was altogether uncertain and knowing that by his late Preparations and Alliances he had provoked a mighty and a warlike King he thought it convenient to provide for his own security if the worst should happen by keeping up his Army and continuing his Fleet at Sea especially since that was the most probable means to make the French King account it his interest to hasten the Peace and procure to himself the more advantagious Terms therein telling his Parliament which met soon after That although they would peradventure account the Peace he was endeavouring to procure as ill a bargain as War because it cost them Money yet if they seriously considered that Flanders might have perhaps been lost by that time he believed they would give much greater Sums than all the Charge he he had been at amounted to rather than the single Town of Ostend should be in the French King's hands and Forty or Fifty of his Ships of War in so good a Haven over against the Rivers mouth adding That he could not but be very well pleased to understand the Reputation he had gained abroad by having in so short a time rais'd so great an Army and fitted out so brave a Fleet and hoped that they were so too since it so much redounded to the Honour of the English Nation desiring them therefore if they had any respect to their own Welfare and the Peace of Europe or were willing he should pass any part of his Life in quiet and all the rest in confidence and quietness with them and other future Parliaments to take care for the maintaining Peace and Union at home and the setling the same Revenue he had the Christmass before some of it being then fallen off upon him for Life and add 300000 l. per Annum thereunto to enable him to maintain the Navy and Ord'nance and keep his Word with the Prince of Orange in the payment of 40000 l. as his Nieces Portion the first Payment whereof was then become due and demanded by that Prince But the French King notwithstanding the Cessation of Arms endeavouring to enlarge his Conquests and possess himself of several considerable Towns he resolved to prevent him and therefore commanded the Duke of Monmouth who was at that time General of all his Land Forces and the Earl of Ossery to joyn the Prince of Orange and attempt the beating of him from the Siege of Mons which was then very much straitned by him and would in all probability have been lost within a few days The French who lay encamp'd between two Woods the right Wing posted at St. Dennis and their left at Mamoy St. Pierre with such advantage that besides the Woods there was only a Precipice led to them which made them almost inaccessable thought themselves secure but the Cannon playing briskly upon St. Dennis and the valiant English commanded by the Earl of Ossery falâ—ing on with their accustomed Courage and Fury soon forced the Abbey and compell'd the French posted there to fly in great disorder to their main body many of them being slain in the dispute which was very hot And the Duke of Luxenburgh who was Commander there as the French King's General notwithstanding he had upon their first approach on a presumption that he lay encamp'd in a place which was impregnable laught at and derided the vain Attempt as he imagined of forcing his Camp finding he had now to do with the resolute English and not the timerous Spaniards or wary Germans dislodg'd in great confusion leaving his slain and many wounded Men behind and the Tents standing as they were to the Plunder of his victorious Enemies whereby the relieving of Mons a work thought little less then impossible was easily performed and the French King disappointed of his hopes And had that succeess been followed and improv'd the French King would in all probability have been reduced to great extremities and have been glad to have accepted of Peace upon any Conditions he could have gotten but the Peace which he had upon the march of the English hastily concluded a few days before at Nemeguen put a stop to all farther hostilities Things being brought to this happy conclusion abroad new Stirs and Commotions begin to appear at home For one Titus Oates who had receiv'd Education Orders in the Church of England and was afterward seemingly or God knows how reconcil'd to the Church of Rome going first into Flanders and then into Spain ingratiated himself with the Jesuits and Priests in those parts with a design as he afterward pretended to discover what they were plotting against England returning about this time inform'd the King of a Plot carried on by the Jesuits and others of the Roman Catholick Religion against his Person and Life the Protestant Religion and the Government of the Kingdom And that his Information might appear the more plausible and be the more readily believed he named divers Persons of Quality engaged in the Design and what Instruments had been provided for his Assassination affirming that when he was once taken off the remaining part of the Work was to have been carried on by Arms Foreign Assistance and such other Expedients as they should have judged necessary for the success of their Enterprise Whether there was any truth at all in this Relation or how much there was or whether the King at all believed it is none of my business to determine since I design as an Historian only to relate matter of Fact but certain it is that many Troubles and Combustions were occasioned thereby and several great and threatning Mischiefs have since fallen so thick upon these Kingdoms that one hath ever trod upon the heels of another Upon this Information the Privy-Councel sate twice a day to consider and examin that Plot and Sir George Wakeman one of the Queen's Physicians Mr. Coleman the Dutchess of York's Secretary Mr. Langhorn of the Temple and several others were committed close Prisoners and the Lords Bellassis Powis Peters Arundel of Warder Castlemain and Stafford were secured in the Tower And the Parliament sitting soon after the King told them in his Speech That he had been informed of a Design against his Person carried on by the Papists whereof he should forbear to give his opinion lest he should seem to say too much or too little but would leave the matter wholly to the decision of the Law without prejudging the persons accused But the strict inquiry into that Matter having discovered many unwarrantable Practices of theirs he thought he had reason to look to ' em Altho' this Plot in all the parts of it was a complication of Mysteries yet the greatest mystery of all seems to be the business of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey who being a Justice of the Peace for Middlesex and a severe enemy to the Papists as was generally supposed took the Depositions of Oates and Tongue and was soon after found dead in a Ditch not far from Hampsted with his Sword run through
Rights which none but such Monsters as themselves would unjustly detain from so great and so good a Prince Wherefore being deeply sensible of their danger they prepare for War but whether it should be Offensive or Defensive was yet a question among them But at last considering that if there must be a War it had ever been a Maxim among the greatest Politicians that it was most prudent to make the Enemies Country the Seat of it They resolved upon an Offensive War hoping that Scotland would quickly be weary of maintaining two Armies since it had so much ado to keep one And that since they were informed their Levies went on flowly they thought that their Forces which were already on Foot might easily go and surprize them before they lookt for them or were half ready to entertain them In order whereunto Cromwel being called out of Ireland was in great state made Captain General of all their Forces raised or to be raised in England Scotland and Ireland The Lord Fairfax who had in him some sparks of Loyalty waving at once that Employment and his own Commission not as some imagine to avoid the hazard of that Expedition for he was one that never turned his back upon danger but because he was unwilling any longer to be subservient to those base and vile Designs which he now began to abhor Whilst these preparations were making in England the King removed from the Hague to Diep in Normandy and from thence to Scheveling from whence after a dangerous Storm and narrow escape of some English Vessels which lay in wait for him he arrived safe at the Spey in the North of Scotland which the Parliament being informed of they sent some Lords to receive and attend him from thence to Edinburgh where he is received by the Parliament and Committee of Estates and Kirk with infinite expressions of Fidelity and Affection the common people like so many Echoes to their Superiors and the whole City sounding nothing but Vive le Roy. But Cromwel being advanced with his Army into Scotland and having been successful in some smaller Encounters and given them a total overthrow at Dunbar they found themselves in a sad and perplexed condition having not only the Enemy raging in the bowels of that Kingdom but being extreamly divided also amongst themselves wherefore they now thought it high time to unite among themselves In order whereunto a general meeting was appointed at St. Johnstons which should consist of King Lords and Commons and the Assembly of the Ministers in which Assembly several Lords formerly in favour with the Kirk were admitted to Commands in the Army and a Liberty to sit in Parliament as Hamilton Lauderdale and others And Major General Massey formerly Governour of Glocester for the Parliament but afterward reconciled to the King was admitted to a Command in the Army And as the perfection of all the Kings Coronation was there resolved upon so that now their wounds began to heal and their breaches to be made up again and it was generally hoped that these Clouds of Division being blown over a serene Sky would immediately follow and the Sun of Prosperity shine on their future proceedings The Parliament of Scotland in pursuance of those resolutions at St. Johnstons having dissolved themselves in order to the Kings Coronation it was performed on the first of January at Schone in as Solemn and Splendid manner as the exigency of the time could bear his Majesty with a great Train of his Nobles and others went first to the Kirk where a Sermon was Preacht by a Scotch Minister whose name was Duglass upon those words then they brought out the Kings Son and put upon him the Crown and gave him the Testimony and made him King and Jehojadah and his Son Anointed him saying God save the King 2 Chron. 23 11. Joined to these words and Jehojadah made a Covenant between all the People and between the King that they should be the Lords People v. 16. Which Sermon being ended he was conducted from his Chair of State which was placed in the Kirk to that erected for his Coronation by the Lord High Constable and the Earl Marshal where being placed he was Proclaimed King by Herald King at Arms and then clad with a Robe of State by the Lord Chamberlain and the Lord Steward After which sitting he consented to the National Covenant the Solemn League Covenant Directory and the Catechisms and promised upon his Royal word to perform them so far as he understood them to be agreeable to the Word of God in his own Family in his Kingdom of Scotland and in all his other Dominions as soon as it should please God to restore him thereunto Which being done the Coronation Oath was next read which was Enacted in the first Parliament of King James and is as follows That His Majesty shall maintain that Religion Discipline and Worship that is most agreeable to the Word of God to the best Patrons of Reformation and is against all Heresy Schism Idolatry Superstition and Prophaneness that he should govern the Kingdom by Law and Equity and that he should maintain the just Rights of the Crown and Priviledges of the People After the reading of which Oath he declared with an audible Voice that he did promise in the name of the great God who Lives for ever that he would to the uttermost of his Power endeavour to do the things contained in that Oath Which done Herald King at Arms went to the four corners of the Stage and demanded of the People four times whether they were willing that Charles the Second Son and Heir of Charles the First should be King over them to which the People answered Long live King Charles God Save the King Then the Marquess of Argile Presented him with the Royal Scepter the Earl of Eglington put on the Spurs the Lord High Constable set the Crown upon his Head and the Earl Marshal having unsheathed the Sword put it into his hand to defend the Faith withal which having held a while he delivered it to the Earl of Glencarn to be carried before him Then the Nobility Gentry and Commons of the Kingdom did as in the presence of the Great God that Lives for ever swear Allegiance Fealty and Obedience to him as to their Liege and Soveraign Lord and the whole Ceremony was concluded by an Exhortation of the Minister to his Majesty to the Nobility to the Clergy and to the Commons the sum and substance whereof was in reference to the Covenant which they then lookt upon as the Center from which every Line both of Soveraignty and the Subjects Duty was to be drawn in their respective Circumstances And for a power to perform what he then exhorted them to the assistance of God is invoked by prayer who being Alpha and Omega they made him the first with whom they began and the last with whom they finished So soon as the Crown was set upon his Head he made a
where-ever he met with him Upon the Report whereof by Morrice he was infinitely pleased and therefore ordered Morrice to give him notice that he would meet him at his Chamber sometime in the Evening of the next day Greenvile according to appointment repaired to Morrice's Chamber whither the General upon intimation of his being there came likewise soon after To whom after some Complements Greenvile declared that he looked upon himself as infinitely obliged to his Excellency for giving him that opportunity of discharging himself of a Trust of great importance in relation to the King the General and the whole Kingdom which had been long deposited in his hands by his Soveraign adding that he thought himself more happy in having that good occasion of performing his duty in obeying the Commands and promoting the Interest of his Soveraign than in any occurrence of his whole Life presenting him at the same time with a Letter directed to him from the King and producing another sent to himseâ—f together with a Commission which he had received from the King to treat with him about the business of his Restauration Whereupon the General suddenly stepped back and holding the Paper in his hand with a kind of a forced frown hastily demanded of him how he durst mention a thing of that nature to him without considering the danger he thereby run himself upon Greenvile replied He had long since considered that matter and duly weighed the danger which attended an attempt of that nature but the hazard though great was not sufficient to deter him from the performance of his duty And that he was the more encouraged to adventure by the Message which he was pleased to send him by his Brother before he left Scotland Upon the mention thereof without making any reply he presently approached towards him with a more pleasing aspect and embracing him in his Arms said Dear Couzen I return you my hearty thanks for the Prudence Fidelity Care and Constancy wherewith you have managed this great Affair and your resolute Secrecy therein For could I have informed my self that you had ever revealed it to any person living since you first acquainted my Brother therewith I would never have consented to treat with you about it which now I shall most willingly do and with you rather than any other in regard you are so nearly related to me and I have received so many obligations both from you and your Family And then having read the King's Letter and the Commission he added that he hoped the King would forgive what was past according to the Contents of his gracious Letter assuring him that his heart was ever faithful to him although he had never been in a condition to serve him until then desiring Sir John that he would in his name assure His Majesty that he was now not only ready to obey his Commands but to sacrifice his Life and Fortune in his Service calling Morrice who stood without as Door-keeper to bear witness of that his solemn Protestation Sir John desired him to send some Confident of his own to the King to treat and advise with him what was fit to be done for the better carrying on their Design to which he â—asily consented but told him that that Confident must be himself for he would not as yet adventure to send any Letters to the King for fear of the worst And that without them the King had no reason to give any Credit to a Messenger sent from him but might very well believe one whom himself had employed wherefore at the next Conference he received Instructions with a Charge not to commit them to Writing till he came to the King at Brussels and there to communicate them to none but himself Greenvile managed this Negotiation with such Secrecy and his Journey to Brussels was so speedy and fortunate that few knew of it before his arrival there and those who did nay that went in companâ— with him thither had not so much as the leaâ—â— suspicion what Errand it was he went on The King having intimation of his Arrival went privately to his Lodgings to whom Greenvile related the Instructions he had received from Monk which were readily believed although he brought nothing under the General 's hand The News whereof was very acceptable and highly welcom to the King whose joy upon that account was so much the greater because the General required no Conditions of Restraint to his Royal Power and had left the Reward of his Service wholly to his goodness as appeared by what himself declared to Greenvile upon the receipt of a Letter sent him by some of his Friends in England to acquaint him with the great Service they had done His Majesty in prevailing with Monk notwithstanding his being so absolute a Common-wealths-man they knowing nothing of his being pre-engaged by the King not to oppose his Return upon his Fathers Concessions in the Isle of Wight which Terms though hard and consented to by his Father only in consideration of his necessity yet they beâ—ought His Majesty not to think hard of them now lest his refusal might exclude him longer from the Crown Little do they think in England said the King that the General and I are upon so good Terms and the truth is I could hardly believe it my self until your Arrival with the happy News The General 's resolution to restore me to my Crown and Kingdom without Conditions beyond our expectations here or the belief of all our Friends in England except your self who was employed in it The King having been informed by Greenvile that Monk had declared he would not tie him to any Terms of Reward affirming that he took more content in doing His Majesty and his Country Service than in the expectation of greatness pressed Greenvile to know what he should do for himself But he according to the General 's Example nobly refused all Proposals of Reward for that Service in which he had been so eminently successful till he should have the happiness to see him at his Palace of Whitehall But the King resolving nor to send him back without a mark of his Royal Favour secretly put into his Pocket a Warrant under his Hand and Seal for an English Earldom and the assurance of three thousand pounds per Annum to be settled upon him and his Heirs for ever to support that Honour with a promise moreover to pay those Debts which either he or his Father had contracted by engaging themselves in the Royal Cause The King upon his receiving this Message from Monk consulted with Sir Edward Hide whom he had then nominated for the Lord Chancellor the Marquess of Ormond Secretary Nichols and some others of his Confidents Greenvile likewise being present what return he should make thereunto In which Privy Council there was a Commission drawn up and signed by the King for the constituting Monk Captain General of all his Land-Forces in the three Kingdoms and Publick Diâ—patches framed and signed
Judicial proceedings And then he return'd to White-Hall where he chose the Lords of his Privy Council amongst whom were several of the long Parliament that had given sufficient Testimony of their sincere repentance and their resolution to be Loyal for the future and he appointed Judges for the Benches and Courts of Judicature Several Addresses were likewise made to him from the Nobility and Gentry of all the Countreys in England wherein they congratulated his Restitution to his Crown and Kingdom assuring him of their exceeding Joy and willingness to maintain his Royal Person and Authority Divers persons that had been eminent for their service and affection to him were about that time also dignified with the honour of Knighthood And several men guilty of his Fathers murder having made their escape beyond-Sea a Proclamation was Issued forth wherein all those persons who had â—ate gave Judgment or any way assisted in that horrid and detestable fact were commanded to surrender themselves within fourteen days to the Speaker or Speakers of Parliament to the Lord Mayor of London or the Sheriff of that County wherein they then resided forbidding all persons to conceal or harbour them under misprision of Treason whereupon divers submitted themselves and were secur'd in the Tower The Commons in drawing up the Act of Oblivion order'd that some others besides those who had actually sate in Judgment upon the late King should be excepted out of it viz. Broughton Phelps Cook Dâ—nby and Hugh Peters which so affrighted others who had a hand in that execrable murder that Col. John Hutchinson a Member of that Parliament and Coll. Frâ— Lussels presented their Petition to them wherein they confest their guilt and declar'd the artifices which were us'd to draw them in by which submission they obtain'd pardon upon some small forfeitures only But Peters being shortly after taken in Southwark was clapt up into the Tower And the Parliament not looking upon themselves nor the people of England free from the guilt nor safe from the punishment which in those unhappy times they had contracted unless they laid hold of the Kings offer of Grace in his Declaration from Breda did therefore resolv'd in a full house that they did in the name of themselves and of all the Commons of England lay hold on the gracious pardon mention'd in that Declaration with reference to the exclusion of such as should be excepted in an Act of Pardon and they order'd a Declaration that their Resolution should be drawn up which was done accordingly and presented to the King by Denzell afterward Lord Hollis some of the most eminent in Office under the late Usurpers having in the mean while to make sure of that Grace gotten their particular pardons exemplified under the great Seal of England To prevent which trouble the King was more than ordinary pressing for the speedy passing the Act of Oblivion taking care to express his grateful sentiments of the Loyalty and services of several Illustrious personages that were principally instrumental in accomplishing his Restauration by dignifying them with Places and Titles of honour And to shew how highly the Generals Loyalty had advanc'd him in his good Opinion he was dignifi'd by him with the Titles of Duke of Albemarle Earl of Torrington and Baron of Potheridge Beauchamp Teyes had his Temples deserv'dly incircl'd with a Ducal Coronet by the hand of his Majesty being thereby invested with the right of Peerage in all the three Kingdoms whose equal Felicity and Honour he had preferr'd before his own and therefore now most deservingly shar'd with them therein by his Investure in those Dignities which were compleated on the 13th of the following July by his taking his place in the House of Lords being attended by the Commons and introduc'd by the Duke of Buckingham Montague was made Earl of Sandwich Ormond Earl of Brecknock and Lord Steward of the Kings Houshold the Earl of Lindsey Lord High Chamberlain Manchester L. Chamberlain of the Kings Houshold Southhampton Lord High Treasurer Greenvile Earl of Bath and Groom of the Stole Sir Frederick Cornwallis Treasurer of the Kings Houshold by an old grant and Sir John Berkley Controller Divers rich Presents were now made to him from the several Cities and Burroughs of the Kingdom in Gold and Plate and the resignation of several Feefarm Rents which had been purchas'd from the Usurpers the City of London among the rest with a Complement of their good Stewardship rendred their grant of new Perk in Surrey and all the Rents accruing at Michaelmas Day were now secured from the late Purchasers of Crown and Church Laws to the utter disappointing of their unjust and covetous expectations from such base and unwarrantable Penny-worths A Peace was now made Proclaim'd between us and Spain and a Splendid Embassy dispatcht from Denmark to congratulate his happy Restauratian The Court of Soissons who had Married Cardinal Mazarines Neece being sent from the French King on the same Errand entring London with all the sumptuous and extraordinary Magnificence imaginable and there was no Prince nor State in Europe but what sent an Embassador thither to congratulate him upon that happy and wonderful occasion And the Parliament having after many debates and disputes alterations and insertions at last finish'd the long desir'd Act of Oblivion which was extraordinary comprehensive and indulgent even to the regret of many injur'd Loyalists who found no better Argument to perswade their acquiescing therein than their unchangeable Loyalty to the King whose special Act that was There were no more excepted out of it but only the Regicides and Murderers of the late King only Lambert Vane and twenty more were thereby reserv'd to such forfeitures as should be afterward declar'd by Parliament the principal whereof was Hazelrick St. John Lenthal the Speaker Philip Nye Burton of Tarmouth and some Sequestrators Officers and Major Generals of the Army among whom was Desbrough Pine Butler Ireton c. They likewise past an Act for the perpetual Anniversary Thanksgiving on the 29 of May which was the day both of his Birth and Restauration and therefore deserv'd a perpetual memorial and to be made by a Parliamentary Canonization the most auspicious in the English Kallender to both which he gave his Royal assent and shortly after at their adjournment to another for disbanding the Army and paying off the Navy which although they once threatned us with a perpetuating our slavery yet were now forc'd by the happy conjunction of his Fortune with his Wisdom and Goodness after many models to submit to its last desolation And the Commons having after the passing of their Bills acquainted him that they had nothing more to ask or offer at that time but that if his Majesties occasions would permit they might adjourn and go into their own Countries where they should endeavour to make his subjects sensible of their extraordinary happiness in having such a King to Rule and Govern them He consented to it telling
them that no man had long'd with more impatience to have those Bills past than he had done to pass them in regard he look't upon them as the Foundation of the Nations Peace and Security and that he did very willingly pardon all that were pardoned in the Act of Indempnity but assuring them withal that for the time to come the same discretion and conscience which had disposed him to the clemency that he had therein exprest and was most agreeable to his nature would oblige him to all Rigour and Severity how contrary soever it were to his Disposition towards those who should not now acquiesce but continue to manifest their Sedition and dislike of the Government not knowing any more probable way to assure himself of his peoples affections than by rendring himself just as well as kind to all The confluence of his felicities were about this time somewhat abated and the Joy of his Restauration somewhat allay'd by the immature and much lamented Death of his younger Brother Henry Duke of Gloucester a Prince of such extraordinary hopes that my silence will be his best Commendation since his vertues far transcend the highest expressions of my Pen. He dyed of the small-Pox and was privately buryed in Henry the 7th's Chappel The Princess of Orange soon after dispelling the grief which had been conceiv'd upon the account of his death by her Arrival from Holland to Joy and Felicitate her Brothers in the Recovery of their Rights About this time the King knowing that the Common wealth never thrives so well as when the Church and State are equally Interested in the Princes care applied himself to settle the Miter as wel as the Crown and provide for the wel ordering of Ecclesiastical affairs as well as he had done for the Civil by reestablishing Episcopcay and restoring the Bishops to their ancient Rights and Priviledges So that the Ecclesiastical Regiment by Bishops recover'd its self by the Kings piety and prudence near as soon and in almost as Triumphant a manner as Monarchy it self appointing Dr. Juxon that ancient and excellent Prelate that had been in his Fathers Reign Bishop of London and had assisted him at the time of his death on the Scaffold to the Arch-Bishopprick of Canterbury whose Translation was perform'd with great Solemnity And not long after several new Bishops chosen from among the eminent and valiant asserters of the Church and Lawâ— of England were consecrated in the Abby at Westminster and all the Vacant Diocesses fill'd up with men of the greatest Learning and Piety And now divine vengeance having with a sure though a slow foot trac'd the Murderers of the Royal Martyr through several Mazes at last overtake them For the Parliament having in detestation of their Crime and to wipe away the stain of that most accursed Pollution giv'n them up as Sacrifices to the Law and the Honour of their Country the King order'd their Tryal by a Commission of Oyer and Terminer to begin on the Ninth of October that so his Justice might appear equally as Respondent in the punishment of their Parricide as his Clemency had done in the pardon of all other Crimes They were all of them convicted according to Law the full benefit whereof was allow'd them being tryed by a Jury of their Peers against whom they had the liberty of excepting and Condemn'd to be Drawn Hang'd and Quarter'd and Harrison Carew Scot Clement Scrope Jones Peters Hacker Axtell and Cook were Executed accordingly The last of whom acknowledg'd that the Person of the Prince they had Murder'd was beyond any Parallel being most Virtuous most Innocent most Religious and that his Judges were for the most part mean and desparate Persons whose Hands were lifted up by Ambition Sacriledge Covetousness and success against the Life of that incomparable Prince whose lamented and barbarous death God would not suffer to go unrevenged Their quarters were dispos'd of to the several Gates and most of their Heads set on Poles upon the Bridge but the rest of the Prisoners that had surrendred themselves on Proclamation were respited from Execution till the farther pleasure of the Parliament was known and after Sentence past upon them remanded to the Tower from whence they came And having now in some measure reveng'd his Fathers Death his next respects were due to his Mother who being about that time come over from France he could not better welcome her to his Kingdoms than by rendring his Entertainments of her Innocent and free from that horrible guilt which had Divorc'd her from her Husband and for so long a Tract of time estrang'd her from his People since he could neither with Justice nor civility have receiv'd her here without satisfaction and expectation of those Crimes which had so rudely driven her to seek her safety abroad He brought her back to his Pallace at Whitehall on the Second of November after she had been nineteen Years absent from them together with his Sister the Princess Henretta who had not been suffered to breath in English Air above two years after her Birth This meeting after so tedious and desperate an absence was very joyous and the Entertainment highly Magnificent The Marquess of Argile upon the Kings Restauration had the confidence notwithstanding all the base Treasons he had covertly acted in that Kingdom since the Kings departure thence to come up from Scotland in hopes by his fair and specious pretences to obtain his pardon and that the King according to his Gracious Inclination would have past by those many undutiful and Irreverend usages he had receiv'd from him and the rest of his Associates whilst he was there amongst them But such was the general hatred and detestation of that People and especially the Nobility against him that he was committed to the Tower and from thence by Sea convey'd to Edenborough where his process was making ready The Earl of Middleton the Kings great Commissioner for that Kingdom following him thither about the end of December in order to his Tryal where he was convicted and Executed for those many Treasons he had perpetrated against both Kings Death having tasted of the Bloud-Royal by cutting off the Duke of Glocester as though there were a circulation of the very same in every individual and it naturally ran in the same distemper through a whole Family the Infection by a kind of Sympathy in the same disease of the Small-Pox seized the vitals of the Princess of Orange and in spite of all art and remedy hurried her to the grave leaving her Brother and the whole Court fill'd with grief and sadness and her Son the young Prince not above ten years and a month old she was privately buried by her Brother in Henry the 7thâ— Chappel And now the happy Parliament which rendred it self deservedly Famous by rebuilding the glorious structure of the English Ancient and Renowned Government and assured the Foundation thereof in the establishing the Throne of their rightful Soveraign came to its
Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle which was performed with abundance of splendor at Colchester the place which they had bravely defended for him and where they were at its Reduction basely shot to death all the Gentry of those Parts together with the Townesmen in Armes and Mourning attending their Hearses As he had done a little before for the Earl of Montross in Scotland Count Coningsmark who was sent hither from the Young King and Queen of Sweden being upon his departure another more splendid Embassy was sent from thence at whose Reception near the Tower a Fray or Conflict happened between the French and Spanish Ambassadors upon a Quarrel for Precedency whose Coach should follow next after that wherein the Swedish Ambassador rode Both Parties came prepared for the Encounter but the French were basely worsted and seven or eight of them slain which was like to have proved the ground of a new War between those Crowns the French King sending a Messenger to Madrid to demand satisfaction But at the entreaty of the new married Queen and the Spanish King consenting that the French Ambassador should for the time to come have the Precedency upon such occasions the difference was composed Now also several Prisoners in the Tower Regicides and others were by reason of the unwearied Practices of their Parties abroad sent to several remote Castles and Islands for securing the Peace The adjournment being expired the Parliament met again on the 20th of November when the Lords Spiritual the Bishops by vertue of the Act of Repeal made in the former Session took their places again in Parliament which the King was very much pleased to behold and in his Speech to both Houses did Congratulate with them for their enjoyment of their former priviledges as a Felicity he had much desired to see accomplisht in that goodly restored and re-establisht Fabrick of the Government and the Regicides that came in upon Proclamation and were upon that account respited after Sentence to the Pleasure of the Parliament being brought to the Bar of the House of Lords and demanded what they had to say Why Judgment should not pass upon them according to Sentence pleaded the Proclamation Harry Martyn adding that he never obeyed any Proclamation before and therefore hoped he should not be then hanged for taking the Kings word whereupon they were remanded back again to the Tower till further Order Ireland having been hitherto governed by three Lords Justices The Duke of Ormond having been a faithful Servant and constant Attender upon the King in all his Troubles was now nominated Deputy of that Kingdom and Episcopacy after it had been so long banished out of Scotland and so many Miseries and Confusions had befallen that Kingdom through the Fury and Zeal of the Kirke was reduced with all gladness and sufficient testimonies of a welcome reception the four Bishops that had been a little before Consecrated at Lambeth restored whereof Dr. James Sharpe Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews and Metropolitan of Scotland was one who Consecrated others in that Kingdom the whole Order being defunct by the long Usurpation of the Presbyterian Discipline A Fleet was at this time sent to fetch home the Queen from Portugal and carry Forces to Garrison Tangier which being part of the Queens Dowry was delivered by them to Sir Richard Stayner who with Five Hundred Men had taken possession of it in his Masters behalf and was to maintain it till the Earl of Peterborough who was nominated for Governour should arrive and the King supposing her to be by this time at Sea on her way for England acquainted the Parliament therewith and desired that as a Complement to her they would cause the Streets and High-wayes of London to be fitted and cleansed against Her Reception This Royal Bride seems to have been fitted and predisposed by Heaven for his Princely Embraces for besides being designed for him by her Father in the beginning of the late Troubles her Family had suffered a long Eclipse by the interposition of the Spanish Monarchy for the space of near one hundred Years and had now newly recovered its Splendor by her Fathers assuming the Crown which was almost as miraculous a Revolution and as strange a turn of Providence as that of our Captivity by his recovery of his Dominions On the 14th of May She arrived safe at Portsmouth in the Charles which had brought the King over to England after a tedious and dangerous Voyage the joy whereof served to alleviate the grief and wipe away the Tears occasioned by the death of his Aunt the Queen of Bohemia who died a little before having lived to survive all the Misfortunes of her Family which almost from the very time of Her Marriage in the Year One Thousand Six Hundred and Twelve had fallen very thick upon it Her death was followed with a most violent and Tempestuous Wind whereby divers Persons were killed and much damage done as well in Forraign parts as in these Kingdoms as if Heaven had designed thereby to intimate to the World that those Troubles and Calamities suffered by that Princess and the Royal Family and by which most parts of Europe had been tempested were now all blown over and was like her to rest in a perpetual Repose Several Bills which were ready for His Royal Assent detained him at White-Hall somewhat longer then he was willing had their weight and tendency been of less importance but in regard their being past into Acts would set the Nation right where it was before the Troubles began by providing remedies against those mischiefs which had then unhinged the Kingdoms happiness such as the Forbidding armed or tumultuary Petitions and ordering that not above Twelve shall resort together at any time to deliver Petitions to the King whereby they provided so far as Humane Wisdom could foresee against the like dangers by insensible degrees brought upon the Nation in the late Confusions But having once signed those Acts and thereby furnisht his Subjects with so many good and wholsome Laws as no Age of our fore-Fathers could ever boast of he posted away to Portsmouth having sent the Bishop of London thither before Him who was to consummate the Sacred Rights of Marriage which was performed in private and the Queen Conducted soon after by Him to Hampton-Court and from thence to London in great Pomp and Splendour The Parliament of Ireland having about that time for the better defraying his necessary Charge given him a subsidy of One Hundred and Twenty Thousand Pounds to be raised in two Years The Affrican Potentates alarumed by the Arrival of the English and terrified by the Fame of those Warlike and Martial Atchievements began to fear that if they suffered them quietly to possess Tangier they should thereby give them incouragement to incroach farther upon them which consideration drew thither Gayland a War-like Prince but then a Rebel against the Emperour of Fez and Morocco having usurpt part of his Dominions who continued there
Embassador the Lord Lockhart to compose the differences between them and resolving whether he succeeded in that Mediation or not to be no partaker with them in their Quarrels and Commanded by Proclamation that none of his Subjects should enter into the Service of any Foreign Prince And for the better securing of Trade to and from his Ports which was much disturbed by the Insolency of several Dutch Spanish and French Privateers betwixt whom the War still continued he Publish'd a Proclamation wherein he declared That all Ships to what Party soever they belonged should be under his Protection during their stay in any of his Ports or Harbours Commanding the Officers of his Navy to use their utmost endeavours to hinder the Roving of any Private Men so near his Coast as to give apprehension of danger to Merchants And that if a Man of War of either Party and one or more Merchant-Men of another should come into any of his Ports the Merchant-Men should sail out two Tides before the Man of War should be permitted to stirr forbidding his Sea-men to List themselves on Board any Foreign Man of War or other Ship designed for Traffick or the Fishing-Trade without his Licence laying down several other Rules in Relation to the security of Trade and the Maintaining his Sovereignty in those Seas which were punctually observed and thereby many Merchants and Traders preserved from being made prize of by their Enemies And that he might secure the Peace of his Kingdom for the future as well as for the present he procured the Parliament to give him the sum of five hundred eighty four thousand nine hundred and seventy eight Pounds for the speedy building thirty Ships of War which he caused to be built so large and substantial that they cost him one hundred thousand Pounds more than they gave him And now beginning to reflect upon the success of the French King's Arms and fearing lest the growing Greatness of that Monarch might too much obscure his own Glory and threaten the future Peace of his Kingdom resolved with himself by entring into an Alliance with some Princes and States abroad to put a stop to his further Conquests in Flanders And that the French might not think him in jest only he immediately applied himself to the raising of Forces and in a short time had a brave Army on Foot ready to be transported into Flanders and Married his Niece the Lady Mary eldest Daughter to his only Brother the Duke of York to the Prince of Orange The Parliament having at their last sitting desired him to hasten his entering into such Councils and Alliances as might save what remained of Flanders from being devoured by the French he acquainted them at their next Meeting with what he had done telling them that he had made such an agreement with Holland and the rest of the Confederates that if seconded by plentiful supplies from them and due care from the Spaniards for their own Preservation he doubted not but to restore such an Honourable Peace to Christendom as might not be in the Power of one Prince alone to disturb which he had endeavoured by a fair Treaty And was resolved if that succeeded not to enter into an actual War with France laying before them the expences he had been at already and what sums of Money such a War would necessarily require And to remove all sorts of Jealousies he had Married his Niece to the Prince of Orange thereby giving full assurance never to suffer that Prince's Interest to be ruined if assisted by them as he ought to be to preserve it To Alarm the French King the more with a noise of War the Parliament made several Addresses to the King wherein they intreated him to enter into an Actual War with that Crown promising to stand by him with their Lives and Fortunes to that end And a Book was Published Intituled Christianissimus Christianandus wherein reasons were given for reducing the most Christian King to a more Christian state in Europe And finding that the French King still went on in his Conquests he sent some Regiments of his new raised Forces over into Flanders to secure the places of greatest consequence there and Commanded a Fast on Wednesday the tenth of April to be kept in London and on that day fortnight throughout the whole Kingdom to implore the blessings of Heaven on his undertakings And the Parliament to assist him with Money which is the sinews of War raised him a liberal sum by a Pole-Bill and that they might weaken the French as well as strengthen him Prohibited French Wines and other things of the Growth and Manufactury of that Country a contrivance that would certainly have reduced him to terms of Moderation and Peace had the rest of the Confederates done the like but for want of that the design of the Prohibition fell and he received little or no dammage thereby However remembring how fatal the Arms of England had formerly been to France and being Thunder-strook with the Fame of the King 's having in forty days raised an Army of thirty thousand Men and fitted out a Navy of ninety Ships he durst not adventure notwithstanding his success in Flanders to run the hazard of a War with that Nation To prevent which he resolved to consent to a Peace with some of the Confederates hoping thereby to break the measures already taken by King Charles and therefore presently offered a separate Treaty with Holland which People according to their usual though unjust and base Custom of serving themselves and leaving their Confederates in the lurch without acquainting the King of England therewith accepted of and afterwards concluded upon condition that he would give up Maestricht and other places which he had taken from them during the War But besides their usual custom of waiting the first opportunity of slipping their own necks out of the Coller they being informed that the League Offensive and Defensive which the King of England had entred into with them was not well understood at home and had met with some unfitting and very undeserv'd Reflections and that the Parliament had taken up a Resolution of giving no Money till satisfaction was first had in some Matters of Religion and those Jealousies removed which they had without all ground taken up of his Proceedings very much influenced their entrance into that Treaty concluding that it was now vain to rely any longer upon England since England was no longer it self by reason of those Divisions and Misunderstandings between the King and his Parliament But the King who was not ignorant of what the Dutch were doing resolving to save Flanders either by a War or Peace perswaded the King of Spain and the rest of the Conferates to accept of the same Treaty with them endeavouring to procure a Cessation of Arms on all sides during the time of the Treaty the better to make way for the desired Peace However considering the influence that Peace would have upon England
the Island joyned them to those which he had brought with him out of France the news whereof arriving at Westminster a Letter is dispatcht from the Parliament and delivered him by Colonel Russel Governour of Guernzey wherein they humbly desired that for his Fathers his own and for his three more than miserable Kingdoms sake he would come among his Fathers Subjects offering thereupon to afford all that lay in their power to give or himself could expect to receive But not daring to trust them he waved their Complement and proceeded to manage his affairs by Sea and Land to that advantage if they had had their desired success as might have enabled the King in the approaching treaty to stand upon such terms as conduced most to his Honour both as a Man a Christian and a King In order whereunto he came attended by the Duke of York Prince Rupert the Lords Hopton Wilmot Wilâ—oughby Branford and Ruthen and Sir Henry Palmer with twenty Sail of Ships towards Yarmouth and landed there with 2000 Men where the divided multitude entertained him according to their various Inclinations some with an Hosanna and others with a Crucifie And as himself had taken care of his affairs at Sea so he sent commissions to several Persons of Honour and Trust whom he commanded to take care of them by Land viz. Ormond Inchequeen and Montgomery in Ireland the Committee of State and their Officers in Scotland the Lords Goring and Capel in Essex and Kent Glenham and Langdale in the North Hales Lucas Langhorn Poyer Owen Buckingham and the Earls of Holland and Peterborough in those places where each of them resided and Letters of correspondence past mutually between him and the Scots his Father and the City in some whereof which were intercepted the City the Lords and some of the Commons declared themselves ready to contribute all possible asistance for the composing of those unhappy differences For whose encouragement he was graciously pleased to declare himself rather the asserter of his Peoples Priviledges than his own Rights as though he fought against his Subjects not to make himself but them happy against their wills for in a Declaration which he then publisht he Solemnly protested 1. For the Establishment of Religion according to his Fathers agreement in the 26th of the preceding December 2. The performance of the said agreement and pursuance of the concessions on the Kings part 3. The restoring of the King to a Personal Treaty 4. The just Priviledges of Parliament 5. An Act of Oblivion 6. The liberty of the Subject abolishing excise contribution forfeit quarter c. 7. Disbanding the Armies and setling of Peace 8. The Defence of the narrow Seas the securing of â—rade and the support of the Navy and Seamen was all he designed in his present undertakings Which Gracious Declaration he seconded with a Letter to the Lords wherein he required 1 That a Personal Treaty might be had in such place and manner as might consist with the Kings Honour Safety and Freedom that so it might not be blemished with any Face of restraint 2. That Scotland might be included 3. That in the mean time there might be a cessation of Arms and an orderly moderate subsistance mutually agreed on for the Forces on both sides to the Souldiers content and the Subjects ease But such was their stubborn peevishness that all his concessions were slighted and his endeavours came to nothing Wherefore seeing he could do nothing by fair means he applyed himself to Force and made several Honourable but unsuccessful attempts to reduce his Rebellious Subjects to the obedience of their Soveraign Poyer and Langhorn reduce South Wales raise a Thousand Men keep Pembroke Tenby and Chepstow beat Fleming and Horton but soon after received a total rout at St. Fogins Tenby and Pembroke being surrendred and Langhorn and Poyer forced to submit to Mercy in whose behalf he wrote to St. Thomas Fairfax from the Downs where he then lay with his Fleet that they might have the usage and terms of Souldiers of War as those had who were taken by him To which Letter the General answered with all due respects to his Highness that it was not in his power to Act further the Parliament having ordered their Tryals he dar'd not interpose their Justice but only pray for Mercy and Peace subscribing himself his Highness's Humble Servant Sir John Owen likewise reduced North Wales to as little purpose Nor had his affairs much better success in Surrey Essex Kent And the City who having first petitioned and then fought for their own Peace the Kings Honour Safety and Liberty and the Kingdoms Establishment were able to accomplish nothing to purpose The Kentish Men Rendezvouzed at Black-heath under Sir Edw. Hales who commanded them as General Sir Geo. Lisley and others offering a Parly to Sir Tho. Fairfax to which he returned this Answer c. SIRS I received a Message from you for a Pass for some Gentlemen to come and and Treat according to an Order of Parliament but know of no such Order of theirs or Authority of yours to appoint Commissioners for such a purpose finding you them in Arms against the Parliament I cannot admit of a Treaty but if ye shall forthwith lay down your Arms and return home I doubt not of the Parliaments mercy to such as have been deluded into this Rebellion and their Exemplary Justice to the Chief Actors therein Of which Answer having satisfied the Prince they did by directions from him make this Reply 1. That an universal and perpetual Dictate of Nature even self-preservation not to invade others Rights but to secure their own had drawn them together 2. 'T was an undoubted Power over them ordained of God they did then obey and so did neither Tumult nor Rebel 3. That Providence which had given them that opportunity they dare not neglect nor could they lay down their Arms without the forfeiture of their Reason and their Honour and that as for the uncertain mercy which he offered to the deluded many whom he thought knew not why they were come together the certain Justice he had threatned their Leaders withal he might assure himself there was but one Soul in that great Body which was therefore resolved to stand or fall together as one Man being not tempted with any hope except that of returning to their ancient Rights Priviledges Governments and Settlements and altogether uncapable of any fear save only that of relapsing into their former slavery And that the fair managing of their business was a sufficient demonstration of their Inclinations to Peace entreating him therefore rather to make the Country his Friend than his Enemy The General being inexorable and and they resolved both Armies met at a barricadoed Bridge between the Heartâ— and Graves-end where both sides strenuously disputed the Passage till the Country-men retired back into their main Body being over-powered by multitudes rather than overcome by valour whereupon notwithstanding
they gained another Pass which was disputed between them and the Parliamentarians they retired to Maidstone which they stoutly maintained against the first and second but yielded upon a third Assault though with a great slaughter of their Enemies who obtained that with great loss which they parted with not without extream regret whereupon Rochester is quitted and left to the mercy of the Enemy In the mean time their General the Prince lay in the Downs with his Fleet in a very good condition waiting for that supply of Land Forces which his Brother the Prince of Orange was industriously raising for his Service in Holland and seizing several Merchant Ships not to be released under 200000 l. Intending his Subjects future gain by that present loss by employing of it in the defence of their Laws and Liberties But understanding that the Castle of Deale was in danger of being taken he Landed some Forces for its Relief who were Vanquisht almost as soon as Landed a Rebellion seeming to have chained the Goddess Fortune as the Trojans did of old to its side For it was so deplorably successful that whenever it met with Loyalty it presently vanquisht it But notwithstanding this loss he would have hazarded himself for the relief of Colchester wherein Sir Charles Lucas and the Lord Capel with their Essex-Forces were besieged had he not been disswaded by those about him and informed that Coll. Scroop had undertaken the relief of that City with a greater number of Men than was there under his Command whereupon he desisted from his intention and reserved his hitherto unblemished Reputation to expect a fairer opportunity And still continued at Anchor in the Downs But Fairfax whose actions were performed as soon as thought and whose designs did almost prevent his performances carried on the Siege of Colchester with so much strictness and resolution that he very much striatned those Valiant Worthies who had somewhat weakly imprisoned themselves within a place where they would be sooner tired than overcome when it might have been more discretion to have taken the Field and there have improved their opportunity of performing something to the Honour of their Master and the good of their Country by the gleaning of those Loyal Subjects who would have been continually resorting to them and the taking all advantages against their Enemy or at least they might have died Nobly and revenged However they resolved gallantly to defend the place to the last extremity their Valour being able to suffer whatsoever the Enemy without was able to reduce them to but Famine within became a more prevailing Adversary than Fairfax's Army and when Courage and Resolution would not yield to the one Nature was forc'd to stoop to the other For their want of Provisions were so great that Dogs and Cats were accounted great Rarities so that the Souldier thought it a Relief to be employed where he was most probable to meet with death as weary of the lingring doom of departing by piece-meals and dying daily Yet they yielded not the City till they were informed of the Scots defeat at Preston and that the Navy was revolted from the Prince again it being as unconstant as the Wind and as unstable as the Water that it sailed upon And indeed what could be expected but that those who were Traitors to their first should be unfaithful to their second Master And then those Desperado's resolved to make a general Sally upon the Enemy for since there now remained no Calamity unsuffered which they could possibly fear they thought it was better to go forth and meet their sudden doom than wait for it within the Town but the Souldiers and Towns-men shrinking they were forced to yield themselves to the General as Prisoners of War His brave and War-like Attempts for his Fathers Restauration having thus proved unsuccessful he was forced to content himself with being unhappy since he had approved himself to be Loyal and so he retired to the Hague in Holland where he resided with his Sister the Princess of Orange to avoid the Treachery of Cardinal Mazarine who was dealt withal to trapan him and had for that purpose as himself said as much from those in England as would maintain the Queen and Princess and defray all the incident Charges which they put that Kingdom to As also to avoid Suspicion which the Parliament might have of him during the time of the approaching Treaty About which having heard some uncertain Rumours he wrote to his Father by the Lord Seymour for better satisfaction that so he might manage his Designs and Counsels suitable to his Fathers Exigencies as he exprest in his Letter which was to this purpose SIR Having no means to come to the knowledge of your Majesties Affairs but such as I receive from the Prints or which is altogether as uncertain Reports I have sent this Bearer Seymour to wait upon your Majesty and to bring me an account of it and that I may also assure your Majesty that I do not only pray for your Majesty according to my duty but shall always be ready to do all which shall be in my power to deserve that Blessing which I now humbly beg of your Majesty c. And being now big with expectation of the joyful News of such a setled Peace as might be safe and honourable to his Majesty and advantagious to the Subject he receives Information that the Treaty was begun and so far concluded on such Reasonable Demands of the two Houses and Royal Concessions of his Majesty as upon three days mature deliberation it was resolved that the King's Answer to the Propositions of both Houses was a ground for them to proceed upon for the settlement of the Nation with his Majesties consent Who was in order thereunto to have been restored to the Freedom Safety and Honour that became his place he thereupon assured himself that his Majesty having now in order to an accommodation granted as much as modesty could ask there would undoubtedly follow a Peace and settlement of the Kingdom with an universal satisfaction and that the happiness and not the error of the Government were some Mens grievances which proved but too true For to such a height waâ— the Malice and Impudence of Cromweâ— and some other Officers of the Army now grown that they resolved to employ their Power against those that gave it them and to oppose themselves against the wisht for Peace and Settlement of the Kingdom therefore finding that all the pretence of Authority now failed them by the Parliaments Resolution to set the King at Liberty they now make use of plain Force and boldly adventure to contradict the Resolves of the Parliament it self from whom they had first received their pretended Commissions and presume without Law first to imprison them in their own House and then to sequester as many of them as they please from coming thither Whereby having patcht a Juncto of their own which they still ridiculously called by the name
of Parliament they renewed the Vote of Non-Addresses declare the Treaty at the Isle of Wight dishonourable and dangerous and therefore protest against it and then proceeded to disarm the City and Country that so there might not be a Sword drawn for the good and Peace of the Kingdom Which obstacles being thus removed the Army encouraged the Juncto with a Remonstrance wherein they proposed that the People should agree finally to take away the Government by King Lords and Commons whereby they made good those Charges which had formerly been made against the Parliament and their Army and from which they had endeavoured by so many Oaths and Protestations to clear themselves And that they should in the name of the People proceed against all Malefactors from the highest to the lowest wherein they impudently included and chiefly aimed at the King himself who was in order thereunto closely imprisoned and deprived by them of the comfort of his Loyal Attendants and of the Honour of that State and Ceremony that was due to him But these were but essays toward and beginnings of Sorrows to that Pious though unfortunate King First It was moved in the House on the first of the following January that he might be tryed as a Traytor Which horrible as well as senseless Vote was past into an ordinance and sent to the House of Lords Upon which the Earl of Manchester to his Eternal Honour did declare that in regard the King was the chief of the three States in Parliament he could not possibly be a Traytor to the rest since Treason always goes upward and the lowest only are capable of being Traytors to the highest Which Speech the Earl of Northumberland seconded by declaring his opinion that suppose it was without question that the King was first in the War yet they had neither Law Custom or President to make that War Treason in his Majesty and the Lord Say affirmed that he knew not who should to say to Kings Ye are unrighteous or to Princes Ye are ungodly And Kings added Pembroke they say can do no wrong much less can they be guilty of Treason whereupon the Ordinance was immediately thrown out of that Honourable House But the Juncto mad upon their ungodly and destructive project resolved notwithstanding that the Persons impowered therein to try the King should proceed accordingly altho the Lords consented not Which unexpected News being brought the Prince by Seymour together with the Ordinance for his Fathers Tryal he was thereby surprized with so much Passion and Amazement to see their Oaths of Allegiance Covenants Protestations and Treaties for Peace conclude in Paricide and Murder that he knew not how to contain himself until he began to consider with himself that Passion must not be suffered to disturb reason in such an exigency of affairs wherein its consultations were to be imployed in the weighty business of saving a Father a King and three Kingdoms and that it became him therefore to give himself rather to discreet Advice and Council than to sullen grief It being more Princely and Heroick to prevent the mischief than either to be angry at it or revenge it when it was done And in order thereunto he solicits Spain France Holland and the Scots to interpose themselves in his Fathers behalf who accordingly by their respective Embassadors and Messengers did mediate for his Life offering themselves together with the English Peers to become Pledges for him But the Barbarous Juncto were inexorable their guilt having made them so desperate that they thought themselves no otherwise safe from former mischiefs committed by them but by perpetuating a far greater and unparallel'd wickedness those Monsters of Men hurrying his Majesty from the Isle of Wight to bring him to his Tryal as tho they had designed to explain to the wandring World the meaning of that Riddle which was contained in their pretence of defending him whilst they fought against him Being unjustly condemned by the pretended high Court of Justice set up by the Juncto for his Tryal to lose his sacred Head he did upon the near approach of his death take care with good Hezekiah to set his House in order giving charge concerning the same to the Dutch Embassador with whom he was as private as the rudeness of the Souldiers would permit him For the most part of the Saturday in the Afternoon ordering him to carry his Blessing to his Son and deliver him such Instructions as equally declare the greatness of our loss in him and our happiness in his Successor whose actions were always steered according to them wherein he breathed more like an Angel than a Man or at least as one then already entred upon the confines of Eternity and within view of Immortality and Perfection as you may perceive by the Instructions themselves which are as follow Son if these Papers with some others wherein I have set down the private reflections of my Conscience and my most impartial thoughts touching the chief passages that have been most remarkable or disputed in my late Troubles come to your hands to whom they are chiefly designed they may be so far useful to you as to state your Judgment aright in what hath passed whereof a pious use is the best that can be made and they may give you some Directions how to remedy the present and prevent future Distempers This advantage of Wisdom you have above other Princes that you have begun and now spent some years of discretion in the the experience of Trouble and the exercise of Patience wherein Piety and all other Virtues both Moral and Political are commonly better planted to a thriving as Trees set in Winter than in warmth and serenity of times or amidst those delights which usually attend Princes Courts in time of Peace and Plenty which are prone either to root up all Plants of true Virtue and Honour or to be contented only with some Leaves or withering Formalities of them without any real Fruit such as tend to the publick good for which Princes shall always remember they are born and by Providence designed The Evidence of which different Education the Holy Writ affords us in the contemplation of David and Rehoboam the one prepared by many Afflictions for a flourishing Kingdom the other softened by the unparallell'd Prosperity of Solomon's Court and so corrupted both for Peace Honour and Kingdom by those Flatteries which are as inseparable from prosperous Princes as Flies are from Fruit whom adversity like cold Weather driveth away I had rather you should be Charles Le bon than Le grand good than great I hope God hath designed you to be both having so early put you upon that exercise of his Gifts and Graces bestowed upon you which may best weed out all vicious Inclinations and dispose you to those princely Endowments and Employments which will most gain the love and intend the welfare of those over whom God shall place you With God the King of Kings I would
you that grace which will teach and enable us to want as well as to wear a Crown which is not worth the taking up or enjoying upon sordid dishonourable or irreligious terms Do you always keep firm to the true Principles of Piety Virtue and Honour and you shall never want a Kingdom It will be your honour to afford all respect love and protection to your Mother who hath many ways deserved well of me especially in being a means to bless me with so many hopeful Children and being content with incomparable magnanimity to suffer with me and them May you be an Anchor of hope to these weather-beaten Kingdoms your Wisdom Justice Piety and Valour a repairer of what the folly and wickedness of some men have so far ruined as to leave nothing intire to the Crown Nobility Clergy or Commons of Laws Liberties Estates Order Honour Conscience or Lives Let those that love me find me when I am gone in your presence and vertues What good I intended do you perform when God shall put it into your power I pray God bless you and establish your Kingdom in Righteousness your Soul in true Religion and your Honour in the Love of God and your People Farewel till we meet if not on Earth yet in Heaven The good King having thus resigned himself and all his Affairs into the hand of God patiently submitted to his Cross and in a way of renunciation as it were and self-disposition of his Government transferred and bequeathed the Scepter together with his Advice and Direction for his wielding of it He applied himself wholly to the making preparation for his departing from an earthly to a heavenly Kingdom being assisted in his Piety and Devotion by Dr. Juxon Bishop of London And being upon the fatal 30th of January brought upon a Scaffold erected before his own Palace of Whitehall where he was barbarously murdered by his own Rebellious Subjects he delivered himself in the following Speech Being not likely to be much heard I could be silent did not silence intimate a submission to the guilt as well as to the punishment charged upon me But in my duty to my God and Country to clear my self an Honest Man a good King and a good Christian I protest before God to whom I must instantly give an account that as may appear from the date of their Commissions and mine I begun not the War against the Parliament nor intended I any incroachment upon their Priviledges they began with me and the Militia which they confest was mine but thought it fit to have it from me yet I charge not the guilt of these unhappy troubles upon the two Houses for I believe ill instruments betwixt us was the cause of all this Bloodshed however this Sentence is just upon me for an unjust Sentence permitted by me What Christian I am this good Man pointing to Dr. Juxon and others that have been inwardly familiar with me and know me as well as my self may bear witness I die in Communion with the Professors of the Reformed Religion that hath been Establisht in the Church of England in Queen Eliz. and my Fathers time of Blessed Memory and in Charity with all the World forgiving the worst of mine Enemies and praying God that this be not laid to their Charge As a good King I advise my Subjects not to ground your selves in Conquests without a good cause that you would give God the King and the People their dues You may give God his due by the advice of a national Synod freely chosen and freely debating among themselves How you may give the King his due the Law will instruct you and the People have their due when they have that Government and those Laws whereby their Lives and Goods are most their own I have delivered my Conscience I pray God you take those courses that may be for the Kingdoms and your own good Having finisht this Speech and poured forth his Divine Soul to God in Prayer it was sent by death to him that gave it where the great Assembly in Heaven joyfully welcomed that Martyred King and made room for Charles of Great Brittain The Life and Reign of Charles the first being thus determined by this untimely and fatal stroak his Eldest Son who likewise bore his Name immediately Succeeded him by the Title of Charles the Second Who was the Lawful and undoubted Heir not only of all his Dominions but also of his admirable and Heavenly Vertues being endowed with all those Qualifications which are requisite to or could possibly be desired in a Prince and under the influence of whose happy Reign these Nations might have enjoyed as much happiness and felicity as their Hearts would wish had not their own folly and madness for a time prevented it For no sooner had the Fatal Ax severed England and her Liberties by cutting off the Head of her King but the Parliament as the Juncto still presumed to call themselves the better to crush Monarchy and maintain what they had now so far prosecuted issued forth a Proclamation that none under penalty of being deemed guilty of High Treason should presume to Proclaim declare publish or any way promote the Prince of Wales Son to the late King or any other Person whatsoever to be King or Chief Magistrate of England or of any part of the Dominions or any part thereof by Colour of Inheritance Succession or Election or any other claim or pretence whatsoever without the free consent of the People in Parliament and which Proclamation altho not publisht till the 2 of February yet was in part Proclaimed on the very day of the Kings Murder And for the more ensuring and the better carrying on their Government with the more plausibility they publish an Act of State for the alteration of Writs wherein instead of King the Name Stile and Test and Custodes Libertatis Angliae Anthoritate Parliamenti should be used and no other All Writs being ordered to run so and those concerned in the Law required to take notice thereof yet they provided that all Patents granted by the late King should still stand in full force and vertue And having cast off the chief of those three Estates by which the Nation had been so long Governed they think likewise of abolishing the second that so they might usurp the whole power into their own hands in order whereunto having first Voted that they would make no farther Addresses to them nor receive any from them they made an Ordinance for abolishing the House of Lords as dangerous and useless And then having abolished the Ancient Governments of this Kingdom they proceeded to the consideration of Establishing another but found it a work of so much intricacy that they could come to no resolution but only agreed in a Negative Voice that there should for the future be no Government in England either by King or House of Lords and thereupon ordered the old Great Seal to be broken and a new one to
be made which was delivered to the keeping of three Commissioners viz Keeble Whitlock and Lisly and considered of new Oaths to be adminstred to the Judges who thereupon met and upon debate six of them were contented to continue in their Employments provided the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom were not altered For whose satisfaction the Juncto by their Declaration of the Ninth of February did assure them that they were fully resolved to maintain and would uphold preserve and keep the Fundamental Laws of this Nation for and concerning the preservation of the Laws Properties and Liberties of the People with all things incident thereunto They proceeded likewise to appoint such Persons as they thought would be most firm to their Interest to exercise the Offices of Justices of the Peace throughout the Nation and constituted a Council of State consisting of about forty in number whereof five might be Lords And finally to secure all whereas they had before onely repealed they now abolish and make void the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy But notwithstanding all their endeavours to render themselves secure and firm in their Government yet the People began now to be generally discontented And those who had formerly affected them growing sensible of the Inconveniencies that were like to ensue upon the cutting off of their Prince beginning to abhor their practices there was a general Plot carried on against them in all the Counties of England Which obliged them to send Forces into most parts to awe them and thereby the better to keep them in order Notwithstanding which Contrivances of theirs to bar up the way to that Imperial Throne which they had impudently invaded and parted into shares amongst themselves there were some who had Courage and Loyalty enough left them to assert the King's Right and their own Duty in a Printed Proclamation thrown about the Streets And to convince the Juncto at Westminster that all men would not be wheedled to run a gadding after their Calves at Bethel but that there were some still left who would tread in the old Path and beaten Tract of Government in the succession of Charles the Second to the Crown of England which Proclamation was as follows We the Noblemen Judges Knights Lawyers Gentlemen Ministers Free-holders Merchants Citizens c. and other Freemen of England do according to our Allegiance and Covenant by these presents heartily joyfully and unanimously acknowledge and proclaim the Illustrious Charles Prince of Wales next Heir of the Blood Royal to his Father King Charles whose late wicked and traiterous Murder we do from our Souls abominate and all Parties and Consenters thereunto to be by hereditary Birthright and lawful Succession Rightful and undoubted King of Great Brittain France and Ireland and the Dominions thereunto belonging And that we will faithfully constantly and sincerely in our several places and callings defend and maintain His Royal Person Crown and Dignity with our Estates Lives and last drop of our Blood against all Opposers thereof whom we do hereby declare to be Traitors and Enemies to His Majesty and His Kingdoms In testimony whereof we have ordered and caused to be published and proclaimed throughout all Countrys and Corporations of this Realm the first day of February and the first year of His Majesties Reign God save King Charles the Second Which Proclamation although without any Solemnity or indeed open Appearance met with the same chearful Reception and inward Loyal Resolutions as if Vent had been given to a publick manifestation of Duty and Joy by His Majesties present ascending the Throne For it revived the hearts of his mourning and disconsolate Subjects to see the sure and certain Succession thereof asserted and continued in the same most beloved and darling Name the Eldest Branch and descended of their martyr'd Soveraign in whose Ruins the Regicides thought to have rak'd up and buried all Claims and Just Titles to the Imperial Diadem of these Kingdoms The said Out-cries and lamentable Groans sent forth by all Loyal Subjects at the Loss of their Head together with the Martyrs Instructions and his George which were according to his Fathers desire sent him by the Dutch Embassador found him at the Hague in Holland where he then kept his Court and was first saluted King and the horrour thereof so seized his great Soul with wonder and astonishment that it had certainly sunk under the weight of it had not the Religious Consideration that he ought not to sorrow as one without hope buoyed up his Spirit and Reason forbid him to cast away himself with grief who was then become the only hope of three Kingdoms Generous Rage prompting Princes to Revenge rather than Despair which was not to be accomplisht by weeping Eyes but by wise Counsels and valiant Performances Wherefore he bravely cheered up and reassumed his wonted Courage Comfort State and Majesty And for the better managing of his Affairs went soon after to Paris to solicit that Court to embrace his Interest and afford him some Assistance for the recovery of his Right and the redressing his Subjects miseries by discountenancing the English Rebels and furnishing him with that competency of Money Men Arms and Ammunition which might enable him not to Invade his Country but to encourage his own Subjects to rescue themselves from a forced Slavery But the French King being under Age and Cardinal Mazarine who then governed the great Affairs of that Kingdom being no Friend to this banisht and distressed King but holding a correspondence with his rebellious Subjects he was able to procure no Assistance from thence Whereupon he next applied himself to Spain whither he sent the Lord Cottington as his Embassador who upon his arrival there was confronted by a Competitor viz. Ascham who called himself an Embassador from the then New Majesties of England until he was dispatcht by some Switz After which Cottington was dismist with this Answer That were it any thing in the King of Spain's own Dominion which his Master of Great Brittain had desired it should have been no sooner requested than granted But being a Forreign Quarrel he could not interest himself therein in regard it was not reasonable he should busie himself in other mens matters who had so many Irons in the fire himself But in the mean time the Emperor the Princes of Germany the Kings of Denmark and Sweden being acquainted with the present circumstance of his Affairs by his several Embassadors sent to each of them they highly resented his deplorable condition and resolved his speedy assistance and supply And Holland upon his Account and the Interest of his Sister the Princess of Orange did upon terms agreed on between the late King and their Embassador two days before his death resolve not to vail to this younger Sisters State as they had been wont to do to the Kings of England but by the Forlorn of some private acts of Hostility begin that difference which soon after brake out into an open War Nor
was he altogether void of Assistance from England being underhand supplied with some Moneys by his Loyal Friends from thence But Scotland was more entirely at his Devotion who having shewed their sad Resentment of his Fathers Death by observing a Publick Fast on that occasion on the 19th of February and chearfully promoted his Succession by the Estates of Parliament there assembled a Proclamation was issued out for the solemn proclaiming and declaring him to be their lawful King and Governour which was as follows His late Majesty being contrary to the consent and protestation of this Kingdom removed by violent Death we the Estates of the Parliament of the Kingdom of Scotland do unanimously in Recognition of his Just Rights proclaim his Eldest Son Prince Charles by the Providence of God and undoubted Succession King of Great Britain France and Ireland whom we are bound by the National and Solemn League and Covenant to obey maintain and defend with our Lives and Goods against all his Enemies But before he be admitted to the exercise of his Royal Power he shall give satisfaction to these Kingdoms touching the Security of Religion the Vnity oâ— the two Kingdoms and the Good and Peace of this Kingdom according to the National and Solemn League and Covenant God save the King Which Proclamation was for the better assuring the truth of their designed Allegiance to the Crown made in a most solemn manner at Edinburgh Cross which was hung with Tapestry all the Parliament-Lords attending there in their Robes and the Chancellor himself reading the said Proclamation and reciting the Murder of his late Majesty to the King at Arms the night being concluded with all usual demonstrations of Joy and Gladness Which being over they sent an Expostulatory Letter to those at Westminster to give them an Account of their proceedings and require their concurrence therewith In answer whereunto they received Letters stuft with flattery and protestations of Amity and Friendship if they would desist from acting any farther therein and acquiesce and concur with their proceedings in England But they knowing that their Countrys Honour had been lost by the same Traiterous proffers refused to hearken to their overtures protesting in their messages directed to Lenthal the Speaker that they would not enter into any Treaty with them nor own them unless they were a free Parliament consisting of both houses without any force upon or seclusion of their members Wherefore having hereby made the English Parliament implacably their Enemies they endeavor to assure his Majesty to be their Friend ordring Joseph Douglas to repair forthwith to him at the Hague and acquaint him with what they had done and were preparing to do And presently after sent several Commissioners to treat with him about his repairing to them and entring upon the exercise of his Kingly Office Whereupon their Commissioners at London having sent a peremptory Paper to the Juncto withdrew themselves privately from London intending to pass by Sea for Scotland but were intercepted at Graves-end and by a Guard conveyed thither by Land an Envoy going likewise with them to the Scottish Parliament to know if they would justifie the aforesaid Paper who beginning now to be more than ever enraged against the Rump dismist him without any Answer but prepared themselves for defence intending to levy 17000 Foot and 6000 Horse against the return of their Commissioners who landing about the middle of the Summer though they did not bring with them a confirmation of the Agreement yet gave certain hopes of it by a Treaty presently to be commenced the King offering to perform whatsoever his Father had promised for the settlement of Presbytery Upon which Encouragement the Lord Liberton was presently dispatcht to wait upon the King who was then preparing for his return from the Hague through Flanders into France which he did on June 15 in company with his Sister and her Husband the Prince of Orange in their Coach and came early to Rotterdam where he was received by the Bâ—rghers in their Arms and saluted in his passing the Gates with the Artillery Ringing of Bells and all other signs of Joy and Honour and Noblely treated by them From whence he went to Dort where he was received in the same manner and then to Breda and then to Antwerp where by order of the Arch-Duke of Austria he was met and entertained with all possible state and splendor being presented likewise with a rich Chariot with eight Horses suitable thereunto and particularly welcomed by his former Tutor the Marquess of Newcastle who had then fixt his Residence there out of respect to the great Civility which he received from that People who had made him Excise-free and given him several other Immunities and Priviledges And from thence conducted to Brussels where he was as royally entertained with as much grandeur as if he had been the King of Spain himself And the King did afterward acknowledge that Entertainment for the most sumptuous and magnificent and to have in it the most pleasing variety of any that he ever met withal during the whole time of his Exile Which Amplitudes were observed throughout his whole passage For at his departure thence the Duke of Lorrayn gave him the like Entertainment and conducted him on his way toward France where in Compaign the French King accompanied with the most and choicest of his Nobility did receive and welcom him with all the Testimonies of Affection and Honour that became such a Prince and afterward conveyed him in State to St. Germains where the Queen his Mother then resided So that although he was banisht from his Throne yet he wanted not a Kingdom all men whereever he came being so taken with his Virtues that they seemed willing to become his Subjects Nor was his Court much inferiour in numbers and splendor to those of other Princes who were in the actual possession of their Crowns Toward the maintenance whereof his Aunt the Dutchess of Savoy assigned him fifty thousand Crowns per Annum several others contributing likewise thereunto according to their abilities He was very much solicited about this time by the Scottish Commissioners to repair to that Kingdom but finding that the Conditions upon which they were willing to admit him were such as he could not in honour accept of especially the parting with Montross he resolved to steer another course and therefore grants a Commission to Montross to Levy what Forces he could beyond the Sea and with them go and joyn the Lord Seworth Major Straughan and others who had got to Head for the King without the Kirk in the North of Scotland But they being routed before he came by Lisley and himself not long after his Arrival defeated by a Party of the Kirks Forces and taken Prisoner most ignominiously hanged at Edinburgh he was as it were forced by the necessity of his Affairs to comply with their demands which was so much the easier done in regard that about that time
Montross was removed by an unfortunate death Wherefore he sent Sir Will. Fleming beforehand to complement the States he returned them his Answer in the following Letter which he sent back by Liberton We have received your Letter by Mr. Windram of Liberton and graciously accept your good affections towards us your Resentment of our Condition and our Fathers Murder And out of a gracious desire of a good understanding between us and our Subjects of Scotland for their Peace Happiness and Comfort we command and desire you to send us Commissioners sufficiently Authorized to treat and agree with us about those things which concern the Interest of our Subjects of Scotland and our Interest in England Scotland and Ireland at Breda on the 5th of March. That all the World may know how sincerely we desire Agreement we have addressed these to you under the Name and Title of Committeee of Estates of our Kingdom of Scotland and do expect you use this Grace no otherwise for the prejudice of us and our Affairs than for the Treaty and in order to it Given at our Court in Jersey Jan. 6. 1649. Charles Rex Another Letter to the same purpose being likewise directed by him to the Committee of the Kirk The Scots gladly received those Letters and presently made choice of Commissioners to repair to Holland sufficiently instructed for the concluding of a Treaty with the King who arrived at Breda on the 16th of March and were on the 19th conducted by the L. Wentworth Master of the Ceremonies to their Audience when they delivered to His Majesty the following Propositions 1. That the Excommunicated should be forbid the Covenant 2. That all the Acts of Parliament be ratified the Covenant taken the Presbyterian Government establisht and practised in His Majesties Family and elsewhere and that he himself swear to it 3. That all Civill matters might be determined by subsequent Parliaments and all Ecclesiastical matters by the general Kirk assembled Which Propositions of theirs being delivered he distinguisht the Civil part of their Proposals from those that concerned Ecclesiastical matters and told them that as to what concerned Civil Affairs he would confirm all the Acts and Ordinances of the last Session of their Parliament And that all Affairs concerning that Kingdom should be transacted in a Parliamentary way as they had been in his Royal Father and Grandfathers time And that as long as any person did stand excommunicated he should be uncapable of any Office or place of trust in that Nation And as to what concerned the Ecclesiastical matters he told them That the Covenant seemed more proper for Subjects than for a King in regard Allegiance unto Soveraignty was a considerable part of it And that as to those parts of it wherein he thought himself concerned he would upon the word of a Prince with the limitation allowed in the Covenant viz. as far as he did or might in his Conscience according to the Word of God endeavour in his place the Reformation in Religion and Worship in England Scotland and Ireland Assuring them moreover that he would allow the Scottish Nation a Liberty as large as he enjoyed himself And that in case the generality of the Scottish Nation assembled in Parliament would propose unto him the Presbyterian Government as the way wherein that Nation would walk in fellowship with God he would confirm and establish it by his Royal Authority And finally That in order to his making good those particulars he would with all convenient speed repair to his Ancient Kingdom of Scotland desiring to be excused if his Fathers and his own ancient and faithful Friends who had constantly attended on him in all his sufferings should come along with him thither since he could not in point of gratitude discharge those from the Advantages of Loyalty whose faithfulness to him was so great that no hazards whatsoever could discharge them from the Services Employments and Dangers of it telling them he should be a King in vain if Allegiance in his Court were esteemed a fault that deserved cashiering These Proposals and Answers were rationally debated by Commissioners on both sides the Scots standing very stifly to their Principles and the Kings Commissioners resolved not to yield to all their demands whereupon by an influence which the English had upon some of the Commsssioners for they had their Active Agents both their and in Scotland streneously endeavouring to countermine the honest endeavours of all sides for pacification the treaty was like to break off as unhappily as by them it was thought to be begun but by the mediation of the States General the Queen of Bohemia and the Prince of Orange it was reassumed and brought to a Conclusion upon the Covenant Terms on the Kings part with the forementioned limitation it was the Religious part of the Treaty which kept them at the greatest distance and was the most difficult to be agreed upon controversies of that nature being ever the most irreconcileable the civil part ever quickly dispatcht in regard he was of such a condescending temper that conld contentedly quit much of his interest for the Peace and welfare of his People but was unwilling to quit any of his conscience which he knew to be a far more weighty and sacred matter On the Scots side it was agreed that his Majesty should be admitted to the Throne of Scotland and his just Rights in that Kingdoms recovered by Parliament from the hands of those who had usurpt them and that they should assist his Majesty in bringing the Murderers of his Royal Father to condign punishment restore him to the Kingdom of England and the vindicating his Right thereunto against the present Usurpers c. The Treaty being thus finisht the Commissioners both of the Kirk and the State were splendidly treated by the Prince of Orange and highly honoured by his Majesty after which they returned into Scotland exceedingly satisfied in their success and entertainment Nor were the Scots alone in their Endeavours at this time to restore His Majesty to his lost Dominions For many of the Presbyterians in England did likewise by their Agents at Bâ—â—da engage all their Interest for the promotion thereof But Cromwel's Emissaries being so thick that three could scarcely meet together but one of them would in the end prove his Spie they were betrayed and their Designs came to nothing Many eminent persons especially of their Ministers being taken and brought to Tryal as Case Jenkins Jackson Love and others some whereof were executed upon the importunity of Cromwel who protested to the Juncto that if they did not Justice in England he would not fight in Scotland viz. Love and Gibbons The Juncto were very much allarumed when they understood that notwithstanding all their Endeavours to the contrary the Treaty at Breda is concluded And that among other things the Scots had engaged to assist His Majesty to bring them and the Rebels of their Conspiracy to condign pnnishment and â—o recover those
and hearty thanks for the same and to assure him of their Loyalty and Duty And that they would give him a speedy Answer to his gracious Proposals Resolving moreover that the sum of 50000 l. should be presented him from that House and 10000 l. to each of his Royal Brothers the Dukes of York and Glocester Which Resolves were no sooner reported in London then the Citizens were extreamly transported with Joy The harmony of Bells and the flaming Piles which enlighted every Street surrounded with incredible Shouts and Acclamations being sufficient demonstrations of the infinite Pleasure and Satisfaction which every one took in that no less strange than happy Revolution And the several Countries taking Allarm from London contended which should outvy the other in expressions of Loyalty and Joy And General Mountague having communicated to the Fleet the Letters he received from the King and the Duke of York together with those directed to the Parliament they unanimously declared their Resolution to adhere to him and to live and die in his defence humbly desiring the Generals to present the same to the King whereupon Mountague himself immediately fired a Gun crying God bless His Majesty and the whole Fleet. Thereupon presently appeared in its pride and glory with Pendants loose Guns roaring Caps flying and Vive le Roys loudly ecchoing from one Ships Company to another which were answered by the great Guns from Dale and Sandwich Castles nor was this Joy confined to England but spread it self into Scotland and Ireland also And now the Parliament longing for the King's presence amongst them as the Israelites did for the return of King David drew up a Letter in answer to that which they had receiv'd from him superscribing it to the King 's Most Excellent Majesty wherein they requested his speedy return to the exercise of his Kingly Office appointing Commissioners to go over to Holland and attend him during his stay there and in his Voyage for England There being six appointed for the House of Lords and twelve for the House of Commons to which upon the Request of the Lord Mayor and Common-Council of London was added twenty on the behalf of that City who having receiv'd their Instructions set sail for Holland with several Frigots appointed by the Parliament to attend them the whole Fleet being likewise committed to the King's pleasure the General whereof had Orders from the Parliament to obey such Orders and Directions as he should receive from His Majesty The Commissioners upon their arrival at Breda delivered their respective Messages with all imaginable reverence and veneration according to the Instructions they had received from their Principals beseeching His Majesty in the name of his Parliament and People to return to his Inheritance and re-assume his Crown and Scepter assuring him that he should be infinitely welcome to them without any Tearms which Invitation was gladly accepted and the Commissioners were received by him with a Grace and Port like himself and entertain'd with extraordinary Magnificence and Bounty The Parliament in the mean time proceeded to the Proclaiming of him which was perform'd with all that Joy Splendor and Magnificence that their Loyalty could inspire the Lord General attended by all the Peers the most Eminent of the Commons the Lord Mayor and Aldermen with the Trained Bands of London assisting at the Ceremony The Proclamation being as followeth viz. Although it can no way be doubted but that his Majesties Right and Title to these Crowns and Kingdoms is and was every way compleat by the Death of his Most Royal Father of Glorious Memory without the Ceremony or Solemnity of a Proclamation yet since Proclamations in such cases have been always used to the end that all good Subjects might upon this occasion testify their Duty and Respect and since the Armed violence and other 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 Freemen 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 all the Kingdoms Dominions and Rights belonging to the same did by Inherent Birth-right 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 At the reading whereof the whole City rang with the Sound of God Save and God Bless King Charles the Second the Shouts and Acclamations of the crowding multitudes being so extraordinary that although all the Bells throughout the City and Suburbs were then Ringing their Noise was not to be heard The King having now by his extraordinary Wisdom and Conduct thus happily contriv'd his return to his Crown and Kingdom without the spilling of his Subjects Blood and having brought his Affairs to their desired Issue prepared to leave Holland and after so long and tedious an Exile returned to his Harass'd and almost ruined Realms being upon his departure Splendidly Treated by the Dutch for a Fortnight together with all the Pomp and Magnificence imaginable and presented with the Richest Bed and Furniture together with Tapestry for Hangings Embossed with Gold and Silver and adorned with Pictures that could be procured and Highly Complemented by all the Forreign Ministers then Resident there For these Noble Entertainments which together with the Present of the Dutch about one hundred Thousand Pounds he gave the States General and those of Holland his Hearty Thanks in their Publick Assemblies whither he went on Foot and having taken his leave of them and commended to them the interest of his Sister and his Nephew the Prince of Orange they delivered their sence of the present circumstance of Affairs and declared the greatness of that joy they conceived for his Miraculous Restauration in the following Speech 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 probable 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
under the Command of the Earl of Suffolk a smart Skirmish pass'd between them and continued till Ten at Night when it was renewed again by the return of the beaten Companies from the Fort but the English Horse not being able to come up there was not that execution done upon them which otherwise might have been However the Dutch lik'd not that hot Service well enough to abide their coming but as soon as their Boats were afloat embarqued with all haste and returned to their Ships and sailing for the Humber they engaged a Squadron of the English which they found there but being worsted shewed themselves before Portsmouth and made some slight Attempts in Devonshire and Cornwall And after de Ruyter their Admiral had been civily treated in the West by the Earl of Bath and Sir Jonathan Trelawney and received advice that the Peace was concluded they sailed back for Holland This Peace was concluded at Breda upon the twenty first of June in the Year 1667. when the Articles were signed by the several Plenipotentiaries and upon the fourteenth of the following August the Ratifications thereof interchanged the Mediators first bringing the Ratifications and other Instrustruments of the Dutch French and Danes into the English Embassadors Lodgings and received theirs in exchange which done the English Embassadors went into the apartments of the Dutch and their Allies where they made and received the Complements usual in such cases and the Peace was thereupon immediately Proclaimed before the Doors of the several Plenipotentiaries and on the twenty fourth of that Month at the Exchange which was then kept at Gresham Colledge and other places in London But the Foundation of the Royal Exchange in Cornhil being about that time appointed to be laid the King was pleased to shew his readiness to countenance that Work by being present at and assisting in the solemnity thereof with his own Royal hands as his Brother the Duke of York did shortly after who laid the first stone of the second Pillar which Edifice was in a short time finished and is now the most curious Fabrick of that kind in the whole World About this time that wise and useful States-man and Privy-Counsellor Edward Hide Earl of Clarendon and Lord High-Chancellor of England who had always behaved himself with abundance of Loyalty and Faithfulness to his Master as well before as after his Restauration falling into disgrace with the Parliament was forced to abscond and leaving that Office which he had so long managed with advantage to the King and honour to himself retired into France where he lived in a voluntary Exile 'till he died A sort of idle and licentious Persons getting together in the Holy-days at Easter and pretending former custom took the liberty to pull down some Houses of bad repute about the Suburbs of London under the notion of Apprentices yet others being found guilty of it four of them were apprehended Tryed Condemned and Executed and two of their Heads set upon the Bridge for a terror to others Having dispatch'd the Earl of Carlile as his Embassador Extraordinary to the Court of Sweden with which King he always maintained a friendly correspondence he directed a Letter for the Earl when he was at Copenhagen on his way to Sweden to be by him delivered to the King of Denmark in answer to an obliging Letter he had a little before received from him which Letter of the King 's was so acceptable to the Dane that upon the Earl's request he immediately dispatch'd orders to all his Ports and Towns of commerce especially those in Norway for restoring the English to the same Freedom and Priviledges in Trading thither as they had before the War And the Earl upon his arrival in Sweden presented that King with the George worn by the Knights of the Garter and after his having been entertained in that Court with all imaginable respect upon his Masters account and dismiss'd with particular marks of the King of Sweden's favour and testimonies of the acceptableness of his Embassie he was upon his return home solemnly Installed in that Order at Windsor While the King was diverting himself this Summer with the Duke and others of his Nobles in the new Forrest in Hampshire he received the doleful tidings of his Mothers death at Columbe the thirty first of August she being nobly buried in the December following at St. Dennis And to close the publick affairs of this Year the restorer of the Crown to the King and happiness to the Kingdom George Duke of Albemarle and Lord General of all the Kings Land Forces exchanged his temporary Coronet for an Eternal Crown and the King as a mark of Gratitude to the Father sent his Garter to his Son and Successor the present Duke of Albemarle whom he continued in many of his Honours and Preferments promising withall that himself would take care of his Fathers Funeral which he accordingly did and after he had publickly lain in State at Somerset-House for some time caused his Funeral to be solemnized with that Pomp and Splendor that it is verily believed no Subject was ever honoured with the like In the following Spring the King having a great desire to unite Scotland and England into one Kingdom endeavoured to have it accomplish'd by procuring an Act of Parliament in order thereunto and nominating Commissioners for each Kingdom to meet and treat about it But they not being able to agree it was wholly laid aside and came to nothing The King's Wisdom and Conduct being famed throughout all parts of the World like a second Solomon drew to his Court several Foreign Princes to see and admire him And about this time the Prince of Tuscany came upon the same Errand and was by him treated both at London and Windsor with great Respect and Splendour and by several of his Nobles in his Progress through England the chief Cities whereof he was desirous to take a view of after which he departed for Holland and so returned into his own Countrey where not long after besides his splendid Entertainment of the Earl of Northumberland in acknowledgment of the King's Kindness and Affection express'd to him when in England he built and gave to the King two very stout Galleys for a guard of the Coast about Tangier which were of great importance to his Service in those parts But altho' the King was well pleased with this Princes visit yet he shortly after received a more welcome one from his Sister the Dutchess of Orleans who came to Dover to pay him her last Visit and was there entertained by him with as much Affection and Bounty as the time of her stay which was but short would permit Nor was her stay in this World much longer for soon after her return she died suddenly to his unexpressible grief The King being now at peace at home employed his Naval Forces against the Algerines a People that never keep Peace longer than till they can have an opportunity to break
observing the Orders sent him At which Proceedings of the States the King being â—ustly enraged resolved to trifle with them no longer but make them feel the effects of his Indignation And knowing that whilst he had Wars abroad it was necessary to have Peace and Union at home he put forth a Declaration of Indulgence to all Dissenting Persons promising notwithstanding that Indulgence to maintain the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England as it was then established Sir Robert Holmes Cruising with five of the King's Frigots near the Isle of Wight about the middle of March met with the Dutch Smyrna and Streight Fleet Convoyed by six of their men of War and standing with them gave them a Gun to strike and lower their Flag which they refusing he poured a Broad-side upon them whereupon their Convoy coming up the Fight began about two in the afternoon and continued until night and the next morning was again renewed five of their richest Merchant-men being taken their Reer-Admiral sunk and the rest made their escape for want of more assistance The first blow being thus given the King denounced open War against them by Publishing his Declaration wherein he gave the World an account of the Grounds and Reasons of his Quarrel with them which together with the French Kings preparations and proceedings towards them in laying great Impositions upon their Manufacture which they foresaw tended to a rupture with them they fortifiing themselves with all imaginable speed and diligence endeavoured to procure Allies abroad and made the Prince of Orange their Captain-General at Land and Admiral at Sea And looking upon Maestricht as the first place that would in all probability be attacked by the French King they repaired the Fortifications thereof and re-inforced that City with Men and Provisions The King resolving to prosecute the War with all imaginable resolution and vigour provided for the security of his own Subjects by allowing them sufficient Convoys and giving them liberty to make use of what Foreign Mariners they could procure And his Fleet being now ready to put to Sea he went to Rye to see them joyn with a Squadron of French Ships which that King according to agreement was to furnish him with under the Command of the Count d' Estree Vice-Admiral of France And so soon as he was returned the two Fleets being now joyned stood over for the Coast of Holland Commanded by His present Majesty then Duke of York whose very name was terrible to the Dutch And on the twenty eighth of May meeting with the Enemies Fleet about five Leagues off the Wheelings there ensued a very fierce and bloody Engagement both sides being emulous for Honour and desirous of Victory fighting with extraordinary eagerness But the night coming on and the Dutch finding themselves unable to bear up against the Valour of the English stood towards their own Coasts and were pursued by the Duke who resolved to have renewed the Engagement the next morning had not a Fog prevented and favoured their securing themselves in their Shallows The loss on the Dutch side was very great both as to Men and Ships but on the part of the English there was little Dammage beside the loss of the Earl of Sandwich and the Royal James This loss at Sea was attended with many more on Land the French King having taken several of their Frontier Towns which possessed them with such a Consternation that many of the wealthy Inhabitants forsook their Habitations resolving not to hazard their Persons and Estates in a Countrey falling into the hands of a Victorious Foreigner And the States not thinking themselves secure enough at the Hague removed to Amsterdam and to impede the French King's approach causeâ— the Sluces to be opened and the Country be put under Water to the incredible Prejudice and Dammage of the miserable Inhabitants Which Distraction of theirs the King of England wisely improved to the strengthening himself and the weakening of them by putting forth a seasonable Declaration wherein he promised That if any of their Subjects out of affection to him or his Government or to avoid the oppression they met with at home would take refuge in his Kingdom they should be protected in their Persons and Estates and have an Act pass for their Naturalization and that such Ships as they brought with them should be accounted as English Built and enjoy the same Priviledges and Immunities as to Trade Navigation and Customs as those of his own Subjects Yet commiserating the deplorable condition into which the States were reduced and supposing their misfortunes had rendred them more humble he sent the Duke of Buckingham and the Earl of Arlington to try if they would at length offer any reasonable terms of Peace who were received by the Common People with great joy and satisfaction crying out God bless the King of England and God bless the Prince of Orange but the Devil take the States But their Pride being not sufficiently abated the Embassadors returned without bringing them to any Conclusion which together with the French King's taking Nimeguen and the English Fleets appearing upon their Coasts so enraged the People that they brake out into tumultuous Insurrections and there was scarce a Town in Holland where they were not masterless And therefore the States that they might appease them commanded their Fleet to go out and beat the English from their Harbours which De Ruyter attempted with all the force that Courage and Resolution could inspire him with but finding himself overmatched was forced to retire with considerable loss The Fleets having both repaired the Dammages of this Fight hastened to try their fortune in a second Engagement which being as unsuccessful to the Dutch as the former De Ruyter stole away in the night But having increased his Fleet was not long before he got to Sea again and meeting about the middle of August with the English Fleet endeavoured to get the Wind of them which then blew North-East resolving if possible to redeem his lost reputation but night coming on both Fleets came to an Anchor The next day the Fight began with the morning wherein the Dutch sustained a very great loss and the greatest part of their Fleet had in all probability been destroy'd and the contest about the Dominion of the Narrow-Seas ended had not the Cowardly French who were then Masters of the Wind behaved themselves as though they had been sent thither only to be spectators of the Bravery and Valour of the English Whereupon the States-General finding they could no longer withstand the successful Arms of that fortunate King sued for Peace by their Embassador and had it granted as well out of Pity to them as Jealousie of the French King's too growing greatness whose Progress they were now at leisure to oppose The King having now consented to admit the Hollanders to terms of Peace became a Mediator for the like accommodation between the Crown of France and Spain endeavouring by his
themselves for the security of the Protestant Religion which Address he answered by a message to the Commons wherein he let them know That he had received their Address with all the disposition they could wish to comply with their reasonable desires but upon perusal of it he was sorry to see their thoughts so fixt on the Bill of Exclusion as to determine all other Remedies for the suppressing of it to be ineffectual telling them That he was confirmed in his Opinion against the Bill by the Judgment of the Lords in their rejecting it advising them to consider of all other means for preservation of the Protestant Religion to which they should have no Reason to doubt his concurrence and urging them again to make some speedy provision for the preservation of Tangier Upon the consideration of which Speech they were so far from complying with his reasonable desires that they Resolved as the Opinion of the House That there was no security for the Protestant Religion the King's Life or the well Constituted and Established Government of this Kingdom without the Bill of Exclusion and that to rely upon any other Remedy were insufficient and dangerous That till such a Bill was past they could give the King no supply without danger to his Person hazard to the Protestant Religion and unfaithfulness to those by whom they were trusted And that all persons who advised him in that Message to insist upon an Opinion against the Exclusion-Bill had given him pernicious Counsel and were promoters of Popery and Enemies both to him and the Kingdom naming Hallifax Worcester Clarendon Feversham and Laurence Hide Esq against whom they Voted an Address to the King to remove them from all Offices of honour and profit and from his Councils and presence forever Voting moreover That whosoever shall Lend or cause to be Lent by way of Advance any Money upon the branches of the King's Revenue arising by Custom Excise or Hearth-Money should be adjudged to hinder the sitting of Parliaments and should be responsible for the same But their presumption running so high the King resolved by a Prorogation to give them time to cool themselves which he did on the Monday following being the 10th of July when he past Two Bills one about Irish Cattel and the other for burying in Woollen the latter whereof proved very advantageous to the Nation by the advance of Wool which is accounted the most staple Commodity of this Kingdom The Commons by some means or other were informed of the King's design of proroguing them and therefore so soon as they were set that morning the very first thing they did was to thunder out their Threatning Votes That whosoever advised the King to prorogue that Parliament to any other purpose than in order to the passing the Bill of Exclusion should be lookt upon as a Betrayer of the King the Protestant Religion and the Kingdom of England a promoter of the French Interest and a Pensioner to France And in a Common-Council assembled bout Two or Three days after in London a Petition was ordered to be drawn up and presented to the King wherein they set forth That the Parliaâ—â—â—t having convicted One of the Poâ—ish Lords and being about to convict the other Four and having impeacht the Chief Justice and being about to impeach other Judges and all in order to the preservation of his Life c. they were much surprised to see it prorogued in the height of their business and that their only hope was its being done with a design to bring such Affairs about again as were necessary to the setling the Nation Praying that they might therefore sit at the day appointed and so continue till they had effected the great Affairs before them But before the 20th of January arrived to which they had been prorogued the King declared them dissolved by Proclamation and intimated his pleasure to call another to sit on the 24th of March at Oxford After which a Petition was delivered him by Essex and some others of the popular Lords for the altering his Resolution for the Parliaments sitting at Oxford upon pretence That neither himself nor they could be in safety there but would be daily exposed to the Swords of the Papists and their Adherents whereby their Liberty of Speech would be destroyed and the Validity of their Acts and Proceedings left disputable Urging likewise the straitness of the place which they affirmed was altogether unfit for the entertaining such a concourse of persons as now followed every Parliament And that the Witnesses which were to give Evidence upon the Commons Impeachment were unable to bear the charges of that Journey and unwilling to trust themselves under the protection of a Parliament which was it self under the power of Guards and Soldiers praying it might therefore sit at Westminster The Parliament which met at Oxford was for the most part made up oâ— Old Members which were chosen again for the same places for which they had served before And contrary to the ancient custom of their Treating thâ— Country the Country now in many places Treated them or at least every man bore his own charges Abouâ— Eight days before their sitting the King having appointed certain Companies of Foot and several Troops of Horse to keep Guard in the Mews during his absence removed to Oxford where he was received and presented by the Mayor and Body of that City at the East-Gate and from thence attended with great Acclamations and all other demonstrations of Joy and was the next day waited on and complemented by the body of the University who presented him with a large Oxford-Bible and the Queen with the Cuts belonging to the History and Antiquity of the Vniversity both richly bound Most of the Members as well Commons as Lords went thither attended with a numerous Train of Friends At the opening of the Sessions the King told them That the unwarrantable proceedings of the last House of Commons was the only Reason why he had dissolved them And that â—s he would never use Arbitrary Government himself so he was Resolved never to suffer it in others That whosoever should calmly consider the proceedings in the last Parliament might perhaps wonder at his patience so long rather than that he grew weary at last That it was as much his interest and care as theirs to preserve the Liberty of the Subject since the Crown could not be safe when that was in danger And that neither Liberty nor Property could long subsist when the just Prerogatives of the Crown were invaded or the Honour of the Government brought low and into disreputation Assuring them That he had called them so soon to shew that the Irregularities of Parliaments should never make him out of love with them And that he thought the just care they ought to have of Religion should not be so managed and improved into unnecessary Fears as to be made a pretence for changing the Foundation of the Government and therefore hoped
considered the Plea and consulted with other Judges about it and were of opinion it was insufficient and was therefore overruled and the Prisoner ordered to plead over Whereupon he pleaded Not guilty and had till the first Thursday in the next Term allowed him for his Tryal In the mean while many Loyal Addresses flowed from all parts of the Nation full of Congratulations and Thanks to the King for his late Declaration And in Trinity-Term Dr. Oliver Plunket was Try'd for High-Treason the Evidence against him being all profest Papists affirmed he was made Primate of Ireland by the Pope at the French Kings Recommendation and that he having thereupon engaged to do that King all the Service he could had actually levied amongst his Popish Clergy great Sums of Money to introduce the French Dominion and extirpate the Protestants out of that Kingdom upon which evidence he was found Guilty and was together with Fitz-harris who received his Tryal the next day executed at Tyburn on the first of the following July protesting his innocency and praying for the King Queen and Duke Presently after the Tryal of Fitz-Harris his Wife and Maid accused the Lord Howard of Escrick of contriving the Treasonable Libel for which he was convicted who was thereupon committed to the Tower And in a Paper delivered at his Execution to Dr. Haukins Minister of the Tower for his Wife he confirmed that accusation denying what he had formerly confest about Danby and the Plot affirming he was drawn into that confession only through hopes of saving his Life thereby But a Bill of Indictment against Howard being delivered on the last day of the Term to the Grand-Jury of Edmunton Hundred sworn to by Fitz-harris's Wife and Maid and by some others that Jury pretending to be unsatisfied with the Evidence would have indorsed it with an Ignoramus had not one of the Clerks of the Crown who attended them withdrawn it from them for which notwithstanding they were told by the Court the Kings Attorney might stop such proceedings as he saw occasion they preferred a Bill of Indictment against the Clerk to the Jury of Oswelston Hundred there attending for that pretended Misdemeanor The Reason why some Persons went so well attended to the Oxford Parliament began now to appear for about this time there was discovery made of a design of seizing the Kings Person whilst he was there and several factious People were thereupon committed to the Tower viz. Rouse Haynes White Colledg and the Earl of Shaftsbury whose Papers were likewise seiz'd At the Sessions which began soon after he and Howard moved to be bailed but the Judges told them it lay not in their power to bail out of the Tower At this Sessions and Indictment of High Treason was preferred to the Grand-Jury of London against one of those lately committed to the Tower whose Name was Colledg But in regard he was a busie factious Fellow and ever loved to meddle most with that he least understood and pass his ignorant censures upon the great Affairs of State He was the more commonly known by the Name of the Protestant Joyner But notwithstanding the Evidence against him was full and clear they returned an Ignoramus upon the Bill whereupon part of the Treasonable Words and Matters for which he was there Indicted being transacted at Oxford whilst the Parliament sate there the Cause was removed to that Assizes where he was before the Lord Chief Justice North tryed upon the same Evidence and condemned and executed In a Parliament held at this time in Scotland the Duke of York presided as the Kings High Commissioner and an Act was past which asserted the Right of Succession to the Imperial Crown of Scotland asserting it to be by inherent right and that the nature of the Monarchy was such that by the fundamental and unalterable Law of the Realm it transmitted and devolved by Lineal Succession according to proximity of Blood and that no difference in Religion no Law nor Act of Parliament could alter or divert the Right of Succession of the Crown to the nearest and lawful Heirs and declaring it High Treason either by Writing Speaking or any other way to endeavour the least Alteration therein The French Protestants being greatly opprest and persecuted by that King flockt into England in great multitudes and were received by the King of England with abundance of Kindness and affection ordering that his Officers and Magistrates should give them the same Countenance and Favour with his own Subjects assuring them he would take them into his Royal Protection and grant 'em his Letters of Dennization and promising to procure in the next Parliament an Act for their Naturalization A special Commission of Oyer and Terminer being granted by him for the Tryal of Shaftsbury and others at the Old Bayly the Bill of High Treason preferred against Shaftsbury notwithstanding the Evidence swore very full to the Treason was returned by the Grand-Jury the Foreman whereof was Sir Samuel Barnardiston Ignoramus as a former Jury had done that of Colledg Whereupon the people whose Idol he was gave a great Shout and assaulted those who were Witnesses against him with that violence that the Sheriffs to prevent mischief were forced to guard them as far as the Savoy homeward Bonfires were that Night made by the Rabble almost in every Street at one whereof Capt. Griffith was knockt down and wounded in the Head for endeavouring to put it out And a rout of people marching down Warwick-lane one whereof had his Sword drawn sometimes cryed No York no Popish Successor and then bawl'd out a Monmouth a Shaftsbury a Buckingham till they were stopt by the Watch at Ludgate But tho the factious Rabble were thus overjoyed at the acquittal of their Idol yet the sober and Loyal part of the Nation had other sentiments about it and declared their Indignation in several Loyal Addresses against the most Execrable and Traiterous designed Association which was discovered in Shaftsburys Closet amongst his other papers which threatned not the King alone but Monarchy it self In February 1682 there hapned a strange and Barbarous Murder which for the boldness of the Attempt and the baseness of the manner wherein it was perpetrated is scarcely to be parellel'd in any History For Thomas Thin of Long-Leat Esq a Gentleman of an Estate of about 10000 l. per annum having privately married Elizabeth Daughter and sole Heir of Jocelin Earl of Northumberland and Relict to Henry Earl of Ogle Son and Heir apparent to the Duke of Newcastle And some of her Friends who were not so well satisfied with the Match as her Grand-mother was by whose means it was said to be made up having perswaded her before ever her New Husband had bedded her to withdraw her self secretly into Holland the Town was thereupon alarumed with the approach of a mighty Suit in Law concerning the Validity of the Match the best Civilians being engaged on the one side or the other And Count
executed at Tyburn for this Plot. The Earl of Essex prevented the Hand of Justice by cutting his own Throat Mr. Hambden against whom there was but one Evidence was only indicted and found guilty of a high Trespass and Misdemeanor and condemned in a Fine of 40000 l. to the King to find Sureties for his Good Behaviour during Life and to stand committed till that was paid and done The Lord Brandon Major Wildman Mr. Charlton Mr. Trenchard and some others for want of sufficient Evidence were first admitted to bail and afterward discharged Mr. Wade and Sir Thomas Armstrong being both taken beyond the Seas the first at Mevis and the other in Holland were brought into England and condemned and executed upon an Outlawry The King to shew his Sense of the Divine Goodness for his wonderful and Gracious Preservation from that horrid Plot and Conspiracy publisht a Declaration for a solemn Day of Thanksgiving to Almighty God to be celebrated throughout the Kingdom on Sunday the 9th of Septemb. commanding that Declaration which contained a short Narration of the Treasonable Conspiracy and the Persons concerned therein some whereof were not mentioned in either of the Proclamations to be read on Sunday the 2d of September as well as on the Day of Thanksgiving which was observed with great Seriousness and Devotion throughout the whole Kingdom every one looking upon himself to have a particular Interest in the Benefit of that Preservation It is observable that there was this remarkable difference between the two Plots all those who died for the first protested their Innocency with their last breath denying that they had any knowledg of a Plot or Conspiracy carried on against the King or the Government and all those who died for the Second did acknowledg something tho they denied the greater part of what they were accused of About this time the Lady Ann Second Daughter to his Royal Highness the Duke of York was married to Prince George Brother to the King of Denmark the Ceremony being performed by the Bishop of London in the Presence of the King Queen Duke and Dutchess with most of the Great Persons about the Court and that Night was observed with great Joy and Splendor and the next 〈◊〉 Bells proclaimed the publick Joy which every one took for her being so happily bestowed upon a Protestant and Religious Prince who was afterward installed Knight of the Garter at Windsor The Day for the Election of Sheriffs for London and Middlesex which of course used to be the 24th of June was this Year adjourned to the 5th of September when the Livery-Men assembled at Guild-Hall without the least Hesitation confirmed the Mayors choice of Peter Daniel and chose to serve with him Francis Dashwood Electing likewise Mr. Deputy Aleworth into the Office of Chamberlain in the Room of Sir Thomas Player who being one of the Rioters in the last Years Proceedings was then removed and performing all the other Elections of Bridg-master Ale conner c. with the ancient Gravity and Moderation and a Choice of Mayor on Michaelmas-day was likewise adjourned for six Days But in the mean time the King being highly displeased with the Cities delays in signing the particulars formerly accepted of and promised by the Common-Council in Relation to the Charter caused his Attorney to enter up Judgment against it and thereupon gave his commission to Sir William Pritâ—hard to execute the Office of Lord Mayor of that City during pleasure granting the like Commissions also to the two New Sheriffs Daniel and Dashwood who were thereupon sworn with the usual Oaths and Mr. Jenner of the Inner Temple knighted at the same time by the Name of Sir Thomas Jenner the Kings Recorder of London On Sunday the 7th of October the Mayor and Sheriffs appeared at Guild-hall Chappel as formerly in their Gowns and Chains but the Aldermen only in their ordinary habits being by vertue of that new Commission only made Justices of the Peace eight of the Factious ones being left out and their Number supplied by as many Worthy and Loyal Gentlemen viz. Sir Benjamin Newland Sir Benjamin Bathurst Sir John Buckworth Sheriff Dashwood Charles Duncomb Jacob Lucy Peter Palavazine and Benjamin Thoroughgood But on the 13th of that Month the King sent them a new Commission wherein he impowered them to act as Aldermen in their several Wards and accordingly divers of them attended the Mayor the next day to Chappel after their usual manner in Gowns and Chains and the next Week assembled a Court of Aldermen as formerly And upon the 29th of October which is the Annual Day for swearing the Lord Mayor of London the King having appointed Sir Henry Tulse to execute that Office by Commission during his pleasure he was after the usual manner attended to Westminster by the Companies performing the accustomed Ceremonies in Westminster-Hall and making the usual Cavalcade through London but without any Pageants The Duke of Monmouth being accused as one of the Conspirators in the late Plot absconded and lay concealed for some time so as he could not be found by all the search that was made for him But having privately made his Application to the King in an humble and submissive Letter wherein he intirely resigned himself to his Majesties Disposal the Duke thereupon went down to Secretary Jenkins his Office to whom he had voluntarily surrendred himself and upon shewing himself very sensible of his Crime in suffering himself to be drawn into a Conspiracy against the King and Government and making a full Declaration of it and a particular Submission to his Royal Highness for his misbehaviour toward him he did upon the request and Mediation of the Duke obtain his Pardon and the Attorny-General was ordered to stop all further Proceedings against him But refusing afterwards to make the promised Discovery or to sign what he had confest he fell again into the Kings High Displeasure and was thereupon banisht the Court and expelled the Royal Presence About the middle of December this Year began a very extraordinary Frost which lasted till the 5th of February during which time the Thames was frozen over with solid and contiguous Ice with thousands of People walking thereon and whole streets of Booths built quite a cross and shops of almost all manner of Trades on each side as in the high streets of London and Coaches running almost as thick as in Fleetstreet The extremity of the Weather was such that great numbers of poor and indigent People who at other times could but just live were now in regard they could not follow their imployment brought into great necessities and many of them must have starved if the charity of others had not relieved 'em whereupon the King who always loved to take all opportunities to express his charity and affection to his Subjects especially those that were poor and indigent among them granted his Letters Mandatory to the Bishop of London to make a Collection in all Parishes in the
own Prerogative and his Peoples Properties by the just Dimension of his Laws so that Justice was impartially administred throughout his whole Reign unless where himself was party and there he would rather lose his own Cause than have his Subjects seem oppressed nor was there ever known so few Executions in so long a Reign And truly when we especially for the first Eighteen Years after the Interregnum consider his great Mercy to Traytors it looks as if he design'd not to spare himself provided he could but people again or at least keep as full as possibly a Nation which had been so monstrously emptied of men by a long unnatural and sanguinary War For he was ever unwilling to inflict the least Severities upon his offending Subjects unless when necessity of State or the nature of the Crime did bind the hand of Mercy and render Severity absolutely necessary rather for the publick than his own Secuirty He always professed to love and seek Peace and prefer it before the Troubles and Hazards of War wherein he was like Solomon rather than David and imitated our Blessed Saviour who stiles himself the Prince of Peace ever bearing it in his Princely mind that when Christ came into the World Peace was sang by the Holy Angels and when he made his Exit Peace was the Legacy he bequeathed Nor can it be imagined That his desire of Peace was the effect of softness or fear for he was both Active and Valiant but he had a Conduct peculiar to himself in bringing about his Purposes His peaceable disposition and accomplishing his designs by the most easie and gentle means and would do that by Peace which others could not perform by War and effect more by shewing his Sword than others could do by using it He knew the way to preserve and obtain Peace was sometimes to pretend an inclination to embrace War and therefore would when provok'd make offers of the latter till he had mended the Conditions of the former By which means he was more absolutely and with far less charge to his Subjects the Arbitrator of Europe than any of his Predecessors had ever been and could at his Pleasure dispence War and Peace where and to whom he pleas'd which makes it the greater Wonder That He who was so great a Lover of Peace should be so successful in War for his Arms were always fortunate nor did he ever after his Restauration know what a miscarriage meant The Two Rebellions in Scotland were ended by Victory as if raised industriously to encrease the Fame of his Arms which after so long an interval of Peace wanted exercising and in his Wars with Holland France Spain and Denmark he was always sued to for peace before he granted it and the French King did ever fear his Threatnings more than other Princes performances In the exercising his Sovereignty he consulted his own Judgment rather than other mens Affections or Interests and always reserv'd the disposal of his Royal Favours to his own Will and Pleasure and to avoid the fate of too many Princes who are ruled by their Favourites and Govern'd by those whom they themselves have raised he never admitted any of his Nobles to so familiar an intimacy with him His care to maintain the Prerogatives of the Crown as to give others occasion to account them his Favourites For altho he had many Noblemen about him whom he greatly loved and upon whose Advice and Counsel he much rely'd as Clarendon Buckingham Lauderdale Danby and others yet none of them could be properly called his Favourites as Gaveston and Spencer were the Favourites of Edward the Second or the Duke of Norfolk of Richard the Second And altho he would frequently acquaint his Parliaments with his Intentions and require their advice and assistance for the executing of them yet he would not endure they should be too positive or peremptory therein accounting that too great an Invasion of his Prerogative and would tell them The Right of making and managing War and Peace was invested in Him and if they thought he would depart from any part of that Right they would find themselves mistaken for having the Reins of Government in his own hands he would have the same care to maintain them there as he would have to preserve his own Person His Prudence and Conduct in managing the great Affairs of his Kingdom was so admirable and successful that it is rather to be wondred at than believed and he made so many good and wholsome Laws every one whereof was grounded upon the most searching Maxims of State for the Welfare and security of His Subjects and the maintaining the prerogatives of the Crown as no Age before him could ever boast of which begot in all men the greater Awe and Veneration of him and yet there is nothing more certain than that his Reputation was as great if not greater abroad than at home His Prudence and Conduct tho perhaps not so well grounded for Forreigners could not see at that distance the passages of Affairs nor discern by what Secret Councils he always attained his own ends and disappointed the Expectation of his Enemies abroad and the Factions at Home and were therefore forced to make their Judgment upon the Issues and Success of them No Prince ever had a Wiser Council than He and yet no Prince ever needed it less for he was Himself a Counsellor to his Council and was able to direct those of whom he asked advice For he was as well skilled in the Art of Kingship as His Royal Grandfather was wont to term it and had as great an insight into and understood as well the best Rules and Methods of Government as any Prince that ever sway'd a Scepter which rendred him more capable of exercising his Kingly Office to the greatest advantage of Himself his Kingdom and the Protestant Religion and enabled Him to govern His Subjects for so long a Tract of Time with so much exactness that by his Wise and Prudent Management he so poized all jarring and different Interests as to preserve the publick Peace and Tranquility of his Kingdom to the very last Minute of His Life notwithstanding the many restless Attempts of unruly and designing Men to disturb it and left things in so good a posture at his Death that his most Illustrious Brother and Royal and Lawful Successor ascended his Imperial Throne with as much Facility and Applause as any of his Predecessors He loved so well to see his Subjects thrive that he coveted not so much to fill his Exchequer as to reign over a Rich and Wealthy People and thought Money as well bestowed when laid up in their Coffers as when it filled his own He was Religious toward God as well as just towards man and took care to promote the Interest of the Church as well as the State At His Restoration he found the Church involved in Trouble but left her possessed of Peace he found her robbed and
which he would do so fast that his Courtiers were sometimes forced to run that so they might keep pace with him It being his constant Custom every morning when he was in Town to Walk an hour or more in St. James's Park and he designed to have done so that very morning he fell into his Fit He took great pleasure likewise in Swimming which he could do incomparably well to the Pleasure and Admiration of those that beheld him And indeed all his Recreations as well as those publick and private Actions which had a more direct tendency to the great concerns of his Life as a King gave delight and satisfaction to those who communicated in the sight of them And his very Diversions were so serious and pleasing that every part of his time was thought to be well spent and to deserve Commendation Never was Prince more loving and affectionate to his Queen than he for he ever resented Affronts offered to her His Love and Affection to his Queen as ill as if they had been offered to himself And was as tender of her Honour as of his own He was observed by the Courtiers to be more Rich and Splendid upon her Birth-day than upon his own and to keep it with greater Joy and Solemnity The vast Treasure of Learning and Knowledg which he had acquired by his long Study and Experience was richly set off and adorned by a curious smooth and charming Eloquence whereby he could readily express his Sentiments of things in so good a Language as that with a pleasing kind of Magick it enchanted the listning Ears of those that heard him as sufficiently appeared by his Letters Declarations and Speeches And to conclude all He was every way fitted and made for Government as well as born to be a King and was possessed of all those excellent Qualifications which were we to have had a liberty of choice would certainly have constrained us to have pitched upon him for our Sovereign For the valour of Edward the 3d The Conduct of Henry the 5th the Wisdom of the Seventh Henry the Majesty of his Great Son the Learning of James the 1st and the Justice and Piety of the Royal Martyr and I had almost said the Mercy of God himself all met and were conspicuous in him FINIS EPIGRAPHE Aevitati S. Numinis Majest CAROLI II. Inclyti Magnae Britanniae Genii ac Regis Divi CAROLI Martyris F. Qui Ex Prosapia Deorum oriundus Et ad Anglicani Nominis Aeternitatem Natus Patriae fuit Parens Pius Paciferus semper Augustus In Exilio frendente Rebelli Barbarie Magnanimus Sub Reducis Fortunae auspiciis Albionum Fundator Imperii Literarum Mecaenas Factionis Stator Defensorque Fidius Tam Virtute Fortis quam Pietate Clemens Supra omnes retro Principes Prope XXV Annorum Spatio Amplificatam toto Orbe dedit Remp. Factis Consiliisque Paucis Nihil non inlustre fuit nisi Immortalis Obiit igitur ut Immortalis esset Sexto die Mensis Februarii Anno Regni sui Tricesimo-Septimo Ineunte Annoqque Sospitatoris Nostri 1684. Triumphate tamen etiam Pullati Brittones Neque dum Terram defuncto Principi vovetis Levem Sub onere doloris vestri ingemiscite Vivit enim CAROLUS in Superstite JACOBO Et ut Diu vivat strenuè Precaminor Adesto FAMA Multum tibi Negoti video dari Contemplare JACOBUM II. Reg. Opt. Max. Mavortem Britanicum Et cogita Novam Fatorum Seriem O Referant Divi quoniam non possum Ipsi A Prayer for the KING 's Most Excellent Majesty taken out of the Liber Regalis GOd the unspeakeable Author of the World Creator of Men Governor of Empires and Establisher of all Kingdoms who out of â—he Loins of our Father Abraham didst chuse a King that became the Saviour of all Kings and Nations of the Earth Bless we beseech thee thy Faithful Servant and our Dread Sovereign Lord King JAMES with the Richest Blesssings of thy Grace Establish him in the Throne of His Kingdom by thy Mighty Aid and Proteâ—ion Visit him as thou didst visit Moses in the Bush Joshua in the Battel Gideon in the Field and Samuel in the Temple Leâ— the Dew of thine abundant Mercies fall upon his Head and give him the Blessing of David and Solomon Be unto him an Helmet of Salvation against the Face of His Enemies and a strong Tower of Defence in the Time of Adversity Let his Reign be prosperous and His Days many Let Peace Love and Holiness let Iustice and Truth and all Christian Vertues flourish in His Time Let His People Serve Him with Honour and Obedience and let Him so duly serve thee here on Earth that He may hereafter everlastingly Reign with thee in Heaven through Jesus Christ our Lord AMEN THE END
Protestant Successor and limit the Authority of the former if any such should be by providing that all Church-preferments should be conferred on Pious and Learned Protestants That the Parliament which should happen to be in being at his own Death or if none the last that sate should thereupon assemble without any new Summons or Election That during the Reign of any Popish Successor no Privy Councellor or Judg of the Common Law or Chancery should be put in or displaced but by consent of Parliament That none should be Justices of Peace but Protestants and that the Lord Lieutenants and Deputy Lieutenants of Counties and Officers in the Navy should not be put in nor removed but by the Authority of Parliament Telling them he conceived it hard to invent any other Restraint to be put on a Popish Successor Yet if any thing did occur to their Wisdom whereby their Religion and Liberties might be better secured he was ready to consent to it Whereupon the Commons after they had several times adjourned the consideration of this Speech on the 11th of May resolved That they would stand by His Majesty with their Lives and Fortunes And that if he should come by any violent Death which they prayed God to avert they would revenge it to the utmost upon the Papists According to which Vote an Address was drawn up and presented by them to the King with this Variation in the form of words We shall be ready to revenge upon the Papists any violence offered by them to your Sacred Majesty which words were neither exprest nor intimated in their Vote altho absolutely necessary and essential to the Justice of their designed Revenge And without taking the least notice of the Resolution exprest in his Speech Not to suffer any alteration in the Descent to the Throne brought in a Bill to disable his Royal Highness to inherit the Imperial Crown of England which being put to the Vote was carried in the Affirmative by One and Twenty Voices but being prorogued soon after it proceeded no further In the mean while the Two Houses were very earnest in debating the methods whereby they should bring the Lords in the Tower to their Trials And Danby being demanded at the Bar of the Lords House Whether he would rely on and abide by the Plea of his Pardon returned for answer That having been advised by his Council his Pardon was good in Law he would insist upon his Plea and requested his Council might be heard And the Lords acquainting the Commons with his desire instead of granting it they in the Names of the Knights Citizens and Burgesses in Parliament and all the Commons of England demanded Judgment against him upon the Impeachment affirming his Pardon to be illegal and void However the Lords appointed him a day to argue his Plea and ordered the Five Lords to be tried the Week after and an Address to be made to the King for the appointing a Lord Steward for their Trials But the Commons not satisfied with their proceedings desired a Committee of both Houses might consider of the most proper methods of proceeding upon Impeachments according to the usage of Parliament but the Lords refused it as contrary to the known Rules and Orders of their House which ever was and ought to be tender in matters relating to their Judicature Whereupon the Commons resolved That no Commoner should presume to maintain the Validity of the Pardon pleaded by Danby without the leave of that House And that the persons so doing should be accounted Betrayers of the Liberties of the Commons of England Upon which the Lords to take away all occasion of disgust between the Two Houses receded from their former resolution and appointed a Committee to treat with them but a difference arising in that joynt Committee about the Bishops Right to be present at Trials in capital cases the Lords affirming they might stay till the Court proceeded to the Vote of Guilty or Not Guilty and the Commons denying it the Bishops endeavour'd to find out a Medium which might satisfie both and therefore desired leave of the Lords to withdraw themselves from the Trials with liberty of entring their usual protestations But this not satisfying the Commons they resolved not to proceed to the Trial of the Five Lords before Judgment given on Danby's Pardon and to insist upon the Bishops having no Right of Voting in capital Offences which made the King who saw that these heats took up their whole time and prevented their entring upon such Debates as more nearly concerned them and would have conduced more toward the setling of the Nation thought it best to prorogue them in hopes that in their next meeting their Debates might be more happy and unanimous About this time the Faction ran higher in Scotland and boiled into an open Râ—bellion which took its first beginning from the barbarous Murder of Dr. Sharp Archbishop of St. Andrews and Primate of that Kindom on the 3d of May 1679. by a company of inveâ—â—â—ate Covenanters as he was travelling from Edenborough to his own Residence who had born him an immorâ—al hatred because having formerly been one of their Party he had revolted as they termed his honest Reformation But appeared more visible toward the latter end of that Month in the Western parts of Scotland when a party of Rebels well mounted and armed coming to Rugland proclaimed the Covenant burnt the following Acts of Parliament viz. Those which concerned the King's Supremacy the Eâ—â—â—blishment of Episcopacy the appointing the Anniversary of the 29th of May and the Recissory Act by which all the Mock-Laws made in the late Anarchy were repealed And publisht an insolent Declaration full of Treason and stuft with the very Spirit and Quintescence of Rebellion inviting others to joyn with them which the Covenanters commonly there called WHIGS from whence the Name was afterward brought into England and applied to all the Dissenting Party accepted of and flockt so fast to them that their Army increased daily to such a considerable number that they became formidable Whereupon the King hastned away the Duke of Monmouth as his Generalissimo to suppress them which with the Assistance of the Loyal Gentry and Herritors of that Nation he easily performed in one Battel at Bothwell-Bridg For having forced his passage over the Bridg and seized the only piece of Cannon they had they fled toward Hamilton-Park And altho they afterward rallied again and Faced about upon the advantage of a rising ground yet so soon as the Cannon began to play on them they all fled in disorder and confusion Robert Hamilton who was their chief Commander being one of the first There were many of the Rebels kill'd in the place and several hundreds taken Prisoners whereof some few were Executed The King who was willing to try all means to please and satisfie his people fearing the Animosities of that Parliament were too great to admit of a Reconciliation and would prevent their doing any
thing which would tend to his or the Kingdoms benefit on the 10th of July dissolved it by Proclamation and declared his Resolution to call a new one which should sit on the 17th of the following October In the mean while Sir George Wakeman with Marshall Rumley and Corker three Benedictine Monks were tryed before the Lord Chief Justice Scroggs for High Treason relating to the Plot But the Evidence of Oates and Bedlow beginning now to be less credited than formerly and the ferment of peoples fury being somewhat abated the Jury brought them in Not Guilty and Wakeman was thereupon discharged from his Imprisonment as the other Three had likewise been had they not in their Defence upon their Trials acknowledged themselves to be Priests Wakeman's being thus acquitted startled the Mobille who expected all that were accused of that Plot should have been condemned of course without respect to the Truth or Falshood of the Accusation And the Faction endeavoured to improve their dissatisfaction into Rage and Sedition by several scurrilous Libels wherein they accuse Scroggs of perverting Justice and taking a Bribe of several thousand Guinneas from the Spanish Embassador to save Wakeman's Life from which Aspersions he sufficiently cleared himself in a Speech which he made in the Kings-Bench-Court on the first day of the ensuing Michaelmas-Term During this interval of Parliament the King was violently taken ill of an Ague at Windsor insomuch that his Life was thought to be in some danger Whereupon the Duke as well to demonstrate his Affection to his Brother as to prevent the danger which as things then stood might peradventure have happen'd to him in case the King should have died in his absence came Post from Flanders to Windsor But Heaven designing to lengthen out his Life till he had reduced the great Affairs of the Nation to a better Settlement and could leave his Succession more safe and secure it pleased God that he recovered his Health soon after to the great Joy of all the whole Nation And the City to express the pleasure they took therein sent the Lord Mayor and the Court of Aldermen with a Train of thirty Coaches and about a hundred Horse to Congratulate him upon his Recovery and when he returned soon after to White-Hall many Bonefires were made throughout the whole City attended with great Acclamations of Joy and Expressions of Loyalty Whilst he lay Sick at Windsor the Duke of Monmouth who had been by the Kings favour raised to as high a Station as a Subject was well capable of being then Lord General of all His Majesties Land Forces Master of the Horse and Captain of the Kings Life-Guards not content with the Honours already heaped upon him but aspiring as was thought altho without all Reason in regard of his Illegitimacy to the Crown it self endeavoured to prevail with some great Men at Court to take part with his Interest which being made known to the King by the Earl of Oxford who having for his eminent Loyalty a considerable party of Horse under his Command commonly called the Lord of Oxfords Troop was importuned by Sir Thomas Armstrong as was reported either in direct terms or so as his meaning might easily be understood to declare himself for Monmouth in case the King should dye He conceived a just Indignation against him for that bold and audacious Attempt and discovered his incensed Majesty by taking away his Commission of Lord General and soon after of his remaining places of Captain of the Life-Guard Master of the Horse Governor of Hull c. And to prevent Peoples being deluded by his Chimeâ—ical Fictions publisht a Declaration wherein having first taken notice of the great Industry and Malice wherewith men of seditious and restless Spirits spread abroad a most false and scandalous Report of a Marriage or Contract of Marriage at least between Mrs. Walters who was that Dukes Mother and him designing thereby to fill the minds of his loving Subjects with doubts and fears and divide them if possible into Parties by bringing into question the clear and undoubted Right of his true and lawful Heirs and Successors to the Crown he did to obviate the fatal consequences so dangerous and malicious a report might have in future times upon the Peace of his Kingdoms assure them That having found a former Rumor that there was a writing yet extant and lately produced before several Persons whereby that Marriage or Contracâ— at least would appear was not only revived again but improved also witâ— new Additions by insinuating thaâ— several Lords and others were yet living who were pretended to bâ—â— present at the Marriage hâ— had notwithstanding he knew fuâ—â— well it was impossible there should bâ— any truth in this Report since noâ—â— thing in the World could be morâ— false and groundless than the pretencâ— of such a Marriage or Contract bâ—â—tween him and the said Mrs. Walterâ— alias Barlow called before him anâ— caused to be Interogated in Council such Lords and other Persons as the common rumour surmised to have been present at the pretended Marriage or to know something of it or of the said writing And that tho it then appeared to all his Council upon their hearing the said Persons severally Interrogated and their denial to have been ever present at any such Marriage or to know any thing of it or of any such writing that the raising and spreading that Report which was so inconsistent with it self was the effect of deep malice in some few and of loose and idle discourse in others yet he thought it requisite for the satisfying all in general to publish a Declaration he had made in the January was Twelvemonth written with his own Hand in the following words There being a false and malicious Report industriously spread abroad by some who are neither Friends to me or the Duke of Monmouth as if I should have been either Contracted or Married to his Mother and tho I am confident that this idle Story cannot have any effect in this Age yet I thought it my Duty in relation to the true Succession of this Crown and that future Ages may not have any pretence to give disturbance upon that Score or any other of this nature to declare as I do here Declare in the Presence of Almighty God That I never was Married nor gave any Contract to any Woman whatsoever but to my Wife Queen Katharine to whom I am now Married In Witness whereof he had set his Hand at White-Hall the 6th of January 1678-79 In the Presence of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the two Secretaries Coventry and Williamson And assured them that to strengthen that Declaration he had in the March following made a more publick and solemn Declaration to the same purpose in his Privy Council written likewise with his own Hand and had caused a true Transcript thereof to be entred into the Council Book which for the better Confirmation he Signed with his own hand and caused the Lords