in Your Power and as little at Your Service Denzil Holles At St. Mere Eglide in Normandy this 14th of February 1648. S. V. ERRATA PAge 15. line 22. read Cromwel P. 39. l. 22. r. written P. 43. l. 27. r. publick P. 89. l. 7. dele Comma L. 4. r. Many in P. 96. l. 15. f. the r. their P. 100 l. 18. l. as to say P. 161. l. 8. dele not MEMOIRS OF DENZIL Lord HOLLIS 1. THE wisest of Men saw it to be a great Evil that Servants should ride on Horses and Princes walk as Servants on the Earth An Evil now both seen and felt in our unhappy Kingdom The meanest of Men the basest and vilest of the Nation the lowest of the People have got the Power into their Hands trampled upon the Crown baffled and misused the Parliament violated the Laws destroyed or supprest the Nobility and Gentry of the Kingdom oppress'd the Liberties of the People in general broke in sunder all Bands and Tyes of Religion Conscience Duty Loyalty Faith common Honesty and good Manners cast off all fear of God and Man and now lord it over the Persons and Estates of all sorts and ranks of Men from the King on his Throne to the Beggar in his Cottage making their Will their Law their Power their Rule their hairbrain'd giddy phanatical humour and the setting up of a Babel of Confusion the end of all their Actions But how this misery is befallen us the Kingdom brought so low and so unworthily unhappily inconsiderately deliver'd over into such base and ignoble hands the Parliament abused betrayed and now become in show and in name the Instrument of their Tyranny but in truth it self made nothing and if the presence of the right Speaker be so essential to the being and acting of a Parliament and so necessary that Sir Edward Cook says in his Institutes the House cannot sit without him then is there clearly at this present no Parliament but an Assembly of Men acted and moved by the Art and Malice of some few sitting among them by the means of an Army which those few those Vipers of the Parliament that have eaten out the Bowels of their Parent and destroyed her raised that is abused the Parliament making them raise it under colour of necessity for the preservation of the Parliament and Kingdom when in truth it was out of a design to make themselves Masters of both that neither of them might ever enjoy Peace and Liberty more to blast our Hopes nip all the fair Blossoms of Reformation dash in sunder all our preparations and endeavours for the establishing of a happy Peace and so a glorious promising Morning became a Day of darkness a Day of treading down and perplexity this I say will be worth the enquiry and perhaps be no difficult thing to discover and make so plain that he who runs may read 2. Yet I would not be conceived to attribute so much of Wisdom and Foresight to these Men as to believe they had laid this whole Design with the several Circumstances and Steps of proceeding from the beginning which not the Devil himself was so politick and foreknowing as to have done But I am perswaded that they had it in their general Aim and laid it as a foundation for all their Superstructures to do as much mischief as they could make the Disorder as great the Change as universal as was possible and still to improve all opportunities and occasions ex re natâ putting on for more as they prevailed in any thing till at last even beyond what either they could hope or we could fear their Design was brought to this perfection as will appear by the sequel of this Discourse 3. When in the beginning of this Parliament in the Year 1642. after some progress in a Parliamentary way to the relieving of many of our Grievances and reforming many Abuses both in Church and State for which we were not sufficiently thankful it pleased God in his just Judgment for the punishment of our Sins to send a Spirit of Division between the King and the Parliament and things grew to that height as both of them appealed to the Sword to plead their Cause and decide their Quarrel the Members of Parliament who then engaged declared themselves to desire nothing but the settlement of the Kingdom in the honour and greatness of the King and in the happiness and safety of the People And whensoever that could be obtained to lay down the Sword and submit again to the King's Scepter of Peace more willingly than ever they resisted his Force and Power This I am sure was the ultimate end of many I may say of the chiefest of those who at that time appeared upon which principle they first moved and from which they never departed which made them at that time resolve to put their Lives into their hands and offer them a Sacrifice to the welfare and happiness of their Prince and Country I say Prince as well as Country tho he perhaps look'd on them as his greatest Enemies but they consider'd him as their Prince whom Nature Duty the Command of God and the Laws of Men obliged them to reverence and to love as the Head and Father of the People whose greatness consisted in his People's and his People 's in his and therefore neither could be great nor happy one without the other which made those faithful ones put them both in the same Ballance and rather adventure his displeasure by promoting the publick Cause than as they thought his ruin by deserting it 4. Whilst these Men acted in the simplicity of their Hearts there was another Generation of Men which like the frozen Snake that lay in their Bosoms seemed to desire but the same things with them and that the same should have contented them when it was nothing so but they had further Designs to destroy and cut off not a few to make the Land an Aceldama ruin the King and as many of the Nobility and Gentry as they could alter the Government have no order in the Church nor power in the State over them This was the Venom they harbour'd which at first they were not warm enough to put forth But it soon appeared by some evident Symtoms which discovered it to discerning Eyes though many were very long abused For as the Devil can transform himself into an Angel of Light so they pretended Zeal in Religion and to be publick Spirits as if none were so holy and self-denying as they and so insinuated themselves into the good Opinion of Men and being bold and forward got into all Imployments engrossed the whole managing of the War that is the directive part of it not the fighting whilst others who meant plainly and honestly went into their several Countries desirous to see the business soon at an end and either by shewing the Sword to have kept it in on both sides or else if God had otherwise determin'd that some Blood must be drawn
MEMOIRS OF DENZIL Lord HOLLES The Right Hon ble Denzel Baron Holles of Ifield Aetat 78. Anc. 1676. Ob. 1679. MEMOIRS OF DENZIL Lord HOLLES Baron of Ifield in Sussex From the Year 1641 to 1648. LONDON Printed for Tim. Goodwin at the Queen's Head against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet M. DC.XC.IX To His Grace JOHN Duke of Newcastle c. May it please your Grace WHEN the following Papers of the famous Lord Holles Your Great Uncle happen'd to fall into my Hands I could not long deliberat whether they deserv'd a public View and therefore intended to get them printed without any further Ceremony for the large share he had in the Transactions of those Times will as much engage others to read these Memoirs as the Defence he was oblig'd to make for himself are a sufficient Reason for his writing them But when I understood that Your Grace out of the Love You bear to virtuous Actions and Your Piety towards so near a Relation did order a stately Monument to be erected at Dorchester for this Illustrious Person I was of opinion that as well for that Reason as because in his Life-time he entertain'd an extraordinary Affection and Esteem for You Your Name should in like manner be inscrib'd on this Monument which he has left of Himself to Posterity The Justice of the thing and the Sincerity of my Intentions must be all my Apology to Your Grace for this Presumtion for the Public of whom You deserv'd so well and particularly in appearing early like Your Noble Ancestors for the Liberty of these Nations will acknowledg it an Obligation nor if any thing should chance to be amiss can I doubt but an easy Pardon will be granted to one who is tho unknown my Lord with so profound a Respect Your Grace's most humble Servant March 28. 1699. THE PUBLISHER TO THE READER SUch as really desire to know the naked Truth and propose for their chiefest aim the common good which are certainly the best tho not the greatest part of Mankind have ever exprest a desire in their Writings of seeing the Memoirs of all parties made public as the most effectual means of framing a true General History For in those places where nothing is licens'd to appear but what visibly tends to the advantage of one side there can be no sincere representation of Affairs the basest Cowards must pass for the bravest Heroes the worst of Villains for the greatest Saints the most Ignorant and Vicious for Men of Learning and Virtue and the Enemies of their Country for its Preservers and Friends Without consulting therefore the particular interest or reputation of any Faction but only the benefit of England in general these Memoirs of the Great Lord Holles are communicated to the World that by comparing them with those of Ludlow and such as appear'd before or will be publish'd hereafter relating to the same times they may afford mutual Light to each other and after distinguishing the personal resentments or privat biasses of every one of 'em the Truth wherein they are all found to agree tho drest by them in different Garbs may by som impartial and skilful hand be related with more candor clearness and uniformity What figure our Author made in the Parliament and in the Wars at home and abroad in his privat and public Capacities is generally known and needs not therefore be mention'd in this place The account he gives of himself in the following Papers is confirm'd by many living Witnesses as well as in the greatest part by other VVriters of the same Transactions But whether the vehemence of his Stile the barbarous Usage he receiv'd his concern for the Presbyterian Party and his Displeasure at the King's misfortunes to whom he was then an adherent and a friend have not guided his Pencil to draw the lines of Cromwel's Face too strong and the shadows too many I refer to the judgment of the disinterested Reader desiring him to allow all that is reasonably due to one in these or the like Circumstances This caution iustice has oblig'd me to insert For as to that tyrannical Usurper of the Supreme Administration who prov'd so ungrateful to the Commonwealth so treacherous to the King and so fatal toboth I think him bad enough painted in his own true Colours without standing in need of exaggerating Rhetoric to make him look more odious or deform'd I should write something here likewise with relation to General Fairfax but that the properest place for it seems to be in a Preface to his own MEMORIAL which is in good hands and it 's hop'd may be shortly expos'd to public view How far soever King Charles the First 's Enemies in England may look on themselves disoblig'd or any of his Friends neglected by my Lord Holles the Scots are surely beholding to him for in his long Panegyric on that Nation he has said more in their behalf than their own Historians have ever been able to offer But in this and other matters of the like nature we shall not anticipate the Readers Curiosity or Iudgment I shall therefore only acquaint him that tho this Piece be entitul'd Memorials from the History it contains yet in substance it is an Apology for that Party who took up Arms not to destroy the King or alter the Constitution but to restore the last and oblige the former to rule according to Law To the Unparallel'd Couple Mr. Oliver St. Iohn his Majesty's Sollicitor General and Mr. Oliver Cromwel the Parliament's Lieutenant General the two grand Designers of the Ruin of three Kingdoms GENTLEMEN AS You have been principal in ministring the matter of this Discourse and giving me the leisure of making it by banishing me from my Country and Business so is it reason I should particularly address it to You. You will find in it some representation of the grosser Lines of your Features those outward and notorious Enormities that make You remarkable and Your Pictures easie to be known which cannot be expected here so fully to the Life as I could wish He only can do that whose Eye and Hand have been with You in Your secret Counsels who has seen You at Your Meetings Your Sabbaths where You have laid by Your assumed Shapes with which You cozen'd the World and resumed Your own imparting each to other and both of You to Your fellow Witches the bottom of Your Designs the policy of Your Actings the turns of Your Contrivances all Your Falshoods Cozenings Villanies and Cruelties with Your full intentions to ruin the three Kingdoms All I will say to You is no more than what St. Peter said to Simon the Sorcerer Repent therefore of this Your wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thoughts of Your Hearts may be forgiven You. And if you have not Grace to pray for Your selves as it may be You have not I have the Charity to do it for You but not Faith enough to trust You. So I remain I thank God not
go into the West which they conceived would be an easie Task at that time to reduce the King's Party brought low and so not able to send any Forces into those parts for their relief and encouragement 24. This they knew would absolutely break my Lord of Essex who must harass his Army to follow a light and moving Body and if the King which was probable enough should chance to give him the slip and get from him into the West then was he ruin'd in his Reputation and liable to a Question and perhaps a further Prosecution It proved that his Majesty did get by them and passed by Sir William Waller's Quarters on the other side who as soon as he knew it marched after him and gave notice to my Lord of Essex thereof so as before he knew any thing Sir William Waller was got a days march before after the King Then was it impossible for him to overtake them and being so much nearer the West Sir William Waller engaged in the other Service he upon the Advice of his Council of War resolved to bend that way yet not to make such speed but that he should receive other Orders from our Governors above that he might comply with them Accordingly he gave that Account to the Parliament and Committee of the two Kingdoms with his desire of their Directions They were so mad to see themselves defeated of their Plot that they would not for many days return him any answer at all his disobedience was blown up and trumpeted about by them and their Agents Some of whom did not stick to say It were better my Lord of Essex and his whole Army were lost and ruined than the Parliament not obeyed and that by their consents he nor his Army should be look'd after or cared for more A Maxim they have forgotten now in the case of Sir Thomas Fairfax and his Army's not Disobedience but open Rebellion but they were as good as their words then and did most maliciously wilfully and treacherously as to the Parliaments Cause which they seemed to be zealous in suffer General and Army to be lost and the whole West left further out of the Parliaments reach than before 25. Sir Arthur Haslerig posted up to London breathing out nothing but ruin and destruction to the Earl of Essex spoke it out in the hearing of several persons That he would ruin him or be ruined himself His malice and violence was so great at the Committee of the two Kingdoms where he and his Party were prevalent that a report was thence brought down to the House of Commons by which Sir William Waller was taken off from following the King and by that means the King was left at liberty to bend his whole force for the West after my Lord of Essex which he presently did At last they left my Lord of Essex at liberty to proceed in that Western Expedition but with a resolution to let him perish He takes in Weymouth and some other Towns goes on as far as Cornwal whither the King's Forces follow him at the heels cut off all provision from him press upon him exceedingly and put him to very great streights He engaged in a Country inclosed with deep Ditches and strong Fences that he could neither break through nor march away but sends Letter upon Letter Messenger upon Messenger to the Parliament representing his Condition and how easie it was with a small force sent upon the back of the King's Army if but only a good Party of Horse to stop their Provisions and turn the Tables streighten them and free him than which certainly nothing had been more easie and would have saved the Kingdom a Mass of Treasure and thousands of good Mens lives which the continuance of the War after that time did cost 26. But our Masters did not desire then to see the War at an end they had not the Sword in those hands they would have it for to break the King's forces well knowing they must then have had a Peace and such a Peace as had carried with it an establishment of the King's Government a keeping up the Nobility and Gentry all things must have returned into their proper Channel and the security of the Parliament and Kingdom being provided for the Law of the Land must have taken place their Arbitrary Empire been at an end and their Design wholly defeated 27. Therefore my Lord of Essex must not be relieved but sacrificed to their Ambition the King's Army must be yet preserved to give them a colour to new model theirs and put the Power into the base hands of their Creatures which should keep the Kingdom in a perpetual Bondage and tho they ended the War with the King yet never made Peace but continued to grind the Faces and break the Backs of the People with Taxes and Free-Quarter to maintain an Army when no Enemy was left in a word they govern by the Sword the height of all Misery and Slavery that any Land can undergo 28. My Lord of Essex and his Army were by this means broken in Cornwal in the latter end of that Summer and the King seemed to gain a great Advantage recover a great deal of Strength but to nip that they soon provided Force sufficient it suiting with their Ends that his Majesty should seem strong but not be so Therefore the Soldiers of that Army which had lost their Arms in Cornwal are presently armed again and two other Armies joined to them the Earl of Manchester's and Sir W. W aller's who gave the King's Forces a ruffle at Dennington gaining some of the Works Yet when the King came with the remainder of his Strength they did not think it convenient to put it to the trial of a Day but suffered him to march away when it had been a most easie thing to have prevented it And even there in all likelyhood have made an end of the business which was that they feared and Sir Arthur Haslerig could come up to London and into the House of Commons all in beaten Buff cross girt with Sword and Pistols as if he had been killing his thousands when 't is more probable if there was any danger that he had been crying under a Hedg as he did at Cherrington Fight bellowing out Ah wo is me all is lost we are all undone insomuch that a great Officer a Scotch-man finding him in that tune wished him to go off the Field and not stand gudding there a Scotch term for crying to dishearten the Soldiers but in the House of Commons he feared nothing none so fierce and valiant without fear or wit and there like a great Soldier in that habit gave a Relation of what had pass'd highly extolling the gallantry and conduct of all the Commanders the valour of the Soldiers that no mortal Men could do more that the best Soldiers in the world could not have hinder'd the King's marching off and that it had been no wisdom to have adventur'd to fight
inconveniences 124. Upon this they forbore and staid I think a week or better expecting if the Army would send in a particular Charge against all or any of them which not doing but instead of that writing up a Letter to commend their Modesty they then petition'd the House that they would send to the Army to know what particulars they laid to their charge and prefix them some convenient time to do it in Which the House did giving them about a week And one would have thought a short day might have serv'd That accusing Members in such a manner with such a noise as if they had been so criminous that as Mr. Sollicitor said by his Beasts of prey which were not to have Law given them but be knockt in the head so they were not worthy of Justice nor of privilege of Parliament nor of common humanity much less to be us'd with some respect like Gentlemen who had so long and some of them serv'd their Country so often in Parliament and more faithfully than ever any of the Army party did or will do there or any where else But all Bonds of duty and civil society must be broken through to come at their destruction they must needs have known some notorious things by them which might readily be produc'd But it seems they were not so provided the particular matter of their Charge was yet to seek as their fellow Mr. Iohn Lawmind says they were then hunting out for Articles sending about for Witnesses to testifie any thing promise bribe threaten but all would not do several persons came to me informing how they had been sollicited to inform against me one Lewis told me they had been tampering with him one Westcomb acquainted me how one Pain had been sent for by Rushworth his Excellency's excellent Secretary to the same purpose who lodg'd him in his Chamber gave him an Angel the first time that he went thesecond time and this Westcomb with him and then had a Horse given him worth ten Pounds and the promise of some Place in the Army for which it is presum'd he did some acceptable Service It seems these Saints were put hard to it well the first day pass'd and no Charge came in they desir'd longer time and promis'd it should be ready by such a day and I think the day after it did come And if I be not very partial to my self as in this I believe I am not after all this travelling of the Mountains out comes ridiculus Mus. 125. I will not repeat all the particulars here they are in print and our answer to them which I hope satisfies all Men besides another answer we put into the House more upon the formality of a legal Plea which it seems satisfy'd them for they never proceeded further nor did the Army prosecute but the House order'd the Speaker to give us Passes according to our desires 126. I will but make this observation upon some of them That they and their Party acted those very things which they laid to our charge and what was false as to us was really true in them 127. One thing was holding a Correspondency with the King and his Party which of all Men they ought not to have objected doing what they did even at that very time for suppose it never so great a Crime it ill becomes the Devil to find fault with the Collier for being black they treat with his Majesty have some of his Servants present at their Councils of War to debate and prepare things frame proposals for settling the whole business of the Kingdom and if their own Writers Prophets of their own tell true capitulate for Honours and Preferments Cromwel to have a blew Ribbon be an Earl his Son to be of the Bed-Chamber to the Prince Ireton some great Officer in Ireland Now admit all true they said of us was it to be compar'd to this is it not a Decimo sexto to their Folio a Mole-hill to their Mountain And I desire it may be taken notice of that in all the Charge there is not a word of the Plot to fetch the King from Holmby bring him to London or put him at the head of the Army which they made the groundwork of all their Villanies pretending some of us in truth underhand and in their Pamphlets naming me to have had such an intention and that what they did was by way of prevention Is it likely this would have been omitted if there had been the least colour of truth for it but Truth was what they ever least look'd after in all their Speeches and Actions caring only to serve a turn gain an advantage by cozening the world and then cast about how to make it good by power or amuse Men with some new Cheat that the last might be forgotten 128. They accuse us of infringing and endeavouring to overthrow the Liberties and Rights of the Subject in arbitrary and oppressive ways and by indirect and corrupt practices to delay and obstruct Justice These are the words in their general Charge Now I appeal to all Men and even to their own Consciences who say this whether of the two they or their Party or we in the House of Commons upon all occasions were for violence oppression and ruin to destroy all that came before them sequester Estates impose great Fines imprison starve sometimes take away life make Men offenders for a word take all advantages wrest and strain up to the height of all their penal Ordinances and who they were that had the hand in making all those penal Ordinances so severe for Sequestrations so high for Compositions so insnaring and bloody for making new Treasons and little things to be capital Crimes that no Man almost was safe free from question and few or none question'd but sure to be destroy'd How many Ministers wre pull'd out of their Livings for very small faults how many Persons made Delinquents their Estates torn in pieces themselves their Wives and Children turn'd to beggery and ready to starve for no great offences at least that for which they did not deserve so severe a punishment What Committees were set up That of Haberdashers Hall to pill and poll Men put them to an Oath as ill as that ex officio to make them discover their Estates and expose themselves to their merciless carving out a fifth and twentieth part which was the undoing of many even fetching in some of the Members of the House to whom they had a displeasure and generally all Men who had crossd or oppos'd them in any thing that of Goldsmiths Hall to impose Fines to the ruin of many of the best Families of England that of Sequestrations where the very intention of the Houses was perverted that Committee being first propos'd and made only for great and notorious Offenders but afterwards came to be worse than any Spanish Inquisition few escaping that were ever question'd I dare say Serjeant Wild the Chairman and Mr. Nicklis the Lawyer and
paid Let any of them say so much I desire who ever shall chance to read this to pardon me this folly I do not mean for not taking the Money but seeming to boast of it I must again repeat the Apostle's words I am become a Fool in glorying but they have compel'd me It is true I had paid for a Fine impos'd in the King's Bench which I laid down in ready Money out of my Purse a thousand Marks This in the time of these troubles when my whole Estate was kept from me in the West that for three years or thereabouts I receiv'd thence not one Farthing was reimburs'd to me 137. Now I appeal to the world whether our accusers or we the poor eleven Members so decry'd so oppress'd were the more guilty who they were who had gotten cozen'd oppress'd were indeed the Traitors If he did not say as truly as he did wittily if they had not had more men than matter against us they had been the Traitors themselves which many of their own Disciples have upon the matter confess'd and publish'd saying they were to seek for matter only we were a Beam in their Eyes And their great Apostle Lilburn himself says the great aim was but to pull down those who stood in the way of their preferment 138. Here is our Crime I will ask pardon of God for my failings even in the performance of all these duties where I serv'd my Country best but not of the Parliament from whence I desire no favour Let them put upon me the severest disquisition either concerning those things then charg'd or the great Treason since committed of endeavouring to defend my self the Parliament the City from a rebellious unjust oppressing Army which against all Laws of God and Man came to force us for which I stand voted to be impeach'd of Treason and am outed the House of which I shall treat presently 139. But first I shall shew the Steps to it The Army now did all the Parliament was but a Cypher only cry'd Amen to what the Councils of War had determin'd They make themselves an absolute third Estate have Commissioners residing with them from the Parliament Agents from his Majesty and abuse both sufficiently as solemnly treated with as if no Subjects but a Body subordinate to neither vested with an Independent Authority claiming only from God and their Sword The whole business of the Kingdom is there now agitated and the engagement of the Army is the Standard by which all propositions must be measur'd If any thing be offer'd by the Parliament which they like not it is presently answer'd not to stand with their solemn Engagement Many meetings there were great consultations and debates upon certain proposals for settling of a Peace and securing the Rights and Liberties of the People 140. Notwithstanding this while these things are in agitation after all their affronting baffling forcing the Parliament marching up against it and the City contrary to their orders by which they were not to come nearer than within forty Miles of London they will have them own them for their Army undertake to provide for their maintenance and immediately send down a months Pay yet will not be subject to them in any thing All this is done Mr. Marshal the Minister being a principal Instrument for them who was still going and coming between Westminster and the head Quarters or at the Parliament doors solliciting the Members of both Houses perswading them by all manner of arguments sometimes assurances sometimes terrifyings to agree to those things which the Army desir'd and this not in order to the setting up of Presbytery in which he had formerly been so zealous for the Presbyters were not then Trump and he meant to whine therefore to put out them to take in better Cards for his turn Afterwards they send to repeal the Ordinance for the Militia of London which had been settled upon many and long debates to stand for one whole year and renew the former expir'd Ordinance for establishing the old Committee which was the year before 141. It is but ask and have that is presently done and truly I think it was a design of the Army merely to provoke the City engage them to do something express a dislike perhaps fly out and give them an occasion to offer some violence should they persist or if yield after a little ill favour'dly shewing their teeth then to put such things upon them so yoke them break their strength trample upon their Liberties and Privileges as they should not be able afterwards upon any occasion to raise them disturbance and make opposition to whatever they should set on foot tho never so grievous and displeasing to the whole Kingdom for they thought not themselves secure whilst the City stood unbroken 142. Their Plot took the City was very much mov'd at this sudden Act of the Houses in the altering their Militia without so much as giving them notice to hear what they could say in a point so nearly concerning them They look upon it as an Infringement of their Charter granted and confirm'd to them by so many Kings successively by which they were still to have the power of their own Militia as a shaking of the foundation of all their security for those vast sums of Money they had lent which depended only upon Ordinances and the easie and sudden repealing of this gave them cause to fear they might be serv'd so in the rest 143. Whereupon at their Common Council they agreed upon a Petition to the Houses informing them of the distempers in the City upon the change they had made and beseeching them to reestablish it as it was before which was presented by the Sheriffs some of the Aldermen and of the Members of the Common Council in a fair and submissive way But the Parliament durst do nothing without the leave of their Masters only give them good words and so hop'd to slide over the business Then some young Men Apprentices and others appear'd pressing hard who would not be satisfy'd till it was done which the Houses sticking at the young Men insisting drew a great concourse of people putting things into some heat so as at last they prevail'd and the Militia was again settled according to their desire upon which they went away returning to their homes only some of the younger and more unruly sort remain'd among whom some idle people and perhaps not well affected Soldiers and others and I have heard some of the Independents even belonging to the Army thrust themselves and put the multitude disorderly enough before into great distempers who then would make the Houses do this and the other thing vote the King 's coming to London the calling in of the eleven Members and I know not what else would not suffer the Parliament Men either of the one House or the other to stir till all was voted and pass'd which they desir'd keeping them there till I think nine of the clock
his Excellency all the Works from the Thames side to Islington Fort demolisht the eleven Members secur'd or given up and all the Reformados and Officers likewise who were ready to have fought for them This was as worthily by the Common Council yielded to their Ambassadors notably promoting it The eleven Members were not yet seiz'd nor deliver'd but as bad left to shift for themselves no care at all taken for their preservation tho the City had now this last time wholly embark'd in their trouble and engag'd them in their business petitioning the House of Commons to enjoin them to attend the Service of the House themselves not at all moving in or desiring it Nay they did not so much as provide for Major General Massey whom they had made their Commander in chief but like Isachar bow'd under the Burden betray'd themselves and all that had to do with them 159. Here was an end of the Parliament and in truth of the Câ—â—y all whose Glory is laid in the â—ust and as it was high before in reputation both at home and abroad so is it now become a hissing and reproach to all that see it or hear of it The next day Sir Thomas Fairfax sends to take possession and the day after that marches in state bringing with him those deserting Lords and Commons and the Earl of Manchester and Mr. Lenthal the two pretended Speakers not vouchsafing to look upon the Lord Mayor and Aldermen who were there with the Recorder provided with a Speech for his entertainment which he did not so well deserve as they did that scorn then put upon them 160. He goes strait to the Houses put those two Men in the Speakers places who had no more right to them than himself and has ever since continu'd them there by force and keeping out the true Speakers which the Lord Willoughby is to the Peers that House being under an adjournment and not sitting when the Intruder came in so not in a capacity to admit him and Mr. Pelham to the Commons who had been legally chosen when the House was free and under no force the other having deserted which is of all Crimes the greatest 161. So as without him it is no House but an Assembly of Men acting under the Army without lawful authority some of them by a combination and agreement with the Army but far the greater part by a terror and an awe from it and therefore to be look'd upon accordingly and questionless many of them continuing there out of a good intent like so many Hushais only to defeat the pernicious Counsels of those Achitophels who had design'd the destruction of David the ruin of honest Men and even the trouble and confusion of the whole Israel of God Church and State These are so far from deserving thereby either to become the object of blame or pardon as they merit exceedingly are worthy the praise both of present and future times but to be consider'd rather as faithful Patriots that act out of necessity in an extraordinary way stand in the Gap to keep off mischief than as Members of Parliament able or indeed qualify'd to exercise any parliamentary Power for the good of the Kingdom the House having been disturb'd and for the time suppress'd by a real Force not feign'd and imaginary as the other was and while this force continues not suffer'd to come together but as soon as it ceases will return of it self to be as it was before 162. For there is a difference between these two Cases one the Parliaments acting under a force remaining still to be a Parliament which dos not annual it nor the Acts it dos but makes them fit to be repeal'd yet standing good pro tempore 163. Many of our best Laws have been so made when Armies have been on foot and afterwards declar'd good in a free Parliament and what then done did appear to be inconvenient and unjust was by subsequent Parliaments repeal'd So is it fit that what was compel'd to be done by the Apprentices and others in that tumultuous way the Monday that the force was should be repeal'd as not fit to be continu'd And so all that has been done a great while under the power and force of the Army since it first rebel'd and gave Laws to the Parliament is as fit if not more to be hereafter repeal'd and questionless will if ever the Parliament come to be free again Nay even these pretenders do us that right as finding the proceedings of the Parliament after their desertion not sutable to their Ends but against them by an Ordinance to repeal and declare them null which otherwise had not been needful seeing they would fall of themselves being Crimes in their own nature as proceeding from an usurp'd Authority This is one case the other is when a force proceeds so far and so high as not to suffer a Parliament to be gives it such a wound as for the time it cannot act but must cease even as a wounded Body that lies in a Trance without sense or motion But when that force is over and the Spirits recollected it returns to it self to do the functions of life move and act as formerly It is but like a Parenthesis in a Sentence and remains one and the same as if the Parenthesis were not at all 164. But to return where I left This General a setter up and puller down of Parliaments has a Chair set him in either House where first in the Lords House then in the Commons those pretended Speakers make Speeches to him giving him thanks for all approving his Declaration of the Reasons of his coming to London desiring him to go on in taking care for the security of the Kingdom and to appoint a Guard for the Parliament Than which there was never any thing more base but Mr. Lenthal exceeded being both base and prophane applying a Higgaior Selah to this last act of his Excellency who as wisely took it Then that the prophaness might be compleat and God mock'd as well as Men abus'd they appoint the Thursday after for a day of Thanksgiving and fitted it with Preachers Mr. Marshal and Mr. Nye Simeon and Levi where they say Marshal outwent all that had gone before him and his Brother Nye was a modest Presbyterian in comparison of him but that Apostate went beyond Ela making this deliverance a greater one than the Gunpowder Treason as I have been credibly inform'd by those that heard him And some few days after Sir Thomas Fairfax and the whole Army marcht in triumph with Lawrel in their Hats as Conquerors through the subdu'd City of London to shew it was at his mercy which was an airy vanity I confess above my understanding and might have rais'd a spirit of Indignation not so easily to have been laid But a higher insolency of an Army compos'd of so mean people and a more patient humble submission and bearing of a great and populous City but a little before so
Army and other places against these proceedings act their parts so to the life as the Life of a Man must go to make up the disguise an Agitator whom at a Council of War with two more they condemned was shot to death so as the King could not but have a great confidence in these Men to believe that they were really for his preservation At last Cromwel writes a Letter to Whalley who commands the Guards about his Majesty's Person to be shewn his Majesty and other informations are likewise brought him to make him believe that if he escap'd not presently he will be murder'd and he is advis'd to go to the Isle of Wight where they had beforehand provided him a Jaylor Colonel Hammond one for whom they said they could answer that there his Majesty would be in safety and they able to serve him 181. Here they have the King safe enough and now the Army is presently quiet the Agitators as obedient as Lambs and Councils of War are set up again to act as formerly And Sir Thomas Fairfax with their advice sets out a Remonstrance to give satisfaction to the Army which he concludes with a Protestation to adhere to conduct live and die with the Army in the prosecution of some things there express'd as namely To obtain a present provision for constant Pay stating of Accounts security for Arrears with an effectual and speedy course to raise Monies a period to be set to this Parliament provision for future Parliaments the certainty of their meeting sitting and ending the freedom and equality of Elections and other things which he had the impudence and boldness to publish in print 182. And now instead of the Proposals they intend to send the four Bills to his Majesty to sign which done they would treat with him By these Bills the Army was to be establish'd which was the English of that for the Militia and by another of them they would make sure that the countenance of the Parliament and the acting of the Army should never be separated which was the intent of that for power of adjourning So as if at any time the just sense of Indignation of so many Indignities and Injuries offer'd by the Army to all ranks of Men Magistrates both supreme and subordinate people of all conditions and degrees should stir them up to some endeavours of casting off this iron Yoke their Party in Parliament with their Speaker Mr. Lenthal's help should presently be ready to adjourn to the Army then damn and destroy all the world by colour of Law and power of the Sword so King and Kingdom must be subject to a perpetual slavery by Act of Parliament 183. The Scots were laid aside in this Address to his Majesty contrary to the Treaty and contrary to the Covenant By the Treaty there ought to have been no application for Peace but with their advice and consent here the Scots did not only not advise nor consent but protest against it By the Covenant all were bound to keep united firm and close one to another not to suffer themselves to be divided here these Men do divide from the whole Kingdom of Scotland make a rent and breach between the Kingdoms in settling of the Peace the very end both of Treaty and Covenant 184. And for that subterfuge that it is against the privilege of Parliament that any out of the Houses should interpose or have any thing to do with Bills it is a mere cavil Fig-leaves which cover not their nakedness for that would have been no more against Privilege than was the whole transaction of business in carrying on of the War and managing other great concernments of Parliament and Kingdom wherein the Scots all along were admitted to participate in Counsel and Interest 185. The King refusing to sign these Bills Hammond by Sir Thomas Fairfax's single order claps him up a Prisoner removes all his Servants It seems by this time they had forgot their Remonstrance of the 23 d of Iune where they say it is against their principles to imprison the King and that there can be no Peace without due consideration of his Majesty's Rights But then was then and now is now It was then necessary for the good of their Affairs to seem gracious desirous of Peace and of restoring the King Now they appear in their own colours their nature having no restraint nay Sir Thomas Fairfax's Command is so absolute and sacred as Captain Burley was hang'd for endeavouring to oppose it there being at that time no other pretence for his Majesty's Imprisonment but because Sir Thomas Fairfax had commanded it it is true that upon his signification to the Houses of what he had done it was approv'd of and confirm'd 186. All this while a rigorous hand is continu'd against the impeach'd Lords who were under the Black Rod the Gentlemen of the House of Commons the Lord Mayor and Aldermen in the Tower who had been kept Prisoners so many Months upon a general Impeachment and no particular Charge against them It was often endeavour'd in the House to have pass'd the Articles which were brought in against the Lord Willoughby to be a leading Case to the rest Where I cannot pass by that I find he is charg'd with Treason for levying War against the King and this done by the same persons that imprison the King and had hang'd Burley for levying War for him One may see they will find matter to hang on all hands Many debates were had on this business and at last it was resolv'd to lay the Articles aside 187. The seven Lords still press'd for their Trial the House of Peers as often sent down to the House of Commons to give them notice of it and no Charge coming up they set them at liberty The Common Council likewise petition'd for the liberty of their Members in the Tower which the Army took so heinously as that and the laying aside of the Charge against the Lord Willoughby together with a Vote which had pass'd for disbanding the supernumerary Forces produce a thundring Remonstrance of December the 7 th casting in the Parliaments teeth their delays and neglects That the Army had with patience waited four Months upon them That finding such obstructions in matters of supply and such unworthy requital they apprehended God upbraids their care to preserve a people given up to their own destruction That they could to speak Amen with the power and advantages God had put into their hands for so is their expression have put the Army and other Forces engag'd with it into such a posture as to have assur'd themselves of Pay and made their opposers have follow'd them with offers of satisfaction That now all business seems to be wrapt up in one bare Vote That all supernumery Forces should be disbanded which Vote they say they cannot imagine to be absolute and soveraign They offer as their final advice that 40000 l. more per mensem be added to the 60000 l.
faults for their own advantage For if the King would have agreed to such Conditions as they propos'd to him and such a Settlement as had been in order to their Ends to have continu'd an Omnipotency in them and ruin'd the rest of the Kingdom these things had been all dispens'd with sacrific'd to their greatness and the advancement of their Dagon then nothing but Hosannah's in their mouths no Peace could be lasting without due consideration of his Rights far was it from them to have a thought of imprisoning him he had been their good King and they his and our gracious Masters But now that his Majesty had discover'd their aims and would not contribute to them he is an Anathema guilty of such and so many crimes as not to be found scarce in any one person and now these Men of Belial can say he shall not reign over us For the things themselves I doubt not but there are those who knowing the Arcana Imperii will give satisfaction to the world by a faithful and clear manifestation of his Majesty's Actions and Counsels relating to them I who stand below and at distance as I cannot have the knowledg of such high things so will not presume to meddle with them only upon the general say that methinks in reason those things cannot be for to destroy the Protestants in France whose preservation must needs be as a contentment to the Soul of a Protestant King so a strength and advantage to his Interest were strange State-policy And as for the Rebellion of Ireland to cut off so great a Limb from himself pluck off one of the three Flowers of his Crown is methinks to be Felo de se. To speak nothing of that concerning King Iames an act so monstrous as not to be suspected in a Heathen not to be found in heathenish Rome much less in a Christian truly I cannot as a rational Man bring my judgment to admit of a belief of those things and then certainly Charity obliges to hope better believe better of any Man much more of a King and of our own King whom Solomon tells us we are not to curse no not in thought much less which Iob blames tell him and tell the world he is wicked and ungodly least of all when there is not a clear an undeniable proof And even their expressions in their Declaration are not positive as if the subject matter were only allegatum not at all probatum and rather set forth ad captandum populum to gain if possible an approbation of the vulgar of what they had done than that they conceiv'd it would find credit with rational and judicious Men or that themselves thought it to be a truth For the other things as Knighthood Ship-money c. any thing by which the Subject has been oppress'd and his Purse pick'd they of all Men should not find fault whose little Finger has been heavier than the Loins of Monarchy What was all that in comparison of free Quarter Excise and even the 100000 l. a Month which they say they must have for the maintenance of the Army those were but Flea-bitings to these At the worst one may say we were then chastis'd with Whips but now with Scorpions 197. And so I hope I have made good what I undertook in the beginning having made it appear that England is become by the actings of these Men that Monster whose shape is perverted the head standing where the feet and the feet where the head should be mean Men mounted aloft and all that is or should be great Lacqueying it after them The authority of the Magistrate suppress'd and the will of particular persons made the Law of the Kingdom Justice obstructed and Violence in the room of it King and Parliament trodden under foot and an Army insulting over the Persons and Estates of the Subject so as we may take up the Psalmist's Complaint That the very Foundations are destroy'd and what then can the Righteous do 198. I will conclude all with this short Epiphonema If such a complicated Treason as this which they have design'd and carry'd on all along consisting of so many several parts by betraying all the Trusts Men can be capable of as Subjects to their King Servants to their Masters an Army to them that rais'd and paid them English Men to their Country and which is more Christians to their God bound up yet in a more particular obligation by Covenant Vows and Protestations all these Relations thrown aside nothing of Duty Conscience or Morality to stand in the way that could either be remov'd or overcome eluded or broken through If I say a Treason rais'd up to this height by so many several steps of Hypocrisie Treachery Perfidiousness Injustice Violence and Cruelty can be made good and the Actors prosper blessing themselves in their success sacrificing to their Nets and Gins by which they have snar'd and destroy'd all their opposers And on the other side if no blessing must be on the good endeavours of those who only had propos'd to themselves Bonum publicum had nothing in particular in their Eye sought nothing for themselves but to find their safety compris'd and contain'd in the happiness and welfare of the King Parliament and Kingdom like the honest Passengers that seek their preservation in saving the Ship they sail in as I can speak it for a truth take the God of Heaven for Witness and defie all the Men on Earth to disprove it that I for my part and I hope the same of those other persons of Honour Members of both Houses with whom I have cooperated and now partake in their sufferings never had other end Let the Earl of Manchester speak who has been present at and privy to all our Consultations and is now join'd and engag'd with the Army and those other Men who carry on this pernicious design where besides the universal desolation of the whole Kingdom there is a particularity against me for my ruin and destruction and therefore I doubt not but he will say all he knows Let Mr. Reynolds of the House of Commons who went a long time and a great way with us but is since fallen off and become throughly theirs the same I say of Colonel Harvy who was long enough in our Ears and in our Bosoms to bottom all our thoughts know all our desires If these or any other even that malicious and treacherous Lord Savil can say that at any time upon any occasion I propos'd any thing that look'd towards a self End the driving of any particular Interest setting up of any Party but merely to prevent these fearful Precipices into which the Kingdom is fallen by the art and practices of these Enemies of Peace and to attain such a settlement as all honest moderate Men might have found in it both security and satisfaction If they can let them speak and if they prove one tittle I will put my Mouth in the dust I will bear my
Joyce Cornet seizes the King at Holmby with the Commissioners that attended him 97. Order'd to seize the Magazine at Oxford 98. Ireland not to be reliev'd while the Army was kept up here 72. Relief voted them by the Parliament 74. About 2000 willing to go the rest hinder it all they can 76. Such as were willing to relieve it voted Deserters by the Army 115. who require they should be discharg'd tho order'd thither by the Parliament 121. Ireton keeps from the Army to give them opportunity to do their Mischief 84. Lenthal Speaker of the Commons his good Places c. 133. Forsakes the House and joins with the Army 146 147. Is put into his Place again by Fairfax 164. Lesley his Service at Marstonmoor 15. Lewis Sir William Governour of Portsmouth his fair Accounts c. 138 139 175. Lilburn against the eleven Members 141. London for the Parliament and against the Army c. 106. Resent the Parliament's altering their Militia by the Influence of the Army 143 c. Alarm'd by the Army 160. Lords several forsake the House and join with the Army 146 147. The House chuse a new Speaker on the other's leaving ' em 155. Outdo the Commons in Honour of Sir Tho. Fairfax 169. Their Vote concerning what was acted by the Houses when forsaken by their Speakers disagreed to by the Commons 170. Seven of 'em impeach'd of High Treason by the Army 173 191. Are set at liberty 192. M. MAnchester Earl his Charge against Cromwel 18 19 28. Laid aside by the Army 30. Is Speaker of the House of Lords whom he forsakes and joins the Army 146 147. Is put into his Place again by Sir Tho. Fairfax 164. Marshal Chaplain to Skippon too instrumental in the Evils of this Kingdom 107 143. Preaches before the Parliament and extols Sir Tho. Fairfax's Expedition c. 168. Marstonmoor Fight had not been obtain'd but for the Scots 15. Massey Captain stops an Express sending to Scotland committed by the Lords for it but set at liberty 55 56. Massey Major General his Brigade cashier'd tho it had done the greatest Service in the West 70. Is one of the Committee at Derby-house 75. Is made Lieutenant General of the Horse in Ireland 82. Forsaken by the City 163. Maynard Sir John one of the eleven Members tho nothing against him 115. Expel'd the House and sent to the Tower 173. Members of Parliament what their Design in taking up Arms. 4. Are misrepresented by the Army 38. Some of 'em discover the Designs of the Army against the Scots 53. Mildmay Sir Henry has Letters sent him against the Scots 52. Model of the Army c. 30. N. NEwcastle Propositions sent to the King there gave occasion to the Army Party to review 'em all c. 57. Nicklis Mr. the Lawyer concern'd in the Committee of Sequestrations 129. Noel Mr. sent with a Message from the Parliament to the Army 162. North of England suffers by the Scots Army thro the Practice of the Army Party here 49 50. Nye Mr. preaches a Thanksgiving-Sermon before the Commons on Sir Tho. Fairfax's coming to London 168. O. OXford Magazine there kept by the Army from the Parliament 98. P. PAlmer Mr. Herbert influenc'd by Marshal 160. Parliament vote the disbanding of the Army 74. Send for some Officers that had promoted the Petition against it 79. Their Clemency to 'em ill requited 80. Settle the Arrears of the Army 81. Make Sir Tho. Fairfax General of all their Forces ibid. Order the Officers down to the Army but to their own Ruin 90. Too favourable to the Army 92. Appoint a Rendevouz for the Foot in order to disband 93. About to take a severe Course with the Army Party but prevented by Skippon 104. Forc'd to comply with the Army 107 111 116. Resolve to defend themselves and the City against the Army 109 159. Vote the King to Richmond 117 158. Made a mere Cypher by the Army 142 c. Indeavour to prevent Extremities 162. Their Case stated as to the Force put upon 'em and being deserted by their Speaker 165 167. Appoint a Committee to inquire concerning that Force 169. Disagree with the Lords about what the Houses had done when forsaken by their Speakers 170. Afterwards forc'd to comply 173. Constrain'd to act against it self by refusing to make any further Address to the King c. 200. Pelham Mr. Henry chose Speaker of the Commons in the room of Lenthal 156. Pennington Alderman of London favour'd and rewarded by the Army Party 132 133. Petitions from an Army to their Superiors when requir'd to do Service always deem'd a Mutiny 77. Pointz Colonel his Care and Vigilance to prevent the Mischiefs design'd by the Army Party in the North for which he was put out of command 61. Taken by Violence out of his House by the Agitators ibid. Inhumanly treated by ' em 62. Pride Colonel his Equivocation at the Bar of the House about petitioning against disbanding 80. Prideaux Mr. of the Army Party made himself Postmaster of England 133. R. RAbble threaten the House of Commons to cause 'em to pass several Votes 145. Rainsborough Colonel his Regiment refuses to march for Jersey which he connives at yet afterwards made Vice-Admiral 95 96. Riot in Yorkshire 48. Rushworth Secretary to Sir Tho. Fairfax his acting against the eleven Members 126. His Letter to the Speaker against appearing at the House 147. Signs Proposals to the Parliament concerning a new Form of Government 176. S. SAint John Mr. Oliver his Character his underhand Letter to the Committee of Hertfordshire c. 32. His violent and bloody Nature 33. Breaks his Protestation as to Cromwel's being dispens'd with from the self-denying Ordinance 36. His Places of Profit c. 133. Salloway Mr. one of the Committee at Derby-house 75. Savil Lord an Impostor 38. Writes Letters to several Great Men against the Parliament 39. Say Lord rewarded by the Army Party 136. Scawen Mr. brings a sad account of the temper of the Army 108. His Pension 137. Concern'd in conveying away a great Sum order'd for the Army 161. Scots propos'd to be call'd in but obstructed by the Malignants their Character 11 13. After call'd in 12. Made use of only for a pinch 13. Impos'd on by the Malignants 14. Discover the good Intentions of the honest Party in England 20 21. Are represented as having a design to make good their footing here 44. Their Army ill requited 46 65. Are vindicated as to raising of Money in the North on Free Quarter 48. Their Pay kept back 51. Their Ministers of State suspected by the Army Party here to hold Correspondences with the Queen c. 51 52. Their Papers in the House of Commons here not answer'd 53. Their Piety Moderation c. 59. Had no ground to disband their Army unless the English did 63 64. Have a great Sum voted 'em tho with great opposition 66. Deliver up the King to the English 68. Whereby they gain Reputation 69. Are laid aside in the Army's Address to the King at the Isle of Wight 189. Self-denying Ordinance 30. Sequestrations c. 8. Skippon Major General made Commander in chief in Ireland 82. Instrumental in betraying the Parliament c. 88. Excuses the Agitators 90. Prevents the Parliament's proceeding against the Army Party and how 104 105. Refuses to obey the Parliament's Order but on certain Conditions 161 162. Stapleton Sir Philip laid aside by the Army 30. His moderate Pay c. 139. Swifen Mr. imploy'd by the Parliament to the Army 162. T. TIchburn a Linen-draper made Constable of the Tower by Sir Tho. Fairfax 174. V. VANE Sir Henry one of the Parliament's Commissioners with the Army 108. Uxbridg Treaty there 57. W. WAller Sir William order'd from Oxford into the West 22. Laid aside by the Army 30. Is one of the Committee at Derby-house 75. Warmworth Mr. his insolent and ridiculous Speech concerning the Adjutators 89. Warwick Earl one of the Committee at Derby-house 75. One of the Commissioners for disbanding the Army 94. Wentworth Sir Peter gets an Estate for half the value 135. West Colonel discharg'd by Fairfax from being Constable of the Tower 174. Weston Earl of Portland's Son his Reward from the Army 137. White Colonel his Places in the Army c. 135. Wild Serjeant Chairman in the Committee of Sequestrations 129. Gets an Ordinance for the Lady Thornborough's Money is a great Enemy to the eleven Members 134. Willoughby of Parham Lord chose Speaker by the Lords 155. Charg'd with Treason by the Army 191. Wollaston Sir John conveys a great Sum away which was order'd for the Army 161. Wright Robert made use of to give Intelligence of the Scots c. 52. FINIS LEX Parliamentaria or a Treatise of the Law and Custom of the Parliaments of England by G. P. Esq with an Appendix of a Case in Parliament between Sir Francis Goodwin and Sir Iohn Fortescue for the Knights Place for the County of Bucks 1 Iac. 1. Reflections upon what the World commonly calls good Luck and ill Luck with regard to Lotteries and of the good use which may be made of them Written in French by Monsieur Le Clerc and done into English Printed for Tim. Goodwiâ—