I can The Reasons for which in conscience and duty which I ow first unto God and afterwards to my people for the preservation of their lives their liberties and their fortunes I believe I cannot answer untill I am satisfied of your legality of it All proceeding against any man whatsoever President Sir I must interrupt you which I would not do but that which you do agreeth not with the proceeding of any Tribunal of Justice you enter into a controversie and dispute against the Authority of this Court before which you appeare a prisoner and are accused as a great Delinquent If you will take upon you to controvert the Authority of this Court we cannot give way unto it neither will any tribunall of Justice admit it you ought to submit unto the Court and to give an exact and direct Answer whether you will answer to your charge or not and what is the answer that you make King Sir I know not the formalities of the law I know the law and reason and although I am no professed Lawyer I know the law as well as any Gentleman in England and I am more eager for the Liberties of the people of England than you are and if I should believe any man without he gives me Reasons what he saith It would be abused but I say unto you that the Reasons which you give is no wayes satisfactory L. President Sir I must interrupt you for it cannot be permitted to you in this manner to proceed you spake of law and reason it is fit that there should be both law and reason and they are both against you Sir the Vote of the Commons of England Assembled in Parliament is the reason of the Kingdome and they ordained this law according to which you ought to Reign Sir It is not lawfull for you dispute against our Authority This again hath been told you by the Court. Sir Notice will be taken that you contemn the Court and this contempt of yours will be recorded King I know not how a King can be interpreted to be a Delinquent but by any law that I ever heard all men whether Delinquent or what you will may lawfully make objections against their Professe this is that which I require and I again desire that my Reasons may be heard If you deny this you deny Reason L. President Sir you have objected something to the Court I will declare unto you their opinion Sir it is not lawfull for you or any man else to dispute against this subject It is Decreed you ought not to dispute against the jurisdiction of this Tribunall If you shall yet do it I must intimate unto you that they are above objections They set here by Authority of the Commons of England and all your Predecessors and you your selfe are bound to be accountable to them King I sdeny that shew me one example L. President Sir you ought not to interrupt but attend whilst the Court speakes unto you This subject is not to be disputed by you neither will the Court permit that you should object against the jurisdiction of it they have considered of their jurisdiction and do approve it King Sir I say that the Commons of England were never a Court of judicature and I would fain know how they came to be made so now President Sir it is not permitted to you to proceed in those discourses Then the Secretary of the Court did read as followeth Charles Stuard King of England you have been accused in the Name of the people of England of High Treason and other grievous Crimes The Court hath determined that you shal answer to your charge King I will answer as soon as ever I shall understand by what authority you do these things President If this be all that you will speake Gentlemen you who brought the prisonner hither take him back again King I demand that I may be permitted to exhibite my Reasons why I answer not unto the Charge and give me time to perform this President Sir it is not for prisoners to demand King Prisoners Sir I am no ordinary prisoner President The Court hath considered of their own jurisdiction and they have also confirmed their jurisdiction If you will not answer we will give order that your Default be recorded King You have not yet heard my Reasons President Your Reasons are not to be heard against the Supreme Jurisdiction King Shew me that jurisdiction in the world where Reason is not to be heard President Sir we shew it you here the Commons of England and the next time you are brought hither you shall understand further of the pleasure of the Court and peradventure their finall sentence King Shew me where the House of Commons was ever a Court of Judicature in that kind President Serjeant take away the Prisoner King Sir Remember that the King is not suffered to declare his Reasons for the Libertie and Immunities of his subjects President Sir That Freedome of speech is not permitted to you how great a friend you have been to the laws and the Liberties of the people let England and all the world judge King Sir by your leave I have alwayes loved the Liberty the Immunities Laws of the subjects If I have defended myself by Arms I have not taken them up against the people but for them President You must obey the Decree of the Court you give no answer to the Charge against you King Well Sir And so was he brought to the House of Sir Robert Cotton and the Court was adjourned to the Painted Chamber untill Wednesday following at twelve of the clock at what hour they intended to adjourn again to Westminster-hal where all whom it doth concern are commanded to be present The third dayes proceedings against the late King at the High Court of Justice Tuesday Jan. 23. 1648. THe Cryer according to the Custome having with his Oyes commanded silence and attention the King being sate Mr. Atturney Genrall turning to the L. President spake in these words May it please your Lordship This is now the third time that by the great grace and favour of this High Court the Prisoner hath been brought to the Bar and yet by reason of his refusall to put in his Answer there is yet no issue joyned in the cause My Lord I did at the first exhibit a Charge against him containing the highest practices of Treason that were ever wrought on the Theater of England That a King of England trusted to keep the Lawes of England and who had taken an Oath so to do had tribute paid him for that end should be guilty of so wicked a design as to subvert our Laws and introduce an arbitrary and tyrannical Government and set up his standard of warre against his Parliament and his people and I did humbly pray in the behalf of the people of England that he might speedily be required to make an answer to his charge But my Lord instead of making an answer he
did then dispute the Authority of this Tribunal and your Lordship being pleased to give him a further day to put in his answer which was yesterday I did move againe that he might be required to put in a direct and positive answer to his charge either by denying or confessing it but he was then pleased to debate the Jurisdiction of the Court although he was commanded to give a positive answer My Lord by reason of this great delay of Justice I shall humbly move for speedy judgement against him I may presse your Lordship upon the known Rules of the Laws of the Land that if a prisoner shall stand in contempt and not plead guilty or not guilty to the charge given against him it by an implicite confession ought to be taken pro confesso as I may instance in divers who have deserved more favor then the prisoner at the Bar hath done But I shall presse upon the whole fact The House of Commons the Supream Authority of the Kingdome have declared my Lord that it is notorious The matter of the charge is true and clear as chrystall or as the Sun that shineth at Noon day in which my Lord President if your Lordship and the Court be not satisfied I have severall witnesses on the behalf of the people of England to produce and therefore I do humbly pray and not so much I as the innocent blood that hath been shed the cry whereof is great for Justice and Judgement that speedy Judgement may be pronounced against the prisoner at the Bar. President Sir you have heard what hath been moved by Mr. Sollicitor on the behalfe of the Kingdome against you Sir you may well remember and if you do not the Court cannot forget the delayes which you have made You have been pleased to propound some Questions and amply you have had your resolution on them you have been often told that the Court did affirm their own jurisdiction that it was not for you nor any other man to dispute the Jurisdiction of the highest Authority of England from which there is no appeal and touching which there must be no dispute yet you did deport your self in that manner that you gave no obedience nor did acknowledge any Authority either in them or the Supream Court of Parliament that constituted this high Court of Justice Sir the Court gives you to understand that they are very sensible of these demurres and that being thus authorised by the High Court of England they ought not to be trifled withall especially seeing if they please they may take advantage of these delayes and according to the rules of Justice proceed and pronounce Judgement against you Neverthelesse they are so favourable as to give direction to me and therefore on their behalfe I do require you to make a positive answer to this charge that hath been read against you Justice knows no respect of persons You are to give your positive and finall Answer in plain English whether guilty or not guilty of the Treason laid to your charge The King having meditated a little did answer in these words When I was here yesterday I desired to speak for the Liberties of the people of England I desire yet to know whether without interruption I may speak freely or not President Sir on the like Question you had yesterday the resolution of this Court you were told that having a charge of so high a nature against you your work was to acknowledge the Jurisdiction of the Court and to answer the charge after you have done that you shall be heard at large to make what defence you can for your self but Sir the Court commands me to make known unto you that you are not permited to run into any other discourses untill such time that you have returned a positive Answer to the matter that is charged upon you King I value not the charge a rush It is the Liberty of the people of England that I stand for For me who am your King and should be an example to all the Courts in England to uphold Justice and maintain the old Laws for me I say to acknowledge a new Court that I never heard of before is a thing that I knowe not how to do You did speak very well on the first day I came hither concerning the obligations that I have laid upon me by God for the maintenance of the Liberties of my people I do acknowledge that I do ow the same obligations to God and my people to defend as much as in me lies the ancient Laws of the Kingdome therefore untill I be satisfied that it is not against the fundamental Laws of the Kingdome I can put in no particulars to the Charge If you will give me time I will shew you my Reasons wherefore I cannot do it and Here being interrupted he said By your favour you ought not to interrupt me How I came here I do not know There is no law to make your King your prisoners I was in a Treaty upon the publick faith of the Kingdome that was the known two Houses of Parliament that was the Representative of the Kingdome and when I had almost made an end of the Treaties I was hurried away and brought thither and therefore I would President Sir you must know the pleasure of the Court. King By your favour Sir President Nay Sir by your favour you may not be permitted to run into these discourses you appear here as a Delinquent you have not acknowledged the Authority of the Court the Court once more doth command you to give your positive Answer M Broughton Do your Duty King Duty Sir M. Broughton reads Charls Stuart King of England you are accused in the behalfe 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 finall answer either by way of confession or by deniall of the Charge King Sir I say againe unto you If thereby I may give satisfaction to the people of England of the uprightnes of my proceedings not by way of answer but to satisfie them that I have done nothing against that trust that hath been committed to me I would do it but to acknowledge a new Court against their priviledges to alter the Fundamentall Laws of the Kingdome you must excuse me if I shall refuse to do it President Sir This is the third time that you have publiquely disowned this Court and put an affront upon it How far you have preserved the priviledges of the People your actions have spoke And truly Sir If mens intentions can be known by their actions you have written your intentions in bloody Characters throughout the whole Kingdome But Sir you are to understand the pleasure of the Court Clerk Record the default And Gentlemen you that are a guard to the prisoner take him back again King I will onely adde this one word If it were onely my own particular
into your heart that you had as effectually endeavoured and studied the peace of the Kingdome as in words you seem to pretend but as the other day it was represented to you that actions must expound intentions Your actions have been clean contrary and truly Sir it doth appear very plainly to the Court that you have gone upon very erroneous principles This Kingdom hath felt it to their smart and it will be no comfort to you to think of it for Sir you have been heard to let fall such language as if you had not been subject to the Law or that the Law had not been your Superiour The Court is very sensible of it I hope so are all the understanding people of England That the Law is your Superiour you ought to have ruled according to the law you ought to have done so and your pretence hath been that you have done so But Sir the question is who shall be the expositors of the Law whether you and your party out of the Courts of Justice shall take upon you to expound the Law Or whether the Courts of Justice shall be the expounders themselves Nay this Sovereign and high Court of Justice the Parliament of England who may well be obliged to be the highest expounders of the Law since they are the Sole makers of it Sir for you to set your selfe with your single judgement or for those who adhere unto you to set themselves against the highest Court of Justice there is no Law for it Sir as the Law is your superior so truly there is something that is Superiour to the Law which is the Parent or Author of the Law and that is the people of England For as they are those who at first as other Countries have done did chuse unto themselves this form of Government that Justice might be administred and the peace preserved so they gave Laws unto their Governors according to which they were to govern and if those Laws should have proved inconvenient or prejudicial to the publick they had power in them reserved to themselves to alter as they should finde cause It is very true what some of your side have alleadged Rex non habet parem in regno This Court will affirm the same in some sense that whilest King you have not your Peer for you are major singulis but they will aver again that you are minor universis and the same Author tels you that in exhibitione juris you have no power but they are quasi minimus This we know to be Law Rex haebt superiorem Deum legem etiam Curiam and so sayes the same Author and he makes bold to proceed further Debent ei fraenum ponere they ought to bridle him We know very well the stories of old we cannot be ignorant of those Wars that were called the Barons Wars when the Noblity of the Land did stand out for the Liberty and the property of the Subject and would not suffer the Kings that did invade their Liberties to play the Tryants but did call them to an account for it and did fraenum ponere But Sir If the Nobility of the Land do forbear to do their duty now and are not so mindfull of their own Honour and the Kingdomes good as the Barons of England of old have been certainly the Commons of England will not be unmindefull of what is requisite for their preservation and their safety Justitiae fruendi causa Reges constituti sunt By this we learn that the end of having Kings or Governours is for their enjoying of Justice that is the end Now Sir If the King will go contrary to that end or if any Governour will go contrary to the end of his government he must understand that he is but an Officer in trust and that he ought to discharge that trust and order is to be taken for the animadversion and punishment of such an offending Governour Sir This is not a Law of yesterday since the time of the division betwixt you and the Parliament but it is a Law of old And we know very well both the Authors and the Authorities that acquaint us what the Law was in that point on the election of Kings when they took their Oath to be true unto the people and if they did not observe it there were those remedies instituted which are called Parliaments The Parliaments were they that were to adjudge the very words of the Authors the plainness and wrongs done by the King and Queen or by their Children such wrongs eespecially when the people could have no where else a remedy Sir this is the Case of the people of Eugland they could not have their remedy else where but in Parliament Sir Parliaments were instituted for that intent it was their main end that the grievances of the people might be redressed and truly if the Kings of England had been rightly mindefull of themselves they were never more in Majestie or State than in the time of the Parliament but how forgetfull some have been Histories have informed us and we our selves have a miserable a lamentable and a sad experence of it Sir by the old Laws of England I speake these things the rather to you because you were pleased to affirme the other day that you had as much knowledge in the Law as most Gentlemen of England It is very well Sir and truly Sir it is very sit for the Gentlemen of England to understand the Laws under which they must live and by which they must be governed And then Sir the Scripture sayes they that know their Ma-Masters will and do it not you know what follows the Law is your Master the acts of Parliament the Parliaments were anciently to be kept twice in the year as we find in our old Author that the Subject upon any occasion might have a remedie and a redress for his grievance Afterwards by severall Acts of Parliament in the dayes of your predecessor Edward the third they were to be but once a year What the Intermission of Parliaments in your times hath produced is very well known and the sad consequences of it as also what in the interim instead of Parliaments there hath been by you by a high and arbitrary hand introduced upon the people But when God by his Providence had so far brought it about that you could no longer decline the calling of a Parliament a Parliament was called where it may appear what your ends were against your ancient and Native Kingdom of Scotl but this Parliament of Engl. not serving your turn against them you were pleased to dissolve it Not long after another great necessitie occasioned the calling of this Parliament and what your designes and indeavours all along have been for the crushing and confounding of it hath been most notorious to the whole Kingdom And truly Sir in that you did strike at all it had been a sure way to have brought about that which this Charge doth lay upon you
your intention to subvert the fundemental Laws of the Land for the great Bulwarks of the peoples Liberty is the Parliament of England and to subvert and root up that which your aim hath been to do would certainly at one blow have confounded the Liberties and the properties of England Truly Sir It makes me call to minde I cannot forbeare to express it for Sir we must deal plainly with you according to the merits of your Cause for so is our commission It makes me I say to call to minde what I have read of a great Romane Emperor a great Roman tyrant may I call him Caligula by name who wished that the people of Rome had but one Neck that at one blow he might cut it off Your proceedings have been something like to this the people of England have been are no where else to be represented but in Parliament and could you have but confounded that you had at one blow cut off the neck of England But God hath reserved better things for us and hath been pleased to breake your Forces and to overthrow your designes and to bring your person in to custody that you might be answerable unto Justice Sir we know very well that it is a question which hath been much pressed by your side By what Presidents we shall proceed Truly Sir for Presidents I shall not at this present make any long discourse on that subject howsoever I shall acquaint them that it is no new thing to cite Presidents almost out of all Nations where the people when power hath been in their hands have not sticked to call their Kings to an account and where a change of Government hath ensued upon the occasion of the Tyranny and misgovernment of those that have been placed over the people I will not waste time to mention France or Spain or the Empire of Germany or any other Countrey Volumnes may be written of it But truey Sir that President of the Kingdom of Arragon hath by some of us been thought upon The Justice of Arragon is as a man tanquam in medio positus it is placed between the people of that Countrey and the King of Spain so that if wrong be done by the King of Arragon the Justice of Arragon hath power to reform that wrong and he is acknowledged the Kings Superiour and bring the grand prisoner of the Priviledges and Liberties of the people he hath prosecuted against the Kings for their misgovernment Sir What the Tribunes were heretofore to Rome and what the Ephori were to the State of Lacedemon we sufficiently know they were as the Parliament of England to the English State and though Rome seemed to have lost her Liberty when once the Emperours were constituted yet you shall find some exemplary Acts of Justice even done by the Senate of Rome on the great Tyrant of his time Nero who was by them condemned and adjudged unto death But why Sir should I make mention of these Forreign Histories and Examples unto you If we shall look but over the Tweed we shall finde Examples enough in your Native Kingdom of Scotland If we look on your first King Forgusius he was an elective King he died and left two Sons both in their minority The elder brother afterwards giving small hopes to the people that he would govern them well so because he endeavoured to have supplanted his Uncle who was chosen by the people to govern them in his minority he was rejected by the people for it and the younger Brother was chosen c. Sir I will not take upon me to express what your Histories do at large declare you know very well that you are the hundred and nineth King of Scotland to mention all the Kings which the people of that Kingdome according to their power and Priviledge have made bold to deal withall either to banish imprison or put to death would be too long a story for this time and place Reges say your own Authors we created Kings at first Leges c. we imposed Laws upon them and as they were chosen by the suffrages of the people at the first so upon the same occasion by the same suffrages they may be taken down again and of this I may be bold to say that no Kingdom in the World hath yielded a more plentifull experience than your Native Kingdom of Scotland on the deposition and the punishment of their transgressing Kings I need not go far for an Example your Grand-mother was set aside and your Father an Infant Crown'd This State hath done the like in England The Parliament and people of England have made bold to call their King to an account therein frequent Examples of it in the Saxons time the time before the Conquest and since the Conquest there have not wanted some Presidents King Edward the second King Richard the second were so dealt with by the Parliament and were both deposed and deprived and truly Sir whosoever shall look into their stories shall not finde the Articles that are charged upon them to come near to the height and the Capitalnesse of the crimes that are laid to your charge nothing near Sir you were pleased the other day to alledge your descent and I did not contradict it but take all together if you go higher than the Conquest you shall find that for almost a thousand years these thinge have been and if you come down since the Conquest you are the four and twentieth King from William called the Conquerour and you shall find one half of them to come meerly from the State and not meerly upon the point of Descent This were easie to be instanced The time must not be lost that way I shall only represent what a grave and learned Judge said in his time who was well known unto you the words are since printed for posterity That although there were such a thing as a Descent many times yet the Kings of England ever held the greatest assurance of their Titles when it was declared by Parliament And Sir your Oath and the manner of your Coronation doth plainly shew that the Kings of England although it 's true by the Law the next person in bloud is designed yet if there were a just cause to refuse him the people of England might do it For there is a Contract and a bargain made betwixt the King and his people and your Oath is taken and certainly Sir the Bond is reciprocall for as you are Leige Lord so are they Leige Subjects and we know very well that Legantis est duplex the one is a Bond of perfection that is due from the Soveraign the other is a Bond of Subjection which is due from the Subject for if this Bond be once broken farewell Soveraignty â—ubjectio trahit c. These things may not be denyed for I speak it the rather and I pray God it may work upon your heart that you may be sensible of your miscarriages for whether you have been as you
most humbly bowed his generious Neck to Go to be cut off by the Vizarded Executioner which was sudainly done at one blow Thus fell King Charles the I. and thus all Britan with him His Majesties Reasons against the pretended Jurisdiction of the High Court of Justice which he hath in tended to have given there on Munday Jan. 26. 1649. Faithfully transcribed from the original coppy of the King SInce I have already made my Protestation not onely against the illegality of this pretended Court but that no power on earth can justly call me who am your King into question as a Delinquent I would no longer have opened my mouth on this Argument but have referred my self to those things which I then spoke if this onely concerned my own particular But the duty which I ow to God to preserve the true liberty of my people doth not permit me at this time I should be silent for how can any free born Subject of England call his life or any thing he doth possess his own if power without law can daily make new and abrogate the old and Fundamentall Laws of this Land which I judge to be the present case Wherefore when I was brought hither I expected that you would have studied to satisfie me in those Fundamentals which do hinder me from puting in my Answer to the pretended charge but since I do observe that nothing which I can alledge can perswade you to it although negatives are not so naturally proved as affirmatives yet I have thought good to declear unto you the Reasons for which I am confident you are not in a capacity to judge me nor the vilest man in England for without showing my Reasons I will not as you be so unreasonable importunate as to exact either belief or obedience from my Subjects Here was I restrained and not suffered to speak any more of Reasons there is no just Processe against any man which deriveth not its authority either from the Law of God or from the municipall Laws of the Land Now I am most sure that the Processe at this day made against me cannot be confirmed by the law of God for on the contrary the necessity of obedience is cleerely confirmed and streightly commanded in the old and new Testament which if it be denyed I am prepared presently to prove it and as for the question now in agitation it is said there Where the word of a King is there is power and who can say unto him what doest thou Eccles 8. v. 4. Then as to the Laws of the land I am as confident that no learned Lawyer will affirm that any charge can be brought against the King since they all go forth under his name and it is one of their axioms that the King cannot do any injury Moreover the law on which you do ground your processe is either old or new if it be old shew that law unto me if it be new tell me what Authority established by the Fundamentall laws of this land did give it birth and when but how the House of Commons can erect a Tribunall of Justice which was never one it self as all Lawyers will confesse with me I leave it to God and to the world to judge and it will seeme most strange to any who ever have heard of the laws of England how they can pretend to make laws without either the King or the House of Peers Neverthelesse it be admited but not granted that a Commission from the people of England is able to confirm your pretended power yet I see nothing that you can show for it for I am confident that you never asked that question of the 10th man in the Kingdome in this method you do a most apparent injury even to the poorest ploughman if you ask not his consent neither can you pretend any coluor to this your pretended Commission if you have not the concurring voyces of at least the greatest part of this Nation of every degree and quality which you are so far from obtaining that I am confident you never so much as sought it You see then that I do not onely speake for my own Right as I am your King but also for the true liberty of all my subjects which confisteth not in dividing the power of Government but in living under such laws and such a Government as may grant them the best security of their lives and the propriety of their goods In this I ought not to be forgetfull neither do I forget the priviledges of both Houses of Parliament which these proceedings do not onely violate but give an occasion of the greatest breaking of the publick faith and such I believe as the like was never heard of before with which I will not at all charge both Houses for the pretended crime which they impose upon me are far before the Treaty at Newport in which when I assented to and did conclude as much as possibly lay in my power and did justly expect the assent of both Houses I was suddenly taken from thence and carried a way as a prisoner and against my will I was hurried hither and since I came to this Court I cannot with all my Indeavours defend the ancient laws and liberties of this Kingdome together with my just priviledges and as much as I can possiblely discern the upper House which is the House of Lords is totally excluded And as for the House of Commons it is to much known that the greater part of them are either imprisoned or affrighted from fitting so that if I had no other Cause this was sufficient enough to make me Protest against the authority of your pretended Tribunall Besides all these things the peace of the Kingdome is not the least part of my cares and what hope can there be of establishing it as long as power reigneth without the Rule of the law changing the whole frame of the Government under which this Kingdome hath flourished these many ages neither will I speak what is likely to follow if these unlawfull proceedings shall yet continue against me for I believe the Commons of England will give you no thankes for this change especially when they shall call into their mindes how happily they heretofore have lived in the Reigns of Queen Elizabeth and of the King my Father and in my own Reign before the beginnings of these unhappy tumults and they will have a just cause to doubt if they shall be so happy in any new Government In that time it will most evidently appeare that I onely took up Armes to defend the Fundamentall Lawes of this kingdome against those who opposed my power and totally would have subverted the antient Government Having so briefly declared my Reasons to you for which I could nor submit to your pretended Authority without violation of the Trust which God hath committed to me for the safety and liberty of my people I expect from you either clear Reasons to convince my Judgment by demonstrating to me
Robes of Christs Righteousnesse here which will bring me to the enjoyment of his glorious Robes anon Then he kneeled down and kissed the block and said thus I commit my soul to God my Creatour and Redeemer Look on me O Lord at my last gasping Here my prayer and the prayers of all good people I thank thee O God for all thy dispensation towards me Then kneeling down he prayed most devoutly as followeth O Eternal Almighty and most mercifull God the Righteous Judge of all the world look down in mercy on me a miserable sinner O blessed Jesus Redeemer of Mankind which takest away the sinnes of the world let thy perfect manner of obedience be presented to thy Heavenly Father for me Let thy precious death and bloud be the Ransome and satisfaction of my many and hainous transgressions Thou that sittest at the right hand of God make intercession for me O holy and blessed Spirit which art the comforter fill my heart with thy consolation O holy blessed and glorious Trinity be mercifull to me confirm my faith in the promises of the Gospel revive and quicken my hope and expectation of joyes prepared for true and faithfull servants Let the infinite Love of God my Saviour make my love to him stedfast sincere and constant O Lord consider my condition accept my tears asswage my grief give me comfort and confidence in thee impute not unto me my former sinnes but most mercifull Father receive me into thy favour for the merits of Christ Jesus Many and grievous are my sinnes for I have sinned many times against the light of knowledge against remorse of conscience against the motions and opportunities of grace But accept I beseech thee the sacrifice of a broken and contrite heart in and for the perfect sacrifice oblation and satisfaction of thy Son Jesus Christ O Lord receive my soul after it is delivered from the burthen of the flesh into perfect joy in the sight and fruition of thee And at the generall resurrection grant that my body may be endowed with immortality and received with my soul into glory I praise thee O God I acknowledge thee to be the Lord. O Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world have mercy on me Thou that sittest at the right hand of God hear my prayer O Lord Jesus Christ God and Man Mediatour betwixt God and Man I have sinned as a Man be thou mercifull to me as a God O holy and blessed Spirit help my infirmities with those sighs and groans which I cannot expresse Then he desired to see the Axe and kissed it saying I am like to have a sharp passage of it but my Saviour hath sweetned it unto me Then he said if I would have been so unworthy as others have been I suppose I might by a lie have saved my life which I scorn to purchase at such a rate I defie such temptations and them that gave them me Glory be to God on high On Earth peace Good will towards Men. And the Lord have mercy upon my poor soul Amen So laying his Neck upon the block after some private Ejaculations he gave the Heads-man a sign with his hand who at one blow severed his head from his body The Speech of that piously resolved Hugh Grove of Chisenbury in the parish of Enford and County of Wilts Esquire beheaded the 16 day of May. 1655. in the Castle at Exon Good people I Never was guilty of much Rhetorick nor ever loved long Speeches in all my life and therefore you cannot expect either of them from me now at my death All that I shall desire of you besides your hearty prayers for my soul is That you will bear me witness I die a true sonne of the Church of England as it was established by King Edward the sixth Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles the first of ever blessed memory That I die a Loyall Subject to King Charles the second my undoubted Soveraigne and a lover of the good old Laws of the Land the just Priviledges of Parliaments and Rights and Liberties of the People for the re-establishing of all which I doe under take this engagement and for which I am ready to lay down my life God forgive the bloudy minded Jury and those that procured them God forgive Captain Crook for denying his Articles so unworthily God forgive Mr. Dove and all other persons swearing so maliciously and falsely against me God forgive all my enemies I heartily forgive them God blesse the King and all that love him turn the hearts of all that hate him God blesse you all and be mercifull to you and to my soul Amen And so meekly laying his neck to the block and giving a signe his head at one blow and a draw of the axe was severed from his bodie FINIS * Meaning the Earle of Strafford * Pointing at Doctor Juxon * Turning to some Gentlemen who took his Speech in short writing * Pointing at Dr. Juxon * Pointiâ—â— at Dr. Juâ—â—on * Witnesse one Benner and Stroud who in open Court confessed to be guilty of all they proved against me yet Mr Attorney gave the Jury directions to find them not guilty Hobart folio 120. Dact. Bonames case 8 part of Cooks reports * Nota bene Mr Sebastine Isack although he seemed very sollicitous for Colonel Penruddock in his life since his death hath been very unworthy to his memory contrary to his promise to the said Colonel in his life and hath done contrary to the will of the dead the trust reposed in him the principle of honour and much unbecoming a Gent. * Note when this letter was writ Colonel Penruddock did not know other then that he was to die the same day
The Oglio of Traytors Including the Illegal Tryall of his late MAIESTY With a Catalogue of their names that sat as Judges and consented to the Judgment With his MAJESTIES Reasons against their usurped power and his late speech To which is now added the severall depositions of the pretended Witnesses as it is Printed in the French Coppy With the whole proceedings against Colonel J. Penruddock of Compton in Wilts and his speech before he dyed As also the speech of that resolved Gentleman Mr. Hugh Grove of Chissenbury Esquire who was beheaded the same day not before Printed London Printed by T. M. for William Shears at the Bible in Bedford street The First Dayes Proceeding of the High Court of Justice c. THe Triall and the Execution of the last King of England being still as much the wonder as the discourse of Christendome I shall endeavour to represent it to you with the exactest faithfullnesse that can possibly be desired and although others have gone before me on the same subject by the benifit of time I doubt not but that I shall exceed them by the advantage of truth In the Supream Tribunall of Justice sitting at Whitehall in Westminster Serjeant Bradshaw being President and about seventy other persons elected to be his Judges being present the Cryer of the Court having proclaimed his O yes to invite the people to attention silence was commanded and the Ordinance of the Commans in Parliament in reference to the Examination of the King was read and the Court was summoned all the Members thereof â—â—â—sing as they were called The King came into the Court his head covered Serjeant Dendy being remarkable by the Authority of his Mace did usher him in Colonel Hatcher and about thirty Officers and Gentlemen did attend him as his Guard The Court being sat the Lord President Bradshaw speak thus unto him Charles Stuart King of England the Commons of England assembled in Parliament being touched with the sense of the Calamities which have happned to this Nation and of the innocent bloud spilt of which you are accused to be the Author have both according to their office which they ow to God this Nation and themselves according to the power fundamental faith intrusted with them by the people Constituted this Supream Court of Justice before which you are now brought to hear your Charge on which this Court will proceed Mr. Crook the Solliciter Generall Sir In the Name of the Commons of England and of all the people thereof I do charge Charles Stuart here present as guilty of Treason and other great defaults and in the name of the Commons of England I require that his charge may be read unto him The King Stay alittle L. President Sir the Court hath given order that the Charge shall be read If you have any thing afterwards to plead for your self you may be heard Hereupon the Charge was read THat the said Charles Stuart being admitted King of England and therein trusted with a limmitted Power to govern by and according to the Laws of the Land and not otherwise And by his trust Oath and Office being obliged to use the Power committed to him For the good and benefit of the People and for the preservation of Kights and Libirâ—ies yet neverthelesse out of a wicked Designe to erect and uphold in himselfe and unlimited and Tyrannical power to rule according to his Will and to overthrow the Rights and liberties of the people Yea to take away and make void the foundations thereof and all the redress and remedy of misgovernment which by the fundamental constitutions of this Kingdome were reserved on the peoples behalfe in the right and power of frequent and successive Parliaments or nationall meetings in Councel he the said Charles Stuart for accomplishment of such his designes and for the protecting of himself and his adherents in his and their wicked practises to the same ends hath traterously and maliciously leavied war against the present Parliament and the people therein represented Particularly upon or about the thirtieth day of June in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred forty and two at Beverly in the County of York and upon or about the 30. day of July in the year aforesaid in the County of the City of York and upon or about the 24. day of August in the same year at the County of the town of Nottingham when and were he set up his Standard of war And also on or about the twenty third â—ay of October in the same year at Edghill and Kenton field in the County of Warwick and upon or aboue the thirtieth day of November in thet same year at Brainchford in the County of Midalesex And upon or about the thirtieth day of August in the year of our Lord One thousand six hundred forty and three at Cavesham bridge neer Reading in the County of Berks and upon or about the thirtieth day of October in the year last mentioned at or neer the City of Gloster and upon or about the thirtieth day of November in the year last mentioned at Newbury in the County of Berks And upon or about the one thirtieth day of July in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred forty and four at Cropredybridge in the County of Oxon And upon or about the thirtieth day of September in the year last mentioned at Boamin and other places near adjacent in the County of Cornwall And upon or about the thirtieth day of November in the year last mentioned at Newbery aforesaid and upon or about the eighth day of June in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred forty and five at the Town of Leicester And also upon the fourteenth day of the same month in the same year at Naseby field in the County of Norhampton At which severall times and places or most of them and at many other places in the Land at severall other times within the year afore mentioned And in the year of our Lord One thousand six hundred forty and six he the said Charles Stuart hath caused and procured many thousands of the Free-people of the nation to be slain and by Divisions parties and insurrections within this land by invasions from Forragine parts endeavoured and procured by him and by many other evill wayes and meanes He the said Charles Stuart hath not onely maintained carried on the said War both by land and sea during the year before mentioned but also hath renewed or caused to be renewed the said war against the Parliament and good people of this Nation in this present year One thousand six hundred fourty and eight in the Counties of Kent Essex Surry Sussex Middlesex and many other Counties and places in England and Wales and also by sea and particularly he the said Charles Stuart hath for that purpose given Commission to his Son the Prince and others whereby besides multitudes of other persons many such as were by the Parliament intrusted
their consideration how to proceed against you In the mean time they who brought you hither shall return you back again The Court desireth to be satisfied whether this be all the Answer that you will give them or not King I desire that you would resolve me and all the world in this one particular Give me leave to acquaint you that it is a thing of no small importance which you go about I am sworn to keep the peace according to the duty which I ow to God and to my Land and I will here perform it to the last breath of my Body you shall therefore do well first to satisfie God and afterwards the Land by what Authority you do this If you do it by an usurped Authority you cannot defend it God who sitteth in the Heavens will call you and all those who have conferred this power on you to give him an account of it Satisfie me in this and I shall answer you for otherwise I should betray the Faith committed to me and the liberties of my people Wherefore consider of it and I shall be willing to answer you For I do profess it is as great a sin to resist a lawfull Authority as to submit unto a Tyrannicall or any other unlawfull authority wherefore resolve me in this particular and you shall receive my Answer L. President Bradshaw The Court expecteth that you should give them a final Answer and will adjourn untill Munday next If you cannot satisfie your self although we tell you our Authority our Authority will satisfie our selves And it is according to the Authority of God and and the Kingdome and the Peace of which you speak shall be preserved in the Administration of Justice and that is our present work King I give you this for my Answer you have not shewn me any lawfull Authority which may satisfie any reasonable man L. President Bradshaw It is only your apprehension we are fully satisfied who are your Judges King It is not my apprehension nor yours which ought to determine this L. President Bradshaw The Court hath heard you and disposed of you accordingly as their discretions have thought expedient The Court adjourneth to the Painted Chamber untill Munday at ten of the clock in the morning and from thence hither Something that was ominous ought not to be passed by in silence when the Charge was read against the King the silver head of his staff did full off which he much did wonder at and observing no man so officious to assist him he stooping towards the ground did take it up himself As the King returned looking on the Court he said I fear not thee meaning the Sword As he came down the staires the people who were in the Hall cryed out some of them God save the King but the greater part Justice Justice The second dayes proceeding against the King January 22 c. THe Cryer having thrice pronounced his Oyes and silence commanded after that the Judges were called and every one did particulary answer to his Name Silence was again commanded under pain of imprisonment and the Captain of the Guards was ordered to apprehended any that should endeavour to make a tumult At the commanding of the King into the Court there was a great shout and the Court commanded the Captain of the Guards to apprehend and imprison those who should make either a noise or tumult The Court being sat the Sollicitor turning to the President said May it Please your Lordship my Lord President In the former Court on Saturday in the Name of the Commons of England I exhibited and offered to this Tribunal the charg of high Treasons and other grievous crimes against the Prisoner with which I did charge him In the Name of the People of England and his charge was read and his Answer demanded My Lord It pleased him at that time tâ— return no answer at all but instead of answering he questioned the Authority of the High Court My most humble motion to this High Court in the Name of the people of the Kingdome of England is that the prisoner may be compelled to give a positive answer either by way of Confession or Negation which if he shal refuse that the subject of his Charge may be taken for granted the Court proceed acording to iustice L. President Sir you may remember that on the last convention of this Court the cause was expounded to you for which you were brought hither and you heard the charge against you read it being a charge of High Treason and other grievous crimes against the Kingdom of England you heard likewise that it was required in the Name of the people that you should answer to your charge that there should be a proceeding thereon as should be agreable unto Justice you were then pleased to move some scruples concerning the authority of this Court and you desired to be satisfied in your knowledge by what authority you were brought hither you severall times did propound your questions and it was often answered to you that it was by authority of the Commons of England assembled in Parliament who did iudge it requisite to call you to an account for the great and greivous crimes of which you are accused After that the Court did take into their serious consideration those things which you objected and they are fully satisfied in their authority and do conceive it requisite that you should admit it they therefore require that you give a positive and a particular Answer to the charge exhibited against you they do expect that you should either confesse or deny it If you shall deny it it will be proved in the behalfe of the Kingdome the whole world doth approve of their Authority So that the Kingdome is satisfied and you ought thereby to be satisfied your self you ought not therefore to waste time but to give your positive answer King It is true that when I was last here I moved that question and indeed if if it where onely my businesse in particular I should have satisfied my selfe with that protestation I then interposed against the lawfulnesse of this Court and that a King cannot be judged by any superiour jurisdiction on earth but my on interests are not only involved in it but the liberties also of the people of England and pretend what you will I doe indeavor more for their liberties than any whatsoever For if Power without laws can make laws change the Fundamentall laws of the Kingdome I know not what subject in England can be secure of his life or of any thing which he doth call his own Wherefore when I came hither I expected particular reasons that I might understand by what law and what Authority you would proceed against me I should then perceive what most especially I have to say unto you for the affirmative is to be proved which seldome the Negative is capable of but because I cannot perswade you thus I will give you my Reason as briefly as
ought to be a Protector of England or a destroyer of England let all England judge or all the world that hath beheld it and though Sir you have it by inheritance in the way that is spoken of yet it cannot be denyed but your Office is an Office of Trust and indeed an Office of the highest Trust that can be lodged in any single person For as you were the grand Administrator of Justice and others were but as your Delegates to see it executed through your Dominions If your great Office were to do Justice and preserve your people from wrong if instead of executing Justice you will be the grand and publick disturber of the peace surely this is contrary to your Office and your Trust Now Sir if it be an Office of Inheritance as you speak of your Title by descent let all men understand that great Offices are seizable and forfeitable as if you had it but for a year or for your life It will therefore much concern you to take into your serious consideration your great miscarriages in this nature Truly Sir I shall not in this place undertake to give you the particulars of the many miscarriages of your Reign whatsoever they have been they are notoriously known It had been happy for the Kingdome and for your self also if they had not been so much known and so much felt as they are every where complained on and reported Sir that we are now upon by the command of the highest Court hath been and is to bring you to your Triall and to judge you for these great offences of yours Sir the Charge hath called you Tyrant a Traytor a Murtherer and a publike Enemy to the Common-wealth Sir it had been well if these terms might rightly and justly have been omitted nay if any one of them all King Ha! President Truly we have been told Rex est qui bene regit Tyrannus qui populum opprimit and if that be the definition of a Tyrant then see if you come short of it in your Actions and whether not the highest Tyrant by that way of arbitrary Government which you sought to introduce and were putting upon the people Examine with your self if that were not as high an act of Tyranny as any of your predecessours were guilty of yea many degrees beyond it Sir the Term Traytor cannot be spared we shall easily conclude that it doth enforce and denote a breach of Trust and it must be supposed to be done by a superior and therefore as the people of England might have incurred that term if they had been truly guilty of it as to the definition of the Law so on the other side when you did break you Trust to the Kingdom you did break your Trust to your superior For the Kingdom is that for which you were trusted And therefore when you are called to an account for this breach of trust you are called to account by your superior Minimus Majorem in judicium vocat And Sir the people of England cannot be so wanting to themselves whom God hath dealt miraculously and gloriously for they having both power and their great enemy in their hand but they must proceed to Justice to themselves and to you For Sir the Court could heartily desire that you would lay your hand upon your heart and consider what you have done amiss and that you would endeavour to make your peace with God Truly Sir These are two high Crimes Tyranny and Treason There is a third if those had not been and that is Murder which is laid to your charge also All the bloody murders that have been committed since the Division twixt you and your people must be laid to your charge Sir It is a hainous and a crying sin and truly Sir If any man will ask us what punishment is due unto a murtherer let Gods Law let mans Law speak I will presume you are so well read in the holy Scripture as that you know God himself hath said concerning the shedding of mans blood Gen. 9. and Numb 35. will tell you what the punishment is and this Court in the behalf of the Kingdome are sensible of that innocent blood that hath been shed and the Land indeed stands still defiled with that blood and as the Text hath it It can no way be cleansed but by the shedding of the blood of him who shed that blood Sir We know no dispensation from this blood in the Commandment Thou shalt do no Murther we do not know but that it extends to Kings as well as to the meanest peasants the meanest of the people the Command is universal Sir Gods Law forbids it mans Law forbids it nor do we know that there is any manner of exception not even in mans Laws for the punishment of Murther in you T is true that in the Case of Kings every private hand is not to put forth its self to this work for their reformation or punishment but the people represented having power in their hands were there but one willfull Act of murder by you committed have power to convent you and to punish you for it The weight Sir then lying upon you in all these respects that have been spoken for your Tyranny Treason Breach of trust and the murders that have been committed surely it would drive you into a sad consideration concerning your eternall estate I know it cannot be acceptable to you to heare any such things as these mentioned from this Court for so do we call our selves and justifie our selves to be a Court and a High Court of Justice authorized by the highest and solemnest Court of the Kingdome as hath been often already said And although you have indeavoured what lay in you to discourt us yet we do take knowledge of our selves to be such a Court as can administer justice to you as wee are bound in duty to it Sir all I shall say before the reading of the Sentence is but this The Court doth heartily desire that you will seriously consider of those Evills that you stand guilty of You said well the other day you wished us to have God before our eyes Truly Sir I hope all of us have so that God whom we acknowledge to be King of Kings and Lord of Lords that God with whom there is no respect of persons that God who is the avenger of Innocent blood that God have we before our eyes that God who bestowes a Curse upon them who is in the case of guilty malefactors that deserve death do withhold their hands from shedding of blood Sir that God we have before our eyes and were it not that the Conscience of our duty hath called us into this place and this imployment you should have had no appearance of a Court here But Sir we must preferre our respect unto God and to the Kingdom above any respects whatsoever and although at this present many of us if not all of us are severely threatned by some of your party what
County of Nottingham HAs deposed upon Oath that in the summer of 1642. he painted by command of my Lord â—eâ—mant the great Standard of War that was planted upon the high Tower of the Castle of Nottingham and that he often saw the King thereabout at the same time that his Standard was erected and displayed Edward Robert of Bishops Castle in the County of Salop. BEing also examined upon his Oath has deposed that he saw the King in Nottingham whilest his great standard was planted and displayed upon a Tower of the Castle and that he saw the King march at the head of his Army from Shrewsbury to Edge-hill being in the Reer-gard upon the Field where the battle was fought and that also he saw him on Sunday at Brainford after the combat of Saturday-night precedent John Penninger of Hayner in Darby-shire BEing examined upon Oath hath testified that about August 1642. he saw the great standard of War displayed upon one of the Towers of Nottingham Castle that the same day he also saw the King in Thurland-house belonging to the Earle of Clare at Nottingham with Prince Robert Sir Kelam Digby and divers other Lords and people of other condition and that the King had then Canons in the Town that was full of Souldiers Samuel Lawson Brewer of Nottingham HAs deposed upon Oath that about August 1642. he saw the great standard of War brought down from the Castle of Nottingham by divers persons of quality to the next Hill a Herald at Arms marching before them that the said standard was planted upon that hill with great cryes and acclamations with the sound of the Trumpet and Drums that also presently after there was published a Command from the King who was there in person to see his standard Erected adding moreover that the town was full of souldiers And that when the King left the town with the souldiers the Inhabitants were forced to pay a great summe of money to his Army that threatned them plunder if they refused it Thomas Whittington Shoomaker of Nottingham hath deposed upon Oath THat he saw the King in the said Town the same day that his great standard of War was raised on the Castle about the beginning of August 1642. and that the King tooke his journey from Thurland-house towards the said Castle and that he saw him severall times in Nottingham which was full of souldiers who said they were of the Kings army the great standard being then displayed upon the old tower of the Castle Robert Loads of Cottam in Nottinghamshire affirmed upon Oath THat about October 1642. he saw the King in the reere-guard of his Army at Kinton field on a Sunday about which place he saw divers dead bodies on both sides That moreover he saw the King in his Army in Cornwall nigh my Lord Moon 's house in the year 1644. Samuel Morgan Haberdasher of Wellington in the County of Salop deposed upon Oath THat he saw the King on Sunday morning in the field at Kinton upon the highest point of Edgehill at the head of his Army about two hours before the battail began which was after Michelmas 1642. And that afterward he saw at the same place a very great number of dead bodies on both sides and farther that in 1644. he saw the King in his army neere Cropredy bridge put his own men in battaile array James Williams Shoomaker of Rosse in Herefordshire deposed upon Oath THat about October 1642 he saw the King in Kinton-field upon the Hill having his sword drawn in his hand when and where a great battel was fought and many kill'd on both sides Moreover that he saw the King at Brainforâ— on a Sunday before mid day in November the same year whilst his army was all in and about the town Arthur Young Chyrurgion and Burgess of London being examined upon Oath testified THat being in the Battel of Edge-hill that was faught between the Army of the King and that of the Parliament in October 1642. he saw the great Standard brought and displayed in the Kings Army which being taken in the fight it was regained by one Middleton whom the King presently made Colonel John Thomas Labourer in Langellen in the County of Denbigh deposed upon Oath THat he saw the King at Brainford in the County of Middlesex on a Saturday a little after the battle of Edge-hill being followed by a good number of horse and foot and being himself armed a horseback and heard him say to his people passing through the towne Gentlemen you lost your honour at Edge-hill I hope you will recover it here and before the King had ended his speech the two Parties began to skirmish and engaged so far that many were killd on both sides Richard Blomefield Merchant Draper and Citizen of London deposed upon Oath THat he was present at the rout of the Earle of Essex his Army in Cornwall about the end of August or at the beginning of September 1644. where he saw the King on horseback at the head of his army and that he saw divers souldiers of the Parliaments many plundred and dismantled hard by the Kings person against the conditions and Articles agreed upon William Jones Laborour of Vske in Monmouth-shire affirmed upon Oath THat he saw the King coming from Wards Harbrough and marching at the end of his Army towards Naseby where the battle was fought a little after and that the King being advanced towards the Regiment of Colonel t. George he asked of the Officers and souldiers if they were not resolved to fight for him and that upon it they cryed out with great acclamations that they were ready to fight Moreover the Deponent said that he saw the King with his forces in Leicester the same day that it was taken by the Parliament As likewise that he saw him in his Army at the siege of Glocester Humphrey Brown of Witsunday in Rutlandshire HAs deposed that whâ—n Leicester was taken by the Kings Army about June â—645 the Fort of Newark being rendred upon Composition and condition that those that went forth should carry their bagage with freedom without any violence to be offered as soon as the place was rendred notwithstanding this capitulation and against the Articles the Kings souldiers fell upon them plundered them and beat and wounded many of them And that one of their Officers taxing them with their ill usage of these poore people against the law of Arms the deponent heard the King reply who was there in person with his sword drawn at the head of his Army that he would see they should use them worse being his enemies David Evans Marshall of Aburgeny in Monmouthshire testified THat about half an houre before Naseby fight which was at Midsummer June 1645. he saw the King marching himself in battaile at the head of his Army half a mile from the place of the fight Diogenes Edwards Butcher of Carston in the County of Salop. AFfirmed that at the same time he saw the King a mile
of the whole Nation who being freely called and freely debating amongst themselves may by Gods blessing settle the Church when every opinion is freely and clearly discussed For the King indeed I will not much insist Then turning to a gentleman whose cloak he observed to touch the edge of the Ax he said unto him Hurt not the Ax meaning by blunting the edge thereof for that he said might hurt him Having made this short digression he proceeded For the King the laws of the land will clearly instruct you what you have to do but because it concerns my own particular I onely do give you but a touch of it As for the People truly I desire their liberty and freedome as much as any whosoever but I must tell you that their liberty and freedom consists in having of government by those laws by which their lives and their goods may be most their own It is not for them to have a share in Government that is nothing Sirs appertaining unto them A â—ubject and a Sovereign are clean different things and therefore untill that be done I mean untill the people be put into that liberty which I speak of certainly they will never enjoy themselves Sirs It was for this that now I am come here If I would have given way to an arbitrary power to have all laws changed according to the power of the sword I needed not to have come hither and therefore I tell you and I Pray God it be not laid to your charge that I am the martyr of the people In troth Sirs I shall not hold you much longer I shall onely say this unto you that in truth I could have desired some little longer time because I had a desire to put this that I have said into a little better order and to have a little better digested it than I have now done and therefore I hope you will excuse me I have delivered my conscience I pray God that you do take those courses that are most for the good of the Kingdome and your own salvations Doct. Juxon Will your Majesty although the affection of your Majesty to religion is very well known yet to satisfie expectation be pleased to speak something for the satisfaction of the world King I thank you very heartily my Lord because I had almost forgotten it In troth Sirs my conscience in Religion I think is already very well known to all the world and therefore I declare before you all that I die a Christian according to the profession of the Church of England as I found it left by my father and this honest man I think will witnesse it Then turning to the Officers he said Sirs excuse me for this same I have a good cause and I have a gratious God I will say no more Then turning to Colonel Hacker he said Take care they do not put me to pain and Sir this if it please you but then a gentleman one Mr. Clerk comming neer the Ax the King said take heed of the Ax Then the King turning to the Executioner said I shall say but very short prayers and when I stretch forth my hands Then the King called to Doctor Juxon for the Nightcap and having put it on he said to the Executioner will my hair trouble you who desired him to put it all under his Cap which the King did accordingly by the assistance of the Executioner and the Bishop the King then turning to Doctor Juxon said I have a good Cause and a Gratious God on my side Doctor Juxon There is but one stage more This stage is turbulent indeed and troublesome but very short and which in an instant will lead you a most long way from earth to Heaven where you shall finde great Joy and Solace King I go from a corruptible to an incorruptable Crown where can be no trouble none at all Doctor Juxon You shall exchange a temporall Crown for an eternall one it is a good change The King then said unto the executioner Is my haire as it should be He then did put off his cloak and his George which he gave to Doctor Juxon saying Remember He immediately afterwards did put off his Doublet and did put on his cloak again and looking on the block he said unto the Executioner you should make it to be steddie Execut. It is so King It might have been something higher Execut. It cannot be made higher now King When I shall stretch forth my hands in this manner then After that when standing he had spoke two or three words unto himself with his hands and eyes lifted up towards Heaven immediately stooped down he laid his neck upon the Block and when the Executioner had again put all his hair under his cap. The King said Stay till I give the signe Execut. So I do if it please your Majesty and after a very little respite the King did stretch forth his hands and immediately the Executioner at one blow did sever his head from his Body Sic transit gloria Mundi THE Illegall proceedings against the honourable Colonell John Penruddock of Comppton in Wiltshire and his Speech Which he delivered the day before he was beheaded in the Castle of Exon being the 16 day of May 1655 to a Gentleman whom he desired to publish them after his death Together with his prayer upon the Scaffold and the last Letter he received from his verteous Lady with his answer to the same Also the speech of that Piously resolved Gentlemen Hugh Grove of Chisenbury in the parish of Enford and County of Wilts Esquire beheaded there the same day Printed by order of the Gent. intrusted 1660. Col. Penruddock being writ to by a friend for an account of his triall writ as followeth SIR THough I received your desires something too late it being but two days before notice given me from the Sheriff of the day of my expiration for I cannot call this an execution it being for such a cause yet in order to your satisfaction I have borrowed so much time from my more serious Meditations as to give you this short account of my Triall wherein you must excuse both the brevity and imperfections it being but the issues of a bad memory UPon Thursday the 19. April 1655. the Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer being sate in the Castle of Exon summoned before them my self Mr. Huge Grove Mr. Richard Reeves Mr. Robert Duke Mr. George Duke Mr. Thomas Fitz-James Mr. Francis Jones Mr. Edward Davis Mr. Thomas Poulton and Mr. Francis Bennet Being all called to the Barre we were commanded to hold up our hands and an Indictment of high treason was read against us and being asked whether we would plead guilty or not guilty to the Indictment in the behalf of my self and of the Gentlemen therein charged I spake as followeth Col. Penruddock My Lords though my education hath been such as not to give me those advantages which the knowledge of the Laws would assisted me with
for the defending my self yet upon hearing this very indictment my reason tells me that it is illegall and therefore I do demand Councell that may dispute the illegality thereof Serjeant Glyn. Sir you desire that which cannot be granted therefore give your answer whether you are guilty or not guilty of the Treason of which you stand charged Col. Pen. Sir by your favour it is that which hath been granted to my inferiors viz to Mr. Lilburn and to one Rolf a Shoemaker and I have as great a right to the Lawes as any person that sits here as my Judge I do therefore challenge it as my right Judge Nicholas whom I there see will tell you he himself was councell for this Rolf and it is a hard case if a free-born Gentleman of England cannot have the same priviledge that his inferiors have had before him Attorney Generall Sir there is a great difference between Treason acting and acted the later is your case therefore flatter not yourself and do not think your being mute shal save your estate in case of treason for if you plead not to the indictment sentence will be pronounced against you as if you had been found guilty of the fact you are charged with Col. Pen. Sir I observe your distinction but all the Logick you have shall not make me nor any Rationall man acknowledge that this was either acting or acted before it be proved Sir it is but a bare suspicion and I hope you will not condemne me before I am convicted I say the Indictment is illegall and I do demand Councell At. Gen. Sir the Court must not be dallied withall I do peremtorily demand of you are you guilty or not guilty If you plead you may have favour otherwise we shall proceed to sentence Col. Pen Sir put case I do plead shall I then have Councell allowed me At. Gen. Sir the Court makes no bargains refer your self to us Hereupon my fellow-prisoners perswaded me to plead not guilty which being done I demanded Councell as being partly promised it Mr. Attorney told me I could have none Then I replyed Col. Pen. Sir Durus est hic sermo it is no more then Jexpected fromy you but rather then I will be taken off unheard I will make my own defence as well as I can The Jurors being then called I challenged about 24 of the 35. I might have challenged The rest of the Gentlemen were sent from the bar I was left alone upon my triall and the Jurors were so pact that had I known them the issue had been the same that it was The Jurors being sworn and the Indictment again read Mr. Atturney demanded what exception I could make to it Col. Pen. Sir I except against every part thereof For I take it to be illegall in toto Composito Recorder Steel Sir It is not usual for any Court to admit of generall exceptions therefore we expect that you should make it to some particular Col. Pen. Sir I desire a Copy of my Indictment and time untill tomorrow to make my defence At. Gen. Sir You cannot have it the Court expects you should do it now Col. Penruddock Then if I cannot have time if my Generall exception might have been admitted it would have told you that there can be no high Treason in this nation but it must be grounded upon the Common or the Statute law But this is neither ground upon the Common Law or the Statute ergo no Treason against a Protector who hath no power according to Law neither is there any such thing in Law as a Protector for all Treasons and such pleas are Propria Causa Regis Ser. Glyn. Sir You are peremptory you strike at the Government you will fare never a whit the better for this speech speak as to any particular exception you have to the Indictment Col. Penruddock Sir If I speak any thing which grates upon the present Government I may confidently expect your pardon my life is as deare to me as this Government can be to any of you The holy Prophet David when he was in danger of his life feigned himself mad the spittle hung upon his beard you may easily therefore excuse my imperfections And since I am now forced to give you my particular exception more plainly to the Indictment I am bold to tell you I observe in the latter part of the Indictment you say I am guilty of High Treason by vertue of a statute in that case made and provided If there be any such Statute pray let it be read I know none such My Actions were for the King and I well remember what Bract saith Rex non habet superiorem nisi Deum satis habet ad poenam quod Deum expectat ultorem And in another place he saith Rex habet potestatem jurisdictionem super omnes qui in regno suo sunt ea quae sunt jurisdictionis pacis ad nullum pertinent nisi ad regiam dignitatem habet etiam coertionem ut delinquentes puniat coerceat Again he saith Omnes sub Rege ipse nullo nisi tantum Deo non est inferior sibi subjectis non parem habet in regno suo This shewes us where the true power is You shall finde also That whosoever shall refuse to aid the King when war is levied against him or any that keep the King from his just Rights offends the law and is thereby guilty of Treason Again All men that adhere to the King in personall service are freed from Treason by Law and yet you tell me of a Statute which makes my adhering to the King according to Law to be high Treason Pray let it be read At. Gen. You have not behaved your self so as to have such a favour from the Court. Col. Pen. Sir I require it not as a favour but as my Right At. Gen. Sir you cannot have it Col. Pen. If I cannot have it these Gentlemen that are the Jurors have not offended you their verdict reaches to their souls as to my life pray let not them go blindfold but let that Statute be their guide At. Gen. Sir The Jury ought to be satisfied with what hath been already said and so might you too Col. Pen. Sir I thank you you now tell me what I must trust to Mr Atturny then made a large speech in the face of the Court wherein he aggravated the offence with divers circumstances as saying I had been four years in France and held a corespondency with the King my Master of whom I had learned the Popish Religion That I endeavoured to bring in a debauched lewd young man and to engage this Nation in another bloody war and that if I had not been timely prevented I had destroyed them meaning the Jurors and their whole families I interrupted him and said Col. Pen. Mr Atturny you have been heretofore of Councel for me you then made my case better then indeed it was I see you have the faculty to make
men believe falsehoods to be truth too At. Gen. Sir You interrupt me you said but now you were a gentleman Col. Pen. Sir I have been thought worthy heretofore to sit on the bench though now I am at the bar Mr. Attorny then proceeded in his speech and called the witnesses Then I said Sir You have put me in a bears skin and now you will bait me with a witnesse But I see the face of a gentleman here in the Court I mean Captain Crook whose conscience can tell him that I had articles from him which ought to have kept me from hence Captain Crook hereupon stood up and his guilty conscience I supposed advised him to sit down again after he had made this speech that is to say he opened his lips and spake nothing The severall witnesses now come in Mr Dove the Sheriff of Wilts and others my charity forbids me to tell you what many of them swore I shall therefore omit that and onely tell you that one of our own party and indeed I think an honest man being forced to give his evidence I said My Lords it is a hard case that when you find you cannot otherwise cleave me in pieces that you must look after wedges made of my own timber The vertuous Cryor of Blandford being asked what were the words I used in proclaiming King Charles at the market he said I declared for Charles the Second and setling the true Protestant Religion for the liberty of the Subject and Priviledge of Parliaments Then I said unto the Attorny Generall and the whole Court you said even now that I had learned of the King my Master the Popish religion and endeavoured to bring him in your own witness tells you what and whom I would bring in and it was the true Protestant and not the Popish Religion his Majestie is of and intends to settle I urged divers cases to make the businesse but a Riot as my Lord of Northumberlands pretending it was for the taking of Taxes and that the power was not declared to be where they say it is I required the Judges to be of Councell for me told them it was their duty Commissioner Lisle told me I should have no wrong but he meant Right but Judge Rolls and Nicholas confessed themselves parties therefore would say nothing Then I told the Court if I had seen a Crown upon the head of any person I had known what had been Treason the Law of England would have taken hold of me out of the respects it has to Monarchy There was no such land-marks before me therefore I conceive I cannot be guilty of what I am charged with And my Lord and Mr. Atturney you here indict me for a Treason committed at Southmoulton in Devonshire and gentlemen ye swear witnesses against me for facts done in other Counties Sarum Blanford and Southmoulton are not in a parish You puzzle the Jurors with these circumstances pray go to the kernell and you Gent of the Jury save your labour of taking those notes Mr. Atturney then addressed himself to the Jury and to be short after the space of halfe an houre long gave them directions to bring me in guilty this being done I craved the favour from the Court that I might speak to the Jury which being allowed I said to them as followeth or to the same effect Gent. You are called a Jury of life and death and happy will it be for your souls if you prove to be a Jury of life You have heard what hath been said to make my actions Treason and with what vigor many untruths have been urged to you I have made appear to you that there can be no Treason but against the King that the Law knowes no such person as a Protector Mr. Atturney pretends a Statute for it but refuseth the reading thereof either to me or you vilifies me at pleasure and tells you I am a Papist and would bring in the Popish Religon and that if I had not been timely prevented I had destroyed you I hope you are al so satisfied of the contrary from the mouth of one of the best witnesses You are now judges between me and these judges Let not the majesty of their looks or the glory of their habits betray you to a sinne which is of a deeper dye then their scarlet I meane that sinne bloud which calls to heaven for vengence Gent. you doe not see a hair of my head but is numbred neither can you make any one of them much less can you put breath into my nostrils when it is taken out a sparrow doth not fall to the ground without the providence of God much lesse shall man to whom he hath given dominion and rule over all the creatures of the earth Gent. look upon me I am the Image of my creatour and that stamp of his which is in my vizage is not to be defaced without an account given wherefore it was I have here challenged as I am a Gentleman and free-born man of England the right which the law allowes me I demanded a copy of my Indictment and Councell but it is denied me The Law which I would have been tried by is the known Law of the land which was drawn by the wise consultation of our Princes and by the ready pens of our Progenitours The Law which I am now tried by is no Law but what is cut of by the poynt of a rebellious sword and the sheets in which they are recorded being varnished with the moisture of an eloquent tongue if you look not well to it may chance to serve for some of your Shrouds If the fear of displeasing others shall betray you to find me guilty of any thing you can at the most but make a riot of this Pray by the way take notice that the last Parliament would not allow the Legislative power to be out of themselves seventeen of twenty in this very County were of that opinion and deserted the house they were your Representative if you finde me guilty you bring them in danger and in them your selves Have a care of being drawn into a snare Gent. your bloud may run in the same channel with mine If what I have said do have been tried by is the known not satisfie you so as to aquint me if you bring me in a speciall verdict you do in some measure acquit your selves and throw the bloud that will be spilt upon the Judges Consider of it and the Lord direct you for the best The Jury after a quarter of an houres retirement brought me in guilty the Lord forgive them for they knew not what they did Upon Monday the 23 of April we were again called to the bar being then in number twenty six Serjeant Glyn asked of me first what I could say for my self that I should not have sentence according to the Law Then I said My Lords Gentlemen you askeâ— what I can say for my selfe that I should not have sentence
I could tell you of some souldiers which are turned out of his troup for defending those conditions of ours but let that pass and hence forward instead of life liberty and estate which were the Articles agreed upon let drawing hanging and quartring bear the Denomination of Captain Crooks Articles However I thank the Protectour for granting me this honourable Death I should now give you an accompt of my Faith But truly gentlemen this poor Nation is rent into so many several opinions that it is impossible for me to give you mine without displeasing some of you However if any be so criticall as to inquire of what Faith I die I shall refer him to the Apostles Athanasius and the Nicene Creed and to the testimony of this Reverend gentleman Dr. Short to whom I have unbosomed my self and if this do not satisfie look in the thirty nine Articles of the Catholick Church of England to them I have subscribed and do own them as authentick Having now given you an account concerning my self I hold my selfe obliged in duty to some of my friends to take off a suspicion which lyes upon them I mean as to some persons of Honour which upon my examination I was charged to have held correspondency with The Marquesse of Hartford the Marquesse of Winchester and my Lord of Pembrook were the persons nominated to me I did then acquit them and do now second it with this protestation That I never held any correspondence with either or any of them in relation to this particular businesse or indeed to any thing which concerned the Protectour or his Government As for the Marquesse of Winchester I saw him some twelve years since and not later and if I should see him here present I believe I should not know him And for the Earle of Pembrook he was not a man likely to whom I should discover my thoughts because he is a man of a contrary judgment I was examined likwise concerning my Brother Freke my Cousin Hastings Mr Dorrington and others It is probable their estates may make them lyable to this my condition but I do here so far acquit them as to give the world this farther protestation that I am confident they are as innocent in this businesse as the youngest child here I have no more to say to you now but to let you know that I am in charity with all men I thank God I both can and do forgive my greatest persecutors and all that ever had any hand in my death I have offered the Protectour as good security for my future demeanour as I suppose he could have expected if he had thought fit to have given me my life certainly I should not have been so ungratefull as to have imployed it against him I do humbely submit to Gods pleasure knowing that the issues of life and death are in his hand My bloud is but a small sacrifice if it had been saved I am so much a Gentleman as to have given thanks to him that had preserved it and so much a Christian as to forgive them which take it But seeing God by his providence hath called me to lay it down I willingly submit to it though terrible to nature but blessed be my Saviour who hath taking out the sting so that I look upon it without terrour Death is a debt and a due debt and it hath pleased God to make me so good a Husband that I am come to pay it before it is due I am not a shamed of the cause for which I die but rather rejoyce that I am thought worthy to suffer in the defence cause of Gods true Church my lawfull King the liberty of the subject and Priviliege of Parliaments Therefore I hope none of mine alliance friends will be ashamed of it it is so far from pulling down my Family that I look upon it as the raising it one story higher Neither was I so prodigall of nature as to throw away my life but have used though none but honourable and honest means to preserve it These unhappy times indeed have been very fatall to my family two of my Brothers already slain and my self going to the slaughter it is Gods will and I humbly submit to that providence I must render an acknowledgment of the great civilities that I have received from this City of Exon and some persons of quality and for their plentiful provision made for the prisoners I thank Mr. Sheriff for his favour towards us in particular to my self and I desire him to present my due respects to the Protectour and though he had no mercy for my self yet that he would have respect to my family I am now striping off my cloaths to fight a duell with death I conceive no other duell lawfull but my Saviour hath puld out the sting of this mine enemy by making himself a sacrifice for me And truly I do not think that man deserving one drop of his bloud that will not spend all for him in so good a cause The truth is Gentlemen in this age Treason is an Individuum vagum like the wind in the Gospell it bloweth where it listeth So now treason is what they please and lighteth upon whom they will Indeed no man except he will be a Traitour can avoid this Censure of Treason I know not to what end it may come but I pray God my own and my brothers bloud that is now to die with me may be the last upon this score Now Gentlemen you may see what a condition you are in without a King you have no law to protect you no rule to walk by when you performe your duty to God your King and Countrey you displease the Arbitrary power now set up I cannot call it government I shall leave you to peruse my triall and there you shall see what a condition this poor Nation is brought into and no question will be utterly destroyed if not restored by Loyal Subjects to its old and glorious Government I Pray God he lay not his Judgement upon England for their sluggishnesse in doing their duty and readiness to put their hands in their bosomes or rather taking part with the Enemy of Truth The Lord open their eyes that they may be no longer lead or drawn into such snares else the Child unborn will curse the day of their Parents birth God Almighty preserve my lawful King Charles the second from the hands of his Enemies and breake down the wall of Pride and Rebellion which so long hath kept him from his just Rights God perserve his Royal Mother and all his Majesties Royall Brethren and incline their hearts to seek after him God incline the hearts of all true English men to stand up as one Man to bring in the King and Redeem themselves and this poor Kingdome out of its more then Egyptian slavery As I have now put off these garments of cloth so I hope I have put off my garments of sin and have put on the