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
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
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
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
out with the rest being between four and five thousand and falling upon them beat them from their Works killing Sir William Vaughan who commanded them and most of the Men that were with him closely pursuing the rest who fled towards their main Army where the Earl of Ormond thought fit at last to throw down his Cards which he had before refused to do in contempt of our Forces and with his Royal Army as it was called retreated in great Disorder towards Rathmims Col. Jones pursued him close finding little Opposition except from a Party of the Lord Inchequin's Horse that had formerly served the Parliament who defended a Pass for some time but were after some Dispute broken and forced to fly Having routed these he marched with all Diligence up to the Walls of Rathmims which were about sixteen Foot high and contained about ten Acres of Ground where many of the Enemies Foot had shut up themselves but perceiving their Army to be entirely routed and their General fled they yielded themselves Prisoners After this our Men continuing their Pursuit found a Party of about two thousand Foot of the Lord Inchequin's in a Grove belonging to Rathgar who after some Defence obtained Conditions for their Lives and the next day most of them took up Arms in our Service This Success was the more remarkable because unexpected on both sides our handful of Men being led step by step to an absolute Victory whereas their utmost Design at the beginning of the Action was only to beat the Enemy from Baggatrath and so surprizing to our Enemies that they had not time to carry off their Money which lay at Rathfarnham for the paying of their Army where Col. Jones seized four thousand Pounds very seasonably for the paiment of his Men. The Parliament having an Army ready to send to Ireland a sormidable Fleet to put to Sea another Army to keep at home for their own Defence and a considerable Force to guard the North against the Scots who had declared themselves Enemies and waited only an Opportunity of shewing it with Advantage thought themselves obliged to expose to sale such Lands as had been formerly possessed by Deans and Chapters that they might be enabled thereby to desray some part of that great Charge that lay upon the Nation To this end they authorized Trustees to sell the said Lands provided they could do it at ten Years Purchase at the least but such was the good Opinion that the People had conceived of the Parliament that most of those Lands were sold at the clear Income of fifteen sixteen and seventeen Years one half of the Sums contracted for being paid down in ready Money besides which the Woods were valued distinctly and to be paid for according to the Valuation All Impropriations belonging to the said Deans and Chapters as well as those of the Bishops either in Possession or Reversion were reserved from sale to enlarge the Maintenance of poor Ministers Yet this was not sufficient to restrain that Generation of Men from inveighing against the Parliament and conspiring with their Enemies both at home and abroad to weaken their hands and if possible to render them unable to carry on the Publick Service The Fee-farm Rents formerly belonging to the Crown were also sold and yet such was the necessity of Affairs that notwithstanding all this the Parliament found themselves obliged to lay a Tax of a hundred and twenty thousand Pounds a Month upon the Nation which Burden they bore for the most part without regret being convinced that it was wholly applied to the Use of the Publick and especially because those who imposed it paid an equal Proportion with the rest The Crown-Lands were assigned to pay the Arrears of those Souldiers who were in Arms in the Year 1647. which was done by the Influence of the Officers of the Army that was in present Service whereby they made Provision for themselves and neglected those who had appeared for the Parliament at the first and had endured the Heat and Burden of the day In the Month of September 1649 the Army embarked and set sail for Ireland Commissary General Ireton with one part of them designing for Munster and Lieutenant General Cromwell being appointed Lieutenant of Ireland with the rest for Dublin But the Wind blowing a strong Gale from the South they were both put into the Bay of Dublin where they were received with great Joy for tho the Enemies Army had been beaten from the Siege of that Place and Col. Jones with the small Forces he had with him had made the best Improvement he could of that Advantage by reducing some Garisons that lay nearest to him yet the Enemies were still in possession of nine Parts in ten of that Nation and had fortified the most considerable Places therein After our Army had refreshed themselves and were joined by the Forces of Col. Jones they mustered in all between sixteen and seventeen thousand Horse and Foot Upon their Arrival the Enemies withdrew and put most of their Army into their Garisons having placed three or four thousand of the best of their Men being most English in the Town of Tredah and made Sir Arthur Ashton Governour thereof A Resolution being taken to besiege that Place our Army sat down before it and the Lieutenant General caused a Battery to be erected against an Angle of the Wall near to a Fort which was within called the Windmill-Fort by which he made a Breach in the Wall but the Enemy having a Half-moon on the Out-side which was designed to flank the Angle of the Wall he thought fit to endeavour to possess himself of it which he did by storm putting most of those that were in it to the Sword The Enemy defended the Breach against ours from behind an Earth-work which they had cast up within and where they had drawn up two or three Troops of Horse which they had within the Town for the Encouragement and Support of their Foot The Fort also was not unserviceable to them in the defence of the Breach The Lieutenant General well knowing the Importance of this Action resolved to put all upon it and having commanded some Guns to be loaded with Bullets of half a Pound and fired upon the Enemies Horse who were drawn up somewhat in view himself with a Reserve of Foot marched up to the Breach which giving fresh Courage to our Men they made a second Attack with more Vigour than before Whereupon the Enemies Foot being abandoned by their Horse whom our Shot had forced to retire began to break and shift for themselves which ours perceiving followed them so close that they overtook them at the Bridg that lay cross the River and separated that part where the Action was from the principal part of the Town and preventing them from drawing up the Bridg entred pell-mell with them into the Place where they put all they met with to the Sword having positive Orders from the Lieutenant General to give no
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
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
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
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
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
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
MEMOIRS OF Edmund Ludlow Esq Lieutenant General of the Horse Commander in Chief of the Forces in Ireland One of the Council of State and a Member of the Parliament which began on November 3 1640. In Two Volumes VOL. I. Switzerland Printed at Vivay in the Canton of Bern. MDCXCVIII To their EXCELLENCIES The LORDS of the Council FOR THE Canton of BERN. YOUR Excellencies having been the Protectors of the Author of these Memoirs during the many Years of his Exile are justly entituled to whatever Acknowledgment can be made for those Noble Favours which you extended so seasonably and so constantly to him and his Fellow-Sufferers 'T is well known to your Lordships that the Lieutenant General would have accounted himself happy to lay down that Life for your Service which you had preserved by your Generosity But since he lived not to have so Glorious an Occasion of expressing his Gratitude no Prince how powerful soever being hardly enough to attack that Liberty which is so well secured by the Bravery and good Discipline of your own People nothing now remains to be a Monument of his Duty and your Bounty but these Papers and therefore as a just Debt they are most humbly presented to your Excellencies THE PREFACE NO History can furnish us with the Example of a Man whose Life and Actions have been universally applauded Malice or a different Interest being always ready to wound the Noblest Integrity The Vertues of Scipio and Cato the best and greatest of the Romans could not preserve them from the Assaults of Envy and Calumny of which the groundless Accusations of the former to the People and the Volumes of Aspersions published against the latter by the Vsurper Julius are a sufficient Testimony 'T is therefore no wonder that Men who endeavour to imitate those great Examples and make the Service of their Country the principal Care of their Lives should meet with the same hard Vsage What the Author of these Papers did and suffered on that account the ensuing Relation will in part witness wherein it will appear that he contended not against Persons but Things That he was an Enemy to all Arbitrary Government tho gilded over with the most specious Pretences and that he not only disapproved the Vsurpation of Cromwel but would have opposed him with as much Vigour as he had done the King if all Occasions of that nature had not been cut off by the extraordinary Jealousy and Vigilance of the Vsurper Concerning his Extraction if that be any thing it may be justly said he was descended of an Antient and Worthy Family originally known in Shropshire and from thence transplanted into the County of Wilts where his Ancestors possessed such an Estate as placed them in the first Rank of Gentlemen and their personal Merits usually concurring with their Fortune gave them just Pretences to stand Candidates to represent the County in Parliament as Knights of the Shire which Honour they seldom failed to attain His Father Sir Henry Ludlow being chosen by his Country to serve in that Parliament which began on the 3d of November 1640 was one of these who slrenuously asserted the Rights and Liberties of the People against the Invasions made upon them by the pretended Prerogatives of the Crown The Example of his Father together with a particular Encouragement from him joined to a full perswasion of the Necessity of arming in Defence of his Country mounted our Author then very young on Horseback His first Essay was at the Battel of Edg-hill where he fought as Voluntier in the Life-guard of the Earl of Essex His Father dying some time after the Eruption of our Troubles he went down to Wiltshire and was unanimously chosen by that County to be one of their Knights of the Shire to represent them in Parliament where his Integrity and Firmness to the true Interest of his Country soon became so remarkable that he was thought worthy to be intrusted with the Command of an Independent Regiment of Horse to defend the County for which he served from the Incursions of the Enemies Army And how great a Progress he made afterwards in the Science of War the Military Honours he received in a time when Rewards were not blindly bestowed may sufficiently manifest After the Death of King Charles the First he was sent into Ireland by the Parliament in the Quality of Lieutenant General of the Horse This Employment he discharged with Diligence and Success till the Death of the Lord Deputy Ireton and then acted for some time as General tho without that Title the growing Power of Oliver Cromwel who knew him to be true and faithful to the Commonwealth always finding out some Pretext to hinder the conferring that Character upon him The finishing Part was only wanting to the compleat Suppression of the Irish Rebellion and the last stroke had been given by this Gentleman if the Vsurpation of Cromwel had not prevented him Vnder that Power he never acted And tho the Vsurper employed all his Arts to gain him he remained immovable and would not be perswaded to give the least Colour or Countenance to his Ambition After the Death of Cromwel some Endeavours were made to cause the Publick Affairs to revert to their former Channel in which Attempts our Author was not an idle Spectator But Oliver had so choaked the Springs that the Torrent took another Course and all the Efforts that were made to restore the Commonwealth proving vain and fruitless Charles the Second was permitted to act his part Thereupon this Gentleman who had gone through innumerable Hazards for the Liberties of England was stripped of his Estate and under the odious name of Traitor forced to abandon his native Country That he escaped the Searches made after him in England and safely arrived in Switzerland was almost a Miracle The Preservation of his Life which was in the utmost hazard by reason of the Prejudices then reigning obliged him to confine himself to the deepest Privacy and for a short time kept him unknown till his exemplary Life made him not only to be observed but admired This Stranger for more than thirty Years was the Care of that Country and it may be justly said that by their Vigilance rather than his own the frequent Designs that were formed against his Life were defeated and some of them exemplarily punished on the Heads of their Authors During his Exile he wrote the following Memoirs conjecturing and I think he was not mistaken that some of the Family of Charles the Martyr might act such things as would make his Country relish the Relation and regret the Vsage he had found But it can never be expected that all Men should be of the same Mind And therefore when the whole Kingdom of Ireland London-derry only excepted was unhappily fallen into the hands of the Irish Papists and the Lieutenant General I hope I may say it without Offence was sent for as a fit Person to be employed to recover it
the King to sign the Warrant for his Execution Which they did upon the twelfth of May following and the 22 d of the same Month the Earl of Strafford was beheaded accordingly At this time a treacherous Design was set on foot not without the Participation of the King as appear'd under his own Hand to bring up the English Army and by Force to dissolve the Parliament the Plunder of London being promised to the Officers and Souldiers as a Reward for that Service This was confessed by the Lord Goring Mr. Piercy and others The Scots Army was also tried and the sour Northern Counties offered to be given to them in case they will undertake the same Design And tho neither of these Attempts did succeed yet the King pleased himself with hopes that a seasonable time for dissolving the Parliament would come and then all Power reverting into his own Hands he would deal with their new enacted Laws as he had done besore with the Petition of Right and with their Members as he had done with those of the former Parliaments And that he might not long languish in this Expectation he sent to the House desiring that at once they would make their full Demands and prepare Bills accordingly for his Assent assuring them of his Readiness to comply with their Desires But they perceiving the Design return'd for answer That they could not suddenly resolve on so weighty a Work but would do it with all possible speed In the mean time to improve the present Opportunity they prevail with the King to pass an Act for the Exclusion of the Bishops out of the House of Lords for tho he was unwilling to grant the Parliament any thing yet the State of his Affairs was such that he durst deny them no reasonable thing And now having paid to the Scots and English Armies what was due to them they dismissed them to their respective homes The King having laid his Designs in Ireland as will afterwards appear was not without great Difficulty prevailed with by the Parliament to consent to the disbanding of those eight thousand Irish Papists that had been raised there by the Earl of Strafford Soon after which he resolved upon a Journey to Scotland and tho the Parliament endeavoured to disswade him from it or at least to defer it to a fitter Opportunity he refused to hearken to them under pretence that the Affairs of that Kingdom necessarily required his Presence but in truth his great business was to leave no means unattempted to take off that Nation from their Adherence to the Parliament of England Before his Departure he signed a Commission to certain Persons impowering them to pass the Bills that should be tender'd in his Absence Whilst he was about this Work in Scotland the News of the Irish Rebellion was brought to him that the Papists throughout that Kingdom were in Arms that their Design to surprize and seize the Castle of Dublin had not succeeded being discovered by one O Connelly a Servant of Sir John Clotworthy's and that the Lord Macquire and Mac-mahon who were appointed to that end were taken and sent into England where they were soon after executed for the same The News of this Rrebellion as I have heard from Persons of undoubted Credit was not displcasing to the King tho it was attended with the Massacre of many thousands of the Protestants there Having made what Progress he could in Scotland confirming by Act of Parliament not only what he had formerly granted them but also what they had done in their Assembly at Glascow and in effect whatsoever they desired of him he returned to London where being received with Acclamations and treated at the Expence of the City he became elevated to that degree that in his first Speech to the Commons he sharply reproved them for that instead of thanking him for what he had done they continued to multiply their Demands and Dissatisfactions Whereupon the Parliament were confirmed in their Suspicions that he design'd to break what he had already granted so soon as he had Opportunity and Power in his hands to plead that he was under a Force as some of his Predecessors had done and so reverse what had been enacted for the Good of the People revenge himself on those who had been Instruments in compelling him thereto and fortify himself against the like for the future These Apprehensions made them carnestly insist upon settling the Militia of the Nation in such Hands as both Houses of Parliament should recommend to him particularly representing the great Dissatisfaction of the City of London that Sir William Bâ—lfeur for refusing to permit the Earl of Strafford to escape was dismissed from his Charge of Lieutenant of the Tower and the Government of it put into the hands of one Lunsford a Souldier of Fortune of a profligate Conversation and fit for any wicked Design With much difficulty this Lunsford was removed and Sir John Conyers put into his place but the Parliament and City not satisfied with this Choice and having discovered that Sir John Suckling under pretence of raising a Regiment for Portugal was bringing together a number of Mento seize the Tower for the King it was at last entrusted to the Custody of the Lord Mayor of London About this time great Numbers of English Protestants flying from the bloody Hands of the Irish Rebels arrived in England filling all Places with sad complaints of their Cruelties to the Protestants of that Kingdom Whereupon the Parliament earnestly pressed the King to proclaim them Rebels but could not obtain it to be done till after many Weeks and then but forty of those Proclamations were printed and not above half of them published which was the more observed and resented by reason of the different Treatment that the Scots had met with who no sooner appeared in a much better Cause but they were forth with declared Rebels in every Parish-Church within the Kingdom of England The Rebels in Ireland pretended a Commission from the King for what they did which so alarm'd the People of England that the King thought himself necessitated to do something therein and therefore to carry on his Design he acquainted the Parliament that when an Army was raised he would go in Person to reduce them but they apprehending this pretended Resolution to be only in order to put himself at the Head of an Army that he might reduce the Parliament to his Will refused to consent and procured an Act to pass for the leaving of that War to the management of the two Houses the King obliging himself not to give Terms to any of the Rebels or to make Peace with them without the Parliament's Consent In this Act Provision was made for the satisfying of such as should advance Money for the reduction of Ireland out of the Rebels Lands in several Provinces according to the Rates therein mentioned Upon which considerable Sums of Money were sâ—on brought in The Parliament neglecting no Opportunity
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
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
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
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
the adjacent Places and another Party to block up Dover and other Forts upon the Coast whilst Goring remained with the rest about Rochester Sir Thomas Fairfax resolving first to attack those about Maidstone fell upon them and beat them into the Town which they had fortified before whereupon tho the Numbers within the Town being at least equal to those without made it a Work of great Hazard and Difficulty yet considering that those with the Lord Goring exceeded either and might march to the Enemies Relief ours resolved to storm the Place which they did the Night following the General by his own Example encouraging the Men to fall on who for a good while were not able to make any considerable Progress till Col. Hewson with his Regiment opened a Passage into one of the Streets where the Dispute growing hot he was knocked down with a Musquet but recovering himself he pressed the Enemy so hard that they were forced to retreat to their main Guard and falling in with them at the same time so disordered them that they all began to shift for themselves wherein they were favoured by the Advantage of the Night yet many of them were made Prisoners and many killed many Horses and all their Artillery fell into the hands of ours The General as soon as he had refreshed his Men advanced towards that Body commanded by the Lord Goring which was much increased in Number by the Addition of those who escaped from Maidstone but not in Resolution being so discouraged with their Relation of what had passed there that immediately upon our Approach they began to retreat many of them running away to their own Habitations Notwithstanding this a considerable Body continuing with the Lord Goring he sent to the City of London desiring leave to march through the City into Essex designing to recruit his Men with such of that County as had lately expressed so much Affection to the King's Interest The City tho much inclined to have the King received upon Terms yet not willing absolutely to espouse the Cavalier Party especially in a flying Posture and considering that there was a great Number still amongst them who retained their Affection to the Publick Cause returned a positive Denial to Goring so that he was necessitated to make use of Boats or other means to transport his Men over the River into the County of Essex A Party of Horse was sent from the Army to keep a Guard at Bow-bridg as well to prevent the disaflected in the City from running to the Enemy as to hinder them from doing any thing to the prejudice of London Lieutenant General Cromwell with that part of the Army which was with him besieged the Castle and Town of Pembroke whither the principal of that Body which fled from St. Faggons had made their Retreat In the mean time the Presbyterian Party prevailing in the House by reason of the Absence of divers Members who belonged to the Army and were employed in all parts of the Nation discharged from Prison those who had been committed upon the account of that Force which was put upon the House by the late Tumults and the Parliament left to the Mercy of their Enemies with a very slender Guard The Lord Lisle's Commission to be Lord Lieutenant of Ireland expiring at the same time they refused to renew it by which means the Province of Munster fell into the hands of the Lord Inchequin as President who made use of the opportunity to displace those Officers that had been put in by the Lord Lisle preferring his own Creatures to their Employments to the great prejudice of the English Interest in that Country many others who were acquainted with his Temper and Principles quitted voluntarily and tho he still pretended Fidelity to the State of England yet he expressed himself dissatisfied with the Proceedings of the Army-Party towards him Some Overtures also he had received from the Irish touching an Accommodation but being straitned by them in his Quarters and therefore advancing with his Army towards them Col. Temple and some others yet remaining in his Army being willing to improve the occasion pressed him so hard to resolve to fight that he could not well avoid it At the beginning of the Battel the Success seemed to be very doubtful but in the end ours obtained the Victory some thousands of the Enemy being killed many made Prisoners and all their Baggage taken Not long after this he declared against the Parliament and joined with the Irish Rebels Some of the English Officers concurred with him in his Declaration many left him and came to the Parliament who made provision for them as they had done for those that came away before Tho this Conjunction of Inchequin was not concluded without the King's Consent yet it was not a proper season for him to condescend so far as they desired whereby great Divisions arose amongst them for there was a Party of Old Irish as they were called headed principally by Owen Roe O Neal of whom several were in the Supreme Council who out of an innate Hatred to the English Government joined with those who would be satisfied with nothing less than to have the Pope acknowledged to be their only Supreme Lord so that not being able to agree their Differences proved very serviceable to the English Interest The like Spirit of Division appeared amongst our Enemies in Scotland where tho the Number was great of those that professed their constant Adherence to their Engagements contained in the Covenant yet when it came to a Trial in their Convention the Anti-Covenanters who were for restoring the King without any Terms carried all before them So that instead of the Marquiss of Argile the Marquiss of Hamilton was appointed General of their Army all the inferiour Officers being of the same Mold and Principle insomuch that the Pulpits who before had proclaimed this War now accompanied the Army that was preparing to march with their Curses for tho they could have been contented that the Sectarian Party as they called it should be ruined provided they could find Strength enough to bring in the King themselves yet they feared their old Enemy more than their new one because the latter would only restrain them from lording it over them and others affording them equal Liberty with themselves whereas the former was so far from that as hardly to suffer them to be Hewers of Wood and Drawers of Water for those who would have all Power both Civil and Ecclesiastical put into one Hand could not possibly agree with such as would have it divided into many These Affairs necessitated the Parliament to raise the Militia in order to oppose this malevolent Spirit which threatned them from the North and also prevailed with them to discountenance a Charge of High Treason framed by Major Huntington an Officer of the Army with the Advice of some Members of both Houses against Lieutenant General Cromivell for endeavouring by betraying the King Parliament and
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
and the other being very much shatter'd sunk down as our Men were carrying her off The Council of State having received an Account of this Action made their Report of it to the Parliament who passed a Vote for the justification of General Blake and resolving to have Satisfaction for this Assault placed a Guard upon the Dutch Ambassadors at their Lodgings in Chelsey and sent General Cromwell and Mr. Denis Bond a Member of Parliament down to the Fleet with Assurances that nothing should be wanting for their Encouragement The Event of this Undertaking not answering the Expectations of the Hollanders serving only to provoke the English Nation and to publish their own Dishonour they endeavoured to make the World as well as the Parliament believe that the Quarrel was begun by General Blake or at least that what had been done was not by their Orders and therefore desired that the Treaty might go on and that the Prisoners taken in the late Fight might be restored To this end they sent over the Heer Paw of Heemsted to carry on the Treaty in conjunction with the Ambassadors they had sent before into England This Minister was received with all the usual Demonstrations of Honour and being admitted to Audience pressed for an Accommodation of all Differences and a Cessation of all Acts of Hostility between the two Nations assuring the Parliament that his Masters had given Orders to their Ships to strike to the English Flag in the same manner as had been practised in former times But being demanded to shew his Powers he produced nothing save Letters of Credence and Passports referring himself to the other Ambassadors in that Point with whom he made some General Propositions to the Parliament and desired them to declare their Demands By these Proceedings of the Dutch the Parliament perceiving that this Difference was not like to be decided by a Treaty contented themselves to require Satisfaction for the Injuries received and Assurance that nothing of that nature should be attempted for the future which if the Ambassadors would consent to they declared themselves ready to proceed in the Treaty and to grant a Cessation of Arms. But so little were they disposed to give the Satisfaction demanded that they made no farther mention of the Cessation which they had so earnestly pressed and having taken their Audience of Leave they broke off the Treaty abruptly and returned home In Ireland tho the Number of those that submitted on condition to be transported into foreign Service was so great that they became a great Burden to us before we could procure Shipping for their Transportation and tho the Enemy had received several Defeats by our Forces during the Winter wherein many of them had been killed and taken yet they continued to make Incursions into our Quarters carrying away Cattel and other Booty and having lately seized upon the Horses belonging to two Troops of Dragoons they were so encouraged that Sir Walter Dungan Commissary General of the Enemies Horse and Capt. Scurlock a forward Officer and one who had done us much Mischief with five hundred Foot and two hundred and fifty Horse marched into Wexford with a Design to plunder that County Lieutenant Colonel Throgmorton who commanded in those Parts having informed us of their March we sent two Troops of Horse to his Assistance who with them and about four hundred Foot charged the Enemy upon their Return and after some Dispute routed them killing two hundred of them upon the Place and many more with divers Officers in the Pursuit besides several of the Irish taken Prisoners with the Loss of about twenty killed and a hundred wounded on our side The Booty which the Enemy had gotten consisting chiefly in five hundred Cows was all recovered The Season of Action advancing the Commissioners of Parliament went to Kilkenny as well to confer with the Officers from all Parts of Ireland as to make the necessary Preparations for the ensuing Service of which the Earl of Westmeath who commanded the Enemies Forces in Leinster having notice sent to desire a safe Conduct for Commissioners to be named by them to treat with us at Kilkenny on their behalf which being granted they appointed Commissary General Dungan Lewis Viscount of Glanmaliere Sir Robert Talbot Sir Richard Barnwel Col. Walter Bagnol Col. Lewis Moor and Col. Thomas Tyrrell to be their Commissioners And on our part Commissary General Reynolds Col. Hewetson Col. Lawrence Col. Axtel Adjutant General Allen Major Henry Owen and Mr. James Standish Deputy-Treasurer of the Army were commissionated to treat and conclude with them in conformity to such Instructions as they received from a General Council and after several days Conference the Commissioners on each part came to an Agreement upon Terms that were the same in substance with those formerly granted to Col. Edmund Odonryer and his Party with liberty left for the Lord Muskerry Major General Taaf and other Commanders of the Irish in the Provinces of Mâ—nster Connaught and Vlster yet in Arms to come in and accept of the same Conditions within a limited time The Articles were approved by the Earl of Westmeath on the behalf of the Irish and on the part of the Commonwealth of England by Me as Commander in chief of their Forces in Ireland In the mean time the Committee appointed by the Parliament for the Reformation of the Law in England made a considerable progress in that matter Judges were also sent into Scotland for the Administration of Justice there which they performed to the great satisfaction of that People The Parliament also appointed a Committee to consider of means to set at work all the Poor throughout the Nation and to make Provision for such as were not able to work that there might be no Beggar in England In Scotland our Forces having reduced the Castle of Dunotter which was the last Garison of that Nation that held out against the Parliament of England it was resolved to make four considerable Forts one at Inverness another at Leith a third at Ayre and a fourth at St. Johnstoâ—n and because the Enemy being entirely beaten out of the Field was retired to the mountainous Parts which to that time had been accounted inaccessible by the English it was agreed to endeavour to clear those Places of them also being perswaded that where any went before others might follow after To this end our Men were divided into three Parties the first consisted of Colonel Overcon's Regiment of Foot and a Regiment of Horse commanded by Major Blackmore The second of Colonel Hacker's Regiment of Horse and one of Foot commanded by Colonel Lilburn and the third was composed of the Regiment of Horse of Major General Dean and of a Regiment of Foot belonging to Lieutenant General Monk Each of these having a Party of Dragoons to attend them rendezvouzed at Loughaber and from thence fell separately into the Enemy's Quarters where they killed many of them and burned their Provisions pursuing them so
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
entered the Lists as Champions of the Prerogative asserting that the Possessions and Estates of the Subject did of Right belong to the King and that he might dispose of them at his pleasure thereby vacating and annulling as much as in them lay all the Laws of England that secure a Propriety to the People Arbitrary Courts were erected and the Power of others enlarged such were the High Commission Court the Star-Chamber the Court of Honour the Court of Wards the Court of Râ—â—â—â—â—s c. Patents and Monopolies of almost every thing were granted to private Men to the great Damage of the Publick Knighthood Coat and Conduct-Money and many other illegal Methods were revived and put in execution to rob the People in order to support the Profusion of the Court And that our Liberties might be extirpated at once and we become Tenants at will to the King that rare Invention of Ship-Money was found out by Finch whose Solicitation and Importunities prevailed with the major part of the Judges of Westminster-Hall to declare for Law That for the Supply of Shipping to defend the Nation the King might impose a Tax upon the People That he was to be Judg of the Necessity of such Supply and of the Quantity to be imposed for it and that he might Imprison as well as Destrain in case of Refusal Some there were who out of a hearty Affection to the Service of their Country and a true English Spirit opposed these illegal Proceedings Amongst whom Mr. John Hampden of Buckingham-shire Judge Croke and Judge Hutton were of the most eminent Prerogative being wound up to this height in England and the Affairs of the Church tending to a Conjunction with the See of Rome before any farther Progress should be made therein here it was thought expedient that the Pulse of Scotland should be felt and they perswaded or compelled to the like Conformity To this end a Form of Publick Prayer was sent to Scotland more nearly approaching the Roman Office than that used in England The reading of this New Service-Book at Edinburgh was first interrupted by a poor Woman but the People were so generally discontented with the Book it self as well as the manner of imposing it that she was soon seconded by the Generality of them those who officiated hardly escaping with their Lives This produced divers Meetings of many of the Nobility Clergy and Gentry who entred into an Agreement or Covenant to root out Episcopacy Heresy and Superstition Those of the Clergy of England who had been the chief Advisers and Promoters of this Violence prevailed with the King to cause all such as should persist in their Opposition after a certain time to be proclaimed Traitors But the Scots not at all afrighted with these Menaces resolved to make good their former Undertaking Which the King perceiving and that this violent way took not effect began to incline to more moderate Counsels and by Commission empowered the Marquiss of Hamilton to treat them into a Submission consenting to the Suppression of the Liturgy High Commission Court and Articles of Perth But the Scots insisting upon the Abolition of Episcopacy and the King refusing his Consent to it they did it themselves in an Assembly held at Glasco and being informed that the King was preparing an Army to compel them to Obedience agreed upon the raising of some Forces to defend themselves The Clergy in England were not wanting to promote the New Levies against the Scots contributing largely thereunto which was but reasonable it being manifest to all that they were the principal Authors and Fomentors of these Troubles The Nobility and Gentry were likewise required to further this Expedition in which tho divers of them did appear yet was it rather out of Compliment than Affection to the Design being sensible of the Oppressions they themselves lay under and how dangerous to the People of England a thorow Success against the Scots might prove The King perceiving an Universal Dislike to this War as well in the People as in the Officers and Souldiers of his Army concluded an Agreement with the Scots at Berwick the 17 th of June 1639. But upon his Return to London under colour that many false Copies of the said Articles were published and dispersed by the Scots to the great Dishonour of the King the said Agreement was disowned and order'd to be burnt by the Hands of the Hangman Thereupon hoping that a Parliament would espouse his Quarrel and furnish him with Money for the carrying on of his Design he sammoned one to meet at Westminster on the 3 a of April 1640. which sitting but a little time thereby obtained the Name of the short Parliament The King by his Agents earnestly pressed them to grant him present Supplies for the Use of his Army but they sensible of former Usage after they had gratified him in that Particular and of the insupportable Burdens and Oppressions they lay under refused to grant any Subsidies till their Grievances should be redressed Whereupon the King put a Period to their sitting the fifth of May following the Earl of Strafford and others of his Council advising him so to do and to make use of other Means for his Supply as appeared to the ensuing Parliament by the Minutes of the Secretary of State taken at that Cabal and produced at the Trial of the said Earl The Sum of whose Advice was to this effect Sir You have now tried your People and are denied by them therefore you are clear before God and Man if you make use of other Means for your Supply You have an Army in Ireland c. This Counsel was prosecuted and new Preparations made for the carrying on of the War against the Scots all imaginable ways used to raise Supplies Privy Seals sent throughout the Nation for the Loan of Money Ship-Money Coat and Conduct-Money pressed to the height Commodities taken up on Credit and sold for ready Money Warrants also were delivered out to press Men to serve in the Army Brass-Money was propounded and some prepared but that Project took no effect The Clergy being permitted and encouraged by the King to sit in Convocation after the Dissolution of the Parliament took upon them not only to frame Canons and Oaths but also to impose four Shillings in the Pound upon Ecclesiastical Benefices throughout the Kingdom The King to give life to the Advance of his Army marched with them in Person the Earl of Northumberland as most popular wearing the name of General whilst Strafford with the Title of Lieutenant General had the principal Management of all The City of London had refused to pay some of the illegal Taxes before-mentioned whereupon divers of their chief Officers were imprisoned and an Order issued forth to take away the Sword from the Lord Mayor Whereupon the People rise and beset the House of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury who in conjunction with the Earl of Strafford was supposed to put the King upon these violent and