin Drogheda Team Newby Cathirly Carlingford and all Protestant Garrisons be manned by the confederate Catholicks to keep the same for the use of the King and defence of the Kingdom Fourthly That the said Counsellours Generals Commanders and Souldiers do swear and engage to fight against the said Parliament of England and all the Kings Enemies and that they will never come to any agreement with them to the prejudice of his Majesties rights or the Kingdoms Fifthly That both parties according to their Oath of Association shall to the best of their power and cunning defend the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom the Kings rights and liberties of the Subject These the Irish insisted upon and were held in play that they should be granted with such Provisoes as should become the Kings Honour and Conscience of which if that Loyalty they pretended was any way Real they ought not to be less sollicitous than the Marquess and in the mean while the Peace to be as good as Established which indeed by the said moderate party was thenceforward observed as to his Majesties Interest in that Kingdom The Parliament to stop this Agreement a little before dispatcht away the Lord Lisle who weary of his Journey at his setting out was recalled but part of his Army was Transported with whom was Colonel Monck the after Renowned General who being Tampered with and for his Liberty having endured a long Imprisonment in the Tower for the space of three years undertook an Employment for the Parliament in Ireland The Forces shipped from Chester were neer two thousand accompanied with three Commissioners from the Parliament to the Marquess who having offered Dublin upon some Terms which they were to present to his Majesty for him to signe upon non-performance thereof on their part by keeping the Paper from
the Kings sight now refused the delivery of the City without his Majesties Command so that after a Noble Treatment given the Commissioners they for the present ceased any further Transaction and shipped away the said Forces under Colonel Monck for Belfast in the North of Ireland where they did very good service against Oneal and his fellow-Rebels The conclusion of this Peace was as ill resented by the Nuncio and all the said Popish party as it was by the Parliament For the Catholick Armies having lately had several great successes and neither of the two other Kingdoms then in a condition to relieve that of Ireland thought upon nothing less than a shaking off the English yoak which so often in former ages they had attempted but never had the like probabilities as now the Clergy therefore who were generally addicted to the Spaniard under whose protection they would render themselves and the Nation thundered out Excommunication against any that should acquiesce in the said Peace and Agreement and with an Army of 17000 Horse and Foot resolve notwithstanding thereof to march and besiege Dublin This result begot a division among them as by the Marquess was afore consulted but yet so great a strength remained to that party against the Peace that the said Marquess was forced to resume his former Treaty with the Parliament concerning the delivery of those places he held to their Commissioners who being sensible how difficult a work it would prove to begin a new Conquest of that people if either by force or a Treacherous Peace they should possess themselves of that little that was left to the English Protestant interest did labour with the King the Marquess and the Scots that there might be no entertainment of any Accommodation with them being ready they said to Transport over a numerous Army to râ—duce and subdue that Rebellion which they pretended had ere long been done if the King would have permitted them by a complyance with their Propositions The King indeed was loth to abandon himself and his hopes in that Kingdom with his Forces in England and Scotland at the same time sadly foreseeing how the two Houses would use their Victory and plainly seeing how his Scotch Subjects had already abused him therefore he with no little reluctancy was brought to give way to the demand concerning Ireland but there being no remedy all the assurances he had from the Marquess and the Lord Digby as well as from the transaction of the Marquess of Worcester then Earl of Glamorgan being disappointed by the Rebels falseness and Treachery who indeed thought of nothing less than Peace whereby the English Forces there could not be spared to his assistance he consented to supersede and cease all manner of Treaty with the Enemy as aforesaid which it is probable they coming to understand did therefore the rather Violate their Accord which so unwillingly they entred into as doubting of the performance of it it being wholly out of his Majesties Power and Authority Whatsoever the matter was the Lord of Ormond was at last constrained as the lesser Evil to close with the Parliament and surrender of which and the War prosecuted there by them in the next year The 13 of September the Earl of Essex the former General dyed of an Apoplexy suddenly having for a little while before retired himself to his house at Eltham not without great suspicion of poyson or some such practice For he was known to have had his judgment rectified concerning the Quarrel and to have stickled for a composure of the War in the House of Peers and his influence on the Army not yet so weakned but that he could make a party there to any design he should stand for and the Reformadoes his fast friends He was an able Souldier confest whether so much a man disputed the reproaches of his debility that way as loud and unmannerly as the praises of his Valour and conduct were justly due and renowned The Royalists derided him with the stile of his OXCELLENCY jeering him with his two unfortunate Marriages first with the Lady Francis Howard from whom he was divorced for his impotency and frigidity quoad hanc and the Daughter of Sir Amias Pawlet in Wiltshire suspected of incontinency with Mr. Vâ—edal Her he had declined himself who during the War continued at Oxford while her Husband was in the field Nor did he suffer less reproach from the Pâ—anatick Rabble who prostituted his honour at the same rate They that were once most highly in love with his person scorning and contemning him like adulterous fondness which converts into extreme hate and contempt By them whom his popularity had estranged from their first love to their Prince was he alike repudiated with publike dicteries and representations in Pictures So Transitory is Vulgar esteem grounded no other where than upon levity and desire of change the deserved fate of such Grandees who with the specious debauchery of good Commonwealths-men and Patriots corrupt the minds and alienate the affections of the Subject to dote upon the bewitches and flatteries of Liberty of which such persons are held forth by their courtesie and affability to be the main assâ—rtors so that it may be said of this Earl that he was alike served with his wives and the Commonalty saving that by the last he lost his innocency and the real honour of his house and Family But the Parliament to which the Faction very readily concurred to make reparation for those indignities done him of which they could not otherwise acquit themselves ordered his Exequies to be performed in a very solemn and magnificent manner The Independent party to colour and allay with the pomp and honour of his Funerals the envy and suspicion of his death not grudging belike to make a golden bridge for a departing Enemy as they might well reckon him to prove to their succeeding designs when his duty to his injured Prince and love to his abused deluded Country and indignation of those affronts and contumelies put upon him should raise in him a spirit as able to lay that white Devil of Reformation as he was to conjure it up in the dreadful shape of an unnatural and disloyal War Cineri Gloria sera venit Mart. He was drawn in Effigie upon a Chariot from Essex-house in the Strand to the Abby-Church at Westminster where Mr. Vines an eminent Presbyterian Preached his Funeral-Sermon upon this Text Knowest thou not that a Prince is this day fallen in Israel very learnedly and elegantly most of the Parliament-Nobility in close mourning following him on foot The Effigie was afterwards placed in the uppermost Chancel in very great state till a rude vindictive fellow laid his prophane hands upon it and so defaced it privately in the night that it was by order removed Very few condolements were made after he being like to be soon forgotten who had neither interest nor relation to his Honour remaining dying childless
Army he had done enough in giving them at Westminster for the Parliament sounded no more at the Head-quarters an account of Him But of this presently at large Most certain it is that this designe was laid solely by Cromwel and Ireton and personated by the Agitatours suspected many of them and that rationally for Jesuits who were as good at wicked Plots and Contrivances as either of those Catilines but most accomplished for execution having such Lawless yet most powerful Indemnity not onely to protect them but to shroud their other Conspiracies for themselves against this Church and State It is strange indeed to consider how many several interests were driven on among the Belials of this Army as then under the appearance of honest and most just ends the same pretence whereof served and was accommodate to each particular combinating against the Publike as so many lines tending to one Center with all which Cromwel wisely temporized giving secret encouragement to them all professing to intend the same things and to be of the Party but that for a while there was a necessity of concealing his resolutions To this purpose caresâ—ing the Papists upon all addresses or discourses with him as also familiarizing himself with the Levellers as the men indeed that were to do his business and were right of his complexion for the spoyl of the Kingdom to be compassed any manner of way but by setting up a Government or Laws for their projected Democracy was but a more exact method or Rule of Thievery of all which they most abominated Monarchy as the most regular and strict whose awful Authority could solely restrain their loose and licentious practises and keep the mad vulgar within their bounds from invading all propriety secured by the ancient Tenure of all Lands and Inheritances from the Crown and the Laws which their devilish intention was to abrogate and abolish and by a Wild parity lay all things in Common But for fuller satisfaction what this Intrigue or designe meant it will be requisite to consult the King's and the General 's or rather the Armies account thereof just as it was done and first from the Actors the General and Council of War Sir Thomas Fairfax his Letter MAster Speaker yesterday the King was taken from Holdenby by some Souldiers who brought him thence by his consent the Commissioners going along with Him That his Majesty lay that night at Colonel Mountagues after Earl of Sandwich and would be at New market next day That the ground of the removing the King was from an apprehension of some strength gathered to force the King from them whereupon he sent Colonel Whaley with his Regiment to meet the King and the Commissioners and to return them back again but they refused and were come to Sir John Cuts neer Cambridge Professing That this remove was without his consent or his Officers about him or the body of the Army or without their desire or Privity and that he will secure the King's person from danger Further assuring the Parliament that the whole Army endeavours Peace will not oppose Presbytery nor affect Independency or to hold a licentious freedom in Religion or interest in any particular party but will leave all to the Parliament Tiberius Letters about Sejanus were not half so mystical as these nor was there ever so daring braving an attempt done in the face of the Sun to the face and person of a Prince so covered and concealed under such obscurities and pretended ignorances which rendred the impudence of the action more dangerously fearful by how much the less it was conjecturable what it portended nor could the King himself at present well resolve himself or his two Houses in this juncture as we shall see in his acquainting of the Parliament with it by the Earl of Dunfermling where he saith contrary to what Fairfax before That he was unwillingly taken away by a strong party of Horse and desired of the Parliament to maintain the Laws of the Land and that though he might signe to many things in this condition yet he would not have them believed till further notice given by him to his two Houses The King imagined they would make use of his Authority by forcing his consent to some Proposals and designes of Government but they onely made a stalking Horse of his person keeping his interest by pretences of respect to him on foot meerly to countenance their own and outvy and awe the Presbyterian party At the news of it in London both Parliament and City were in such confusion and so distracted that they might well be excused from rightly judging of the fact therefore they first bethink of remedy the Houses order the Committee of Safety to sit all night and provide ne quid detrimenti accipiat respublica and dispatch a Messenger to the General requesting him not to come neerer London than twenty five miles for news was brought them they were upon a speedy March for the City who at the same time shut up their shops run to their Arms and make a fearful hurry for a while and then resolve to send Commissioners likewise and attend the Issue in peace in such a maze did this accident put them In the mean while the King is caressed by the Army and shown in state to the people who with great joy every where receive him and applaud the Army who to carry their business the fairer suffer some of his Majesties old Friends to have access to his person as the Duke of Richmond the two Doctors Sheldon and Hammond his Chaplains who Officiated with him in publike according to the Church of England and divers others of lesser note At this the Parliament take exceptions and send again to the General expostulating the matter and desiring him to re-deliver the King to the Commissioners aforesaid to be brought to Richmond and there to be guarded by Colonel Rossiters Regiment of Horse In Answer to this the Army declare and require after their like manner of expostulation about the Irish Expedition and Transporting the Army thither that it was against former Declarations of the Parliament the precedent case of the Kingdom of Scotland and the liberty and freedom of the People That the Houses may speedily be purged of such as ought not to sit there That such who abused the Parliament and Army and endanger the Kingdom may speedily be disabled from doing the like or worse That some determinate period of time may be set to this and future Parliaments according to the intent of the Bill for Triennial Parliaments That provision be made that they be not adjournable and dissolvable by any power but their own consent during their Respective period and then to determine themselves That the freedom of the people to present Grievances by Petition to the Parliament may be vindicated That the exorbitant powers of Country-Committees may be taken away That the Kingdom may be satisfied of the
Souldiers and double Files clean through Westminster-hall up to the stairs of the House of Common and so through the Court of Requests to the Lords House the Souldiers looking scornfully upon many of these Members as they were instructed to know them that had sate in the absence of the Speakers and seated the Speakers respectively in their Chairs and was by them in return placed in a Chair of State where they gave him special thanks for his service to the Parliament and likewise appointed to signalize his desert a solemn day of Thanksgiving for the re-settlement of the Parliament their usual prophane and impious practice of mocking God to which they now added the abuse of the Creature at a Dinner provided for the Parliament and chief Officers of the Army by the City at whose costs they sâ—râ—eited while the Poor thereof starved through want of Trade which decayed sensibly in a short time no Bullion likewise being afterwards brought to the Mint Sir Thomas Fairfax was now likewise constituted Generalissimo so sudden their favour and so great their confidence of all the Forces and Forts in England to dispose of them at his pleasure and Constable of the Tower of London The Common Souldiers were likewise ordered a Months gratuity and the General remitted to his own discretion for what Guards he should please to set upon both Houses in such a servile fear were those Members that sate in the absence of the Speakers that they durst not dissent from any thing propounded by the contrary Faction The effect of this was that the Independents displaced immediately all Governours though placed by Ordinance of Parliament and put in men of their own party which they could not so currantly do before and by vertue of the same the Militia's of London Westminster and Southwark from whence was their sole danger which were all united before were now divided to make them the weaker the Lines of Communication dismantled that the Parliament and City mightly open to any sudden invasion that so they might have a perpetual and easie awe upon their Counsels and actions The Eleven Impeached Members before mentioned who had superseded themselves and were newly re-admitted the Army not being able to produce their Charge upon pretence of more weighty affairs now altogether withdrew and had Passes though some staid in London some for beyond Sea and other for their homes in the way whither one of them Mr. Nichols was seized on and basely abused by Cromwel another Sir Philip Stapleton one who had done them very good service passed over to Calice where falling sick as suspected of the Plauge he was turned out of the Town and perished in the way near to Graveling whose end was inhumanely commented on by our Mamaluke like Saints who inscribed it to the Divine Vengeance Having thus Levelled all things before them they proceed to an abrogation of all those Votes Orders and Ordinances that had passed in the absence of the said Speakers This was first carried in the Lords House without any trouble the Peers that sate there that time absenting themselves so that there was not more than seven Lords to make up their House By these an Ordinance was sent to the Commons for their concurrence to make all Acts Orders and Ordinances passed from the 26 of Iuly to the sixth of August following when the Members did return Void and Null ab initio This was five or six days severally and fully debated and as often put to the question and carried in the Negative yet the Lords still renewed the same Message to them being prompted and instigated by the Army rejecting their Votes nor would acquiesce but put them to Vote again contrary to the priviledge of the House of Commons nor could it pass for all the threats of the Sollicitour-General Saint Iohn one mancipated to the Faction nor the fury of Hazelrigg when he used these words Some Heads must fly off and he feared the Parliament of England would not save the Kingdom of England but that they must look another way for safety To which sence spoke Sir Henry Vane junior Thomas Scot Cornelius Holland Prideaux Gourdon Sir Iohn Evelin junior and Henry Mildway all Regicides and Contrivers of it until the Speaker perceiving some plain apparent enforcements must be used pulled a Letter out of his pocket from the General and General Council of the Army for that was now their stileâ— pretending he then received it which soon terrified the Members either by withdrawing themselves or sitting mute as if they had been Planet-struck into a compliance so that the next morning August the 20. in a thin House the Ordinance passed the procuring thereof being palpably and notoriously forced and Arbitrary This Letter to the Speaker was received by him over-night as was conceived with directions to conceal it if the Question had passed in the Affirmative But that not fadging it was was produced in the nick accompanied with a Remonstrance full of villanous language against those that continued sitting while the two Speakers were with the Army calling them pretended Members and taxing them in General with Treason Treachery and Breach of Trust declaring that if they shall presume to come there before they have cleared themselves that they did not give their assents to such and such Votes they should sit at their Peril and he would take them as Prisoners of War and try them at a Council of War Having thus invalidated or annihilated those Laws the Law-makers could not think to escape untouched Iudgement began with the House of Lords whose degenerate remnant upon an Impeachment carried up by Sir Iohn Evelin the younger of High Treason in the name of the Commons of England for their levying War against the King Parliament and Kingdom committed the Earls of Suffolk Lincoln and Middlesex the Lords Berkley Willoughby of Parham Hunsdon and Maynard to the Black Rod. Then divers of the House of Commons were suspended as Mr. Boynton others committed to the Tower as Recorder Glyn and Sir Iohn Maynard but the wrath of the Army â—ell principally on the Citizens the chief of whom were viz. the Lod Mayor Sir Iohn Gayre Alderman Adams Alderman Langham Alderman Bunch and Sheriff Culham with others these without any more ado than an Impeachment preferred against them by Miles Corbet one of the Regicides and Chair-man to the Close-Committee of Examinations to the House of Lords were never being called to any Bar sent Prisoners to the Tower of London where they lay a long time and could never obtain a Trial but at last sued out a precious and precarious liberty so that by this means the Spirit of Presbytery was quite daunted and the Independent Faction absolutely ruled the roast and were paramount Poyntz and Massey fled over to Holland and so escaped Having concluded this Contrast or Feud betwixt them we will see with what aspect they regard their Soveraign upon whom
performance of such Agreements as shall be made in order to Peace his Majesty will consent to an Act of Parliament that the whole Power of the Militia both by Land and Sea for and during his whole Raign shall be ordered and disposed by his two Houses of Parliament or by such persons as they shall appoint with Powers limited for suppressing of Forces within this Kingdom to the disturbance of the Publike Peace and against Forain Invasion and that they shall have Power during his said Raign to raise money for the present purposes aforesaid and that neither his Majesty that now is or any other by his Authority derived onely from him shall execute any of the said Powers during his Majesties said Raign but such as shall act by the consent and approbation of the two Houses of Parliament Nevertheless His Majesty intends that all Patents Commissions and other Acts concerning the Militia be made and acted as formerly and that after His Majesties Raign all the Power of the Militia shall return entirely to the Crown as it was in the times of Queen Elizabeth and King Iames of Blessed Memory After this head of the Militia the consideration of the Arrears due to the Army is not improper to follow for the payment whereof and the ease of his people His Majesty is willing to concur in any thing that can be done without the violation of His Conscience and Honour Wherefore if His two Houses shall consent to remit unto Him such benefit out of Sequestrations from Michaelmas last and out of Compositions that shall be made before the concluding of the Peace and the Arrears of such as have been already made the assistance of the Clergy and the Arrears of such Rents of His own Revenue as His two Houses shall not have received before the concluding of the Peace His Majesty will undertake within the space of eighteen months the payment of 400000 l. for the satisfaction of the Army And if those means shall not be sufficient His Majesty intends to give way to the sale of Forrest-Lands for that purpose this being the publike debt which in His Majesties judgment is first to be satisfied And for other publike debts already contracted upon Church-Lands or any other Engagements His Majesty will give His consent to such Act or Acts for raising of moneys for payment thereof as both Houses shall hereafter agree upon so as they be equally laid whereby His People already too heavily burthened by these late distempers may have no more pressures upon them than this absolute necessity requires And for the further securing all Fears His Majesty will consent that an Act of Parliament be Passed for the disposing of the great Offices of State and naming of Privy Counsellours for the whole term of his Raign by the two Houses of Parliament their Patents and Commissions being taken from His Majesty and after to return to the Crown as is exprest in the Article of the Militia For the Court of Wards and Liveries His Majesty very well knows the consequence of taking that away by turning of all Tenures into common Soccage as well in point of Revenue to the Crown as in the protection of many of His Subjects being Infants Nevertheless if the continuance thereof seem grievous to His Subjects rather than he will fail on His part in giving satisfaction He will consent to an Act for taking of it away so as a full recompence be settled upon his Majesty and His Successors in perpetuity and that the Arrears now dâ—â— be reserved unto Him towards the payment of the Arrears of the Army And that the memory of these late distractions may be wholly wiped away His Majesty will consent to an Act of Parliament for the Suppressing and making Null Oaths Declarations and Proclamations against both or either House of Parliament and of all Indictments and other Proceedings against any persons for adhering unto them And His Mâ—jesty proposeth as the best expedient to take away all seeds of future differences that there be an Act of Oblivion to extend to all His Subjects As for Ireland the Cessation there is long since determined but for the future all other things being fully agreed His Majesty will give full satisfaction to His Houses concerning that Kingdom And although His Majesty cannot consent in Honour and Iustice to avoid all His own Acts and Grants past under His Great Seal since the 22 of May 1642. or to the confirming all the Acts and Grants passed under that made by the two Houses yet His Majesty is confident that upon perusal of particulars He shall give full satisfaction to His two Houses to what may be reasonably desired in that particular And now his Majesty conceives that by these his Offers which he is ready to make good upon the settlement of a Peace he hath clearly manifested his intentions to give full security and satisfaction to all Interests for what can justly be desired in order to the future happiness of his people And for the perfecting of these Concessions as also for such other things as may be proposed by the two Houses and for such just and reasonable demands as his Majesty shall finde necessary to propose on his part he earnestly desireth a Personal Treaty at London with his two Houses in Honour Freedom and safety it being in his Iudgment the most proper and indeed only means to a firm and settled Peace and impossible without it to reconcile former or to avoid future misunderstandings All these things being by Treaty perfected his Majesty believes his two Houses will think it reasonable that the Proposals of the Army concerning the Succession of Parliaments and their due Election should be taken into consideration As for what concerns the Kingdom of Scotland his Majesty will very readily apply himself to give all reasonable satisfaction when the desires of the two Houses of Parliament on their behalf or of the Commissioners of that Kingdom or of both joyned together shall be made known unto him This Answer was full and apportioned to all interests and shewed the incomparable prudence as well as invincible constancy of the King at which the Parliament shewed themselves much offended and communicated this their displeasure to the Scots Commissioners who participated seemingly with them therein but made no Reply to the King their custom being to set other Pens on work to discant upon them and pick out some jealous Observations to keep the people still to their party by bold assertions of His Majesties prevaâ—ications and injustices in all his Papers and Messages to the Parliament some of them writ meanly scurrilously and impudently among the rest a most execrable and blasphemous Paper called a Hue and Cry after the King upon his flight from Hampton by one Needham that writ afterward the News-Book for them in others more modestly and politely with a fine but false edge which yet served to wound His Majesties Reputation
effect his mischievous intent against the City of which suddenly leaving him to prepare against the storm for Scotland whose preparations we now speak of The Scots Commissioners upon the said Votes had desired to know whether they did exclude them or the Subjects of that Kingdom from any Addresses and had answer by an Interpretative Vote that they were left at liberty and might make application c. They then demanded the Arrears of money due and other mutual stipulations according to Covenant which being delayed they departed home This netled the Derby-House blades which from a Committee of Safety as it was constituted in the beginning of the War being a joynt Committee of Lords and Commons of both Kingdoms was now become a Committee of Danger the power of the former being vested wholly in those persons English only with some other Independent Grandees added in the room of some deceased remaining of that Juncto whereupon by their appointment the Parliament send Commissioners to Scotland two Lords the Earl of Nottingham and another and four Commons whereof Mr. Ashurst was the chief and two Clergy-men Mr. Marshall a Renegado and Spy and Mr. Herle who did no more there but give constant notice of the Scots resolutions and the forwardness of their Levies In the mean time comes an angry and expostulating Declaration from Scotland where as usual the Covenant was mentioned but with such scorn received and so opprobriously vilified that of all its former veneration in that place it was now thought worthy only of a Sirreverence This Declaration was long debated and several Postilions employed betwixt this and Edinburgh with Lemtives Invectives Explanations Corrections and such sort of scribling but all to no purpose The Scots were mad for another Expedition being invited by the best pay-masters the City of London and a better Cause which might assure them of freer and more welcom entertainment besides the unknown reward of Victory if it should prove their good fortune to restore the King whose condition is the next consideration which we have elegantly described by himself in his Declaration in Answer to the Votes of No further Addresses To all my People of whatsoever Nation Qualification or Condition AM I thus laid aside and must I not speak for my self No I will speak and that to all my people which I would rather have done by the way of my two Houses of Parliament but that there is a publike Order neither to make Addresses to nor receive Message from me And who but you can be Iudge of the Difference betwixt me and my two Houses I know none else for I am sure it is you who will enjoy the happiness or feel the misery of good or ill Government and we all pretend who shall run fastest to serve you without having a regard at least in the first place to particular Interests And therefore I desire you to consider the state I am and have been in this long time and whether my Actions have more tended to the publike or my own particular good For whosoever will look upon me barely as I am a man without the liberty which the meanest of my Subjects enjoys of going whither and conversing with whom I will as a Husband and a Father without the comfort of my Wife and Children or lastly as a King without the least shew of Authority or power to protect my distressed Subjects must conclude me not only void of all natural Affection but also to want Common Vnderstanding if I should not most chearfully embrace the readiest way to the settlement of these distracted Kingdoms As also on the other side do but consider the Form and Draught of the Bills lately presented to me and as they are the conditions of a Treaty ye will conclude that the same spirit which hath still been able to frustrate all my sincere and constant endeavours for Peace hath had a powerfull influence on this Message for though I am ready to grant the substance and comply with what they seem to desire yet as they had framed it I could not agree thereunto without deeply wounding my Conscience and Honour and betraying the Trust reposed in me by abandoning my people to the Arbitrary and Vnlimited Power of the two Houses for ever for the levying and maintaining of Land and Sea-Forces without distinction of quality or limitation for Money and Taxes And if I could have passed them in terms how unheard-of a condition were it for a Treaty to grant before-hand the most considerable part of the Subject Matter How ineffectual were that debate like to prove wherein the most potent Party had nothing left to ask and the other nothing more to give so consequently how hopeless of mutual compliance without which a settlement is impossible Besides if after my Concessions the two Houses shall insist on those things from which I cannot depart how desperate would the condition of these Kingdoms be when the most proper and approved Remedy should become ineffectual Being therefore fully resolved that I could neither in Conscience Honour or Prudence pass those four Bills I only endeavoured to make the reasons and justice of my denial to appear to all the world as they do to me intending to give as little dissatisfaction to the two Houses of Parliament without betraying my own Cause as the matter would bear I was desirous to give my Answer of the 28 of December last to the Commissioners sealed as I had done others heretofore and sometimes at the desire of the Commissioners chiefly because when my Messages and Answers were publikely known before they were read in the Houses prejudicial interpretations were forced on them much differing and sometimes contrary to my meaning For example my Answer from Hampton-Court was accused of dividing the two Nations because I promised to give satisfaction to the Scots in all things concerning that Kingdom and this last suffers in a contrary sense by making me intend to interest Scotland in the Laws of this Kingdom the which nothing is or was further from my Thoughts because I took notice of the Scots Commissioners protesting against the Bills and Propositions as contrary to the Interests and Engagements of the two Kingdoms Indeed if I had not mentioned their dissent an Objection not without some probability might have been made against me both in respect the Scots are much concerned in the Bill for the Militia and several other Propositions and my silence might seem to approve of it But the Commissioners refusing to receive my Answer sealed I upon the Engagement of theirs and the Governours Honour that no other use should be made or notice taken of it than as if it had not been seen read and delivered it open unto them whereupon what hath since passed either by the Governour in discharging most of my servants redoubling the Guards and restraining me of my former liberty and all this as himself confest meerly out of his own dislike
Propositions would they have been satisfactory did not at present sute the high and imperious humour of the Parliament yet by the good temperament and respectful behaviour of the major part of the Commissioners such a mutual confidence was wrought that the King won with their dutiful perswasion did in most of those things besides Religion and Church-lands comply with their demands and then the Parliament upon debate of the whole Treaty Voted his Concessions a ground to settle the Kingdom of which presently But a little before the conclusion of the Treaty which hapned on the 27th of Nov. the Army Cromwel being now come out of Scotland had after a long Consultation how to break it off hammered out a villanous Remonstrance on the 16th of that Month at St. Albans and on the 28th presented it to the House of Commons by Col. Ewers related to the Lord Ewers and seven Officers more the Treasonable and Execrable Heads thereof setting aside that Principle That the Magistery of the People is Supreme were as followeth First That the Capital and Grand Author of our Troubles viz. the Person of the King by whose procurement and for whose Interest of Will and Power all our Wars have been may be brought to Iustice for the Treason Blood and Mischief he is therein guilty of Secondly That a Timely Day may be set for the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York to come in by which time if they do not that then they may immediately be declared incapable of any Trust or Government in this Kingdom or its Dominions and thence to stand exiled for ever as Enemies or Traytors to die without mercy if ever after found or taken therein c. If by the time limited they do render themselves that then the Prince be proceeded with as on appearance he shall give satisfaction or not and then the Duke as he shall give satisfaction may be considered as to future Trust or not But however that the Revenue of the Crown saving necessary allowances for the Children and for Servants and Creditors to the Crown be Sequestred and the costly pomp suspended for a good number of years and that this Revenue be for that time disposed toward Publike Charges Debts and Damages for the easing of the people so as the Estates neither of Friends to publique Interest nor alone of inferior Enemies thereunto may bear the whole burthen of that loss and charge which by and for that Family the Kingdom hath been put unto Thirdly That Capital punishment be speedily Executed upon a competent number of his Chief Instruments also both in former and later Wars and that some of both sorts be pitcht upon as are really in your hands or reach Fourthly That the rest of the Delinquents English may upon rendring themselves to Iustice have mercy for their lives and that only Fines be set upon them and their persons declared incapable of any Publique Trust or having any voice in Elections thereto at least for a good number of years And that a short day may be set by which all such Delinquents may come in and for those who come not in by that day that their Estates be absolutely Confiscated and sold to the Publike use and their Persons stand Exiled as Traytors and to die without mercy if ever after found in the Kingdom or its Dominions Fifthly That the satisfaction of Arrears to the Souldiery with other publike Debts and competent reparations of publique Damages may be put into some orderly way And that therefore the Fines and Compositions of Delinquents be disposed to those uses only as also the Confiscations of such who shall be excluded from Pardon or not come in by the day assigned Now after Publique Iustice thus provided for we proceed in order to the general satisfaction and Settlement of the Kingdom First That you would set some reasonable and certain period to your own Power Secondly That with a period to this Parliament that there may be a Settlement of the Peace and future Government of the Kingdom And in order thereto First That there may be a certain Succession of future Parliaments Annual or Biennial with secure provision 1. For the certainty of their Sitting Meeting and Ending 2. For equal Elections 3. For the Peoples meeting to Elect Provided that none engaged in War against the Kingdom may Elect or be Elected nor any other who oppose this Settlement 4. For clearing the power of Parliaments as Supreme only they may not give away any Foundation of Common Right 5. For liberty of Entring Dissents in the said Representatives that the people may know who are fit for future Trusts but without any penalty for their free Iudgments Thirdly That no King be hereafter admitted but upon Election of and as upon Trust from the people by such their Representatives nor without first disclaiming all pretence to a Negative Voice against the Determinations of the Commons in Parliament and this to be done in some Form more clear than heretofore in the Coronation-Oath These Matters of General Settlement we propound to be provided by the Authority of the Commons in this Parliament and to be further Established by a general Contract or Agreement of the people with their Subscriptions thereunto And that no King be admitted to the Crown nor other person to any Office of publique Trust without express Accord and Subscription to the same This was the Basis Method and Model of Cromwels Tyranny and though he had changed his pretences according to the exigences of time and occasions yet he was fixed here as having learnt from Matchiavel that there is no readier way to an Usurpation than by destroying the Fundamental Laws and Essentials of Government and proposing pleasing Innovations to the Vulgar This he drove at in his possessed Servants the Levellers whom he put on to divulge this new secret of Empire but they thundering of it out and to try its acceptance as the rain in unseasonable weather he was content to abandon them to a shower of Bullets influenced on one of his prime Boâ—tefeus by the Command of the Parliament to the General as beforesaid in 1647 at Ware For observe the trace of his Policie after this Critical Juncture when he had superated all difficulties and removed all obstacles and you shall see how sequaciously he copied these Articles of Agreement as they were called of the people First Destroy the King as a Tyrant then exclude the Royal Progeny then disable its potent Friends and ingratiate with the mean Next Gratifie and engage the Souldiers with promise of Arrears and Establishment Then the next subsequent great work is the dissolution of the Parliament then a Chimaera of Government such as Barebones Convention And lastly A pretended Elective Tyranny under the Style of Protector which his impiety afforded him not only to subscribe but to swear to The ill news of this pestilent Paper flew amain
Petitioned against it but in vain the Sectaries had packt a new Common-council by Authority from the Juncto who constituted aâ—y 40 of them a Court and supreme to the Mayor whose first work was the framing a Petition for Justice against the King and other Capital Offenders which was afterwards delivered by Titchburn and had the thanks of the Mock-Parliament for their pains who now entred a Protestation against that satisfactory Vote of the 5th of December aforesaid and pursue the Dictates and Directions of the Army A little while before this Colonel Rainsborough was slain at Doncaster by a party of Royalists that â—allied out of Pomfract then besieged by Sir Edward Rhodes and the County-Forces as he was in his Inn and his Souldiers about him under a pretence of delivering him a Letter from Crowel They would have only taken him prisoner and carried him through his own Leaguer into their Castle but he refusing they pistoled him in his Chamber and departed untoucht A strange yet brave Adventure Scarbrough-Castle now likewise yielded to the Parliament whom we will leave and see the Armies like violence and outrages upon the King Colonel Ewres was appointed by the Parliament to this Service who assisted by Colonel Cobbet on the first of Decemb. according to Command received from Hammond the person of the King and hurried him out of that Isle away prisoner to Hurst-Castle within the term of those 20 days after the Treaty in which he was to remain according to the Houses Declaration in Honour Safety and Freedom This Castle stands a mile and a half in the Sea upon a Breach full of mud and stinking oaze upon low Tides having no fresh water within two or three miles of it so cold foggy and noysome that the Guards cannot endure it without shifting Quarters Here they frayed the King a while till Harrison was on his way to receive him who brought him to Winchester where the Mayor and Inhabitants caused the Bells to ring and at the Towns-end as was due and usual in the middle of the mire presented his Majesty with the Keys of the City and the Mace but in the very Ceremony were tumbled in the same mire by the Horse at the Command of Harrison The next day the King came to Farnham and so to Windsor where he kept his sorrowful and last Christmass being pent up in a corner of the Castle no man besides his Guards to come to him and all respect and reverence to his Person forborn while by Order of the Juncto he was sent for up to his Palace of St. Iames's Harrison impudently riding covered in the same Coach with him and his Myrmidons wounding any that shewed their Loyal Compassion and lamented this miserable condition of their beloved Sovereign In which we must leave him and return to our Grandees These offals of a Parliament having by an Ordinance taken away the Oaths of Supremacie and Allegeance usually administred to Freemen c. thereby to free themselves from those ties of Duty upon them and to make way for their ensuing Trayterous designe in order whereunto the Council of War had forbid any Ceremony or State to be used to the King and his Attendants lessened now proceeded roundly to their Army Journey-work for on the 28 of December Thomas Scot brought in the Ordinance for Trial of the King it was read and recommitted three several times and the Commissioners names of all sorts to engage the whole Body of the Kingdom in this Treason inserted and to give it a Foundation these Votes passed That the Lords and Commons Assembled in Parliament dâ— Declare and Adjudge that by the Fundamental Laws of the Realm it is Treason in the King of England for the time to come to Levy War against the Parliament and Kingdom of England With this Declaratory Vote the said Ordinance was carried up to the Lords by the Lord Gray of Grooby Ianuary 2. 1648. The Lords being 16 in number met that day and received it promising to send an Answer by Messengers of their own The first Question started by some Lords who had rather had a thinner House was Whether it should be presently debated which was affirmed The first Debate was upon the Declaratory Vote to which the Earl of Manchester said That the Parliament of England by the Fundamental Laws consisted of three Estates King Lords and Commons whereof the King is the first and chiefest He Calls and Dissolves Parliaments and without him there can be no Parliament and therefore it 's absurd to say the King can be a Traytor against the Parliament Then the Earl of Northumberland added That the greatest part at least twenty to one of the people of England were not yet satisfied whether the King Levied War first against the Houses or the Houses against him And if the King did Levy War first against the Houses there is no Law to make it Treason in him And for them to declare Treason by an Ordinance when the matter of Fact is not proved nor any Law extant to judge it by is very unreasonable The Earls of Pembroke and Denbigh said they would be torn in pieces before they would assent with the Commons so the Lords cast off the Debate and cast out the Ordinance and adjourned for seven days This netled the Commons who thereupon resolved to rid their hands of King Lords and their Fellow-Commons together by a leading Vote That all Members of Committees should proceed and act in any Ordinance wherein the Lords were joyned though the Peers should not Sit nor concur with them And added thereunto three other Democratical Resolves Ian. 4. 1648. 1. That the People are under God the Original of all just Power 2. That the Commons of England in Parliament Assembled chosen by and Representing the People have the Supreme Power of the Nation 3. That whatsoever is enacted or declared for Law by the House of Commons Assembled in Parliament hath the force of Law Which passed without one Negative Voice which shewed at whose beck they were And thus first they hatcht this Monster called An Act for the Trial of the King c. which is here transcribed transferring the names of the Commissioners to their ensuing Character An Act of Parliament of the House of Commons for Trial of Charles Stuart King of England WHereas it is notorious that Charles Stuart the now King of England not content with the many Encroachments which his Predecessors had made upon the People in their Rights and Freedom hath had a wicked designe to subvert the Antient and Fundamental Laws and Liberties of this Nation and in their place to introduce an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government and that besides all other evil ways to bring his designe to pass he hath prosecuted it with Fire and Sword levied and maintained a Civil War in the Land against the Parliament and Kingdom whereby this Country hath been miserably
having been a traveller and no doubt Jesuitically affected as he made more visibly manifest in the practise of their Doctrine of Regicide ‑ William Cawley a Brewer of Chichester and returned for a recruit of the Long-Parliament could not for Trade-sake but concur with his Brethren Oliver Cromwel and Thomas Scot. ‑ Nicholas Love Doctor Love's Son of Winchester Chamber-fellow with the Speaker Lenthall made one of the six Clerks of Chancery in Master Penrudducks place a violent Enemy against the King and his Friends from the very beginning of our Troubles and an Army-partaker in this horrible Act. ‑ Iohn Dixwell a recruit of the Long-Parliament for Dover Colonel and Governour of Dover-Castle one so far obliged to them for their promotion of him that he could do no less for them than assist them in this grand Conspiracy against the King ‑ Daniel Blagrave a recruit also for Reading in Bark-shire of a small but competent Fortune there to have kept him guiltless of this great offence ‑ Daniel Broughton a Clerk bred up among Committees in the War and preferred therefore at last to be chief Scribe to this Pharisaical murderous crue of the High Court of Justice ‑ Edward Dendy Serjeant at Arms to the said Court who had outed his Father from the employment of the Mace before no wonder such a Rebel to his Father should prove a parricide to his Prince These following being of the Kings Iudges but recanting were pardoned or otherwise mulcted and punished Col. Iohn Hutchison who both Sentenced and Signed to his Majesties Execution by a timely repentance which he publikely testified by tears obtained his pardon being onely discharged the House of Commons and all future Trusts and fined a years profit of his Estate to the King Col. Francis Lassels a York-shire man who sate once but neither Sentenced nor Signed was mulcted accordingly as Colonel Hutchison having alike given proof his sorrow and detestation of that monstrous Fact William Lord Munson Iames Challoner Esq. deceased in the Tower Sir Hen. Mildmay Robert Wallop Esq. Sir Iames Harrington and Iohn Phelps another of the Clerks for sitting in the said pretended High Court of Iustice were by Act of Parliament deprived of their Estates and ordered to be drawn to Tiburn in Sledges with Ropes about their Necks as Traytors are used and so back again to the Tower there to be imprisoned during their natural Lives This is the perfect Catalogue and Character of these unfortunate men who in obedience to the said pretended Act or rather out of dread of Cromwel and his Red-coats though some others named in the said Act wisely withdrew themselves met according to appointment in Westminster-hall having adjourned thither from the Painted-Chamber where they had chosen Serjeant Bradshaw for their Bold President and had made Proclamation at the Palace-gate and in London for the Witnesses whom they had raked out of the refuse and most perdite sort of the People to be ready there with their evidence which Witnesses were numbered to near 40. So much for the preparation come we now to the perpetration The High Court of Iustice. On Saturday being the twentieth day of Ianuary 1648. Bradshaw President of the High Court of Iustice with about seventy of the Members of the said Court having Colonel Fox and sixteen Fellows with Partizans and a Sword born by Colonel Humphrey and a Mace by Serjeant Dendy with their and other Officers of the said Court marching before them came to the place ordered to be prepared for their sitting at the West-end of the great Hall in Westminster where the President in a Crimson-Velvet Chair fixed in the midst of the Court placed himself having a Desk with a Crimson-Velvet Cushion before him The rest of the Members placing themselves on each side of him upon the several seats or benches prepared and hung with Scarlet for that purpose and the Partizans dividing themselves on each side of the Court before them The Court being thus set and Silence made the Great Gate of the said Hall was set open to the end that all persons without exception desirous to see or hear might come into it upon which the Hall was presently filled and Silence again ordered This done Colonel Thomlinson who had the charge of the King as a Prisoner was commanded to bring him to the Court who within a quarter of an hours space brought him attended with about twenty Officers with Partizans marching before him there being Colonel Hacker and other Guard-men to whose care and custody he was then committed marching in his Rear Being thus brought up within the face of the Court the Serjeant at Arms with his Mace received and conducted him streight to the Bar where a Crimson-Velvet Chair was set for the King After a stern looking upon the Court and the people in the Galleries on each side of him he placed himself not at all moving his Hat or otherwise shewing the least respect to the Court but presently rose up again and turned about looking downwards upon the Guards placed on the left side and on the multitude of Spectators on the right side of the said great Hall After Silence made among the people the Act of Parliament for the Trying of Charles Stuart King of England was read over by the Clerk of the Court who sate on one side of the Table covered with a rich Turkey-carpet and placed at the feet of the said President upon which Table was also laid the Sword and Mace After reading the said Act the several names of the Commissioners were called over every one who was present rising up and answering to his call The King having again placed himself in his Chair with his face towards the Court Silence being again ordered the President stood up and said President Charles Stuart King of England The Commons of England Assembled in Parliament being deeply sensible of the Calamities that have been brought upon this Nation which is fixed upon you as the principal Author of it have resolved to make inquisition for Blood and according to that debt and duty they owe to Iustice to God the Kingdom and themselves and according to the Fundamental Power that rests in themselves They have resolved to bring you to Tryal and Iudgement and for that purpose have constituted this High Court of Justice before which you are brought This said Cook Sollicitor-General of the Commonwealth standing within a Bar on the right hand of the King offered to speak but the King having a staff in his hand held it up and laid it upon the said Cooks shoulder two or three times bidding him hold Nevertheless the President ordering him to go on he said Cook My Lord I am commanded to charge Charles Stuart King of England in the name of the Commons of England with Treason and high Misdemeanors I desire the said Charge may be read The said Charge
being delivered to the Clerk of the Court the President ordered it should be read but the King bid him hold Nevertheless being commanded by the President to read it the Clerk begun The Charge being read which for its falshood and Treasonable impudence is purposely omitted as imputing to the King the Blood spilt by his presence in several Fights The President replyed Sir you have heard your Charge read c. The Court expects your Answer King I would know by what power I am called hither I was not long ago in the Isle of Wight how I came there is a longer story than I think is fit at this time for me to speak of but there I entred into a Treaty with both Houses of Parliament with as much publike faith as 't is possible to be had of any people in the World I Treated there with a number of Honourable Lords and Gentlemen and Treated honestly and uprightly I cannot say but they did very nobly with me we were upon a concluâ—ion of the Treaty Now I would know by what Authority I mean lawful there are many unlawful Authorities in the world Theeves and Robbers by the high ways but I would know by what Authority I was brought from thence and carried from place to place and I know not what and when I know by what lawful Authority I shall answer Remember I am your King and what sins you bring upon this Land Think well upon it I say think well upon it before you go further from one sin to a greater therefore let me know by what lawful Authority I am seated here and I shall not be unwilling to Answer in the mean time I shall not betray my Trust. I have a Trust committed to me by God by old and lawful descent I will not betray it to Answer to a new and unlawful Authority therefore resolve me that and you shall hear more of me President If you had been pleased to have observed what was hinted to you by the Court at your first coming hither you would have known by what Authority which Authority requires you in the name of the people of England of which you are Elected King to answer them King No Sir I deny that President If you acknowledg not the Authority of the Court they must proceed King I do tell them so England was never an Elective Kingdom but an Hereditary Kingdom for neer these thousand years therefore let me know by what Authority I am called hither I do stand more for the Liberty of my people than any here that come to be my pretended Judges and therefore let me know by what lawful Authority I am seated here and I will Answer it otherwise I will not Answer it President Sir how really you have managed your Trust is known your way of Answer is to interrogate the Court which beseems not you in this condition You have been told of it twice or thrice King Here is a Gentleman Lieutenant-Colonel Cobbet ask him if he did not bring me from the Isle of Wight by force I do not come here as submitting to the Court I will stand as much for the priviledge of the House of Commons rightly understood as any man here whatsoever I see no House of Lords here that may constitute a Parliament and the King too should have been Is this the bringing of the King to his Parliament Is this the bringing an end to the Treaty in the Publike faith of the world Let me see a legal Authority warranted by the Word of God the Scriptures or warranted by the Constitutions of the Kingdom and I will Answer President Sir You have propounded a Question and have been Answered seeing you will not Answer the Court will consider how to proceed in the mean time those that brought you hither are to take charge of you back again The Court desires to know whether this he all the Answer you will give or no King Sir I would desire that you would give me and all the world satisfaction in this let me tell you it is not a slight thing you are about I am sworn to keep the Peace by that duty I owe to God and my Country and I will do it to the last breath of my Body and therefore you shall do well to satisfie first God and then the Country by what Authority you do it if you do it by an usurped Authority that will not last long There is a God in Heaven that will call you and all that give you Power to an account satisfie me in that and I will Answer otherwise I betray my Trust and the Liberties of the people and therefore think of that and then I shall be willing For I do avow that it is as great a sin to withstand lawful Authority as it is to submit to a Tyrannical or any other ways unlawful Authority and therefore satisfie God and me and all the World in that and you shall receive my Answer I am not afraid of the Bill President The Court expects you should give them a final Answer their purpose is to adjourn till Monday next if you do not satisfie your self though we do tell you our Authority we are satisfied with our Authority and it is upon Gods Authority and the Kingdoms and that Peace you speak of will be kept in the doing of Iustice and that 's our present work King Let me tell you if you will shew me what lawful Authority you have I shall be satisfied But what you have hitherto said satisfies no reasonable man President That 's in your apprehension we think it reasonable that are your Iudges King 'T is not my apprehension nor yours neither that ought to decide it President The Court hath heard you and you are to be disposed of as they have commanded Two things were remarkable in this days proceedings It is observed That as the Charge was reading against the King the silver head of his staff fell off the which he wondered at and seeing none to take it up he stoop'd for it himself and put it in his pocket The other that the people as the King went out cried aloud and shouted God save the King while the weaker noise of hired and commanded Souldiers cried out Iustice and Execution at Colonel Axtels Threats and Bastinadoes At the High Court of Iustice sitting in Westminster-Hall Monday January 22. 1648. Upon the Kings coming a shout was made Sollicitor May it please your Lordship my Lord President I did at the last Court in the behalf of the Commons of England exhibit and give into this Court a Charge of High Treason and other High Crimes against the Prisoner at the Bar c. My humble Motion to this High Court is That the Prisoner may be directed to make a positive Answer or else the Charge may be taken pro confesso and the Court may proceed according to Justice President Sir You may remember at
the last Court you were told the occasion of your being brought hither c. you were then pleased to make some scruples concerning the Authority of this Court c. Since that the Court hath taken into consideration what you then said they are fully satisfied with their own Authority and they hold it fit you should stand satisfied with it too and they do require it that you do give a positive and particular Answer to this Charge that is exhibited against you they do expect you should either confess or deny it if you deny it it is offered in the behalf of the Nation to be made good against you their Authority they do avow to the whole world that the whole Kingdom are to rest satisfied in and you are to lose no more time but to give a positive Answer thereunto King When I was here last 't is true I made that Question and truly if it were onely my own particular case I would have satisfied my self with the Protestation I made the last time I was here against the Legality of this Court and that a King cannot be tried by any Superiour Jurisdiction on Earth but it is not my case alone it is the Freedom and Liberty of the people of England and do you pretend what you will I stand more for their Liberties For of Power without Law may make Laws may alter the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom I do not know what Subject he is in England that can be sure of his Life or any thing that he calls his own therefore when I came here I did expect particular Reasons to know by what Law what Authority you did proceed against me here and therefore I am a little to seek what to say to you in this particular because the Affirmative is proved the Negative often is very hard to do but since I cannot perswade you to do it I shall tell you my Reasons as short as I can My Reasons why in Conscience and the duty I owe to God first and my people next for the preservation of their Lives Liberties and Estates I conceive I cannot answer this till I be satisfied of the legality of it All proceedings against any man whatsoever President Sir I must interrupt you which I would not do but that what you do is not agreable to the proceedings of any Court of Iustice you are about to enter into Argument and Dispute concerning the Authority of this Court before whom you appear as a Prisoner and are Charged as a Delinquent if you take upon you to dispute the Authority of the Court we may not do it nor will any Court give way unto it you are to submit unto it you are to give in a punctual and direct Answer whether you will Answer to your Charge or no and what your Answer is King Sir by your favour I do not know the forms of Law I do know Law and Reason though I am no Lawyer professed yet I know as much Law as any Gentleman in England and therefore under favour I do plead for the Liberties of the people of England more than you do and therefore if I should impose a belief upon any man without Reasons give for it it were unreasonable but I must tell you That by that Reason that I have as thus informed I cannot yield unto it President Sir I must interrupt you you may not be permitted you speak of Law and Reason and there is both against you Sir the Vote of the Commons of England Assembled in Parliament it is the Reason of the Kingdom and they are those two that have given that Law according to which you should have Ruled and Reigned Sir you are not to dispute our Authority you are told it again by the Court. Sir it will be taken notice of that you stand in contempt of the Court and your contempt will be recorded accordingly King I do not know how a King can be a Delinquent not by any Law that ever I heard of all men Delinquents or what you will let me tell you they may put in Demurrers against any proceedings as legal and I do demand that and demand to be heard with my Reasons if you deny that you deny Reason President Sir you have offered something to the Court I shall speak something unto you of the sense of the Court Sir neither you nor any man are permitted to dispute that point you are concluded you may not Demur to the Iurisdiction of the Court if you do I must let you know that they over-rule your Demurrer they sit here by the Authority of the Commons of England and all your Predecessors and you are responsible to them King I deny that shew me one precedent President Sir you ought not to interrupt while the Court is speaking to you this point is not to be debated by you neither will the Court permit you to do it if you offer it by way of Demurrer to the Iurisdiction of the Court they have considered of their Iurisdiction they do affirm their own Iurisdiction King I say Sir by your favour that the Commons of England was never a Court of Judicature I would know how they came to be so President Sir you are not to be permitted to go on in that speech and these Discourses Then the Clerk of the Court read as followeth Charles Stuart King of England You have been accused on the behalf of the people of England of High Treason and other high Crimes the Court have determined that you ought to Answer the same King I will Answer the same as soon as I know by what Authority you do this President If this be all that you will say then Gentlemen you that brought the Prisoner hither take charge of him back again King I do require that I may give in my Reasons why I do not Answer and give me time for that President Sir 'T is not for Prisoners to require King Prisoner Sir I am not an ordinary Prisoner President The Court hath considered of their Iurisdiction and they have already affirmed their Iurisdiction if you will not Answer we shall give order to Record your default King You never heard my Reasons yet President Sir your Reasons are not to be heard against the highest Iurisdiction King Shew me that Jurisdiction where Reason is not to be heard President Sir we shew it you here the Commons of England and the next time you are brought you will know more the pleasure of the Court and it may be their final determination King Shew me wherever the House of Commons was a Court of Judicature of that kind President Serjeant take away the Prisoner King Well Sir remember that the King is not suffered to give his Reasons for the Liberty and Freedom of all his Subjects President Sir you are not to have liberty to use this Language how great a friend you have been to the Laws and Liberties
the Authority of the Court the Court craves it not of you and once more they command you to give your positive Answer Clerk do your Duty King Duty Sir The Clerk reads Charles Stuart King of England you are accused in the behalf of the Commons of England of divers high Crimes and Treasons which Charge hath been read unto you the Court now requires you to give your positive and final Answer by way of confession or denial of the Charge King Sir I say again to you So that I might give satisfaction to the people of England of the clearness of my proceedings not by way of Answer not in this way but to satisfie them that I have done nothing against that Trust that hath been committed to me I would do it but to acknowledge a new Court against their Priviledges to alter the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom Sir you must excuse me President Sir this is the third time that you have publikely disowned the Court and put an affront upon it how far you have preserv'd the Priviledges of the People your Actions have spoke it but truly Sir mens intentions ought to be known by their Actions you have written your meaning in bloody Characters throughout the whole Kingdom but Sir you understand the pleasure of the Court. Clerk Record the default and Gentlemen you that took charge of the Prisoner take him back again King I will onely say this one word to you If it were onely my own particular I would not say any more nor interrupt you President Sir you have heard the pleasure of the Court and you are notwithstanding you will not understand it to finde that you are before a Court of Iustice. Then the King went forth with his Guard and Proclamation was made that all persons who had then appeared and had further to do at the Court might depart into the Painted-Chamber to which place the Court did forthwith adjourn and intended to meet in Westminster-hall by ten of the Clock the next morning Cryer God bless the Kingdom of England His Majesties Reasons against the pretended Iurisdiction of the High Court of Iustice which he intended to have delivered in writing on Monday January 22. 1648. But was not permitted HAving already made my Protestations not onely against the illegality of this pretended Court but also that no earthly Power can justly call Me who am your King in question as a Delinquent I would not any more open my Mouth upon this occasion more than to refer my self to what I have spoken were I in this case alone concerned But the duty I owe to God in the preservation of the true Liberty of my People will not suffer me at this time to be silent For how can any free-born Subject of England call life or any thing he possesseth his own if Power without Right may daily make new and abrogate the old Fundamental Law of the Land which I now take to be the present case VVherefore when I came hither I expected that you would have endeavoured to have satisfied me concerning these grounds which hinder me to answer to your pretended Impeachment but since I see that nothing I can say will move you to it though Negatives are not so naturally proved as Affirmatives yet I will shew you the Reasons why I am confident you cannot Judge me nor indeed the meanest man in England for I will not like you without shewing a Reason seek to impose a belief upon my Subjects There is no proceeding just against any man but what is warranted either by Gods Laws or the Municipal Laws of the Country where he lives Now I am most confident this days proceeding cannot be warranted by Gods Law for on the contrary the Authority of obedience unto Kings is clealy warranted and strictly commanded both in the Old and New Testaments which if denied I am ready instantly to Prove and for the Question now in hand there it is said That where the word of a King is there is Power and who may say unto him What doest thou Eccles. 8.4 Then for the Law of this Land I am no less confident that no learned Lawyer will affirm that an Impeachment can lie against the King they all going in His Name and one of their Maximes is That the King can do no wrong Besides the Law upon which you ground your proceedings must either be Old or New if Old shew it if New tell what Authority warranted by the Fundamental Laws of the Land hath made it and when But how the House of Commons can erect a Court of Iudicature which was never one it self as is well known to all Lawyers I leave to God and the world to Iudge And it were full as strange that they should pretend to make Laws without King or Lords House to any that have heard speak of the Laws of England And admitting but not granting that the People of Englands Commission could grant your pretended Power I see nothing you can shew for that for certainly you never asked the question of the tenth man in the Kingdom and in this way you manifestly wrong even the poorest Plow-man if you demand not his free consent nor can you pretend any colour for this your pretended Commission without the Consent at least of the major part of every man in England of whatsoever quality or Condition which I am sure you never went about to seek so far are you from having it Thus you see that I speak not for my own right alone as I am your King but also for the true Liberty of all my Subjects which consists not in the power of Government but in living under such laws such a Government as may give themselves the best assurance of their lives and propriety of their goods Nor in this must or do I forget the Priviledges of both Houses of Parliament which this days proceedings do not onely violate but likewise occasion the greatest breach of their publike Faith that I believe ever was heard of with which I am far from charging the two Houses for all the pretended Crimes laid against me bear date long before this late Treaty at Newport in which I having concluded as much as in me lay and hopefully expecting the Houses agreement thereunto I was suddenly surpriz'd and hurried from thence as a Prisoner upon which account I am against my will brought hither where since I am come I cannot but to my power defend the antient Laws and Liberties of this Kingnom together with my own just Rights Then for any thing I can see the Higher House is totally excluded and for the House of Commons it is too well known that the major part of them are detained or deterred from sitting so as if I 'had no other this were sufficient Reason for me to protest against the Lawfulness of your pretended Court. Besides all this the Peace of the Kingdom is not the least of
and with a broad Sword cleaved his Head and killed him suffering his Pagâ— to escape but by a mistake wounding another Dutch-man for him at their 〈◊〉 coming in and having done the deed quietly departed and though the States pretended a Hue and Cry yet the people were generally well satisfied and applauded the Execution but our States here were outragiously mad and published a Paper wherein they imputed this Fact to the Royalists and upon the next occasion threatned to retaliate it upon those of that party then in their Hands yet Ascham their Agent and Envoy to Spain some time after with 〈◊〉 Interpreter Signour Riba was served in the same manner at his arrival at Madrid in his Inn by one Sparks and other English Merchants upon the same account Sparks fled to the Venetian Embassadors and thence to Sanctuary but by the subtile Don to curry with our Masters then dreadful to his Plate-trade and for othâ—r designed advantages was at their important instance taken thence and with all mens pitty and indignation at the meanness of the Spaniard thereafter Executed The King on the 15 of Iune departed from the Hague in company with his Sister and her Husband the Prince of Aurange in their Coach and came early to Rotterdam where the Burgers were in Arms and was Nobly received and saluted at his passing the Gates with all the Artillery and Ringing of the Bells and other signes of Joy and Honour though the English Company there durst not as of themselves give any particular proof thereof From thence to Dort where he was received in the same ample manner and then to Breda and so to Antwerp where by the Arch-Dukes order he was met and entertained with 〈…〉 and presented with a most splended Chariot with eight Horses 〈…〉 welcomed by the Marquess of Newcastle who had fixed 〈…〉 out of respect to the great Civility he found from that people 〈…〉 him Excise-free with other immunities and priviledges and 〈…〉 to Brussels whâ—re his Treatments were most Royally ordered as the Kâ—ng â—ftâ—rwâ—rds acknowledged for the most sumptuous magnificenâ—y and pâ—easing 〈◊〉 He ever met with and with the same grandeurs as if the King of Spain had received them himself which Amplitudes were observed throughout 〈◊〉 passage and at his departure thence the Duke of Lorrain gave him the like entertainment and conveyed him on his way to France where in Compâ—â—gne the French King accompanied with the most and chiefest of his Nobility received him with all the Testimonies of affection and Honour and brought him in State to Saint Germains to the Queen his Mother where we will leave him in Counsel with his surest and most beloved friends The Dutchess of Savoy his Aunt having made him an assignment of 50000 Crown a year and several the like proffers from others of his Family while His Brother the Duke of Gloâ—cester and the Princess Elizabeth were transferred from the Earl of Northumberland's to the care of the Countess of Leicester at Penshurst with the maintenance of 3000 a year which was afterwards lessened when they came into the custody of Anthony Mildmay at Carisbroke in the Isle of Wight there being a bold but credible rumour of a resolution of our States putting the Duke to a Merchant or some other Trade The Commonwealth of England was now wholâ—y busiâ—d about the affairs of Ireland which proving very desperate Colonel Monk lately dismist from his Imprisonment in the Toâ—er upon account of his service in this Kingdom having vowed 〈…〉 draw Sword against the King in England was ordered privately to jâ—yn 〈…〉 O Neal and Nuntio party the bloodiest of 〈◊〉 the Râ—bels to pâ—â—â—erve what was yet leâ—t the Parliament of which more hereafter and in the mean time all possible speed was made for the Expedition hencâ— money was mainly wanting and therefore the City was desired to lend â— 20000 l. upon the security of the Act of 90000 l. per mensem but that not proving satisfactory the Act for the sale 〈◊〉 Dean and Chapters-lands then greedily bought up by old Arrears Debentures and Doublings was offered and additional Acts for removing of Obstructions were passed and sums of money to be raised thereupon secured for the same Lieutenant-General Cromwel was complemented with the Command which aâ—ter some debate he accepted and was Voted Lord-Governour of Iâ—eland Fairfax yet continuing General in both Kingdoms Towards the second of Iuly most of the Army designed for that service was drawn to the Sea-side and Colonel Venables Regiment shipped over with some 1500 more which with Tuthills Regiment newly landed before made Iones the Governour of Dublin 7000 strong with which he attempted several times against the Marquess of Ormond with little and various success On the 13 of August Cromwel having passed to Bristol and by reason of cross weather compelled to go for his passage to Milford-Haven with a Fleet of 60 Dutch and English Bottoms set sail and the next day after landed at Dublin his whole Force with Iones now made his Lieutenant-General amounting to 15000 men It will be now very necessary to give an account of the state of that Kingdom and because it is the first atchievement of the New State it shall be rendred entire without any interfering affair though without any other Apology it will take up the most part of the remaining year The Relation whereof we have from an Actor and Eye-Witness there as he hath most elegantly and orderly laid it down worthy of all belief and even pleasant in the ruines he deplores who with many other Loyal English Gentry having escaped or left England to the barbarities of the Usurpation joyned with the more civiller Irish and pursued the Kings Cause in this another of his Kingdoms The Marquess of Ormond Lord-Lieutenant of that Kingdom being prest with the danger of a Siege from the Roman-Catholick-Confederates who had broken their League and Treaty with him had delivered Dublin as aforesaid in 1647. to the Parliaments Commissioners having articled for his free passing to the King and for those sums of money he had expended for the English Interest out of his own private purse when that Exchecquer was drained and accordingly having waited on the King while the Army carried him about with an account of his Actions passed into France whence about September 1648. the said Catholick Confederates perceiving a storm impending on them from England had by Letters to the King importuned His resending to them upon their Engagement and Protestation of plenary submission to his Majesties Authority and to him as his Lieutenant as being the onely fit qualified person for his Interest Birth and Relation to preside in that Nation His Lordship accordingly undertook the Commission and though all things promised fair by the agreement made with the Lord Inchiqueen who had had several successes against the Rebels and had joyned Forces with the said Confederates yet did the
Assaulting they were bravely Repulsed leaving 600 Arms behind them after which check they resolved to march off and are sending their Artillery away silently before whilst the Townsmen convey a Drummer privately over the Wall and upon I know not what accord let the Enemy in unknown to the Souldiers who were then forced to retire to the Castle and make their Terms which being granted them they march away Kilkenny being gained by him let us leave Cromwel at Cashel for a while amongst his Committee-men and return into Connaght where the Clergy and Commissioners seeing that the Lord Clanrickard having refused to take the Government upon him was resolved in case they continued disobedient unto the Lord-Lieutenant lest the Kings Authority should be exposed to further disobedience and contempt to leave the Kingdom together with his Excellency and considering what a certain Ruine their departure would be unto them all are now courting the Lord-Lieutenant to stay and offer to come to composition with him who demands assurance from them that the Respective Towns of Limerick and Galloway shall receive sufficient Garrisons and that themselves with all the Souldiers and people shall hereafter readily obey him which they undertake unto him upon condition that all the English whatsoever under his Excellencies Command might be disbanded and sent away that the Bishops of the Kingdom might have a share in Council and the management of things that the Receiver-General which was Sir George Hamilton Brother-in-law to the Lord-Lieutenant a person of great parts Honour and Merit might give in his accounts all which his Excellency out of his great desire to satisfie and unite the people thereby to preserve the Country and the Kings Interest if it were possible at last assents unto This Agreement being made the English were accordingly to free the Irish of their Jealousies who either were or would seem to be equally suspicious of the Royalists as of those that had served the Parliament before disbanded and since there was no further employment for them nor means of getting away by Sea they had leave to make their Conditions with Cromwel to pass through his quarters out of the Kingdom which being granted by him all all the small remainder of the Lord Inchiqueens men except a few that Colonel Buller was to carry for Scilly went under the conduct of Colonel Iohn Daniel into the Enemies quarter so did the Lord Ards and after him Sir Thomas Armstrong with whom went also Master Daniel O Neal upon the score of carrying a Regiment into Spain There remained none behind that was permitted to bear any charge but Lieutenant-Colonel Treswell at the Lord Ormonds particular instance to Command his Guards of Horie onely Iohn Digby Colonel Henry Warren and Colonel Hugh Butler â—aid to wait upon his Excellencies person and bear him company in his aâ—â—entures Colonel Trevor rendred himself likewise upon the same account But before I go on I must not omit to tell you how Dean Boile who was sent to treat with Cromwel for the English that were disbanded being offered it as he says by Cromwel and imagining as himself affirms to do a service to the Lord-Lieutenant and the Lord Inchiqueen in it adventured of his own head to take Passes from him for their departure out of the Kingdom whereof as soon as ever Dean Boile was gone he makes use to debauch the Irish Garrisons to take Conditions from him assuring them the Lord-Lieutenant had received his Pass to depart the Kingdom though the Passes were absolutely without his Lordships privity or license accepted and with indignation resented but in the mean time Emer Mac Mahon Bishop of Cloghor who had been chosen General of the Vlster-Army having a good while since received his Commission from the Lord-Lieutenant was now gathering together his Army which in a short time after he had made up to be about 6000 men wherewith having taken several little Castles in his way he was marched up into the Claneboyes and become Master of the field The next enterprize Cromwel went in hand with was to take Clonmell which was kept by Major-General Hugh O Neal who behaved himself so discreetly and gallantly in defending it that Cromwel lost neer upon 2500 men before it and had notwithstanding gone away without it if they within had had store of Powder but their small proportion being spent the Governour with his Souldiers was fain to go out of the Town on the other side of the River by night towards Waterford and leave the Towns-men to make Conditions for themselves which they did the next morning the Enemy not knowing but the Garrison was still in Town till the Conditions were signed Thus the loss of this place and several other Garrisons for want of Ammunition was another effect of the disobedience of the Towns insomuch that had it not been for a little Magazine that the Lord Clanrickard had providently made beforehand and wherewith since the loss of Drogbeda his Excellencies Army the Scots the Vlsters and most of the Garrisons were furnished all might have gone to an irrecoverable ruine whilst the Walled-Towns like Free-States lookt on as unconcern'd denying to afford it to them About the time of the Siege of Clonmel David Roch having raised above 2000 men in the Counties of Corke and Kerry and beginning to make head with them received a small brush from the Lord Broghall which onely dispersed his men for a few days his loss being not considerable for any thing but the Bishop of Rosse who being taken was hanged with two other Priests by Cromwel for being found in Arms as he said against the States of England Soon after the gaining of Clonmel Cromwel upon Letters out of England inviting him thither went to Sea and leaves Ireton in chief Command behind him to subdue the rest of that miserable wasted Kingdom whilst himself went about the Conquest of new Empires more worthy of his presence Here I cannot but observe that of all those thousands that either came with him thither or were sent after there are now few tens surviving either to reap the benefit or report the stories of their Victories his Army upon his departure being sunk to a very inconsiderable number especially in Foot and neer three parts of those consisting of either Irish Ione's or the Lord Inchiqueen's men who onely are able to undergo the woful incommodities of that Country now groning under a universal Plague Famine and Desolation to that degree that if they had known but half the miseries that expect them there I am confident that no Threats nor Flatteries could have perswaded men out of England thither in hopes of reaping the fruits of their fellows labours in that destroyed Kingdom Which as low as 't is brought may chance to cost Cromwel a second Expedition and another Army and yet go without it For they have Waterford Galloway and Limerick three of the strongest
and most considerable Towns of the Kingdom still untaken any of which if they be well Garrisoned as questionless now they are will be neer a Summers work to reduce The Forts of Duncannon and Sligo the Castles of Caterlo Athlone Charlemont and Neanagh are not easie purchases the Province of Connaght is still preserved entire by the Lord Clanrickard who will be able to bring 4000 men of his own into the field now that Galloway and his Country is somewhat cleared from the infection of the Plague which begins to rage greatly in the Enemies quarters as Corke Youghall Wexford and Dublin it self Kilkenny Clonmel with several places thereabouts being left desolate with it The County of Clare in Munster brought unto the Lord-Lieutenant at a Rendezvouze at the same time above 2000 men wherewith his Excellency being invited by the Magistrates was ready to march into Limerick to Garrison that place and to make it his residence What Forces the Irish had in Vlster and towards Kerry I have already told you as likewise what Connaght and the County of Clare afforded I must adde that Hugh Mac Phelim had in Wiâ—klow and towards Wexford hard upon 2000 men and at Waterford General Preston and Hugh O Neal had little less to conclude besides all this the Lord Castlehaven the Lord Dillon and the Bishop of Drummore made account they should draw together a considerable Body in Meath and the rest of Leimster to joyn with the Marquess of Clanrickard towards the relief of Tecroghan then besieged by Colonel Reynolds Thus you may see that provided they be united amongst themselves and that means can be found of keeping them in bodies together there are men enough in Arms yet to dispute the business with an Enemy that is not half their number and whose quarters are pestered likewise with the Plague and Famine as well as theirs especially these having such strengths and fastnesses still in their hands as are almost inaccessible to Cromwels Souldiers Who after having mastered the greatest part of Munster and Leimster their supplies from England coming in but slowly have made bold at last with the people they flattered with before and altered their manner of proceedings taking from them by force what they pleased and violating their protections given making not nice to tell them they suffered them to possess their Estates but during pleasure and till they could have Planters to put into their rooms by which kind of clear dealing they have so lost and made desperate the Natives that lamenting their former too ready compliance with the Enemy they now called for the Lord-Lieutenant again and taking Arms in their hand began to rise in all quarters of the Kingdom so that it is impossible for a greater power than Ireton hath there to attend to the suppression of them all This is the perfect account of the Irish affairs whereby the first Trophees of the English Commonwealth raised themselves to greater Atchievements by a chain of successes but Winter growing on their Army was put into Winter-quarters Cromwel himself to that purpose taking up Youghall lately with Corke wherein were the Lord Inchiqueens Lady and Family revolted by the treachery of the Colonels Gilford Warren and Townsend Colonel Wogan newly defeated in his attempt in Passage-Fort and then taken prisoner by Colonel Zanchy whereupon Prince Rupert with the Constant Reformation the Convertine wherein was Prince Maurice the Swallow where was Sir Iohn Mien and some other Sips set sail from Kingsale where he had continued Blockt up most part of the last Summer by Admiral Popham and betook themselves to the Narrow Seas now that the Parliament had most of that Coast in their possession and sailed for France In the mean while Captain Young had fired the Antilope one of the Kings ships at Helvoet-sluce in Holland and the Guinny-Frigot was mastered and taken neer Scilly the Rendezvouze and Harbour of his Majesties Fleet that did very much hinder and obstruct the Trade at Sea wherein his Majesties Rebels were now principally concerned of which we shall have yet further occasion to speak in the ensuing year The Parliament had in Iune filled up the Benches at Westminster Aske from Clerk of the Crown one of their Beagles at the High Court of Iustice was made one of the Justices of the Vpper so was the Kings Bench newly called and Broughton a Clerk to the same Court had his former Office Puliston and Warberton in the Common-pleas to whom in the place of Judge Phesant Serjeant Atkins was added Colonel Rigby and Thorpe were made Barons of the Exchequer by the last of whom Colonel Morris the late noble Governour of Pomfret and Cornet Blackborne were Condemned and Executed at York on the 18 day of August at which Sessions Thorpe likewise in his Charge to the Grand-Jury magnified the late Actions of the Parliament and justified their Authority and endeavoured to shew its consonancy to the Laws which fine Oration is yet extant in Print About this time after much debate by these Judges and at the instance of the Army the Parliament passed the Act commonly called the Five Pound Act whereby Debtors in Prison upon their Oath that they were not worth five pound were discharged by Vertue whereof most of the Goals in England were emptied and room made for Cavaliers and Royalists of which party Sir Robert Heath the Noble and most Loyal Lord Chief-Justice of England being an excepted person by the Parliament died at Caen in Normandy about the end of August and Sir Kenelm Digby and Master Walter Mountague were ordered to depart the Kingdom as not being within any of the qualifications for Delinquents Composition Thus stood things at home in a Commanding and Authoritative posture we will see next how they fadge abroad and first the Scot their next Neighbours having an Army moving up and down in the North of that Kingdom to suppress the Montrossian Party which appeared in the Isles of Orkney the Marquess then bestirring himself in the Court of the Duke of Holstein for supplies and ready to Embarque having sent a forerunning Declaration wherein he recited the greatness of those condescentions to and that confidence his late Majesty had of them when he put himself into their Hands at Newark both which some wicked persons of that Nation had Trayterously abused even to the Murther of that blessed Prince and thereafter would impose Conditions and Limitations to their present Soveraign and desired all good and honest Subjects who had been misled to appear with him to the vindication of those injuries as well as reproach of the Scotch Nation c. and other Forces quartering about Edenborough had Decreed that no Provision whatsoever should he carried into England and shewed an absolute averseness to any further Treaty or Correspondence with the English but had dispatcht away the Laird of Windram one Master Libberton to the King who after his arrival at Zeland sailed to the King at
but many of the Gentry who had been under his Command before having now engaged with him again were no partakers in this joy For some of his Papers being taken many of them were afterwards discovered and suffered in their Estates The Marquess being now in the Custody of his mortal Enemies from whom he could not expect the least favour yet exprest a singular constancy and in a manner a carelessness of his own condition Coming to his Father-in-laws house the Earl of Southesk where two of his Children were he procured liberty from his Guard to see them but neither at meeting or parting could any change of his former countenance be discerned or the least expression heard which was not suitable to the greatness of his spirit and the same of his former actions 'T is Memorable of the Town of Dundee where he lodged one night though it had suffered more by his Army than any else within that Kingdom yet were they amongst all the rest so far from insulting over him that the whole Town testified a great deal of sorrow for his woful condition and there was he likewise furnished with Cloaths suitable to his Birth and Person Being come to Leith he was received by the Magistrates of the City of Edenburgh and staying a while there to refresh himself he was afterward led towards the City by that way which goes betwixt Leith and the Water-gate of the Abbey and with him all the Prisoners of quality on foot betwixt thirty and fourty but he himself had the favour to be mounted on a Cart-horse Having ended this part of his journey with as much state as in Triumphs is accustomed to be he was met at the end of the Cannon-gate by some other Officers and the Executioner in his Livery-coat into whose hands he was delivered There was framed for him a high seat in fashion of a Chariot upon each side of which were holes through which a Cord being drawn and crossing his Brest and Arms bound him fast down in the Chair The Executioner being commanded so to do took off the Marquess's Hat and put on his own Bonnet and the Chariot being drawn by four Horses he mounted one of the first and very solemnly began to drive along towards the Tol-Booth The people who were assembled in great multitudes and were many of them heretofore very desirous to see this spectacle could not now refrain from tears and those who had heretofore wished him all misfortune began to be shaken with the first Scene of his Tragedy But the implacable Ministry having him now at their mercy could never be satisfied with his Calamities they reviled him with all possible spite objected frequently to him his former condition and his present misery and pronounced heavy judgements against him Being come to the Tol-Booth he was very closely shut up and strong Guards set upon him and access denied to him no not his Father-in-law or any of his friends suffered to come nigh him There he was a considerable time the Ministers never ceasing to exacerbate his misery of whom one being asked why they could not otherwise be satisfied but by so ignominious handling of him He answered They knew no other way to humble him and bring him home to God The Parliament having notice of his approach to Edenburgh fearing his gallant presence might gain favour among the people which the Kirk-Ministers thundred at afterwards appointed a Committee to draw up a Sentence against him on the 17 of May which they did presently The first part about his entrance we have already seen performed the latter part ran thus That he should be hanged on a Gibbet at the Cross in Edenburgh until he died his History and Declaration being tied about his Neck and to hang three hours in publique view of all the people after which he should be Beheaded and Quartered his head to be fixt upon the Prison-house of Edenburgh and his Legs and Arms over the Gates of the Cities of Sterling Glascow Perth alias Saint Johns-town and Aberdeen And in case â—e repented whereby the Sentence of Excommunication may be taken off by the Church the bulk of his Body should be buried in the Gray-Friers if not in the Borrow-moor a place like Tyburn It was seven a Clock at Night before he was entred into the Prison and immediately the Parliament met and sent some of the Members and some Ministers to examine him but he refused to answer any thing to them until he was satisfied upon what terms they stood with the King his Royal Master which being reported unto the Parliament they ceased proceedings against him until Monday and allowed their Commissioners to tell him that the King and they were agreed he then desired to be at rest for he was weary with a long Journey and said The Complement they had put upon him that day was somewhat tedious The next day being Sunday he was constantly attended by Ministers and Parliament-men who still pursued him he told them They thought they had affronted him the day before by carrying him in a Cart but they were much mistaken for he thought it the most honourable and joyfullest Cavalcade that ever he made God having all the while most comfortably manifested his presence to him and furnished him with a resolution to over-look the reproaches of men and to behold Him for whose Cause he suffered Upon Monday in the forenoon he was brought before the Parliament and after the delivery of a long-penned discourse by the Chancellor wherein he was pleased to take notice of his miscarriages against the first Covenant the League and Covenant his Invasion and joyning with the Irish Rebels and blood-guiltiness and that now how God had brought him to just punishment He desired to know if he might be allowed to speak for himself which being granted he said Since you have declared unto me that you have agreed with the King I look upon you as if his Majesty were sitting among you and in that Relation I appear with this Reverence Bare-headed My care hath been always to walk as became a good Christian and a Loyal Subject I engaged in the first Covenant and was faithful to it until I perceived some private persons under colour of Religion intended to wring the Authority from the King and to seize on it for themselves and when it was thought fit for the clearing of honest men that a Bond should be Subscribed wherein the security of Religion was sufficiently provided for I subscribed For the League and Covenant I thank God I was never in it and so could not break it but how far Religion hath been advanced by it and the sad consequences that have followed it these poor distressed Kingdoms can witness for when his late Majesty had by the blessing of God almost subdued those Enemies that rose â—p against him in England and that a Faction of this Kingdom went in to the assistance of them His
Redeemer and therefore if you will not joyn with me in prayer my reiterating it again will be both Scandalous to you and me So closing his eyes and holding up his hands he stood a good space at his inward Devotions being perceived to be inwardly moved all the while when he had done he called for the Executioner and gave him money who having brought unto him hanging in a Cord his Declaration and History hanged them about his Neck when he said Though it hath pleased his Sacred Majesty that now is to make him one of the Knights of the most Honourable Order of the Garter yet he did not think himself more honoured by the Garter than by that Cord and Book which he would embrace about his Neck with as much joy and content as ever he did the Garter or a Chain of Gold and therefore desired them to be tied unto him as they pleased When this was done and his arms tied he asked the Officers If they had any more Dishonour as they conceived it to put upon him he was ready to accept it And so with an undaunted Courage and Gravity suffered according to the Sentence past upon him Thus fell that Heroical Person by a most malicious and barbarous sort of cruelty but Sequitur ultor à tergo Deus there is a Fury at hand ready with a Whip of Snakes to punish this Viperous Brood of men For Cromwel having been secretly called for over from Ireland to amuse all parties both the Irish who trembled at his presence and made no considerable resistance against him and his fortune and the General himself at home who expected not such his sudden rivalship to his Command which gave him no time for mature consideration of the designe the Scots who though allarmed by frequent rumours of an English Invasion yet were not so forward in their Levies as having assurance of Fairfax's dissatisfaction was now wasted over into England preventing his Letters he had sent to the States to know their express pleasure for his departing that Kingdom which before we leave we must insert some omissions Colonel Hamond a Kentish Gentleman and firm Royallist who was a Colchestrian and had been imprisoned at Windsor being by the mutiny of his Souldiers the Marquess of Ormonds Regiment which he Commanded forced to render himself and Officers at discretion the Garrison being the Castle before mentioned of Gowran accepting of life from Cromwel and refusing to fight was immediately shot to death one Lieutenant only escaping The like fate suffered a Dutch Colonel one Major Syms and another Lieutenant-Colonel of the Lord Inchiqueens Loyal Party that yet adhered to him being worsted by the Lord Broghil where in fight they lost 600 men near Bandon-bridge Colonel Wogan that noble person who had been so constant a terrour to them having corrupted or converted his Keeper Colonel Phair's Marshal escaped with him to his old friends being reserv'd to the same death by Cromwel but by Providence to be a further plague to them in that another Kingdom place as we shall see in the continuation of this Chronicle About the same time with Cromwel arrived here from Holland the Lord Ioachimi in quality of Embassador from the States General sent on purpose to understand the condition of affairs here what stability this Common-wealth was yet grounded upon or like to obtain and report it to his Superiors Further yet in Ireland After the departure of Cromwel in the Province of Vlster where the Bishop of Cloghor Emir Mac Mahon was Generalissimo the Irish not being to be satisfied till the Conduct of Affairs was wholly left to themselves having gathered an Army of 5000 Foot and 600 Horse was ranging that Country at his pleasure having so ordered and interposed his Forces that Sir Charles Coot the President of Connaught and Colonel Venables who Commanded in Chief in Vlster for the Parliament could not joyn Forces and though other additions had been made to Coot with which they had faced Finagh and that part of that Province some while before yet durst they not engage till Iune on the second of which Month Cloghor being incamped on a boggy ground within half a mile of Sir Charles his Leaguer who was about 800 Horse and as many Foot stood and faced him for almost four hours and then drew over a Pass wherein Coot fell upon his Rear with 250 Horse and charged through two Divisions of Foot and had routed them but that their Horse came in to their rescue and repelled that Party but Colonel Richard Coot likewise advancing both came off with even hand and so the enemy over Faggots passed another way This was but a Trial of Skill but on the 18 of Iune Colonel Fenwick with 1000 having joyned with Sir Charles the matter came to a final decision Cloghor was encamped strongly on a side of a Hill to which Coot approached the Irish courageously descended to Battle but were so most resolutely received that in an hours time this Mitred General was defeated himself mortally wounded and taken with his Lieutenant-General Henry O Neale together with most of the Officers all of them Irish to the total loss of that Province and the utter ruine and destruction of that Rebel-Party that began the War and continued it when it might have expired by the closing with the Marquess of Ormond to the taking of Dublin and London-Derry The remaining Irish War was meerly defensive and of such weak dying efforts that all was given over there for desperate and lost and who cannot must not here acknowledge the unerring certainty of Divine Justice upon that bloody and pitiless people Now appeared in Print as the weekly Champion of the new Common-wealth and to bespatter the King with the basest of scurrilous raillery one Marchamount Needham under the name of Politicus a Iack of all sides transcendently gifted in opprobrious and treasonable Droll and hired therefore by Bradshaw to act the second part to his starcht and more solemn Treason who began his first Diurnal with an Invective against Monarchy and the Presbyterian Scotch Kirk and ended it with an Hosanna to Oliver Cromwel who in the beginning of Iune returned by the way of Bristol from Ireland to London and was welcomed by Fairfax the General many Members of Parliament and Council of State at Hounslo-heath and more fully complemented at his Lodgings and in Parliament by the Thanks of the House and the like significant address of the Lord Mayor c. of London being lookt upon as the only Person to the Eclipse and diminution of his Generals Honour whom we shall presently see paramount in the same supreme Command Prince Rupert was yet in the Harbor of Lisbon whither the Parliament had sent a Fleet to fight him and reduce those Ships to their service which the Prince declining and the King of Portugal refusing to suffer Blake to fall on in his Port
of reducing the stubborness of some of the principal there to their obedience in the discussing and conclusion of that affair as he was Hunting neer Arnhem a destemper seized him which turning to the Small Pox and a Flux of putrified blood falling upon his Lungs presently carried him away on the 17 of October not without suspition of Poison leaving behind him the Princess Royal neer her time who to the great joy of the Low Countries was delivâ—red of a young Prince on the 5 of November as a cordial to that immoderate grief Her Highness and her Family took from this sad providence the Prince being the most sincere and absolute friend his late and present Majesty found in the greatest difficulties of their affairs The War in Ireland went on prosperously still with the Parliament the success being very much facilitated by the misunderstanding and divisions that were among the Catholicks and the Protestant Loyal party there in so much that the Lord Ormond the Lieutenant was not regarded among them nor he able through this means to make any head against Ireton then left Deputy in that Kingdom so that little of any memorable action passed in the field till the expiration of the Summer at which time Ireton intending to besiege Limrick one of the strongest Cities in Ireland marched from Waterford and made a compass into the County of Wicklow which being stored with plundered Cattle furnished him with 1600 Cows for provision in that Leaguer and so marched to Athloâ—e in hopes to gain it but finding the Bridge broke and the Town on this side burnt he left that and took two other Castles and the Bur on the same side and presently clapped down before Limrick having marched 150 miles and in some Counties 30 miles together and not a house or living creature to be seen The Marquess Clanrickard to whom the Military power was by general consent devolved as being a Papist and a Native of most Antient and Noble Extraction and by the very good liking of the Marquess of Ormond who had had large experience of his exemplary fidelity to the King and the English interest ever since the very first Rebellion in 1641 having notice of the Enemies being at Athlone marched with 3000 men to whom joyned afterwards young Preston late at Waterford presently to the relief of it if any thing should have been attempted and passing the Shanon having notice of Ireton's quitting Athlone took the two Castles again and laid siege to the Bur where two great Guns had been left by the English To the relief whereof likewise Colonel Axtel having fac'd them before but now reinforced marched with a resolution to Engage being in all some 2500 men whereupon the Marquess Clanrickard quitted the Siege and retreated to Meleke Island bordering upon the Shanon into which there was but one Pass and a Bog on each side On the 25 of October a little before night Axtel made a resolute attempt upon them and after a sharp dispâ—te beat them from the first and second Passes and at the third which was strongly fortified came to the Bâ—t-end of the Musquet and entred the Island which the Irish in flight deserted leaving most of their Arms behind 200 Horse all their Waggons and Baggage so that what by the Sword and the River one half of that Army perished On the English side Captain Goff and a hundred more were killed the Marquess was himself not present but was gone upon a designe against the Siege at Limerick which advanced very slowly The next day the Irish quitted all the Garrisons they had taken and fired thâ—m whereupon Ireton drew from Limerick and took in the stâ—oâ—g Castle of Neanagh in low Ormond and so retreated to his Winter-quarters aâ— Kilkenny in November These untoward events and misfortunes one upon the neck of another together with the displacency and dissatisfaction among themselves made the Lord Ormond despair of retriving His Majesties interest in that Kingdom without forrain assistance and therefore he resolved to depart and signified his intentions accordingly to the Council of of the Irish who after some arguments and intreaties of his further stay did at last humbly and sorrowfully take leave of him rendring him all expressions of thanks and honour for those unwearied Services he had done his Country and passed several Votes in record thereof desiring his Lordship to excuse those many failures which evil times and strange necessities had caused in them and desiring him to be their Advocate to His Majesty and to other Princes to get some aid and supplies from them to the defence of that gasping Realm that now strugled with its last Fate About the beginning of December the Marquess took shipping in a little Frigat called the Elizabeth of 28 Tuns and 4 Guns and set sail from Galloway followed by the Lord Inchiqueen Colonel Vaughan the Noble Colonels Wogan and Warren and some 20 more persons of Honour intending for France Scilly or Iersey but happily landed at St. Malos in France in Ianuary whence they went to Paris and gave the Queen-Mother an account of that Kingdom Thence the Marquess of Ormond removed to Flanders and the Lord Inchiqueen into Holland and came to Amsterdam the Valiant Wogan taking the first opportunity in Scilly in order to his further service of the King in Scotland where he first manifested his Zeal and gallantry to the Royal Cause The noise of these lucky Atchievements had made most of the Neighbouring Princes consider a little further and more regardfully of this Commonwealth more especially such whose Trade by Sea might be incommodated by their Naval-force which now Lorded it in gallant Fleets upon the adjoyning Seas The first whom this danger prevailed upon was the King of Portugal Iohn the 4. whose Fleet laden with Sugar from Brasile General Blake had met with and for his entertainment of Prince Rupert with his Fleet now newly taken and dispersed brought away 9 of them into the River of Thames where they were delivered to the Commissioners for Prize-goods then newly established by Authority of Parliament upon which score the State received in few years many hundred thousand pounds and was cheated of almost as much whose names were Blackwel Blake Sparrow and upon the Dutch-War others particularly named for that very Affair because of its continual Employment In the Month of December therefore he sent hither his Embassador who landed at â—he Isle of Wight and gave notice to the Council of State of his Arrival who instead of a better complement sent him a safe Conduct for his Journey to London there being then open Hostility between the two Nations for that the King of Portugal to satisfie himself of his damages sustained in his Sugar-fleet had seiâ—â—d all the English Merchants goods in Lisbon On the 11 of December he had Audience before a Committee of Parliament attended with the Master of the Ceremonies and 20 of his own retinue in the House
of Lords which he at first refused to accept as being a Diminution to his Masters Greatness but at last was forced to accept of the Lord-Commissioner Whitlock Major-General Harrison Sir Henry Vane Thomas Challoner and others being appointed thereunto He delivered his Credentials which were to the Parliament of England and made an excellent Rhetorical Harangue setting forth the Constant Friendship betwixt both Kingdoms and the Civilities they had received formerly and of late from the English and desiring that the late mis-understanding might occasion no further breach thereof but that a firm and new League might be ratified as formerly He had answer that the Committee would report his Message to the Parliament and so after a mutual Salutation upon the Embassadors rising from his Chair he withdrew with the same attendance But the reason he had no solemner Reception was the pride and opimonastry the States had of themselves by the Courtships and flattering Insinuations of the Spanish Kings Embassador who had likewise desired Audience of them and came with a most welcome acknowledgement of their Commonwealth and it was a reciprocal kindness to him not to allow the Portugal his pretended Rebel and a much less potent Prince the said Grandeurs and Legatory Honours considering besides the uninterrupted amity that had yet been maintained by the Spaniard On the 16 of December therefore Don Alonzo de Cardenas who had lain Leiger Embassador in the Kings time throughout the War was with all State received to Audience in the Parliament-house he having delivered his Credentials to the Speaker which were directed Ad Parliamentum Reipublicae Angliae and Conducted back again with large protestations of friendship and good correspondence on their part to be inviolately observed During these Forrain Agencies the New State was Alarmed with an Insurrection in Norfolk where some hundreds of men were gathered together Declaring for King Charles the second but the County-Horse quartering at Lyn and a Troop of Rich's men that were neer at hand being there before having some intelligence of the designe presently dispersed them most flying into Lincolnshire and saved the London-Forces the trouble of a long Journey who were then on their way To try these Insurrectors a High Court of Iustice was Erected by the Parliament at Norwich the Members and Commissioners whereof chose out of themselves Justice Iermin their President and Justice Puliston and Warberton to be his Co-adjutors Those Condemned 24 whereof 20 were Executed the chief of those thus Condemned were Mr. Cooper a Minister in the same County who was Executed at Holt and died a Loyal and Christian Martyr Major Saul formerly an Officer in the Kings Army and a Merchant and a Brewer in the City of Norwich There were several persons of quality besides as Sir Iohn Tracy Gibbons Esq. and others secured and committed but no proof coming in they were at last acquitted While we mention the High Court of Iustice a very remarkable instance of the Justice of Heaven the Highest Court deserves mention One Anne Green a Servant in Sir Thomas Read's House at Dunstu in Oxfordshire being supposed to be gotten with Childe by one of that Family as the woman constantly affirmed when she had no temptation to lye neer the fourth Month of her time with over-working her self by turning of Malt fell in Travel and not knowing what the matter might be went to the House of Office and with some straining the Childe not above a span-long and of what Sex not to be distinquished fell unawares as she all along affirmeth from her Now there appearing the signes of such a thing in the Linnen where the Wench lay and carrying a suspition thereof and she before confessing that she had been guilty of such matters as might occasion his being with Child thereupon a search was made and the above-said Infant was found on the top of the Jakes and she after three days from her delivery being carried to the Castle of Oxford was forthwith Arraigned before Mr. Crook sitting as Judge in a Commission of Oyer and Terminer and by him Sentenced to be Hanged which was Executed on the 14 day of December in the said Castle-yard She hung there neer half an hour being pulled by the Legs and struck on the Brest by divers Friends and above all received several stroaks on her Stomack with the But-end of a Souldiers Musquet Being cut down she was put into a Coffin and brought to a house to be Dissected before a Company of Physicians according to appointment by Doctor Petty the Anatomy-Reader in that University When they opened the Coffin to prepare the Body for Dissection they perceived some small ratling in her Throat and a lusty Fellow standing by thinking to do an act of Charity stamped upon her Breast and Belly Doctor Petty Mr. Willis of Christ-Church and Mr. Clerk of Magdalen-Colledge presently used means and opening a Vein laid her in a warm Bed and caused one to go into Bed to her and continued the use of divers Remedies respecting her senselessness Head Throat and Brest so that it pleased God within 14 hours she spoke and the next day talked and prayed very heartily and was in a hopeful way of perfect health whereupon the Governour presently procured her a Reprieve thousands of people coming to see her and magnifying the just providence of God in asserting her Innocency of Murther After two or three days of her recovery when Doctor Petty heard she had spoken and suspecting that the Women about her might suggest unto her to relate of strange Visions and Apparitions to have been seen by her in that time wherein she seemed dead which they had begun to do having caused all to depart the room but the other Gentlemen of the Faculty she was asked concerning her sense and apprehensions during that time she was Hanged At first she spake somewhat impertinently talking as if she had been now to suffer and when they spake unto her of her miraculous deliverance from so great sufferings she answered That she hoped that God would give her patience and the like Afterward when she was better recovered she affirmed and doth still that she neither remembereth how her Fetters were knocked off how she went out of the Prison when she was turned off tâ—e Ladder whether any Psalm was sung or not nor was she sensible of any pain as she can remember Another thing observable is that she came to her self as if she had awakened out of a Sleep not recovering the use of speech by slow degrees but in a manner all together beginning to speak just where she had left off on the Gallows I have thought this occurrence no way unworthy of a Remembrance in this Chronicle but very fit to be transmitted to Posterity for Gods Glory and Mans Caution in Judging and punishing Several Acts passed the Parliament this Ianuary as namely for continuance of the Committee for the Army and Treasurers at War
Limburgh into whose hands upon a remove they lighted This troublesome delay so displeased their Westminster-masters that on the 18 of May the Parliament recalled them which being notified to the States they seemed surprized and by consent of the Embassadors sent away an Express accompanied with Mr. Thurloe Saint Iohn's Secretary to London to desire a longer respit in hope of a satisfactory Conclusion But after a vainâ—r Expectation thereof saving this dubious insignificant Resolution as the States called it In haec verba The States General of the Netherlands having heard the report of their Commissioners having had a Conference the day before with the Lords Embassadors of the Commonwealth of England do declare That for their better satisfaction they do wholly and fully condescend and agree unto the 6 7 8 9 10 and 11 Propositions of the Lords Embassadors which were the most unconcerning and also the said States do agree unto the 1 2 3 and 5 Articles of the year 1495. Therefore the States do expect in the same manner as full and clear an Answer from the Lords Embassadors upon the 36 Articles delivered in by their Commissioners the 24 of June 1647. This indifferency being maintained and strengthned by the presence and Arguments used in a Speech made by Mr. Macdonald the Kings Agent then at that time Resident at the Hague who also printed their Articles or Propositions with his Comments on them another Months time being spent they were finally remanded and departed on the 20 of Iune re infecta to the trouble as was pretended of most of the Lords of Holland When Saint Iohn gave the States Commissioners who came to take leave of him these parting words My Lords You have an Eye upon the Event of the Affairs of the Kingdom of Scotland and therefore do refuse the Friendship we have offered now I can assure you that many in the Parliament were of opinion that we should not have come hither or any Embassadors to be sent to you before they had superated thâ—se matters between them and that King and then expected your Embassadors to us I nâ—w perceive our errour and that those Gentlemen were in the right in a short time you shall see that business ended and then you will come to us and seek what we have freely offered when it shall perplex you that you have refused our proffer And it â—ell ouâ— as he had Divined it Upon his coming home after those welcomes and thanks given him by the Parliament he omitted not to aggravate those rudenesses done him and to exasperate them against the Dutch and the angry effects of his Counsels and report soon after appeared On the 9 of April in order and designe to abolish all Badges of the Norman Tyranny as they were pleased to call it now that the English Nation had obtained their natural Freedom they resolved to Manumit the Laws and restore them to their Original Language which they did by this ensuing additional Act and forthwith all or most of the Law-books were turned into English according to the Act a little before for turning Proceedings of Law into English and the rest written afterwards in the same Tongue but so little to the benefit of the people that as Good store of Game is the Country-mans Sorrow so the multitude of Sollicitors and such like brought a great deal of trouble to the Commonwealth not to speak of more injuries by which that most honourable profession of the Law was profaned and vilified as being a discourse out of my Sphere At the same time they added a second Act explanatory of this same wonderful Liberty both which here follow Be it Enacted by this present Parliament and by the Authority thereof That the Translation into English of all Writs Process and Returns thereof and of all Patents Commissions and all Proceedings whatsoever in any Court of Iustice within this Commonwealth of England and which concerns the Law and Administration of Iustice to be made and framed into the English Tongue according to an Act entituled An Act for the turning the Books of the Law and all Proces and Proceedings in Courts of Iustice into English be and are hereby refered to the Speaker of the Parliament the Lords Commissioners of the Great Seal of England the Lord Chief Iustice of the Upper-Bench the Lord Chief Iustice of the Common-pleas and the Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer for the time bâ—ing or any two or more of them and what shall be agreed by them or any two or more of them in Translating the same the Lords Commissioners shall and may affix the Great Seal thereunto in Cases where the same is to be fixed And so that no miss-Translation or Variation in Form by reason of Translation or part of Proceedings or Pleadings already begun being in Latine and part in English shall be no Errour nor void any Proceedings by reason thereof Provided That the said recited Act shall not extend to the certifying beyond the Seas any Case or Proceedings in the Court of Admiralty but that in such Cases the Commissioners and Proceedings may be certified in Latin as formerly they have been An Act for continuing the Assessment of 120000 l. per mensem for five Months from the 25 day of April 1651. for maintenance of the Armies in England Ireland and Scotland was likewise passed By our way to Scotland we must digress to a petty commotion in Wales Hawarden and Holt-Castle Seized and a Hubbub upon the Mountains which engaged Colonel Dankins to a craggy expedition Sir Thomas Middleton purged and the Coast cleared of a Presbyterian discontent upon which score the noise was raised but the story not taking Presto on all 's gone and the invisible Royalists cannot be found or sequestred for their combination in Lancashire-plot now started and hotly sented and pursued by the Grandees of the Council of State and the Blood-hounds of their High Court of Iustice again unkennelled of which more presently Blackness-Castle was now delivered to General Cromwel in Scotland on the first of April while he yet continued sick of an Ague General Dean being newly arrived with Money and supplies from England two days before and on the 11 of the same Month the Scotch Parliament sat down where they rescinded that often-mentioned Act of Classes of Delinquents whereby way was made to the restoring of the Loyal Nobility to their seats in Parliament and an Act passed from the perceipt of the dangerous consequences of the Western Remonstrance that it should be Treason to hold correspondence with or abet the Enemy Cromwel having already made another journey into those parts to carry on his business at Glascow which place had been infamed at the beginnig of the Scotch Troubles and was now by the just Judgement of God the Stage designed to act the Catastrophe and last act of three Kingdoms Ruine For I must remember the Reader that here the first Scene of our misery was laid
courage and it being resolved before to deliver it as the Earl had proffered that former resolution daâ—ht any other so that though Sir Thomas Armstrong who was come thither out of Ireland a famous Souldier offered to have maintained Rushen-Castle where the Lady was yet upon very slender terms it was rendred Into such distractions do the continued strokes of persecuting Fortune drive the most resolute mindes that the most constant magnanimity for which this Countess was highly famous as at Latham-house is at last depressed and forced to submit to her arbitrary and uncontrolable Tyranny The Isle of Barbadoes where the King had been Proclaimed and was now in open defiance of the Parliament and prosecuted their Trade onely with the Hollanders was the next and onely place to be reduced with some other of the Caribbe-Islands there adjacent About the 16 of Octob. Sir George Ayscue having coasted several places about Spain and Portugal to finde out Prince Rupert arrived at Barbadoes in Carlisle-bay where he found fourteen sail of Hollanders in the Road and to prevent their running on shore sent in the Amity Frigat commanded by Captain Peck with three other ships to seize them who presently Commanded the respective Masters aboard and so gained the Vessels and kept them as prize for Trading with the Enemies of the Common-wealth in that Island with three other Hollanders as they were sailing to the other Islands The Fleet having plied up and down in the sight of the Islanders who were now in Arms to the number of 4000 Horse and Foot came to anchor at Spikes-bay and the Virginia-Merchant-Fleet arriving in December Sir George advised it very advantageous for the Service by the countenance of those ships which seemed as his reserve of Men of War to attempt a landing which accordingly was done by a Regiment of 700 men made up with 150 Scotch Slaves the rest being Seamen This was effected on the 17 of December and the Islanders beaten up to their Fort which on a sudden was by them deserted after the loss of some 60 men on both sides and the same Fort and four pieces of Ordnance gained by them and then the Seamen retreated again to the ships which lay crusing up and down continually to intercept any Trade or Traffick coming thither That inconvenience made some of the Islanders weary of the War which Sir George very well understanding negotiated with one Colonel Muddyford a chief man in one part of the Island about a peace and accommodation and the conclusion of that transaction was Muddyford's publike declaring for Peace and joyning with Sir G Ayscue to bring the Governour the Lord Willoughby to reason as it was called Sir George and his Forces made up 2000 Foot and 100 Horse so that to avoid the uncertainty of battel and the Effusion of blood both parties agreed to treat and the 11 of Ian. agreed upon the Rendition on Articles every day comprehensive and honourable Commissioners names for Sir George were Captain Peck Mr. Searl left Governour there Colonel Muddyford and Mr. Colleton and for the Lord Willoughby Sir Richard Peers Mr. Charles Pym Colonel Ellice and Major Byham his Lordship having his desired Conditions of Indemnity and freedom of Estate and person not long after returned into England as did Sir George having visâ—â—ed Mevis and St. Christophers Before his coming Major-General Poyntz newly Governour thereof had shipt himself for Virginia the onely retreat for Royalists as lying so far up in the Continent and affording subsistence of it self Thus nothing remained of all the British Dominions either of profit honour or security to the Nation which their Handmaid Success had not attained to and that in as short a space of time as the most indulgent Fates ever apportioned to their greatest and whitest Favourites whose Glories of Conquest they increased by sparing and lessening their sweat and travail in the Atchievement In Scotland the Major-Generals Lambert Dean and Lieutenant-General Monke had brought things to that pass that the people were rated by Assessments towards the charge of the Army and this the Kirk in their new Assembly since it could not be otherwise would permit to be paid but expresly forbad the people to comply or give meeting or cause any to be â—ad in order to the closing with the Declaration of the Commissioners who were to receive from the Deputies of each Shire who were ordered to chuse such their Subscriptions to the projected Union now directly remonstrated against besides other arguments yea and from the Covenant from this main one because that incorporation would draw with it a subordination of the Kirk to the State in the things of Christ for here the Shop painfully wrung them This was dated Ian. the 21. The Parliament to correct this perversness and in pursuance of their Commissioners Declaration to the same purpose Decreed 1. An Act for the Vnion Abolishing Kingly Goverment c. and for punishing such as should contravâ—ne or offend against the meaning and purpose of the said Act. 2. That in Complyance with the said Vnion the Shires or Burghs should Chuse their Deputies or Burgesses in a proportionable number as the Parliament should think fit to represent them in Parliament and this was stiled a great favour and a freeing the Nation from the villanage of their Heritors Lairds and Lords most of whose Estates that were in the two late Invasions with Hamilton and at Worcester they had declared Confiscate together with all the Crown-lands and Houses to the use of the Commonwealth of England towards the defraying of the charge of this their labour of Love in the reducing of that Kingdom The Bishops lands could not be found for the Kirk had mingled and mixt them with their own sacred rights and perquisites so that the most quick-sighted sacriledge could hardly discern them By these Summons the Deputies of the Shires of this side and the other side Tay were ordered the most remote to appear on the 26 of February and in the mean time about the black 30 of Ianuary the Commissioners proceeded with their instructions and issued out several Proclamations against the King's and Monarchical Government and that Writs should no longer run in His Name and Mutatis mutandis in Scotland as in England His Arms defaced and for an English Judicature to be there established and to keep the Sessions which was the Term. Thus far the Political and Civil Government was provided for already nor was there any thing of Note among the Martialists save the taking in Dumbarton-Castle which was rendred by Sir Charles Erskin upon Articles Ianuary the 5 with a Salvo to the Duke of Lenox and Richmond of his Goods and Great Guns therein as being the proper Goods of the said Duke This surrender opened a way to the same terms with Bass-Island the most dangerous place in the Frith to the English Navigation some time after Some Forces under Colonel Overton landed in the Isles
of Orkney and Colonel Fitch's Regiment marched towards Innerness The Dutch had rankled with spleen at the successes of this State as no way compatible with but surmounting those indifferent equal Proposals and Overtures made before the accomplishment thereof and perceiving how regardless and cool the Parliament was now as to any further transaction of a League but that on the contrary their Fishing was molested in these Seas upon the old Title of Soveraignty and that upon any the least pretences of French Goods and Lading their Merchant-ships were searched stayed and sometimes adjudged Prize thought it advisable to send over Embassadors as well to obtain reparation for those damages as to provide for future security against the like by a Treaty and in case they perceived the aversness or untowardness of the State thereto to fully inform themselves what Naval preparation there was in hand and in what readiness and how the Nation stood affected to or would yet endure the Government as by a Copy of their Instructions since appeared The Embassadors Myn heeren Catz Schaep and Vande Perre of Zealand as of custome and right one of that Province must be in the Embassie hither were ordered to be gone with all speed upon the notice of the Act for the encouragemâ—nt of the English-Navigation c. But the Wind blowing at Southwest from the very day of the date of the said Act neither they nor other ships bound thence from England with East and West-India Commodities Spice and such-like could stir out of their Ports to the great exasperation of that people who when they see the day elapsed being the first of December and had notice that the Parliament would not allow a day longer even to the English themselves upon any account whatsoever though to the breaking of several Merchants whose Estates were coming over in such Goods thence procured the Lords to make an Arrest and Imbargo upon all English ships then in the Texel but which the States were willing soon after to recal and make shew of good Correspondence and Friendship as in this and other occasions they yet testified The Embassadors with the first opportunity the rather to prevent Monsieur Speering then at the Hague and Commissioned by the Queen of Sweden for her Embassador into England as unwilling to be the last should own this Common-wealth put to Sea and arrived here about the middle of Ianuary and for the greater credit of the sincerity of their intentions to Peace and Amity they brought over their Families by which it might appear they intended to stay till that great affair was finished by them being also men for their particular persons very acceptable to the State here Soon after their Reception they had Audience in the Parliament-house and a Committee appointed to confer with them by whom they were at the entrance of their business choaked with our claim to and their dues for the Herring-fishing with the old story of bloody Amboyna and a demand of a Free-trade in the Schelde from Middleburgh to Antwerpe where the English had a good Trade once within 100 years then the most famous Mart of the Low-countries yea of Europe but by the Hollanders seizing of Flushing and building the Fort Lillo opon that River in their Wars against the Spaniard the Merchants and Inhabitants disaffected otherwise to the King of Spain in the beginning of that War betook themselves to Amsterdam which by the sudden breaking in of the Sea and breaking down of Dams became a most convenient and capacious Harbour and consequently a great Mart as lying most opportune for the Trade of the East and North-East Seas Monsieur Speering arrived here likewise and was well received a short while after and laid a foundation of that Treaty which was afterwards concluded by the Lord Whitlock with that Queen but he deceasing here soon after Monsieur Appleboom Resident also at the Hague was substituted to his Embassie in like manner The 24 of February came out their Act of Oblivion whereout Sir Iohn Webster of Amsterdam was totally excluded together with the Executors of the Arch-bishop of Canterbury the slayers of Dorislaus and Ascham the Viscount Mansfield and Lord Goring and General George Lord Goring and Charles his Sons which particulars out of a multitude of publike exceptions as H. Martin discanted on it I thought fit to give the Reader a hint of that such a precious Record of their absolute greatness as the taking upon them to pardon when they needed it onely themselves might not totally be lost the Preface and Induction to it being a fallacy a non concesso that because the generality of the Nation had shewed themselves ready to suppress the late Scotch Invasion at Worcester therefore the Parliament out of meer grace c. but all this favour to be of no benefit to any one without taking the Engagement Their Committee for Regulation of the Law had likewise proceeded so far as to take an account of all Courts and Offices concerning their Fees and to see they did Execution of Justice for corruption wherein Iohn Lilburn and Iosiah Primate having taxed their Commissioners at Haberdashers-hall about a Cole-pit Primate pretended to but Sir Arthur Haslerig had possession of by vertue of one Colonel Wray's Delinquency the said Lilburn was banished on the 30 day of Ianuary and Primate fined 4000 l. to the said Commissioners and Sir Arthur and committed to the Fleet but upon submission Released In Ireland the War was almost at an end nothing considerable but Galloway and some few Castles holding out and some loose parties forraging the Country whereupon the Lord â—lanrickard then in Galloway about the beginning of March sent a Letter to Lieutenant-General Ludlow to desire of him that in order to a composure and conclusion of that bloody wasting War in that Kingdom he or the Commissioners would give safe-conduct for the chief persons of the Irish out of every County to meet and to agree of terms about a Peace not doubting as he expressed if it should be refused but that they were able to maintain themselves till supplies from abroad and courage at home and their wants and discouragements from England should alter the case To this was answered by Ludlow That the Commissioners could not nor would allow such a thing as a Council of the Irish to settle the Kingdom but that if they would submit they should have such Articles and Conditions as was fit for them For that the Parliament whose that Kingdom was would have the ordering and Government of it and that it was not for those in Arms against their Authority to think of such an absurd condescention This Answer being returned to two or three offers of surrender took not effect yet prevailed on several parties as the Lord Muskerry's Fitz Patrick's and the Odwyr's to come in and submit with liberty of transporting their Forces into the service of the King of Spain or to abide
wherein He was so much concerned by the obstinacy of the Princes party who would not yield to any thing without the Cardinals removal which the King and Queen-mother would no way grant at the Command of their Subjects He betook himself to the Duke of Lorrain then at Dampmartin where he was received with all possible demonstrations of Honour by that Army drawn up in Battalia the Irish Officers of three Regiments of that Nation being admitted to kiss his Hand In this encounter at Estampes the Duke of York then on the Kings side did so nobly and valiantly behave himself that the Marshal de Turenne his General gave a very obliging Character of him in his Letters as the onely meriting person in that Service which procured him especial regard and Honour from that Court and all the Grandees of that Nation which they abundantly testified on all occasions In the interim of that Action the King His Brother after some Conference with the Duke of Lorrain had engaged him to a kind of Neutrality which he declared and made evident just as the two Armies of the King and Princes were facing one another to the disappointment of a resolution and desperate Engagement on the Princes â—ide who were compell'd to retreat to Paris and resume those thoughts of Peace which from their Confidence in Lorrain they had totally abandoned The frantick Parisians were so incensed at this peaceful conclusion that they publikely taxed the King and His Mothers menage thereof with that Duke so that till the advantages thereof should reclaim their mistake the King withdrew himself for some time to St. Germains whence upon the conclusion of the whole affair he returned most infinitely welcome to those so lately-passionate and inconsiderate people Whither a while before the Marchioness of Ormond having left Ireland came to meet the Marquess her Husband and was followed by the Earl of Castlehaven We must back again return to that Kingdom now quite spent with the continued Calamities of a luckless War which after several Surrenders and Capitulations was managed there by flyiâ—◠〈◊〉 and sudden Excursions and Retreats the sum of which was in 〈◊〉 On the third of April Roscommon-Castle was yiâ—lded as likewise 〈◊〉 Town to Commissary-General Reynolds by Major Daly and Colonel Connor Teige O. Roe submitted at the same time upon Articles soon after the Earl of Westmeath and Sir William Tungan Sir Francis Talbot and many others to the number of 800 after a Treaty at Kilkenny did the same and the Lord Muskerry was sending the same way but thought his past Actions and his Condition more considerable than to be hudled up in common and ordinary Terms Onely the Lord-Marquess Clanrickard according to the Tenour of his past promise upon his first undertaking the Service and after the sole Command of the Army resolvedly and Loyally waived the proffer of those Kilkenny-Articles which were now tendered as their standing Rule to all the Irish namely upon submission protection and those who ever they were that should be found guilty of the Massacres in the first Rebellion to be questionable for it and to be excluded from any benefit of Conditions and prosecuted the War afresh On the 16 of May with the Connaught-Forces he marched to Ballishannon having drawn with him some Ordnance from Slego and after two days Battery made a breach and Stormed it and after two repulses carried it by main force and gave such Quarter as his Party on the like occasion used to receive next he took Dungal-Castle and there the Vlster-Forces under Sir Phelim O Neal the O. Relies and Mac Mahon's joyned with him but upon notice of Sir Charles Coot's advancing thither after him and of Venable's Brigades to assist him he departed to Armagh intending for Raphoe and in the mean time Lieutenant-General Ludlow marched towards Ross in Kerry to attaque that strength of the Lord Muskerries and Lieutenant-Colonel Throckmorton May the 6 defeated a party of 500 Foot and 400 Horse neer Wexford under Commissary-General Duncan at the same time in Treaty with Ludlow who now likewise had reduced the Lord Muskerry to a necessity of such Terms a party of his Forces being defeated by the Lord Broghil 300 killed and Colonel Supple and other Officers taken Prisoners as he bogled at first his strong Hold of Ross having yielded on the 27 of Iune and his Field-forces laying down their Arms upon Articles for Transportation Iuly 5. And Colonel Grace had a brush from Colonel Henry Ingoldsby and another part of that Army of the Vltoghs under Mac Reli defeated in Gavan by Sir Theophilus Iones on Iune the 14. These Losses and Defeats together with the rendition of Galloway on the 12 day of May and Proclamation of the Commissioners for Outlawing the County of Wicklow and parts adjacent to it out of which those salleys of Tories were frequently made and not pursuable therein by reason of the Fastnesses and Bogs it being the Store-house and Magazine of Victual for the Irish and now miserably harassed with Fire and Sword without mercy by the English the rather for the death of Colonel Cook slain by Nash and his party of Irish though Nash died also upon the same spot some while before made Ireland a Scene of blood and misery and the stubborn Natives and the resolute Loyal English-Irish a mournful consideration to their Friends and a wanting laborious defence to themselves nothing being to be afforded further upon the most considerable Surrender than common protection and Indemnity from the Parliament Ballishannon was again retaken upon quarter for Life and Slego Rendred to Sir Charles Coot Colonel Grace got over the Shanon from Colonel Ingoldsby having lost 2 Colonels 7 Captains and 800 Souldiers killed and taken Iune 20. In May the Commissioners of the Parliament for the settlement of the Nation of Scotland having had conference with the Deputies of some Shires who accepted the Union and refused to Treat with others that came not with a Plenipotence for their acquiescing therein and engagement to it and the Authority of the Parliament and to the fuller effect thereof had caused Proclamation to be made that such Deputies as should acknowledge and accept the said Union should proceed to the Election of 14 Deputies of Shires and 7 for the Burghs by August to attend the Parliament at London in the behalf of the whole Kingdom departed out of Scotland for London to make report of their transaction which had hitherto met with very obstinate averseness to the Parliaments tender of Incorporation the provincial Assemblies of the Kirk every where declaring against it forbidding the people to accept or embrace any such motion Nor did the new English Judges finde better welcome than the Commissioners though three of them were noted men of the Scotch Nation the chief of whom was the Lord Swinton and Colonel Lockhart and though at their opening of the Session or Term they
to Dunkirk from his Prison at Carisbrook where none but a Barber and a sorry Tutor attended him besides Anthony Mildmay his Keeper where he was very joyfully received and thence conveyed to Brussels where he had further grandeurs and civilities done him and brought thence in the Princess of Aurange's Coach to Breda in Holland to the great joy of the Royal Family who every day feared his Life from those Bloody Usurpers Soon after he had enjoyed the Company of his Sister he was conducted into France by the Lord Langdale and the Lord Inchiqueen to visit his Mother his Royal Brothers and the Princess Henrietta whose delight and content in the fruition of him as one risen from the Dead I will not be so bold as to take upon me to express Some while before his arrival at Dunkirk and just upon the news of his leave and dismission out of England the French King had by the advice of the Cardinal Mazarine who was returned in great state to Court and Council being accompanied by most of the principal persons of that Kingdom and more particularly by the Duke of York who was in high Reputation in the Army and met by the King of France himsâ—lf out of the Town notwithstanding all the perswasions and obstructions that were used by the Queen-Mother of England and her Interest in that Crown sent hither Monsiâ—ur Bourdeaux Neuville a creature of the said Cardinals his Envoy hither to the Parliament who delivered his Letters to them on the 14â— but the Superscriptions not being as full and as ample as other Princes weâ—e they were returned again unbroken up to the Embassador who having others by him as was supposed presented them shortly after which were well â—eceived and an Answer promised to be with all speed returned The Portugal Embassador who had been in Treaty here about the Damages-done the English in 1649. came now to a conclusion thereof and there remaining 15500 l. in difference betwixt Him and the Parliaments Commissioners upon his submission and reference of it to the Parliament they defaulked and abated the said sum as a token of their respect and good will to that King M. Bourdeaux's Negotiation was most abominably resented here as well as abroad for a piece of the uncivilest policy the French were ever guilty of but the Cardinal could not be secure nor better ingratiate with the Traffiquers and Traders which consists of the Commonalty who had suffered more by English Sea-Rovery than by a Peace here the Superscription of those Letters being a meer Falsifie and a present satisfaction to the desires of the said Queen The Dutch Lion was now Rampant and roaring out Proclamations and Placaâ—â—s against bringing in any English Manufactures or holding correspondence with us as if he had the Prey under his Paws and were sure of Victory all Princes were made acquainted with this late success which lost nothing by carrying and their Friends and Allies encouraged to come in and take part of the spoil and to Friend and Foe they peremptorily forbid by a Declaration the supply of the English with any Utensils or provisions of War and Trump had already seized eleven Lubeckers laden with Eastland Commodities pretending to Ostend by which Lubeckers and Hamburgers most of the Holland-Trade in single ships was disguised so that the English ships resolved to seize all those that spoke IA without any Shiboleth or distinction Upon this score three Hamburgh ships laden with Plate coming from Cadiz were brought into Plymouth though they pretended to be bound for Flanders and that the Money belonged to the King of Spain and was consigned for the pay of his Armies immediately upon notice of their Seizure the Spanish Embassador at London made application by a special Audience in Parliament for their delivery and did most industriously sollicite and prosecute the same but the Wealth was too considerable and of as great concernment to their occasions in this Dutch War as the Spaniard could alledge any and therefore they remitted the Examination of the business to the Judges of the Admiralty where it proved a most tedious Affair one Mr. Violet a Goldsmith and Prosecutor for this State engaging himself most busily in procuring their adjudication for lawful Prize In Ireland the High Court of Iustice was now erected and in Circuit the first place of their sitting being at Kilkenny where the Grand Council of the Rebels in 1641. had their Residence and thence to Waterford Corke Dublin and Vlster c. They were attended and sate in very great State neer the pattern in England with 24 Halberdiers in good Apparel for their Guard and all other Officers sutable The President of this Court was one Justice Donelan an Irish Native pickt out on purpose for the greater terrour of the Delinquents to whom as assistants were joyned Justice Cook the Infamous Sollicitor against the King whom they would have most wickedly and by all abominable artifices by urging and soothing their Prisoners to confess as much entituled to that Rebellion but found not by all their scelerate practises what they sought for and Commissary-General Reynolds many persons were by these Condemned some of the chief whereof as Colonel Walter Bagnal Colonel Tool Colonel Mac Hugh and a greater number of lesser Quality suffered Death Bagnal being Beheaded a manner of Execution not usual in Ireland the Lord Clanmallero the Viscount Mayn and some others escaped but the Nation was was so generally scared and in such a fright that happy was he that could get out of it for no Articles were pleadable here and against a Charge of things done 12 years before little or no defence could be made and the cry that was made of Blood aggravated with the expressions of so much horrour and the no less daunting aspect of the Court quite contounded the amazed Prisoners so that they came like Sheep to the slaughter which had been such ravenous Wolves in preying upon the Lives of the poor unarmed English but the Spanish Army was so full of them and their late revolt at Burdeaux to the French side made them so suspicious that thereafter they became very unwelcome Auxiliaries and upon that account the Lord of Muskerry who had according to Articles Transported himself came back again to Ireland without leave and was taken and committed to Dublin-Castle and some while after Tried at the same High Court of Iustice. Sir Phelim O Neal that great and prime Ringleader of the Rebellion was likewise betrayed by his own party in February following at Vlster neer Charlemount and brought Prisoner to the Lord Caufield's house whose Father he had treacherously Murthered and sent with a Guard to the same place and Hanged and Quartered Insomuch that all Ireland was now wholly reduced for Colonel Barrow had taken most of the places in Vlster save what Forces were skulking in the Fastnesses and made a kinde of thieving War and that was yet
last to his End Providence having reserved this honourable Destiny for him that he alone of all the English of Note should fall in his Majesties last Quarrel in the Kingdom of Scotland the manner thus Being abroad with his party of some 60 English he met with Captain Elsenore's Lieutenant ranging upon the same adventure with some more than his number neer Drummond and Weems and fell upon him and after a very sharp and stout Conflict for they were Armed with Back and Brest and were Veteranâ— Blades and never fled before routed them but was Wounded himself with a Tuck whereof not long after he died and was buried in great State and much lamentation with a Military Funeral in the Church of Kenmore and Captain Ker a valiant Scot was killed with him the said Lieutenant was killed also upon the place with 30 of his men to accompany the fate of this Noble person so that he fell not unrevenged Great indignation there was against Robinson the Surgeon that Drest him for his neglect of him the Earl of Athol having threatned to kill him so dearly was this Heroe beloved by that Nation who constantly envied the worth and gallantry of ours And here we must leave him till some grateful Learned Muse shall sing the Honorable Atchievements and most laudable high actions of this famous and renowned Captain Mortogh O Brian the onely remaining General of the remnant of Irish in Arms had lately fallen into the Quarters and defeated several parties and took some small places but upon the approach of a Body of English retreated again to his Fastnesses where he better bethought himself of his sculking condition and therefore sent and obtained the usual Articles of Transportation there being reckoned now above 27000 men that had departed that Kingdom within a year and the transplantation of most of the rest into Connaught a Province environed on one side by the Sea and lockt up by Rivers and Garrisons on the other for the security of the Peace and enjoyment of English Lands and Estates in other Counties had so dispeopled that Kingdom that the Commissioners there and their Commander Fleetwood sent over Letters desiring some Colonies of English to be sent over to them very good Conditions being offered such as would Transport themselves The chief Towns of Limerick Galloway and Waterford to enjoy the like Priviledges with Bristol c. and Cromwel failed not to confirm Mannours and Hereditaments upon his Confiding Creatures there who were very industrious to procure Tenants and Inhabitants to make Rent for them with the same Expedition as he himself would here have sold the Forrest-lands now ready for a Purchase The King was yet at Paris having lately received a considerable sum of Money from Germany where the Lord of Rochester continued at the Diet and promises from the Emperour of his appearing in his behalf and of Engaging the other Princes with him upon his declaring for his Interest at the same Diet. The French King was yet very uncertain how to carry himself in that Affair it being yet doubtful whether the Spaniard or he should first be Leagued to Cromwel and some suspition there was of his Rupture with him first as lying most opportune for his Arms and most aimed at because of his Relation to the King and therefore underhand he gave the King assurance of his inviolable respects to him and laboured by all means to stave off the Dutch from an Agreement offering them very largely but by the sagacious policy of Cardinal Mazarine Cromwel was inclined to Friendship with the French and the King being sensible whereto that would tend resolved to depart There was notwithstanding a kinde of Pyratical War excercised by the French and some English and Irish upon the Western Trade by some 15 sail of little Men of War who harboured on the Coast of Britany in Brest and thereabouts and did very much mischief the chief and Admiral of whom was one Captain Beach in the Royal Iames of 38 Guns whom at last the Constant Warwick met with other Frigaâ—s plying up and down to free the Channel and after a long fight forced to yield Beach coming aboard demanded his Articles of being set ashore in France Captain Potter denied any such and if he did not like the Terms he had given he bid him go abord his own ship again with his men and right for better which Beach seeing the bravery of the man refused and was brought Prisoner to Plymouth and so that Nest was broken Cromwel now supplied the Benches of the Courts at Westminster with the ablest of the Lawyers whom he had invited to the publick service and Mr. Maynard Twisden Nudigate Hugh Windham were made Serjeants and Mr. Hales one of the Justices of the Common-Pleas where Saint Iohn yâ—t sate and of the Cabinet to this Protector besides having preâ—erred his Man Thurloe his Secretary at the Hague to be his Secretary of State the Candle or Light of that Dark-Lanthorn which Saint Iohn was said to be in these mysterious times to Cromwel in all his attempts and designes of consequence and moment Colonel Mackworth the Governour of Shrewsbury was called now to the Council and to partake of the Cabal of the Usurpation as a person of fit Interest and principles to strengthen it And the Dutch Peace now concluded on by their Embassadors and the Commissioners of the said Council for the Protector between whom this private Article was agreed That the Prince of Aurange should never be restored to the Dignities Offices and Charge his Ancestors held and enjoyed and this was urged for the better Conservation of the peace which would in his restitution be endangered because of his Relation to the King This was ill resented by the other six Provinces but Holland whose Interest was to have a Peace and who paid more than half of the publick charge stood to it alledging there could no Peace be made without it The rest of the Articles save the restoring of the Ships and Goods detained by the King of Denmark or 140000 l. in lieu of them and taking that King into this Treaty according as the Hollander had engaged to the Dane and paying the damages of the War and giving reparation for all private injuries Amboyna-business being an express Article of it self and the Massacrers to be punished if living were usual and of course save also that the Right of the Flag was acknowledged and Articled to be given to the English in all Rencounters and Mr. Thompson Mr. Winslow and Mr. Russel and others of this side were appointed Arbitrators of the said differences and about the ships kept by the Dane Cromâ—el was the willinger to conclude this Peace by reason of his new settlement in the Throne and the Dutch Friendship was very necessary for his establishment besides the Money was very welcome both of them added reputation to him though the Wiser sort knew and discoursed that he might have brought
the Dutch to any thing The Peace though now concluded was not ratified and proclaimed till April after the arrival of the Embassadors Newport and Youngstal in March towards the end of this year when it was done with great Solemnity especially the Dutch here were very magnificent in Treatments and Fireworks set up in the nature of Beacons in the Thames neer their House The Protector Dined in great State upon an Invitation from the Lord Mayor c. at Grocers-Hall the eighth of February being Ash-Wednesday a very unsuitable day for any Festival but his entertainment who inverted all things the streets being railed from Temple-Bar thither the Liveries in their Gowns in their Gradual standings there he was met at the said Gate by Alderman Viner the Lord Mayor who delivered him the Sword there and having received it from him back again bore it on Horse-back before him all the way through which the â—ame silence was kept as if a Funeral had been en passant and no doubt it was that muteness which Tacitus mentioned in Tiberius quale magnâ— Ire vel magni Metus est silentium no apprecations or so much as a How do ye being given during the whole Cavalcade After Dinner he was served with a Banquet in the conclusion whereof he Knighted Alderman Viner and would have done the same to the Recorder Steel for his learned Speech of Government calculated and measured for him but he for some reasons avoided it the Lord Mayor was forced to carry it home and anger his Wife with it who had real honour both in her Name and Nature Oliver at his return had the second course of a Brick-bat from the top of a House in the Strand by St. Clements which light upon his Coach and almost spoiled his digestion with the daringness of the Affront Search was made but in vain the person could not be found and Vengeance was not yet from Heaven to rain upon him General Middleton now landed at Vney-Ferry in the Highlands with two Vessels from Holland with the Lord Napier Sir George Monro Major-General Dalyel Colonel Lodâ—wick Drummond and some 200 more in March with some Arms with a Commission to Command in chief all his Majesties Forces in that Kingdom who under the Command of the Earls of Glencarn Athol Seaforth and Kenmore being followed and attended by Colonel Morgan had marched up and down from Eglin into Ross and had lately been met withal at Cromar where they lost after a short dispute some 140 killed and taken and presently the Garrison of Kildrumny the Lord of Athol's house rendered to Morgan and Colonel Cotterel was sent to follow the Enemy whose purpose was to protract the War by running from place to place and weary the English out with uncouth and weary marches till Middleton came whose additional strength signifying little besides the Kings Authority in so eminent a person and Office now amongst them and General Monke being sent from London to command in chief there for Oliver their condition was little better than before Colonel Brayn being likewise ordered into the Highlands with 2000 Foot by Sea from Ireland to surround them in on all sides and hem them in to an Engagement At home prevention being Oliver's best State-physick a Plot was started in February and a great many committed to the Tower the chief whereof were Colonel Sir Gilbert Gerrard Colonel Iohn Gerrard his Brother one Iones and Tudor an Apothecary and afterwards Somerset Fox young Mr. Charles Gerrard another Brother and lastly Mr. Iohn and William Ashburnham Mr. Vowel a School-master at Islington the Earl of Oxford Mr. Philip Porter Mr. Finch Mr. Wiseman Mr. Bayly and Sir Richard Willis who to keep himself unsuspected of Intelligence now and ever after was sure to make one of the number of those in Custody The Plot was said to be by him that best understood it to be an Assassinate upon Oliver's person though most rationally refuted by those who were tried about it Tuder attending his Examination at White-hall pretending to ease himself escaped down the House of Office and got away but was afterwards retaken in Norfolk and re-committed but never Arraigned The rest of them were kept in custody till a High Court of Iustice was erected of the old stamp to try them This was one of the first acts of Cromwel's Tyranny with which he exercised the Royal party throughout his Domination and most necessary to his security as a main principle of Government according to the policy of such wretched Times The Protector now sent his Son Henry Cromwel into Ireland to shew himself there in State against his approaching Viceroy-ship there whence the Lord Broghil and Colonel Rich. Coot were sent with Addresses to him from that Kingdom the like about the same time from Coventry being a most zealous Complement General Monke was likewise sent as aforesaid into Scotland so that he had made sure of the three Nations and that no Enemy of his might remain in any place of Trust Command or Judicature the Chancellorship of the Dutchy of Lancashire was taken from Bradshaw and by Ordinance transferred to Thomas Fell and the Seal likewise given him yet Richard Bradshaw was graced with the Title of Oliver's Resident at Hamburgh as he was before because there were no Candidates for the place The Lord Embassador Whitlock likewise owned Him to the Queen of Sweden with the Title of His most Serene Highness my Master having staid there all that Winter to conclude that Treaty which depended upon the Dutch here and was made up after for the Swede would be governed solely by that the Agent or Embassador of the Country of Switzerland Myn Here Stockhart to whom the Umpirage between the Dutch and the English was committed took leave of his said Highness and departed by the way of Holland where he proffered his Superiours best endeavour between them both Monsieur Burdeaux appeared in March in the quality of an Embassador in Ordinary to the Protector and Sir Anthony Ashly Cooper Colonel Sydenham and Mr. Strickland were appointed Commissioners to confer with him In such a fair way was Cromwel already of fixing his Soveraignty and being accepted for a Prince abroad and at home but as the French insinuated into his Friendship the Spaniard abated in it and Mazarine was the onely Privado and confident Friend An Ordinance passed for continuance of the Imposition on Sea-coal for the use of the Navy The year ends with another Ordinance for the tryal and approbation of Ministers wherein Philip Nye Goodwyn Hugh Peters Mr. Manton and others were named Commissioners The Question these men put to the Examinants was not of abilities or Learning but Grace in their Hearts and that with so bold and saucy inquisition that some mens Spirits trembled at their interrogatories they phrasing it so as if as was said of the Council of Trent they had the Holy Ghost in a Cloak-bag or
were rather Simon Magus his own Disciples and certainly there were never such Simoniacks in the World not a Living of value but what a Friend or the best Purchaser was admitted into to which Humane Learning even where a former Right was was a good and sufficient Bar no less to the Ruine than the Scandal of the Church of England and the Protestant Religion and professors thereof several ignorant bold Laicks being inducted into the best Spiritualities as best consisted with Oliver's Interest which depended upon the Sectaries and their hideous divisions in Religion Anno Dom. 1654. HAving thus described the Foundation of this Stratocracy or Army-power we shall not be obliged to any tedious survey of the superstructure which was onely for shew and of little duration supported with temporary shifting Props in every emergency for this great one rather inhabited a Labyrinth than a Court which shewed much variety of Art but like a House of Cards was ready to be whelmed over his Head with every gust of adverse Fortune a cross Restive Government he had of it and was never able to keep it in the right Road and true way of policy And so we proceed in a brief account of State-Occurrences The 6 of April came forth an Ordinance settling Commissioners for Probation of Wills and Administrations c. by want of which power there having been no settled Judge of the Prerogative-Court whose Name abolished the thing very great and many inconveniencies had happened to the Nation Another Ordinance prohibited Cock-matches and Horse-races and all such confluxes or meetings of people for a Plot was now a hatching at White-hall and this was the first overt-signe of it Next the Commission of the Great Seal was altered and Whitlock Lisle and Sir Thomas Widdrington were made Commissioners A Prohibition by another Ordinance to the Committee at Salters Hall concerning Prisoners which were selling of Estates though never so barred by Law to satisfie the Creditors which would have made a quick confusion of Propriety And the Dutch Peace the charge of the War being now paid by that State according to private agreement of the sum was fully concluded and in April Proclaimed A Quaking Prophetess named Hannah Trapnel a forerunner of Iames Naylor now appeared who reported her Visions and Raptures and was attended by several of the Grandees of the male-contented party as Carew and others the most of her delusions she acted in the Counties of Devonshire and Cornwal till she was with some of her Partizans secured in Prison The Scotch Affairs were reputed finished as to any War though the Bustle yet so held and encreased in the Highlands that the spoils of the Conquest were now set out and made accomptable to the Victor The Lords Estates and Hereditaments of the Scotch Nobility and Gentry who Invaded England under Duke Hamilton and came in with the King to Worcester and were yet in Arms were ordered to be sold and to that purpose were invested in the Trust of Sir William Hope Lockhart Sir Richard Saltonstall Lieutenant-Colonel Wilks and others and were actually seized into their hands and the rest of them were Fined in several sums of Money to be paid within six Months some 2000 l. some 5000 l. some few 10000 l. but none under 1000 l. amounting to a greater mass of silver than Scotland was worth in ready Cash so that those who were compell'd to obey though many complemental and humble applications and addresses as is customary to that Nation were made for mitigation were forced to take up Money at unreasonable Interest which rose at last by the like occasions to 30 in the hundred An Ordinance passed with this for uniting of Scotland into one Commonwealth with England it seems the Act of Parliament to the same purpose was not sufficient and the Arms thereof ordered to be quartered as were the Irish with our Cross and Harp and Oliver's Lion Salâ—ant was placed in the middle which is as good Herauldry as this Escutcheon deserves That Kingdom by vertue thereof to be charged no otherwise in Assessments and Tax than proportionably to England and to pay no greater Excise c. An Ordinance likewise for mending and repairing Highways and Bridges which the War had spoiled and were yet every where unrepaired a very necessary and good work for the benefit of the Nation no Waggon being suffered thereafter to travel with above five Horses nor six Oxen and one Horse and care was taken likewise about the shodding of the Wheels General Monke arrives in Scotland and Proclaims Oliver in great state at Edenburgh and Arguile plainly and openly sides with the English and foments divisions among the Scots his Son the Lord Lorn departing in a discontent and quarrel from the Earl of Glencarn and returning to the old Fox his Father The French King Crowned at Rheims having been declared Major and our Soveraign invited to the Solemnity while the Intrigues of Mazarine were driving a conclusion of peace with Cromwel The Designe now appeared which Oliver had hatched for some while and had laboured by his treacherous Agents to mature to something therefore first of all a general search is made throughout London for Cavaliers and thereupon Colonel Iohn Gerrard as before Mr. Vowel and Somerset Fox were brought before the High Court of Iustice Proclaimed the 13 and sitting the 31 of Iune in which interval they had prepared their business and provided Witnesses and drew up the Charge After twice or thrice Conventing of the aforesaid Gentlemen an Accusation was brought of their intention to assassinate the Protector with one Major Henshaw and others fled to the proof whereof they produced young Mr. Charles Gerrard against his Brother as also one Wiseman and one Mr. Hudson a blinde Minister whose Brother was that eminent person who accompanied and guarded the late King in his flight from Oxford that had been cherished by Mr. Vowel against him who yet retracted from his Examination and could not be brought by the threats of the Court to make it good and yet they made it valid Somerset Fox as he was instructed before by promise of Life confessing the Guilt thereby involving the other two innocent Gentlemen and craving mercy It availed not them to deny this Charge though never so much reason and strength of argument on their side Lisle the President summing up the prejudiced suffrages of the Court gave Sentence of Hanging which was Executed Iuly the 10 on Mr. Vowel at Charing-Cross where with a Roman Spirit tempered with Christian Patience he suffered his Martyrdom off from a Stool â—etcht from the Guard the adjacent Neighbours refusing to lend any thing to his Death the Executioner having his Ladder not in readiness Colonel Gerrard was Beheaded on Tower-hill who expresly denied the intention of the Fact and from this reason because he thought it might be far from the honour and great minde of the King whose injunction this was said
to countenance these rumours Blake from Naples came into Leghorn-road and demanded 150000 l. damages for what we sustained in the Fight with Van Galen but what satisfaction he received is uncertain From whence he sailed for Algiers being met at Sea by De Wit the Dutch Vice-Admiral and saluted with extraordinary respect and civilly treated as yet by the Spaniards themselves as also at Lisbon by that King At Naples they would have invited him on shore but the wary Commander excused himself by Command from the Protector not to leave his Charge in which we shall at present leave him On the 18 of November died the unhappy Parent of this Usurper His aged Mother who lived to see her Son through such a Deluge of Blood swim to a perplexed Throne in the best share of whose greatness she was concerned as to the Princely accommodation of her maintenance in Life and burial in Death being laid in Henry the seventh's Chappel in great state On the first of December following died that most Famous and Learned Antiquary Mr. Iohn Selden a person of such worth and Use that no Learned Eye could refrain a tear upon the consideration of Death and its rude indifferencing hand which mingled the Dust of this great Restorer with the putrid Rottenness of her that was the Womb to this Destroyer In Ireland all things continued very quiet Fleetwood being sworn Lord-Deputy Steel made Lord-Chancellour of that Kingdom and Pepys Lord-Chief-Justice and Corbet Goodwyn Thomlinson and Colonel Robert Hammond of the Council by whom the Transplantation was so prosecuted that the first of March was the longest day of respit upon very severe penalties In the mean while this new Deputy and Council till the arrival of Steel diverted themselves in Progress through the Kingdom In Ianuary arrived at London an Embassador the Marquess Hugh Fiesco from the State of Genoa and was splendidly received and dismissed The effects of this Parliament-rupture encouraged two most opposite parties to conspire against the Protector the Fifth-Monarchists and Cavaliers for as to the Commonwealth having once lost their Army they were miserably inconsiderable and the Herd of the Rebellious multitude followed any thing that could continue it in what form soever A Monarchy was sought on by all hands the true Royal party for we must so distinguish it longed for their rightful Soveraign Charles the Second the Fifth-Monarchy expected King Iesus the Courtiers and those engaged by them or with them with Cromwel himself desired King Oliver and every of these manifested much impatience but none oâ— them could attain their Wishes and when Oliver might afterwards he durst not The Protector was no way ignorant of this and therefore he resolved to deal with the weakest first which yet by underminings was more dangerous than the other The Army was corrupted by that Millenary Principle and that was to be purged so that as Harrison and Rich had been laid aside and not long after committed with Carew and Courtney into several remote Castles so now General Monke had order to seize Major-General Overton and the Majors Bramston and Holms and other Officers and Cashire them after Fines and good Security for their Behaviour Overton was sent up to the Tower and his Regiment conferred on Colonel Morgan Colonel Okey's Regiment was likewise taken from him and given to the Lord Howard and so the danger from the Army was quickly supprest Cornet but since Colonel Ioyce was likewise male-content at this change and signified so much to Cromwel's Face whom he upbraided with his own service and his faithlesness but escaped any other Censure than a bidding him be gone Cromwel well knowing him to be one of those mad-men that would say or do any thing they were bid But the Royalists designe was of a more potent combination and had been truly formidable had it not by Treachery and Treason been revealed to the Protector who came by that means to know the rise progress and first appearance of those Arms against him and this was Manning's perfidy which the King too late discovered All the Gentlemen in England of that party were one way or other engaged or at least were made acquainted with it but the snatching of the principal of them up throughout the Kingdom a little before the Execution of it frustrated the most probable effects of that Rising The Lord Mayor c. of the City of London was likewise sent â—or and informed of it and the Militia established Skippon being made their Major-General there several persons under the character of dissolute persons were seized by vertue of a Proclamation to that effect as also all Horse-races were forbidden Counterplots were used and all sorts of Ammunition were sent down to several Gentlemens Houses with Letters unsubscribed and the said Gentlemen upon receipt secured and brought up Prisoners to bear company with the old standers of that party and a Ship-chandler one Frese and a Merchant or two trepan'd this way Sir Ralph Vernon of Derby-shire an old Royalist was Committed and Examined before Oliver concerning a Trunk of Pistols and who sent them Who resolutely answered His Self which so dasht him that he was without one word more dismist but not from his Imprisonment Notwithstanding all these discouragements and warnings to give over the Western Association thought themselves in Honour engaged to rise upon the day which they had agreed upon with one another in the other parts and had notified to the King who was now removed from Colen and absconded himself neer the Sea-coast upon the first success of the Affair to be ready to pass over to his Friends Accordingly on the 11 of March being Monday very early in the Morning a party of 100 under the Command of Sir Ioseph Wagstaff Colonel Penruddock and Grove entred the City of Salisbury at which time the Judges Rolls and Nichols were there in Circuit and seized all their Horses and having declared the cause of this appearance without any further injury or medling with any Money which lay in the Chambers of Serjeant Maynard and other Lawyers departed promising to return and break their Fast with the Judges Provisions which they did and encreased their number to 400 and had they returned once more the whole City had risen with them Thence they marched to Blandford where Colonel Penruddock himself Proclaimed the the King in the Market-place and so marched Westward Captain Butler with two Troops of Cromwel's Horse keeping at a distance in their Rear to give them opportunity of encreasing but by the means aforesaid very few came in which made a great many more slink away from the party when they saw no hopes of that great number promised and expected But the Noble Penruddock resolved yet to try what could be done in Devonshire and Cornwal and as to him it was all one whether he retreated or went forward for he was engaged too far already
Nation of the Iews who had proposed a Toleration their own Judges their Burying-places the revocation of all Laws and Statutes against them protection from the fealty to him and had strengthned the reason of this with a round sum of Money Cromwel wanted not plausible Arguments of his own from the hopeful juncture of time of making the flock of Christ but one Fold and others cited places of Scripture several Conferences were held about it before him with the Judges as Steel c. and Ministers as Ienkins Manton c. who being not satisfied with what appeared from the arguments of Manasseh Ben Israel the Jewish Agent the publick admission of them was laid aside and the Iews gull'd of their Money they had upon that account already paid The Ships at Iamaica had been roving abroad and burnt St. Martha and took some spoil while Doyley the Commander in chief by Land had made some Inroads into the Country under Colonel Wood and was building or planting a new Town at Cagway-Point In Scotland new Commissioners were added for the sale of Delinquents Lands and to prevent their frauds in the purchasing thereof a New great and Privy-Seal and Signet was likewise sent down thither from England and the Protestors and Resolution-men continued at the same distance A Proclamation there to stop all Comers to that Kingdom upon pretence of Infection in Holland and of all going out without License The Earl of Glencarn upon suspition of a Plot being taken and secured by General Monke in Edenburgh-Castle In England to affront the Spanish Imbargo which now turned to seizure the price of Canary-Wines which were feared to rise by the War were now by Proclamation abated to nine pence a pint having continued at twelve some years before The Princess of Aurange departed by the way of Antwerp and Peronne in France in Ianuary to visit her Mother at Paris and the King preparing according to invitation to go into Flanders where neer Lovain in February he privately conferred with the Earl of Fuensaldagne neer Lovain the Arch-Duke of Leopold being upon his departure for Germany and Don Iohn of Austria to succeed in that Government for the King of Spain From hence his Majesty the War betwixt Spain and us being publique came to the Royal Mansion of Treveur neer Brussels in order to a nearer conjunction of Counsels and Odwyr newly returned and concealing himself in Ireland gave suspition here of some new designe upon Ireland and thereupon all Papists and Irish were again disarmed and commanded to keep at home within their Limits The King's Family yet continued at Colen but upon his remaining setling in Brugis where soon after he was received in State it removed thither also so the Spaniards embraced and shook hands with his Interest as their own affairs governed them In England many sad accidents happened together the Abbey of Spalding being let out into Chambers in one of them as the folks were prophaning by Dancing and making merry therein the Roof fell and was the Death of 23 persons Ianuary 22. Sir Thomas Ashcock cut his Throat a Paper being found in his Chamber where he had reckoned twenty several preservations before and yet God gave him up to this Temptation Mr. Skipwith a young Gentleman who had had a grudge against Sir Thomas Wortley for keeping his Sister Company met with the said Sir Thomas whereupon both drew their Pistols but Skipwith killed him dead though Wounded himself A Stationer's Servant in Fleet-street being taken in Bed with his fellow-serving-maid got an opportunity and presently Hang'd himself Mr. Chamberlain of Oxford-shire killed Colonel Granthamson at Southampton-buildings in a single Duel The most Reverend the Arch-Bishop of Armagh died March 21 a Prelate of great and incomparable Learning and Piety as his Works do sufficiently declare a person challenged as Indifferent to the Church-Government by Bishops but no doubt falsly however it gave the Protector a fine occasion of personating a love to Learning and good men in the expence of his decent and fitting Interment 200 l. being allowed thereunto out of the publick Money the best and justest of all those sums he squandered upon his dying and perishing Ambition He was not buried till the 17 of April ensuing being then brought from the Countess of Peterburgh's His great Patroness at Rygate to St. George's so to Somerset-House and thence to the Abbey at Westminster Mr. Bourdeaux Embassador returned for England and Lockhart as was said dispatcht for France The River of Thames Ebbed and Flowed twice in two hours this Year and the last twelve Years there was much alteration in them Freeman Sonds the younger Son of Sir George Sonds killed his onely Brother in Bed and was Hanged for it which sad and strange story had almost past observation Anno Dom. 1656. GEneral Blake and Montague began this year with their Fleet of War sailing for the Coast of Spain having toucht at Tangier and directed thence their course to Cadiz-bay and the removing of the English-staple at Roterdam by Proclamation to Dort and the arrival of Mr. Lockhart in France as touched before together with a rencounter at Sea of the Advice President and Drake English Frigats with the Maria of Ostend one Erasmus Bruer a Fleming Captain off the Coast of Scarborough It was stoutly managed by the Enemy from Morning till Night when being totally disabled and over-powered he yielded nothing but himself and Marriners remaining of the Conquest and not many sound ones of those for the ship sunk presently she was the Admiral of that place Worsley the Major-General died before he could be good in his Office and was buried with the Dirges of Bell Book and Candle and the Peals of Musquets in no less a repository than Henry 7th's Chappel as became a Prince of the Modern Erection and Oliver's great and rising Favourite With him went down the Wrestling in Moor-fields an exercise used time out of minde in that place before the War and now resumed again together also with pitching of the Bar and generally all pastime and sort of sports was damned and to make his Exit the more remarkable Hannam the most notorious private Thief in England to expiate his sad villany at Colen having promised Cromwel some Papers taken at that time was retaken in another Robbery in London and had his due by being hanged Forces under Colonel Brayn who was to Command in chief in Iamaica were now shipt from Port Patrick in Scotland where the Citadel of St. Iohnstones was fired and almost consumed but Provisions saved with 1000 stout Fellows but Fate so crost Oliver that no Governour of his sending and nomination survived long after their arrival and Colonel Doyley was a kinde of an old Royalist as were many or the most of the remaining Officers whom he had made it his Religion not to trust He had in England appointed at this time a Committee
his leave to depart the Harbour For said he I am very sure Blake will presently be amongst you To this the resolute Don made no other reply but Get you gone if you will and let Blake come if he dares They that knew Blake's Courage could not but know it needless to dare him to an Engagement All things being ordered for fight a Squadron of ships was drawn out of the whole Fleet to make the first onset these were Commanded by Captain Stainer in the Speaker-Frigat who no sooner had received Orders but immediately he flew into the Bay with his Canvas Wings and by eight in the Morning fell pell-mell upon the Spanish Fleet without the least regard to the Forts that spent their shot prodigally upon him No sooner were these entered into the Bay but Blake following after placed certain ships to pour Broad-sides into the Castle and Forts these played their parts so well that after some time the Spaniards found their Forts too hot to be held In the mean time Blake strikes in with Stainer and bravely fought the Spanish ships which were not much inferiour in number to the English but in Men they were far the superiour Here we see a resolute bravery many times may carry the day and make number lie by the Lee this was manifest for by two of the clock in the afternoon the English had beaten their Enemies out of their ships Now Blake seeing an impossibility of carrying them away he ordered his men to fire their Prizes which was done so effectually that all the Spanish Fleet were reduced to Ashes except two ships that sunk downright nothing remaining of them above water but some part of their Masts The English having now got a compleat Victory were put to another difficulty by the Wind which blew so strong into the Bay that many despaired of getting out again But Gods Providence was miraculously seen in causing the Wind upon the sudden to Vere about to the South-West a thing not known in many years before which brought Blake and his Fleet safe to Sea again notwithstanding the Spaniards from the Castle played their Great Guns perpetually upon them as they passed by The Wind as it proved a Friend to bring the English forth so it continued to carry them back again to their former station near to Cadiz This noble Service made Blake as terrible as Drake to the Spaniard there being less difference betwixt the Fame and report of their Actions and Exploits than in the sound of their Names and it was accordingly resented here by all parties Cromwel whom it most concerned sent his Secretary to acquaint the House with the particulars who ordered a Thanksgiving and 500 l. to buy the General a Jewel as a testimony of his Countries Gratitude and the honour they bore him One hundred pound to the Captain that brought the Tidings and Thanks to all the Officers and Souldiers and shortly after the Speaker returning home being so bruised and torn in the late Engagement that she was unfit for further service till repaired the Captain of her Richard Stainer was Knighted who indeed deserved that Honour from a better Hand nor did his merit miss of it This was atchieved on Munday the 20th of April The Protector having refused the Title of King awaiting a more opportune time and advantage to reach that top and height of his Ambition which inwardly tormented him was now by the Parliament to be confirmed in his former Dignity and a Committee called of the Settlement was ordered to prepare an Explanatory part to the Humble Petition and Advice in respect of the Protector 's Oath his Councils the Members of Parliament the other House which was to consist of sixty and odd Lords of Cromwel's Election of which in their place we shall give an account all which being prepared and finished the Lord Craven thought it a fit time for him to offer his Case to the Parliament by whom a day was no sooner set for Hearing and the Protector 's Council ordered to attend but he sends a Letter directed to Our Trusty and Well-beloved Sir Thomas Widdrington Speaker of the Parliament to Adjourn but understanding the main business of the Assessment was not yet finished he sent another to forbid his former but desired them to make it their sole Affair Whereupon the Lord Craven was referred to the first day of their Access after the Adjournment When all the Acts were ready for Signing the Protector came to the Painted-Chamber and sent for the Parliament where the Speaker tendered him these Acts of State besides others relating to Trade c. 1. An Act for Assessment of 60000 l. a Month for three Months from March for the three Kingdoms Another Money-Act for 50000 l. for three years at 35000 l. for England 6000 l. for Scotland and 9000 l. for Ireland An Act for preventing multiplicity of Buildings in and about the Suburbs of London and within ten miles thereof and a whole years Revenue to be paid for every Dwelling or House built upon any new Foundation since 1620. and this was the reason and soul of that Law An Act for punishing such as live at High Rates and have no visible Estates And lastly for the observation of the Lords day There was a Bill brought in for ascertaining and satisfying the Publick Faith that these Patriots might seem to intend the ease of the people but it was but once read and committed and resumed afterwards to as much purpose very briskly by the Council of this Protector At the signing of these Cromwel made this short Speech I perceive that among these many Acts of Parliament there hath been a very great care had by the Parliament to provide for the just and necessary support of the Commonwealth by these Bills for Levying of Money now brought to me which I have given my consent unto and understanding it hath been the practise of those who have been chief Governours to acknowledge with thanks to the Commons their care and regard of the Publick I do very heartily and thankfully acknowledge their kindeness herein The principal substance of the Humble Petition c. was this 1. That his Highness under the Title of Lord Protector would be pleased to exercise the Office of Chief Magistrate over England c. and to Govern according to all things in this Petition and Advice also that in his Life-time he would appoint the person that should Succeed in the Government after his Death 2. That he would call Parliaments consisting of two Houses once in three years at farthest 3. That those persons who are Legally chosen by a Free Election of the people to serve in Parliament may not be excluded from doing their Duties but by consent of that House whereof they are Members 4. In the fourth was shown the qualifications of Parliament-Members 5. In the fifth the power of the other House 6. That the Laws and Statutes of the
out of policy addressed to the captating their good will and favour towards the easier ascent to his designed Soveraignty Cromwel's other Son Henry was also in Progress in Ireland shewing himself to the Army and People these upon the same account that Kingdom being allotted to him for his Inheritance to hold it or this in Fee Fleetwood was intended for Scotland in the same capacity and Command but Hic labor hoc opus General Monke was not easily removed thence fair means were not effectual nor practicable as things stood and a Rupture or Revolt of that Kingdom was not to be ventured on by any open force or declared War against him His third Daughter Mary was likewise promoted to an honourable Match being Married to the Lord-Viscount Faulconbridge on the 18 of November with a great do of State at Hampton-Court the recess and delight of the Usurper whither he went and came always in an hurry and post nor did he dare to be further off from the City of London This Title was conferred on the Family of Bellasis by the King in the War and was taken for valid upon this Wedding His youngest Daughter Francis was soon after Married to Mr. Rich the Earl of Warwick's Grand-son A new Charter constituting a new East-India-Company which Trade had lain in Common for some years now passed the Seal Cromwel being one of them and putting in a Stock which turned to the account of his Majesty as of due some time afterwards Mr. Downing was sent his Envoy into Holland One Colonel Saxby taken at Gravesend on shipboard of Syndercombe's Counsel being a Leveller died as was supposed of Poyson in the Tower of London which rendered Syndercombe's end more plainly suspected The Festival of Christmass which had been abrogated by several Lawless Ordinances and endeavoured to be suppressed revived its head and began to recover its pristine veneration This greatly offended the Usurper who perceived that notwithstanding all his Edicts and Interminations against the Church and her Protestant-Professors the true Religion prevailed against him and with that infallibly the Kings Interest would joyntly rise the thought of which was most grievous and not endurable Notice being given him now of a private Assembly solemnizing the mercy and memory of that day at Dr. Gunning's at Exeter-house in the Strand he sent a Band of Red-coats to seize them who over-and-above Plundered and Stript many of them and carried some away Prisoners to answer this contempt against his Injunction And so without any Blood which was taken for a wonder in this interval we are arrived to the return of the Parliament after the expiration of the Adjournment when according to the 4th Article of the Petition and Advice which provided for the freedom of Parliaments and another for Another House as 't was called Cromwel giving it that Nick-name or Mid-word as bordering upon an Upper-House of Parliament and of the same new coyning as Protectorship which entrencht upon the Soveraignty ut Canis sit Catuli They met together in two Houses that of the Commons to their full number of Elections that of the What do ye call um's in the House of Lords in and according to the usual customs of the Peers These conscious of their own worthlessness and their inconsistency with the English honour like the basest of Upstarts bewrayed their meanness by all manner of abject compliance and fawning upon the Commons their half-Parent who being rightly constituted disowned the spurious Brat as a by-blow of the former Convention and with such scorn and derision did they receive the notice of their meeting there besides the neglect of it as if they had been the most ridiculous fellows in the World a may-game spleen-moving spectacle with What did they there who sent for them what was their business like intruding Fidlers to serious Company Notwithstanding these Imps of the Usurpers Prerogative as instructed persisted in their Courtships and Blandiments of the Commons as aforesaid It should have been mentioned that Oliver in his Speech to them did highly magnifie the Settlement as beyond all expectation that ever such brave things would have been done for England and hinted much of the establishment of Religion the Neck whereof was just then broken as we may say and that if they persevered in that hopeful beginning the Generations to come should call them Blessed That posterity may be fully informed of the Institution Number and Names of the aforesaid fellows of the other House in brief take this account The Parliament left the choice of them to Cromwel by the Humble Petition and he graced with this Dignity most of his superiour Officers some Grandee-Comnonwealths-men some Presbyterians some of the Nobility as the Earl of Manchester Lord Wharton Lord Mulgrave all of his Privy-Council and Relations and one or two private Gentlemen of which Mr. Hambden was one The Nobility prudentially forbore sitting with that riff-raff the Presbyterians with much scruple but Sir Arthur Haslerig utterly abominated it and kept his station with the Commons as so contra-distinguished The whole number named was 62 of which some ten were the worst of Mechanicks such as Pride Hewson Kelsey Cooper Goffe Berry c. whom we refer to the ensuing Catalogue to which the Names of the Judges and Serjeants are added The Members of the other House alias House of Lords Lord Richard Cromwel Lord Henry Cromwel Deputy of Ireland Nath. Fiennes Commis of the Great Seal Iohn Lisle Commis of the Great Seal Hen. Lawrence President of the Council Charles Fleetwood Lieut. Gen. of the Army Robert Earl of Warwick Edmund Earl of Mulgrave Edward Earl of Manchester Will. Ld. Viscount Say and Seal Philip Lord Viscount Lisle Charles Lord Viscount Howard Philip Lord Wharton Thomas Lord Faulconbridge George Lord Evers Iohn Cleypole Esq. Iohn Desbrow Generals at Sea Edw. Montague Generals at Sea Bulst Whitlock Commis of the Treasury Wil. Sydenham Commis of the Treasury Sir Charles Wolsley Sir Gilbert Pickering Walter Strickland Esq. Philip Skippon Esq. Francis Rous Esq. Iohn Iones Esq. Sir William Strickland Iohn Fiennes Esq. Sir Francis Russel Sir Thomas Honywood Sir Arthur Haslerig Sir Iohn Hobart Sir Richard Onslow Sir Gilbert Gerrard Sir William Roberts Glyn Chief Justices of both Benches Oli. St. Iohn Chief Justices of both Benches William Pierrepoint Esq. Iohn Crew Esq. Alexander Popham Esq. Philip Iones Esq. Sir Christopher Pack Sir Robert Titchborn Edward Whaley Commis Gen. Sir Iohn Berkstead Lieutenant of the Tower Sir Thomas Pride Sir George Fleetwood Sir Iohn Huson Richard Ingoldsby Esq. Iames Berry Esq. William Goff Esq. Thomas Cooper Esq. George Monke Gen. in Scotland David Earl of Cassils Sir William Lockhart Archibald Iohnson of Wareston William Steel Chancellor of Ireland Roger Lord Broghil Sir Matthew Thomlinson William Lenthal Master of the Rolls Richard Hampden Esq. Commissioners of the Great Seal and their Officers Nathaniel Fiennes Iohn Lisle William Lenthal Master of
Affairs at a stand till something were resolved in this point they came in a very full House to this well-qualified Resolution Resolved That this House will transact with the persons now sitting in the Other House as an House of Parliament during this present Parliament And that it is not hereby intended to Exclude such Peers as have been faithful to the Parliament from their priviledge of being duly summoned to be Members of that House The House of Commons between the Protector the Other House and the General Council of Officers now summoned to meet at Wallingford-house may well be conceived at this time to have had a Wolf by the Ears and having shewed themselves English-men and not Slaves had reason to entertain wary Counsels having some of their own Members undermining them without doors and foreseeing a Dissolution though not knowing whether they should die a Violent or Natural death or have a mixt kinde of Disease as it fell out afterwards And therefore they resolved not to own them in the Other House as Lords but called them The persons now sitting in the Other House of Parliament neither would they treat and confer with them in the usual way as with the House of Peers and therefore found out the new word of Transacting and not intending to have to do with them but for a tryal they limited the time to be during this present Parliament which they foresaw would not be long and to Muzzle the new inconsiderable Upstarts sufficiently if they should take too much upon them they asserted the priviledge of the ancient Peers as a good reserve if the Parliament should by the Protector and Army be suffered upon second thoughts to sit longer than was first intended And resolved also That they would receive no Message from those persons sitting in the Other House but by some of their own number The House of Commons by this time had also by a Saving Vote concerning the Fleet asserted their interess in the Militia and had under consideration an Act for taking away all Laws Statutes and Ordinances concerning the Excise and new Impost and concerning Customes Tunnage and Poundage after three years And had vindicated the peoples Liberties by setting Major-General Overton and Mr. Portman and divers others illegally committed by the late Protector at Liberty without paying Fees and declaring their Imprisonment and Detention illegal and unjust and had their Lord-Jaylor Berkstead and others at their Bar under question for the same who was also Arrested upon the Exchange in London at the Suit of the said Overton for false Imprisonment And had also a high resentment of the illegal sending Free-born English-men against their wills to the Barbadoes and other Forrain Plantations and to the Isles of Guernsey and Iersey out of the reach of the Writ of Habeas Corpus and had appointed a strict Bill to be prepared for remedy thereof And had Examined and discovered many other Grievances brought upon the people by the Officers and Farmers of the Excise and others and by Major-Generals amongst which Butler was for his insolent actings and high affronts to the Law and Courts of Justice put out of the Commission of the Peace and a Committee appointed to draw up an Impeachment against him The Committee also for Inspection before-mentioned had brought in and reported to the House the state of the publick Accounts and of the Martial and Civil Lists in the three Nations by which it did appear That the yearly Incomes of England Scotland and Ireland came to Eighteen hundred sixty eight thousand seven hundred and seventeen pounds And the yearly Expences to Two Millions two hundred and one thousand five hundred and forty pounds So that Three hundred thirty two thousand eight hundred twenty three pounds of Debt incurred yearly by the ill management of double the Revenue that ever King of England enjoyed And to maintain the unjust Conquest of Scotland cost us yearly One hundred sixty three thousand six hundred and nineteen pounds more than the Revenue it yielded Many other particulars were under their consideration as to the Religion and Civil Rights of the people too long now to be mentioned but in short to give them their due they did some good whilest they sate both to the publick and particulars and intended much more and did no hurt gave no Offices nor Gratuities to themselves out of the publick Treasure nor granted any money from the people which is more than can be said of any Parliament in our memory Proceeding thus successfully and hopefully to the general satisfaction of the people in the three Nations who chose them the Protector and chief Officers of the Army who were jealous of one another before and Competitors for Government grew now jealous of the House of Commons also who being the Representatives of the people were become also their Minions and Favourites It was therefore now thought seasonable to contend among themselves for the power before the people should recover it from them both In order to which the General Council of Officers kept their constant Meetings at Wallingford-house and the Protector with his party countermined them at White-hall but we must interrupt the thred of this story to iâ—tromit the year 1659. which began with the Voyage into the Sound Anno Dom. 1659. THe former respects and mutual designes betwixt the King of Sweden and Cromwel which had been promoted so far as to a Treaty concerning places of caution for our Engagement and Expence in the Danish War Elsenore-Castle newly taken by the Swede Gottenburgh in his own Province being demanded and Gluckstad and another place offered in lieu thereof though without any conclusion by the Death of Cromwel obliged his son Richard and the Council upon the request of the Swede to send a Fleet into the Baltick-sea and in the mean time Sea-Officers and Seamen were taken into his Service who set to Sea in December before but by stormy and cold weather were forced back again divers of them by the hardship of the Voyage dying at their return under the Command of Sir George Ayscue who was upon his arrival to be Commissioned High-Admiral of Sweden to mate the Dutch who then openly sided with the Dane and had a Fleet of War ranging thereabouts The Parliament likewise to secure the Commerce and Trade of those parts condescended to the Expedition with the Conditions and Limitations aforesaid At the end of March General Montague was Commissioned by Richard with a Fleet of 40 sail of the best ships and manned accordingly who in ten days time from Yarmouth arrived at the Scaw and so to Elsenore where the King of Sweden was before the Dutch Vice-Admiral de Ruyter who was coming with another Fleet out of Holland to re-inforce his Admiral Opdam then at Copenhagen The General here met with Instructions from his Majesty to whose Cause he had upon the disposition of affairs betwixt the Army and Protector devoted himself
Proclamations in such cases have been always used to the end that all good Subjects might upon this occasion testifie their Duty and Respect And since the Armed Uiolence and other the Calamities of many years last past have hitherto deprived us of any opportunity wherein we might express our Loyalty and Allegiance to his Majesty We therefore the Lords and Commons now assembled in Parliament together with the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common-Council of the City of London and other Free-men of this Kingdom now present do according to our Duty and Allegiance heartily joyfully and unanimously Acknowledge and Proclaim That immediately upon the decease of our late Soveraign King CHARLES the First the Imperial Crown of the Realm of England and of all the Kingdoms Dominions and Rights belonging to the same did by Inherent Birthright and lawful undoubted Succession descend and come to his Most Excellent Majesty King CHARLES the Second as being lineally justly and lawfully next Heir of the Blood Royal of this Realm and that by the goodness and providence of Almighty God He is of England Scotland and Ireland the most Potent Mighty and Undoubted King And thereunto We most humbly and faithfully do submit and oblige our Selves our Heirs and Posterities for ever This was Solemnized with the greatest Magnificence and joy possible the Lords and Commons and Lord Mayor attending it the shouts and acclamations at the reading of it in Cheap-side were so loud and great that Bow-bells or any other Bells in the Town though all then Ringing could not be heard All was concluded with unspeakable mirth and numerous Bonefires at night which yielded not their flames but to the rising Sun I shall not intrude other matters at home into this grand Affair but reserve them until â—hereafter and proceed The Dutch also as knowing it would please the King enlarged their Civilities and respects to the Commissioners of the Parliament and City who received them from their Deputies with much satisfaction likewise several Provisions were sent aboard the Fleet and the General He also complemented with the Kings Restitution For a Conclusion of those great Magnificences with which they had entertained his Majesty a Fortnight they resolved to give him a Farewel-Treatment with all the sumptuousness expressible which they performed and in the end presented him with the richest Bed and Furniture with Tapestry for Hangings imbossed with Gold and Silver and adorned with Pictures as could be had the Bed was made at Paris for the Princess of Orange but her Husband dying Eight days before she was delivered it was never used A little before this time Sir Samuel Moreland Thurloe's Agent for Oliver at the Court of Savoy came to the King where he was kindly received having done the King several good Offices and discovered the intrigues of Oliver and the Rump and was Knighted he revealed also several eminent Royalists as Sir Richard Willis Colonel Bamfield and others who betrayed the King's Affairs and Friends to Oliver Hither also about the same time came Sir George Downing who was also graciously received who had done the like good services for his Majesty and was likewise Knighted and continued his Majesties Resident with the States On Sunday the 20 th of May the King heard Doctor Hardy after Dean of Rochester Preach before him the place intended was the French-Church after their Sermon but they knowing of it being greedy to see the King would not come out of their Seats so that it was done in the Princesses Lodgings Here the King touched many of the Evil. In the mean while the Duke of York took the Oath of Allegiance of the Fleet having gone aboard the Naseby where the General treated him which Ship at his departure when the shore resounded with the Artillery he called the Charles as afterwards the whole Fleet was new Christened in their way homewards The King having thanked the States General and of Holland in their Publick Assemblies whither he went on foot took his leave of them recommending to them the interest of his Sister and Nephew the Prince of Orange and was re-saluted by them upon the same as also by the several Ministers of the several Princes one whereof the Count of Oldenham sent an Embassador with Credentials to the King just before his departure being the sole Minister so qualified while his Majesty staid at the Hague On Wednesday the 22 of May Stilo veteri the King departed and it may be said there was no night between Tuesday and that particularly for those who found no place to put their heads in the houses not being able to lodge the croud of people that ran there from all the neighbouring Towns the most part whereof were constrained to walk the streets though the wiser sort took up their Quarters for their advantage of seeing the King's departure on Downs and Sand-hills which bordered all along the Sea-coast where they might see the Fleet and the King Embarquing so that it is a question whether the Hollander more wondered or we more joyed The Speech spoken by the States of Holland at his Farewel for the notableness thereof is here inserted IF one may judge of the content which we have to see your Majesty depart from our Province by the satisfaction we had to possess you we shall have no great trouble to make it known to you Your Majesty might have observed in the Countenance of all our people the joy they had in their hearts to see a Prince cherished of God a Prince wholly miraculous and a Prince that is probably to make a part of their Quietness and Felicity Your Majesty shall see presently all the streets filled all the ways covered and all the hills loaden with people which will follow you even to the place of your Embarquement and would not leave you if they had wherewith to pass them to your Kingdom Our joy is common unto us with that of our Subjects but as we know better than they the inestimable value of the Treasure we possess so are we more sensible of this sad separation It would be insupportable to us Sir if we re-entred not into our selves considered not that it is the thing of the world we most desired and the greatest advantage also that we could wish to your Majesty We acquiesce therein because we know that this removal is no less necessary for us than glorious to your Majesty and that 't is in your Kingdom that we must finde the accomplishment of the prayers we have made and make still for you and us so shall we not fail to profit thence as well as from the assurances which it hath pleased you to give us of an immutable affection towards this Republick We render most humble thanks unto your Majesty for them and particularly for the illustrious proof which it hath pleased you to give us thereof by the glorious Visit wherewith you honoured our Assembly We shall conserve the memory of it
Fourth the Demeasnes and Jurisdiction whereof lay in the Dutchy of Normandy in France under the English Soveraginty and Earl of Torrington in his own native County of Devon and Baron of Potheridge his own Patrimony Beauchamp and Teyes by which he hath right of Peerage in the three Kingdoms whose equal Felicity and Honour he advanced and raised before himself and now most deservingly shared with them by his Investiture in these Dignities which were compleated Iuly the 13 by his taking his place in the House of Lords attended by the House of Commons and introduced by the Duke of Buckingham In the same month General Montague was created Earl of Sandwich Viscount Hinchingbrooke his famous Mannor in Huntingtonshire and Baron of St. Neots in the same County and on the 16 of Iuly took likewise his place in the House of Peers where they both shine with that degree of splendor by which the Duke reduced and the Earl dawned at the day of Englands Glory and Liberty The Duke of Ormond was likewise made Earl of Brecknock and took his place among the Peers of England he was also made Lord Steward of his Majesties Houshold as the Earl of Lindsey was made Lord High-Chamberlain the Earl of Manchester Lord Chamberlain of his Majesties Houshold and the Earl of Southampton Lord High-Treasurer of England Sir Frederick Cornwallis was made Treasurer of the Kings Houshold by an old Grant and Sir Iohn Berkley Comptroller and other Royalists were made Officers therein Several presents were made to the King from the several Cities and Boroughs of the Kingdom in Gold and Plate and resignation of Fee-farm-rents purchased from the Usurpers among the rest the City of London with a Complement of their good Stewardship by the mouth of their Recorder Sir William Wilde rendred their like Grant of New Parke in Surrey All the Rents accruing at Michaelmas-day were now secured from the late Purchasers of Kings Queens Bishops Dean and Chapters lands for the use of the right and unquestionable Proprietors to the defeating the miserable and unjust covetousness of such undue and unwarrantable penniworths A splendid Embassy came this Month of August from Denmark to congratulate his Majesties most happy Restitution as a little before the Lord Iermyn newly made Earl of Saint Albans the Title last failing in the renowned Marquess of Clanrickard Vlick de Burgh who had so eminently asserted his Majesties Rights in Ireland and after the reduction thereof came into England and died in London in some distress far unfitting his nobleness of minde as well as former most honourable Estate a while before the Kings Return was sent to France in the quality of Lord Embassador Extraordinary to that Crown Soon after the Prince de Ligne with a right Princely Train and retinue becoming the grandeur of the Affair he was sent to Congratulate from his Majesty of Spain betwixt whom and this Kingdom a Peace after a six years War was lately Proclaimed was with great state received and had solemn Audience by the King and departed and was succeeded by the Baron of Battevile to be Resident and Embassador in Ordinary at this Court. From the French King soon after came another Illustrious and grand Personage upon the same account by name the Count of Soissons who had married the Cardinal's Neece and entred and was entertained here with all sumptuous and extraordinary Magnificence In sum there was no Prince nor State in Europe who sent not or were not a sending their Embassador upon this wonderful occasion The Parliament after many debates and disputes alterations and insertions at last finished the Act of Oblivion which was extraordinary comprehensive and indulgent to the regret of many injured Royalists who found no better perswasive to their acquiescence in it but their unalterable duty to the King whose special Act this was Out of this were only excepted the Regicides and Murderers of their late Soveraign as to Life and Estate besides Colonel Lambert and Sir Henry Vane and Twenty others reserved to such Forfeitures as should by Parliament be declared the principal of these were Sir Arthur Haselrig Oliver Saint Iohn William Lenthal the Speaker Mr. Ny the Independent Minister Burton of Yarmouth and some Sequestrators Officers and Major-Generals of the Army amongst whom was Desborough Pine Butler Ireton c. They passed likewise an Act for a perpetual Anniversary Thanksgiving on the 29 of May the day of his Majesties Birth and Restauration a day indeed memorable and the most auspicious in our English Kalendar and worthy of a Parliaments Canonization Both which his Majesty gave his Royal Assent to as at the Adjournment to another for Disbanding of the Army and paying off the Navy which once looked upon us with the same feared perpetual danger as the Mamalukes or Ianizaries but by this happy conjuncture of his Majesties Fortune with his Wisdom and Goodness yielded after many Modules to its last Dissolution Great sums by Pole-money and other Assessments were imposed and speedily and cheerfully levied and paid to finish this desired work which had before wasted so many Millions of Treasure Mr. Scowen Mr. Pryn Col. King and Sir Charles Doyley were appointed Commissioners to disband them to which the Souldiery very willingly and with thanks to the King submitted the King giving them a Weeks pay as a Donative and Largess The Parliament adjourned till the 6 of November These Felicities of the King we have hitherto insisted on as the course of all worldly things is guided were abated and allayed by the immature and most lamented Death of the right Excellent Prince Henry Duke of Gloucester his Majesties youngest Brother a Prince of very extraordinary hopes Silence will best become our lamentation for his vertues and our loss of them transcend expression He died of the Small-pox Aged Twenty years and two months after much Blood-letting and was Interred with a private Funeral in Henry the Seventh's Chappel at Westminster just before the arrival of his Sister the Princess of Orange who came to joy and felicitate her Brothers in their happy Restitution With the King and Monarchy the Ecclesiastical Regiment by Bishops recovered it self by his Majesties Piety and Prudence that Aphorism being most sadly verified No Bishop No King and therefore on the 20 of September Dr. Iuxon Bishop of London that antient and excellent Prelate was by the King translated from that See to the Arch-bishoprick of Canterbury which was performed with great Solemnity and not long after several new Bishops persons the most eminent and valiant assertors of the Church and Laws of England were Consecrated in the Abby at Westminster and all the Diocesses filled of which together presently in an ensuing Catalogue Divine Vengeance had with a slow foot traced the murtherers of our Martyr'd Soveraign and through several Mazes at last overtook them the iron hand of Justice delivering them to the punishment due to that grand impiety nor was it
lamented and barbarous Death God would not suffer to go unrevenged nor His own sacred Name to be Blasphemed as not only said by them to be the Author but the maintainer of this impiety And it is remarkable that Hugh Peters who by his Function as a Priest had most dishonoured God in Preaching and pressing this Parricide making use of his holy Writ to this same wicked purpose most plainly discovered the footsteps of the Divine Vengeance in his Tragedy The miserable Wretch had not a word to say for himself or to God of whom he said he was abandoned he that was so nimble and quick in all Projects of this nature before was now like a Sot or a Fool playing with the Straw in the Sledge as he went to Execution Of which his sad condition Cook his fellow-sufferer was so sensible as to pray for some respite for him but it was out of the Sheriffs power who attended them in person to their respective Executions It was observed also by Scot who having wished the mention of this Fact to be graven on his Tomb Digitus Dei hath written it on the Gates of London in such bloody Characters and Hieroglyphicks that whoever passes cannot but read it Those being thus Executed the other Prisoners that came in upon Proclamation and were to be respited from Execution till the pleasure of the Parliament should be known were after Sentence remitted to the Tower from whence they came their Estates being seized on to the use of the King The Quarters of the other had not long been set up but a report was raised that a bright Star appeared over those at Aldgate and this in favour of these Saints as they were termed and as if it were a Constellation of their bright innocence but it was observed and known to be the Planet Venus then in her greatest Elongation from the Sun the same distance as their Phanatical stories were from the Truth This parentation being over to his Father His Majesties next respects were due to his Mother whose welcome to his Kingdomes he could not better manifest or oblige to her than by rendring them innocent and free of that horrible guilt which had divorced her from her Husband and estranged her from his People Nor was it just or civil she should be here received without satisfaction and expiation of those Crimes the very tendencies whereto had so rudely driven her to seek her safety abroad The King brought her back to his Palace at White-Hall after Nineteen years discontinuance the second of November with her came the Illustrious Princess Henrietta who had never breathed English Air but some two years after her birth which hapned in Exeter Iune 16. 1644. as also Prince Edward brother to Prince Rupert and to the Prince Elector Palatine an absolute stranger to these Kingdoms The meeting could not but be as joyous after so tedious and injurious an absence as the entertainment highly Magnificent On the Sixth of November the Recess of the Parliament being ended the Lords and Commons met again in Parliament to resume their weighty task of setling the Kingdoms and a Council for Trade now began their sitting according to the Kings Commission Several dangerous and pestilent Speeches and Rumours being daily uttered and vented especially by the Fifth Monarchists at their Meeting-house in Coleman-street and other places and Colonel Overton being the chief man of that perswasion by Order of the Councel he was seized and upon some further information against him committed to the Tower for Treason which soon after appeared in some of his Opinion With him Mr. Lenthal the Speakers Son was Committed upon suspicion of Counterfeiting the Kings Seal Upon the Kings Restitution the Marquess of Arguile had the confidence to come up from Scotland hoping to have inveagled and obtained his Pardon for all those base Treasons he had acted so covertly in that Kingdom since his Majesties departure and that his Majesty according to his gracious inclination would have past by those many undutiful and irreverent usages of him by him and the Kirk while He was there among them but such was the general hatred and detestation of that People and especially of the Nobility against him that the King gave order for his Commitment while he was waiting at Court He desired to speak to the King but could not be admitted he desired to speak with Mr. Calamy in his way to the Tower but that was refused from thence by Sea he was conveyed to Edenburgh where his Process was making ready The Earl of Middleton the Kings great Commissioner following him thither about the end of December Death had tasted of the Blood Royal in the immature decease and lamented Fate of that Noble Henry Duke of Gloucester as aforesaid and as if there were not only a Circulation of it in every individual but it naturally ran in the same Distempers round a whole Family the Infection by a kind of Sympathy in the same Disease of the Small Pox seized the Vitals of the most Illustrious Mary Princess of Aurange and in spight of all Art and Remedy though the Blooding of her was causelesly and ignorantly taxed carried her to the Grave leaving the whole Court in very great and almost disconsolate sadness and her Son the Prince of Aurange ten years old and a Moneth over She deceased on the Twenty fourth of December her death being ushered with a sad accident the oversetting the Assurance-Frigate Riding at Anchor at Wolledge by a sudden gust of Wind by which disaster several Persons of the Ships Company were drowned This happy Parliament which had rebuilt the Glorious Structure of the English Ancient and Renowned Government and had assured the Foundation thereof in the Established Throne of our Soveraign came to its Period But that no Revolution of time should obliterate or blot out the memory of those Excellent worthy things had been done by it for the good of King and Kingdome his Majesty Honoured it by his Royal mouth with the never-to-be-forgotten Epithet of the Healing Parliament which will undoubtedly recommend it to Posterity as long as any grievance or humours or distempers shall remain in Church and State The Princess of Aurange was buried with a private Funeral in the narration of which I shall crave leave for this digression there was indeed as much Honour in that privacy as there was vain and profane solemnity in the gewgaw Exequies of Oliver which wanted of their due Grandeurs till his Execution In opposition therefore to that rabble medley of a Funeral it will not be extravagant to set down here the Compact yet Illustrious manner of this Princess to shew the difference betwixt Princes and Ring-leaders of the Rout. On Saturday December the 26 th but five days after her Decease the chiefest of the Nobility met together in the House of Peers to attend the Royal Corpse of the Princess which was brought about Nine a Clock at
usual confidence of his Party made an end His Quarters were disposed of by his Majesties Orders and his Head set upon a Pole in White Chappel near the place of his Meeting for example to his Fellows Some discourses there were of a Design about Dunkirk and the Duke of York passed over there this Month carrying the Garrison money and upon his arrival viewed the Fortifications and Lines and found it stronger by some new Forts the Governour the Lord Rutherford now made Earl of Tiviot and Governour of Tangeir had raised thereabouts and after a short stay returned again for England In Ireland Sir Charles Coot Earl of Mountrath one of the Three Justices of that Kingdome died and was buried in State the power of the other Two remaining being invested in Sir Maurice Eustace and the Earl of Orery till the arrival of the Duke of Ormond He had done excellent Service in that Kingdome against the Rebels and though he afterwards sided with those here yet did he by his last Actions in securing that Kingdome to the Interest of his Majesty and helping on the Restitution redeem his former demerits which could be charged on him no otherwise than as a Souldier of Fortune he was one of General Monck's right hands in carrying on the Change The Duke of Ormond was by the Parliament of Ireland gratulated upon his appointment to that Government by Letters sent from the Speakers of both Houses The Council for the Principality of Wales was also erected by the King and setled at Ludlow the usual Residence the Earl of Carbery Lord Vaughan was made President the old Earl of Norwich Clerk of the Council and others of the Nobility and Gentry Assistants Judges also were established and the said Lord President in great State brought into the Town attended by a great Train of the chief Persons thereabouts and joyfully welcomed and complemented This Christmass the Honourable Society of Lincolns-Inne renewed their Custom of the Inns of Court by chusing a Prince who during the Festival commands like a Soveraign in the places adjoyning to the said Inne the Gentleman chosen this time was one Iohn Lort Esquire a Gentleman of Wales by the Title of Prince Le Grange he gave and the King was pleased to accept a Treatment from him the Ceremonies due to a Prince being exactly observed in every respect a Council Judges and Officers of State Honour and Nobility attending this his Highness whom the King at the expiration of his term of Royalty made a Knight Baronet The Marquess Durazzo Embassador from the Republick of Genoa was about this time honourably received by the King attended through the City to Sir Abraham Williams his house by the Earl of Carlisle Complemented from the King by the Earl of Bullingbrook and brought to Audience by the Lord Buckhurst In Scotland Episcopacy which had been so long banished thence was now reduced with all gladness and testimonies of a welcome reception after the experience of so many miseries and confusions which had befallen that Nation through the Fury and Zealotry of the Kirk The four Bishops that were Consecrated at Lambeth a little before this whereof Dr. Iames Sharpe Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews Metropolitan of Scotland was one Consecrating others in that Kingdom the whole Order being there defunct by the long Usurpation of the Presbyterian Discipline To the confirmation therefore of this Sacred resetled Authority the Lord-Commissioner with most of the Nobility and Gentry accompanied the Arch-Bishop of Glascow where the Kirk-Rebellion was first hatched to that City where the face of things was quite altered no Person or occasion ever welcomer or more acceptable than this as their Bells and Bonefires declared And here the Lord Commissioner put sorth a Proclamation prohibiting the payment of any Ecclesiastical Rents o Tythe or profits of the Ministry whatsoever to any who in a short time limited should not acknowledge and own their Diocesan Bishop and his Authority and receive Induction from him Some few grand Factious Predicants stood out and were cuted of their Livings and others the most unquiet and refractory Commanded to depart that Kingdom now well cleared of that Clergy the Original and Fountain of those bitter waters and Rivers of Blood which overflowed the three Nations A like Church-work was taken in hand in England the King at his Entrance into London upon his Restitution-day May 29 fadly observed and shook his Head at the Ruines of St. Paul's Cathedral and therefore the first vacancy his affairs permitted him was bestowed on the consideration of that Religious Structure and thereupon he issued out a Commission to Sir Orlando Bridgeman Sir Ieoffery Palmer and others of the Long Robe with other Gentlemen to take some speedy Order for the Repair thereof and to that pious work he gave the Arrears of Impropriations and Ecclesiastical Livings excepted out of the Act of Oblivion impowering to call all such as owed any Moneys thereupon to account and to lay it out to that use The former Dean of which Cathedral Dr. Nicholas Brother to Master Secretary of State Sir Edward died now of a malignant Feavor called the Country new Disease and Dr. Barwick a man that had suffered all Extremities even of Dungeon and Famine in the Tower from the Rump soon after the King's death was substituted by the King in his place it being reckoned with the late improvement the best Deanry now in England Soon after Dr. Nicholas died Dr. Nicholas Monke Bishop of Hereford and Brother to the Noble General whose private Contemplative liâ—e was no less observed than Jewels in the dark which then shine brightest his Illustrious Brother governing the conspicuous splendor of the Times while he ruled with the recluse vertues of his minde in the obscurity of the Church which afterwards spread and lustre it borrowed from the Beams of this its Luminary though now suddenly deprived of a great part of it in this his Setting And most fit it is that his Name should be Canonized and for ever had Sacred in our Kalendar and Church-Annals About the same time died also Dr. Brian Walton Lord-Bishop of Chester famous for the Polyglotte-Bible and other Excellencies becoming a Prelate nor did his successor Dr. Ferne many weeks outlive him whose defences of the Church will never be forgotten And lastly died Dr. Thomas Fuller known by his several Books and indefatigable industry better than by any account can here be given of him Such a Train of Scholars and Learned men did barbarous Death lead in Triumph to the Captivating Grave that her envious Pomp might draw our eye and tears to this sad spectacle and that might honourably accompany the Fate of the Bishop of Hereford A Fleet was Rigg'd and set to Sea to fetch home the Queen from Portugal and to carry the Forces to Tangier which was delivered by the Portugueze Garrison to Sir Richard Stayner who with 500 men was left to maintain it till the Earl
the Holy-days it being then Easter-week tumultuously took upon 'um to pull down Houses of ill fame about the Suburbs according to former practises though their chief designe was to Steal and Plunder Some mischief they did and more intended had they not been dispers'd by the Guards of Horse The Scandal lay upon the Prentices but afterwards it appear'd otherwise Four of the number that were apprehended were upon Tryal found Guilty and Executed two of their Heads being set upon London-Bridge The twelfth of this Moneth the King went to the House of Lords where he was presented by the House with several Bills the chief whereof was one for the raising of 310000 l. by way of Imposition upon Wines and other Liquors which being pass'd with the rest the Parliament was adjourn'd till the 11 th of August next ensuing The place of Lord Chief-Justice of the Common-Pleas being vacant Sir Iohn Vaughan was at the latter end of this Moneth solemnly Sworn Serjeant at Law and being the next day advanc'd to the vacant Dignity aforesaid took his place accordingly in Court. This Moneth arrived News that came then too soon of the burning of the Bridge-Town being the chief place of Trade in the Barbadoes the Fire not only consuming the greatest part of the Houses but also blowing up the Magazine to the great detriment of the publick as well as private persons But as it fares with most convenient Situations all hands going to work it quickly flourished again being above half rebuilt before the latter end of the year His Majesty had his Embassadors of Envoys in most other parts of Christendom only Spain and therefore having first conferr'd the Honour of Knighthood upon Sir William Godolphin hs made choice of him to reside as his Embassador in the Court of the Catholick King sending him away with all convenient speed And to keep a Correspondence with the Grand Signior for the good of the Merchants Sir Daniel Harvey was sent much about the same time Embassador to Constantinople These were no sooner gone but Monsieur Colbert arriv'd at London as Embassador from the King of France At the beginning of this Moneth the Duke of York went for Dover neer which place in a Tent erected for that purpose he took the usual Oath of Warden of the Cinque Ports And to shew that his Majesty was not unmindful of keeping a Watch upon the Proceedings of the Netherlands it was not long after that Sir William Temple now the King's Embassador Extraordinary in Holland made his publick Entry into the Hague and had his Audience of the Deputies of the States It was in August expected the Parliament should have met again but the King by his Proclamation for great and weighty considerations adjourn'd them to the tenth of November ensuing In November upon the Resignation of the Lord Gerrard the Duke of Monmouth receives the Command of the Life-guards of Horse being openly conferrd upon him by the King Some few days after Pietro Mocenigo Embassador from the Republick of Venice made his publick Entry and had Audience of his Majesty And now Mr. Secretary Maurice growing old and tiâ—'d with State-Affairs craves leave of the King to make a resignation of his most important employment which being consented to by his Majesty Sir Iohn Trevor Knight succeeded him who at the same time taking the usual Oaths of a Privy-Councellor soon after was admitted to take his place at the Council-board Nor was the King less careful of the Church than State this Moneth being famous for the Consecration of that Learned Prelate Dr. Iohn Wilkins Bishop of Chester in the Chappel of Ely-House His Majesty's Navy though considerable had done little else but shew'd its Grandeur all this Summer when on a suddain Sir Thomas Allen being dispatch'd for the Mediterranean appears before Argier where though at first they stood upon their terms yet when they saw him preparing to use force their Stomacks began to come down so that they immediately offer'd a release of all the Captive English which had been taken by them belonging to Tangier They also agreed to the former Peace made between the King of England and them with some additions which were signed by them and Sir Thomas Allen to this effect That all their Captains should be commanded to let all English Vessels pass without damage or molestation upon their shewing English Colours If in any Vessel the English were equal to the Strangers then they should be free if the Strangers exceeded the English then Lawful Prize however if they shew'd an English Pass to be let go That none of their little Frigats with Oars shall stop any Vessel laden with Provisions or Ammunition for Tangâ—er That they shall not deliver any of their little Frigats with Oars to any of the Salley-men to make use of That if any of their little Vessels intended for Tangier they should take a Pass from the English Consul at Argier From thence he sail'd for Tripoli at whose appearance the King of the place sent out a Brigantine and a Favourite of his to bid him welcome assuring him of his readiness to keep and maintain the ancient Friendship and continue the Articles already agreed on The Parliament who had adjourn'd themselves to the first of March were about the middle of this Moneth by the King's Proclamation Prorogu'd for many weighty and urgent reasons till the tenth of October following The Births of Princes and Princesses oftentimes the subjects of Great Histories are never to be omitted Therefore was this Moneth not a little signalized seeing the Dutchess of York was about the middle thereof deliver'd of a Daughter which was Baptized by the Name of Henrietta by the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Duke of Ormond assisting as Godfather the Marchioness of Dorchester and the Countess of Devonshire being honour'd for Godmothers The King in testimonie of his Amity with Spain had sent Sir Edward Sprague as his Envoy to complement the Constable oâ— Castile upon his Entry upon the Government of the Spanish Netherlands who having perform'd what he had in charge return'd at the latter end of this Moneth That which compleated the double date of this Year was the coming of the Prince of Tuscany to compleat his Travels by a view of England where after he had been magnificently Treated by the King himself both at London and Windsor and in many other Cities and places by several of the Nobility and persons of Quality of this Kingdom he departed for Holland and so to his own Country Forrein Affairs 1668. The Differences at Avignon being compos'd the Citizens sent two Embassadors one on the behalf of the Nobility the other of the Commonalty to Rome who being admitted into the presence of the Pope sware Fâ—alty to him after the usual manner and shew'd their great Satisfaction of the choise which the Pope had made of Cardinal Rospigliosi his Nephew to
Reside there as his Legate France may be thought to have no kindness for the Jesuits however the most Christian King could not be said to do amiss not to let 'um Triumph over their Superiors for Complaint being made that the Jesuits in the Diocess of Fambers had refus'd to give Obedience to the Bishop of that Diocess the King gave leave to the Bishop to proceed against them by Excommunication according to the Priviledges of the Gallicane Church whereupon the Bishop suspended them from all their Functions forbidding them to Preach Teach or Confess any person within the Territories of his Diocess The King of France being now Master of several Towns of Flanders late under the Jurisdiction of the Spaniards and having totally reduc'd the County of Burgundy under his Subjection of which in favour of the Prince of Conde he immediately granted two Reversions one to the Duke D' Enguien Son of the said Prince and the other to the Duke of Bourbon his Grand-Child thought it convenient to listen to the Mediation then proffer'd by several Princes of Europe chiefly by the King of England and the States of the Vnited Netherlands so that a Treaty was concluded upon and Aix la Chapelle appointed the Place for the Commissioners to meet in In the mean time while the Spaniards lay upon their Demurs a League was Concluded by the Mediation of the Earl of Sandwich the King of Englands Embassador at Lisbon between the two Crowns of Spain and Portugal a League of sincere and perpetual Peace containing a Release of Prisoners Nullity of Confiscations Freedom of Commerce and such other Usual Articles which were in Six Months after Publication to be Confirm'd and Ratifi'd by the King of Great Britain And now as if the General Design of Europe were Peace the Commissioners meet at Aix la Chapelle for the King of England Sir William Temple for the Dutch Mr. Beverning for the French Monsieur Colbert for the King of Spain the Baron of Bergeick who having some time before Sign'd Provisional Articles in order to a final Conclusion whereby a suspension of Arms was granted and the March of the French Army Countermanded at length fell seriously to their Work so that by the second of May the Articles of General Peace were sign'd by the Plenipotentiaries of both Kings and afterwards Proclaim'd through all the Chief places of France Spain and Flanders to the general content of Europe and satisfaction of the Mediators But notwithstanding this fair Peace the Spaniards did not like the Neighbourhood of the French and therefore would have made an Exchange of some other Territories of theirs lying farther off for that oâ— Frâ—nche Comâ—e On the otherside the French not satisfi'd with what they had got Claim'd several Towns as dependencies upon their late Conquests as the Towns of Conde Newport and other places Hereupon to end these differences and to settle the bounds of the French Jurisdiction Commissioners are appointed to meet at Lille but they determine nothing upon which the French King makes a positive demand of all that he Challeng'd and the Spaniards Order the several Commanders to have a care of the Defence of their several Charges In which posture we leave 'um hatching new Discords for this Year Leaving these great Actors upon the Stage of the World we are coming to one who is making his Exit for the King of Poland at the beginning of the Year had signifiâ—â— to the publick Dyet of that Kingdom his Resolution to make a Resignation many applications were made to him whether Real or out of Ceremony not here to be determin'd that he would please to change his purpose and some other delays happen'd as in a matter of so great importance so that the Ceremony was not perform'd till September at which time the King appearing in the publick Assembly and in a pathetick Speech insisting on his misfortune to meet with such bad times and desiring pardon for what had been done amiss during the time of his Raign departed out of the Assembly and in his own Coach leaving the Castle went to a private House he had in the City The Nobility would have attended him but he refus'd it But there were enough that ardently coveted what he had so calmly forsaken The Duke of Muscovy was urgent for his own Son The Emperour for the Prince of Lorrain And the French King for the Duke of Newburg a Creature of his own But the Pole refus'd all but more especially the French whose Embassador the Bishop of Bezieres they would not endure should stay in the Kingdom to have any finger in the Election Nor was any thing this Year concluded In Holland Monsieur Cariâ—ius put a very hard Riddle to the States When they would be pleas'd to pay his Majesty the King of Denmark several sums of Money which he pretended to be due upon Promise particularly 400000 Rixdollars from the States of Holland and 14000 from those of Amsterdam This Question occasion'd many Debates and Conferences and was at length put to the Arbitration of the King of France Now for varieties sake and to shew there was some Justice at Rome I must not omit an Act of the Pope at this time raigning A Complaint being Exhibited to his Holiness by a person of Tivoli that whereas he had liv'd several years with his Mother with great content and satisfaction upon an Estate of 1500 Dollars per Annum His Mother falling sick was during her sickness so far prevail'd upon by a Jesuit her Confessor that she had by Will given away all the Estate to the Order not reserving any thing for the subsistance of him her Son The Pope extreamly dissatisfi'd with this Complaint sent for his own Confessor and in very severe Language commanded him to finde out the General and in his Name to require him to write to the Superior at Tivoli to restore the Petitioner his Land again Nor must we omit now we are at Rome the Canonization of an American Virgin named Rosa a Nun in a Covent of St. Dominick For every body in England does not understand what a glorious thing it is to be made a Saint The Church was hung with Tapistry and Inscriptions in honour of the New Saint on the Altar stood her Image and about it the Arms of the Pope the King of Spain the Kingdom of Peru and this Religious Dominican During the Te Deum one of the Cannons of St. Peters Church was fir'd a great number of Drums and Trumpets sounding and several Vollies of shot given by a Squadron of Germans drawn up neer the Church After which a solemn Mass was sung by six Quires of Musick In the Afternoon the Pope heard Vespers in the same Church present several Cardinals with the Embassadors and Ministers of Forrein Princes and the Evening spent in Lights and Fire-works The Venetians are busied for the defence of their Candia and by the Assistance of the French hold the Turk hard to it this
room But now to take the charge from-both the Lord Roberts arrives at Dublin Upon the news of this change the Lord Mayor and Aldermen the Provost of the Colledge the Dean of Christ-Church and most of the Clergy attended the Lord Ossory where the one acknowledged the many benefits which the City had received from the Government of his Father and himself the other the many benefits which the Church had enjoy'd as well by their good Examples as by the plentiful provision made them by the Clergy The reception of the new Lord-Deputy was intended to have been made with much State and Solemnity but he waving those publick Honours met the Lord-Deputy and the Council at the Council-Chamber the same Evening after his arrival where after he had taken the usual Oath the Lord-Deputy deliver'd him the Sword He was no fooner enter'd upon his Government but he issu'd out a Proclamation commanding all Governors and Officers to repair to their several Charges and Duties not admitting any dispâ—nsation to the contrary London had long layn in Ashes and the Confluence of all the World had been as long confin'd within the narrow limits of a Colledge-Court but now again the Merchants to their great satisfaction and the lasting Merits of Sir William Turner then Lord Mayor whose indâ—â—aâ—igable paâ—â— and zeal was Eminent in advancing and forwarding so great a Work met in the Royal Exchange a Fabrick equal to the Honour of the Undertakers and holding a true proportion with the rest of the Goodly Buildings of the Reviving City But now men began to listen after things a higher Nature seeing both Houses of Parliament again Assembled upon the 19th of October The King in a Speech acquainted them With his joy to see them at that time and the hopes he had of a happy meeting which he promis'd himself from the great experience he had of their Affection and Loyalty of which he did not doubt the Continuance briefly minding them of his Debts which though pressing he was unwilling to call for their Assistance till this time acquainâ—ing them also that what they last gave was wholly apply'd to the Navy and to the Extraordinary Fleet for which it was intended desiring they would now take his Debts effectually into their Consideration Afterwards hinting to them a Proposal of great Importance concerning the Vniting of England and Scotland which because it requir'd some length he left that and some other things to the Lord Keeper to open more fully which was by him done and then both Houses Adjourn'd At the beginning of November both Houses in pursuance of a Vote which they had made attended the King in the Banqueting House where the Lord Chief Justice Vaughan supplying the Room of the Lord Keeper in the name of both Houses return'd their Humble Thanks to the King for his Care of the Publick in Issuing out his Proclamation for the suppressing of Conventicles Humbly desiring his Majesty to continue the same care for the future In Reply to which his Majesty return'd an Answer to the satisfaction of both Houses But now Christmas drawing near and having sate above a Month without effecting any thing of consequence the Lords sent the Usher of the Black-Rod to the House of Commons to tell them That by Vertue of the King's Commission they desird their Attendance who Attending accordingly with their Speaker the Commission was read and the Parliament Prorogu'd till the 24th of February next ensuing At the same time that the Parliament of England sate at Westminster the Parliament of Scotland sate at Edenburgh where the Earl of Lauderdale having taken the Chair of State as Lord Commissioner of Scotland the Earls Commission was first read and then the doubtful Elections of Members refer'd to Examination That done the Kings Letter to the Parliament was twice read seconded by a shorter from the Lord Chancellor perswading them to a concurrence with the King in his Design of Uniting the Two Kingdoms Then they proceeded to Elect the Lords of the Articles the Bishops choosing Eight Bishops and those Eight Eight of the Nobility and these Sixteen making choice of Eight Knights and as many Burgesses by whom all Affairs were to be prepar'd for the House During this Session they Publish'd an Act for the Naturalization of Strangers within the Kingdom of Scotland Declaring that all Strangers of the Protestant Religion that should think fit to bring their Estates into the said Kingdom or should come to set up new Works and Manufactures therein should be Naturaliz'd as Native-Born Subjects of that Kingdom to all intents and purposes The King farther Declaring That upon application by such Strangers made to him he would grant them the free and publick use of their Religion in their own Language and the Libertie of having Churches of their own However no persons were to have the benefit of the said Act till first by Petition to the Lords of the Privy-Council containing an exact designation of their Names and places of Birth and former residences and that tâ—ey be of the Protâ—stant Religion They also made another Act asserting his Majesty's Supremacy over all persons and in all Causes Ecclesiastical By Sea little was this Year done only Sir Thomas Allen being again sent with a Squadron of Ships about the beginning of August came before Argier and sending in his Boat began to Treat they in Argier seem'd willing to make restitution of such Money as they had taken from an English ship bound for the East-Indies but not agreeing to some other demands the Treaty prov'd ineffectual thereupon he began actual Hostility seizing a Bark laden with Corn which rode in the Bay with eleven Moors and a Brigantine which he took in view of the Town From hence having done little or nothing else considerable he set sail for Tripoly the Bashaw of which place sent him an assurance of his readyness to prâ—serve Peace and a good Correspondence with the King of Great Britain And after a short crusing up and down in those Seas he return'd for Cadiz where this Year leaves him But being now so neer the English Territories at Tangier the King of England's Embassador Mr. Henry Howard must not be forgot who being sent by the King his Embassador Extraordinary to the Emperour of Morocco at that time Taffalette by vertue of his new Conquests was now arriv'd at Tangier but understanding the danger of hazarding his person among those Barbarians stay'd at that place expecting a sufficient strength to convoy and conduct him to his place of Audience In November he receiv'd his Safe-Conduct with an assurance from the Emperour that he should not fail of receiving all satisfaction in order to whatsoever he should desire for his security and that he had already caus'd Justice to be done to such as were found guilty of giving any affronts to his people And true it was that he caus'd all the English which were taken by the
While the King of England is preparing his Fleet by Sea the King of France leaving the Management of Affairs at home in the Hands of the Queen begins his March at the Head of his Main Army himself and first he Arrives at Charleroy the chief place of Rendezvous whence he sends to Montery to assure him that though he were constrain'd to March through those Countries yet he would take care that not the least Act of Hostility should be committed Toward the beginning of May Turenne appear'd within a League of Maestricht which was soon after wholly Blockt up in which condition the King leaving it March'd directly with the gross of his Army toward Rhinebergh In the mean while at Sea the English Fleet being in all English and French 160 Sayl had often sight of the Dutch But upon the 28th of this Month about five of the Clock in the Morning a most brisk Fight began near the Bay of Southwold The Blew Squadron first Engag'd and the Royal Iames was the first Ship that fir'd next to which his Royal Highness who was becalm'd but the Blew Squadron and the French having a Gale came up with the Duke and Fought briskly In the Afternoon of the day the Soveraign St. Andrew and about 20 more getting the Weather-gage of the Dutch were hotly Engag'd about which time the Iames being over-presâ— with Number of Men of War and Fireships a Flag-ship of the Dutch lay'd himself athwart his Hawser but finding his Entertainment too hot cry'd out for quarter whereupon the English entring and leaving the Iames naked the Fireships took their advantage two of which were sunk the third took place and fir'd a stout ship where the Earl of Sandwich perish'd for want of Relief but his Captain Captain Haddock escap'd with a shot in his Thigh The Henry and Two other ships more were likewise disabled At Night the Dutch stood away which the Duke perceiving stood after them keeping in sight of their Lights all Night In the afternoon of the next day the Duke hors'd up his Bloody Flag and bore lasking upon the Dutch intending a second Engagement but on a suddain there fell such a thick Mist with much Wind that they could not see a ships length about an hour and a half after it cleer'd up again and the Bloody Flag was put out a second time but the Fog coming thick again nothing could be done Whereupon the Duke finding himself near the Oyster-Bank Tack'd about stood away some Leagues and came to an Anchor there he staid all Night and the next Morning till Ten a Clock but could hear nothing of the Enemy who were retir'd to the shallows of their own Coast. In this Engagement were lost out-right the Earl of Sandwich Captain Digby in the Henry Sir Iohn Cox in the Prince Sir Freschevile Hollis Monsieur de la Rabinier the French Rear-Admiral with several others several others Wounded about seven hundred Common Sea-men slain and as many Wounded and the Royal Iames only Burn'd In the Henry not an Officer was left alive and above half the Men slain The Katharine was taken and the Captain put on Board a Dutch ship and the Men clapt under Hatches the Dutch going about to Fire the ship at what time a French Sloop came in and cut away the Fireships Boat and then the English finding a way to break out upon the Dutch redeem'd both themselves and the ship and brought away Sixteen of the Dutch Prisoners that were a little before their Masters On the Dutch side were lost Admiral Van Ghent and Captain Brakhel most of their great ships miserably torn among the rest two sunk one by the Earl of Sandwich another by Sir Edward Sprage one taken and one Burn'd besides a very great loss of Common Sea-men another great Vessel suppos'd to be a Flag-ship was seen to sink neer Alborough and several others that were missing suppos'd to be sunk or burn'd As this was no small loss at Sea considering some advantage they had to be beaten into their own Ports so was their loss as great by Land the French having at the same time taken Rhineberg Wesel Oysup and Burick Groll Borkelo taken by the Bishop of Munster and after them Rees Sckenk-Sconce and several others underwent the same Fate possessed by the French Nor was this all for the French without much resistance had now forc'd their Passage over the Rhine neer Tolbuys This neer Approach of the French bred such a Confusion in the Netherlands that many of the most wealthy Inhabitants forsook the Country not willing to hazard their Persons and Estates in a Country falling into the hands of a Victorious Forreigner The States also themselves remov'd from the Hague to Amsterdam for their better security opening the Sluces and putting the Country round under Water to the dammage of above 18 Millions of Gilders The King of England being throughly informed of these Proceedings puts forth a seasonable Declaration signifying That if any of the Low Country Subjects either out of Affection to His Majesty or his Government or because of the oppression they meet with at home from their Governours should come into his Kingdoms they should be Protected in their Persons and Estates that they should have an Act for their Naturalization and that all such Ships and Vessels as they should bring along with them should be accompted as English built and enjoy the same Priviledges and Immunities as to Trade Navigation and Customs as if they had been built in England or belong'd to his own Subjects And to restrain the Licentious Tongues of those that were apt to talk too busily and sawcily of State-Affairs the King did farther by his Proclamation forbid all his loving Subjects either by Writing or Speaking to divulge or utter false News or Reports or to intermeddle in matters of Government or with any of his Majesties Councellors or Ministers in their common Discourses All this while the Dutch at Land began to be more and more streightned for on the one side the King of France was Advanc'd within Three Leagues of Amsterdam Arnhem Vtrecht and Zutphen and Emmerick surrendred up to him on the other side the Bishop of Munster press'd hard upon Frizeland having taken Deventer Groll Borkelo Doetechem and several other Places of lesser Consequence insomuch that the People began to Tumult in all places but more especially at Dort whither they sent for the Prince of Orange where as he was at Dinner with the Lords at the Paw being the Principal House in the Town the Burgers who were in Arms surrounded the House and sent up their Captains to tell the Lords That except they presently drew up a Paper and put their Hands to it for declaring the Prince Stadt-holder they would Cut all their Throats whereupon the Paper was immediately drawn up and sign'd by which the said Prince was declar'd Stadt-holder with all the Powers and Authorities in as ample
it 340. Dumb one meets 362. Another pretended Parliament 382. Memberr excluded ibid. In a full House with the Other House 398 399. Dissolved 401. One called by Richard their Transacting with him and the Other House and the Army 413 to 418. The Long one dissolved 439. Most gladly and reverendly reecive the Kings Letters 445. Their resolves thereupon 446. Their affairs before the King's return 453. They say hold on his Majesties Declaration from Breda 454. Dissolved 470. Another meet by the Kings Writ 496 Parliament 519.520 Prorogued 523 527. Meet 530. Prorogued 532. Meet at Oxford 542. Prorogued 543. Their Thanks to the Vniversity ibid. Prorogued 545 549. Meet 555. Vote a supply ibid. Prorogueâ— and meet 563. Adjourn 564. Meet 566. Adjourn 568. Adjourn ibid. Prorogued 569. Meet and Prorogued 574. Meet 576. Adjourned 577. Prorogued 580. They make an address about English Manufactures 580. Prorogued 581. Adjourned 587. Meet 589. Adjourned 590. Meet and prorogued 591. Meet 602. Prorogued ibid. Meet again ibid. Parliament of Scotlaud 524 526. Proceed against Nonconformists 545. Meet at Edinburgh 574. Pass the Act for a Treaty of Vnion 577 Parliament in Ireland 545 Patrick Pursel Irish Maj. Gen. his treachery and cowardise 241 Pauw Embassador from Holland 227. Dies 324 Piercy James pretends to the Earldom of Northumberland 590 Piercy Capt. Executed 578 Pembroke Siege 172 Pen Sea-Capt. 293. Sea-General 369 376 Pennington and Pym 36. Pym dieth 56 Penâ—eâ—â—is-castle 111 Pendruddock's Insurrection c. 367. Tried and Beheaded 372 Perth in Scotland five Articles 3 Petitions from Essex Surrey c. for peace 172 Petition and Advice 393 Phanatick Plots 500 512 Phelim O Neal Irish General 21 Phenix lost 328. Regained 330 Philips Young Stubs Baker and two Gibs Executed 513 Piedmont story of a Massacre 373 â—â—ague in the Loyal-Irish Provinces 242 〈◊〉 ships taken by Sir Richard Stainer 383 〈…〉 tentiaries of the Rumpin the Sound 462 〈…〉 tentiaries return from Cologne 599 Plot pretended against the Protector 358. Another started 403. vide Cavalier Plot in Ireland 520. Plotters Executed 545 Plot in England 520. Plotters tryed 521. Executed ibid. More Plotters 549. Condemned and Executed 550 Pontefract-Castle 72. Dâ—livered 131 Poland King his ill success 545. Polanders revolt 546 549. Make peace with the Tartars 568. The King resignes 571. Several pretend to the Crown ibid. New King Elected 577. New dissentions there 590. King dies 596. Defeats the Turks ibid. Popham Sea-General dies 303 Pope and King of France quarrel 524. Agree 525. Popes Iustice 571. Dies 577. A new one chosen 579 596 Popish Priests Banished 578 599. Orders against popish Priests ibid Porta Ferina Fight 374 Porto Longone fight between the Dutch and Capt. Badily 328 Portsmouth taken 39 Portugueze murthered 522 Portugal Embassador to the new English States 277. Concludes a peace 332. Concludes a League ibid. His Brother Dâ—n Pontaleon Sa Beheaded for what 361. That King dies 383 Portugal Match declared by the King 497 Portugal routs the Spaniard 526. Victory 533 546. Invade Spain 547. At peace with Spain 570. Prince of Portugal made Regent 572 Potter Condemned 290 Powel and Laughorn saved ibid. Power onely in the people 225 Poyntz Col. 89 91 139 143. Poyer Col. shot to death 231 Prentices Tumult 568 Presbyterian Government established for three years 125. Ministers own not the Parliament 255. Seized by the Council of State 290 Presbytery tending to an establishment 439 Presbyterians endeavour a Toleration 511 Pride and Hewson and Sir Hardress Waller force the Houses 192 Private Bills pass'd by the King 509 Prizes taken from the Dutch 322 Proclamation of the King 's Privy Council slighted in Scotland 5 7. Of the King for the Kings Iudges to render themselves 454 Of twenty miles to Rump Officers 511. Against Papists 565 Propositions to the King at Colbrook on his march to London 41. Made for tryal of the King by the Iuncto 194 195. Protestants in Savoy 526 Pryn writes agaidst Bishops and Ceremonies put in the Pillory for it 2. Meets the Rump 420 Publick Faith 37 Putten Van his fall 589 Q Qualifications made by the Rump of all such to bold Offices 421 Quarter free 156 Quarrel the state of it between the Scots and Cromwel 271 Queen-Mother Mary de Medicis coming to England taken for Ominous why 9 Queen with the Princess of Aurange for Holland carries the Crown-Iewels 27. Lands in Burlington-Bay 42. Endangered by shot proclaimed Traitor 44. Meets the King at Edgâ—â— hill 43. Goes for security from Oxford to Exeter 57. From thence to France 58 Queen-mother arriâ—â—s 〈◊〉 England 469. Departs Returns 4â—â— Returns for France 539. Dies 573. Queen of Bohemia likewise dies 504 Queen Catherine â—mbarkes from Lisbon 507. Arrives aâ— â—â—â—â—â—mouth 508. At Hampton-court 509. To White-hall ibid. R Ragland-Castle 109 110 111. Duke of Richmond with the King 132 147 Rainsborough tur 〈…〉 of the Navy by the Sea-men 〈…〉 at Doncaster 193 Ramsey Colâ— 42 Rea Lord defeatâ—◠〈◊〉 â—â—otland 233 Reâ—â—â—ng besieged and rendred 43 〈…〉 in Ireland 20 to 25. The Rebels proclaimed Traitors 26 Recognition-Act and expedient for it the Army jar-with Richard 414 Red-house stormed 272 Remedies proper against late troubles 508 Remonstrance a second of the Parliament worse than the former 35 Armies villaâ—â—â— Remonstrance first against the King 185 186. The Module of our ruine 136 Remonstrance of the Western Scots 280 Remonstrants their folly 304 Repeal of Act against Bishops 501 Resolution of Parliament in answer to the Kings Declaration 51â— Restitution of King and Kingdom 444 Revocation and Impropriation-Act in Scotland original of those troubles â—â—4 Reynolds Commissary-General in â—reland his actions 310 Reynolds Col. Knighted 373. Meets the Duke of York 397. Sent for by Cromwel there upon and cast away ibid. Reynoldson Lord-mayor refuseth to proclaim the Act against Kingly Government fined Imprisoned and degraded 231 Richard Protector 409. his advice and Councellors ibid. Proclaimed a story of his guards 413. Calls a Parliament ibid. Offered terms by the King his suspence 417. Consents to a Commission and Proclamation to dissolve the Parliament 317. Layd aside by the Army in danger of arrest and hides himself 418. Gives a transcript of his debts resolveth and promiseth to acquiesce under the Rump 422 Richlieu intermeddles with the Scotch War 9 Riches Regiment of Horse mutiny at Bury 438 Richmond Duke diâ—s 589 Riot at Lambeth-house Riâ—ers rescued 12 13 Roberts Lord for the Parliament Deputy of Ireland 573 De la Roche taken 5â—â— Roch David defeated vide Broughil â—â—â— Rochester Earl at Ratisbone Diet in Gerâ—â—â—ny 329 Rolf treacherously intends to murther 〈◊〉 King 16â— Rosa Canonized at Rome 57â— Ross in Ireland yielded by Luke Taaff â—â— Cromwel 2â—â— Rothes Earl L. Commissioner in Scotland 5â—â— Rous Francis Speaker to the little Parl. 349 Rudyard Sir Benjamin a Patriot â—36 De Ruyter at mouth of Channel 326 Ruines of St. Pauls â—â—4 Rump 419. Debar the secluded Me 〈…〉 Derivation of the Rump
Sir That which you now tender is to have another Iurisdiction and a co-ordinate Jurisdiction I know very well you express your self Sir that notwithstanding what you will offer to the Lords and Commons in the Painted-Chamber you would nevertheless proceed on here Sir because you shall know the further pleasure of the Court upon that which you have moved the Court will withdraw for a time King Shall I withdraw President Sir you shall know the pleasure of the Court presently The Court withdrew for half an hour into the Court of Wards Then the Court commanded the Serjeant at Arms to withdraw the King and to expect order for his return again The Court withdrew for half an hour and returned this withdrawing was occasioned by the importunacy and disturbance of Colonel Downs who sate next to Cromwel but Downs was quickly quieted being awed by Cromwel during this short stay President Serjeant at Arms send for your Prisoner Sir their withdrawing and adjournment was pro forma tantum for it did not seem to them that there was any difficulty in the thing the Court is now resolved to proceed King Sir I know it is in vain for me to dispute I am no Sceptick for to deny the power that you have I know that you have power enough Sir I confess I think it would have been for the Kingdoms Peace if you would have taken the pains to have shown the lawfulness of your power For this delay that I have desired I confess it is a delay but very important for the Peace of the Kingdom for it is not my person that I look on alone it is the Kingdoms welfare and the Kingdoms Peace it is an old sentence That we should think on long before we have resolved of great matters suddenly Therefore Sir I do say again that I do put at your doors all the inconveniency of an hasty Sentence I confess I have been here now I think this week this day eight days was the day I came here first but a little delay of a day or two further may give peace whereas an Hâ—sty Iudgement may bring on that trouble and perpetual inconveniency to the Kingdom that the Child that is unborn may repent it and therefore again out of the Duty I owe to God and to my Country I do desire that I may be heard by the Lords and Commons in the Painted-Chamber or any other Chamber that you will appoint me President The Court will proceed King I say this Sir That if you will hear me I doubt not but I shall give some satisfaction to you all here and to my people after that and therefore I do require you as you will answer it at the dreadful day of Judgement that you will consider it once again President Sir I have received direction from the Court. King Well Sir President If this must be re-enforc'd or any thing of this nature your Answer must be the same and they will proceed to Sentence if you have nothing more to say King I have nothing more to say but I shall desire that this may be entred what I have said President The Court then Sir hath something to say to you which although I know it will be very unacceptable yet notwithstanding they are willing and are resolved to discharge their Duty and so proceeded by way of â—iery how other Nations in all times had taken the same course with their Kings and Princes deposing and executing of them especially and more frequently in the Kings Native Realm of Scotland mis-citing and wresting and abusing the truth of History to varnish the Rhapsody and Treason of this lying Harangue of all which one most remarkable paragraph as noted by the King himself with an admiration is here inserted Sir That that we are now upon by the command of the highest Court hath been and is to Try and Iudge you for those great offences of yours Sir the Charge hath called you Tyrant a Traytor a Murtherer and a publike Enemy to the Commonwealth of England Sir it had been well if any of all these terms rightly and justly might have been spared if any one of them at all King Ha! President To do Iustice Impartially and even upon You is all our Resolutions Sir I say for your self we do â—eartily wish and desire that God would be pleased to give you a sense of your sins that you would see wherein you have done amiss that you may cry unto him that God would deliver you from Blood guiltiness A good King was once guilty of that particular thing and was clear otherwise saving in the matter of Uriah Truly Sir the story tells us that he was a repentant King and it signifies enough that he had died for it but that God was pleased to accept of him and to give him his pardon Thou shalt not dye but the Child shall dye thou hast given cause to the enemies of God to blaspheme King I would desire onely one word before you give Sentence and that is That you would hear me concerning those great Imputations that you have laid to my charge President Sir You must give me leave to go on for I am not far from your Sentence and your time is now past King But I shall desire you will hear me a few words to you for truly what ever Sentence you will put upon me in respect of those heavy Imputations I see by your speech you have put upon me that I Sir it is very true that President Sir I must put you in minde truly Sir I would not willingly at this time especially interrupt you in any thing you have to say that is proper for us to admit of but Sir you have not owned us as a Court and you look upon us as a sort of people met together and we know what Language we receive from your party King I know nothing of that President You dis-avow us as a Court and therefore for you to address your self to us and not to acknowledge us as a Court to judge of what you say it is not to be permitted and the truth is all along from the first time you were pleased to dis-avow and disown us the Court needed not to have heard you one word for unless they be acknowledged a Court and engaged it is not proper for you to speak Sir we have given you too much liberty already and admitted of too much delay c. The President commands the Sentence to be read Make an O Yes and command Silence while the Sentence is read O Yes made Silence commanded The Clerk read the Sentence which was drawn up in Parchment Whereas the Commons of England in Parliament have appointed them an high Court of Iustice for the Trying of Charles Stuart King of England before whom he had been three times convented and at first time a Charge of high Treason and other Crimes and Misdemeanours was read in the behalf of the
Kingdom of England c. Here the Clerk read the Charge Which Charge being read unto him as aforesaid He the said Charles Stuart was required to give his Answer but he refused so to do expressing the several passages of his refusing in the former proceedings For all which Treasons and Crimes this Court doth adjudge that He the said Charles Stuart as a Tyrant Traytor Murtherer and a publike Enemy shall be put to Death by severing his Head from his Body Jan. 27. 1648. Which being read Bradshaw added This Sentence now read and published it is the Act Sentence Judgement and Resolution of the whole Court To which they all expressed their assent by standing up as was before agreed and ordered And then the King not being admitted to reply was taken by his Guards and carried to Sir Robert Cottons the Souldiers as he passed down the Staires scoffing at him and casting the smoak of their Tobacco a thing odious to him in his Face and strewing the Pipes in his way And one more insolent than the rest Spitting in his Face which his Majesty according to his wonted Heroick Patience took no more notice of than to wipe it away As he passed along further hearing the same wretches crying out Justice Execution He said Alass poor souls for a piece of money they would do so for their Commanders Being brought thus to Sir Robert Cottons a house neer adjoyning and thence by water to White-â—all the Souldiers at their Commanders instigation who were set on likewise by Cromwel continued their brutish carriage toward him abusing all that seemed to shew any respect or even compassion to him not suffering him to rest in his Chamber but thrusting in and smoaking their Tobacco and disturbing his privacy But through all these Trials unusual to Princes he passed with such a calm and even temper that he let nothing fall unbeseeming his former Majesty and Magnanimity In the Evening a Member of the Army acquainted the Committee with his Majesties desire that seeing they had passed a Sentence of Death upon him and his time might be nigh he might see his Children and Doctor Iuxon Bishop of London might be admitted to assist him in his private Devotions and receiving the Sacrament Both which at length were granted At this time did some of the Grandees of the Army tempt the King with new Proposals but so destructive to the peoples Liberty and Safety so contrary to his Honour and Conscience and so reproachful to any Christian Government that he with the like courage and constancy which he had shewed throughout his Troubles rejected and chose the Cross to prepare him whereto the Lord Bishop of London on Sunday being that day guarded at Saint Iames's preached before him on these words In the day when God shall judge the secrets of all men by Iesus Christ according to my Gospel On Monday following the day before his death the Duke of Gloucester and the Lady Elizabeth were brought to him whom he most joyfully received and giving his Blessing to the Princess He had her remember to tell her Brother James when even she should see him That it was his Fathers last desire that he should look no more upon Charles as his eldest Brother onely but be obedient unto him as his Sovereign And that they should love one another and forgive their Fathers Enemies And then said unto her Sweet-heart you will forget this No said she I shall never forget it while I live And pouring forth abundance of Tears promised him to write down the particulars Then the King taking the Duke of Gloucester upon his Knee said Sweet-heart now they will Cut off thy Fathers Head upon which words the Child looked very wishfully on him Mark Child what I say They will Cut off my Head and perhaps make thee a King But mark what I say you must nâ—t be a King so long as your Brothers Charles and James do live for they will Cut off your Brothers Heads when they can catch them and Cut thy Head off too at last and therefore I charge you do not be made a King by them At which the Child sighing said I will be torn in pieces first Which falling so unexpectedly from one so young it made the King rejoyce exceedingly Another Relation from the Lady Elizabeths own Hand What the King said to me 29 of January last being the last time I had the happiness to see him He told me he was glad I was come and although he had not time to say much yet somewhat he had to say to me which he had not to another or leave in writing because he feared their Crueltie was such as that they would not have permitted him to write to me He wished me not to grieve and torment my self for him for that would be a glorious Death that he should die it being for the Laws and Liberties of the Land He bid me read Bishop Andrews Sermons Hookers Ecclesiastical Policy and Bishop Laud 's Book against Fisher which would ground me against Poperie He told me he had forgiven all his Enemies and hoped God would forgive them also and commanded us c. to forgive them He bid me tell my Mother that his thoughts had never strayed from her and that his Love would be the same to his last Withal he commanded me and my Brother to be obedient to her And bid me send his Blessing to the rest of my Brothers and Sisters with commendation to all his Friends So after he had given me his Blessing I took my leave Further he commanded us all to forgive those People but never to trust them for they had been most false to him and to those that gave them power and be feared also to their own Souls And desired me not to grieve for him for he should die a Martyr and that he doubted not but that the Lord would settle his Throne upon his Son and that we should all be happier than we could have expected to have been if he had lived With many other things which at present I cannot Remember The same day the Regicides met being sixty four in number at the Painted-Chamber in pursuance of their Bloody Sentence and appointed Sir Hardress Waller Harrison Ireton Dean and Okey to be a Committee to consider of the Time and Place for the Execution who having made a report fourty eight of the Commissioners meeting again the same day made this Resolve Vpon Report made for considering of the Time and Place of the Executing of the Iudgement against the King that the said Committee have Resolved that the open street before White-hall is a fit place and that the said Committee conceive it fit that the King be there Executed to Morrow the King having already notice thereof The Court approved thereof and ordered a Warrant to be drawn for that purpose which Warrant was accordingly drawn and agreed unto and