extraordinary Guards but according to Law in case of actual Rebellion or Invasion 17. That it will please your Majesty to confirm your Leagues with the United Provinces and other Princes of the Protestant Religion that you may be the more capable to defend it against Popish Attempts which will bring much Reputation to your Majesty and encourage your Subjects to endeavour in a Parliamentary way to re-establish your Sifter and her Children and other Princes oppressed for the same Cause 18. That it will please your Majesty to clear by an Act of Parliament the Lord Kimbolton and the five Members of the House of Commons so that future Parliaments may be secured against the Consequence of such ill Examples 19. That it will please your Majesty of your Grace to pass an Act That the Peers created hereafter shall have no Place nor Voice in Parliament at least unless they are admitted thereunto by the Parliament These humble Requests being granted unto us by your Majesty we shall endeavour as we ought to regulate the Revenue of your Majesty and to increase it more and more in such sort that it shall support the Dignity Royal with Honour and Abundance beyond whatever the Subjects of this Kingdom have allowed to their Kings your Majesty's Predecessors We will put also the Town of Hull into such Hands as your Majesty shall please with the Approbation of the Parliament and will give a good Account of the Munitions of War and of the Magazine And to conclude we shall chearfully do our Endeavours to give unto your Majesty Testimony of our Affection Duty and Faithfulness to preserve and maintain your Royal Honour the Greatness and Safety of your Majesty and of your Posterity These Propositions were delivered to the King by the Commissioners of the Parliament but without Success he being resolved to steer another Course presuming he might obtain as good Terms as these if reduced to the last Extremity and that if his Arms succeeded according to his Hopes his Will might pass for a Law pursuant to the Opinion of those who thought no way so likely to render his Authority absolute as the making of a War upon his People And now the Fire began to break out in the West Sir John Stawell and others drawing a Party together in Somersetshire for the King where Captain Preston and others opposed them and about Martials Elm on PoldenHill some of those who declared for the Parliament were killed Whereupon the Parliament ordered some Horse to be raised which they sent down under the Command of the Earl of Bedford to protect their Friends in those Parts By which means the Enemy being forced to quit the Field betook themselves to the Castle of Sherburn in Dorsetshire which after a short Siege was surrendred to the Parliament Portsmouth was also secured for the Parliament by the young Lord Goring then Governour thereof but he afterwards declaring for the King it was besieged and reduced by their Forces and the Government of it entrusted to Sir William Lewis The King having set up his Standard at Nottingham the 24 th of August 1642. the Parliament thought themselves obliged to make some Preparations to defend themselves having discovered that he had sent abroad to procure what Assistance he could against his People particularly applying himself to the King of Denmark acquainting him that the two Houses to make their Work sure against him were endeavouring to prove Queen Ann a Whore and thereby illegitimate all her Issue earnestly pressing him in vindication of his injured Sister as well as in consideration of his own relation to him to send him Succours This Letter was intercepted and brought to the Parliament who by a Declaration protested that no such thing had ever entred into their Thoughts The King also endeavoured under pretence of Law to take away the Lives of Dr. Bastwick and Captain Robert Ludlow for acting in obedience to the Commands of the Parliament and had proceeded to their Execution had not the Parliament by a Message sent to Judg Heath and delivered to him on the Bench threatned a Retaliation by executing two for one in case they went on which put a stop to that Design The Parliament having passed the following Votes 1. That the King seduced by evil Counsel intends to levy War against the Parliament 2. That when the King doth levy War against the Parliament he breaks his Trust and doth that which tends to the Dissolution of the Parliament 3. That whosoever shall assist him in such a War are Traitors and shall be proceeded against accordingly prepared for the raising of an Army and published several Declarations inviting the good People of England to assist them with their Prayers Persons and Purses to carry on this War which they were necessitated to enter into for the Defence of the Religion Laws Liberties and Parliament of England The Protestation taken by both Houses and by them proposed to the People to stand by each other in their just and necessary Undertaking was readily and chearfully taken by many in London and elsewhere and divers hundreds on Horseback from the Counties of Buckingham Hartford and Essex came up with their several Petitions acknowledging the Care and Faithfulness of the Parliament in the discharge of their Trust and promising to stand by them in the carrying on of what they had declared for Declarations were also set forth by the two Houses encouraging the People to provide Horses and Arms and to bring in Plate and Money for their necessary Defence engaging the Credit of the Publick for the Reimbursement of what should be so advanced Which Contributions arising to the Value of a great Sum they declared their Intentions of raising a certain Number of Horse and Foot with a proportionable Train of Artillery and voted the Earl of Essex to be their General whom the King to take him off from the Publick Interest had lately made Chamberlain of his Houshold Upon the same account he had also preferred the Lord Say to be Master of the Court of Wards and Mr. Oliver St. Johns to be his Solicitor General But this could not corrupt the Earl of Essex nor hinder him from discharging vigorously that Trust which the Parliament had reposed in him Divers of the Lords and Commons engaged their Lives with him and under him Of the Lords the Earl of Bedford who was General of the Horse the Lord Peterborough the Lord Willoughby of Parham the Lord Denbigh the Lord St. John the Lord Rochford and of the Commons Mr. Hampden and Mr. Hollis who raised Regiments Sir Philip Stapylton who commanded the Earl of Essex's Guard and Mr. Oliver Cromwell who commanded a Troop of Horse and divers others The Earl of Northumberland who was High Admiral staid with the Parliament The Earl of Warwick whom they made Vice-Admiral kept the greatest part of the Fleet in obedience to them Things being brought to this Extremity the Nation was driven to a necessity of Arming in
having observed these Passages went out from the Conference and hastned to the Army informing them what Entertainment their Commissioners and Proposals had found with the King Sir John Barkley being desirous to allay this heat demanded of Ireton and the rest of the Officers what they would do if the King should consent By whom it was answered that they would offer them to the Parliament for their Approbation The King having thus bid defiance to the Army thought it necessary to bend all his Force against them and especially to strengthen their Enemies in the Parliament To this end a Petition was contrived to press them to a speedy Agreement with the King and presented in a most tumultuous manner by great numbers of Apprentices and Rabble back'd and encouraged by many dismissed and disaffected Officers who joined with them Whilst the Two Houses were in Debate what Answer to give to this insolent Multitude some of them getting to the Windows of the House of Lords threw Stones in upon them and threatned them with worse Usage unless they gave them an Answer to their liking Others knocked at the door of the House of Commons requiring to be admitted but some of us with our Swords forced them to retire for the present and the House resolved to rise without giving any Answer judging it below them to do any thing by compulsion Whereupon the Speaker went out of the House but being in the Lobby was forced back into the Chair by the Violence of the insolent Rabble whereof above a thousand attended without doors and about sorty or fifty were got into the House So that it was thought convenient to give way to their Rage and the Speaker demanding what Question they desired to be put they answered That the King should be desired to come to London forth with which Question being put they were asked again what further they would have they said That he should be invited to come with Honour Freedom and Sasety to both which I gave a loud Negative and some of the Members as loud an Affirmative rather out of a prudential Compliance than any Affection to the Design on foot By these Votes and the coming down of divers well-affected Citizens to appease them the Tumult was somewhat allayed and the Members of Parliament with their Speaker passed through the Multitude safely The next Morning I advised with Sir Arthur Haslerig and others what was fittest to be done in this Conjuncture and it was concluded that we could not sit in Parliament without apparent Hazard of our Lives till we had a Guard for our Defence it being manifestly the Design of the other Party either to drive us away or to destroy us Therefore we resolved to betake our selves to the Army for Protection Sir Arthur Haslerig undertaking to perswade the Speaker to go thither to which he consented with some Difficulty and having caused a thousand Pounds to be thrown into his Coach went down to the Army which lay then at Windsor Maidenhead Colebrook and the adjacent Places Having acquainted as many of our Friends as I could with our Resolution to repair to the Army I went down and the next day being the same to which the Parliament had adjourned themselves the Army rendezvouzed upon Hownslow-heath where those Members of Parliament as well Lords as Commons who could not with Safety stay at Westminster appeared in the Head of them at which the Army expressed great Joy declaring themselves resolved to live and die with them At night the Earl of Northumberland the Lord Say the Lord Wharton and other Lords the Speaker and Members of the House of Commons aforesaid with Sir Thomas Fairfax and many principal Officers of the Army met at Sion-house to consult what was most advisable to do in that Juncture which whilst they were doing an Account was brought of the Proceedings of those at Westminster that day by the Serjeant of the House who came with his Mace to the no little Satisfaction of the Speaker He acquainted them that the remaining Members being met in the House of Commons had for some time attended the coming of their Speaker but being informed that he was gone to the Army they had made choice of one Mr. Pelham a Lawyer and Member of the House to be their Speaker After which they had appointed a Committee of Lords and Commons to join with the Directors of the Militia of London in order to raise Forces for the Defence of the Parliament the Success of which Attempt they desired to see before they would declare against the Army To this end Massey Pointz Brown and Sir William Waller encouraged by the Common Council and others who by various Artifices had been corrupted used all possible Diligence to list Men and prepare a Force to oppose the Army but their Proceedings therein were much obstructed by divers honest Citizens who importunately solicited them to treat with the Army and also by the News of the General Rendezvouz upon Hounslow-heath Tho the Lords had been removed from the Command of the Army yet it was manifest that their Influence there still continued partly from a desire of some great Officers to oblige them and partly from the Ambition of others to be of their Number who to shew their earnest Desires to serve the King being morally assured the Parliament and City were likely to be shortly in the Power of the Army who might be induced to take other Counsels in relation to the King upon such Success especially considering his late Carriage towards them they sent an Express to Sir John Barkley and Mr. Ashburnham advising that since the King would not yield to their Proposals that he would send a kind Letter to the Army before it were known that London would submit Whereupon a Letter was prepared immediately but the King would not sign it till after three or four Debates which lost one whole day's time At last Mr. Ashburnham and Sir John Barkley going with it met with Messengers from the Officers to hasten it But before they could come to Sion-house the Commissioners from London were arrived and the Letter out of season For coming after it was known with what Difficulty it had been obtained and that Matters were like to be adjusted between the Parliament and Army it lost both its Grace and Efficacy Notwithstanding all which the Officers being resolved to do what they could proposed whilst the Army was in the very Act of giving Thanks for their Success that they should not be too much elevated therewith but keep still to their former Engagement to the King and once more solemnly vote the Proposals which was done accordingly The face of Affairs in the City was at this time very various according to the different Advices they received for upon the Report of the Advance of the Army and the taking of some of their Scouts they cried out Treat Treat And at another time being informed that Men listed in great numbers the word
any Design they might have upon the City or Places adjacent To prevent which our General caused a Bridg of Boats to be laid over the River between Putney and Battersey which was no sooner finished but the Enemy retired to Oxford by the way of Reading which Place they fortified and placed a Garison therein a Party of ours having quitted it upon their Approach Garisons were also placed by them in the Towns of Newcastle upon Tyne Chester Worcester and several others as they had done before in York and Shrewsbery Some of ours likewise had possessed themselves of Glocester Bristol Exeter Southampton Dover and divers other Places The Enemy being retired our Army advanced to Windsor and made it our Head-quarters for the most part of that Winter and so desirous was the Parliament to prevent any further Effusion of Blood that notwithstanding the treacherous Design of the late Expedition they again sent Propositions of Peace to the King at Oxford being the same in effect with those delivered to him before at York but they sound no better Reception than the others had done I do not remember any thing remarkable perform'd by either Party this Winter save only an Attempt of the Enemy upon one of our Quarters at Henly where two Regiments of Foot one of which was Major General Skippon's then were who being tired with a long March and dispersed to their respective Quarters were fallen upon by a great body of the Enemy that had advanced to the Town 's end undiscovered but a small Party of our Men getting together one of our Gunners hastned to the Artillery which was planted upon the Avenue fired once or twice upon them and made so great a Slaughter especially of those Officers who were at the head of their Party that they retreated in great Disorder without any farther Attempt Our General having notice that the Enemy had a Design upon Bristol sent a Party commanded by Colonel Nathanael Fines to reinforce that Garison by which means it was prevented and some of their Correspondents in the Town thereupon executed About this time Sir Edward Hungerford having obtained the Command of the Forces in the County of Wilts for the Parliament invited me to raise a Troop of Horse in his Regiment in order to which I attended him at the Devizes and from thence went with him to Salisbury where he seized some quantity of Horse and Arms from Persons disafsected and with them mounted and armed part of his Men. And I having done what was convenient at that time for the raising of my Troop returned to the Head-quarters at Windsor where I gave them an account of the good Condition of Colonel Fines and Sir Edward Hungerford at which they were not a little surprized having been made to believe that they and their Troops were routed and cut in pieces by the Enemy Sir Ralph Hopton Sir Bevil Greenvil and others were very active in raising Forces for the King in Cornwall and the remote parts of Devonshire and had possessed themselves of Pendennis Dartmouth and Barnstaple as Colonel Ashburnham and others had done of Weymouth in Dorsetshire And the Parliament had ordered Garisons to be put into Plymouth Lyme and Pool In the Spring our Army was Master of the Field the King making it his business to be only upon the defensive till the Queen should arrive in England with an Army to his Assistance hoping to exhaust the Treasure of the City of London by Delays and thereby to cause them to abate their Zeal for the Publick omitting no opportunity by his Emissaries to create and foment Differences amongst them endeavouring by all means to procure an Insurrection for him to compel the Parliament to submit to such terms as he pleased to impose The Earl of Essex marched with the Army to besiege Reading a Frontier Town of the King 's which he had strongly fortify'd and garison'd The General himself sat down on the Northwest side and the Lord Grey of Wark on the South-east side of the Town the great Shot did some Damage to the Houses from one of which a Tile salling upon the Head of Sir Arthur Ashton a Papist and Governour thereof disabled him from executing that Charge during the rest of the Siege and Colonel Fielding was made Governour in his room The King thinking this Place to be of great Importance to him brought together all the Forces he could and marching on Cansam-side in order to relieve it was opposed by a small Party of ours who taking the advantage of some Ditches and Pales to shelter themselves repulsed his Men and forced him to retreat to Oxsord Upon this the Town was surrendred upon Articles to the Earl of Essex Colonel Fielding the Governour retiring to Oxford where he was tried and condemned to die but not executed At my coming into Wiltshire with three more of the Life-Guard two whereof were to be Officers in my Troop and the third in another Troop of the same Regiment I found Sir Edward Hungerford with the Forces of Wilts and Colonel Stroud with part of those of Somersetshire besieging Warder-Castle before which they had been about a week battering it with two small Pieces whereby they had done little other hurt save only to a Chimney-piece by a Shot entring at a Window But there being a Vault on each side of the Castle for the conveying away of Filth two or three Barrels of Powder were put into one of them and being fired blew up some part of it which with the grazing of a Bullet upon the Face of one of the Servants and the threatning of the Besiegers to spring the other Mine and then to storm it if it was not surrendrcd before an Hour-glass which they had turn'd up was run out so terrified the Ladies therein whereof there was a great Number that they agreed to surrender it The Government of this Castle was entrusted to my care by Sir Edward Hungerford who left with me a Company of Foot commanded by Captain Bean and my own Troop to defend it The Earl of Marlborough with some Horse possessed himself of a House in our Neighbourhood called Fount-hill with a Design to block us up but Sir Edward sent a party of Horse who fell upon him there and obliged him to quit it I levelled the Works that had been raised during the Siegc sunk a Well broke down the Vaults about the Castle and furnished it with Provisions expecting to be besieged as I was soon after For within a Fortnight after I was possessed of it the Lord Arundel to whom it belonged and whose Father died soon after he had received News that it was taken supposing to find me unprovided came with a Party of Horse and summoned me to deliver the Place for his Majesty's Use. Some who were with me advised me so to do yet I return'd the Enemy answer That I was entrusted to keep the Castle for the Service of the Parliament and could not surrender it without their Command
Parliament who being encompassed with Difficulties on all hands and understanding that the Queen was landing with a considerable Strength at Bridlington-Bay in the County of York sent Commissioners to treat with their Friends in Scotland to march into England to their Assistance In the mean timethe King's Army besieged the City of Glocester the King being there in Person to countenance the Siege The Besieged made a vigorous Defence for about a Month during which the Parliament took care to recruit their Army in order to relieve them Their Rendezvouz was appointed on Hounslow-heath whither some Members of Parliament of which my Father was one were sent to inspect their Condition that their Wants being known might be the better supplied who found them a very shatter'd and broken Body but the City being then very affectionate to the Publick soon recruited them and drew forth so many of their Trained Bands and Auxiliary Regiments as made them up a gallant Army In their March towards Glocester some of ours fell upon a Party of the Enemy at Cirencester of whom they took many Prisoners and seized a great quantity of Provisions which they found prepared for the Enemy who upon our Approach raised the Siege The Earl of Essex having relieved the Town was marching back again when he perceived the Enemy endeavouring to get between him and London and to that end falling upon his Rear with a strong Party of Horse they so disordered his Men and retarded the March of his Army that he sound himself obliged to engage them at Newbury The Dispute was very hot on both sides and the Enemy had the better at the first but our Men resolving to carry their point and the City-Regiments behaving themselves with great Bravery gave them before Night so little cause to boast that the next Morning they were willing to permit the Earl of Essex to march to London without interruption Few Prisoners were taken on either side The Enemy had several Persons of Quality killed the principal of whom were the Earl of Carnarvan the Earl of Sunderland the Lord Falkland and a French Marquiss We lost a Colonel of one of the City-Regiments together with some inferiour Officers Some of the Lords and Commons contrary to their Duty withdrew themselves from the Parliament at Westminster and went to the King at Oxford where they met together but never did any thing considerable for the King's Service and shewed themselves so little willing to assume the name of a Parliament that the King in a Letter to the Queen a Copy whereof was afterwards found amongst his Papers called them his Mongrel Parliament In the mean time the Earl of Manchester received a Commission from the Parliament to raise Forces in the associated Counties of Suffolk Norfolk Essex Cambridg Huntington c. which was very necessary for the King was Master of all Places of Strength from Berwick to Boston except Hull and two small Castles in Lincolnshire and Ferdinando Lord Fairfax not able to keep the Field against the Earl of Newcastle was retired with his Horse and Foot to Hull the Enemies Strength in the North no way inferiour to what it was in the West and none considerable enough to oppose their March into the South The Earl of Newcastle upon advice that the Lord Willoughby of Parham had possessed himself of the Town of Gainsborough for the Parliament sent his Brother Col. Cavendish Lieutenant General of his Army with a great Party of Horse and Dragoons to summon it himself marching after with the Foot Col. Oliver Cromwell having notice thereof and understanding by fresh Experience that Victory is not always obtained by the greater Number having lately defeated near Grantham twenty four Troops of the Enemies Horse and Dragoons with seven Troops only which he had with him resolved to endeavour the Relief of Gainsborough and with twelve Troops of Horse and Dragoons marched thither where he found the Enemy who were drawn up near the Town to be more than thrice his Number and no way to attack them but through a Gate and up-hill notwithstanding which Disadvantages he adventured to fall upon them and after some Dispute totally routed them killing many of their Officers and amongst them Lieutenant General Cavendish Thus was Gainsborough relieved but the Conquerors had little time to rejoice for within two or three hours the routed Enemy rallying and joining with the rest of Newcastle's Army marched against them Upon which they retreated to Lincoln that night in good order and without any Loss facing the Enemy with three Troops at a time as they drew off the rest Lincoln not being defensible Col. Cromwell marched the next day to Boston that he might join the Earl of Manchester who with his new-rais'd Forces had very seasonably reduced Lynn a Town in Norfolk not far from the Sea naturally strong and might have proved impregnable if Time had favoured Art and Industry to have fortified and furnished it with Provisions But Sir Hammond Lestrange who had before surprized it for the King was soon surprized himself and being suddenly summoned by the Earl of Manchester and threatned with a Storm after he had fired a few great Shot against the Besiegers thought fit to surrender it upon Articles From thence the Earl of Manchester marched to Boston where being joined by Col. Cromwell appointed by the Parliament to command under him and a Party of Horse brought by Sir Thomas Fairfax by Sea from Hull he mustered about six thousand Foot and thirty seven Troops of Horse and Dragoons To prevent any further addition to his Forces the Earl of Newcastle advanced with his Army and sent a strong Detachment of Horse and Dragoons towards Boston appearing by their Standards to be eighty seven Troops commanded by Sir John Henderson an old Souldier who hearing that Col. Cromwell was drawn out towards him with the Horse and Dragoons made haste to engage him before the Earl of Manchester with the Foot could march up as accordingly it fell out at a place called Winsby-field near Horn-castle In the first shock Col. Cromwell had his Horse kill'd under him yet the Encounter was but short tho very sharp for there being Field-room enough the Fight lasted but a quarter of an hour before the Earl of Newcastle's Forces were totally routed and many of them killed amongst them the Lord Widdrington Sir Ingram Hopton and other Persons of Quality The Enemy had no time to rally being pursued by ours almost as far as Lincoln which was fourteen Miles off in which Pursuit divers of them were killed and made Prisoners and many Horse and Arms taken Neither were they suffered to rest at Lincoln the Earl of Manchester marching thither the day following where the Enemies broken Troops had endeavoured to fortisy the higher part of the City called the Close but had not quite finished their Works when the Earl arrived and summoned them to surrender which they resusing our Foot and Horse fell on and took it
sitting in Council there having not quite lost the Affections of English-men took the examination of that Affair into their hands and suspended Smith from the execution of his Office till he should give Satisfaction concerning those things of which he was accused They committed the Management of the Place to one Thorp and sent some of their own Number to enquire concerning our Usage In the mean time Smith came to me by Order and offered me the liberty of the Town and to lodg where I pleased therein upon my Parole to be a true Prisoner but demanding of him whether in case I accepted his Offer I might have the liberty to visit my Friends in the Castle when I thought fit and he answering that it would not be allowed I chose rather to be confined with my Friends than at liberty with my Enemies The Lord Arundel endeavouring to make good his Promise of procuring my Exchange for his two Sons earnestly solicited the King to it but tho he had been a great Sufferer for his Service the King positively refused to grant his Request telling him he had no use of Children The Lady Byron came to me and desired me to procure her Husband who was Prisoner in the Tower to be exchanged for me and carried a Letter from me to my Mother then at London about it who soliciting the Earl of Essex our General to that effect was desired by him not to trouble her self any more therein assuring her that he would be as careful of me as if I were his own Son A Person from Sir Edward Stradling came also to me in order to an Exchange between us telling me that the King had promised that nothing of that nature should be done before Sir Edward Stradling and Col. Lunsford were exchanged The Lord Willmot sent a Gentleman to acquaint me that he had procured a Grant from the King that I should be exchanged for Sir Hugh Pollard and that if I would write a Letter to the Earl of Essex with the Proposal he would send it by a Trumpeter but I judging this Exchange to be very unequal Sir Hugh being a Person much esteemed for his Interest and Experience proposed in my Letter to the Lord General that he would put some other Person with me into the Balance against him Whilst I was in expectation of the General 's Answer we received Advice that most of our Foot that lay before Newark commanded by Sir John Meldrum a worthy Scots-man were defeated and made Prisoners by Prince Rupert But this Loss was in some measure recompensed by a Victory obtained at Cherington in Hampshire by our Forces commanded by Sir William Waller against those of the King commanded by Sir Ralph Hopton The Numbers on each side were very near equal and the Success had been doubtful for the most part of the day but at last the Enemy was totally routed and put to flight And had good use been made of this Victory the Controversy had soon been decided in the West but we were not yet so happy to improve our Advantages by which Negligence we got little more than the Field and the Reputation of the Victory tho the Enemy lost some of their principal Officers in the Fight amongst whom were the Lord John Brother to the Duke of Lennox Sir Edward Stawell Col. Richard Manning formerly mentioned and that Smith who had been knighted by the King for rescuing his Standard out of the hands of Mr. Chambers Secretary to the Earl of Essex This Fight at Cherington happened on the 29 th of March 1644. about a Fortnight after the Surrender of Warder-Castle till which time had I been able to keep it I should have been relieved The Enemies Officers came to the Castle at Oxford to solicit the Prisoners to take Arms under them but finding their Endeavours to prove ineffectual they soon desisted from that Attempt After three Weeks Confinement here my Exchange was agreed the Lord General Essex expressing much Generosity and Readiness in it as he had promised to my Mother for lest the King should be reminded of his Promise to Sir Edward Stradling and Col. Lunsford or of that to my Lord Willmot in favour of Sir Hugh Pollard and so on either hand the design of my Liberty come to be obstructed he consented to the Exchange of all the three for Col. Houghton Sir John Savil Capt. Abercromy and my self Col. Henley went off also with us being exchanged for Lieutenant Colonel Robert Sandys I was led blindfold through the City of Oxford till I had passed their Works and the next day arrived at London where I found the Earl of Essex disposed to an Exchange for my Officers and Souldiers which was soon after made and with them for Mr. Balsum whom he entertained as his Chaplain to the time of his Death He expressed a great Desire to provide me with a Command in his Army but the Parliament upon the Instances of the Gentlemen that served for the County of Wilts having appointed me Sheriff thereof upon an Invitation of Sir Arthur Haslerig to be Major of his Regiment of Horse in Sir William Waller's Army which was designed for the Service of the West I accepted of it and mounted the choicest of my old Souldiers with me Sir Arthur buying a hundred Horse in Smithfield for that purpose the rest of my Men the Lord General took into his own Company As soon as my Troop was compleated and furnished with all things necessary I repaired to the Regiment then with Sir William Waller near Abingdon who was directed by the Parliament with his Army to block up the King at Oxford on one side whilst the Earl of Essex should do the same on the other Which Storm the Queen foreseeing withdrew to Exeter where she was delivered of a Daughter which she leaving in the Custody of the Lady Dalkeith returned to France as well to secure her self as to solicit for Supplies In the mean time the King breaking out from Oxford marched towards Worcestershire upon which the Earl of Essex commanded Sir William Waller to march after him whilst he himself with his Army marched westward This Order seemed very strange to the Parliament and to most of us being likely to break Sir William Waller's Army which consisted for the most part of Western Gentlemen who hop'd thereby to have been enabled to secure the Country and to promote the Publick Service The Parliament sent to the Lord General to observe his former Orders and to attend the King's Motions but he sending them a short Answer continued his March West in which he took Weymouth and relieved Lyme that had endured a long Siege and with the Assistance of the Seamen tho their Works were inconsiderable had often repulsed the Enemy and killed great numbers of them in several Sallies that they made upon them A Party commanded by Sir Robert Pye was ordered to Taunton which he reduced to the Obedience of the Parliament Upon the Advance of the
my Father's Servants had so well conceal'd at the first breaking out of the War in a private part of my House that they escaped the Search of the Enemy who had plundered all they could find broken all the Windows taken away the Leads and pulled up the Boards in most parts of the House Whilst I was at London that Party which I left in the Country had taken some Wool and other things from the Lord Cottington the Lord Arundel and others which they sold and divided the Money amongst themselves From the Lord Cottington's they brought amongst other things a Horse that had been taken from me before at Warder-Castle The Lord Fairfax the Earl of Manchester and the Scots besieged York of which the Earl of Newcastle was Governour having with him a Garison consisting of six or seven thousand Foot besides Horse After some time spent in the Siege Prince Rupert arrived with about eighteen thousand Men and caused the Besiegers to raise the Siege who joining their Forces resolved to observe his Motions and to fight him if they found an occasion but that they might be a little refreshed and furnished with Provisions which they wanted they marched towards Tadcaster If Prince Rupert who had acquired Honour enough by the Relief of York in the view of three Generals could have contented himself with it and retreated as he might have done without fighting the Reputation he had gained would have caused his Army to increase like the rolling of a Snowball but he thinking this nothing unless he might have all forced his Enemies to a Battel against the Advice of many of those that were with him in which the Lest Wing of the Enemy charging the Right Wing of ours consisting of English and Scots so totally routed them that the three Generals of the Parliament quitted the Field and fled towards Cawood Castle The Left Wing of our Army commanded by Col. Cromwell knowing nothing of this Rout engaged the Right Wing of the Enemy commanded by Prince Rupert who had gained an advantageous piece of Ground upon Marston-Moor and caused a Battery to be erected upon it from which Capt. Walton Cromwell's Sister's Son was wounded by a shot in the Knee Whereupon Col. Cromwell commanded two Field-pieces to be brought in order to annoy the Enemy appointing two Regiments of Foot to guard them who marching to that purpose were attacked by the Foot of the Enemies right Wing that fired thick upon them from the Ditches Upon this both Parties seconding their Foot were wholly engaged who before had stood only facing each other The Horse on both sides behaved themselves with the utmost Bravery for having discharged their Pistols and flung them at each others Heads they sell to it with their Swords The King's Party were encouraged in this Encounter by seeing the Success of their Left Wing and the Parliament's Forces that remained in the Field were not discouraged because they knew it not both sides eagerly contending for Victory which after an obstinate Dispute was obtained by Cromwell's Brigade the Enemies Right Wing being totally routed and flying as the Parliament's had done before our Horse pursuing and killing many of them in their Flight And now the Enemies Left Wing who had been Conquerors returned to their former Ground presuming upon an entire Victory and utterly ignorant of what had befallen Prince Rupert but before they could put themselves into any order they were charged and entirely defeated by the Reserves of Cromwell's Brigade Prince Rupert upon the routing of the Parliament's Right Wing concluding all to be his own had sent Letters to the King to acquaint him with the Victory upon which the Bells were rung and Bonfires made at Oxford Sir Charles Lucas Major General Porter Major General Tilyard with above a hundred Officers more were taken Prisoners by the Parliament's Forces All the Enemies Artillery great Numbers of Arms and a good quantity of Ammunition and Baggage fell also into their hands The Prince's own Standard with the Arms of the Palatinate was likewise taken with many others both of Horse and Foot Fifteen days after this Fight being the 16 th of July 1644. the City of York was surrendred to the Parliament's Forces upon Articles and the Earl of Newcastle having had some Dispute with Prince Rupert before the Engagement wherein some Words had passed which the Earl could not well digest soon after left England and the Prince retired to Bristol The Earl of Essex was marched with his Army into Cornwall yet to what publick end I could never understand for the Enemy there had already dispersed themselves Some said that he was perswaded to march thither by the Lord Roberts to give him an opportunity to collect his Rents in those Parts Upon this the King drew out what Forces he could from Oxford designing to join them with some others in the West by which Conjunction the Parliament apprehending their Army under Essex to be in danger ordered Sir William Waller to observe the King's Motions But whether the Neglect of relieving him at the Devizes or the Affront put upon him by commanding him to follow the King after he had been ordered to attend the Service of the West or what else it was that had sower'd him I cannot say yet visible it was that so much Care and Expedition was not used in attending the King in his Marches as was requisite However Lieutenant General Middleton then under Sir William Waller was sent with a Party of Horse to the Assistance of the Earl of Essex but he kept at such a distance from him that he afforded him little Help Neither was there that Diligence as should have been then used by the Earl of Essex himself to engage the King before his Conjunction with the Western Forces or to fight them when they were united they not much if at all exceeding ours in Number and in Courage and Affection to the Cause engaged in much inferiour But the Earl of Essex and the Lord Roberts having led the Army into a Corner of Cornwall betook themselves to the Ships with which the Earl of Warwick attended the Motion of the Army Being thus deserted the Horse broke through the Enemy under the Conduct of Sir William Balfour the Foot and Train of Artillery being left with Major General Skippon about Bodmin who was forced about the latter end of September 1644. to make the best Terms he could with the Enemy for them agreeing to leave their Arms and Cannon behind them and to be conducted into the Parliament's Quarters with whatsoever belonged to them but before the Convoy had done with them they lost most of their Clothes and in that condition arrived at Portsmouth where they found their General the Earl of Essex The Parliament soon caused them to be armed and clothed again and the Horse having forced their way as before mentioned the Army was speedily recruited scarce a Man having taken Arms on the other side The Earl of Manchester and Sir
were ordered to be hung up in Westminster-Hall and the Prisoners were secured in the Artillery-Ground near Tuttle-fields a Committee being appointed to consider how to dispose of them who permitted those to return home that would give Security for their living peaceably for the future but such as did not which was much the greater Number were shipped off to serve in Foreign Parts upon Conditions This Success was astonishing being obtained by Men of little Experience in Affairs of this nature and upon that account despised by their Enemies yet it proved the deciding Battel the King's Party after this time never making any considerable Opposition Leicester capitulated two days after and was surrendred and some of our Forces besieged Chester whilst the Scots did the like to Hereford The General Sir Thomas Fairfax marched with the Army to relieve our Friends at Taunton where Col. Welden was besieged took Highworth in his March and dissipated the Club-men defeated Goring's Forces at Lamport possessed himself of the Towns of Bridgwater and Bath by Capitulation and of Sherburn-Castle by storm Bristol also was surrendred after the Outworks and Fort had been taken by Assault with divers other Successes of less importance and therefore unnecessary to be mentioned here Lieutenant General Cromwell being sent to reduce such Garisons as were in the way to London began with the Castle of Winchester which was delivered to him upon Articles after which he marched to Basinghouse and erected a Battery on the East-side of it by which having made a Breach he stormed and entered it putting many of the Garison to the Sword and taking the rest with the Marquiss of Winchester whose House it was Prisoners Col. Robert Hammond had been before made Prisoner by the Marquiss and was kept here by him in order to secure his own Life which he did by putting himself under the Colonel's Protection when ours entred the Place It was suspected that Col. Hammond ' being related to the Earl of Essex whose half-Sister was married to the Marquiss of Winchester had suffered himself to be taken Prisoner on design to serve the said Marquiss The next Place he attempted was Langford-house near Salisbury which was yielded in a day or two upon Articles The Works about Basing were levelled Sherborn-Castle slighted as also Falston-house of which Major Ludlow was Governour who was removed to undertake the same Charge at Langford-house wherein the Parliament thought fit to keep a Garison by reason of its nearness to the Enemy The King as well to secure himself by getting as far from our Forces as he could as to raise a new Army if possible marched with the Horse that he had left towards North-Wales hoping in his way to relieve Chester besieged by Sir William Brereton and by his Presence in Wales to prevail with them to furnish him with a Body of Foot but he found himself frustrated in both these Designs For being worsted near Routen Heath by Major General Pointz who commanded a Brigade of the Parliament's in those Parts he saw the Face of Affairs much altered both in North and South-Wales In the last of which tho he was entertained civilly by some particular Persons yet the generality of the Country that during his Successes had subjected themselves even slavishly to his Instruments now fearing he might draw the Army of the Parliament after him and make their Country the Seat of War began to murmur against him and drew together a numerous Body in the nature of a Club-Army whispering amongst themselves as if they intended to seize his Person and deliver him to the Parliament to make their Peace Which being reported to the King he thought fit to retire from thence with his Forces only leaving a small Garison in the Castle of Cardiff which together with the County was soon after reduced to the Obedience of the Parliament by Col. Pritchard where Sir John Strangwaies was amongst others taken Prisoner who by order of the Parliament was sent up to London and committed to the Tower The Isle of Anglesey and such Places of North-Wales as had been held for the King were surrendred to the Parliament but Glamorganshire and the parts adjacent continued not long in their Duty but revolted at the Instigation of one Mr. Kerne of Winny who pretending great Fidelity to the Parliament was intrusted by them as their Sheriff for that County and made use of that Authority to raise the Country against them and to besiege Colonel Pritchard and the rest of their Friends in the Castle of Cardiff who being reduced to some necessity had been probably constrained to surrender it had not speedy relief been procured from the Parliament under the Conduct of Colonel Kirle of Glocestershire who falling suddenly upon the Enemy routed and killed many of them The King's Affairs being in this low condition in England and Wales he resolved to try what might be done in Scotland in order to which he commands the Lord Digby to march thither with a Party of sixteen hundred Horse and to join the Marquiss of Montross then in Arms for him in that Kingdom In obedience to the King's Order the Lord Digby marched from Newark and in his way surprized about eight hundred of ours near Sherbon but was afterwards routed by Col. Copley who recovered the Men and Arms taken from ours killed forty of the Enemy upon the spot took four hundred of them Prisoners and about six hundred Horses The Lord Digby's Coach and Papers were also taken This Party was defeated a second time by Sir John Brown and a third by Col. Bright who took two hundred of them Prisoners the Lord Digby with about twenty more hardly escaping to the Isle of Man and from thence to Ireland At the approach of Sir Thomas Fairfax's Army the Enemy raised the Siege of Taunton from thence the General marched to Honyton and the next day to Colompton from whence the Enemy retired in great disorder On October 20. the Army tho much weakned by hard Duty and the Rigour of the Season resolved upon the Blockade of Exeter Carmarthen Castle Monmouth and divers other Places were surrendred to the Parliament so that the King looking upon the Rebels in Ireland as his last Refuge sends Orders to the Earl of Ormond not only to continue the Cessation but to conclude a Peace with them upon condition they would oblige themselves to send over an Army to his Assistance against the Parliament of England The Supreme Council of Ireland as they called themselves having notice of it invited the Earl of Ormond to Kilkenny to treat about the same who being willing to see his Relations and his Estate in those Parts as also to expedite that Service accepted their Invitation and marched thither with about three or 4000 Horse and Foot for his Guard which by the advice of the Lord Mountgarret and the Supreme Council were dispersed into Quarters in the Villages thereabouts the Earl of Ormond suspecting nothing having sent Orders to
Sir Francis Willoughby who commanded that Party under him to that purpose but he being an old and experienced Commander well acquainted with the Treachery of that Nation and particularly of those of the Popish Religion knowing how easy it would be for the Irish to cut them off in the Quarters assigned for them resolved not to consent to the dispersing of his Men and therefore desired of the Earl of Ormond that he might quarter with them in the Field or where his Lordship should appoint desiring if this would not satisfy he might have Liberty to return home advising him not to trust his Person with them notwithstanding their fair Words My Lord hereupon leaves the Care of quartering his Men to Sir Francis Willoughby but resolves himself to stay at Kilkenny Sir Francis draws the Troops into Goran a Town five Miles from Kilkenny where he kept his Guards with as much Caution as if he had been in an Enemies Country The Enemy being by this means disappointed of their Design to cut off the Party by surprize resolved to attempt it by open Force and all the favour that the Earl of Ormond could get amongst his Relations was to have notice to shift for himself which with much difficulty he did sending Orders to his Forces to march towards Dublin in which he was very readily obeyed by them having had advice that the Country was rising upon them which they did in such numbers that if Col. Bagnal Governour of Loughlyn had not permitted them to pass the Bridg there they had in all appearance been cut off When they had recovered their own Quarters they discovered a piece of Treachery as Sir Francis Willoughby who gave me this account judged it to be tho he knew not on whom to charge it for they found that they had not been in a condition to make any Opposition if the Enemy had fallen upon them the Powder with which they were furnished having no force in it which came to be discovered upon the trial of a Musquet at a Mark by the small report it gave and the fall of the Bullet half way from it Whereupon searching further into the matter they found all their Store to be of the same sort The Irish seized upon all the Earl of Ormond's Plate and whatsoever he had with him at Kilkenny his Haste not permitting him to save any thing By this Usage his Zeal for the prosecution of the Treaty with the Rebels became much abated The King's Commission to the Earl of Ormond was not of so large an extent as he was willing to allow in case the Treaty with the Irish came to any effect and therefore the Earl of Glamorgan afterwards Earl of Worcester was impowered by private Instructions from him to promise them the Liberty of the Romish Religion with divers other Advantages to the Irish Rebels upon which he treated with them But because this when it came to be publickly known in England was highly resented by many even of the King's Party the Lord Digby who was ordered by the King to assist in that Affair finding that the Treaty was not like to take effect to give a specious Colour to the matter as if Glamorgan had in that particular exceeded his Commission accused him of High Treason and procured him to be imprison'd by the Earl of Ormond but in Letters intercepted from the Lord Glamorgan to his Lady he desired that she would not entertain any Fears concerning him for that he doubted not if he could be admitted to be heard that he should be able to justify his Proceedings to the Confusion of those who had caused his Imprisonment The English Officers and Souldiers provoked by the late Treachery of the Irish and apprehending that without Assistance from England they might fall into their hands would not be satisfied unless a Message were sent to the Parliament to treat about Conditions for the putting of Dublin and the Protestant Forces of Ireland into their Hands In order to which the Parliament sent over Commissioners to treat with the Earl of Ormond and the Council But tho the Earl was not willing that any thing should be concluded at that time yet Sir Francis Willoughby was as I have heard him say so far convinced of the Necessity and Duty that lay upon them so to do that he promised our Commissioners to preserve the Castle of Dublin of which he was then Governour for the Service of the Parliament whensoever they should command it Montross having obtained a Victory against those whom the Scots had left to preserve the Peace of Scotland by the means of which he was become Master of a great part of that Kingdom David Lesley was sent thither from Hereford with most of the Scotish Horse where he defeated the Army of Montross and reduced that Nation to its former Obedience After the Surrender of Bristol to the Forces of the Parliament Prince Rupert who had been Governour thereof returned to Oxford where he found so cool a Reception from the King by reason of the Loss of that Place that Col. Leg then Governour of Oxford was turned out of that Command for being of his Faction and the Government of that City put into the Hands of Sir Thomas Glenham The Prince was for some time forbidden to wear a Sword and tho he was soon after restored to that Liberty yet he was never more intrusted with any Command The House of Commons finding their Business to increase and their numbers to diminish by the Death of some and Desertion of others to the King at Oxford ordered the Commissioners of the Seal to issue out Writs to such Counties Cities and Boroughs as the House by their particular Order should direct for the Election of Members to serve in Parliament They ordered also a Jewel to be prepared of the Value of about seven hundred Pounds to be presented to Sir Thomas Fairfax it had the House of Commons represented on one side and the Battel of Naseby on the other three Members of Parliament were deputed to carry the Present to him the Opportunity of whose Guard I took to go into the West without disturbance which was difficult to do at that time many of the King's Party hovering about the Downs from whence they were called Col. Downs his Men who rendring the Rode unsafe I procured a Guard of twenty or thirty of the County Horse to accompany me during my stay in those Parts So small a Number not being sufficient either to defend me or to make any Attempt I betook my self to Col. Massey's Party commanded at that time by Col. Edward Cook where I had not been long before an Alarm was given that a Party of Horse from Oxford had marched by with a design to relieve Corse-Castle besieged at that time by our Forces But before we could get our Men together they had surprized part of ours in Warham and beaten off the Guard between that Place and the Castle which they relieved with
about threescore of the Commissioners set their Hands and Seals directing it to Col. Hacker Col. Hunks and Col. Phaier or either of them The Duke of Glocester and the Lady Elizabeth waited on the King the same day to take their leave of him An Extraordinary Ambassador from the United Provinces had his Audience in the Parliament his business was to intercede with them for the Life of the King and to preserve a fair Correspondence between England and the States The next day about eight in the Morning the King attended by a Guard was brought from St. James's through the Park to Whitehall where having drunk a Glass or two of red Wine and stayed about two hours in a private Room he was conducted to the Scaffold out of a Window of the Banqueting-house and having made a Speech and taken off his George he kneeled down at the Block and the Executioner persormed his Office The Body was ordered to be interred at Windsor The Duke of Lenox the Marquiss of Hertford the Earls of Southampton and Lindsey with some others having Leave from the Parliament attended it to the Grave A Report of the Proceedings of the High Court of Justice being made to the Parliament they declared That the Persons imployed in that important Service had discharged their Trust with Courage and Fidelity that the Parliament was well satisfied with the Account of their Proceedings ordering them to be engrossed and recorded amongst the Parliament-Rolls in order to transmit the Memory thereof to Posterity and resolved that the Commissioners of the Great Seal should issue a Certiorari to their Clerk to record those Proceedings in the Chancery and that the same should be sent to the other Courts at Westminster and to the Custos Rotulorum of each County Judg Jenkins Sir John Stowel and divers other Persons who were Prisoners and had carried themselves very insolently now finding the Parliament to be in earnest began to come to a better Temper Colonel Middleton who was also a Prisoner at Newcastle upon Parole ran away to Scotland and being required to return answered That his Life was dearer to him than his Honour Sir Marmaduke Langdale made his escape also and Sir Lewis Dives through a House of Office in Whitehall The Lord Capel got out of the Tower but being discovered by a Waterman as he crossed the Thames he was seized in a House at Lambeth Duke Hamilton also escaped out of Windsor-Castle and came to Southwark where knocking at the Door of an Inn he was seized by a Souldier who knew him and was passing by that way whereupon he was committed to the Tower The House of Lords becoming now the Subject of the Consideration and Debate of the Parliament Lieutenant General Cromwell appeared for them having already had a close Correspondence with many of them and it may be presuming he might have farther use of them in those Designs he had resolved to carry on but they not meeting in their House at the time to which they had adjourned much facilitated their Removal so that the Question being put Whether the House of Commons should take Advice of the House of Lords in the Exercise of the Legislative Power it was carried in the Negative and thereupon resolved That the House of Peers was useless and dangerous and ought to be abolished and an Act was soon after passed to that effect After this they proceeded to declare That the Office of a King in this Nation is unnecessary burdensome and dangerous to the Liberty Safety and publick Interest of the People and therefore ought to be abolioshed and that they will settle the Government of the Nation in the way of a Commonwealth To this end they ordered a Declaration to be published whereby it was declared Treason for any Person to endeavour to promote Charles Stuart to be King of England or any other single Person to be chief Governour thereof They also ordered the Great Seal and other Seals which had the Image of the late King on them to be defaced and appointed new ones to be made with the Stamp of the House of Commons on one side accompanied with this Inscription The Great Seal of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England On the other side was engraven the Cross and the Harp being the Arms of England and Ireland with this Inscription God with us Ordering all Writs formerly running in the King's Name to be issued out in the Name of the Keepers of the Liberty of England A High Court of Justice was constituted by Act of Parliament for the trying of Duke Hamilton the Earl of Holland the Lord Goring the Lord Capel and Sir John Owen Duke Hamilton pleaded that he entred into England as an Enemy being of another Nation and born before the Act of Union and consequently not to be tried by the Laws of this besides he had surrendred himself upon Conditions The rest of the Lords pleaded Articles also and so did Sir John Owen But that Allegation appeared to be of no weight by the Testimony of the General in relation to the Lords Goring and Capel and by the Evidence of Col. Wayte touching Duke Hamilton the like being affirmed by other Witnesses against the Earl of Holland and Sir John Owen for if there had been any Promise made to any of them either implicitely or by word of Mouth it could only extend to protect them from the Military not the Civil Sword And as to the Plea for Duke Hamilton that he was born before the two Nations were united it was answered that they tried him not as Duke Hamilton but as Earl of Cambridg in which Capacity he had sate as a Peer of England and therefore a Subject thereof So that upon full Evidence they were all sentenced by the Court to have their Heads struck off for High Treason in levying War against the Parliament of England Earnest Solicitations and Petitions were made for them to the Parliament but they thought not fit to reprieve the Duke the Earl of Holland or the Lord Capel Touching the Lord Goring the House was equally divided and the Speaker having upon such Occasions the determining Voice gave it for his Reprieve Commissary General Ireton observing no Motion consider that he was a Commoner and therefore more properly to have been tried in another way by a Jury whereupon the House reprieved him also The other three were executed a day or two after in the New Palace-Yard before Westminster-Hall in pursuance of a Warrant signed by the Court to that purpose the Parliament refusing to hearken to the Earl of Denbigh who proposed on the behalf of Duke Hamilton his Brother-in-law to give them a Blank signed by the said Duke to answer faithfully to such Questions as should be there inserted The Parliament having resolved to constitute a Council of State the better to carry on the executive part of the Government authorized five of their Members to agree upon the Number and Persons of such as they
unwarrantable Courses but he made his Escape by Water for that time and one of the most active of the People was seized and executed which served only to exasperate the rest Upon the near Approach of the English and Scots Army a considerable Party of each side encountred and the English contrary to their wonted Custom retired in Disorder not without Shame and some Loss Of such Force and Consequence is a Belief and full Perswasion of the Justice of an Undertaking tho managed by an Enemy in other respects inconsiderable The King startled at the Unsuccessfulness of his first Attempt upon the Petition of a considerable number of the well-affected Nobility requesting him that to avoid the Effusion of more Blood he would call an Assembly of the Nobility consented thereunto This Council accordingly met at York and advised the King to a Cessation of Arms and the Calling of a Parliament to compose Differences which to the great trouble of the Clergy and other Incendiaries he promised to do assuring the Scots of the Paiment of twenty thousand Pounds a Month to maintain their Army till the Pleasure of the Parliament should be known In order to which Writs were issued out for the Meeting of a Parliament on the 3 d of November 1640. The time prefix'd for their assembling being come they met accordingly and as they were very sensible that nothing but an absolute Necessity permitted their coming together so they resolved to improve this happy Opportunity to free the People from their Burdens and to punish the Authors of the late Disorders To this end they declared against Monopolies and expelled the Authors of them out of the House The Opinions of the Judges concerning Ship-Money they voted unjust and illegal fining and imprisoning those that had warranted the Lawfulness thereof And that the Offenders against the Publick might not escape they ordered the Sea-Ports to be diligently guarded and all Passengers to be strictly examined This being done they impeached the Lord Keeper Finch the Earl of Strafford and the Arch-bishop of Canterbury of High Treason in endeavouring to subvert the Laws and to erect an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Power They declared that they would pay the English and Scots Armies to the end of May 1641. and assist the Prince Palatine with Men and Money to recover his Country And now having the Charge of two Armies to pay and all Men suspecting they might be abruptly dissolved as had often hapned before and therefore refusing to credit them with such Sums as were necessary unless an Act might pass to secure their sitting till they should think fit to dissolve themselves by Act of Parliament the King gave his Assent to one drawn up and passed to that purpose Another Act likewise passed to assert that according to the antient Fundamental Laws of England a Parliament ought to be held every Year and directing that in case one was not called in three Years the Lord Chancellor or Keeper of the Great Seal should issue out Writs as is therein expressed and if he fail in his Duty he is declared guilty of High Treason and a certain number of Lords impowered to summon the said Parliament and is they should neglect so to do the Sheriffs and Constables are vested with the same Authority But if it should happen that all the forementioned Powers should be wanting in their Duty the People of England are thereby authorized to put the said Act in execution by meeting and electing Members to serve in Parliament tho not summoned by any Officers appointed to that end The Parliament then proceeded to correct the Abuses that had been introduced in the preceding Years Whereupon the Star-Chamber the High Commission Court the Court of Honour with some others were taken away by Act of Parliament and the Power of the Council-Table restrained The Commissioners of the Custom-House who had collected Customs contrary to Law were fined and such as had been imprisoned by any of the above-mentioned Arbitrary Courts were set at liberty A Protestation was also agreed upon by the Lords and Commons which they took and presented to others to take whereby all those that took it obliged themselves to defend and maintain the Power and Privileges of Parliament the Rights and Liberties of the People to use their utmost Endeavours to bring to condign Punishment all those who should by Force or otherwise do any thing to the contrary and to stand by and justify all such as should do any thing in prosecution of the said Protestation The Day prefix'd for the Earl of Strafford's Trial being come he was brought before the House of Peers where the Charge against him was managed by Members of the House of Commons appointed to that end The chief Heads of the Accusation were That he had governed the Kingdom of Ireland in an Arbitrary manner That he had retained the Revenues of the Crown without rendring a due Account of them That he had encouraged and promoted the Romish Religion That he had endeavoured to create Feuds and Quarrels between England and Scotland That he had laboured to render the Parliament suspected and odious to the King That he was the Author of that Advice That since the Parliament had denied to grant the King such Supplies as he demanded he was at liberty to raise them by such Means as he thought fit and that he had an Irish Army that would assist him to that end It being the Custom that a Lord High Steward should be made to preside at the Trial of a Peer that Honour was conferred upon the Earl of Arundel The King the Queen the House of Commons the Deputies of Scotland and Ireland with many other Persons of Quality of both Sexes were there present I remember the Earl of Strafford in his Defence objected against the Evidence of the Earl of Cork denying him to be a competent Witness because his Enemy To which George Lord Digby who was appointed one of the Managers of the Charge against him replied That if that Objection should be of any weight with the Court the Earl of Strafford had found out a certain way to secure himself from any sarther Prosecution Yet this Man who then spoke with so much Vigour soon after altered his Language and made a Speech to the House in his favour which he caused to be printed and also surreptitiously withdrew a Paper from the Committee containing the principal Evidence against the said Earl The Parliament resenting this Prevarication ordered his Speech to be burnt by the Hands of the Common Hangman The House of Commons having passed a Bill for the Condemnation of the Earl it was carried to the Lords for their Concurrence which they gave The King not satisfied therewith consulted with the Privy Council some Judges and four Bishops And all of them except one advise the throwing of Jonas over-board for the appeasing of the Storm Upon which the Earl of Arundel the Lord Privy Seal and two more were commissionated by
defence of the Laws openly and frequently violated by the King who had made it the chief business of his Reign to invade the Rights and Privileges of the People raising Taxes by various Arts without their Consent in Parliament encouraging and preferring a formal and superstitious Clergy discouraging the sober and vertuous amongst them imposing upon all the Inventions of Men in the room of the Institutions of God And knowing that Parliaments were the most likely means to rectify what was amiss to give a check to his Ambition and to punish the principal Instruments of that illegal Power which he had assumed had endeavoured either to prevent their Meeting or to render them fruitless to the People and only serviceable to his corrupt ends by granting him Money to carry on his pernicious Designs A Parliament being now called and an Act passed authorizing them to fit till they should think fit to dissolve themselves And it being manifest to them and to all those who had any Concern for the Happiness of the Nation that the King would do nothing effectually to redress the present or to secure the People from future Mischiefs chusing rather to contend with them by Arms than for their satisfaction to entrust the Militia in faithful Hands resolving to impose that by the Force of his Arms which he could not do by the Strength of his Arguments I thought it my Duty upon consideration of my Age and vigorous Constitution as an English-man and an Invitation to that purpose from my Father to enter into the Service of my Country in the Army commanded by the Earl of Essex under the Authority of the Parliament I thought the Justice of that Cause I had engaged in to be so evident that I could not imagine it to be attended with much Difficulty For tho I supposed that many of the Clergy who had been the principal Authors of our Miseries together with some of the Courtiers and such as absolutely depended upon the King for their Subsistence as also some Foreigners would adhere to him yet I could not think that many of the People who had been long oppressed with heavy Burdens and now with great difficulty had obtained a Parliament composed of such Persons as were willing to run all Hazards to procure a lasting Settlement for the Nation would be either such Enemies to themselves or so ungrateful to those they had trusted as not to stand by them to the utmost of their Power at least tho some might not have so much Resolution and Courage as to venture All with them yet that they would not be so treacherous and unworthy to strengthen the Hands of the Enemy against those who had the Laws of God Nature and Reason as well as those of the Land on their side Soon after my Engagement in this Cause I met with Mr. Richard Fynes Son to the Lord Say and Mr. Charles Fleetwood Son to Sir Miles Eleetwood then a Member of the House of Commons with whom consulting it was resolved by us to assemble as many young Gentlemen of the Inns of Court of which we then were and others as should be found disposed to this Service in order to be instructed together in the use of Arms to render our selves fit and capable of acting in case there should be occasion to make use of us To this end we procured a Person experienced in military Affairs to instruct us in the use of Arms and for some time we frequently met to exercise at the Artillery-Ground in London And being informed that the Parliament had resolved to raise a Life-Guard for the Earl of Essex to consist of a hundred Gentlemen under the Command of Sir Philip Stapylton a Member of Parliament most of our Company entred themselves therein and made up the greatest part of the said Guard amongst whom were Mr. Richard Fynes Mr. Charles Fleetwood afterwards Lieutenant General Major General Harrison Colonel Nathanael Rich Colonel Thomlinson Colonel Twisleton Colonel Bosewell Major Whitby and my self with divers others It was not long before the Army under the Command of the Earl of Essex was raised and ready to march so cheerfully did the People hoping that the time of their Deliverance was come offer their Persons and all that was necessary for the carrying on of that Work The appearance for the King was not very considerable whilst he continued at York but when he removed to Shrewsbery great Numbers out of Wales and the adjacent Parts resorted to him The Earl of Essex having notice that the King directed his March that way advanced with his Army towards Worcester and upon his approach to that Town received Advice that a Detachment commanded by Prince Rupert had possessed themselves of it for the King and that a Party of ours impatient of Delay had engaged the Enemy before our General could come up with great Disadvantage as I after wards observed upon view of the Place Ours consisted of about a thousand Horse and Dragoons the Enemy being more in number and drawn up in a body within Musquet-shot of a Bridg between Parshot and Worcester over which our Men resolved to march and attack them but before half their number was got over not being able to advance above eight or ten abreast by reason of a narrow Lane through which they were to pass till they came within Pistol-shot of the Enemy they were engaged and forced to retreat in Disorder tho they did as much as could well be expected from them upon so disadvantageous a Ground Some were killed upon the place amongst whom was Major Gunter a very gallant Man who as I have heard had endeavoured to disswade them from that Attempt others were drowned and divers taken Prisoners of the last was Colonel Sands who commanded the Party and was carried to Worcester where being mortally wounded he soon died with all possible Expressions of his hearty Affection to the Publick Cause The Body of our routed Party returned in great Disorder to Parshot at which place our Life-Guard was appointed to quarter that Night where as we were marching into the Town we discovered Horsemen riding very hard towards us with drawn Swords and many of them without Hats from whom we understood the Particulars of our Loss not without Improvement by reason of the Fear with which they were possessed telling us that the Enemy was hard by in pursuit of them whereas it afterwards appeared they came not within four Miles of that place Our Life-Guard being for the most part Strangers to things of this nature were much alarm'd with this Report yet some of us unwilling to give credit to it till we were better informed offered our selves to go out upon a surther Discovery of the matter But our Captain Sir Philip Stapylton not being then with us his Lieutenant one Bainham an old Souldier a Generation of Men much cried up at that time drawing us into a Field where he pretended we might more advantageously charge if there should be
surrounded the Castle except only on the West-side where was a Pond of about six Acres The Enemy possessed themselves of all the Out-houses but used them only by night not thinking it safe to come at them by day which we observing one Evening conveyed forty Men through a Vault leading to those Houses ordering them to lie private and endeavour to surprize them when they came which had been effected if one of ours contrary to order upon the entrance of the first of the Enemy had not fired his Pistol and thereby given warning to the rest to shift for themselves The Man who was the occasion of this Disappointment was deprived of the use of his Arms till he should attempt something for the redeeming of his Reputation which soon after upon a Sally we made on the Enemy he did in which we took two of the Enemies Horses and made some Prisoners How many of them were killed we could not learn On our side some were wounded of whom one died soon after A Kinsman of mine who was related to the Lord Cottington was sent from Oxford to offer me what Terms I would desire I permitted him to come in that seeing our Strength and Provision he might make his Report to the Enemy to our Advantage For things were fo ordered by removing our Guards from place to place filling up our Hogsheads with empty Barrels and covering them with Beef and Pork and in like manner ordering our Corn that every thing appeared double to what it was to them The Substance of the Conditions I proposed was That if I understood from the Earl of Essex that he could not relieve us within six Months we would then deliver the Castle upon condition that it should not be made a Garison That the Parliament should have two thousand Pounds for what they had expended in the taking and keeping of it with some other Particulars which the Gentleman carried to Oxford with him but we never had any Return from him about them neither indeed did we expect any Our Beer was now spent our Corn much diminished and we had no other Drink but the Water of our Well which tho we drunk dry by day yet it was sufficiently supplied every night But being resolved to keep the Castle as long as we could we shortned our Allowance so that three Pecks and a half of Wheat one day and a Bushel of Barley another served near a hundred Men which was all our Force my Troop being sent away before for want of Conveniency for Horse This Allowance was so short that I caused one of the Horses we had taken to be killed which the Souldiers eat up in two days besides their Ordinary The Forces that had been sent by the Parliament to the Assistance of the distressed Protestants in Ireland being under pretence that they were neglected as hath been before mentioned brought into England to serve against those who raised them and the Rebels by the Pacification made with them by the King's Order contrary to his Promise to the Parliament left in the full Enjoyment of what they had gotten from the English by Rapine and Murder part of those who came out of Ireland landed at Chester and drew before Nantwich they were commanded by one Capt. Sandford Brother to Sir William Sandford a worthy Person of Grays-Inn to whom he had solemnly promised never to engage against the Parliament Yet did he send in a very threatning Summons to the Town and seconded it with a most furious Assault whilst the Works were but slenderly defended the Guard consisting for the most part of Townsmen who were then gone to dinner But it so happened that a Boy of the Age of fifteen firing a Musquet from the Town shot him dead in the place which discouraged his Souldiers from any farther Attempt Col. George Monk who had been sent by the Parliament into Ireland against the Rebels for some time scrupled to quit that Service and to engage in this being upon that account secured on Ship-board by the Earl of Ormond whilst he sent those Forces into England lest he should have obstructed their going over yet having afterwards his liberty to wait on the King was prevailed with to join with them and soon after taken Prisoner by a Party from Yorkshire commanded by Sir Thomas Fairfax who sent him Prisoner to Hull from whence some time after he was conveyed to the Tower of London Another Party of the Forces from Ireland landed in the West and marched as far as Hinden towards Warder-Castle in order to besiege it but being informed that the Person whom they were to dispossess was a Protestant and he into whose hands they were to put it was a Papist they mutinied against their Offcers and refused to be employed against us The Queen landed with an Army of French Walloons and other Foreigners and brought with her great store of Ammunition and Money procured by pawning the Crown-Jewels in Holland With these and other Forces the Earl of Newcastle marched to besiege Hull of which Place the Lord Ferdinando Fairfax was Governour who with the Assistance of the Seamen belonging to some Ships that lay in the Harbour made so fierce a Sally upon the Enemy that they were forced to quit some of their Guns and withdraw to a greater distance leaving many of their Men behind them of whom some were killed and others taken Prisoners Col. Overton carried himself as I am well informed with much Honour and Gallantry in this Action This bad Success so dispirited the Enemy that they abandoned the Siege and retired to York to which also the approach of Winter and the Preparations of the Scots to march into England did not a little contribute For the Parliaments of both Kingdoms had at length agreed upon Terms and removed the last and greatest Difficulty consisting in some doubtful Words in the Covenant which was to be taken by both Nations concerning the preservation of the King's Person and reducing the Doctrine and Discipline of both Churches to the Pattern of the best Reformed For which Sir Henry Vane one of the Commissioners of the Parliament found out an Expedient by adding to the first Clause these or the like words In preservation of the Laws of the Land and Liberty of the Subject and to the Second according to the Word of God Which being an Explanation that could not be refused prevented any farther Contestation about that Matter About this time the Enemy by cruel Usage put a period to the Life of my Brother Capt. Robert Ludlow who was their Prisoner as I before related The News of this and of the Danger I was in so afflicted my Father together with his constant Labours in the publick Service and possibly his Dissatisfaction about the Imprisonment of his good Friend Mr. Henry Martin for Words spoken in the House as he conceived in discharge of his Duty that he died expressing himself deeply sensible of the Condition of the bleeding Nation and heartily
praying for the Prosperity of the Publick Cause The Words spoken by Mr. Martin in the Parliament were to this purpose That it was better one Family should perish than that the People should be destroyed And being required to explain himself he ingenuously confessed that he meant the Family of the King for which he was committed to the Tower but afterwards released and re-admitted to his Place in the Parliament About the same time Mr. John Pym also died who had been very instrumental in promoting the Interest of the Nation His Body was for several days exposed to publick view in Derby-house before it was interred in confutation of those who reported it to be eaten with Lice The Enemy before Warder-Castle kept their Guards within Pistol-shot of it day and night so that we could not expect any more Intelligence from abroad yet one of ours sent by us into the Country a Week before to informs us of the state of Affairs met at an honest Man's House not far from the Castle a Souldier whom the Enemy had pressed to serve them whose Heart being with us these two agreed that when Relief should be coming he who was without should appear with a white Cap on his Head and blow his Nose with his Handkerchief In the mean time the Besiegers raised a Battery and by a shot from thence cut off the Chain of our Portcullis which rendring our Gate unserviceable to us we made it so to them by barricading it up on the inside so that now we had no way out but through a Window our other Doors being walled up before But the Battery not answering their expectation they resolved to try other Experiments either by digging a Hole in the Castle-wall and putting a sufficient quantity of Powder therein to blow it up or by undermining the said Wall and supporting it with Timber and then setting it on fire whereby they supposed to destroy that also on which the Wall rested and so to bring down the Wall In order to this they prepared Materials to defend them whilst they were about the Work and brought together about two dozen of Oaken Plants three Inches thick which they endeavoured in a dark Night to set up against the Castle-wall half of them on one side and half on the other Our Sentinels discovered them on one side and beat them off forcing them to leave their Boards behind them On the other side they set them up and in the Morning were hard at work under their Shelter We heard a noise of digging but for some time could not perceive where at length we discovered the place and endeavoured to remove them by throwing down hot Water and melted Lead tho to little purpose At last with Hand-granadoes we obliged them to quit their Work and to leave their Tools behind them with their Provisions for three or four days and tho we had no way out of the Castle but by a narrow Window yet we brought in their Materials and Provisions for that Morning having shot the Officer that commanded their Guard in the Head their Trenches not being finished to secure their Approaches to the Out-houses under the shelter of which they kept their Guard and being admonished by what befel Capt. Bowyer of the danger of delaying to dress a Wound they desired leave to carry off their wounded Man which I granted on condition that they would commit no Act of Hostility in the mean time And when five or six of them who carried him off were about Pistol-shot from the Wall I appeared with forty Musqueteers ready to fire on the top of the Castle and ordered three or four Men out of the Window mentioned before who brought in their Materials A Relation of mine one Capt. Henry Williams who commanded a Company in Colonel Barns his Regiment desiring to be admitted to speak with me and I consenting he endeavoured to perswade me to a Surrender offering me any Conditions I would ask but his Arguments made no Impression upon me In the mean time the King to encourage his Friends in the City to rise for him sent them a Commisiion to that purpose by the Lady Aubogny which she brought made up in the Hair of her Head but the Design being discovered she sled for Resuge to the House of the French Ambassador who refusing to deliver her to Sir Henry Vane and Mr. John Lisle sent by the Parliament with a Guard to seize her pretending his Privilege the House being informed by Sir Francis Knowles that at the time of the bloody Massacre at Paris one of the French King's Secretaries who was of the Reformed Religion flying to the English Ambassador's House for Protection and disguizing himself amongst the Grooms was forced 〈◊〉 thence by the King's Command ordered this Lady to be treated in the like manner which was done accordingly Hereupon an Order was passed for the Trial of those who were engaged in this Conspiracy and Mr. Thomson and Mr. Challoner were found guilty and executed for it Sir John Hotham and his Son were also condemned to lose their Heads for endeavouring to betray the Garison of Hull to the Enemy which Sentence was put in execution upon the Son the 1 st of January 1643. and on the Father the day following Sir Alexander Carew was also beheaded for endeavouring to betray Plimouth with the Government of which he was entrusted by the Parliament About the 16 th of the same January the Scots marched into England and having Berwick secured for them the first thing they attempted was the taking of Newcastle which they did by storm The Lords and Commons for their Encouragement having sentenced and caused execution to be done upon William Laud Archbishop of Canterbury their Capital Enemy o◠the 10 th of the same Month. Sir William Waller being reinforced with some City-Regiments thought himself strong enough to take the field and because the Western Clothiers were often obstructed in their Passage to London by the Garison of Basinghouse which was kept for the King he attempted to reduce it but was repulsed with loss After which he marched to Arundel in Sussex where he soon beat the King's Garison out of the Town into the Castle which after some time and the loss of some Men was surrendred to him with several Persons of Quality therein at Mercy About the middle of January Sir William assured us that if we held out a Fortnight longer he would relieve us or lay his Bones under our Walls We had also some hopes given us from Southampton and Pool the latter of which Places about this time some of the Inhabitants endeavoured to betray to the Lord Crawford but the Design being discovered as the Enemy was entring the Outworks and expecting to be admitted into the Town some great Guns loaded with small Shot were fired upon his Men and made a great Slaughter amongst them Between these two Garisons of Southampton and Pool lay my Troop of Horse to do what Service they could
replied They could not answer to his Majesty the giving of such Conditions to us Sir William Waller having lately refused to receive Arundel-Castle from some of the King's Party upon any other Terms than at Mercy who they knew to have been in a much better state of Defence than we were and therefore pressed us to deliver our selves upon the same Condition promising us much Favour To this I answered That some related to us had already experienced the Favours they extended to their Prisoners That the Compliance of those at Arundel ought to be no Precedent to us and that unless we might march off we would not surrender They told me the longer I held out the worse it would be for me and Mr. Plott who as he since informed me had prevailed with them to propose this Treaty earnestly pressed me to lay hold on the Opportunity intimating by his Words and Gestures that if I refused it I should not have another but I resolving to defend the Place as long as I could our Treaty came to nothing I had some thoughts of charging through the Enemy in the beginning of the Night in order to force our way to the nearest of our Garisons which I presumed might have been effected by the Morning but the desperate Condition in which we must have left our sick and wounded Men diverted me from putting that Design in execution And now the Spirits of my Souldiers began to flag my Gunsmith desiring leave to go home and several others making choice of one amongst them to speak for them were very importunate with me to surrender with which expressing my self displeased I acquainted them that I would take the best time to do it for their Advantage and thereby quieted them so that they resolved to move me no more about it yet ceasing not to complain to each other of their Wants and Hardships the Enemy became acquainted therewith as they afterwards told me On the Lord's-day in the Afternoon the Besiegers discoursed with some of our Men who were upon the Leads endeavouring to draw as many of them as they could thither that the Breaches being left unguarded they might have an opportunity to take us by storm which I perceiving made use of it to animate our Men afresh and succeeded so well therein that the Enemy by our Cheerfulness began to suspect that we had some notice of Relief approaching This Suspicion caused them to continue discoursing with my Souldiers most part of the Night to get the Truth out of them promising them liberty to march away if they would deliver Mr. Balsum our Minister or my self to them The next Morning many of them came up to one of the Breaches to perswade us to surrender which Opportunity being willing to improve having ten Doors blown open by the first Mine our Walls that stood being cracked in several places and another Mine ready to spring that would probably level the most part of the Castle with the Ground not having Provision sufficient for one day left nor any hopes of Relief I propounded to them to yield my self their Prisoner if they would consent that those with me might march off To which they answering That tho my good Nature led me to make that Offer yet they could not accept of it I told them that unless I might have four things granted I would not deliver the Castle 1 st Quarter without distinction for the Lives of every one 2 dly Civil Usage for all my Party 3 dly Not to be carried to Oxford 4 thly A speedy Exchange They promised me I should have all these made good to the full and Col. Barns said that if I pleased to come out to them I should find more Friends than I expected whereupon requiring my Men to be upon their Guard and not to suffer any to come near them till my Return I went out to them and they brought me to the Lord Arundel and Sir Francis Doddington who were without the Garden-wall where my Lord Arundel assured me that what was agreed should be made good to me and was pleased further to add that tho he preferred my Conversion before the Enjoyment of his own Children yet if I thought fit to persist in the way I had begun he would do his utmost to endeavour that I might be exchanged for his two Sons who were then Prisoners with Sir William Waller To this I answered that if I were convinced that the Cause I had engaged in was not good I should soon recede from it but till then I could not but persist in the prosecution thereof Sir Francis Doddington told me he was glad to see me alive but sorry to find so much Resolution employed in so bad a Cause I let him know that my Apprehensions concerning the Cause were very different from his else I had not hazarded my self as I had done He also promised the performance of the Articles to the utmost of his Power and for my self that whilst I was in his Custody I should have no other Prison but his own Lodgings Thus all things being agreed upon I returned to the Castle and ordered my Souldiers to lay down their Arms which being done the Enemy directed them to draw together into a certain Room in the Castle where they set a Guard upon them but gave me the liberty of the Place upon my Parole offering me one or two of my own Company to associate with me whereupon I desired that my Cousin Gabriel Ludlow Mr. Balsum and a Servant might be permitted to come to me which was granted Their Civility to me was such especially that of the Lord Arundel that I discovered to him the Plate and other things that I had hid in the Castle but I cannot say that they performed their Articles with me in relation to my Men for the second day after their entrance they threatned to take away the Lives of two of them who having been formerly pressed by them and their Consciences not giving them leave to serve them chose rather to come to us and be besieged with us than to have liberty to range and oppress the Country with them The poor Men made their Condition known to me and I went to the chief Officers of the Enemy and charged them with it as a breach of that Article by which we were to have all our Lives secured to us in virtue of these words Quarter without distinction Capt. Leicester to whom I principally applied my self because he pretended to most Experience in things of this nature told me that I only conditioned for my Souldiers and that these who ran from them were not mine but theirs I replied that they were never theirs tho they had forced them to be with them having pressed them into their Service which they had no Power to do but tho it should be granted that they had been theirs yet they were now ours and the words of the Article were Quarter without distinction He answered that if I had
the Inn several of them pressing me to discourse and particularly concerning the Justice of our Cause I excused my self by reason of my present Circumstances but they still persisting I thought my self obliged to maintain the necessity of our taking up Arms in defence of our Religion and Liberties but some of them being wholly biassed to their Interest as they went from me met a Relation of mine one Col. Richard Manning who tho a Papist commanded a Regiment of Horse in the King's Service and told him that they came from one of the boldest Rebels that they had ever seen The Colonel coming to visit me informed me of this Discourse advising me whatsoever I thought not to be so free with them lest they should do me some Mischief The next Morning before our Departure for Oxford Sir Francis Doddington brought me to Sir Ralph Hopton's Lodgings which being the Head-quarters we found there most of the Principal Officers of that Army where the General after he had saluted me demanded how I being a Gentleman could satisfy my self to bear Arms against my King I told him that as I conceived the Laws both of God and Man did justify me in what I had done Well said he I understand you are so fixed in your Principles that I am like to do little good upon you by my Perswasions but shall desire the Archbishop of Armagh to take the pains to speak with you when you come to Oxford and if he cannot work on you I know not who can This Bishop was very learned and of great Reputation for Piety yet I was assured by one who had his Information from Mr. Bernard of Batcomb that when the said Mr. Bernard earnestly pressed him to deal faithfully with the King in the Controversy which was between him and the Parliament concerning Episcopacy according to his own Judgment in that matter which he knew to be against it representing to him the great and important Service he would thereby do to the Church of God the Archbishop answered that if he should do as Mr. Bernard proposed he should ruin himself and Family having a Child and many Debts For this reason those Arguments which could not prevail with me when used by others were not likely to be of more Efficacy from him who in a business of such Concernment had been diverted from the discharge of his Duty by such low and sordid Considerations The next day I came to Oxford conducted by a Party of Horse commanded by one who was Captain Lieutenant to Sir Francis Doddington where reposing a while at a House near Christ-Church till the Pleasure of the King might be known concerning me there came to me two Persons very zealous to justify the King's Cause and to condemn that of the Parliament These Men were Irish Papists sent over by the Rebels in Ireland to treat with the King on their part about assisting him against the Parliament This I afterwards understood from one of them whose Name was Callaghan O Callaghan when together with the Brigade commanded by the Lord Musquerry he laid down his Arms to me in Ireland The King looking upon such Men as most fit to be confided in gives the Presidentship of Munster vacant by the Death of Sir William St. Leger to the Lord Musquerry an Irish Rebel which the Lord Inchequin Son-in-law to Sir William soliciting for and claiming a Right to it took so ill that the Lord Broghill as he since informed me found no great difficulty to prevail with him to declare for the Parliament who thereupon made him their President of Munster In this Capacity he performed many considerable Services against the Irish taking great store of Plunder from them and not sparing even his own Kindred but if he found them faulty hanging them up without distinction Having brought together an Army he marched into the County of Tipperary and hearing that many Priests and Gentry about Cashell had retired with their Goods into the Church he stormed it and being entred put three thousand of them to the Sword taking the Priests even from under the Altar Of such Force is Ambition when it seizes upon the Minds of Men. About this time Sir Edward Deering came from the King's Quarters at Oxford and surrendred himself at Westminster where being examined in the House of Commons he said that since the Cessation made with the Rebels in Ireland seeing so many Papists and Irish in the King's Army and his Councils wholly governed by them his Conscience would not permit him to remain longer with the King and therefore he was come to throw himself upon the Mercy of the Parliament and in conformity to their Declaration to compound for his Delinquency Accordingly he was admitted to Composition and an Order made to proceed in like manner towards such as should come in after him Whereupon the Earl of Westmorland and divers others came in to the Parliament and desired the Benefit of their Declaration for Composition Whilst I was attending the King's Pleasure at Oxford the Captain that conveyed me thither brought me word that he was ordered to deliver me to Mr. Thorpe the Keeper of the Castle and pretending much Affection to me told me that the said Keeper would take from me my upper Garment my Money and all that was loose about me advising me therefore to leave such things with him and promising to bring them to me in the Morning I not suspecting his Design delivered him my Cloke with my Money and some other things all which he carried away with him the next day neither could I have any Redress tho I wrote to Sir Francis Doddington complaining of this Treachery the Keeper of the Castle not laying the least Claim to any such thing Our sick and wounded Men after they had been kept for some time Prisoners in the Hall of Warder-Castle where a Popish Priest very solemnly with his Hands spread over them cursed them three times were carried from thence to Bristol In the Castle at Oxford I met with Mr. Balsum and other Friends who had been with me in Warder-Castle with many more who were detained there for their Affection to the Parliament amongst whom were Col. Shilborn of Buckinghamshire Col. Henly of Dorsetshire Capt. Haley of Glocestershire and Capt. Abercromy a Scots-man I had a Friend in the Town who furnished me with what I wanted those who had not any such means of Relief were supplied from London by a Collection of the Sum of three hundred Pounds made for them by some Citizens and conveyed down to them Neither was Oxford it self destitute of some who contributed to their Relief one Dr. Hobbs in particular who preached then at Carfax an honest Man of the Episcopal Party usually putting them in mind of it after his Sermon The Prisoners taken by the King's Party had been treated very cruelly especially at Oxford by Smith the Marshal there but the Members of Parliament that deserted their Trust at Westminster coming thither and
see they were not at liberty to ravage the Country I drew out my Troop and faced them upon which they sent out what Horse they had to skirmish with us amongst whom observing one Mr. William Neale who was of my Acquaintance and formerly my School-fellow I called to him telling him that I was sorry to see him there but since it was so I offered to exchange a shot with him and riding up to that purpose he retreated towards his Party where making a stand he called to me to come on which I did but he retreated again till he came within the shelter of their Foot and one with him dismounting fired a Musquet at me loaded with a brace of Bullets of which one went into the Belly of my Horse the other struck upon my Breast-plate within half an Inch of the bottom of it my Horse carried me off but died that Night The Necessities of my Men being great and this Service not immediately belonging to me I thought it my Duty to return into Wiltshire where I might expect to be better supplied than in Hampshire to which County I had no relation therefore sending to Col. Norton to make provision for the Service at Winchester I marched with fourscore Horse to Salisbury which Town having triumphed upon our Defeat I thought most proper to supply us with what we wanted And to that end having procured a List of the disaffected in the Town I required them without delay to collect amongst themselves five hundred Pounds for the recruiting and paying of my Troop who had not received any Pay since they came out The Town made many Excuses and at last prevailed with me to take two hundred Pounds with which I paid and recruited my Troop and having disposed them in the best manner I could for the Service of the Country I went to London to compleat my Regiment and to furnish it with Arms and all such things as were necessary In the mean time Sir Francis Doddington had caused the two Men that he had taken at Warder to be hanged upon pretence that they ran away from him and having brought some Pieces of Cannon before Woodhouse made a Breach so considerable in the Wall that the Besieged were necessitated to surrender at Mercy but they found very little for they were presently stripp'd of all that was good about them and Sir Francis Doddington being informed by one Bacon who was Parson of the Parish that one of the Prisoners had threatned to stick in his skirts as he call'd it for reading the Common-Prayer struck the Man so many Blows upon the Head and with such Force that he broke his Skull and caused him to fall into a Swound from which he was no sooner recovered but he was picked out to be one of the twelve which Sir Francis had granted to Sir William St. Leger to be hanged in lieu of six Irish Rebels who had been executed at Warum by Col. Sydenham in pursuance of an Order from the Parliament to give them no Quarter These twelve being most of them Clothiers were hanged upon the same Tree but one of them breaking his Halter desired that what he had suffered might be accepted or else that he might fight against any two for his Life notwithstanding which they caused him to be hanged up again and had proceeded much farther had not Sir Ralph Hopton sent Orders to put a stop to their Butcheries The King having ranged about for some time thought fit to return towards Oxford and being joined by some Foot from thence skirmished with Sir William Waller's Army at Cropredy-bridg wherein little hurt being done on either side the King marched into the West in order to a conjunction with his Forces in those Parts commanded by Prince Maurice When I first took Arms under the Parliament in Defence of the Rights and Liberties of my Country I did not think that a Work so good and so necessary would have been attended with so great Difficulties but finding by Experience the strong Combination of Interests at home and abroad against them the close Conjunction of the Popish and Prelatical Parties in opposition to them what vast Numbers depended upon the King for Preferments or Subsistence how many of the Nobility and Gentry were contented to serve his Arbitrary Designs if they might have leave to insult over such as were of a lower Order and adding to all this the great Corruption of the Nation I became convinced of my former Error and began now more to wonder that they found so many Friends to assist them in their just and lawful Undertaking than I had done before at the Opposition they met with In these Thoughts I was every day more confirmed by observing the strange Divisions amongst our own Party every one striving to enlarge his own Power in a factious and ambitious way not caring tho thereby they obstructed and ruined the Cause it self Of this I had some Experience in my own Particular as well as others of a much greater Figure than my self for tho my Country-men had in my Absence prevailed with the Parliament to make me Sheriff of the County of Wilts and engaged themselves to raise a Regiment for me yet because I refused to deliver up my former Commission received from Sir William Waller and to take a new one from the Earl of Essex tho that I had from Sir William obliged me to obey the said Earl as much as one given me immediately from himself those of my Country-men who were of the Faction of the Earl of Essex obstructed me in the raising of my Regiment keeping from me those Arms that were bought to that end countenancing my Major for whom I had procured that Employment against me and detaining our Pay from us so that I and my Men had nothing to keep us faithful to the Cause but our Affection to it Yet were we not wanting to improve every Opportunity in the best manner we could to the Service of the Country for having notice that a Garison was put into the Lord Sturton's House and another into that of Sir Ralph Hopton at Witham I marched in the Night first to Sturton-house which was defended against us till each of us carrying a Fagot to one of the Gates wherewith we set them on fire together with one of the Rooms of the Castle those that kept it slipped out at a back-door through the Garden into the Park which they did undiscovered by reason of the Darkness of the Night Having rendred that Place untenable we hastned to Witham where we found in the Park near a hundred Cattle belonging to Sir Ralph Hopton which served for the Paiment of my Souldiers Those who were within desired to treat and demanded liberty to return home which was granted upon condition to deliver up their Arms and to engage to keep no Garison in that Place for the time to come Being upon my Return I took with me my Hangings Pictures best Beds and other things which
such as had served under Sir William Waller The Committee would have named me for the Command of a Regiment but the Gentlemen who served in Parliament for the County of Wilts pretended then that they could not spare me yet soon after observing me not fit to promote a Faction and solely applying my self to advance the Cause of the Publick they combined against me and procured me to be laid aside under colour that they stood not in need of more than four Troops for the Service of the County of which they offered me the Command and I should not have declined it had I found my Endeavours answered with sutable Acceptance or that they whom I served had been willing the Publick Cause for which I was ready to sacrifice my Life should prosper but the contrary being most evident and tho some of the Gentlemen continued to manifest their Fidelity to the Publick and their Affection to me yet most of them having now espoused another Interest and rejoicing at any Loss that fell upon ours I chose rather to desist and wait for a better Opportunity to improve my Talent for the Service of the Publick My Major notwithstanding his Artifices being disappointed in his Expectation to command these Troops openly pulled off the Mask and with about thirty of his Troop and some Strangers under pretence of beating up a Quarter of the Enemy went over to them having sent his Wife before to give them notice of his Design But his Lieutenant continuing faithful to the Publick hindred most part of his Troop from following him Soon after he undertook to raise a Regiment in the North Parts of Wiltshire for the King but whilst he was attempting to effect it an Encounter happened between him and some Forces of the Parliament wherein being worsted and endeavouring to save himself by leaping over a Ditch he fell with his Horse into it and was so bruised with his Fall that he never spoke more thereby receiving such a Recompence as was due to his Treachery About the same time that the Parliament made Sir Thomas Fairfax General of their Forces the King made Prince Rupert General of his notwithstanding his late ill Success at Marston-Moor to the great Dissatisfaction of many of his Council The Committee of Wilts divided themselves one part of them to sit at Malmsbury and the other to reside about Salisbury but wanting a Place for their Security they put a Garison into Falston-house and Capt. Edward Doyly contending with Major William Ludlow for the Government thereof the Committee at London gave it to the latter who with his Troop somewhat restrained the Excursions of the King's Party from their Garison thereabouts That part of the Committee which sat at Malmsbury having some Affairs to dispatch at Marlborough went thither accompanied by Col. Devereux Governour of the Place The first Night after their Arrival a Party of the King 's surprized them there and took some of the Committee with the said Governour and most of the Forces they had with them Prisoners The Parliament tho they were not wanting to make all fitting Preparations for War yet neglected no honest Endeavours to procure Peace assuring themselves that they should be the better enabled to bear whatsoever might be the Event of the War if they took care to discharge their Consciences in that Particular and to manifest that as they had been compelled to it by mere Necessity so if it must be continued it should not be through their Choice or Obstinacy To this end it was agreed that Commissioners should be sent from the Parliament to treat with others to be sent from the King about Conditions of Peace The Place of their Meeting was at Vxbridg where after the King had owned the two Houses as a Parliament to which he was not without difficulty perswaded tho he had by an Act engaged that they should continue to be a Parliament till they dissolved themselves which they had not done and consented that his Commissioners should treat in the same Quality they were in before the War the Commissioners of Parliament declining to give them the Titles conferred upon them since they made some Progress in the Treaty which began the 13 th of January 1645. but the Proposition concerning the Bishops being rejected it came to nothing During the Treaty Mr. Love one of the Chaplains attending the Commissioners of Parliament preaching before them averred That the King was a Man of Blood and that it was a vain thing to hope for the Blessing of God upon any Peace to be made with him till Satisfaction should be made for the Blood that had been shed For these Words the King's Commissioners demanded Satisfaction but the Treaty breaking up nothing was done in order thereunto And now both Parties renewed the War Weymouth being seized for the King and some Advantage obtained against the Parliament near Pomfret On the other side the Forces of the Parliament surprized the important Town of Shrewsbury whereby the King's Correspondence with Wales became much interrupted They also recovered Weymouth by the help of the Garison of Melcolm-Regis which is separated from the said Town by a small Arm of the Sea with a Bridg over it and which was preserved by the Industry of the Governour Col. Sydenham Col. Cromwell notwithstanding the Self-denying Ordinance was dispensed with by the Parliament and being impower'd to command the Horse under Sir Thomas Fairfax he marched with a Party of Horse and Dragoons from Windsar and at Islip-Bridg met fought and defeated the Queen's Regiment of Horse together with the Regiments of the Earl of Northampton the Lord Wilmot and Col. Palmer taking five hundred Horse and two hundred Foot Prisoners whereof many were Officers and Persons of Quality After which he summoned Blechington-house which was surrendred to him by Col. Windebank Son to the late Secretary of State who coming to Oxford was shot to death for so doing He forced Sir William Vaughan and Lieutenant Colonel Littleton with three hundred and fifty Men into Bampton-bush where he took them both and two hundred of their Men Prisoners with their Arms sending Col. Fiennes after another Party who took a hundred and fisty Horse three Colonels and forty private Souldiers Prisoners with their Arms and being reinforced by about five hundred Foot from Col. Brown he attempted Faringdon-house but without Success General Fairfax leaving Lieutenant General Cromwell to block up the King at Oxford with the Body of the Army marched Westward with a design to relieve Taunton but being ordered by the Committee of both Kingdoms to besiege Oxford he appointed Col. Welden to relieve that Town which he easily effected the Enemy marching off at his Approach apprehending them to be the whole Army marching against them as they before had been informed The King sent the Prince of Wales accompanied with Hyde and Culpeper into the West to raise Forces and despising the New Model as it was called because most of the old
of the Army should be sent to the Relief of Ireland and it was carried in the Negative by one Voice only The Commonwealth-Party taking Advantage of the Arguments used in the House for the Relief of Ireland and Ease of the People of England procured an Order for the disbanding of Col. Massey's Brigade and Money to be sent to the Devizes in the County of Wiles where they were ordered to be drawn together for that purpose Alderman Allen and my self who served sor that County were commissionated to see it put in execution In order to which we repaired to the Lord General who lay then at Cornbury and prevailed with him and Commissary General Ireton with two Regiments of Horse to draw to the Devizes which we found to be very necessary for tho many of that Brigade were glad of the Opportunity to return home to their several Callings having taken up Arms and hazarded their Lives purely to serve the Publick yet divers idle and debauched Persons especially the Foreigners amongst them not knowing how to betake themselves to any honest Employment endeavoured to stir up the Brigade to a Mutiny but not being able to effect that some of them listed themselves to serve against the Rebels in Ireland under Sir William Fenton and others there present to receive them for which we had Instructions from the Parliament the rest dispersed themselves and returned home The Forces also that served in the North under Major General Pointz were soon after disbanded The City of London had made it their Request in the Petition before-mentioned that some Commissioners from them might accompany those from the Parliament to the King but their own Party in the House fearing perhaps to be outbid by them or it may be not having quite lost all Sense of Honour rejected that Motion with Contempt alledging that they had their Representatives in Parliament and were concluded by what they acted as well as other Men upon which Mr. Martin said That tho he could not but agree with what had been affirmed touching their being involved in what their Representatives did and their not sending Commissioners as desired yet as to the Substance of what they proposed he could not so much blame them as others had done they therein shewing themselves in the end of the War no less prudent than they had expressed themselves honest in the beginning for as when the Parliament invited them to stand by them in the War against the King in Defence of their Religion Lives Liberties and Estates they did it heartily and therein shewed themselves good Christians and true English-men so now the War being ended and the Parliament upon making Terms with the King and thinking fit to sue to him now their Prisoner for Peace whom they had all incensed by their Resistance the Citizens having considerable Estates to lose shewed themselves prudent Men in endeavouring to procure their Pardons as well as others And tho said he you will not permit them to send as they desire they have expressed their good Will which without doubt will be well accepted The Commissioners of Parliament joining with those who were before with the King endeavoured to perswade him to agree to the Propositions of the Parliament but he disliking several things in them and most of all the abolition of Episcopacy to which Interest he continued obstinately stedfast refused his Consent upon private Encouragement from some of the Scots and English to expect more easy Terms or to be received without any at all The Parliament willing to bring this Matter to a Conclusion sent the same Propositions a second time to the King and desired the Scots to use their utmost Endeavours to procure his Consent to them The Scots Commissioners especially the Lord Loudon pressed the King very earnestly to comply with them telling him that tho the Propositions were higher in some Particulars than they could have wished notwithstanding their Endeavours to bring them as low as they could according to their Promises yet if he continued to reject them he must not expect to be received in Scotland whither they must return and upon his resusal of the Conditions offered deliver him up to the Parliament of England But whatsoever they or the English could say making no Impression upon the King the Parliament's Commissioners returned with a Negative from him The Interposition of the Scots in this Affair proving ineffectual the War being at an end and such considerable Forces altogether unnecessary the Parliament appointed Commissioners to conser with those of Scotland concerning such things as remained to be performed by the Treaty between them that the fraternal Union might continue and the Scots depart towards their own Country In order to which the Accounts of their Army were adjusted and a great Sum of Money agreed to be paid to them at the present and other Sums upon certain days to their full Satisfaction Major General Skippon with a considerable Body of Men carried down the Money in specie for the Paiment of the Scots Army which being received by them they delivered the King into the hands of the Parliament's Commissioners that attended him there and began their March for Scotland having delivered Newcastle to the English and drawn their Men out of Berwick and Carlisle which two Places were agreed not to be garisoned without the Consent of both Kingdoms About this time the Earl of Essex having over-heated himself in the Chace of a Stag in Windsor Forest departed this Lise His Death was a great Loss to those of his Party who to keep up their Spirits and Credit procured his Funeral to be celebrated with great Magnificence at the Charge of the Publick the Lords and Commons with a great number of Officers and Gentlemen accompanying him to the Grave In the mean time I observed that another Party was not idle for walking one Morning with Lieutenant General Cromwell in Sir Robert Cotton's Garden he inveighed bitterly against them saying in a familiar way to me If thy Father were alive he would let some of them hear what they deserve adding farther That it was a miserable thing to serve a Parliament to whom let a Man be never so faithful if one pragmatical Fellow amongst them rise up and asperse him he shall never wipe it off Whereas said he when one serves under a General he may do as much Service and yet be free from all Blame and Envy This Text together with the Comment that his after-Actions put upon it hath since perswaded me that he had already conceived the Design of destroying the Civil Authority and setting up of himself and that he took that Opportunity to feel my Pulse whether I were a fit Instrument to be employed by him to those ends But having replied to his Discourse that we ought to perform the Duty of our Stations and trust God with our Honour Power and all that is dear to us not permitting any such Considerations to discourage us from the
quit their hands of him since their Transactions with him had procured them so much Opposition and to leave the Breach with him upon the Parliament where they found the Presbyterian Party averse to an Agreement with him upon any Proposals of the Army and the Commonwealth Party resolved not to treat with him upon any at all Sir John Barkley being return'd to his Lodging dispatch'd his Cousin Henry Barkley to the Isle of Wight with two Letters one to the Governour containing a general Relation and doubtful Judgment of things in the Army another in Cypher with a particular account of the foresaid Conference and a most passionate Supplication to the King to meditate nothing but his immediate Escape The next Morning he sent Col. Cooke to Cromwell to let him know that he had Letters and Instructions to him from the King who returned in Answer by the Messenger that he durst not see him it being very dangerous to them both bidding him be assured that he would serve the King as long as he could do it without his own Ruin but desired that it might not be expected that he should perish for his sake Having received this Answer Sir John took Horse for London resolving not to acquaint any with the Inclinations of the Army or with the King 's pretended Escape which he presumed would be in a few days the Queen having sent a Ship to that purpose and pressed it earnestly in her Letters The next day after his Arrival at London he received a Message from the Scots Lords Lanerick and Lauderdale desiring a Meeting with him presuming he had a Commission from the King to treat but he acquainting them that the King had said at his parting from him that he would make good whatsoever he should undertake to any Person in his Name the Lord Lanerick replied he would ask no other Commission from him At their second Meeting they came near to an Agreement and resolved to conclude on the Monday following but the next day Sir John Barkley receiving a Letter from Mr. Ashburnham requiring him in the King's Name to lay aside all other business and to return immediately to the King was constrained to go out of Town that Night and to leave the Treaty unfinished to the great Dissatisfaction of both Parties At his return to the Island he found the King determined not to attempt his Escape till he had concluded with the Scots who he said being very desirous to have him out of the hands of the Army would on that account come to an Accommodation upon reasonable Conditions whereas if he should leave the Army before any Agreement with the Scots they would never treat with him but upon their own Terms To this end the King ordered Sir John Barkley Mr. Ashburnham Dr. Hammond and Mr. Leg to review the Papers relating to the Treaty with the Scots which had been managed in London chiefly by Dr. Gough a Popish Priest who in the Queen's Name had conjur'd the King to make his speedy Escape and in his own beseeched him not to insist too nicely upon Terms in the present Exigency of his Affairs but Mr. Ashburnham hesitated much upon many Expressions in the Articles relating to the Covenant and Church of England of which he was a zealous Professor making many Replies and Alterations and at last insisted that the King would send for the Scots Commissioners to come to him Accordingly Sir William Flemming was sent to that purpose and the next day after an Express came from the said Commissioners to the King desiring that two Papers might be drawn the one to contain the least he would be contented with and the other the utmost that he would grant to the Scots which last they desired he would sign promising to do the like to the first and to deliver it to Dr. Gough upon the reception of his Paper so signed But this matter was delay'd so long that they concluded the Scots Commissioners would be on their way before another Express could be gone out of the Island At the same time that the Scots were coming to the King Commissioners were also sent to him by the Parliament with offers of a Personal Treaty on condition that the King in testimony of his future Sincerity would grant the four Preliminary Bills formerly mentioned Whilst these two sorts of Commissioners were one day attending the King as he walked about the Castle they observed him to throw a Bone before two Spaniels that followed him and to take great delight in seeing them contesting for it which some of them thought to be intended by him to represent that Bone of Contention he had cast between the two Parties It was proposed by some of his Party that the King should give a dilatory Answer to the Scots that he might have the better opportunity to escape and at the same time it was moved that he should offer the four following Bills to the Parliament upon presumption that they could not well refuse them nor durst grant them The first was for the Payment of the Army and for their disbanding as soon as paid The second to put a Period to the present Parliament The third to restore the King and Queen to the Possession of their Revenues The fourth to settle a Church-Government without any coercive Power and till such a Government were agreed on the present to continue without any coercive Authority This they advised upon apprehensions if the King should give a positive Denial that the Commissioners might have Orders to enjoin the Governour to keep a stricter Guard over his Person and thereby his designed Escape be prevented To this Advice the King replied that he had found out a Remedy against their Fears which was to deliver his Answer to the Commissioners sealed up The next day after the English Commissioners had delivered their Message and desired the King's Answer within three or four days the Commissioners of Scotland Lowden Lanerick Lauderdale and others delivered a Protestation to the King subscribed by them against the Parliament's Message affirming it to be contrary to the Covenant being sent without their Participation or Consent and from this time began seriously to treat with the King concluding at last upon such Terms as they could obtain rather than such as they desired from him When the time to receive the King's Answer was come he sent for the English Commissioners and before he delivered his Answer demanded of the Earl of Denbigh who was the Principal Commissioner whether they had power to alter any of the substantial or circumstantial Parts of the Message and they replying that they had not he delivered his Answer sealed up into the hands of the Earl of Denbigh Having received the King's Answer the Commissioners withdrew for a little time and being returned the Earl of Denbigh seem'd to be offended that the King had delivered his Message sealed alledging that they were required by their Instructions to bring his Answer which whether his
Oath to perform that the King had broken this Oath and thereby dissolved our Allegiance Protection and Obedience being reciprocal that having appealed to the Sword for the Decision of the things in dispute and thereby caused the Effusion of a Deluge of the Peoples Blood it seemed to be a Duty incumbent upon the Representatives of the People to call him to an account for the same more especially since the Controversy was determined by the same means which he had chosen and then to proceed to the Establishment of an equal Commonwealth founded upon the Consent of the People and providing for the Rights and Liberties of all Men that we might have the Hearts and Hands of the Nation to support it as being most just and in all respects most conducing to the Happiness and Prosperity thereof Notwithstanding what was said Lieutenant General Cromwell not for want of Conviction but in hopes to make a better Bargain with another Party professed himself unresolved and having learn'd what he could of the Principles and Inclinations of those present at the Conference took up a Cushion and flung it at my Head and then ran down the Stairs but I overtook him with another which made him hasten down faster than he desired The next day passing by me in the House he told me he was convinced of the Desirableness of what was proposed but not of the Feasibleness of it thereby as I suppose designing to encourage me to hope that he was inclined to join with us tho unwilling to publish his Opinion lest the Grandees should be informed of it to whom I presume he professed himself to be of another Judgment Much time being spent since the Parliament had voted no more Addresses to be made to the King nor any Messages received from him and yet nothing done towards bringing the King to a Trial or the settling of Affairs without him many of the People who had waited patiently hitherto finding themselves as far from a Settlement as ever concluded that they should never have it nor any Ease from their Burdens and Taxes without an Accommodation with the King and therefore entred into a Combination through England Scotland and Ireland to restore him to his Authority To this end Petitions were promoted throughout all Countries the King by his Agents fomenting and encouraging this Spirit by all means possible as appeared by his intercepted Letters so that Lieutenant General Cromwell who had made it his usual Practice to gratify Enemies even with the Oppression of those who were by Principle his Friends began again to court the Commonwealth-Party inviting some of them to confer with him at his Chamber with which acquainting me the next time he came to the House of Commons I took the Freedom to tell him that he knew how to cajole and give them good Words when he had occasion to make use of them whereat breaking out into a Rage he said they were a proud sort of People and only considerable in their own Conceits I told him it was no new thing to hear Truth calumniated and that tho the Commonwealths-men were fallen under his Displeasure I would take the liberty to say that they had always been and ever would be considerable where there was not a total Defection from Honesty Generosity and all true Vertue which I hoped was not yet our Case The Earl of Warwick with the Fleet equipped for him by the Parliament sell down the River towards the Ships commanded by Prince Charles who presuming either that he would not fight him or perhaps come over to him lay some time in expectation but finding by the manner of his Approach that he was deceived in that Particular he thought it convenient to make all the sail he could for the Coast of Holland Our Fleet followed him as far as the Texel but according to the defensive Principle of the Nobility our Admiral thinking he had sufficiently discharged his Duty by clearing the Downs and driving the other Fleet from our Coast declined to fight tho he had an opportunity to engage Deal and Sandown Castles were reduced by Col. Rich and many of our revolted Ships not finding things according to their Expectation being constrained to serve under Prince Rupert instead of the Lord Willoughby who they desired might command them returned to the Obedience of the Parliament The Scots making all possible Preparations to raise an Army for the Restitution of the King Sir Thomas Glenham and Sir Marmaduke Langdale went to Scotland to join with them in that Enterprize and to draw what English they could to promote the Design The first of these seized upon Carlisle by order of the Scots tho contrary to their Articles whereupon the Parliament thinking it necessary to provide for the Security of Berwick placed a good Garison therein and resolving to reinforce the Militia of each County sent down some of their Members to give Life to the Preparations Amongst others I was appointed to go down to the County for which I served where we agreed to raise two Regiments of Foot and one of Horse In the mean time the Enemy was not idle and taking advantage of the Discontents of Capt. Poyer Governour of Pembroke they prevailed with him to revolt and declare for the King Other disaffected Parts of the Nation not yet ready for open Opposition acted with more Caution preparing and encouraging Petitions to the Parliament for a Personal Treaty with the King of which the Principal were Surrey Essex and Kent In Essex they met at Chelmsford in a tumultuous manner and seized Sir William Masham and other Members of Parliament who being ready to use all gentle Methods to prevent farther Inconveniences sent down Mr. Charles Rich second Son to the Earl of Warwick and Sir Harbottle Grimston two of their Members to endeavour to quiet that tumultuous Spirit with Instructions and Power to promise Indemnity to all that should desist from the prosecution of what they desired in this violent way which Commission they managed so well that upon their Promise to present the Requests of the Petitioners which were drawn up in writing to the Parliament and to return them an Answer the People of the Country dispersed themselves to their own Houses But the Sedition of the Surrey-men was not terminated so easily of whom many hundreds came to the doors of the Parliament and not being satisfied with the Answer the Parliament thought fit to give to their Petition after they had been heated with Drink and animated by the Cavalier Party they resolved to force from them another Answer and with intolerable Insolence pressed upon their Guard beating the Sentinels to the main Guard which was drawn up at the upper end of Westminster-Hall where they wounded the Officer who commanded them and being intreated to desist became more violent so that the Souldiers were necessitated in their own Defence and discharge of their Duty to fire upon them whereby two or three of the Country-men were
killed neither did this quiet them till some Horse and Foot arrived to strengthen the Guard and dispersed them Lieutenant Colonel Cobbet who commanded the Guard being called into the House to give an account of what had passed went to the Bar bleeding from the Wounds which he had received and related the Passages before-mentioned but some Friends of the Petitioners within doors informing the House that the matter of Fact was otherwise than had been represented by the Lieutenant Colonel the Parliament appointed a Committee to examine the Truth of it Those of the secluded Members who were in England being returned to the House divers hard Words passed between them and others of the Parliament and one day Commissary General Ireton speaking something concerning them Mr. Hollis thinking it to be injurious to them passing by him in the House whispered him in the ear telling him it was false and he would justify it to be so if he would follow him and thereupon immediately went out of the House with the other following him Some Members who had observed their passionate Carriage to each other and seen them hastily leaving the House acquainted the Parliament with their Apprehensions whereupon they sent their Serjeant at Arms to command their Attendance which he letting them understand as they were taking Boat to go to the other side of the Water they returned and the House taking notice of what they were informed concerning them enjoined them to forbear all Words or Actions of Enmity towards each other and to carry themselves for the future as Fellow-members of the same Body which they promised to do Lieutenant General Cromwell perceiving the Clouds to gather on every side complained to me as we were walking in the Palace-Yard of the Unhappiness of his Condition having made the greatest part of the Nation his Enemies by adhering to a just Cause But that which he pretended to be his greatest Trouble was that many who were engaged in the same Cause with him had entertained a Jealousy and Suspicion of him which he assured me was a great Discouragement to him asking my Advice what Method was best for him to take I could not but acknowledg that he had many Enemies for the sake of the Cause in which he stood engaged and also that many who were Friends to that Cause had conceived Suspicions of him but I observed to him that he could never oblige the former without betraying that Cause wherein he was engaged which if he should do upon the account of an empty Title Riches or any other Advantages how those Contracts would be kept with him was uncertain but most certain it was that his Name would be abominated by all good Men and his Memory be abhorred by Posterity On the other side if he persisted in the prosecution of our just Intentions it was the most probable way to subdue his Enemies to rectisy the Mistakes of those that had conceived a Jealousy of him and to convince his Friends of his Integrity that if he should fall in the Attempt yet his Loss would be lamented by all good Men and his Name be transmitted to future Ages with Honour He seemed to take well what I said and it might have been no Disservice to him if he had acted accordingly but his Design was rather to perswade me for the present of the Rectitude of his Intentions than to receive Counsel from me concerning his Conduct About this time we obtained some Advantages in Ireland where Col. Michael Jones who had been order'd by the Parliament to command at Dublin when the Earl of Ormond delivered it up with the Forces he had fought the Rebels tho double his Number at Dungon-hill killed some thousands of them and totally routed the rest Of which when the Parliament had received Information they ordered five hundred Pounds by Year of the forseited Lands in Ireland to be settled upon Col. Jones as a Reward for his good Service In England the Defection began to increase Capt. Henry Lilburn who commanded for the Parliament in Tinmouth-Castle which lies at the Mouth of the Harbour and is a Key to Newcastle declaring for the King but notice thereof being brought to Sir Arthur Haslerig at Newcastle of which Town he was Governour he with great Expedition drew down a Party before the Place and attacking it unexpectedly took it by Assault before the Men had been throughly confirmed in their Revolt by the Governour whom he put to the Sword and placed another Garison therein Many of those who had been for the Parliament in South-wales now joining with the King's Party they grew to be a considerable Body whereby Major General Laughern who upon some Suspicion had been under Confinement was encouraged to get away and join himself to them Major General John Stradling Sir Henry Stradling Col. Thomas Stradling and several other Gentlemen of those Parts falling in with them Col. Horton with about two thousand five hundred Horse Foot and Dragoons was sent into Wales to engage them Lieutenant General Cromwell following with as many more Forces as could be spared from the Army who being within three or four days March of Col. Horton received Advice that the Enemy to the number of about seven thousand had engaged the Colonel at St. Faggons in Glamorganshire that upon the first Attack our Forces gave ground but well considering the Danger they were in the Country being full of Enemies and encouraged by their Affection to the Cause wherein they were engaged they charged the Enemies Van consisting of the best of their Men with so great Bravery and Resolution that they forced them to give way which those that were in their Rear who were for the most part new-raised Men perceiving began to shift for themselves Upon this ours followed their Charge with so much Vigour and Success that the whole Body of the Enemy was soon routed and dispersed many of them were killed in the Pursuit and many taken Prisoners amongst the latter was Major General Stradling and divers other Officers The News of this Success was very welcome to all those that wished well to the Publick and proved a great Discouragement to the contrary Party The Petitioners of Surrey drew into a Body and in conjunction with the Kentish-men of the King's Party appointed their Rendezvouz upon Black heath But Sir Thomas Fairfax with that part of the Army which he had with him disappointed that Design by possessing himself of that Ground before them However the Enemy had brought together a considerable Body of Men many of whom were induced to come in upon Assurances given that they should be commanded by Mr. Hales a Gentleman of a great Estate in Kent tho afterwards the Lord Goring appeared at the Head of them as had been designed from the beginning Upon the Advance of Sir Thomas Fairfax his Army the Enemy who exceeded him in Number by one half at least divided their Body sending one part to possess themselves of Maidstone and
Army to advance himself it being manifest that the preferring this Accusation at that time was principally designed to take him off from his Command and thereby to weaken the Army that their Enemies might be the better enabled to prevail against them The Design of the King's Escape was still carried on but by the Vigilance of the Governour of the Isle of Wight and his Officers it was discovered and prevented The next Morning after the Discovery they found the Iron Bars of the King's Chamber-window eaten through by something applied to them Whereupon those who were to have been instrumental in his Escape not knowing otherwise how to revenge themselves on those who had defeated their Enterprize accused Major Rolfe a Captain in that Garison very active and vigilant in his Charge of a Design to kill the King raising such a Clamour about it that the Parliament thought not sit to decline the putting him upon his Trial but the Accusation appearing to the Grand Jury to be grounded upon Malice they refused to find the Bill About the same time Capt. Burleigh who had beat a Drum at Newport for the rescuing of the King was brought to his Trial and the Jury having found him guilty of High Treason he was executed according to the Sentence Those of the Enemies commanded by the Lord Goring who had fled into Essex grew to a considerable Number but being new-raised Men and not well acquainted one with another upon the Advance of our Army retreated to Colchester with a Body so much exceeding ours which pursued and besieged them in that Place that Commissary General Ireton compared the Town and those therein to a great Bee-hive and our Army to a small Swarm of Bees sticking on one side of it but the number of ours was soon increased by the Forces which the well-affected in the Counties of Essex Suffolk Norfolk and Cambridg sent to their Assistance The Earl of Holland who at the beginning of the Parliament had appeared active for them and afterwards leaving them had gone to the King at Oxford when he supposed him to grow strong then again returning to the Parliament upon the declining of the King's Affairs publishing a Declaration at his coming to London that he left the King because he saw the Irish Rebels so eminently favoured by him in this low Condition of the Parliament revolted again and formed a Party of about a thousand Horse with which he marched from London and declared against them accompanied by the Duke of Buckingham whose Sequestration upon the account of his Minority when he first engaged with the King the Parliament had freely remitted and the Lord Francis his Brother prevailing also with Dalbeir formerly Quarter-Master-General to the Earl of Essex to join with them Their Rendezvouz was appointed to be upon Bansted-Downs but the Vigilance of the Parliament was such that a Party of Horse and Foot was soon sent after them commanded by Sir Michael Lewesey who without much Dispute put those Courtly Gentlemen to the rout The Lord Francis presuming perhaps that his Beauty would have charmed the Souldiers as it had done Mrs. Kirke for whom he made a splendid Entertainment the Night before he left the Town and made her a Present of Plate to the Value of a thousand Pounds stayed behind his Company where unseasonably daring the Troopers and refusing to take Quarter he was killed and after his Death there was found upon him some of the Hair of Mrs. Kirk sew'd in a piece of Ribbon that hung next his Skin The rest fled towards St. Neots in the County of Huntington where being fallen upon again they were routed a second time in which Action the Parliament's Souldiers to express their Detestation of Dalbeir's Treachery hewed him in pieces The Earl of Holland was taken and sent Prisoner to Warwick-Castle but the Duke of Buckingham escaped and went over to France Pomfret-Castle being seized by some of the King's Party was besieged by the Country assisted by some of the Army Sir Hugh Cholmely commanding at the Siege but the Army finding little Progress made therein ordered Col. Rainsborough with more Forces thither appointing him to command in the room of Sir Hugh Cholmely Whilst he was preparing for that Service being at Doncaster ten or twelve Miles from Pomfret with a considerable Force in the Town a Party of Horse dismounting at his Quarters and going up as Friends to his Chamber under pretence of having business with him seized him first and upon his Refusal to go silently with them murdered him After his Death another Commander being appointed in his place to carry on the Siege those in the Castle were reduced to such Extremities that some of the most desperate of them resolved together with their Governour one Morris who had been Page to the Earl of Strassord to endeavour the breaking through our Forces on Horseback which they attempted and tho most of them were beaten back to the Castle by the Besiegers yet this Morris made his way through but was afterwards taken as he passed through the Country in the Disguise of a Beggar and carried to York where he was arraigned before Justice Thorpe and being found guilty of Treason was executed for the same Lieutenant General Cromwell with that part of the Army which was with him besieged the Town and Castle of Pembroke whither the chief of that Party that fled from St. Faggons had made their Retreat as I said before but wanting great Guns he was obliged to send for some to Glocester which with much difficulty were brought to him This Place detained the greatest part of our Army about six Weeks but it was remarkable that about the time the Scots were entring into England the Garison for want of Provisions was forced to capitulate and surrender upon Articles by which some of them were to remain Prisoners and others to be banished into Ireland for three Years amongst the latter were Col. Thomas Stradling Sir Henry Stradling Col. Button and Major Butler of the first were Col. Laughern Col. Poyer and Col. Powell Twenty Thousand Scots being upon their March into England under the Conduct of Duke Hamilton with about five Thousand English commanded by Sir Marmaduke Langdale some of us who had opposed the Lieutenant General 's Arbitrary Proceedings when we were convinced he acted to promote a selfish and unwarrantable Design now thinking our selves obliged to strengthen his Hands in that necessary Work which he was appointed to undertake writ a Letter to him to encourage him from the Consideration of the Justice of the Cause wherein he was engaged and the Wickedness of those with whom he was to encounter to proceed with Chearfulness assuring him that not withstanding all our Discouragements we would readily give him all the Assistance we could The House of Commons declared the Scots who had invaded England to be Enemies and ordered the Lieutenant General to advance towards them and fight them But the Lords in this doubtful Posture
in some measure assured that they would be true to what they promised in case the Common-wealth Interest should come to be disputed before we would report their Condition to the House Some of the House of Lords having procured themselves to be chosen by the People sat in Parliament upon the Foot of their Election in which Number was Philip Earl of Pembroke who being chosen by the Freeholders of the County of Berks upon his admission to the House signed the Engagement as the rest of the Members who sat there had done the Contents of which was To be true and faithful to the Commonwealth as it was established without a King or House of Lords The same Engagement was taken by the Earl of Salisbury and the Lord Edward Howard when they took their Places in Parliament after they had been elected to serve there Whilst we were thus providing for our Security in England our Affairs in Ireland had not the same Success the Earl of Ormond having reconciled the English in Munster to the Supreme Council of the Irish Rebels the Scots also in the North falling in with them against us with whom some Gentlemen of those Parts joined tho they had engaged themselves to the contrary Yet one thing happened tending very much to the preservation of Dublin and those few Places that were kept for the Parliament which was that Owen Roe O Neal who was General of the Old Irish as they were termed could by no means be brought to a Conjunction with the English Sir Charles Coote being besieged in London-derry agreed to supply the Besiegers with Powder upon their engaging to furnish him with such Provisions as he wanted which was performed on both sides and the Lord Inchequin who was besieging Dundalk promised to do the like for Colonel Monk who then commanded in that Place upon the same Conditions which was performed on Monk's part but as his Men were carrying off the Ammunition they were fallen upon by a Party of Inchequin's Horse the Ammunition taken away and many of them killed The Scots drawing about Dundalk most of the Garison revolted to them whereupon Monk delivered up the Place upon condition that he should be permitted to return into England where being arrived he met with a cold Reception from the Parliament upon suggestion that he had corresponded with the Irish Rebels About this time an Agent from Owen Roe O Neal came privately to London and found out a way to acquaint the Council of State that if they thought sit a grant him a safe Conduct he would make some Propositions to them that would be for their Service The Council to avoid any Misconstruction of their Actions refused to hear him but appointed a Committee to speak with him of which I was one ordering us to report to them what he should propose His Proposition was that the Party commanded by O Neal should submit to and act for the Parliament if they might obtain Indemnity for what was passed and Assurance of the Enjoyment of their Religion and Estates for the time to come We asked him why they made application to us after they had refused to join with those who had been in Treaty with the King He answered that the King had broken his Word with them for tho they had deserved well of him and he had made them many fair Promises yet when he could make better Terms with any other Party he had been always ready to sacrifice them We asked him farther Why they had not made their Application sooner he told us because such Men had been possessed of the Power who had sworn their Extirpation but that now it was believed to be the Interest of those in Authority to grant Liberty of Conscience promising that if such Liberty might be extended to them they would be as zealous for a Commonwealth as any other Party instancing in many Countries where they were so We informed him that it was our Opinion that the Council would not promise Indemnity to all that Party they being esteemed to have been the principal Actors in the bloody Massacre at the beginning of the Rebellion Neither did we think that they would grant them the Liberty of their Religion believing it might prove dangerous to the Publick Peace The Council upon our Report of what had passed at the Conference concurred with our Opinion so that having no more to do with the Agent he was required to depart within a limited time The Farl of Ormond General Preston and the Lord Inchequin beginning to draw their Forces towards Dublin resolved first to reduce Tredah in order to which they sent Col. Worden thither with a strong Detachment of Horse and Foot who attempting to take it by Assault entred with most of his Men but was beat out again by an inconsiderable Number of ours Notwithstanding which the Garison wanting Men to desend their Works their Provisions also being almost consumed was obliged to capitulate and surrender upon condition that the Souldiers should have liberty to march to Duklin the rest to return home and to enjoy Protection there Dundalk and Tredagh being surrendred to the Enemy and Dublin threatned with a speedy Siege by the Forces of the Royalists and Irish combined together for the destruction of the English the Parliament taking into their serious Consideration the deplorable State of their distressed Friends resolved to send them Relief with all Expedition In the mean time the Enemy marched towards Dublin having sent a Party of Horse before to invest the Place and to prevent any Relief from Meath-side upon whose Approach Col. Jones with the Forces he had with him was obliged to retire to Jones A Party of Horse from the Town made a Sally upon the Enemy and were repulsed with some Loss but being reinforced from England by a Regiment of Horse commanded by Col. Reynolds and two Regiments of Foot Col. Jones being also come into the Town they resolved upon a vigorous Defence Immediately after the landing of these Supplies Dublin was formally besieged by the Enemy who had a great Army provided with all Necessaries for the carrying on of the Siege and furnished by the Country with Provisions in great abundance their Head-quarters being at Rathmims a Mile from Dublin towards Wicklom They took Rathfarnham by storm and sent fifteen hundred Men to fortify Baggatrath in order to hinder our Army from landing at Ringsend being within a quarter of a Mile of it and lying triangular with it and Dublin Baggatrath had a Rampart of Earth about it and the Enemy had wrought upon it to augment its Strength a whole Night before they were discovered But the next Morning Col. Jones perceiving their Design concluded it absolutely necessary to endeavour to remove them from thence before their Works were finished To that end he drew all his Forces both Horse and Foot to the Works that faced the Enemy and leaving as many as he thought necessary for the Defence of the Town sallied
not possibly undertake it without hazarding the Ruin of my Family and Estate But the Council refused to allow my Excuse which indeed was real and unseigned telling me that it would be more proper to represent those things to the Parliament when the Report should be made to them from the Council which was agreed upon to this effect That the House should be moved to appoint me Lieutenant General of the Horse in Ireland and that General Cromwell Major General Ireton my self Col. John Jones and Major Richard Salloway or any three of us should be authorized by Act of Parliament to be Commissioners for the Administration of the Civil Affairs in that Nation The News of this Transaction was unwelcome to some of my nearest Relations and best Friends not only for the Reasons above-mentioned but upon suspicion that this Opportunity was taken by the General to remove me out of the way lest I should prove an Obstruction to his Designs But I could not think my self so considerable and therefore could not concur with them in that Opinion Yet I endeavoured to clear my self of this Employment and knowing that this Affair was carried on chiefly by the General 's Influence I applied my self to him acquainting him with my present Circumstances and assuring him that it was altogether inconvenient and might prove very prejudicial to me He replied that Mens private Affairs must give place to those of the Publick that he had seriously considered the Matter and that he could not find a Person so fit for those Employments as my self desiring me therefore to acquiesce It was not many days before the Council of State made their Report of this Affair to the Parliament where I again pressed the Reasons I had used before to the Council with as much Earnestness as I could But they would not hearken to me and without any Debate presently concurred with the Council therein with the addition only of Mr. John Weaver a Member of the House to be one of the Commissioners appointed to manage the Civil Government In the mean time our Army proceeded successfully in Ireland where they reduced Waterford after a Siege of some Weeks which Place the Enemy had considerably fortified but their Provisions failing they were forced to surrender it upon Articles During this Siege the Army was supplied with all Necessaries by some of our Ships that came into the Harbour to that end After the reduction of Waterford a Detachment was made from our Army to besiege Duncannon a Place of considerable Strength having seven hundred Men within to desend it tho one third of their Number had been sufficient for that purpose This or some other Cause produced the Plague amongst them which lessened their Number and made their Provisions to hold out the longer yet at last they were constrained to deliver up the Place with all the Arms and Ammunition to our Men. The Lord of Esmond had been Governour of this Place for the English at the beginning of the War and held it out for the space of six or seven Months against the Rebels of whom he killed great Numbers before it during the Siege that he sustained but being driven to great Extremities he was obliged to surrender it to them which went so near the gallant old Gentleman's Heart that he soon after departed this Life The next Place our Army attempted was Carlo an inland Garison distant from Dublin about thirty Miles and lying upon the River Barrow The Place was esteemed by the Enemy to be of great Importance and therefore fortified by them with divers Works besides it had a small Castle at the foot of the Bridg and a River running under the Walls of the Castle The Country beyond it were also their Friends and furnished them with Provisions in great abundance To prevent which Major General Ireton found it necessary to employ the principal part of his Forces on the other side of the River Barrow yet by what means to secure a Communication between the two parts of his Army was a great Difficulty they having neither Boats nor Casks sufficient for that purpose In the end they sell upon this Expedient to bring together great Quantities of the biggest Reeds and tying them up in many little Bundles with small Cords they fastned them to two Cables that were fixed in the Ground on each side of the River at the distance of about eight or ten Yards from each other These being covered with Wattles bore Troops of Horse and Companies of Foot as well as Bridg arched with Stone Whilst these things were doing most of the Earl of Ormona's Forces retired into Connaught and those of the Lord Muskerry into Kerry the Lord Castlehaven also after he had fired most of the small Castles in Leinster and Munster marched out of those Parts But the Enemy which most threatned the Disturbance of the Parliament was that of Scotland where all Interests were united in opposition to the present Authority in England They had also many who favoured their Design in our Nation as well Presbyterians as Cavaliers the former of these were most bold and active upon presumption of more Favour in case of ill Success The Parliament being sensible of these things published a Declaration shewing that they had no Design to impose upon the Nation of Scotland any thing contrary to their Inclinations That they would leave them to chuse what Government they thought most convenient for themselves provided they would suffer the English Nation to live under that Establishment which they had chosen That it evidently appeared that the Scots were acted by a Spirit of Domination and Rule and that nothing might be wanting to compel us to submit to their Impositions they had espoused the Interests of that Family which they themselves had declared guilty of much precious Blood and resolved to force the same upon England That these and other things there mentioned had obliged them to send an Army into Scotland for their own Preservation and to keep the Scots from destroying themselves which they were about to do resolving notwithstanding to extend all possible Favour to such as were seduced through Weakness and misled by the Malice of others After this General Cromwell hastned to the Army which consisted of about twenty thousand Horse and Foot where having removed a Colonel or two with some inferiour Officers who were unwilling to be employed in that Service and made up a Regiment for Col. Monk with six Companies out of Sir Arthur Haslerig's and six out of Col. Fenwick's Regiment he marched into Scotland without any Opposition most of the People being fled from their Habitations towards Edinburgh whither all the Enemies Strength was drawn together The English Army drew up within sight of the Town but the Scots would not hazard all by the decision of a Battel hoping to tire us out with frequent Skirmishes and harassing our Men relying much upon the Unsutableness of the Climate to our Constitutions especially if they
Clothes or Food he used what Hour he went to rest or what Horse he mounted In the mean time our Army in Scotland lying near the Enemies Camp at Torwood who were plentifully furnished with Provisions from the County of Fife it was resolved that a Party of ours commanded by Colonel Overton should be sent in Boats from Leith and Edinburgh into that County to contrive some way to prevent the Enemies Supplies from thence This Party was followed by four Regiments of Horse and Foot commanded by Major General Lambert Of which the Enemy having notice sent Sir John Brown who was esteemed to be a Person of Courage and Conduct with part of their Army to oppose them It was not long before the two Parties came to an Engagement wherein the Enemy was totally routed Sir John Brown who commanded them with about two thousand of his Men killed many made Prisoners and all their Baggage taken The Scots being deprived of their usual Supplies from Fife and not expecting any from foreign Parts by reason of the number of our Ships cruizing on their Coast resolved to march into England having received Encouragement so to do from their old and new Friends there They passed the River Tweed near Carlisle there being a strong Garison in Berwick for the Parliament and were considerably advanced on their March before our Army in Scotland were acquainted with their Design Major General Harrison with about four thousand Horse and Foot somewhat obstructed their March tho he was not considerable enough to fight them and being joined by Major General Lambert with a Party of Horse from the Army they observed the Enemy so closely as to keep them from Excursions and to prevent others from joining with them The Scots who were in great expectation of Assistance from Wales and relied much upon Col. Massey's Interest in Glocestershire advanced that way Few of the Country came in to them but on the other side so affectionate were the People to the Common-wealth that they brought in Horse and Foot from all Parts to assist the Parliament Insomuch that their Number was by many thought sufficient to have beaten the Enemy without the Assistance of the Army some even of the excluded Members appearing in Arms and leading Regiments against the Common Enemy At the same time upon notice that the Earl of Derby was at the Head of fifteen hundred Horse and Foot in Lancashire Col. Liburn was sent that way with about eight hundred Men who meeting with the Earl's Forces near Wigan after a sharp Dispute for about an hour totally routed them The Number of the Slain was considerable on the Enemies side The Lord Widdrington with other Persons of Quality were killed All their Baggage was taken and three or four hundred made Prisoners with the Loss only of one Officer and about ten private Souldiers of Col. Lilburn's The Earl of Derby himself was wounded and escaped to Worcester but bringing not above thirty tired Horse with him the Townsmen began to repent their Revolt from the Parliament The Scots having possessed themselves of the City of Worcester and fortified it as well as they could in so short a time resolved to attack our Army which was now advanced to that Place and posted on each side of the Severn ready to receive them with General Cromwell at their Head Their first Attack was made upon Lieutenant General Fleetwood's Quarters that were on the other side of the River who with some Forces of the Army and a Reinforcement of the Militia made a vigorous Resistance The General fearing he might be overpower'd dispatch'd some Troops to his Assistance by a Bridg laid over the River commanding Major General Lambert to send another Detachment to the same purpose but he desired to be excused alledging that if the Enemy should alter their Course and fall upon those on this side they might probably cut off all that remained which was not unlikely for soon after most of the Enemies Strength fell upon that part of the Army where the General and Major General Lambert were The Battel was sought with various Success for a considerable time but at length the Scots Army was broken and quitting their Ground retreated in great Disorder to the Town where they endeavoured to defend themselves Major General Harrison Col. Croxton and the Forces of Cheshire entred the Place at their heels and being followed by the rest of the Army soon finished the Dispute and totally defeated the Enemy Three English Earls seven Scots Lords and above six hundred Officers besides ten thousand private Souldiers were made Prisoners The King's Standard and a hundred fifty eight Colours with all their Artillery Ammunition and Baggage was also taken On our side Quarter-master General Mosely and Capt. Jones with about a hundred private Souldiers were killed and Capt. Howard with one Captain more and about three hundred Souldiers wounded This Victory was obtained by the Parliament's Forces on the 3 d of September being the same Day of the same Month that the Scots had been defeated at Dunbar the preceding Year Col. Massey escaped into Leicestershire but being dangerously wounded found himself not able to continue his way and fearing to be knock'd on the head by the Country delivered himself to the Countess of Stamford Mother to the Lord Grey of Grooby who caused his Wounds to be carefully dressed and sent notice of his Surrender to the Army Whereupon a Party was dispatched with Orders to conduct him from thence to London as soon as he should be fit to travel which was done and he committed Prisoner to the Tower The Scots King with the Lord Wilmot were concealed by three Country-men till they could furnish him with a Horse with which he crossed the Country to one Mr. Gunter's near Shoreham in Sussex carrying one Mrs. Lane behind him from whence in a small Bark he escaped to France The General after this Action which he called the Crowning Victory took upon him a more stately Behaviour and chose new Friends neither must it be omitted that instead of acknowledging the Services of those who came from all Parts to assist against the Common Enemy tho he knew they had deserved as much Honour as himself and the standing Army he srowned upon them and the very next day after the Fight dismissed and sent them home well knowing that a useful and experienced Militia was more likely to obstruct than to second him in his ambitious Designs Being on his way to London many Members of the Parliament attended by the City and great numbers of Persons of all Orders and Conditions went some Miles out of the Town to meet him which tended not a little to heighten the Spirit of this haughty Gentleman Lieutenant General Monk whom the General had raised to that Employment and ordered to command in Scotland during his Absence took Sterling-Castle and then marched with about four thousand Horse and Foot before Dundee But being advised that General Lesley the Earl of
this dismissing the Officer tho otherwise an useful Man from his Command for the same The next day we marched towards Clare-Castle and found the way so rocky that we rode near three Miles together upon one of them whereby most of our Horses cast their Shoes so that though every Troop came provided with Horse-shoes which were delivered to them out of the Stores yet before that day's March was over a Horse-shoe was sold sor five shillings The next morning the Lady Honoria Obryan Daughter to the late Earl of Thomond being accused of protecting the Goods and Cattle of the â—â—emy under pretence that they belonged to 〈◊〉 and thereby abusing the favour of the Deputy's Safeguard which he had granted to her came to him and being charged by him with it and told that he expected a more ingenuous Carriage from her she burst out into Tears and assured him if he would forgive her that she would never do the like again desiring me after the Deputy was withdrawn to intercede with him for the continuance of his favour to her which when I acquainted him with he said As much a Cynick as I am the Tears of this Woman moved me and thereupon gave order that his Protection should be continued to her From hence I would have attended him to Limerick but so much more care did he take of me than of himself that he would not suffer it desiring me to go that day being Saturday and quarter at Bonratto a House of the Earl of Thomond's in order to recover my health and to come to him on Monday morning at Limerick Accordingly I came and found the Deputy grown worse having been let blood and sweating exceedingly with a burning Fever at the same time Yet for all this he ceased not to apply himself to the Publick business settling Garisons and distributing Winter-quarters which was all that remained to be done of the Military Service for that year I endeavoured to perswade him as I had often done before that his immoderate Labours for his Country would much impair if not utterly destroy him but he had so totally neglected himself during the Siege of Limerick not putting off his Clothes all that time except to change his Linen that the malignant Humours which he had contracted wanting room to perspire became confined to his Body and rendred him more liable to be infected by the Contagion I was unwilling to leave him till I saw the event of his Distemper but he supposing my Family was by this time come to Dublin would not permit me to stay and I finding I could in no way be serviceable to him submitted to his desires I found the Commissioners of Parliament at Dublin and acquainted them with the State of Affairs in those Parts from whence I came and with the Resolutions taken by the Deputy at Limerick but soon after my arrival the sad news of his Death was brought to us which was universally lamented by all good Men more especially because the Publick was thereby deprived of a most faithful able and useful Servant The Commissioners of Parliament taking into their consideration what method to observe in that Conjuncture and presuming that my Command in the Army was next to that of the Deputy resolved by a Letter to acquaint the Officers of our Forces in Ireland with their judgment and to require them to yield Obedience to me accordingly I earnestly desired them to forbear sending any such Letter which I did not out of a feigned modesty but from a real sense of the weight of such an Undertaking and my own inability to perform the duty of that important Station For tho the Work seemed to be almost finished yet there remained great Difficulties behind the Enemy possessing some strong Places and Islands and having many thousands yet in the Field there being also in the Parliament's Pay between seven and eight thousand Horse and Dragoons with above two and twenty thousand Foot For these and other Reasons I desired them that they would reserve the Power to themselves till the Parliament should send over some Person to undertake that Employment which they might do soon enough the season of Action being already past the Troops dispersed into their Winter-quarters and nothing of importance likely to be done before the next Spring acquainting them that being one of their number I could be as serviceable in their Deliberations and Resolutions as if I were entrusted with the sole Power But all that I could say was not sufficient to disswade them from sending the Letter before mentioned and tho it met with a general submission yet I resolved not to undertake any thing without their Advice and Consent which they readily promised to afford me Some of General Cromwell's Relations who were not ignorant of his vast Designs now on foot caused the Body of the Lord Deputy Ireton to be transported into England and solemnly interred at Westminster in a magnificent Monument at the Publick Charge Who if he could have foreseen what was done by them would certainly have made it his desire that his Body might have found a Grave where his Soul left it so much did he despise those pompous and expensive Vanities having erected for himself a more glorious Monument in the hearts of good Men by his affection to his Country his abilities of Mind his impartial Justice his diligence in the Publick Service and his other Vertues which were a far greater Honour to his Memory than a Dormitory amongst the Ashes of Kings who for the most part as they had governed others by their Passions so were they themselves as much governed by them The Isles of Scilly and Man were reduced to the Obedience of the Commonwealth but nothing extraordinary happening at their reduction at least not coming to my knowledg I purposely omit the relation of those Actions About this time we were informed that Sir George Ayscue who had been sent by the Parliament to the Western Islands which still continued in Arms against them arrived at the Barbadoes on the 26 th of October 1651. and having opened a Passage into the Harbour by firing some great Shot seized upon twelve of their Ships without opposition The next morning he sent a Summons to the Lord Willoughby to submit to the Authority of the Parliament of England but he not acknowledging any such Power declared his Resolution to keep the Island for the King's Service But the News of the Defeat of the Scots and their King at Worcester being brought to Sir George Ayscue together with an intercepted Letter from the Lady Willoughby containing the same Account he summoned him a second time and accompanied his Summons with his Lady's Letter to assure him of the truth of that report But the Lord Willoughby relying upon his Numbers and the fewness of those that were sent to reduce him being in all but fifteen Sail returned an Answer of the like substance with the former Whereupon Sir George Ayscue sent two
hundred Men on shore commanded by Captain Morrice to attack a Quarter of the Enemies that lay by the Harbour which they executed Successfully by taking the Fort and about forty Prisoners with four Pieces of Cannon which they nailed up and returned on board again At this time the Virginia Fleet arriving at the Barbadoes it was thought fit to send a third Summons to the Lord Willoughby but finding that neither this nor the Declaration sent to them by the Commissioners of Parliament to the same purpose produced any effect Sir George Ayscue landed seven hundred Men from his own and the Virginia Fleet giving the Command of them to the same Captain Morrice who fell upon thirteen hundred of the Enemies Foot and three Troops of their Horse and beat them from their Works killing many of their Men and taking about a hundred Prisoners with all their Guns The Loss on our side was inconsiderable few of ours being killed upon the place and not above thirty wounded Yet these Successes were not sufficient to accomplish the Work there being above five thousand Horse and Foot in the Island and our Virginia Fleet preparing to depart for want of Provisions In this conjuncture Colonel Muddiford who commanded a Regiment in the Island by the means of a Friend that he had in our Fleet made his Terms and declared for the Parliament Many of his Friends following his Example did the like and in conjunction with him encamped under the protection of our Fleet. Upon this the most part of the Island were inclined to join us but the Lord Willoughby prevented them by placing Guards on all the Avenues to our Camp and designed to charge our Men with his Body of Horse wherein he was much superior to them had not a Cannon-Ball that was fired at random beat open the door of a Room where he and his Council of War were sitting which taking off the Head of the Sentinel who was placed at the door so alarmed them all that he changed his design and retreated to a Place two Miles distant from the Harbour Our Party consisting of two thousand Foot and one hundred Horse advancing towards him he desired to treat which being accepted Colonel Muddiford Colonel Collyton Mr. Searl and Captain Pack were appointed Commissioners by Sir George Ayscue and by the Lord Willoughby Sir Richard Pierce Mr. Charles Pym Colonel Ellis and Major Byham By these it was concluded that the Islands of Barbadoes Mevis Antego and St. Christophers should be surrendered to the Parliament of England That the Lord Willoughby Colonel Walrond and some others should be restored to their Estates and that the Inhabitants of the said Isles should be maintained in the quiet enjoyment of what they possessed on condition to do nothing to the prejudice of the Commonwealth This News being brought to Virginia they submitted also where one Mr. George Ludlow a Relation of mine served the Parliament in the like manner as Col. Muddiford had done at the Barbadoes The Parliament of England being desirous after all these Successes to convince even their Enemies that their principal design was to procure the happiness and prosperity of all that were under their Government sent Commissioners to Scotland to treat concerning an Union of that Nation with England in one Common-wealth directing them to take care till that could be effected that Obedience should be given to the Authority of the Parliament of the Common wealth of England The Commissioners appointed to this end on the part of the Parliament were Sir Henry Vane the Chief Justice St. Johns Mr. Fenwick Major Salloway Major General Lambert Colonel Titchborn Major General Dean and Colonel Monk This Proposition of Union was chearfully accepted by the most iudicious amongst the Scots who well understood how great a condescension it was in the Parliament of England to permit a People they had conquered to have a part in the Legislative Power The States-General being highly displeased with the late Act of Navigation passed by the Parliament which they accounted to be a great obstruction to their Trade resolved to leave no means unattempted to procure it to be repealed To this end they sent three Ambassadors to England who pretending a desire to finish the Treaty begun formerly between the Two States requested that things might be as they were at the time of our Ambassador's departure from Holland designing thereby that the Act lately passed for the Encouragement of our Seamen should be suspended and all such Merchandizes restored as had been seized from the Dutch by virtue of the said Act. The Parliament refusing to consent to this Proposal the States-General gave Orders for the equipping a considerable Fleet consisting of about a hundred Ships of War giving notice to the Parliament by their Ambassadors of these Preparations and assuring them that they were not design'd to offend the English Nation with whom they desired to maintain a friendly Correspondence and that they were provided to no other end than to protect their own Subjects in their Trade and Navigation But the Parliament being unwilling to rely upon the Promises of those who by their past and present Actions had manifested little Friendship to us resolved to make what Preparations they could to defend themselves This Alarm awakened us to a diligent performance of our duty in Ireland fearing that the Hollanders might transport some foreign Forces by their Fleet to the Assistance of the Irish who were not only still numerous in the Field but had also divers Places of Strength to retreat to Our Suspicions were farther increased by the Advices we received of a Treaty on foot between the Duke of Lorain and Theobald Viscount Taff with other Irish to bring the Forces of that Duke into Ireland against us in order to extirpate all Hereticks out of that Nation to re-establish the Romish Religion in all Parts of it and to restore the Irish to their Possessions all which being performed he should deliver up the Authority to the King of Great Britain and assist him against his Rebellious Subjects in England That all Ireland should be ingaged for his Re-imbursement That Galway Limerick Athenree Athlone Waterford and the Fort of Duncannon should be put into his hands as Cautionary Places with other things of the same nature The Report of this Agreement being spread amongst the Irish encouraged them to make all possible Opposition against us in expectation of the promised Succours The Commissioners of the Parliament on the other hand laboured with all diligence to dispose their Affairs in the best manner they could for the Publick Service in order to which they sent to the several Commanders of our Army to excite them to the discharge of their Duty making provision of Arms Ammunition Clothes Tents and all things necessary to the carrying on the War in the ensuing Spring A general Meeting of Officers was also appointed to be held at Kilkenay to consult about the best Method of employing our Arms against the
Enemy And because the Propositions offered by the late Lord Deputy to those of Galway had been no farther prosecuted by reason of his Death Orders were dispatched to Sir Charles Coote authorizing him to conclude with them in case they should accept the Conditions at or before the ninth of the next January According to their Orders the Officers met at Kilkenny by whom being informed of what they thought necessary for the ensuing Service we acquainted the Parliament and Council of State with the Particulars of such things as were requisite desiring them to send them over with all convenient speed that no time might be lost when the Season of the Year should permit us to take the Field We published two Proclamations to prevent the Country from supplying the Enemy with Arms and other Necessaries wherein drawing a Line as it were about the Irish Quarters we required all Persons to withdraw themselves and their Goods from the places of their resort within a limited time which if they refused to do we declared them Enemies and ordered all Officers and Souldiers to treat them accordingly commanding also all Smiths Armourers and Sadlers that lived in the Country to retire in twenty days with all their Families Forges and Instruments into some Garison of the Parliament on pain of forfeiture of their Goods and Tools besides six months Imprisonment for the first Offence and of Death for the second We ordered also that all those who had withdrawn themselves out of our Protection and joined with the Enemy since the coming over of General Cromwell should be deprived of the benefit of Quarter Having published these and other Orders of the like tenour we appointed the Lord Broghil Commissary General Reynolds Sir Hardress Waller Colonel Axtel and the rest of the Officers to cause them to be put in execution as occasion should require Having finished our Affairs at Kilkenny and dismissed the Officers to their respective Quarters I resolved to go to Portumna to make all things ready for the Siege of Galway Being on my March on the other side of Nenagh an advanced Party found two of the Rebels one of whom was killed by the Guard before I came up to them the other was saved and being brought before me at Portumna and I asking him if he had a mind to be hanged he only answered If you please so insensibly stupid were many of these poor Creatures The Commissioners having done their business in this Place and given Directions for the carrying on the Siege of Galway with Power to treat as before mentioned to Sir Charles Coote we returned to Dublin and at our arrival were informed that the Barony of Bâ—rren relying upon the security of their places of Retreat had refused to pay the Contributions which they had promised upon which Sir Hardress Waller had been obliged to lay the Country waste and to seize what he could find that it might be no longer useful to the Enemy We had advice also from Vlster that some of our Troops had killed and drowned about a hundred and forty Tories who infested that Province with their Robberies The time limited by the Proclamation requiring the Irish to withdraw from the places mentioned therein being expired I marched with a Party of Horse and Foot into the Fastnesses of Wicklo as well to make Examples of such as had not obeyed the Proclamation as to place a Garison there to prevent the Excursions of the Enemy Talbot's Town was the Place I thought fittest for that end which having rendred defensible against any sudden attempt and furnished with all things necessary I marched farther into the Country The next morning I divided my Men into three Parties sending away Colonel Pretty with one of them to his own Quarters lest the Enemy should fall upon them in his absence with the other two we scoured by different ways the Passes and Retreats of the Irish but met not with many of them our Parties being so big that the Irish who had Sentinels placed upon every Hill gave notice of our March to their Friends so that upon our Approach they still fled to their Bogs and Woods When I came to Dundrum a Place lying in the heart of the Enemy's Quarters I perceived the Walls and Roof of an old Church standing wherein I placed Captain Jacob with his Company who was afterwards very serviceable against the Enemy The like Methods being taken by the Lord Broghil Colonel Zanchey Colonel Abbot and other Officers the Irish were reduced to great Extremities About fourscore of the Inhabitants of Galway went privately out of the Town and seizing a hundred Head of Cattel designed to drive them thither but being upon their Return they were met by a Party of ours who killed threescore of them and recovered all the Cattel This Disappointment was attended with another much greater for two Vessels loaden with Corn endeavouring to get into the Harbour of Galway being pursued by two of our Frigats one of them was taken and the other forced upon the Rocks near the Isle of Arran where she was lost The Parliament having received an Account of the hopeful Condition of their Affairs in Ireland and of the great Appearance there was of a speedy Determination of that War appointed a Committee to summon before them those Adventurers who in the Year 1641 had advanced Monies upon the Lands in Ireland The said Persons being met at Grocers-Hall chose twenty eight Deputies to manage the Business with the Committee in the Names of all the rest In conformity to this Proceeding the Commissioners of Parliament in Ireland began to consider of Qualifications and Heads under which the Irish should be brought that the Innocent might be freed from their Fears and Apprehensions that Justice might be done and the Guilty punished according to the different nature of their Crimes Of which the Irish having notice and considering the declining Condition of their Affairs in all Parts sent a Letter directed to the Commissioners of the Parliament of England from the Principal as they called themselves of the Kingdom of Ireland and subscribed by Gerald Fitz-Gerald on the behalf of their Assembly held at Glanmaliero in the Province of Leinster representing That being advised that the Commonwealth of England is in a condition to give honourable and sure Terms to them they are in an entire Disposition to receive them and to that effect desire in the Name of that and the rest of the Provinces a safe Conduct for every one of them with Blanks subscribed to that end that they may impower and send some of their Members to present Propositions to the Commissioners that are or should be authorized to that purpose To this the Commissioners answered in substance That tho the Letter was subscribed by one under the pretext of an Authority which they could not own without prejudice to that of the Parliament yet for the satisfaction of those concerned they thought fit to declare That the Establishment of this
Nation doth of Right belong only to the Parliament of England who will distinguish those who have always lived peaceably or have already submitted to their Authority and put themselves under their Protection from such as have committed and countenanced the Murders and Massacres of the Protestants during the first Year of the Rebellion as well as from those who continue still in Arms to oppose their Authority That they cannot in Justice consent to an Act so prejudicial to the Peace of the Country as would involve quiet and peaceable People in the same Prosecution with those who are in open Hostility That they cannot grant safe Conducts to such as persist in their Opposition to the Parliament to assemble from all Provinces and to communicate their Designs to each other But that all those who will lay down their Arms and submit to the Common-wealth shall have as favourable Conditions as they can justly expect This Resolution of the Commissioners being made publick the Irish fell upon another Expedient in pursuance of which the Earl of Clanrickard who had been left Deputy by the Earl of Ormond sent a Letter directed to me then Commander in Chief of the Forces of the Parliament in Ireland in the Words following SIR MANY of the Nobility Clergy and other Persons of Quality Subjects of this Kingdom with the Corporation of Galway having considered the present State of Affairs and the ruinous Effects which this long War hath produced have solicited me to desire of you a Conference for the establishment of the Repose of this Nation and to obtain a safe Conduct for the Commissioners whom by their Advice I shall judg capable to be sent to you for that end It is this which hath obliged me to send you an Express with this Protestation that I shall not abandon them till I see such Conditions granted them as they may with Honour accept for want of which I am resolved to continue the Authority and Protection of his Majesty over them even to Extremity not doubting but by Divine Assistance with the Forces we have already and the Succours which shall be sent us by his Majesty and Allies we shall be found in a condition to change the present State of Affairs or at least to render your former Conquests of little advantage and in the end to sell our Lives at a dear rate if we shall be forced thereto the which leaving to your Consideration and expecting your certain Answer and Resolution I remain 24 March 1652. SIR Your Servant CLANRICKARD POSTSCRIPT If you please to send a safe Conduct I desire it may be addressed to Sir Charles Coote or whom you shall think fit near to this Place with a Pass for the number of five Commissioners and their Retinue of about twenty Persons to the end that having notice thereof I may send a List of the Names of the said Commissioners To this I returned the following Answer My Lord IN answer to yours of the 24 th of March by which you propose a Treaty for the Settlement of this Country and desire a safe Conduct for the Commissioners you shall judg fit to employ in the management of that Affair I think fit in pursuance of the Advice of the Commissioners of the Parliament of England and of many Officers of the English Army to advertise you as hath been already answered to those who have sent Propositions of the like nature That the Settlement of this Nation doth of Right belong to the Parliament of the Common-wealth of England to whom we are obliged in duty to leave it being assured that they will not capitulate with those who ought to submit to them and yet oppose themselves to their Authority and upon vain and frivolous hopes have refused such Offers of Favour as they would gladly accept at present so that I fear they will be constrained to proceed against them with the highest Severity which that you may prevent by your timely Submission is the Desire of My Lord Your humble Servant EDMVND LVDLOW That Passage in my Answer touching their Readiness to accept such Terms as they had formerly rejected was grounded upon notice sent by Sir Charles Coote that the Town of Galway since the time limited by the Commissioners for their Submission was expired desired a Treaty whereupon I had acquainted him that seeing the Besieged had refused the Conditions formerly offered they ought not now to expect the like after such an addition of Trouble and Charge as they had lately put us upon yet for all this Caution Sir Charles Coote concluded a Treaty with them immediately after the Return of my Answer to the Earl of Clanrickard upon Conditions much more advantagious to them than those formerly proposed and very prejudicial to the Publick undertaking to get them ratified by the Commissioners of Parliament within twenty days and in the mean time promising that they should be inviolably observed The Commissioners of Parliament having received the Articles and conceiving it to be unjust as well as imprudent to give the best Terms to those who made the longest Opposition and of what dangerous Consequence it might be if that Place were not fully secured to the English Interest spent the whole Night in Consultation with the Officers of the Army and in the end resolved That they could not consent that any should receive the Benefit of those Articles who had been any way concerned in the murdering of the English in the first Year of the War That they would not oblige themselves to permit any to live in Galway whom they should hereafter think fit to remove from thence for the Security of the Place That they cannot consent that the Burgesses shall enjoy any more than two thirds of their Estates lying near the Town That they will not suffer the Habitations of such as have been forced to quit the Place upon the account of their Affection to the Parliament to be detained from them With these and some other Alterations they declared their Consent to the rest of the Articles before-mentioned which if those of the Town refused they ordered that our Men should not enter and if entred that they should restore the Possession of it to the Garison but notwithstanding this Expedition the Messenger that was dispatched with the Resolutions of the Commissioners came too late and all that could be obtained was a Promise from Sir Charles Coote to endeavour to perswade those of Galway to accept of the Articles with the Amendments made by the Commissioners The Parliament having resolved upon the Incorporation of Scotland with the Nation of England into one Free State or Commonwealth and to reimburse themselves some part of that Treasure they had expended in their own Defence against the Invasions of the Scots declared the Goods and Lands formerly belonging to the Crown of Scotland to be confiscated and also those that were possessed by such Persons as had assisted in the Invasion of England by Duke Hamilton in the
close that as they fled from one Party they fell into the hands of another by which means they were in a short time entirely dispersed The Irish that submitted according to the Articles and delivered up their Arms and Horses to the Commissioners appointed by me to receive them were in all about three thousand But many of them finding themselves within that exception concerning the Murders of the English or hoping to obtain better Conditions or it may be taking pleasure in their predatory Life continued still in Arms. Of this number was the Lord Muskerry who commanded the Irish in Munster and at the time of our Treaty with those of Leinster had sent one Colonel Poor to Kilkenny to acquaint us that he designed to come in upon the same Conditions but we suspecting his sincerity by the means of some Letters which we intercepted were not wanting to prepare what was necessary in order to reduce him and his Party by force and having finished our Affairs at Kilkenny I removed with the Commissioners to Clonmel and from thence to Youghal and so to Cork The Rebels in Connaught and Vlster instead of submitting as was expected got together a Body of about five thousand Men under the Conduct of the Earl of Clanrickard and Sir Phelim O Neal with which they besieged and took the Fort of Ballishannon Whereupon Sir Charles Coot and Colonel Venables drew out what Forces they could and advanced towards them with such expedition that they were near the Place before the Enemy had notice of their March who finding themselves surprized retreated to the Bogs leaving a small Garison in Ballishannon but being pursued by our Men who killed and wounded about three hundred of them in which number were thirty Officers and took from them seven or eight thousand Cows upon whose Milk they chiefly subsisted twelve hundred of them came in and laid down their Arms upon which the Garison they had placed in Ballishannon surrendred upon Articles Major General Lambert making great Preparations to come over to us in the quality of Deputy to General Cromwell the Commission of the said General to be Lieutenant of Ireland expired Whereupon the Parliament took that Affair into their Consideration and tho there were not wanting many amongst them who affirmed the Title and Office of Lieutenant to be more sutable to a Monarchy than a Free Commonwealth yet it was likely to have been carried for the renewing his Commission under the same Title But he having at that time another Part to act stood up and declared his satisfaction with what had been said against constituting a Lieutenant in Ireland desiring that they would not continue him with that Character Upon which the Question being put the Parliament willing to believe him in earnest ordered it according to his Motion He farther moved that tho they had not thought fit to continue a Lieutenant of Ireland they would be pleased in consideration of the worthy Person whom they had formerly approved to go over with the Title of Deputy to continue that Character to him But the Parliament having suppressed the Title and Office of a Lieutenant in Ireland thought it altogether improper to constitute a Deputy who was no more than the Substitute of a Lieutenant and therefore refused to consent to that Proposal ordering that he should be inserted one of the Commissioners for Civil Affairs and constituted Commander in chief of their Forces in Ireland In the management of this Affair Mr. Weaver who was one of the Commissioners of Ireland but then at London and sitting in Parliament was very active to the great discontent of General Cromwell who endeavouring to perswade the Parliament that the Army in Ireland would not be satisfied unless their Commander in chief came over qualified as Deputy Mr. Weaver assured them that upon his knowledg all the sober People of Ireland and the whole Army there except a few factious Persons were not only well satisfied with the present Government both Civil and Military of that Nation but also with the Governours who managed the same and therefore moved that they would make no alteration in either and renew their Commissions for a longer time This discourse of Mr. Weaver tending to perswade the Parliament to continue me in the Military Command increased the Jealousie which General Cromwell had conceived of me that I might prove an obstruction to the Design he was carrying on to advance himself by the ruin of the Commonwealth And therefore since Major General Lambert refused to go over with any Character less than that of Deputy he resolved by any means to place Lieutenant General Fleetwood at the head of Affairs in Ireland By which Conduct he procured two great Advantages to himself thereby putting the Army in Ireland into the hands of a person secured to his Interest by the Marriage of his Daughter and drawing Major General Lambert into an enmity towards the Parliament prepared him to join with him in opposition to them when he should find it convenient to put his Design in execution In the mean time I was not wanting in my endeavours to reduce the Enemy in Ireland and to that end marched with about 4000 Foot and 2000 Horse towards Ross in Kerry where the Lord Muskerry made his principal Rendezvouz and which was the only place of Strength the Irish had left except the Woods Bogs and Mountains being a kind of an Island encompassed on every part by Water except on one side upon which there was a Bog not passable but by a Causway which the Enemy had fortified In this Expedition I was accompanied by the Lord Broghil and Sir Hardress Waller Major General of the Foot Being arrived at this Place I was informed that the Enemy received continual Supplies from those parts that lay on the other side and were covered with Woods and Mountains whereupon I sent a Party of two thousand Foot to clear those Woods and to find out some convenient place for the erecting a Fort if there should be occasion These Forces met with some opposition but at last they routed the Enemy killing some and taking others Prisoners the rest saved themselves by their good Footmanship Whilst this was doing I employed that Part of the Army which was with me in fortifying a Neck of Land where I designed to leave a Party to keep in the Irish on this side that I might be at liberty with the greatest part of the Horse and Foot to look after the Enemy abroad and to receive and convoy such Boats and other things necessary as the Commissioners sent to us by Sea When we had received our Boats each of which was capable of containing a hundred and twenty Men I ordered one of them to be rowed about the Water in order to find out the most convenient Place for Landing upon the Enemy which they perceiving thought fit by a timely Submission to prevent the Danger that threatned them and having expressed their Desires to that
purpose Commissioners were appointed on both Parts to treat The Articles were the same in effect with those granted to the Irish in Leinster and other Places But much time was spent in the discussion of some Particulars especially that concerning the Murder of the English which was an Exception we never failed to make so that the Irish Commissioners seeming doubtful whether by the wording that Article they were not all included desired that it might be explained to which we consented and it was accordingly done They also made it their Request that instead of that Article relating to their real Estates whereby they were to enjoy such a part as should be allotted to them by the Qualifications to be agreed upon it might be expressed that they wholly submitted to the Mercy of the Parliament therein The Exercise also of their Religion was earnestly insisted upon by them but we refused to oblige our selves to any thing in that Particular declaring only that it was neither the Principle or Practice of the Authority which we served to impose their way of Worship upon any by violent means With these Explanations the Commissioners after a Fortnight's Debate concluded the Agreement the Lord Muskerry and my self confirming it his Son with Sir Daniel Obryan were delivered to me as Hostages for the performance of the Articles in consequence of which about five thousand Horse and Foot laid down their Arms and surrendred their Horses Whilst this was doing in Munster Col. Grace with some Forces that had not submitted passed the Shannon and being joined by many of the Irish of Connaught and Galway began to grow considerable being about three thousand most of them Foot Col. Ingoldsby having notice of them drew together a Party about Limerick and marching with them to find out the Enemy attacked them at a Pass which they disputed for some time but our Horse breaking in upon some of their Foot and encouraging the rest to fall on the Irish quitted their Post and shifted for themselves In this Action many of them were killed and taken Prisoners the rest escaping to the Bogs and Woods After this Defeat Col. Grace and his Party was forced to submit and to that end treated with Col. Zanchey but found that his obstinate Resistance so long had done him no Service for Col. Zanchey upon the Surrender of Inch to him and the Submission of Col. Grace's Forces caused a Captain a Lieutenant and a Serjeant with other Officers to be shot to death for revolting at Carrick to the Enemy according to the Liberty he had reserved to himself in that case by the Capitulation In the North of Ireland Col. Theophilus Jones being sent out with seven Troops of Horse one of Dragoons and three hundred Foot to get Provisions for the Relief of those Parts met with a Party of the Enemy consisting of sixteen hundred Foot and three hundred Horse whom he charged and after a sharp Dispute routed and put to flight killing many of their Officers and three hundred Souldiers upon the Place All the Arms of their Foot were taken and a hundred and fifty Horse with the Loss only of six of our Men killed and about twenty wounded The Earl of Clanrickard finding the Irish Affairs in a desperate Condition with what Forces he had left retired into the Isle of Carrick where being encompassed by our Men on all sides he submitted and obtained Liberty to transport himself with three thousand Men to any foreign Country in Friendship with the Commonwealth within the space of three Months The Parliament having already sent over to us five Companies of Foot under the Command of Licutenant Colonel Finch who had done very good Service at the Battel of Worcester resolved to send eight hundred more out of the Regiment of Major Gen. Lambert and an intire Regiment commanded by Col. Clark which Forces were procured rather to promote the Designs of General Cromvel than from any need we had of them our military Service in Ireland by the Blessing of God drawing towards a Conclusion most of the Irish Forces having submitted and laid down their Arms no Garison of any Strength holding out against us and many Thousand of the Enemy sent into foreign Service The Souldiers of Lambert's Regiment were countermanded upon his refusal to go to Ireland without the Character of Deputy but the Regiment of Col. Clark being throughly principled for Cromvel's Design continued their March by order of the Parliament who were perswaded to constitute Lieutenant General Fleetwood Commander in Chief of their Forces in Ireland and one of their Commissioners for the Civil Affairs in that Nation The States General upon the Return of their Ambassadors from England dispatched Orders to their Admiral to take all Advantages against the English and solicited the King of Denmark to break with us also encouraging him to detain twenty two English Merchant Ships which he had formerly seized coming through the Sound The Parliament to prevent the Dangers that might ensue by farther Delay gave Orders to General Blake to fall upon the Subjects of Holland wheresoever he should meet them and particularly to interrupt their Fishery upon the Northern Coast sending the Regiments of Col. Ingoldsby and Col. Goff on board the Fleet. General Blake having received these Instructions set sail for the North where meeting with about six hundred Herring-Busses under a Convoy of twelve Men of War he took and sunk the whole Convoy and having seized the Fish that the Busses had taken he released all the Vessels with the Seamen belonging to them Which Action was blamed by some who thought that by the help of those Ships we might have been enabled to erect a Fishery and thereby have made some Reparation to the English Nation for the Damages which they had sustained from the Dutch and that by detaining their Mariners we might have weakned and distressed them considerably they wanting Men for the management of their Shipping In the mean time Sir George Ayscue who was lately returned from the Reduction of Barbadoes and had convoyed into the River five Merchant Ships richly laden from the East Indies fell upon a Fleet of Hollanders consisting of sorty Merchant-men under the Convoy of four Men of War Of this Fleet he took seven forced divers on shore and the rest narrowly escaped About the same time a Ship from Guiny valued at forty thousand Pounds was by some of ours taken srom the Dutch with many other rich Ships to the great Prejudice and Interruption of their Trade To apply some Remedy to this the Dutch Admiral with his Fleet came into the Downs and anchored by Sir George Ayscue who was retired under Dover-Castle being much inferiour in Number to the Enemy but the Hollanders after a short stay left our Fleet and set sail without attempting any thing against us At Leghorn some of their Men of War preparing to seize such English Merchants Ships as lay in that Port the Grand Duke sent a Message to