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 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 than 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 behalf 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 and 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 directions to me and therefore on their behalf 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 final 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 to answer the charge after you have done that you shall be heard at large to make the defence you can for your self but Sir the Court commands me to make known unto you that you are not permitted 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 know 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 Kingdom therefore untill I be satisfied that this is not against the fundamentall 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 prisoner 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 Treaty I was hurried away and brought hither and therefore I would President Sir you must know the pleasure of the Court King By you 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 doâ—h 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 behalf of the Commons of England of divers high Crimes and Treasons which Charge hath been read unto you The Court now requires you to give your positive and finall answer either by way of confession or by deniall of the Charge King Sir I say again unto you If therby I may give satisfaction to the people of England of the uprightness 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 I would not say any more nor interrupt you at all President Sir you have heard the pleasure of the Court and notwithstanding you will not understand it you are to finde that you are before a Court of Justice The King going forth Proclamation was made that all
The Full Proceedings OF THE High Court of Iustice against King CHARLES In Westminster Hall on Saturday the 20. of January 1648. Together With the Kings Reasons and Speeches and his Deportment on the Scaffold before his Execution Translated out of the Latine by J. C. Hereunto is added A Parallel of the late Wars being a Relation of the five years Civill Wars of King Henry the 3d. with the Event of that unnatural War and by what means the Kingdome was settled again London Printed for William Shears at the Bible in St. Pauls Church-yard 1654. 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 indeavour to represent it to you with the exactest faithfulness that can possibly be desired and although others have gone before me on the same subject by the benefit of time I doubt not but that I shall exceed them by the advantage of truth In the Supream Tribunal 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 Oyes to invite the people to attention silence was commanded and the Ordinance of the Commons in Parliament in reference to the Examination of the King was read and the Court was summoned all the Members thereof arising 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 spake thus unto him Charls Stuart King of England the Commons of England assembled in Parliament being touched with the sense of the Calamities which have happened 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 unto God this Nation and themselves according to the power and fundamentall 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. Cook the Sollicitor Generall Sir In the Name of the Commons of England and of all the people thereof I do charge Charls 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 a little 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 Charls Stuart being admitted King of England and therein trusted with a limitted Power to govern by and according to the laws of the Land 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 their Rights and Liberties Yet neverthelesse out of a wicked Designe to erect and uphold in himself an unlimitted 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 therof and of all redress and remedy of misgovernment which by the fundamental constitutions of this kingdome were reserved on the peoples behalf in the right and power of frequent and successive Parliaments or nationall meetings in Councel he the said Charls 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 traiterously 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 fourty and two at Beverly in the County of York and upon or about the 30th day of July in the year aforesaid in the County of the City of York and upon or about the twenty fourth day of August in the same year at the County of the town of Nottingham when and where he set up his Standard of war And also on or about the twenty third day of October in the same year at Edg-hill and Keinton-field in the Coun-of Warwick and upon or about the thirtieth day of November in the same year at Brainchford in the County of Middlesex And upon or about the thirtieth day of August in the year of our Lord One thousand six hundred fourty and three at Cavesham-bridge neer Reding 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 Glocester 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 and thirtieth day of July in the year of our Lord One thousand six hundred fourty four at Cropredybridge in the County of Oxon And upon or about the thirtieth day of September in the year last mentioned at Bodmin and other places neer 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 fourty 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 Northampton At which severall times and places or most of them and at many other places in the land at severall other times within the years aforementioned And in the year of our Lord One thousand six hundred fourty and six he the said Charls Stuart hath caused and procured many thousands of the free-Free-people of the Nation to be slain and by Divisions parties and insurrections within this land by invasions from Forraign parts endevoured and procured by him and by many other evill wayes and means He the said Charls Stuart hath not onely maintained and 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 places in England Wales and also by sea and particularly he the said Charls 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 and imployed for the safety of the nation being by him and his agents corrupted to the betraying of
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 do ow to God and to my Land and I will here perform it to the last breath of my Body you shall therefore do wel 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 professe 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 The Court expecteth that you should give them a finall 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 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 shown me any lawfull authority which may satisfie any reasonable man L. President It is onely your apprehension we are fully satisfied who are your Judges King It is not my apprehension nor yours which ought to determin this L. President 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 morn-ning and from thence hither Some thing 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 fall 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 stayres 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 cōmanded after that the Judges were called and every one did particularly answer to his Name Silence was again commanded under pain of imprisonment and the Captain of the Guards was ordered to apprehend any that should endeavour to make a tumult At the comming 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 charge 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 to 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 shall refuse that the subject of his Charge may be taken for granted and the Court proceed according to Justice 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 agreeable 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 judge it requisite to call you to an account for the great and grievous 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 authoritie 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 it or deny it If you shall deny it it will be proved in the behalf 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 it were onely my businesse in particular I should have satisfied my self with that protestation which I then interposed against the lawfulnesse of this Court and that a King cannot be judged by any superiour jurisdiction on earth but my own interests are not onely involved in it but the liberties also of the people of England and pretend what you will I doe indeavour more for their liberties then any whatsoever For if Power without laws can make laws and 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 Reasons as briefly as 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 until I am satisfied of your legality of it All proceedings against any
man whatsoever President Sir I must interrupt you which I would not do but that which you do agreeth not with the proceedings of any Tribunal of Justice you enter into a controversie and dispute against the Authority of this Court before which you appear 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 tribunal 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 reason 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 then you are and if I should believe any man without he gives me Reasons for what he saith It would be absurd but I say unto you that the Reason 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 speak 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 to 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 Processe 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 Tribunal If you shall yet do it I must intimate unto you that they are above objections They sit here by Authority of the Commons of England and all your Predecessors and you your self are bound to be accountable to them King I deny that shew me one example L. President Sir you ought not to interrupt but attend whilest the Court speaks 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 Charls Stuart 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 shall 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 speak 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 prisonners to demand King Prisonners Sir I am no ordinary prisonner 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 Supream 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 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 Prisonner 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 and Laws of the subjects If I have defended my self 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 houre they intended to adjourn again to Westminster-hall 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 Generall turning to the Lord 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 and 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 tyrannicall 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 again that he might be required to put in a direct and positive answer to his charge either by
persons who then appeared and had further to do with the Court might depart into the Painted Chamber to which place the Court adjourned being resolved to meet again in Westminster-Hall by ten of the Clock the next morning Wednesday January 24. The Court being this day imployed upon Examinations of Witnesses and other things in order to their next proceedings did appoint one of their Vshers to give notice to the people there assembled to appear on further summons The last proceedings against the King wherein they pronounced Sentence upon him on Saturday Jan. 27. 1648. SIlence being commanded by the Cryer the Court was called and Serjeant Bradshaw the Lord President was that day in a scarlet Gown There were present that day sixty and eight Members of the Court The King turning to the Lord President said I shall desire to be heard some few words and I hope I shall give no occasion of Interruption President You may answer in due time hear the Court first King If it please you Sir I desire to be heard and I shall not give any occasion of interruption and it is onely in a word A sudden Judgment President Sir you shall be heard as I have told you in due time but you must hear the Court first King What I am to speak will be in order as I conceive to what I believe the Court will say and therefore Sir I desire to be heard A hasty judgement is not so soon recalled President Sir you shall be heard before Judgment be given and in the mean time you ought to forbear King Well Sir I shall be heard before the Judgment be given President Gentlemen It is well known to all or the greatest part of you here present that the prisonner at the Bar hath been severall times convented and brought before this Court to make answer to a charge of Treason and other high crimes exhibited against him in the Name of the People of England to which charge being oftentimes commanded to Answer he hath been so far from submitting to the Court as he hath undertook to object again and dispute the Authority of this Court and of the High Court of parliament who constituted this Court to Try and Judge him but being over-ruled in that commanded to make answer he was still pleased to persevere in his contumacy and refused to submit to answer whereupon the Court that they may not be wanting to themselves and to the trust reposed in them nor that any mans wilfulnesse shall prevent the course of Justice have considered of the contempt and of that consequence which in law doth arise on that contempt They have likewise considered of the notoriousnesse of the Fact charged upon the prisoner and upon the whole matter are resolved and have agreed upon a Sentence to be now pronounced against him but in regard he hath desired to be heard before Sentence be read and pronounced the Court is resolved to hear him yet Sir thus much I must tell you before hand of which also you have been minded at the other Courts that if what you are to propose shall tend to dispute the jurisdiction of the Court you are not to be heard therein you have offered it formerly and you have indeed struck at the root which is the power and supream Authority of the Commons of England of which this Court will admit no debate and indeed it would be an unreasonable thing in them so to do being a Court which doth act upon that Authority which they have received from them they will not presume to judge upon their Superiours from whom there is no appeal But Sir If you have any thing to say in defence of your self concerning the matter with which you are charged the Court hath given me command to let you know they will hear you King Since I perceive you will not heare any thing of Debate concerning that which I confesse I thought most materiall for the peace of the Kingdome and the Liberty of the Subject I shall wave it and speak nothing of it onely I must tell you that these many dayes all things have been taken from me but that which I call more deer unto me than my life which is my Conscience and my Honour and if I had respect to my life more than to the peace of the kingdome the liberty of the Subject I should certainly have made a particular defence for my self for by that at least I might have deferred an ugly Sentence which I expect to passe upon me Therefore undoubtedly Sir as a man that hath some understanding some knowledge of the world if that my true zeal to my Country had not over born the care of my own preservation I should have gone another way to work then now I have done Now Sir I conceive that a hasty Sentence once passed may sooner be repented then revoked and truly the same fervent desire I have for the peace of the Kingdome and the liberty of the Subject more then my own particulars doth make me now at last move that having somthing to say concerning both I may be heard before my Sentence be pronounced before the Lords and Commons in the Painted Chamber This delay cannot be prejudiciall to you whatsoever I shall utter If I speak not reason those that hear me must be my Judges but if it be Reason and really for the welfare of the Kingdome and the Liberty of the Subject I am sure of it it will be well worth the hearing Therefore I conjure you as you love that which you pretend I hope it is reall the Liberty of the Subject the peace of the kingdom that you will grant me the hearing before Sentence be past I only desire this that you will take this into your consideration It may be you have not heard of it before hand If you think well of it I will retire and you may think of it but if I cannot get this liberty I do here protest that so fair shews of liberty and peace are but pure shews and no otherwise if in this you will not hear your King President Sir you have now spoken King Yes Sir President And this which you have spoken is but a further declining of the Jurisdiction of this Court which is the thing wherein you were limited before King Pray excuse me Sir for my interruption because you do mistake me It is not a declining of it you do judge me before you hear me speak I say I will not I do not decline it although I cannot acknowledge the jurisdiction of it In this give me leave to say that though I would not though I did not acknowledge it in this yet I protest this is not to decline it since I say If that which I shall propound be not for the peace of the Kingdome and the Liberty of the Subject then the shame is mine Now I desire that you will take this into your consideration if you will I will withdraw
President Sir This is not altogether new that you have offered unto us I say it is not altogether new unto us although it be the first time that in person you have offered it to the Court Sir you say you do not decline the jurisdiction of the Court King Not in this that I have said President I understand you well enough Sir Neverthelesse that which you have propounded seems to be contrary to what you have said for the Court are ready to proceed to Sentence It is not as you say that they will not hear their King For they have been ready to hear you they have patiently waited your pleasure for three Court dayes together to hear what you would answer to the peoples charge against you to which you have not vouchsafed to give any answer at all Sir this doth tend to a further delay and truly Sir Such delays as these neither may the kingdom nor Justice admit You have had the advantage of three several dayes to have offered in this kinde what you were pleased to have propounded to the Lords and Commons This Court is founded upon the Authority of the Commons of England in whom resteth the Suprem Jurisdiction That which you now tender to the Court is to be tryed by another jurisdiction a co-ordinate jurisdiction I know very well how you have expressed your self and that not withstanding what you would propound to the Lords and Commons yet nevertheless you would proceed on here I did hear you say so but Sir That which you would offer there whatsoever it be must needs be in delay of Justice here so as if this Court be resolved and prepared for the Sentence they are bound in justice not to grant that which you so much desire but Sir according to your desire and because you shall know the full pleasure of the Court upon that whilest you have moved the Court shall withdraw for a time King Shall I withdraw President Sir you shall know the pleasure of the Court presently The Court withdraws for half an hour into the Court of Wards Serjeant at Arms the Court gives command that the prisoner withdraw and that about half an hour hence the prisonner be returned again The time being expired the Court returned and the Lord President commanded the Serjeant at Arms to send for his prisonner The King being come attended with his Guard The Lord President said unto him Sir you were pleased to make a motion here to the Court concerning the desire you had to propound something to the Lords and Commons in the Painted Chamber for the peace of the Kingdome Sir you did in effect receive an Answer before the Court adjourned Truly Sir their adjournment and withdrawing was pro formâ tantum for it did not seem to them that there was any difficulty in the thing they have considered of what you moved and have considered of their own Authority which is grounded as it hath been often said upon the supream Authority of the Commons of England assembled in Parliament The Court doth act according to their Commission Sir I have received an expresse Order from the Court to acquaint you that they have been too much delaied by you already and that this which you have now offered hath occasioned some little further delay they are Judges appointed by the highest Judges and Judges are no more to delay than they are to deny justice they are good words in the old Charter of England Nulli negabimus nulli vendemus nulli deferremus justitium There must be no delay but Sir the Truth is and so every man here observes it That you have much delayed them by your contempt and default for which they might long since have proceeded to judgment against you therefore notwithstanding what you have offered they are resolved to proceed to punishment to judgment and this is their unanimous resolution King Sir I see it is in vain for me to dispute I am no Sceptick to doubt or to deny the power that you have I do know that you have power enough Sir I confesse I do believe it would have been advantagious to the peace of the Kingdome if you would have been pleased to take the pains to show the lawfulnesse of your power As for this delay which I have desired I do confesse it is a delay but it is a delay that is important for the peace of the Kingdom It is not my person that I look on alone It is the welfare of the Kingdome the peace of the kingdome It is an old saying that we should think on long but perform great matters suddainly Therefore Sir I do say again I do put at your doores all the inconveniencies of a hasty Sentence I have been here now a full week this day eight daies was the day in which I made in this place my first appearance The short respite but of a day or two longer may give peace unto the Nation whereas an hasty judgement may bring such a perpetual trouble inconvenience upon it that is the childe unborn may repent it And therefore once more out of the duty I ow to God and to my Country I do desire that I may be heard by the Lords and Commons in the painted Chamber or any other place that you will appoint me President Sir you have been already answered to what you have moved it being the same motion which you made before for which you have had the resolution and the judgment of the Court in it and the Court would now be satisfied from you whether you have any more to say for your self than you have yet said before they proceed to Sentence King I say this Sir that if you will but hear me and give me this delay I doubt not but I shall give some satisfaction to all that are present and to my people that are absent and therefore I require you as you will answer it at the dreadfull day of judgement that you will once again take it into your consideration President Sir I have received Instructions from the Court King Well Sir President If this must be reinforced or any thing of this nature your answer must be the same as it was before and they will proceed to Sentence if you have no more to say King Sir I have nothing more to say onely I desire that this may be entered what I have said President The Court Sir then hath something else to say to you which although I know will be very unwelcome yet notwithstanding they are resolved to discharge their duty Sir you have spoken very well of a pretious thing that you call a peace and it were much to be wished that God had put it into your hart that you had as effectually endeavoured and studied the peace of the kingdom 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
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 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 publick 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 encurred 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 your Trust to the Kingdome you did break your Trust to your superior For the Kingdome 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 so 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 amisse and that you would endeavour to make your peace with God Truly Sir These are too high Crimes Tyranny and Treason There is a third if those two had not been and that is murther which is laid to your charge also All the bloody murders that have been committed since the Division betwixt you and your people must be laid to your charge Sir It is a hainous and a crying sinne and truly Sir If any man will ask us what punishment is due unto a murtherer let Gods law let mans speak I will presume you are so well read in the holy Scripture as that you know what 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 Kingdom are sensible of that innocent blood that hath been shed the land indeed stands still defiled with that bloud 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 Commandement 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 universall Sir Gods law forbids it mans law forbids it nor do we know that there is any manner of execution 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 reformatian 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 should drive you into a sad consideration concerning your eternall estate I know it cannot be acceptable to you to hear 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 indeavored 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 we 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 Evils 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 eys that God who bestows a Curse upon them who 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 Kingdome above any respect whatsoever and although at this present many of us if not all of us are severely threatned by some of your party what they intend to do yet we do here declare that we shall not decline or forbear the doing of our Duty in the administration of Justice even to your self and that according to the merit of your offence although God should permit
long-lived the free born English would not long endure such slavery When the King saw there was no other remedy he throws himself into the bosome of his people for relief and advise in * Parliament * where they undutifully taking advantage of his Majesties extremities in stead of relief outbrave him publickly with a * Catalogue of all the mistakes and all the misfortunes of his former government which coming to the peoples ears soon stole away their hearts and alienated their affections from their Soveraign and left him wholly to the mercy and will of his Parliament They sensible hereof and that the reins of Government were now cast upon their necks like Apollo's Horses when Phaeton had the driving of them ran violent by courses till they set the whole Kingdome on fire So far they went as to make an Ordinance That whereas there was a present want of a through Reformation in the State the Government whereof should be put into the hands of four and twenty Qui Regia potestate suffulti who being armed with Soveraign power should take upon them the whole care and Government of the Kingdome should nominate and appoint the Chancellour Treasurer Chief Justices Governours of Forts Castles and Navie and all other great Officers and Ministers of State for all times to come To this traiterous Ordinance the King Metu incarcerationis perpetuae compulsus est consentire for fear of perpetuall imprisonment was inforced to give his Royall assent and for further security to be content to give it under the great Seal and upon Oath that whensoever he attempted to assume unto him his Regall Power Liceat omnibus de Regno nostro contra nos insurgere ad gravamen nostram opem operam dare ac si nobis in nullo tenerentur It should be lawfull for all his Subjects to rise against and oppose him as if they owed no allegiance to him Strange it is that he should be content to be a meer Cipher that so lately was the onely Figure of the whole Kingdome that he should be content to part with at once with every tittle of Soveraignty but the bare title but prodigious that so many choice Senators so many Fathers and Judges of Law and conscience should so forget God and themselves as to give their assent for the totall subverting of the Regall authority when as they had all taken their corporall oathes De terreno honore dicto Regi haeredibus ejus servando Which Oath was well kept saith mine Authour Ordinando ne unquam regerent sed semper ab aliis regerentur by making an Ordinance that they should never rule again but alwayes be ruled by others These four and twentie thus setled continue the Parliament during their pleasure put the Kingdome in a posture of Defence place Governours of their own choosing Such as they could confide in in the chief Forts nominate and appoint Judges of Assize Sheriffes of Counties Coroners Bailiffe discharging those that were made by the King Took an Oath of them all respectively And here they would make the people believe they should never be troubled with licentious Soveraigntie again but never more as it proved for now every one of them began to value his own worth and to hammer his head on every design that might enlarge his own power and command In brief of so many subjects they became totidem tyranni as the book of Saint Albanes speaks so many Tyrants and for one bad King before they have four and twentie worse But England like old Rome cannot long endure more Kings than one great faction and deadly feud arose between the chiefest of them which the rest taking into consideration and perceiving that by so many heads not onely Monarchy was dissolved but faction and debate every day increased upon them so wrought that all but five agreed that the foresaid Ordinance should be repealed and the King restored to his pristine power But those five Members stifly oppose this agreement and for the maintenance of their cause trahunt multos pseudo prophetas lupos in ovium vestimentis qui contra Christi Vicaraos Christū Domini Regē ipsum murmurant non ut spiritus sanctus eloqui sed ut superioris potestatis contemptores obloqui dabant they drew to their side many lying Ministers Wolves in the sheeps clothing who murmure and speak evil against the Lords anointed not as the Holy spirit gave them utterance but as the despiser of dignities gave them their Lessons These Incendiaries by their sheeps clothing a fair conversatiō drew the people every where to side with them against the K. and those that wisht the King his former power Which the King perceiving and how the multitude grew every day more and more tumultuous for all things were now carried by tumults was advised by his Privy Councel to withdraw himself lest His person might be endangered from the Parliament then held at Westminster to His Castle of Windsore After some contestation at this distance it was agreed upon by the King and his adherents and the five members and their adherents that the difference should be referred to the French Kings arbitrement * The King of France upon the day of hearing gave sentence that the said Ordinance whereby the King was deprived of his Regall power should be made null The five members and their complices seeing this notwithstanding they had bound themselves by oath to stand to his award flew off and resolving to have their own wills drew into arms made choice of the Earl of Leicester for their General for their own private interest pretending the publick good drew the greatest part of the Kingdom after them * so easie it is to draw the fickle multitude to the wrong side crying every where at first Liberty and Religion though towards the end of the warre not a word of either By their fair pretences they gained so farre upon the Londoners that they generally enter into a Covenant to assist the Earl For which purpose besides a new Major or Bailiffe they choose two Commanders Thomas Pywelsden and Stephen Buckerell at whose command by the towling of Saint Pauls great Bell they were to be in armes upon any occasion Their first exploit was a march to Isleworth in a tumultuous manner where they plundered and fired the Kings brothers Mannour house The Earls Army by this time on their march plundered all that were disaffected to their cause and proceedings and imprisoned them * especially those that stood any way affected to the Queen for they all but most of all the Londoners were most maliciously bent against her insomuch that as she was passing the Thames near the bridge a rude rabble of the City got together on the bridge and with confused yellings cryed Drown the witch c. and by throwing dirt and stones at her drave her back which impious
affront was punctually remembred in the first fight as you shall hear anon Besides this main armie under the Earl of Leicester they had another armie under the command of the Lord Ferrers of whom descended the late Lord of Essex who behaved himself insolently towards the King in destroying his Parks as he marcht c. which in the conclusion cost him dear yet to delude the people the main army bore before them the Kings arms and to shew they were for the King when they had displaced the old Governors of the Kings Castles and Forts and placed in such as they could confide in they gave them an Oath to be true to the King and to keep those Holds to the use and benefit of the King and State yet when the King demanded entrance at one of his Forts wherein they had placed a Governour he was kept out At Sea the Barons of the Cinque-ports seised the Kings ships took great Prizes but they that sate at the Stern upon Land shared in those Prizes as the fame then went By this time the King began to rouze himself and finding nothing now left him but a good Cause and the hearts of his wiser subjects yet by that and these and the assistance of his Brother Richard King of the Romanes in a short space he had raised a considerable Army A King can never be so down but he will rise again with these he marcht and like a snow-ball encreased by motion plundering the Rebels lands as he went to Northampton which was fortified against him by some of the chiefest of the Rebels yet by a furious assault he soon gained it Thence continuing his march into Sussex near Lewes he received a Message from the Earl the tenor wherof was That as for his Majesty they intended no harm against him but onely desired that he would remove his evil Counsellours that did advise his Majesty against them against the honour of the King and welfare of the Kingdome The King in his Answer charges them with Rebellion and disloyalty and commands them to lay down their arms and to return to their obedience that they might be received to mercy but the Earl rejecting the offer * when Subjects have once broken their fealtie and trust to their Soveraign they never dare trust their Soveraign again resolves to give the King battel Near Lewes both Armies meet One wing of the Earls Army was made up of London troops which the Prince being then Generall of the Kings horse observing and remembring not without indignation the abuse offered by the Londoners to the Queen his Mother he claps spurs to his horse and all his Cavalry after him crying Here here my brave Cavaliers are the main contrivers of all Rebellions and mischief Now now if ever charge home and so fell on with that fury that they presently flie the Prince in an eager and hot pursuit does great execution upon them for four miles But this prosperous beginning of the fight on the Kings side was the utter overthrow of the Kings forces for when the Earl perceived that the Prince a young fiery spirit with all the Kings horse was gone so far in pursuit of the Londoners he fell violently on the Kings foot soon routed them took the King his horse being slain under him prisoner The Prince at length retreating when he saw all lost surrendered himself There were taken in this fight besides those royall prisoners the King the Prince the Kings brother and his eldest Sonne above twenty Noblemen that were for the King and slain about * 3400. The Earl having thus gotten a compleat victory forth with endeavours to seise all the Militia and power of the Kingdome for which end he carries the King about with him to countenance his actions but the rest of the royall prisoners he disposes in severall Garisons And now the Earl believes all his own and the people dream of nothing but Peace but alas the warre was not begun till now For when the torn remainder of the loyall army that escaped at Lewes now keeping Garison in Bristow and other noble spirits saw how insolently the Earl dealt with his and their Soveraign in barring him of his liberty c. They soon raised a considerable power under the command of Roger Mortimer Earl of March unto whom many flockt out of Shropshire Cheshire Herefordshire and Worcester that were well affected to the King Moreover the Queen who was a French woman got over beyond Sea to try her friends for their asistance to restore her husband to his former liberty and authority Quod ad laudem magnificentiam Aelionorae Anglorum Reginae libet intexere saith one of that age quod Domino suo Edvardo filio tam strenuè tam viriliter tanquam virago potentissima succurrendis fortiter insudaverit But before these Forces were well united the Rebels Forces were as well divided for debate arising as is usuall in all confederations where all parties must be pleased or else the knot will dissolve between his Excellency the Earl of Leicester and the Earl of Glocester because his Excellency minding his own private more than the publick good of his fellow Rebels without any respect had to his adjutants ingrosses all to himself disposes of the royall prisoners at his own pleasure seised on the revenues of the Crown and composition of dilinquents for his own use whereas they had privately agreed before Ea omnia aequâ sorte inter eos dividenda fore In brief he shared all places of power and profit between himself his sonnes and his allies Whereat Glocester as good a man as he stomackt and fell off with his followers to the Prince who by this time disponente Domino clavigero carcerum every thing working for the King had made his escape out of prison at Hereford for being allowed by his keepers to aire himself sometimes on horse back in the town Meadow after he had tyred two or three at length he mounts a speciall flight Nag and putting spurs Custodibus valedixit and came safe to Wigmore Castle where the Lord Mortimer lay with his Forces raised for the King so marcht on with a great prwer taking in as they went some strong Garisons of the Rebels plundered their houses drave their Cattell c. Here the war grew hot each side fortifying towns plundering and driving all round about to store the Garisons Mens houses which were wont to be their own Castles were now made Castles but the owners were least masters all left to the mercy of the rude souldier the poor Countreymans dwelling house pillaged every where and searcht * usque ad lectorum stramentum to the very bedstraw nor onely mens houses but even Gods houses the very Churches were not free from the prophane hands of plunderers the high-wayes lay unoccupied no passing from Town to Town without danger of robbing When the Prince the Earl of Glocester the Earl
of March with the reliques of the Royall Army were united and well ordered they resolved to give his Excellency the Earl of Leicester battel At Evesham in Worcestershire by a speedy and unexpected march they came upon him The Earl seeing himself engaged to fight gave order that his own coat-armour should be put upon the King who was then a prisoner in the Army and that the King for the safety of his person forsooth should be placed in the front of the battel that so if the battel went against him the King might be aimed at as Generall and his Excellency thereby make his escape But the King at the first Charge called out to the loyall Army that he was their King and so was preserved yet not without the losse of some of his own being wounded by a javelin as well as his subjects blood the battel was very violent and went sore against the Rebels at length the Earl himself the head of this Rebellion was cut off at the instant of whose death there hapned such extraordinary lightning and thick darknesse that it struck a generall horrour and amazement into the hearts of the Rebels as if the King of Kings would now at last visibly revenge the Kings quarrell or as if they had seen Gods immediate hand against them as once against Corah and the 250 Assembly men Num. 16. v. 35. for the like rebellious practises In this signall Battel were slain besides the Earl and his son sixteen Lords and Knights and about ten thousand more of the Rebells part The Earls Corps was strangely though not undeservedly handled by the people who were so inraged against him the chief actour and authour of their so much mischief and misery that in dispight of him they lopt off his head hands feet and privy members and sent them in scorn for tokens to severall places his body was buried in Evesham Church Notwithstanding this there were many ignorant people who had been by specious pretences abused and seduced to that side that were of opinion for a long time after that he dyed a Martyr because it was in defence of their holy as they thought but indeed impious Covenant Oath Two of the Earls sons were at the same fight taken prisones not long after they made an escape out of Prison but cold not escape Gods vengeance on Rebels for in France In miseriis dies suos finiverunt The Countesse being banished died a Nunne in France All the Earls Honours and Possessions were conferred upon Edmond Earl of Lancaster the Kings second son And thus ended this great fiery Meter in a stench Thus fell our English Cataline as M. Cambden styles him a man in shew fair and honest but indeed Vir pravo ingenio profundâ perfidiâ of a perverse disposition and treacherous beyond any mans suspition after his Soveraign had heaped upon him many high favours as the Earldome of Leicester and that high and honourable office of Lord high Steward and to endear him the more had given him his own Sister in marriage in token of thankfulnesse he doth his utmost endeavour to diminish the Kings known authority to subject him to the wills of his Subjects to pull down Monarchicall government and set up a factious Oligarchy and all under that fair common pretence of restoring Religion to its purity and the People to their liberty The K. thus happily preserved almost miraculously all things considered set at liberty about a Month after calls a Parliament at Winchester no more at London untill it was more loyall and lesse tumultuous where by a full Convention it was enacted That all Statutes and Ordinances made by the former Parliament called the wood or mad Parliament should be repealed and all writings and bonds then sealed by the King for observing the same should be cancelled and made void· That the City of London ob suam Rebellionem for this her Rebellion should be deprived of all her ancient Priviledges and Liberties and the Ringleaders of them Iuxta voluntatem ipsius Regis plecti to suffer such punishment as his Majestie was pleased to inflict Et ditiores Civitatis in carcerem truderentur saith Matth. Westm. Pro eo quod Simoni in Regis contemptum etiam damnum Regni fortiter adhaeserint that the wealthier Citizens should be cast in Prison because they had in contempt of his Majestie and great dammage and mischief of the Realme assisted the Earle Furthermore it was there enacted that all such as had favoured the Rebels were they now in Prison or at large should forfeit all their estates Afterward the King marcht with a great power to Windesore resolving as the fame then went to destroy the whole City of London many of the Rable and wild Commonars saith Fabian were as resolved to defend the City against him but the wiser sort thought better to become humble Petitioners for their padon of what was past then to incense his Majestie any farther and to that end drew up an humble Petition and presented it to the King but their late rebellious carriage had so farre provoked his Majesties patience that he would not so much as admit of their Petition or hearken to any that endeavoured to mediate for them Hereupon they were advised to draw up an instrument or writing whereby they should yield themselves wholly both bodies and goods to the Kings mercy which was done accordingly and sealed with the common Seal of the City His Majesty upon earnest suit unto him accepted hereof giving present expresse command that all the chains and Posts which they had placed at every street and lanes end should be forthwith carried to the Tower and that the Mayor and fourty of the chief Citizens should repair unto him the next day and confirm their said writing this was done and they all came accordingly but contrary to their expectation though not deserts were all delivered into the custody of the Constable of Windesore Castle and shut up there in a large Tower where they had small chear and worse lodging The next day toward night all but five whereof the Mayor was one had their enlargement Those five their bodies and goods were as a boon bestowed on the Prince the rest were commanded to attend at Windesore for a long time after Sixty or seventy wealthy Citizens with all their Land Goods and Chattels did the King dipose to his houshold servant For the Government of this unruly City the King appointed one Oâ—hon a forreigner or stranger first Constable of the Tower and then Custos or Warden of the City to pull down their haughty spirits and that his Peace for the future might be surely kept he required the best mens sonnes in the City for Hostages these he clapt up in the Tower and caused them to be there kept at the cost and charges of their Parents Daily suit was made unto his Majesty for his Pardon and Favour but in vain then they petition the King
a fine according as his Majesty shall impose upon them c. 19. That all such as are acquitted so it be by those that have authority to acquit them remain and stand in such a condition as they are put into and that all that have paid their Fines shall not be responsible for dammages and trespasses committed by them upon those against whom they fought in the time of the late troubles but that all dammages and trespasses be forgiven on both sides provided that the Church may have her dues 20. That because it may be of dangerous consequence that any Castles should remain in the power of those who were in actuall Rebellion against the King We therefore decree and ordain that for the Castles of Hardley Bytham and Chertley there be given a reasonable exchange 21. As for the Earl Simon Monfort his Countesse and his sons we decree nothing because our Soveraign Lord the King hath referred them and their offences to the King of France 22. As for the City of London taking notice it seems of their humble Submission we commend it and do make this motion to our Soveraign Lord the King that by the advise of his Privy Councel he take order for reforming the state of the City and settle their Lands Revenues Buildings and Liberties and that this Order be presently debated 23. For the L Ferrers we decree that he be fined seven years revenues of all his estate 24. That all that now keep Killingworth Castle be pardoned except Henry Hastings and those that had any hand in cutting off the Kings Messengers hand all which shall be Fined seven years revenues of all their estates or else submit themselves to the Kings mercy 25. That all men whatsoever endeavour to keep the peace of the Kingdome that none presume to commit any outrages firings murders robberies or by any other means break the Peace Which if any shall be so hardy as not to observe and be thereof lawfully convicted let him have sentence according to the Laws of the Land 26. Item That all whom it may concern take their oaths upon the holy Gospel of God that they will never take any revenge be accessory or consenting to take any revenge nor will suffer as much as in them lies that any revenge should be taken against any one for any injury suffered in the late times of trouble and if any one shall presume to revenge himself We decree that punishment be inflicted upon him in the Kings Bench Court 27. That the Holy Church receive full satisfaction from those that have injured her 28. But if there be any that will not submit to this Ordinance or refuse to be tryed by their Peers before our Soveraign Lord the King let them forfeit their estates for ever And if there be any that have gotten possession of the Rebels Lands and were himself a Rebel he is thereby uncapable of challenging any right to the Land or to have any title to the fine by the Kings Majesties gift 29. Whosoever will not submit to this Ordinance let him be accounted a profest enemy to our Soveraign Lord the King and to his sons and to the whole Realm and let all the Laity and Clergie as far as the Canon Laws and Common Laws will reach prosecute such an one as an enemy to the Peace of Church and State 30. Lastly that all those that are imprisoned or any way debarred of their liberty upon reasonable and competent security shall have their inlargement by putting in Sureties or such other way as the King hath allowed Dated and set forth from the Camp before Kenelworth the last day of September * in the year of our Lord God 1266. and of the Reign of the most renowned King Henry the third 51. Thus endeth that famous Ordinance called to this day Dictum de Kenelworth wherein are comprised the wisest rules that the wisest men of those times could possibly devise to uphold compose and recover a tottering distracted dying Kingdome About two Moneths after the publication of this Ordinance viz. upon Saint Thomas Eve the Castle was delivered up upon conditions too good for those that had so barbarously used the Kings Messenger contemned the King and impoverished the Countrey to march away with their goods to undergo no Fine for taking up arms This Castle had the K. bestowed upon the Earl of Leicester in frank marriage with his sister Aelionor but when the Earl by his Rebellion had forfeited and the King had now won it he gave it to his own son Edmund Earl of Lancaster who by this time had reduced the Isle of Axholm and all those rude ignorant people that flockt thither pillaging and plundering the Kings friends round about The Prince also met with Adam Gurdon a famous sturdy Rebell that lay lurking in Aulton Wood in Hamshire robbing and spoiling the adjacent parts praeoipuè terras eorum qui parti Regiae adhaerebant the Prince upon his approach hearing of his valour sent him a challenge for a single Combate Gurdon accepts it and performed it so Gallantly that the Prince assured him of his life and estate if he would submit which he did and was received into great favour with the Prince but divers of his men were there executed But now the Isle of Ely was strongly fortified by a great multitude got together that refused to submit to the Ordinance of Kenelworth Upon the naturall strength of this Isle and the plenty of all provision therein seditious Rebels have often presumed and from hence have molested more Kings than one as they did now the neighbouring Counties robbing and pillaging Norfolk Suffolk and Cambridgeshire plundering the City of Norwich and carrying away the richest Citizens made them redeem themselves at length a Message was sent unto them requiring them to submit to the Ordinance of Killingworth to leave off robbing their fellow Subjects and to return to their allegeance Hereto they return this insolent answer that they had taken up arms to defend the good of Church and State and therefore ought to be restored to their lands without paying any Fine In brief they require Hostages into the Island and that they might hold it five years peaceably till they saw how the King would perform his promises perfidious Subjects ever suspect their Princes fidelity which high insolency of theirs unheard of till our times so exasperates the King that he resolves to try the utmost to reduce them to their obedience for that purpose marches with a mighty army against them the Prince also joyns with a considerable power after many assaults at length after they had held it above two years by the help of new made bridges and boats they stormed it on every side that they were forced to yield And now men thought that the fire was quite out But there were yet some live embers which the Earl of Glocester upon some distast blowing suddenly flamed out again in London where the Commons of