AN EPITOMY OF English HISTORY WHEREIN ARBITRARY GOVERNMENT Is Display'd to the Life In the illegal Transactions of the late Times under the Tyrannick Usurpation of OLIVER CROMWELL BEING A Paralell to the Four years Reign of the late KING JAMES Whose Government was Popery Slavery AND Arbitrary Power But now happily delivered by the instrumental means of King William Queen Mary Illustrated with Copper Plates By THO. MAY Esq a late Member of Parliament The Third Edition Printed for N. Boddington at the Golden Ball in Duck lane 1690. The Common wealth ruleing with a standing Army The Fruits of a Common wealth THE INTRODUCTION OF late since the Spirit of Discontent hath possessed a great part of this Nation nothing more hath been discoursed of and feared next to that of the Alteration of the Protestant Religion than Arbitrary Government which I suppose is the Rule of any Person or Persons by their own Will and Authority without being tyed to the Rules Methods and Directions of the Laws of the Land and a Converting of this most glorious Monarchy into Tyranny The fear and Jealousie of this Government hath been exceedingly of late fomented among the discontented People by the sly Arts of those who are and ever will be Enemies to the Religion Peace and Tranquility of this Nation and no doubt but the Machivilian Jesuite and the Zealous Papist have been the cause of all the imbroils of England hoping by that Gate to bring in their own Religion and Arbitrary Government The thing so much feared by the People of England And truely in this Casâ— they are not to be blamed Religion and Liberty being the two chiefest and most valuable Jewels belonging to the Crown of Life And when they cast abroad their Eyes and behold the Arbitrary Despotical and Tyrannical reign of the Princes of other Countries they may well be desirous of Conserving their own happy Government in the Monarchy of this Nation which is so equally divided betwixt King and People That the one cannot do injury or wrong to the other unless the one become Arbitrary and the other Rebellious The Constitution of the Government of England is so sound as it is not 〈◊〉 be shaken or altered with every small Occasion for it must be absolute Tyranny on the one Hand or absolute Rebellion of the other that must break it to Pieces and bring in the so much feared Arbitrary Government And therefore it is against the Interest both of King and People to intrench upon one the other the one to invade the Prerogative of the King the other the Priviledges of the People For so equally bangs the Ballance between them that as it is the Envy and admiration of all other Nations so is it the Happiness and strength of our own for the one side cannot Preponderate or weigh down the other without breaking the just and equal Constitution of our Government If therefore the Kings of this happy Nation should at any time thorow the Evil advice of their Councellors go about to invade the peoples Liberties and to think or hope to bring in Arbitrary Government it would not be so easie a thing to effect it since the mutual Bonds and Obligations between the King and People are already so strong as it is almost impossible to attain to that end whilst the three Estates of the Land have a being and without whom no alteration can be made The people therefore need not be in those Fears and Agonies on every the least Occasion of the evil Ministration of some of the chief Officers of State of their Kings Intentions of bringing in of Arbitrary Government for no doubt the Kings of England are as great and Imperial Monarchs holding their Crowns of God only and so account themselves as any other Monarch whatsoever Nor can we see how a lawful Monarch can any ways better himself or become more great by such unlawful Arbitrariness who by the Laws of the Land and the Love of his People wants neither Power nor Money the only things a Tyrant can pretend to It is therefore the Cunning Arts of the Enemies to Englands peace who so needlesly seek to buâ— it into the Ears of the People that their King intends to bring in Arbitrary Government upon every Occasion given by any of his Ministers of State in the management of those Affairs they cannot see into the Bottom But since the greatest Ministers are Accountable for their male-Administration to Parliaments there is and can be no such Fear I say of ever attaining that end so long as Parliaments have a being and without which our happy Monarchy cannot subsist totally But many cry out against Arbitrary Government and know not what it is not being sufficiently sensible of their living under and being ruled and governed by a legal Monarch Tho some Faults and Miscarriages may be sound or appear in his Ministers for the King himself can do no wrong since he Acts nothing of himself but by Ministers who are all Responsible for their Actions Yet the People are not to be blamed for their abhorrency of Arbitrary or Tyrannick Government which always attends Usurpation since it is not so many years that they have felt the burthen thereof and if we look back into all the Actions of the most Arbitrary and Tyrannick the lawful Kings of this Nation we shall find the Arbitrary Government attending Usurpers in the little time of their Usurpation to be more horrâ—d and dreadful and brought on this Nation more Misery Blood and Persecution than any of them nay all of them together I cannot think therefore that any are serious who cry out on the Phanaticks as indeavouring or desiring a Common-wealth for I do think there are none of them so really mad as to desire any such thing that would bring on them the dreaded Arbitrary Government they so much Fear since they found it by so late Experience to be no remedy to their Evils and cured their Fears and Jealousies with a Plaister of Poyson And this also I look upon to beâ—a Stratagem of the same Enemies on the other side to Create a Jealousie in the Head of the Prince and his Ministers and to make them Construe every Action of the People tending to that end which may be and no doubt is as far from their thinking as it is from that of the other in bringing in of Arbitrary Government Since the Fears and Jealousies of either side are alike much heightned by the indeavours of several sorts of evil Persons and by some well meaning People by being too severe in uncomely and bitter Expressions and thorow the Toleration of the many Licentious and Scandalous Papers which daily fly abroad the Author of these true Collections of the Miserie 's this Nation suffered under the Arbitrary Government of Tyrannic Usurpers Exposes it to the Abhorrency of the Nation that they might behold it in a Glass and that the Governours of our Common-wealth may not run upon the same
James's in woman apparel and landed safe at Dort in Holland and about the same time several Petitions came to the Parliament and especially one from the County of Essex which supplicate That the Army might be paid off and Disbanded and the King admitted to a personal Treaty Surry and the City of London followed with the like and the Affections of the People began to appear and were ready to fly to Arms. The Kentish men being up ten Thousand strong were routed by General Fairfax the Earl of Norwich who headed them with five hundred men crossed over the Thames into Essex and Sr. Charles Lucas joyning him with 200 thousand men they possessed themselves of Cholchester which became the seat of War and endured a famous Siege Also at the same time a part of the Navy revolted to the Prince who having attempted to help his Father in vain was forced to retire into Holland with his Fleet. Then the Earl of Holland the Earl of Peterborough and others Head a fresh Insurrection at Kingston upon Thames where they were routed the Earl of Holland taken and the Lord Francis Villers the Duke of Buckingham's Brother slain Affairs standing in this Posture the Scots are much displeased tho they had many fair Offers made them by the Parliament Concerning the Payment of money yet due to them and on the 24 th day of July they passed an Ordinance to establish the Presbyterian Government in England and Ireland under Classical Provincial and Parochial Assemblies to please them yet all would not do for they Voted in Scotland a War with England and published a Declaration wherein they propose That the King may come to London or to some of his Houses near with safety That those who had Carried him away might make Satisfaction or be punished for it That the Army under the Lord Fairfax might be disbanded That Presbytery be setled and Sectaries punished That all members of the House might be restored Upon this Berwick was surprised Forces came out of Ireland and many rise in the North for the King Carlisle is seized and their Forces increased under Sr. Marmaduke Langdale Sr. Thomas Glenham Sr. Philip Musgrave and others to the number of three Thousand Horse and foot Sr. Marmaduke Langdale is made their General And on the 13 th of July the Scots enter with an Army into England under Duke Hamilton with whom Langdale joyns and beats Lambert at Appleby Several places declared for the King and all things seemed in an hopeful way when Cromwell having quieted wales marches with his Army to Preston in Lancathire to give a stop to Hamilton who was about twenty Thousand strong with the English Lambert joyns with Cromwell and make up a Body of about twelve Thousand on the 17 th of August both Armies Face one another and the battel being begun on the English side after two hours dispute the Scots gave ground and were most fiercely pursued by the English and Totally routed multitudes of them being taken but Hamilton escaped to Nantwich with three Thousand horse where the Countrey being up in Armes seized upon most of them and at last Hamilton himself was taken at uloxeter by the Lord Gray of Grooby the Scots Ensigm Cornets and Colours then taken were afterwards hung up in Westminster Hall Sr. Marmaduke Langdale was also taken and Cromwell improving his Victory marches towards Monroe who was coming with a reserve of six Thousand Scots but upon Hamilton's overthrow had order to return into Scotland which they did but the Anti-Hamiltonian party in Scotland under Argile which were the stricter sort of Presbyters invited Cromwell into Scotland which the laying hold on to smooth his way he put forth a Declaration severely prohibiting any Souldier under pain of Death to take either Money Horses Goods Victuals or any other thing or any ways to abuse the People He put such a terror among the Scots that they all presently submitted and agreed to disband their Armies and to render up to him Berwick and Carlile which were in their Hands That a Parliament should be called in Scotland for the setling Religion and composing their differences and also that none that had been in the last Ingagements against England should be chosen of this new Parliament or into their general Assembly Thus having setled Scotland to his mind he returns into England Upon his Victory against Hamilton Colchester being driven to the utmost extremity was surrendred and the two valiant Gentlemen contrary to Faith given Sr. Charles Lucas and Sr. George Lisle shot to Death and the Earl of Norwich Lord Capel and others sent Prisoners to London While these things were in doing there had been some Attempts made towards the private murthering of the King which was made known to the Parliament who took some Examinations thereupon but nothing to any purpose done in it he being now look'd upon as a Tyrant and suffered openly to be so called daily with many other most opprobrious Speeches both against his person and Government which the Parliament took no notice of but had made an Order in April before That any three of their Committe-men at Darby House should have Power to Imprison and sequester all such as shall actually adhere to any that shall raise or endeavour to raise my Tumults or Insurrections or shall so much as speak or publish any thing reproachful of the Parliament or their proceedings so that you see they had tyed up mens Tongues from speaking against themselves without the least restraint of reviling their King and for every light Word a free born Subject of England was made an offender and lyable to be ruined at the Pleasure of three Arbitrary men of their Committee absolutely against that known Maxim of our Law Nemo imprisonetur aut disseisâ—tur nisi per legale judicium parium suorum No man shall be imprisoned or disseised of his Property but by the lawful judgment of his Peers that is by a jury of twelve men But what signified Magna Charta Petition of Right the Ancient Laws of the Land to these Men who had trampled the Imperial Crown under their feet and usurp'd more than ever rightful Monarch or the most Arbitrary of our Kings ever Claim'd And had raised upon the People for the maintainance of this unnatural War and towards the enslaving of themselves about three Millions of pounds sterling Per annum which was six times more than ever the most rapacious of our Kings had raised on the People besides the vast Incomes of the Kings revenue Sequestrations and Compositions About the third of August the Prince now our Soveraign sent Letters to the City Expressing his good affection to Peace and to the whole City and his Endeavours to vindicate his fathers Liberty and just Prerogative and Rights and to restore to the People their Laws Liberties and Property to free them from Bondage and to ease them of the Burthen of Excise and Taxes to settle Religion and to reduce all things
up the Foundation of a Government which the people were to consent to which consent or Agreement of the People should be above Law That in the Agreement a day should be set for the Dissolution of the Parliament and this to be drawn up in a Remonstrance from the Army This was incouraged by Major general Harrison who urgged there could be no safety for them nor the Nation but by the cutting off the Kings Head and the thorowly purging at least if not the Dissolving the Parliament Upon this the Army now wholly at Cromwell's Devotion sends up a Petition to the Commons for Justice to be done on the King as a Capital Offender That the Prince of Wales and Duke of York be Summon'd by a Day and if they come not in to be declared incapable of the Succession and Government and if they come in to be proceeded against for Satisfaction That the Revenues of the Crown be sequestred That publick Justice might be done against the Actors in the late Wars against the Parliament That they may be paid their Arrears and the Country eased of free Quarters and lastly that a Period be put to this Parliament and care taken for the Electing of future Parliaments and that no King be admitted for the future The Army Entring the City The Rump dreggs of y e house of Commons Sitting after y e Army had turnd y e good members out Oliver seeking God whilâ— the King is murthered by his order Bradshaw the Taylor and y e Hangman keeper of the Libertyes of England This force being put upon the House and new moulded driving away all that were not for their turn besides many others for fear absented themselves the rest who afterwards obtained the name of Rump or Rumpers being the Relicks of a greater Body met again and submitting to the Power of the Army to please them Vote That no Message be received from the King on pain of Treason That the General should take Care of his Person and that a Charge of High Treason should be drawn up against him Having now fully concluded to destroy him Thus have we briefly drawn to your View the first Lineaments of an Arbitrary Government and Tyrannical Usurpation in very short Draughts shewing however the ways and means whereby these Men or Junto of Usurpers came by their Power and Authority overthrowing the very Foundation of our Ancient and most glorious Monarchy under the Notion of Liberty and setting up a Tyrannical Democracy or rather Oligarchy under the Regiment of a few selected Fellows who called themselves the Parliament and the Representatives of the Nation and in whom they pretend all Right of Power and Magistracy was to be placed The very shadow of all legal Power was now gone and this unparallel'd force put upon the Parliament in excluding the Major part of their Members by the Arbitrary will of Oliver Cromwel and his Mâ—â—midons contrary to all Law and Right took from them the very Name of a Parliament But they care not for that they shadow their impious Acts under that venerable Denomination and having now as they thought got into the Kingly throne by the power of the Army and the Sword imagined they should keep it when all this while not having the Command of the Army but being ridden by the general Officers thereof who designed as soon as they had done their work to pay them their Wages by dismissing them were but as the Cats foot made use of by the Monkey for the raking the Chesnut out of the Fire the benefit of which they intended to take themselves and this was the Murthering of their lawful Soverain whom they had deposed which was the next main Design driven on by the Independent Army and their Dromidaries this Junto of Men. We have seen these Men grown up into full Strength of Arbitrariness and got into the Throne of their Soveraign we will now proceed to Trace them by their Steps in the Exercise of this their Tyrannical Usurpation which we shall find to be according to the same unlawful Progress and to be of the same bloody Complexion for it is a certain Maxim That what Power is got by unlawful means must be kept by the same unlawful ways notwithstanding the specious pretences of Liberty and setling the Kingdom This Junto of Men being met and Voted as we have declared That no more Address should be made to the King nor any Message received from him they take Care in the next place having got into the Saddle to keep it and to make the World believe they had a right to it if they could for now an Ordinance was drawn up that the Lords and Commons of England do declare That by the Fundamental Laws of the Land it is Treason in the King of England to levy War against the Parliament This preparative in making the King a Transgressor and in placing the Supream Power in the People whose Representatives they were was in Order to their Design of Murthering the King This being sent up to the Lords who denyed to consent to it the Commons grow very angry and finding the Lords to be yet an Obstacle to their bloody Intentions they Vote That all Members of Committees should Act in any Ordinance by them made without the Lords Concurrance the People having by God the full power Originally in themselves and therefore what ever they enact is Law which passed Nemine Contradicente The Army still continuing their Guards upon the House keeping out any of those Members were not of their Party and imprisoning them they had much â—doe to make an House and sometimes it was Noon 〈◊〉 they could get forty men together without which iâ— could not be an House so very Scrupulous were these grand Hypocrites to keep up a Face of Authority in these minute Circumstances who in the great Fundamentals had broke in two all Bonds Obligations Oaths and Laws The Army now the Lords of all Garrison Black-Fryars and St. Paul's turning the house of God into a Stable and defiling it with Dung robbing divers Halls which they call'd borrowing of several sums of Money by their Saint-like Prerogative accounting the rest Egyptians In the mean time the secluded Members still imprisoned put forth a Declaration against this most horrid violence of the Army done to their Persons and to the Fundamental Laws of the Land the Rights of the People and the priviledges of Parliament this was dated 11 th December 1648. This being complained of to the House both Lords and Commons put forth a Declaration against it wherein they declare That the Declaration put forth by those Members of the House of Commons Excluded the House in which was these Words viz That all Acts Ordinances Votes and Proceedings of the House of Commons made since the 6 th of December or hereafter to be made duering the restraint and forcible Seclusion from the House and the Continuance of the Armies force upon it are no way Obligatory but
void and null to all Intents and Purposes was false Scandalous and Seditious and tended to destroy the visible and fundamental Government of the Kingdom And therefore ordered the printed Paper to be suppressed and that all who had an hand in it to be uncapable to bear Office or to have any trust place or Authority in the Kingdom or to fit as Members of either House of Parliament Here again you see a most bold stroke of Arbitrary Sway and what Noses of Wax they made of all priviledes of Parliaments O most excellent Conservators of the Liberties of the Nation The next thing they fell upon was the unvoting of all former Votes of the House which tended to any accommodation with the King and renewed again their old Vote of Non-Addresses in Terminis and that the Treaty with him in the Isle of Wight was highly dishonourable and apparently Destructive to the good of the Kingdom Thus forty or fifty of this Independent Junto undid what was before done by at least three hundred and forty before December 14 th Major General Brown Sr. William Waller Sr. John Clotworthy Major General Massy Commissary General Copley were all imprisoned by a Council of War at White-Hall tho Members of Parliament upon which they put forth also a new Declaration or Protestation in the name of themselves and all the Free-born people of England against the violent and illegal Proceedings of the General and his Council of War against the Laws of the Land and Liberties of the People the Rights and Priviledges of Parliament and that it was an higher Usurpation and exercise of an Arbitrary and unlawful Power than hath been heretofore pretended or attempted by this or any other King or other Power whatsoever within this Realm About this time came forth a Paper from the Army called the Agreement of the People being almost word for word the same which formerly had been presented in the Year 1647. by the Agitators of the Army and one Gifford a Jesuite busie in promoting it and then condemned by the Commons as matter Destructive to the beings of Parliaments and to the Fundamental Government of the Kingdom and caused General Fairfax to condemn one of these Agitators who promoted it and caused him to be shot to Death at Ware This was ill timed and the business not yet Ripe enough and was a second time by the Vote of the same House condemned as Seditious and Contemptuous and Destructive c. and several were imprisoned upon it but now the same being again obtruded upon this Junto they closed with it and followed it's Dictates which were briefly That the people should agree or did agree together to take away the present Government by King Lords and Commons which they were now going about as the Armies Journy-men as fast as they could And now Oliver Cromwell every day begins to grow more Conspicuous insomuch as several Lords laying aside their Honour and Greatness begin to Court and fawn upon him and servilely to attend on him and do him Homage The next thing the Lords and Commons do is to Curb the City whom they suspect and to hinder them from a free Election of their City Officers another mark of Arbitrary Power For which end many Exceptions are made for those that were to be elected into any Office that none who had bore Arms for the King in the first or second War or that had joyned with the Scots or had subscribed the Engagement 1647. or were aiding in any Tumult or Insurrection in the City with other Restrictions by which they brought all those under that they believed not fit for their wicked purposes This was thought yet too short by Skippon who moved it to have also added That none might bear Office that promoted the Treaty with the King or endeavoured to have him brought to London Which according to the desire of the Saints was ordered as an Additional Ordinance So that you now see the very endeavouring of a Peace and Settlement of the Nation was become a notorious Crime and made a person incapable of bearing any Office in the City And to make themselves sure one of another as Oaths Declarations and Protestations could make these Usurpers they cause their Members to sign a new Pâ—otestation against the Votes for a Treaty in the Isle of Wight and especially against that Vote which much troubled them That his Majesties Answers to the Propositions of both Houses were a ground for the two Houses to Proceed to a Settlement This tho formerly thought by themselves to tend to Faction was now readily performed at the Armies request Four of their imprisoned Members had been released and now sixteen more were sent for before Ireton and by him discharged Telling them it was the General 's pleasure they should be released provided they attempted nothing against the Actings of the present Parliament and Army But the Gentlemen would pass no such Engagement which seeing he gave order for their release but with this Menace That if they made any Disturbance it should be at their peril The business they had now in hand and were Resolved on viz The King's murther must be cloaked under a Religious Covering as if they were about some Pious Work and therefore they mock God as well as delude man and keep a Fast at St. Margarets Westminster where some few Lords and some of the Commons assembled to whom the Pulpit merry Andrew Hugh Peters preached Moses leading the Children of Israel out of Egypt being the Subject which he applyed to the General and the Leaders of the Army now leading the people out of Egyptian Bondage and after some tâ—me as Ridiculously as profanely hiding himself in the Pulpit he starts up and tells them he had it now by Revelation That the Army was to root out Monarchy not only in England but in all other Kingdoms and so should bring all people out of that Egyptian Bondage That that Army was the Stone cut out of the Mountain which was to dash all the Powers of the earth to pieces With other Blasphemous Speeches of the like Nature Mr. Prin was yet kept a Prisoner at the Kings-head-Inn in the Strand from whence he wrot a Letter to Fairfax to know by what Authority he was thus kept a Prisoner he beâ—ing a Parliament man and a Free-born Subject of England The General who was but Chip in Porridge and knew little of what was done by Cromwell and Ireton sent him word That he thought he had been released with the rest and that he would send to know what they had against him Upon which Mr. Prin puts forth a Declaration shewing the horrid Injustice of their Proceedings against the Members of Parliament and against and Contrary to all the Laws of the Land and the Liberty of the Subject The Council of War in the mean time to humble his Majesty ordered That all State and Ceremony should be forborn to the King and his Attendants lessen'd And now
having made way for the most horrid and Bloody design that ever was heard of the Motion is made in this usurping House to proceed to the Trâ—al of the King as a Capital Offender When the grand Impostor Cromwell stood up and said That if any man moved this upon Design he should think him the greatest Traytor in the World but since Providence and Necessity had cast them upon it he should pray to God to bless their Councells And so on the 28 th of December 1648. Thomas Scot brought in the Ordinance for the Tryal of the King being read and Committed three several times and all the Commissioners names inserted Consisting of divers Gentlemen and Soldiers This Ordinance being pass'd the Junto they send it up to the Lords House by the Lord Grey of Grooby together with their Vote formerly made Viz. Resolved c. That the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament do declare and adjudge That by the Fundamental Laws of the Realm it is Treason in the King of England for the time to come to levy War against the Parliament and Kingdom of England The house of Lords debate the matter and first the Declaratory Vote against which the Earls of Manchester and Northumberland with others spake and declared There was none nor could be any such Fundamental Law in England whereby the King could be a Traytor by leaving War against his People and that thus to declare Treason by an Ordinance when no law was extant to judge it by was most unreasonable Upon which the Lords cast out this Ordinance and Vote and adjourned themselves for seven days This proceeding of the Lords gave them no small trouble and stirr'd up the wrath of some of the Zealots who threatned to hang a Pad-lock on the Lords door and sending up to search their journal Book they found the Lords had made these two Votes That they do not Concur to the said declaratory Vote And Secondly That they rejected the Ordinance for the Tryal of the King Upon which these men resolving to be rid of the Lords as well as of King they Vote That they should Act without them as well they might according to their own Law That all Authority was sounded in the People and that they being the Representatives of the People all Authority lay in them Some of them were for Impeaching the Lords for favouring the grand Delinquent of the Land as they called the King And now to make all sure on their sides that they may Act legally On the 4 th of January they Vote That the People are under God the Original of all just Power That the Commons of England in Parliament assembled being chosen by and representing the People have the Supreme Power of this Nation That whatsoever is declared or Enacted for Law by the House of Commons assembled in Parliament hath the force of Law This makes clear Work and by this our Arbitrary Usurpers may do what they will and cut off their Kings Head according to their own Position legally what need of Kings Lords Laws Rights Liberties Properties or fundamental Government when the Arbitrary Consciences of such men may serve instead of all and conclude thereby all the People of England tho they declare against it and tho opposed by the King or House of Peers And thus notwithstanding the rejection of the Lords these Commons pass their Ordinance and declaratory Vote by the name of An Act of Parliament of the House of Commons which was never before heard of for the Tryal of Charles Stewart King of England This being objected to Hugh Peters that there was no President or Example for the Tryal of a King by a judicial Court he Prophanely applyed That there was never any President before the Virgin Mary of a Womans conceiving and bringing forth a Child without accompanying with a Man therefore they might walk without President for this was an Age to make Examples and Presidents There was yet one thing that passed these men which they had not foreseen which was That it was a very improper thing to make use of the Kings Seal wherein he is styled King of England c. by the Grace of God to seal a Commission against him for his Tryal They were now in hast and could not stay for a new one which they had not as yet thought on therefore it was concluded the Commissioners should proceed upon the Ordinance without any Commission under Seal and that every Commissioner should set his own Hand and Seal to the Instruments of their Proceedings All things being now in a readiness for the Tryal The King is taken from Hurst Castle and brought to Winchester thence to Farnham thence to Winsor and thence to St. James on the 19 th day of January And they had caused for the greater Solemnity of the Business their Serjeant Dandy who was appointed Serjeant at Arms to the Commissioners for the Tryal of his Majesty to proclaim it openly in Westminster-Hall with his Mace on Horse back with six Trumpets and several Officers attending all bare That the Commissioners were to sit to morrow and that all those who had any thing to say against Charles Stewart King of England might be heard This was done in like manner in Cheap-side and at the Royal Exchange The same day the House Voted their great Seal to be broken and ordered a new one to be made Upon this Mr. Prin sends to the Junto a Memento of their unpresidented Proceedings Complaining of the force and Violence put upon their fellow Members warning them from Acting Consulting or ordaining any Act or Ordinance without Concurrence of their fellow-Members being Arbitrary and against Law and that the secluded Members not only declared against such Proceedings but more especially against this horrid Act of theirs for the Tryal of the King shewing them That by the common Law and by the Statute of 25. Ed. 3. and all other Acts concerning Treason it is high Treason for any man to Compass or Contrive the Death of the King or his eldest Son tho never Executed That they were also bound to the Contrary by their Oath of Allâ—giance from which no Power could absolve them That they had in above an hundred Declarations and Ordinances in the name of the Parliament professed That they never intended the least hurt injury or Violence to the Kings person his Crown Dignity or Posterity with several other things very pressing and full as may be seen at large in the printed Paper but all was in vain for they were resolved on the Business tho they could give no kind of colourable Reason for their Actings This Memento was seconded with a Declaration and Protestation signed the 19 th of January by the said Prin and Clement Walker another of the secluded Members which ran very much after the same Tenure and absolutely Protesting against the Junto's Actings and Proceedings declared against the illegal Act of Erecting an high Court of Justice and usurping a Power against
on by the secret and forcible Machinations of Oliver and his Cabal The second day being Monday the 22 d. of January the Court met again and the Solicitor Cook urged extreamly for judgment against the Prisoner unless he would own the Authority of the Court which the King constantly denyed to do and offered his reasons against them but they would not be heard The 3 d. day being January 23 d. the King was brought again before the Court who had in the Painted Chamber the day before Resolved That the King should not be suffered to argue the Courts Jurisdiction and had ordered That in case he offer'd to dispute the Authority of the Court that the President should let him know that he ought to rest satisfied with this Answer That the Commons of England assembled in Parliament have Constituted this Court whose Power may not nor should be permitted to be disputed by him And that in case he should refuse to answer or acknowledge the Court the Lord President should let him know his Contumacy should be recorded But the King still persisted in the denyal of their Authority upon which the Clark reads Charles Stewart King of England you are accused in the behalf of the Commons of England of divers high Crimes and Treasons which Charge hath been read unto you the Court now requires you to give your positive and final Answer by way of Confession or denial of the Charge But the King told them he could not acknowledge a new Court set up contrary to the Priviledges of the People to alter the fundamental Laws of the Land The 4 th and last day was the 27 th of January 1648. where appeared about fifty six of those Commissioners who sate when judgment was given against the King by their President Bradshaw But the King having moved to be heard before the Lords and Commons in the painted Chamber promising after that to abide the judgement of the Court they withdrew for half an hour and returning they told the King This was but another denial of the Courts jurisdiction and therefore if he had no more to say they would proceed to Judgement Upon this after Bradshaw had made a long Speech endeavouring to justifie their Proceedings on this false point That the People are the supream Power whom the Commons represented he commanded the Clark to read the Sentence which was drawn up in Parchment in these words Whereas the Commons of England in Parliament have appointed them an High Court of Justice for the trying of Charles Stewart King of England before whom he had been three times convented and the first time a Charge of high Treason and other Crimes and Misdemeanors was read in the behalf of the Kingdom of England c. Here the Charge at length was read after which the Clark proceeds which Charge being read unto him as aforesaid He the said Charles Stewart was required to give his Answer but he refused so to do For all which Treasons and Crimes this Court doth adjudge the said Charles Stewart as a Tyrant Traytor Murtherer and a publick Enemy shall be put to Death by the severing his Head from his Body After this wicked Sentence passed by these Miscreants the King was had away to Sr. Robert Cotten's and thence to St. James's the rude Soldiers in his passage by them blowing Tobacco in his Face and one spit on it which he wiped off with his Hand-kerchief without taking notice of it But when he heard some of them to Cry out Justice Justice he said alas Poor Souls for a piece of Money they will do as much for their Commanders On the 29 th a Committee met in the paintâ—d Chamber to consider on the time and place of the Kings death which they ordered to be the next day before his own Palace Gate which was approved of by the Commissioners and a Warrant Signed and Sealed by them directed to Hacker Hunts and Phare and order that Marshal Nye Caryl Salway and Dell should attend on his Majesty and to administer to him spiritual help but the King would not be troubled with them and at his desire Doctor Juxon Bishop of London was admitted to Pray with him in private in his Chamber and to administer to him the Sacrament and his Children permitted to come to see him But John Godwin was also sent to be an over-looker of their Actions In the mean time the Junto Pen a Proclamation which they afterwards caused to be published making it high Treason for any man to proclaim or publish Charles Stewart the Son to be rightful Heir and Successor to the Crown of England after his Fathers death or any other of that Line King of England and that no man under Pain of imprisonment or other Arbitrary punishment which they should think fit to inflict shall Preach Write or speak any thing contrary to the present Proceedings of the supream Authority of this Nation the Commons of England assembled in Parliament The Sunday before the King dyed it is reported that some of the chief of the Army and Parliament tendred the King a paper to sign with promise of Life and some shew of a King the Power being wholly invested on themselves and was Destructive to the Fundamental Laws of the Land to the Religion established to the Liberties and Properties of the People one Proposition whereof was To continue the Power of the Sword to the Army and to have as a standing Force under the same general Officers forty Thousand Horse and Foot they to have the Choice of their own Officers among themselves by a Councel of War and to settle a constant Tax upon the People by way of a Land rate for the payment of the said Army and to be collected and levyed by themselves and a Court martial to be Erected of an exorbitant Extent and Latitude But his Majesty disdaining to read them all flung them aside and told them He should rather become a Sacrifice for his People and dye by their Hands than so to betray their Laws Liberties Lives and Estates the Church and Honour of his Crown and so to make all Slaves to the Arbitrary Will and Tyranny of an Army O Glorious Prince Oh height of Impudence of armed Arbitrariness See yet how they proceed on the 29 th of January the Junto Vote That it be enacted by this present Parliament and by the Authority of the same That in all Courts of Law Justice Equity and in all Writs Grants Patents Commissions Inditements Informations Suits Returns of Writs Fines Recoveries Exemplificationr Recognizances Processes and Proceedings at Law c. Within the Kingdom of England and Ireland and Dominion of Wales c. Instead of the Name Style or Title of King heretofore used should thence forward be used and no other than the Name Style or Title Custodes Libertatis Aâ—glie Authoritate Parliamenti The keepers of the Liberty of England by Authority of Parliament and the date of the Year of our Lord and no
all Acts by Pretext of such Power were illegal and the adjudging any Person to death and Executing them was Treason and wilful Murther Thirdly That the said Commons had no power to make any great Seal of England and that all Commissions granted under their great Seal were illegal and all Proceedings in Law upon such Writs null and voyd to all intents and purposes Lastly That the denyal of the King's Title to the Crown and the plotting to deprive him of it and the setting it upon the Head of another was High Treason and within the Stat. 25 th Ed. 3. Ch. 2. as likewise their Subverting the fundamental Laws of the Land and introducing an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government was High Treason at the common Law c. This was all the Loyalists could do at present by these weak Indeavours to assert the Kings right and shew the people what Slaves they were become but this affrighted not these Men who in the next place February 1 st Vote That all such Members who assented to the Vote of the 5 th of December 1648. That the Kings Concessions were a Ground for the House to Proceed to a Settlement should not be admitted into the House until they had declared their disapproval of that Vote before they sit and that such as were now in the House should enter their dissent to that Vote being only those who had before Voted in the Negative The Lords were yet sitting but no notice taken of them by the Commons for having overthrown the Monarchy they now lay aside the Lords and therefore Vote them dangerous and useless Frebruary 5 th and so Voted them down with this Proviso That they might be capable to be Elected Knights of the shire and Burgesses and so sit among the Commons Three of them only so debased themselves viz. The Earls of Pembroke Salisbury and the Lord Howard of Estrick The rest of the Peers put forth their Protestation against these Proceedings of the Commons which came forth on the 8 th of Frebruary in which they asserted their own Priviledges and the fundamental Laws of the Nation disclaiming the Votes of the Commons for Erecting an high Court of Justice for the Tryal of the King and altering the Government Law Seal c. and against their Traiterous murthering their Soveraign and disinheriting the Prince the Lawful Heir of the Crown of England and also protesting against their Vote of the 6 th of Frebruary for the abolishing the House of Peers as destructive to the beings of Parliament the Fundamental Laws of the Realm and the Lives Liberties and Properties of the people whom they had made Slaves to their Tyrannical and Arbitrary Government But this affrights not the Commons and to keep the Lords from meeting the Army set a Guard at their Doors of their House and the House now proceeds to set up a Common-wealth and to abolish Monarchy and therefore they formed an Act intituled an Act for the Exheredation of the Royal Line the abolishing of Monarchy in this Kingdom and the setting up a Common-wealth which they ordered to be published in all places And to Vindicate these their most horrid Proceedings they had their Pulpit-Trumpeters who justified their Impious Acts in all places and John Godwin and Milton to write in their Defence of putting the King to death declaring in Print That the King suffered on just Grounds and according to his Demerits And now instead of one King these Common-wealth Rumpers set up forty Tyrants as a Committee of State But the people generally seemed displeased at this Alteration of the Government and Reineldson Lord Major of the City refused to publish their Act for abolishing of Monarchy for whâ—ch he was discharged of his Office and with two Aldermen sent to the Tower and Andrews was chosen in his stead upon this the Rumpers put forth a new Declaration to justifie their Proceedings calling them A Deliverance of the people from the Bondage that was brought in by the Norman Conquest and their Maintenance of the ancient Laws notwithstanding their Alteration of some forms of the Regality which ancient Laws might consist very well with a Republick and that they had only abolished their Abuses promising to establish a safe and firm Peace and to advance the true Protestant Religion the Encouragment of a Godly ministry and of Trade and the Maintenance of the Poor thorowout the Realm Then their Great Seal came forth having on one side a Cross and Harp for the Arms of England and Ireland with this Inscription â— The Great Seal of England And on the other side was the Picture of the Commons with these words In the first year of Freedom by God's blessing restored 1648. Likewise they caused a new Coyn to be minted and stamped their Money with a Cross and Harp instead of the King's Effigies with this Motto God with us Then they took away all Clauses in any former Acts for the taking the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and made them null and a new Oath framed and tendred to all that were to have any publick place of Trust and assumed to themselves both Judicial and Legislative power of the King and both Houses of Parliament and the Executive power they committed to a Council of State of forty Persons of the most Active men in the Army and others of desperate Fortunes Six of the Judges viz. Justice Bacon Brown Beddinfield Creswell Trevor and Atkins quitted their places not being able to bring their Consciences to Act under this Arbitrary and illegal power six other of them continued who were Justice Rolls St. Johns Pheasanâ— Baron Wild and Baron Yates To their new Council of State they gave Power tâ— Command and settle the Militia of England and Irâ—land Power to set forth Ships and such a Considerable Navy as they should think fit Power to appoinâ— Magistrates and stores for England and Ireland and tâ— dispose of them for the Service of the Nation Anâ— power to Execute all the powers given them for a whole Year to come They had two Seals appointed a great Seal and a Signet Cromwell was made Chaiâ—-man of this Committee and an Oath framed for eveâ—â— Member to take to be true to the Parliament as they termed themselves not to disclose their Secrets anâ— to adhere to the present Settlement of the Government 〈◊〉 a Republick without King or House of Lords Abouâ— this time the Officers of the Army at a Councâ—â— of War debated Whether they should not put to the Sword all that were of the King's Party to secure the Nation to themselves and it was carried in the Negative but by two voyces so near were they to a general Massacre And many Petitions came from several Counties that at least three of the most eminent of the King's party in each County might be put to Death to free the Land from Blood-Guiltiness Cromwell by this as you may perceive had gotten all the executive Power of the Kingdom into his own
following But in the mean time Rear-Admiral Stainer with six other Ships of the English Fleet met with the Spanish Fleet near Cadiz returning from the West Indies with Plate where he sunk several of them with great treasure and took others which he brought away with two Millions of pieces of Eight which amounts to 400000 pounds Sterling There were several Noble men and Dons of Spain taken Prisoners whom Cromwell treated handsomely and after a little while generously sent them home without Ransom And now on the 17 th of September 1656 the appointed time for the Meeting of the Parliament those who were Elected met and chose for their Speaker Sir Thomas Widdrington The Major-Generals had a great hand in chusing this Parliament who by their Arbitrary Power and Authority caused whom they pleased to be chosen and it was thought it was one of Cromwell's policies to Constitute them for that end wanting a Parliament that might give him money And also by their most tyrannical sway they had rendred themselves so odious to the Royalists that they desired rather any other Government should be than these Bashaw's and it was indeed thought to be one of Cromwell's policies in their Constitution that their tyranny might cause his Iron yoke alone to sit more easie about their necks for he gave them up to the Parliament who abolish'd them His design of making himself King and of wearing the Imperial Crown and of becoming a legal Monarch and of transmitting it to his posterity now plainly was manifested though God did not see it good to let the Iniquity of the Nation run on so far as to disinherit the right line having in his Wisedom resolved to continue it to the posterity of Chaâ—les the Martyr for though Cromwell knew he had more Power and greater Dominion and was more absolute than any King of England yet the glorious Title of King and the wearing of a Crown was the desire of his ambitious soul not that it could add more to his Power but he imagined that by that means he should be accounted more legal for that the Crown takes away all attaint and that perhaps he might be able to transmit it to his posterity and make it hereditary in his own line He knew his tyrannick Usurpation was against all the Laws of the Land and that he could hold what he had got no longer than the Army pleased to stick to him who like an head-strong beast was grown so skittish he had much adoe to master it but by setling the Crown on his own head he thought to reduce every thing to its old channel the race of the Stuarts only changed for that of Cromwells and for this end he now began all he could to court the Nobility and Gentry of the Royal Party after he had sufficiently humbled and crush'd them and made them poor all to sweeten them against his assuming the Crown having got as he hop'd a Parliament for his purpose for none were admitted into this Parliament after their Elections but such as the Council allowed of and many persons that Oliver durst not trust were in this Parliament and that he thought not fit to sit till some Laws were first made for the strengthning his Authority and carrying on of his design There was therefore a Recognition of his Highness Government by a single person placed ready with a Guard of Red-coats to be signed before any of the Members went into the House and such as refused to sign it were dismissed and not suffered to sit by which means near 200 at the first were excluded those that sat taking no notice of this most horrid force And now let those who so much stand up for Law and Justice and cry out upon Arbitrary Rule tell me if ever a greater could be acted upon the Liberties of the People in denying them their freedoms in the sitting of their Representatives in Parliament and if any of the most Arbitrary Kings of England ever did or durst attempt the like But what might not and what did not this Tyrant and Usurper doe At first this Parliament went on very smoothly and to the content of their Protectorian Master the first thing was they made a Vote declaring his War with Spain to be just and honourable with a resolution of assisting him in it Then as a Grand step for him to Mount the Throne they make an Act for the renouncing the title of â—harles Stuart and the whole line of King James unto the Crown of England Scotland and Ireland seconded with another for the securing his Highness Person and the continuance of the Nations peace which was bound up in it And this last Act was made by reason of a Plot then discovered against his Person by one Syndercomb or rather a Contrivance of his Secretary Thurlo's to further his designs This Syndercomb was a Leveller or Fifth-Monarchy-man and disbanded by Monk in Scotland who being a resolute fellow and disgusted was drawn in by two of Thurlo's Creatures one Cecil and Toop of Cromwell's Life-guard who pretending a Male-contentedness easily drew him in to a design of Murthering the Tyrant there being about that time a book printed and published with the name Allen to it a disbanded Leveller called Killing no Murther which with notable Arguments proved the Lawfulness of Killing Cromwell as an Usurper and Tyrant which book almost scared him out of his wits and made him ever after afraid of every strange face that came near him and made him betake himself to these artifices to affright assassinates by his severity Syndercomb being thus trepann'd and drawn in by his Instruments had prepared a Blunderbuss and had placed it to shoot him in his Coach going to Hampton-Court and if that failed he was to have fired White-Hall by placing a Basket of combustible matter in the Chapel with a train all which is discovered Syndercomb and his Companions seized the Life-guard men confess the Plot and are pardoned Syndercomb is tryed for it at the upper Bench-bar as they then called it and convicted by the Witness of his fellow Conspirators he was Condemn'd to be Hang'd Drawn and Quarter'd at Tyhurn but before his Execution he was found dead and poysoned in the Tower by himself as the Inquest of the Coroner found it though by others suspected to be a fineness of Thurlo's however as a felo de se he was drawn at an Horses tail to Tower-hill and there put into the ground under the Scaffold and a Stake driven thorow his Body This occasioned the Act to be hastned for his Highness preservation and a thanksgiving Voted for this great delivery the Parliament attending him at White-Hall in the Banqueting-house where a Congratulatory Oration upon this occasion was made to him The next day the time being very convenient Alderman Pack started a motion that for the better and more sure settlement of the Nation the Protector might be desired to assume the stile and title of King as the most
Rocks Nor the People into the like Rebellion in seeking to avoid Arbitrary Government or some Shadows of it bring it upon themselves totally to the subverting the Monarchy and the Fundamental Laws of the Land To the intent then that they may see the difference between the happy Reign of lawful Kings and usurping Tyrants we have Collected the illegal Acts and bloody Persecutions of those Usurpers of Arbitrary Government the Rump and Oliver that by the matter of Fact the People may be convinced and deterred from thinking of Rebelling against their lawful Prince since 't is the only way to bring in Arbitrary Government whose most horrid Picture is display'd in the following History Arbitrary Government displayed to the Life in the illegal Transactions of the late Times IF we mount up the Hill of Time present and thence take a view on either hand lyes Time past and Time future or to come the latter is continually hidden in a Cloud and we are not able to take any Prospect of it unless by Divine or Prophetick illumination which tho certain is rare yet a wise man by looking back on Time past and Comparing the certain Effects resulting from several Causes may give a shrewd Guess of what is to come and thus from Experience he will pronounce that Fears and Jealousies betwixt a Prince and his people being wrought to the height will produce on the one hand Severity on the other Rebellion If the Prince gets the better of the People after they have run into actual disobedience it is not to be expected he should whilst he Lives slacken the Reins of his Power but by keeping them under extend it to the utmost of the line If the people thrive in their Rebellion the certain sequel is Usurpation Tyrannick and Arbitrary Government as hath been seen in several Ages and recounted in several Histories which we shall not mention our Design being to confine our Discourse to our own late Affairs and Transactions from the first setting up of the Rump in the place of Monarchy to the Restauration of our present Monarch whom God grant long to Reign If we look down from this Hill of Time presents thorow the Optick of History on Time past we behold the first Ages as in Landskip only not in a due Proportion being much lessened in Relation the middle Ages are more clearly viewed and lye open to discovery and are more largely Displayed in History but again the more near or next to the Mountain of Time present are also covered in a certain obscurity and as it were over-shadowed by the Mount of Time present that Truth is traced with a faint touch and usually things are not so clearly seen as at a longer distance But since every day renders the Prospect more clear We hope in this our short Relation of the late Usurpers and of their Tyrannick and Arbitrary Government to shew to the People a most lucid Picture of that dreaded Monster which they do and may most justly fear Arbitrary Government Fears and Jealousies fomented and heightned we may say begot it and Rebellion brought it forth for it was the foul Issue of our bloody Civil Wars It is not my task to write the Transactions between the late King and his Parliaments nor to draw forth a Scheme of that most unnatural War which robb'd England of it's Peace and devoured so many brave and valiant Subjects this hath been sufficiently and fully by several Pens already performed But I shall begin the rise of my Historical Collections from the time of the Exclusion of the greater part of the Members of the house of Commons called the long Parliament and when the Tail or Rump as they are called of the said Commons against all Law and Right usurped the Regal Authority of the Nation and placing it upon themselves Exercised a Tyrannick and Arbitrary Government with any shadow of legal Authority for altho it is not to be doubted that the bloody War commenced by the long Parliament against their sovereign Lord and King was illegal and unjust yet I say by that Bill passed by his late Majesty together with the Bill of attainder against the Earl of Strafford on the 8 th of May 1641. for the continuance of that Parliament and that it should not be Prorogued or Adjourned but by act of Parliament and on the 10 th of the same Month had the Royal assent gave them I say some Colour or shadow of Authority and extreamly inbroiled the Kings affairs The advisers to the passing of this Act are not certainly known some attribute it to the Lord Say others to the designing Marquess Hamilton who brag'd of it in Scotland as his Act but whoever they were it prov'd most pernicious to the King and seem'd to Authorise the Rebellion by his own Act. But before we enter upon the Actions of these Usurpers we shall only make mention of some preliminary Acts of illegal Arbitrariness of this Parliament before their Votes of Non-Addresses to the King and their sceluding their fellow Members and of their growing up to that perfection of Evil in taking upon them the Administration of the Government and of that unparallel'd-Murther of a great Monarch their soveraign Lord and King The first was under the Notion of maintaining the Protestant Religion their entring into a solemn Protestation or Association among themselves and also imposing it on the Consciences of all others who should bear any Office either in Church or State Secondly their raising men arming them and forming an Army and so running on into actual Rebellion against their Head and continuing that most Bloody War with so much Heat and Animosity hearkhing to no Treaties c. Next their flinging the Bishops out of the House and imprisoning twelve of them for asserting their Right only by a Protestation And which was absolutely against the Priviledges granted to them by Magna Charta and a lopping off one of the Estates of the Realm Then their putting a difference between the Kings person and his politick Capacity raising War against him in his own Name for as yet the Keepers of the Liberties of England were not thought of but the Style ran in the name of the King and Parliament making the King to fight against himself and to War with himself Next their illegal imprisoning their fellow Subjects and disseizing many of their free Holds for their Loyalty to their Prince and for not lending them Money to carry on their Rebellion and also putting to Death the Hothams all contrary to Magna Charta and the Liberty of the subject and full of Arbitrariness Next their endeavouring to perswade the People that the Soveraignty law wholly and radically in them and so effectually in the Parliament on House of Commons for they now began to be esteemed only the Parliament Then by their Endeavouring â—o take the power of the Sword out of their Soveraigns â—and and to put it into their own thereby to make him a King
into their proper Channel This Letter was accompanied with others and a Declaration to the same purpose all which were Communicated to the Parliament But there in Requital it was vehemently urged by some That the Prince might be declared a Traitor and a â—ebel but others stood up and gave several Reasons too long here to rehearse to the Contrary and so it passed over at this time On the 7 th of August an ordinance passed for erecting a new Militia in every County and particularly for the County of Wilts Commissioners being named who had power to raise what men they pleased to Arm them and to fine defaulters ten pound a Man and twenty dayes Imprisonment and to levy four hundred pound a Week upon that one County besides the ordinary Taxes and free Quarter O brave Liberty and Freedom Whilst the Army were employed in reducing the Scots and Royal party Petitions were continually sent from several Counties to the Parliament all tending to â—he same effect the disbanding the Army easing the people of their Burthens and a personal Treaty with â—he King The City of London Petitions also for the â—ame and to have their imprisoned Citizens released â—hich were chiefly Aldermen Langham and Bunce and their Recorder â—lin The Lords had it seems not â—â—â—curred readily with the Commons in some of 〈◊〉 Votes upon which it was moved in the House to taâ—â— away the Lords negative Voyce So early Arbitrary began to shew it self in the highest degree nothing now seeming too great for the Commons For a câ—rtain lawyer undertook to make good That the House of Commons being the Representative of all the People had power to Act without the Lords for the safety of the People in case the Lords deserted their Trust Here was a ground lay'd for a future subverting the Foundation of all Parliaments and how well they improved this Doctrine we shall see hereafter The Lords and Commons had lay'd by the King and now the Commons were for laying aside the Lords and the next thing to be expected will be to see the Army and their Grandees to lay aside the Commons and to rule alone by themselves usurping both the Kings Soveraign and Governing power the Parliaments Legislative power and the Judges Indicative power and so Establish their Oligarchy or else it may be expected that one more powerful than the rest should usurp all the Power into his own hand and become a most absolute and Arbitrary Tyrant as it hapned to come to pass I cannot pass over another excellent mark of strange Arbitrariness against all Law and Right Moral as well as Civil in their sequestring the Estate of one Wall a Delinquent as they called him after his Death and taking it from his Wife and Children gave it to one of their Creatures who sued for the same tho it was argued against their unjust Proceedings That in the case of the highest Treasons and of Felony no man was Condemned after his Death because he was not then in being to Answer for himself and there could be no proceeding in Law against Non Ens Nay if a Fellon tho alive will stand mute he shall not forfeit his Lands because he wants Answer tho he loses his Life for Contempt of the Law Yet the Godly party prevailed and they bestowed the Sequestration of the said 〈◊〉 Lands tho dead on another with a Proviso that 〈◊〉 â—hould not be drawn into Example Cromwell gives the Parliament by a Letter to their Speaker an account of his Victories with Admonitions to them not to hate God's people who were as the Apple of his Eye and for whom Kings were to be reproved That they should fulfil the end of their Magistracy that all that would live quietly and Peaceably might have Countenance from them and that they who were implacable might be speedily destroyed out of the Land And to prepare the way for their Destruction they ordered That an Ordinance be Penned and brought into the House of Commons to try all such by Martial Law in the City of London as shall be found to Plot Design or Contrive any thing to endanger the Parliament or City Here again you may see all the Common Laws of the Land laid aside and Martial Law made use of in the Head City of the Land Which was then no Garrison and by order of these Parliamentarians and Assertors of the peoples Liberties Rights and Priviledges But however the Army being at a distance from the City subduing the Kings Friends and the Parliaments Foes the Independent Party in the House of Commons were not so prevalent but that the other Party took Courage and appearing began to come more of themselves encouraged by several Petitions out of the Countrey for a Treaty with the King upon which they became inclinable and begun to set themselves to that Pious work tho hindred all that could be by the Clamours Speeches and Behaviour of the Independants And thereupon the Earl of Middlesex Sir John Hippesly and Mr. Bulkley were sent to the King to let him know their Resolutions who returned related the Kings ready Compliance thereto as a thing he much desired upon which they Vote That the Votes of Non-Addresses should be repealed That the King might send for such Persons as were necessary for him in the Treaty That he should be in a state of Freedom That five Lords and ten Commoners be chosen Commissioners to Treat with the King at Newport in the Isle of Wight These Votes were sent to the King and Commissioners chosen for the Lords the Earls of Northumberland Salisbury Pembroke Middlesex and the Lord Say for the Commons were Lord Wainman Mr. Peirpoint Sr. Henry Vain the younger Sr. Harbottle Grimston Sr. Jo. Pots Mr. Brown Mr. Crew Mr. Bulkly Mr. Hellis and Mr. Glyn. Their Propositions were not much easier than their former to which the King gave very Satisfactory Answers conceding to many things for Peace sake against his Prerogative the greatest Difficulty being the business of Episcopacy which the King was unwilling should be wholly abolished And now it was very likely that the King and Parliament had agreed and a full peace had insued but in the mean time many Officers of the Army held their Cabals at Windsor where they were Contriving the Destruction of the King and the Dissolution of the Parliament which Cabals they also continued at London and other places under the name of Agitators in behalf of the Army These were framing a Government among themselves and drew up a Remonstrance shewing That they were the Body of the People of England That their Interest was the publick Interest of the People That the People were the only Competent Judges of their own safety That the supream Magistrates were the People Armed with supream Authority and with the Sword These persons concluded among themselves that some should be chosen out of the Army to represent the whole Body These not to exercise the Legislative power but only to draw
all Law and without all President to try depose and bring to Capital punishment the King and to dis-inherit his Posterity c. But at the same time the Officers of the Army had contrived and ordered two Godly Petitions to be presented to them viz For the abolishing Tythes and the Repealing the Act for the Banishment of the Jews And now Oliver and his Privado Officers having brought their Work to this readiness are fasting and praying as hard as they can no doubt for the Success of it tho they put another Face on the matter and said it was for Direction and Counsel And now it was and not before that this great Usurper of the â—onarchy and Liberties of the people began to lay the great Design of steping into the Soveraignty and laying the Foundation of his Tyrannical reign by the Death and Murther of the King For the private Officers both from the King and his Friends and from the Prince himself in this exigent to save the Life of his Father were not small but he that now aimed at all would not be content with a portion of justly acquired greatness and perhaps he was not sufficiently assured of the Mercy of the Prince he had so highly offended as that he could be able to forgive all those great Crimes he was guilty of but that either himself or his Posterity might remember them to his Prejudice since all he was able to do towards his Majesties Restauration was but what in Duty and Conscience he was bound to do But what ever instiâ—ations he had besides those of the Devil he was not to be shaken tho attempted by a Kinsman of his and of his own Name who as reported was sent either from the Prince himself then at the Haguâ— or from the States of Holland with Credential Letters and a Blank sealed with the Kings and Princes Signets and confirmed by the States for Cromwell to write his own Conditions in if he would preserve the Life of the King This found him at his House recluse with his Privadoes at their Prayers as given out but to what God we may easily Imagine The business being urgent and the Kings Martyrdom approaching the Gentleman with some difficulty got to the private Speech of him to whom he very fully laid open the Hainousness of the Fact he was going about and what an Odium it was about to cast on the English Nation abroad and withal let him understand what Terms he had to offer him and that he might now make himself his Family and Posterity for ever happy and Honourable otherwise he would bring such an Ignoimny on the whole Generation that no time would be able to delete Cromwell after his canting way shifted it off from himself and put the Act upon the Army and Parliament declaring he had sought God very much in the Business but as yet had no return of his Fasting and Prayers about it therefore he desired till night to consider of it and promised that he should hear from him before he went to Bed and accordingly about Twelve or One of the Clock the Gentleman expecting his Answer he sent him word That he might return for he and his Officers had been seeking God and that now it was Resolved the King must dye this was but a night or two before the King's Murther On the 20 th day of January 1648. being Saturday these bloody Commissioners met called an high Court of Justice for the Tryal of the King who was brought before them and with much Patience and sometimes smiling he heard their long Charge but denying the Jurisdiction of the Court refused to plead requiring them to shew by what Law or Authority besides their unjust Usurpation or power of the Sword he was brought before them who were his Subjects I shall not trouble the Reader with any farther Relation of this Tryal it being at large so often printed nor with the Names of the Judges and Officers of this pretended Court it being to be had in every Booksellers shop I intending in these Collections only a brief Narrative of these Usurpers Proceedings that the World might behold the true Picture of Arbitrary Government and Tyrannical rule and not an exact Chronicle or History of those times tho I would not omit any Material thing that may give Satisfaction or Delight to the Reader I shall observe that as an ill Omen the Silver head of the King's Staff dropt off as the Charge was reading which the King wondring at and seeing none so Officious as to take it up he stoop'd himself and taking it up put it into his Pocket At his going from the Court looking very austerely about him without moving his Hat he pointed with his Staff to the Sword and said I do not fear that As he went along the Hall some Cry'd out Justice Justice and others God save the King On Sunday Cromwell Bradshaw and the rest of the Commissioners kept a Fast at White-Hall where preached Joshuah Sprigg whose Text was He that sheds-Man's blood by Man shall his Blood be shed Then Mr. Foxley whose Text was Judge not lest you be Judged Lastly Hugh Peters whose Text was I will Bind their Kings in Chains and their Nobles in Fetters of Iron And thus by their wicked application of the word of God they endeavoured to justifie their most Execrable Murther of their Lawful King There was by some who durst to do any thing against these Cruel and powerful men certain Papers scattered about in which were several Queries as Whether a King of three Kingdoms could be Condemned by one Kingdom alone without the Consent or Concurrence of the other Kingdoms Whether a King if try'd ought not to be try'd by his Peers And whether he could be said to have any such in his Kingdom Whether if a King were Tryable he ought not to be tryed in full Parliament of Lords and Commons Whether the 8 th part of the Members of the Commons meeting in the House under the force of the Army the rest being forcibly restrained from sitting can by any Pretext of Law or Justice erect a Court for the Tryal of the King And whether this could be properly called a Court of Justice without the great Seal of England Whether that those men who by several Remonstrances Speeches and Actions have publickly declared themselves Enemies to the King can either in Law or Conscience be his Judges when it is Exception enough for the basest Felon to any Jury-man to hinder him from being his Judge Whether this most illegal and Arbitrary Tryal of the King by an high Court of Justice may not prove a most Dangerous inlet to absolute Tyranny and bloody Butchery and every mans Life be at the Arbitrary will of his Enemies erected into a Court of Conscience without limits or bounds But words are nothing and these paper Arms tho furnished with the highest Reason could not move these obdurate Men who persisted in their bloody Business driven
part of my draught of Arbitrary Government under the Power and Tyranny of that noâ—orious Usurper Oliver I shall now proceed to the second Act of this Tragical Usurpation and expose to your view the Tyrannick Usurpation of Oliver Cromwell who now as General of the Armies of England Scotland and Ireland had the full and sole Authority Power and Government of the Three Nations in his hands Yet this would not serve his turn he must have some splendid Title and Royal Ensigns to shew he reigned not by the Power of the Sword which would render him odious to the People though in effect it was the same thing But there is much in State and Ceremony especially where lawful right is not to give a lustre and the name of King with the Ornament of a Crown is the thing ambitioned or some thing like it is to be had if the other could not be obtained But this is not yet to be reach'd he must proceed methodically and like the Tyrant Richard the Third intreated much to accept of what he greatly desired The first thing Oliver does after he had thrust the Rump-Parliament out of doors was to put forth a Declaration of the Reasons for Dissolving the Long Parliament who had designed to perpetuate themselves desiring all good people to seek God for him that he might not doe any thing to dishonour his Name and that they should peaceably follow their Vocations as when the Parliament was sitting and that all Judges Sheriffs Justices of the Peace Mayors Bayliffs and other Civil Officers and Publick Ministers whatsoever should proceed in their Offices and Places and that the Writs should run in the same stile as before of the Keepers of the Liberty of England And then out of his Chief Officers of the Army and his Confidents he Creates a Council of State who were to manage all affairs till a Parliament could be called Thus the Laws and Liberties of the People and the whole Civil State and Government of England depended upon the Sword and the Arbitrary Will and Pleasure of a General and some few of his Military Officers These men to ingratiate themselves with the people lessen the Monthly Tax from 120000 l. to 90000 l. a Month and to keep fair with the Presbyterian who yet kept up their form of Church-worship and the most of one publick perswasion they prohibited all disturbances in the Church which was then frequent and the Phanaticks Licentiousness in the Army which swarmed with Anabaptists Ranters Quakers Seekers and other strange new Lights and who were set a madding after the possession of the remaining Revenue of Church-Lands Tythes Glebe Impropriations often addressing to that purpose as no remains of Dagon might be left Oliver at this time also was Courted by the French Ambassador Burdoe in the behalf of his Master lest he should favour his Rebels and which he gave him assurance he would not doe and though solicited on the other side he would not favour Enemies to Monarchy â—â—ready looking upon himself to be a Monarch The Dutch thought now to take the advantage of these Divisions in England and very early got their Fleet to Sea but no great Commotion following thereupon at home they had leasure to look after their Sea-affairs and getting forth the Fleet under Blake Monk and Dean on the second of June 1653 they meet the Dutch on the Coasts of Flanders Commanded by Van Tromp in chief and under him the two Eversons de Wit and Ruytier all stout expert and able Sea-men Pen was Vice-Admiral of our Fleet and Lawson Rear-Admiral The Dutch had One hundred and four Men of War Twelve Galliots and Nine Fire-Ships the English had One hundred Ships of all sorts Monk and Dean were in one Ship the Fight begun about Eleven of the Clock at Noon and the first Broad-side from the Enemy carried away General Dean being shot in two by a Cannon Bullet close by Monk's side who flinging a Cloak over his body bid the Soldiers to mind their business and unconcerned apply'd himself to the Battel continued with much fury on both sides as long as they had light The next morning Monk finding himself near the Dutch they again furiously engaged each other and Monk pressed so hard upon them that he sunk six of their best Ships and two others were blown up and eleven Ships taken and One thousand three hundred and fifty Prisoners and had not the Dutch got upon the Flats near Calais and Dunkirk where our great Ships could not come at them most of their Fleet had been ruined or taken The English had not one Ship lost or disabled and excepting General Dean but one Captain lost and about One hundred and fifty Men and few hurt General Blake came not in till towards the end of the Fight with Eighteen fresh Ships This was the sixth Engagement with the Dutch in this Wâ—â— The English Fleet â—â—e before the Texel and the Vly and now let the Dutch see they were Conquerors which so humbled them that they sent away a Vessel with a white Flag for England with a Messenger to prepare way for two Ambassadors to Treat of Peace however that they might make it on easier terms they prepare with all speed they can to recruit their Fleet and on the Twenty-ninth of July following in the morning the English discry them again with One hundred and twenty five Sail of Ships divided into four Squadrons under Tromp Everson Ruyteâ— and Wit Wittens The English Fleet consisted of Onâ— hundred and six Ships under the Command of Monk in chief for Blake was sick Pen Vice-Admiral and Lawson Rear-Admiral the Battel began by six in the morning and continued till night parted them and the next morning again both fell to it with that bloody fury that they made the most cruel Fight that ever was Orders being given neither to give nor take quarter Everson's Ship was sunk and he taken and the famous Van Tromp shot with a Musket-bullet and slain on the poop of his Ship whereby his men were so daunted that hoisting out all the Sail they could they made away to the Texel The English bought this Victory dear having lost Four hundred Men and Eight Captains and Seven hundred wounded with Five Commanders yet lost but one Ship On the Dutch side was lost besides their Admiral Tromp Thirty-three Ships or more out of which the English saved swiming in the Sea Twelve hundred Men and Five Captains Monk returning victorious with their Prisoners to Solebay where he stayed not long e're he returned to ply upon the Dutch Coasts and to disturb their Trade and to let them see the English were their Conquerors This was the seventh and last Engagement in this â—ar For now the Dutch having enough of iâ— made a Peace with Cromwell which he migâ—â— have had almost upon any terms had he not been so greedy of setting himself up in the Throne beginning also to grow jealous of the great Actions of
Command of the Army which he aimed at for a further advance of himself by his party he caused the Rump Parliament to be proposed again to a great Consultation of the Officers of the Army meeting at St. James's where they were seeking God for a Government with Dr. Owen and other Independant Ministers amongst them which affected them very much But this alarum'd Fleetwood and his party who found the Army mutinous and troublesome and not to be governed now by their Commands and the few days they reigned the Government lying like an heavy burthen upon their shoulders they were forced to comply and follow the stream and in order thereto the Protectorian Colonels as Ingoldsby Howard Falconbridg Bridg Whaly Goff Norton Smith and others were put out and Commonwealths-men or Rumpers put in their stead And thus fully ended the Usurpation and Tyranny of the Cromwells And now we may say we are come to the third Act of Tyranical Usurpation and the many-Headed Monster the Rump-Parliament arises again and shews it self after havâ—ing been so many years defunct For the souldiers as I have said not knowing what to do send now for their old drudges to sit again whom they had formerly pull'd out by the Ears with so much Infamy and ill language and after several private Conferences among the Chief of either side and articles proposed for the securing the Armie for the Rump would sit upon any terms a declaration of the Armie came forth invitâ—ing this Rump to return to the exercise of their charge and trust telling them in many canting terms of the dangers and deliverances God had brought them through and perceiving now with Grief that the good spirit among them did dayly decline so as the good old cause became a reproach and now calling to mind that the long Parliament consisting of those members who continued siting till the 20 th of April 1653. were eminent asserters of that cause and had a special presence of God with them and were signally blessed in their work they iudged it their duty to invite the said Members to the discharge of their trust for the setling and secureing the peace of the common wealth promissing to be aiding and assisting to them c. And now all the Members in Town the Jailes being search'd for some of them who lay there for debt get together on the 7 th of May in the Painted chamber at Westminster accompanied with their old Speaker Lenthal to the number of about 42 who for haste haveing the Chancery Mace carried before them stole into their house before expected not a little glad to have gotten into their old nest after so many years exclusion The names of these famous men were Lenthal their Speaker Lord Monson Harry Martin Lisle Whitlock Chaleuoâ—r Wise Alderman Atkins Penington Scot Holland Vain Prideaux Sr. James Harrington Ludlow Oldsworth Hazlerig Jones Pâ—refoy White Harry Nevil Say Bennet Blagrave Brewster Serjant Wild Goodwin Letchmore Skinnâ—r Downs Dove 〈◊〉 Leuthal Saloway the Grocer Corbet Wallon Millington the Church-snuffers Gold Sydenham Bingham Aire Smith one of the 6 clarks Ingoldsby and Fleetwood These Rumpers being thus reestablished and addressed by sundry Addressers from the Counties which afterwards stood them in as much stead as those which were made before to Richard Cromwell did him They cause the Officers of the Armie to resigne their old Commissions and to receive new ones from them which they thought no small tye but Callerates met with Menalcidas as afterwards it proved Some of the old Members who had been secluded in 1648. required to be admitted with the rest hopeing that their presence might prevent much mischeif tho' they had little or no expectation of doing much good by reason the Armies backing the other party The names of the secluded Members that now sought for admittance were Mr. Anslow Sr. George Booth Mr. James Herbert Mr. Prynn Mr. Montague Sr. John Eveling Mr. John Herbert Mr. Gawen Mr. Eveling Mr. Clive Mr. Kniqgtley Mr. Hungerford Mr. Harley and Mr. Peck But these could not be admitted into the house but were stopped in the Lobby onely Mr. Prynn and Hungerford getting in and beginning to dispute with them upon the point made them adiourn and loose a days time after which attempting the like they found a Troop of Horse and two Companies of red-Coats the Keepers of the liberties of England to keep them out so that they were forced to return seing there was no good to be done with these persons who began to follow their old stepts of trampling the priviledges of Parliament under foot the ancient Laws and Constitutions of the land and the Liberties and Rights of the people For they forthwith ordered That such persons heretofore Members of this Parliament as have not sat in this Parlâ—ament since the year 1648 and have not subscribed the Engagement in the Rol of Engagement of this House shall not sit in this House till further order of Parliament They had the first day of their sitting put forth a Declaration among many other things declareing They would apply themselves faithfully to the discharge of their trust and to the setlement the Common Wealth as might establish the Property and Liberties of the people without a single person Kingship or House of Peers and vigourously carry on a Reformation that there may be a godly and faithful Magistracy and Ministry in the Nation to the praise of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the reviveing and makeing glad the Hearts of the upright in the Land See the holy Cant and what good words they use having not forgot their old Trade of cutting the peoples Throats with good words nor their old way of helping one another for on the 29th of May they order That all such as shall be employed in any place of Trust or Power in the Common-wealth be able for the discharge of such Trust and that they be persons fearing God and that have given Testimony to all the people of God their faithfulness to this Common-wealth according to the Declaration of the 7 th of May. Here are the Godly now setting up themselves again in their old Throne of the Good Old Cause that had been so abominably distastful to the whole Nation And forthwith this Godly Party as they nominated themselves begin apace to thrust one another into all Offices of the State and for that end they appoint a Council of State into whose hands they put the dispose of all places of most Profit and Trust yea of the Command of the wealth of the Kingdom These Godly ones of the House were the Godly Sir Arthur Hazlerig the pious Sir Henry Vain the Holy Man Ludloâ— Jones Sydenham Salaway Fleetwood and the Chaste Mr. Scot with Walton Nevil Harrington Chaloner Downs Whitlock Morley Sydney Thomson Dixwel Reynolds Oliver St. Johns Wallop and without the House were the like Godly Men Bradshaw Lambert Desborow Fairfax Berry Sir Anthony Ashly-Cooper Sir Horatio Townsend Sir Robert Honywood Sir Archibald
other and instead of Juratores pro Domino Rege shall be used Juratores pro republica and so Contra pacem dignitatem Coronam nostram should be turned into Contra pacem publicam All judges Justices Ministers and Officers to take Notice thereof and that whatever should be done Contrary to this Act hence forward should be declared null and void in Law the Death of the King or any usage Law Custom c to the Contrary The King after his Sentence was lodg'd in White-Hall and the little time they gave him to prepare himself he was disturb'd with the noise of his rude Guards filling all the Rooms with the smoak of their Tobacco a thing extreamly offensive to him and they Rung in his Ears the clincking of Pots and such like Noises and not only so but he lay so near the place where he was to Dye that he could hear every stroke of the Hammers of those Workmen that were erecting the Scaffold and working all night all which Barbarity was to mortifie him but that would not bring him to their Bent On Munday he was removed to St. James's whence he came the next day on Foot thorow the Park to suffer his Martyrdom And now on the 30 th of January 1648. was Acted the most unheard of Tragedy that ever was Committed and not to be parallel'd in History in any Countrey A King convented and Tryed openly in a Court of unlawful Judicatory as a Capital Criminal by the meanest of his Subjects under pretence of Law and then publickly Executed on a Scaffold in the face of the Sun and the People before his own Palace by the hand of the common Hangman as it hath since appeared is so strange a thing that it will be the Admiration of succeeding Ages as well as it hath been of our own and I think a most notable Display of Arbitrary Usurpation For tho we have had some of our Kings murthered in our Land yet there was some modesty shewed in their Assassination in that it was done Privately and Acted by great Persons laying claim to or Ambitioning the Crown nay they were so Cautious as in the Murthers of Edward the second and Richard the second First to depose them and to take away their Crowns or making them to resign them by their own Acts becoming thereby private men accounting them else Sacred to be murthered but thus I say to be publickly put to Death under the Colour of Law and Justice and to justifie such â— bloody Perpetration to the World as a legal Act being so palpable against all Laws both Divine and Humane was a thing never to be found in any Age or in any story I shall say no more of it his Majesties Speech and all the fatal Transactions of that Tragedy being Printed at large only I shall take notice that this Royal Martyr with much Constancy Courage and Resolution lai'd his Head on the Block and suffered under the Ax in refusing to acknowledge the Authority of these bloody Usurpers to be legal and because he would not betray the Liberties Lives and Properties of his people to an unjust and usurping Tyrannical Government Even whilst he was on the Scaffold he was pittied by some of his Persecutors the Officers of the Army which Cromwell perceiving he begun to play with them his usual jugling Tricks and made them believe that he would consult with them concerning the saving of the Kings Life Seeming to pitty him himself and blaming him for being Obstinate in not adhering to their Propositions feigning a Reluctancy for his Death and therefore told them He should be very glad if it might be effected with the safety of the Kingdom tho what was done was by the Authority of the Parliament yet he feared the Odium might be cast on them but says he before we proceed in this weighty Matter let us seek God to which they agreed and Oliver began a long-winded Prayer which lasted so long till News was brought them that the King was Executed which several not suspecting were surprized and amazed but Cromwell holding up his Hands told them he now saw clearly that it was not the will of God that the King should live and therefore he was afraid they had done ill to tempt God to desire it This was the end of his Majesty Charles the First and now all the world believed as most legally they might that this Parliament was dissolved of Course by the Death of the King by what Authority now can they pretend to sit and Act Even by the same unjust Power of the Sword whereby they had committed so many illegal Acts contrary to the Fundamental Laws of the Land as now in continuing themselves a Parliament was against the most ancient Constitutions of Parliaments But they lay hold of the Act of 17. Car. 1. for the Continuance of this Parliament In which these words Were And be it declared and Enacted by the King our Soveraign Lord with the assent of the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament assembled and by the Authority of the same that this present Parliament now assembled shall not be dissolved unless by Act of Parliament to be passed for that Purpose Therefore they declared and believe that they are still a Parliament and are not Dissolved by the Kings Death because not dissolved by an Act of Parliament But it was answered that it was and ever hath been the undoubted Prerogative of the King to Call and Dissolve Parliaments and that an Act for their Perpetuation was a taking way one of the chiefest Flowers in the imperial Crown of England which the King could not grant and give away tho with consent of both Houses But this Act was palpably against the King's inclination being as it were forced to it by some Heady violent and turbulent Men. But that a Perpetuation or Extention of it beyond the Kings Death was never then thought of is most plain by the Preamble of the said Act where it is expressed That by reason of great Sums of Money of necessity to be advanced for the speedy relief of his Majesties Army and People in the northern parts of the Realm and that Credit might be had for the raising such Monies and to take away the Fears and Jealousies of any that should lend such Monies upon their Credit that this Parliament should not be Prorogued or Dissolved before Justice be done on Delinquents and publick Grievaâ—ces redressed it was Enacted c That they should not be Dissolved but by an Act of Parliament so that by the very end and Scope of this Act there could not be thought to be any Perpetuation of this Parliament or that they should not be Dissolved by the Kings death For else certainly they would have inserted the like special Clause as That this Parliament shall not be Dissolved by his Majesties death but only by Act of Parliament But that the Parliament was Dissolved Ipso facto by the Kings death being called
Hand and into the hands of his own Creatures of the Councel of State altogether ruled by him and therefore it may be wondred at that he did not immediately seize the Crown and set himself in the Throne which he now aspired to But things were not yet ripe and the subtil Fox found such a Levelling party in the Army which he saw must first be Crushed who would never indure it for they were for dividing and sharing all as a Land subdued by them among themselves and for owning no Authority but the Saints who were themselves These begin to rip up the Miscarriages of the Parliament and Cromwell to make them the more Odious puts them upon all Things he believed would make them so to the People and Army One of which was the new Erection of their most Tyrannical Court of Justice for the Tryal of some of the Lords and others whom they had still imprisoned for their Loyalty The first was Duke Hamilton who had invaded England as you have heard with him they at first deal gently hoping to have screw'd out of him the Names of some Eminent men in England that they thought might have invited him in But he either not able or willing in that point to give them Satisfaction and finding the Scots and Argile's party to hate him and to desire his Head he was Condemned tho he pleaded he had Quarter given him by Lambert upon Articles and would have given a hundred Thousand pound to save his Life After him was also tryed and Condemned the Earl of Holland and that most Noble and Heroick Peer the Lord Capel who had escaped out of the Tower but was retaken by means of a perfidious Water-man ever after hated for it He pleaded Articles of surrender but that was denyed him then he pleaded to be tryed at Common-Law put them in mind of Magna Charâ—a Petition of right and of the Fundamental Laws of the Land and that of right he ought to be tryed by his Peers urging them to shew a President of any such Tryal by an Arbitrary Court of Justice as they called it He talk'd to deaf Statues for he was too gallant a Man and too Active and Loyal to be permitted to Live On the 9 th of March these three Lords Duke Hamilton the Earl of Holland and this Noble Lord much lamented were put to Death on a Scaffold in the Pallace-yard in Westminster by severing their Heads from their Bodies It is remarkable that this Lord dyed with much Courage and Christianity being nothing daunted at Death The Earl of Norwich and Sr. John Owen were pardoned by Vote of the House the Earl of Norwich having his Life by the casting Voyce of Lenthal the Speaker only Thus they proceed dipping their hands in Blood growing thereby more Odious to the People and about this time the Scots begin to stir and made a Protest against the Actions of the Parliament of England and on the third of February proclaim the King by the name of Charles the second at Edenborough by Lyon King at Arms. The Scotch Commissioners who had been long here were called home and at their departure they left an Expostulary Declaration putting the Junto in mind of all their Vows and Oaths in maintenance of the Kings Rights and defence of his Person and upbraided them with their shameful Abjuration and Infringment of them by their late horrid Proceedings This paper they Vote Scandalous and Seditious imprison the Messâ—nger who brought it and sending after the Commissioners secure them till the Parliament in Scotland send to justifie the Action and require their Commissioners being imprisoned Contrary to the Law of Nations upon which they were permitted to depart into Scotland and thus Jealousies of a breach began Troublesome John Lilburn an Active Leveller began now to stir delivering a Petition in the Names of many Thousand well affected c. with a Book intituled Englands new Chains discovered in which they find fault with many things done by this Junto and especially the Councel of State and with the erecting an high Court of Justice and altering the Fundamental Laws of the Land for Tryals by Juries Complain of the Excise and of several other things And after this another called a second Part of Englands new Chains which shewed the Hypocrisie and Perfidiousness of the Grandees of the Army and the Councel of State in Cheating all Interests King Parliament People Soldiers City Agitators Levellers c. Upon the back of this comes forth another Book called the Hunting of the Fox which spake against the Army and Councel of State set up by Cromwell and Ireton to erect a new Tyranny worse than the thirty Tyrants at Athens the Star-Chamber the High Commission or house of Lords c. These coming forth one upon the Neck of another shewed the troublesome Spirit that began to ferment in the Army which was now to be Purged as well as the Parliament had been or else Cromwell found he should not be able to work them to his ends And now he had an opportunity offerr'd him for Ireland being in a manner wholly lost excepting Dublin then besieged eleven Regiments were ordered by the Rump to be Transported for its relief by which means Cromwell hoped to purge out this Turgent humour of the Army But some of these bold Petitioners were seized and tryed by a Councel of War of which Barksted was President in which they were Cashiered the Army their Swords ordered to be broken over their Heads and to Ride with their Faces to the Horses Tails with Papers of their Crimes pinned to their Breasts at the head of the Regiments which Sentence was executed accordingly to the great Exasperation of the Army And not long afâ—er several Regiments began to Mutiny and to wear White Colours for distinction in their Hats which might have proved fatal to Cromwell's designs had he not with an undaunted Boldness at that time appearing in Person overawed them and causing two of them to be shot to Death before their Faces But this could not purge out the Humour which 〈◊〉 increasing two more of the Levelling Tribe were 〈◊〉 one of which was named Lockyer a Trooper shot in St. Paul's Church-yard but buried in great State by the 〈◊〉 Faction wearing green and black Ribbons in â—â—â—ir Hats And now the peoples Eyes daily began 〈◊〉 be opened finding what Keepers of Englands Liberties they had got The Regiments ordered to march at Salisbury make an Eruption alledging that this was a Trick to divide the Army and that they were not Mereenaries but took up Arms upon a righteous Principle of Government and therefore would not divide upon which several Regiments revolt and Collonel Scroop's laid aside their Officers and with Colours flying march'd to joyn Harrison's Regiment and Ireton's and Skippon's who had confederated But Fairfax and Cromwell by hasty marches with the whole Army follow them who at Burford in Oxford-shire made up about five Thousand Horse and Foot
Speech shewing them some reasons for the necessity of their being dissolved he peremptorily declared them to be dissolved But the Speaker refusing to leave the Chair Cromwell began to huff and fall into a passion telling them they were a company of drunkards whoremasters Hipocrites Knaves and Oppressors and commanded that the Bauble the Mace should be took from them and no more carried before them and Harrison taking the Speaker by the Arm lifted him out of his Chair and having thus turned them out of doors he lock'd them up and set a Guard of Soldiers at them and at all the Avenues that they might not meet again in that place and thus exeunt Tyranni one Devil driving out another to make way at last for their Lawful Prince This done Cromwell returning to his Council of Officers told them of his Exploit and let them know that now they must go hand in hand with them and justifie it by their lives and fortunes they having advised him to it He told them that when he went to the House he did not think to do it but perceiving the Spirit of God so strongly upon him he would no longer consult Flesh and Blood for the Parliament intended to have perpetuated themselves This Action of his tho arbitrary illegal and tyrannical was generally applauded by all sorts of people these Rumpers were grown so very odious by their tyrannick Usurpation And the King's Friends both at home and abroad were not a little joyful to see this Turn and to behold them dethroned and trampled on even in the midst of their Laurels obtained for their Victories over the Dutch Grievous Muttering they kept for this violence done to them by their Servant as they stiled him thinking it none when he did the like to those secluded Members that would not vote with them against the King but as mad as they were they saw no help for it and it was not possible for them to get together tho they would not own themselves dissolved and thus our usurping Junto went out like a Snuff with a Stink smelling very unsavourly in the Nostrils of the whole Nation Thus far have I traced out to you the Lines of the Image of Arbitrary and Tyrannick Usurpation and how ugly and grim a Representation it is you who have seen it truly delineated may judge You have seen this Titular Parliament unjustly seize upon the Government by murthering their King and against all Laws thrust out two of the States of the Land the Lords Spiritual first and then the Lords temporal and having now grasp'd the Government with rapacious hands with the like Injustice and Arbitrariness turn the greater part of their own Members out of Doors and rule by a few bloody and tyrannical Usurpers You have likewise seen after what manner they have swayed the three Nations by their own Arbitrary Wills and Pleasures as so many lawless Tyrants upholding an Army only to cut the Peoples Throats and to over-awe them burthening them with Taxes and oppressing them with a standing Army and free Quarter taking away their lives by an Arbitrary Court of Justice contrary to the known Laws of the Land and robbing and spoiling all men of their Estates that opposed them filling the Jayls thorowout the three Kingdoms with Prisoners The Liberties of the Subject overthrown Magna Charta and all the Laws and Ancient Constitutions of Parliaments trodden under foot and disregarded so as no man could call any thing his own And in fine all the People of England made Slaves by these the Keepers of their Liberties so that it was no wonder that there was a general rejoycing at their fall tho as yet it was but out of the Frying-pan into the Fire having exchanged two hundred Tyrants for one as Lawless Boundless and Arbitrary as they or a Rump for an Oliver I should now proceed to give a further Display of this Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government under the Usurpation of Oliver Cromwell who had pull'd these down only to set up himself but before I enter upon it I think it will not be ungrateful to the Reader and not impertinent to my Design to shew you what a sort of men these were who had thus long usurped by a brief Character of some of the chiefest of them and what benefit they made of their pretended Godliness giving one another Estates out of the Kings Queens Bishops Deans and Chapters and Delinquents Lands And I will begin with Oliver Cromwell the Lucifer of the rest who out-witted them all and ruled by himself with greater Power and more absolute Sway than ever any Monarch of England did He was very well descended of a Knightly Family in the County of Huntington being born in S. John's Parish in the Town of Huntington the twenty fifth of April 1599 being the Son of Mr. Robert Cromwell who was the third Son of Sir Henry Cromwell a Gentleman of great worth honored and beloved in Court and Country whose eldest Son Sir Oliver Cromwell a Gentleman well known for his Loyalty and Uncle to this our Oliver was his God-father and gave him his Name His Mother was thâ—â— Daughter of Sir Richard Steward of Ely They therefore were much mistaken who said he was the Son of a Brewer tho indeed his Mother even in his Father's Life-time did manage a Brew-House by their Servants and after her Husbands death continued the same as an honest means of Livelyhood the Patrimony of a younger Brother being but small He was observed in his Youth to be ambitious willful and head-strong which improved with his years and always and upon all occasions exercised the Impostor under the mask of Hypocrisie However he was bred at School where he got some smattering in the Rudiments of Learning but was so violent and head-strong and so very prone to robbing Orchards and Dove-Houses that he grew the terror of the Country and past his Tutor's Correction It was about that time he dream'd he should be King of England if it were not more than a Dream a suggestion of some evil Spirit for he would often confidently report it in his Youth tho rebuked by his Father for it and flash'd by his Master Dr. Bernard for his constant avouching it And acting in a Play in the School going beyond his Cue he took a Crown and put it on his own Head and as if inspired spake some big words with great authority Thence he was translated to Cambridge where he was more noted for Foot-ball Cudgelling and Wrestling than for his Studies to which he little gave his mind and after his Father's death left the University and returning home fell to all manner of Licentiousness and Debauchery and grew so distastful to his Mother and Neighbourhood that she sent him away to London and enters him into Lincolns-Inn intending to make him a Lawyer but finding this place not agreeable to his humor he stayed not long before he returned back into the Country where he fell to his
known and most agreeable Government to the people of England this was hotly pursued by the Court-party of the House which after several hot debates produced The Humble Petition and Advice of which â—e shall speak anon The horrible licentiousness of these times had ripened the birth of strange and monstrous Opinions and Heresies and all places swarm'd with these kind of creatures of an hundred different perswasions The Ranters grew numerous and committed their beastialities under the notion of Liberty of Conscience publickly turning debauchery and all manner of wickedness into a Religion some lying with their Wives or other women openly in the Market-place several both men and women running stark naked without the least rag to hide their shame about the streets and into Churches pretending a Command from the spirit for these Actions Then the Socinians encreased who denied the Divinity of Christ one Biddle being infamous for those Opinions and one Erbery once a Minister for Ranting Then the Quakers began to grow numerous under George Fox their head and so troublesome that they disquieted Oliver himself who liked not their Antiministerial principles But above the rest James Naylor was at this time remarkable who grew to that height of delusion and phrensie as to personate our Saviour and procured a divine worship or adoration to be given to him by some women attending him He had been formerly a Soldier under Lambert who stickled much to save him from punishment but the Parliament now sitting take the matter into their cognisance being sent up from Bristol where he was he appears before them with a composed countenance his hair hanging after the fashion of those pictures made for our Saviour and with a forked beard often answering the questions put to him with Thou sayest it He was accused of Blasphemy and for assuming to himself divine Honours he having had Hosanna's sung before him and such expressions used to him as the people of the Jews used towards our Saviour when he rode into Jerusalem a little before his Crucifixion He used several evasions but the House sentenced him to be both at London and Bristol publickly Whipt through both the Cities to stand in the Pillory to have his Tongue bored thorow and to be stigmatized in the forehead with the letter B for a Blasphemer and then to remain in Bridewell during pleasure which sentence was with great severity inflicted upon him and which he underwent with a more than ordinary patience and resolution The Parliament having made an Act for Preventing of Multiplicity of Buildings within ten miles of London and that every house within that compass built upon a new foundation should pay a years Rent to the Protector they fall upon the Petition and Advice In the mean time Cromwell designing the Succession of his Usurpation for his Son Richard begins to shew him to the World but that he might give Lambert no Umbrage of his Intentions he keeps him for some time in the Country in Hamshire where he had Married the Daughter of one Major with whom he had a plentiful Fortune Here he grows familiar and kind to the Royalists insinuating into them by his debonare Carriage and serving many of them in several requests to his Father endeavouring to get their good liking by his Civilities and afâ—able Disposition The first publick Honour done him was in making him Chancellor of Oxford which his Father had resigned for that purpose then he was Sworn a Privy-Counsellor and made a Colonel in the Army that he might have an Interest in all Parties and not long afterwards was made the first Lord of the other House after the re-meeting of the Parliament and stiled the Noble Lord Richard Cromwell to prepare his way had likewise his News-writer Marchiamount Needham who tells the people there is no everlasting principle in Government which is but a temporary expedient and that in the hazard of a Common-wealth the next shift might be made use of which was a King as most agreeable and necessary He had likewise an ill Poet Pagan Fisher who in a Rodomontado stile sung his Atchievements in Latin Verse together with the Vertues of the pious Bradshaw Oliver having prepared things for them as well as he could the Parliament proceed hotly upon the Petition and Advice which was their new Model of Government and with which on the 9 th of April 1657 the Parliament having desired a meeting with the Protector they wait upon him in the Banqueting-house at White-Hall where Sir Thomas Widdrington in a set Speech commended the office of a King as setled here ever since Christianity approved by our Ancestors agreeing best with our Laws and temper of the People a Model of which Government as most proper for the good and security of the Nation he there presented him with The old Fox returns That 't is a weighty Matter and therefore desired time to seek God in it for without his Assistance the charge would be too great for him to bear That the English were the best people in the world and therefore all tenderness imaginable should be shewed to them and nothing done without due consideration of their benefit with much more of the like nature The next day a Committee was appointed to attend him for his Answer which being delivered after a dubious manner they resolve to force it upon him and adhering to their Petition frame a Committee of near half their House to attend him both to hear and give satisfaction to his doubts and scruples in this case The chief of these were Whitlock Lord Chief Justice Glyn Lord Broghill Lenthal Lisle Philip Jones Fiennes Strickland Thurlo Sir Richard Onslow and Sir Charles Woosley And now it might be wondred at that Cromwell having this fair opportunity did not accept of this proffer so much urged no doubt but he most eagerly desired it yet was he so cautious and fearfull lest that like the Dog in the Fable he should snatch too greedily at the shadow of Royalty and should lose the boundless power or substance of his Tyranny or in seeking to fortifie his title lose his tenure for he well understood the temper of the Army and that by the means of Lambert who began to smell out his design and fearing to lose the Succession promised him was ready to Mutiny which if he should lâ—se he were undone knowing all his title was maintained by the power of their Swords and that therefore he must wear such title as they please or would be contented with therefore considering that it would not be safe for him at this time to accept it he was forced with reluctancy to put it off to a more convenient season Many meetings and debates however they had about it and many Arguments held Pro and Con between them The Committee alledged that the title of King had been confirmed by Parliaments for above 1300 years and that neither the Person or Name of King had been displeasing to them That it
the one for an Assessment the other for the Militia and past some Acts concerning Ministers Lastly they consult about dissolving themselves to which the Rump party were very unwilling and therefore many of them intended to be absent when that business should be debated because they would not give their consent But the others smelling their design watched a convenient time and issuing out writs in the name of the Keepers of the Liberties c. for a full and free Parliament to convene on the 25th of April following saveing to the House of Lords their Rights notwithstanding the Commons in this Juncture had been necessitated to proceed without them They upon Friday the 16th of March 1659 when the greatest number of the Rumpers were present dissolve themselves by Act. Thus was an undenyable Period put to this Tragical long Parliament by their own Vote tho' it was legally ipso facto dissolved before by the Death of King Charles the 1st whose writs had summoned them together But before they dissolved themselves they settled a new Council of State to govern in the intervall of the Parliaments and abrogated the Oath of Abjuration and the â—ormer Council The chief of these were General George Monk General Mountague Mr. Annesly President the Lord Fairfax Sir William Waller Mr. Hollis Pierpoint Rossiter Saint-Johns Widdrington Sir Anthony Ashly-Cooper and others to the number of thirty in all who behaved themselves with much circumspection setting forth a Proclamation against all disturbers of the Peace either in Action or Speech and tendring an Engagement for peaceable demeanor to be subscribed by such as they suspected which Lambert refusing was committed to the Tower disarming the Phanaticks every where they purged the Army of Schismatical Officers and Soldiers taking care of the Garisons Overton a Fifth-Monarchy-Man was removed out of his Government of Hull and Collonel Charles Fairfax was placed in his Room Collonel Rich made some stir about St. Edmunds-bury but Collonel Rich. Ingoldsby quieted his Soldiers and seised him and thereupon was restored to that Regiment from whose Command the Wallingfordians had put him by when they degraded young Cromwell Thus ended the Arbitrary and Tyranical Usurpation of the Rumpers by the great providence of God and the good Genius of Englands means in raising up the Great and Renowned Monk to be a Saviour to his Nation and to reduce the Monarchy to its legal antient and happy state again and that the torrent of violence and Arbitrary Tyrany that had so variously over-run and spoiled the Land might be lost and sunk into the Earth whence it sprung and the Stream of Government bounded by Laws and ancient Customs might again run in its right Course and ancient Channel from whence it had been diverted And now I should conclude having fully finished my Draught or Picture of Arbitrary and Tyranical Government which I have taken from the Life being the true History and Resemblance of the Monster now so much feared and which no Man that is a lover of the Peace of this Nation and that hath his Sence and Reason can behold with out Horror and Indignation and resolve in himself tâ— suffer much rather than to run the hazard of raising up this Ghost to the raine of three Kingdoms and the Lives and Estates of so many persons as must be devoured for dayly food to maintain the Life of such a Monster the remembrance of which moved by the sight of this very Picture of it is enough to affright I shall therefore only as the last touches to this piece shew you as it were the last struggle or gasp for Life of the overthrown Monster and so finish my Design and that in few words Lambert whether by neglect or Treachery of his Keepers is not known escapes out of the Tower and soon after appears in Arms with a party of his Cashired Officers and Soldiers once more to embroil the Nation but he was proclaimed Traitor and the whole Nation beginning to hope for a setled Peace were unanimously bent to aid the General if need were against him He had chosen Edg-Hill near Keinton in Warwick-shire for the place of his Rendezvouz hopeing it would prove as Ominous to the Royal Interest as it had done before and in all probability there would have been a great Conflâ—ence of all sorts of Sectaries to him in a short space and he was not without hope that if the old Soldiers were sent against him many of them would turn to him but he was eagerly pursued by some parties of Horse and Foot and Collonel Charles Howard had almost overtaken him but it was Collonel Ingoldsby's good hap to light upon him near Daventry in Northampton-shire where Lambert was surprized with a strange Consternation and durst not engage tho he was nothing inferior in numbers to the others which his followers observing some of them went over to his pursuers others slunk away and himself taken by Colonel Ingoldsby the 22d of April 1660. and with Collonel Cobbet Major Creod and Captain Hazâ—erig son to Sir Arthur was sent up to London and two days after passing by Hide-Park he saw 20000 Horse and Foot of the City Regiments and Auxiliaries there Training with divers of the Nobility and Gentry of the Nation trailing Pikes voluntarily among them and the same day he was committed to the Tower This ended â—owards the setling of the Peace of the Nation His Excellency had wrought his Officers to declare they would with him acquiesce in the Resolves of the Parliament appointed to meet the 25th of April 1660. who accordingly met the Lords and Peers in the upper-house taking their places by virtue of their Birth-right who soon according to the whole Nations expectations and Prayers restored his Maâ—esty to his Right his Crown and Dignity the Nobility to their ancient Birthrights and Priviledges the People to their property freedom and liberties and the Laws to their ancient course and boundaries the three Kingdoms rejoycing and a long Peace quietness and tranquillity succeeding which yet is grateful to the memory of all Loyal and good Subjects therefore however of late our old Jealousies and fears are increased by our secret Adversaries yet let all people remember what hath past and by viewing this Picture of the most horrid and devouring Dragon called Arbitrary and Tyrannical Vsurpation let them abhor it and beware of falling under the same power and into the same snare by any specious or colourable Pretence whatsoever and continually pray that the Peace of the Nation may be continued with the Life of his most Gracious Majesty whom the King of Kings preserve both in the Throne and in the Hearts of his people Amen Vpon the late STORME and of the DEATH of his HIGNNESS ensuing the same by Mr. Waller WE must resign Heaven his great Soul do's claime In stormes as loud as His Immortall Fame His dying groanes his last Breath shakes our Isle And trees uncut fall for His Funerall Pile About his