upon them unto the distressed and oppressed Commons or people of this Nation yea the setling of which principles is that that will thereby make it evident and apparent unto all rationall and understanding people in the world that the reall and hearty good and welfare of the people of this Nation hath cordially and in good earnest been that that their souls have hunted for and thirsted after in all the late bloody civill wars and contests All the Contests of the Kings party for his Will and Prerogative being meerly Selvish and so none of the peoples interest and the contest of the Presbyterians for their â—â—ke-bate dividing and hypocriticall Covenant no better in the least and the present contest of the present dissembling interest of Independents for the peoples Liberties in generall read the following Discourse pag. 27 28 29 meerly no more but Self in the highest and to set up the false saint and most desperate Apostate murderer and traytor Oliver Cromwel by a pretended election of his mercinary souldiers under the selfe name of the godly Interest to be King of England c. that being now too too apparently all the intended Liberties of the people that ever he fought for in his life that so he might rule and govern them by his Will and Pleasure and so destroy and envassalize their lives and properties to his lusts which is the highest treason that ever was committed or acted in this Nation in any sense or kinde either first in the eye of the Law or secondly in the eye of the ancient but yet too much arbitrary proceedings of Parliament or thirdly in the eye of their own late declared principles of reason by pretence of which and by no rules of Law in the least they took away the late Kings head and life which it there were any Law or Justice in England to be had or any Magistrates left to execute it as in the least there is not I durst undertake upon my life plainly evidently and undeniably to make good the foresaid unparalleld treasons against the foresaid Ol. Cromwel upon against all the three forementioned principles viz Law Parliament and Reason yea and to frame against him such an Impeachment or Indictment which way of Indictments is the true legall and only just way of England to be tried at the Common Law higher and greater then all the charges against the fourty four Judges hanged for false and illegal Judgments by King Alfred before the conquest which with their crimes are recorded in the Law Book called The mirror of Justice Printed in English for Matthew Walbank at Grayes Inn gate 1646. page 239. 240. 241. 242. 243. 244. 245. See also page 196. 197. 207. ibid. Or then the impeachment or accusation Of the Lord chief Justice Wayland and the rest of his brother Judges and Lawyers tormented in Edward the first his time and mentioned in Speeds Chronicle fol. 635. Or then the impeachment in Parliament against Judg Thorp who for taking small bribes against his oath was condemned to die in Edward the third his time of whom you may read in the 3. part Cooks Institut fol. 155 156. and in Mr. Pyms Speech against the Earl of Strafford in the Book called Speeches and Passages of Parliament pag. 9. Or then the impeachment 〈◊〉 a charge of the dethroned King Edward the second in full Parliament the maner of whose dethroning you may notably read in Speeds Chronicle fol. 665. Or then the many Articles of impeachment of the dethroned King Richard the second in full Parliament recorded at large in the Chronicles or History of Will. Martin fol 156. 157. 158. 159. the 8. 10. 12. 15. 21. Articles of which I conceive must remarkable as to the people which are extraordinary well worth the reading for in them the King himself in those dark days of Popery is charged To have perverted the due course of the Law or Justice and Right and that he destroyed men by information without legal examination or tryal and that he had declared the Laws of the Kingdom were in his own Erest just the same thing do Mr. Peters and other mercenary Agents of the Grandees of the Army now constantly declare of them and that by himself and his own authority just Cromwel and Ireton like onely much short of them he had displaced divers Burgesses of the Parliament and had placed such other in their rooms as would better fit and serve his own turn Or then the impeachment of the Lord chief Justice Trisâ—lian who had the worship or honor in Richard the second his time in full Parliament to be apprehended in the forenoon and hanged at Tiburn in the afternoon with his brother Judges viz. Fulthorp Belknay Care Hot Burge and Lockton or their associates Sir Nicholas Bramble Lord Mayor of London Sir Simon Burley Sir William Elinham Sir John Salisbury Sir Thomas Trevit Sir James Bernis and Sir Nicholas Dodgworth some of whom were destroyed and hanged for setting their hands to Judgments in subversion of the Law in advancing the Kings will above Law yea and one of them banished therefore although a dagger was held to his brest to compel him thereunto Or then the indictment of those two grand and notorious traitorly subvertors of the Laws and Liberties of England Empson and Dudley Privy Counsellors to Henry the seventh recorded in Cooks 4. part Institut fol. 198. 199 read also fol 41. ibid. and 2. part Instit fol. 51. Or then the impeachment of that notorious wicked and traiterous man Cardinal Woolsey by King Henry the eight his Privy Councel recorded in the 4. part Cooks Instit fol. 89. 90. 91. 92. 93. 94. 95. Read especially Artic. 17. 20. 21. 23 25 26. 30. 31. 33. 35. 38. 42. in all which he is charged with Arbitrariness and subversion of the Law Or then the impeachment of the Shipmoney Judges who in one judgment did as much as in them lay destroy all the Properties of all the men in England read the notable Speeches against them in Speeches and Passages Or then the impeachment of the Bishop of Canterbury in the late Parliament Or then the impeachment of the Lord Keeper Finch Earl of Strafford Secretary Windebank Sir Richard Bolton Lord Chancellor of Ireland John Lord Bishop of Derry Sir Gerrard Lowther Knight Lord chief Justice of the Common Pleas in Ireland and Sir George Ratcliff all whose impeachments are recorded in a Book intituled Speeches and Passages of Parliament from November 1640. to June 1641. Pag. 76. 77. to 83. and 117. 118. to 143. and 174. and 256. 257. 258. Or then the Articles or charge against the two Sir John Hothams the elder of which kept the King out of Hull the beginning of these Wars when the House of Commons durst not command him positively to do it although they were effectually put upon it by a motion from the younger then sitting in the House and yet they were both beheaded as Traytors for but endevoring to
King it was dangerous to the Kingdoms safety in this juncture of time to promote it lest it might occasion a clashing betwixt the two Houses which would now be very dangerous Unto which Mr Speaker my self c. answered to this effect That if the Lords had so concurred in these Votes that they had declared it had been their duty without dispute to have concurred to all such Votes as the House of Commons had passed there had been some ground to have pleaded for a respect unto them from us But seeing they so passed the Votes as in the passing of them they declare it to be their right to give their deniall to any Votes the House of Commons shall hereafter passe that doth not please them we are thereby engaged the rather to go on with our petition to pluck up this their destructive interest by the roots for future that had brought all our * See 1 part Book Decl. pag. 289 364 365 398 522 526 528 548 557. miseries and woes upon us For Mr Speaker if the Lords be considered in their Judicative power we shall find them as guilty of treason in subverting our fundamentall Laws and Liberties as ever the Lord of Strafford was who in his impeachment of high Treason by this House was accused in the 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. articles that he had traiterously subverted the fundamentall Laws of England and Ireland and introduced an arbitrary tyrannicall Government beyond and above Law in that he had upon papers †And if these very things should now be judged treason as they are and were in the Earl of Stafford I wonder what should becom of all our present Junto at Westminster and their new thing called A Councel of State undoubtedly the most if not all of them must go to Tyburn or Tower-hill there by an halter or axe to receive their just deserts Amen petitions and verball complaints without any due course processe or shadow of Law but meerly by the law of his own will outed divers of the Free-men thereof out of their liberties properties and free holds to the ruin and destruction of many of their families And truly Mr Speaker I must aver it and do aver it before this honourable House that the House of Lords are as guilty of this traiterous subverting of our fundamentall Laws and Liberties and introducing and exercising an arbitrary tyrannicall Government above and beyond all Law and Justice as he was and by the law of their own wils without any due course or processe of Law have outed divers Free-men of England out of their liberties properties and free-holds they themselves being complainents prosecutors parties witnesses Jury and Judges have passed most barbarous and tyrannical censures upon them to the apparent ruin of them and their families Yea and upon me have passed so barbarous and transcendent an illegal sentence that I am confident the like of it in all circumstances is not to be parallel'd in all the Earl of Straffords tyrannie And Mr Speaker let me freely tell you that unlesse this House do execute upon the present tyrannicall House of Lords or the mischievous law and libertie destroying Ring-leaders amongst them the Earl of Straffords punishment for what they have already done and for future take care to prevent their or any others exercise of the like arbitrary and tyrannicall power again I shall never justifie you for righteous and impartiall Judges or think that you have discharged your duty either to God or the Commonwealth who chose and trusted you to preserve their liberties and freedoms and punish those that destroy them The rest of my speech against the House of Lords Legislative power being already at large printed in the 14 15 16 17 pages of my answer of the 27 Feb. 1647. to Mr GUALTER FROSTS malicious and false declaration against me which I entituled A WHIP FOR THE PRESENT HOUSE OF LORDS OR THE LEVELLERS LEVELLED to which for brevities sake I refer the Reader and go on to the next thing in order being the main thing I intend as I upon the foresaid 19 day of January 1647. confidently and avowedly delivered it at the Bar of the House of Commons which is an impeachment of Treason against Cromwel c. profering againe and againe upon my life to prove it every tittle at their Bar which thus followeth And now Mr. Speaker I must acquaint you that there was occasion adminstred My charge against Cromwell and his Son Ireton to talke of Lieutenant General Cromwell and his late gross apostacy from patronising the peoples Liberties an Freedomes and here Sir it was declared with admiration and astonishment that Lieut Gen Cromwell who was once the glory of Englishmen in visibly appearing for Justice and Freedome both against the King the Earl of Manchester and the whole House of Peers c. and who had a principall hand in so many gallant Declarations of the Army in diverse of which freedome righteousnesse and Justice was published to the whole Kingdom most gloriously †As you may clearly read in the Armies Book of Declarations page 8. 17 23r 25 26. 32. 33. 35. 37. 39. 40. 41. 45 46. 52. 58. 61 62. 76 97. 101. 105. 110. 112. 118 119. 132. 137. 142. 144. 150. That this very Lieut. Gen. Cromwell whose name for honesty once rung and eccho'd throughout England should now apostate from his former declared gallantry and honesty and turne his back upon his owne solemne Declarations Remonstrances and Ingagements and persecute with bitternesse even to death and bonds righteousnesse truth and justice in all those in the Army he met with it in and now of late become a grand patron protector and earnest pleader for the preservation of all the grand corrupt and inslaving interests in England was a wonder and astonishment that he that had the gloriest praise and opportunity put into his hands that ever God put into the hands of an English man to do good unto his native Country and to settle the Laws Liberties and peace thereof in their lustre and glory should be courted out of all his principles protestations and engagements by a little selfish glitering worldly or corrupt honour and to convert his power and interest to the quite contrary to make us slaves and vassals was the admiration and wonder for all knowing observing and unbiased English men and the greatest mischief that ever befel the honest men of the Kingdome having divided them amongst themselves that formerly were one in their pursuing the firme establishment of the Common rights and freedomes of their native Country diverse honest men having his person in admiration either for advantage sake or former good services sake would not see their owne danger and misery nor willingly would suffer their friends and neighbours to see that fatal ruine and destruction that by his meanes and HIS ALONE was likely speedily to come upon them and the whole Nation by means of which we are so divided amongst
AN IMPEACHMENT OF HIGH TREASON AGAINST Oliver Cromwel and his Son in Law Henry Ireton Esquires late Members of the late forcibly dissolved House of Commons presented to publique view by Lieutenant Colonel Iohn Lilburn close Prisoner in the Tower of London for his real true and zealous affections to the Liberties of his native Country In which following Discourse or Impeachment he engageth upon his life either upon the principles of Law by way of indictment the only and alone legall way of all tryals in England or upon the principles of Parliaments ancient proceedings or upon the principles of reason by pretence of which alone they lately took away the Kings life before a legal Magistracy when there shal be one again in England which now in the least there is not to prove the said Oliver Cromwel guilty of the highest Treason that ever was acted in England and more deserving punishment and death Then the 44 Judges hanged for injustice by King Alfred before the Conquest or then the Lord chief Justice Wayland and his associates tormented by Edw. 1. Or then Judg Thorpe condemned to dye for Bribery in Edw. 3. time Or then the two dis-throned Kings Edw 2. and Rich. 2. Or then the Lord chief Justice Tresillian who had His throat cut at Tyburn as a Traitor in Rich. 2. time for subverting the Law and all his associates Or then those two grand Traytorly subverters of the Laws and Liberties of England Empson and Dudley who therefore as Traytors lost their heads upon Tower-hill in the beginning of Henr. 8. raign Or then trayterous Cardinal Wolsey who after he was arrested of Treason poysoned himself Or then the late trayterous Ship-Money Judges who with one Verdict or Judgment destroyed all our propertie Or then the late trayterous Bishop of Canterbury Earl of Strafford Lord-Keeper Finch Secretary VVindebanck or then Sir George Ratcliff or all his Associates Or then the two Hothams who lost their heads for corresponding with the Queen c. Or then the late King Charls whom themselves have beheaded for a Tyrant and traytor In which are also some Hints of Cautions to the Lord FAIRFAX for absolutely breaking his solemn Engagement with his souldiers c. to take head and to regain his lost Credit in acting honestly in time to come in helping to settle the Peace and Liberties of the Nation which truly really and lastingly can never be done but by establishing the principles of the Agreement of the Fâ—â—â— People that being really the peoples interest and all the rest that went before but particular and selvish In which is also the Authors late Proposition sent to Mr Holland June 26. 1649. to justifie and make good at his utmost hazard upon the principles of Scripture Law Reason and the Parliaments and Armies ancient Declarations his late actions or writings in any or all his Books Ier. 5.26 27 â—8 29. For among my peoyle are found wicked â—en they lye in wait as he that setteth snares they set a trap they catch men As a cage is full of Birds so are their houses full of deceit therefore they are become great and waxen rich They are waxen fat they shine yea they overpass the deeds of the wicked they judg not the cause the cause of the Fatherless yet they prosper and the right of the needy doe they not judg Shall I not visit for those things saith the Lord Shall not my soul be avenged of such a Nation as this Imprinted at LONDON Anno Dom. 1649. The Author to the Courteous Reader COurteous Reader There wanting room at the conclusion of this Discourse to make a Postscript I am necessitated to make it upon the back of the Title page that being the last printed and to acquaint thee that divers weeks agoe this discouse was all in a manner printed which I have been necessitated to keep in ever since by reason of a little liberty I obtained of the day time to visit my sick and distressed family which by sicknes have been sorely afflicted by the wise hand of him that dispenseth all his dealings to those that truly know him in mercy and loving kindnesse with the bowels of a loving father yea in afflictions his seeming frowns hath that end in them to draw the souls of his nigher and closer to himself and that thereby they may truly and substantially see that in the naked injoyment of himself that is not to be found in all earthly or creature objects or delights and his wise hand having thought it fit to exercise my faith and patience by taking away both my Sons from me who were the greatest part of my earthly delight in this world and brought my wife and daughter even to deaths door which affliction I must truly acknowledge made me unfit to think almost of any earthly thing and became unto me a greater tryall of my dependence upon God then ever I had in my life especially being not alone by my self but a company like Jobs with many other bitter ones but my sweet father letting me see his hand in it and being merciful to me in sparing and recovering my wife and daughter and hath as it were brought my spirit to its selfe which hath made me wait for a righteous and hoped for composure betwixt my unrighteous adversaries and my self and which if it had come I had burnt this discourse in whose promises I constantly find nothing but meer delusions and therefore am compelled in my own spirit to let this fly and the rather because Sir Arthur Haâ—â—erig and Colonel Fenwick treacherously and theevishly have not only without any pretence of Law and Justice but their meer wills seized upon above 1000l of my estate in the North but also most maliciously detaine it in their hands and are so resolved to do which action tends to the apparent ruine and destruction of me and the rest of my Family remaining alive whose wickednesse in this particular c. I have hinted at in the following discourse pag 6. 8. as also in the 12 page of the late second edition of my Book Entituled The legall Fundamentall Liberty of the People of England revived the 2 last pages of which I also intreat the Reader carefully to peruse which with other grand oppressions both general and particular remaining upon me in severall particulars and also seing no rationall hopes of any just composure I am resolved being I am in manner a weary of any thing I can see abroad through the assistance of God to be as prodigall of my pen and life for the future as my bloody and tyrannicall adversaries are of their oppression cruelty tyranny and blood-thirstines and so I rest this present August 1649. as much as ever IOHN LILBURN To all the Affectors and Approvers in England of the London Petition of the eleventh of September 1648. but especially to the owners of it by their subscriptions either to it or any other Petition in the behalf of it and particularly to the
for he is no such thing but is meerly a great Tyrant standing by the power of his own will and a strong sword born by his vassals slaves and creatures having no commission to be General either from Law the Parliament or from the prime Laws of Nature and Reason For First where he was first made General by both Houses of Parliament it was expresly against the letter of the Law which action cannot be justified either before God or man but in case of extream necessity and for the accomplishment of a universall righteous end viz. The redeeming setling and securing the peoples rational and just Rights and Freedoms and not in the least for setting up any particular selvish or factious interest But secondly in refusing to disband c. he hath rebelled against his Parliament commission and thereby destroyed and annihilated it And at New-Market Heath the fifth of June 1647. betook himself to the prime Laws of Nature and by common consent of his Officers and Souldiers became their General and entred into a solemn and mutuall ingagement before God and one another for the accomplishment of those righteous ends therein contained for the good of the Kingdom and themselves by subscribing his name or at least expresly assenting thereunto and approving thereof with solemn ingagement as is at large Printed in the Armies Book of Declarations p. 23 24 25 26. by the very letter of which he nor his Officers could not govern the Army jointly or severally by the former Rules or Articles of Martiall Law no nor so much as make an Officer of the meanest quality nor put forth any publike Declaration nor treat with nor conclude with any in reference to the Army but by the joynt advice and approbation of their new erected and established councel of Adjurators which for order and methods sake the General was betrusted to convene and call together as the King formerly was Parliaments or the Lord Mayor of London Common Councels and yet notwithstanding he and his Officers like a generation of most perfidious false and faithless men broke all this ingagement to pieces within less then twenty dayes after it was made and so annihilated and destroyed his power authority or commission flowing from the consent of the Souldiers before he had really accomplished any one thing he or they ingaged for and hath since two severall times put a nullity or force upon his originall Creators Lords and Masters the Parliament And that he and his Officers broke their forementioned solemn ingagements in so short a time I prove fully out of their own book of Declarations in which page 36. to 46 I finde a Declaration dated the 14. of June 1647. made and published by his Excellency Sir Thomas Fairfax with the Officers and Souldiers of his Army mark it well for in the very words of it it is in Excellency worth all the Declarations that ever the Army made since and in page 47. to 50. I finde a generall charge against the eleven Members with a paper delivered with it to the Parliaments Commissioners at St. Albans the 17. June 1647 by the appointment of his Excellency Sir T. Fairfax and the Soldiers of the Army under his command but in the following pages viz. pag. 51 52 53 54. I finde that the 21 22 25. of June 1647. his Excellency and his Councel of War alone without the Councel of Adjutators representing the Souldiers according to their ingagement writ letters to and entered into a Treaty with the Lord Mayor and Common-Councel of London which was a base perfidious treacherous act and an absolute breach of their solemn ingagement yea in page 57. June 23. 1647. The General and twenty eight Grandee and creature Officers publish a Remonstrance to the Kingdom and that in the name of the Army in which base and abominable apostacie they continued without ever wiping their mouths or recanting what they had so unjustly done as the whole tenor of their Book of Declarations doth declare yea when the particular charge against the eleven Members comes from them it comes onely in the name of the General and his Councel of War page 94. yea and all this with ten times more as I beleeve the world will shortly and fully see was done in despite of the Adjutators or consent of the Regiments Troops or Companies for all those two grand and lying Apostates Cornet Den and Parson John Can a late cheat at Amsterdam confident affirmations to the contrary in their late Printed lying books intituled the Levellers Design page 4 5. and the second part of the Discoverer page 5. 6. where they aver That the councel of Adjutators established by the Armies solemn ingagement was dissolved and made null by the same power by which they had their constitution and that it was done by a Petition to the Generall from most of the Regiments c. But although I iudg the two forementioned lying base Apostates to be so abominably vile that I judg not my excrements mean enough upon equal terms to ballance against them yet knowing the affairs of the Army then so extraordinarily well as I do I will ballance life against life that neither they nor any man breathing can produce a Petition so much as from one single Troop or Company much less from a Regiment and therefore much less from the greatest part of the Regiments both of Horse and Foot for calling home the Adjutators before the Gen. and his Officers had as is before mentioned broke in pieces the solemn engagement again and again and invasion of Rights and Priviledges was the true declared ground and cause of all the late wars with the late beheaded King and is really the originall ground of most if not all the cruell wars in the world But if the Souldiers had made such a Petition which they never did it were not much materiall I think for they ingaged something to and for the Kingdom in reference to the setlement of their Liberties and Freedoms which I am sure they in no one title ever accomplished or performed and therefore till that be done they can not rationally or justly absolve themselves from the true intent or meaning of that engagement But I wish those Champions for lies and Apostasie would instance the place where the time when and the Regiments that subscribed and delivered such a Petition and deal ingeniously with the world whether it were a free act or a compulsive one wrought underhand by all the snares policies tricks gins and slights that possible the Officers could invent without or below a visible and compulsive force which can never of right unty that knot Sure I am divers of the Adiutators c. sent severall complaints to me c. to the lower from St. Albans immediatly after the solemn ingagement was made complaining that Cromwel Ireton c. one of which two pen'd this engagement would needs then by force and frowns totally break and dissolve it of which baseness though then we
they thought the reputation of the original and chief promoters of that transcendnet gallant and large Petition that so much touches their Copy hold that so if it might be possible the Petition it self might be crusht in the birth before it had brought forth strength sufficient to pull up their rotten tyrannicall Interest by the rootes And after he had done with th Relation at their Bar having giving the Lords as it seemes a flagou of sack and suger they were in pains as it appears till they had communicated some deep draughts of it to their friends of the House of Commons divers of whose rotten Interests were concerned in it as the Lords sons and servants the Patentee Monopolisers the Merchant Adventurers the Lords would be which are principally the chief of Cromwels Faction who having now the power of the Kingdom in their own hands and therefore in their own imaginations can not miss of being within a little time made Barons if not Earls but especeally that grand inslaving Interest the rotten Lawyers of the House divers of whom if the Petition took effect in disabling all Members of that House that are Lawyers to plead at any Bar of Justice would deprive some of them of two or three thousand pound per annum which now they get by their Pleadings by vertue of their beeing Paâ—liament men for if a mans Cause be never so unjust if by large Fees he can get two or three Parliament men to plead it for him he is sure to carry it for the Judges dare as well eat their nailes as displease them for fear of being turned out of their places by them which they more regard then their Oathes which tie them to do impartial Justice I say after he had done his Relation at the Lords Bar a Conference was betwixt both Houses where he again belcht out his most abominâ—ble malicious and false lyes and one being present that heard it came immediatly to me in London and told me of it of which I no sooner heard but immediatly by water of my own accord I posted by boat to Westminster and coming up to the House of Commons door about three or four a clock I found the House to be risen and meeting with some of my friends and acquaintance at the door I told them there I understood the House of Commons had again dealt worse with me then the Heathen and Pagan Romans dealt with Paul who when his adversaries desired Judgment against him they told them that it was not the maner of the Romans to judge or condemn any man before he which is accused have his accuser face to face and have liberty to answer for himself concerning the crime laid against him Act. 25. and yet upon a bare accusation of a single Priest as I was informed they had again committed me to the Tower before they heard me speak one word for myself in which I told my friends freely and openly they had outstript the Heathen and Pagan Romans in Injustice who though Paul by Tertullus the Orator was accused for a pestilent fellow and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world and a Ringleader of the Sect of the Nazarens Acts 24. yet they would not condemn him before they heard him face to face speak for himself And I further told them this unjust proceeding of the House of Commons against me was but just the same unrighteous measure that they had meted out before unto me for about two years ago I had come Post from Sir Thomas Fairfax Army to bring them glad tidings of his routing of General Gorings Army at Lamport in Somersetshire and being daily waiting at the House door I was a few dayes after by the Speakers means as I have been since largely told Voted upon a bare suggestion to Prison without the House ever so much as calling in my pretended accusers viz. Dr. Bastwick and Colonel Edward King with whom for divers moneths before I had not to the best of my remembrance changed so much as one word or ever so much as calling me in though then at their door to speak one word for my self they Voted and Resolved upon the Question That I should be committed to prison till they please to release me without telling me to this hour wherefore they imprisoned me and from their Serjeant at Arms tossed and tumbled me to Newgate for refusing to make of one of their Committees a High Commission or Spanish Inquisition to answer against all Law and Justice to their Interrogatories And then when they had me at Newgate made an Order of their House to arraign me at Newgate Sessions for no less then my life and Ordered the prime Lawyers about London viz. Master Bradshaw Master Steel Master Walker c. to be my prosecuters and by a law-quirk if it were possible to take away my life from me And yet for all that they being sufficiently baffled by my own pen and the pens of my Friends they sent me One hundred pounds to Newgate as may be supposed to help to bear my charges and released me by Vote of the House as an innocent man after thirteen weeks imprisonment without all that while laying any thing to my charge or so much as ever telling me wherefore they * The full story of which you may read in my Printed Epistle of two sheets dated and in my large Book called Innocency and Truth Justified and in Englands Birth-right Englands misery and remedy and Englands lamentable slavery imprisoned me or who were the prosecutors or informers against me and all this was done unto me by Master Speakers malice principally who though he had not the least pretence or shadow of Crime originally against me yet thought by provocations laid upon me to exasperate and chafe my Spirit and thereupon as it were to force me to do something that might intangle me and be a colourable ground for him to destroy me forgetting although he pretend to be a great Lawyer that maxime of the Law made use of by Judg. Hutton in his Argument in Master Hambdens Case against Shipmoney pag. 49 That that which was defective in the Original is not good by any accident subsequent or as that learned Lawyer the Author of that notable Book called Vox Plebis pag. 20. 43. hath it That which is not good or just but illegal in its original or beginning by tract of time cannot be made just or lawful See also my Grand Plea against the House of Lords pag. 13. I further told my Friends then and there That if I might have but fair play and free liberty to speak for my self I doubted not but to make it as evident as the Sun when it shined at noon-day That at that pretended treasonable meeting at Wappin whereas I understood the parson accused me for plotting the destruction of the Parliament c. I did the House of Commons in its just and fundamental Interest simply considered a peace of the
to his posterity for ever And as I told my friend Mr. Speaker the Report might arise from this which relation is true and hath not been delivered to me once nor twice but oftner But Mr. SPEAKER I shall acquaint you further that I in part acquainted my friend how ingenuously I had dealt not only with my Lord WHARTON but the whole House of Peeres in that I obeyed their first Warrant they sent to me to come to their Barr the 10th June 1646. and immediatly as soon as I was served with it being about six a clock on the next morning at my own house and I was to appear before them at Ten the same morning I went immediately to my Lord Whartons house and he being not stirring I desired his servant to tell his Lordship what had happened and that in regard I was obliged to their House for the late Justice they had done for me about my reparations against the Star-chamber Judges BEING OLD SIR HENRY VANE c. I was resolved for ingenuity and gratitudes sake to vaile my Bonnet to them as farre as with honesty and a good conscience I could And therefore it was that I had obeyed their Warrant and promised to appear at their Barre which as I sent him word was more then by Law I was bound unto but yet when I came there I was resolved at their Bar to protest against their jurisdiction over a Commoner but I could doe no lesse then acquaint his Lordship with it before-hand that so if he pleased to save and preserve the honour of their House he might if not I would doe it if I dyed for it And if his Lordship pleased I would meet him at the stroke of Nine a clock at COL FLEETWOODS in black Fryers to talk with him further about it where he appointed to meet me and away went I to a friend and drew up my Protestation leaving him one copy to print in case I were imprisoned and I took another with my hand and seal to it and accordingly Mr. Speaker I met my Lord at Col. Fleetwoods house who as I remember was gone abroad whereupon I walked with my Lord to the black-Fryers bridg where we had a large discourse about the Lords originall jurisdiction over Commoners and I shewed him my protestation the marrow of which he read and I earnestly intreated him that he would be pleased to speak to the EARL OF ESSEX AND WARWICK AND MY LORD ROBERTS who was the principall man that had done all my businesse for me and tell them from me I bore so much honourable respect unto them and their House that if they pleased to command me to wait upon them I would and upon all the rest of the Lords in the house and freely answer them to any questions that they in honour could demand of me and I in conscience return an answer to alwayes provided they talked not with me as a House nor a Committee from their House for having been fighting for my Liberties and Freedoms I protested unto his Lordship before the God of Heaven and Earth and so I wish'd him to tell them that if they forced me to their Bar I both must and would protest against their incroachment upon the Commoners Rights and appeal for justice against them to the House of Commons although I died for it immediatly And his Lordship told me he beleeved the House of Commons would not stand by me and I answered I was confident they would for it was their own Interest but if they would not I told his Lordship now I knew my Liberties I would never betray them while I breathed And this my Lord I tell you further and do professe it before Almighty God that if your House will not be ruled by reason but by their greatnesse think to crush me and by force engage me in a contest against you I so well understand the firmnesse of the grounds upon which I go that I will venture my heart bloud against you and never make peace with you till either you have destroyed me or I have pâ—ucked you or your Vsurpations up by the roots So away he went and kept it off till about one of the clock And Mr. Speaker when I was called in to their Bar in going in I put no affront upon them but went bare-head and gave them three or four conges with all respect before I came to their Bar where they fell a playing the High Commission Court with me in examining me upon Interrogatories against my self which forced me to deliver in my Protest against them so that Mr. Speaker I am sure I pick'd no quarrell nor sought any with them But now Mr. Speaker being so deeply engaged against them by their own folly as I am for the preservation of the Laws and Liberties of my native Country against their trampling them under their feet in the enjoyment or practise of their usurpations I will never make peace with them while I live but studie night and day how to pluck them up by the roots which I am confident Mr. Speaker is also the duty of this House if they will rightly and truly discharge their duty to the Kingdom according to that trust they have reposed in them The Reader may be pleased to take notice that at the Bar when I was speaking of writing of Letters I took notice of one of the priests positive Charges which was that I had writ a Letter to Sir Anthony Weldon of Kent which I told M. Speaker was the absolutest lye in the world for I never had a hand in the least in writing or indicting a Letter to Sir Ant. Weldon neither did I read or heard read any Letter unto him But M. Speaker said I there is well nigh forty lyes more as palpable ones as this in his Relation which I dare with confidence aver it at this bar if I had in writing verbatim the very relation that he hath now made before this House by word of mouth for all his confidence that I could by multitude of witnesses of upright life conversation in all their conversings with their neighbours and of untainted fidelity to the Parliament and the common interest of the Kingdom in the worst of times punctually prove the greatest port of forty absolute lyes and falshoeds in his present confident relation and for his averring that I said or it was said at the meeting that we would only make use of the Parliaments name and of our Petition to them for a cloak to colour our raising of the people til we were strong enough to destroy them M. Speaker I aver it with confidence upon my life there was no such thing spoken at all in the foresaid meeting or any thing so much as tending thereunto all the time I was there but the absolute quite contrary the truth of which I am confident will if need require be averred upon Oath by the generality of the whole Company then met together And therefore Master
ye worthie Trustees Let not your ears be any longer deaf to our importunate cries let not our destruction be worse then that of Sodom which was overthrown in a moment Let us not pine away with famine and be worse then those who die by the sword Oh dissolve not all Government into the prime Laws of Nature and compel us to take the naturall remedie to preserve our selves which you have declared no people can be deprived of (bb) (bb) See your Declaration of the 19 of May 1642. 1 book Declarat pag. 207. And your Declaration of Novemb. 1642. pag. 690. 726. 728. as also pag. 150. See the Armies book of Declarat p. 39. 40. O remember that the righteous God standeth in the Congregation of the mighty and judgeth among the gods and saith How (cc) (cc) Psal 82.1 2 3 4. long will ye judge unjustly and accept the persons of the wicked Defend the poor and fatherless do justice to the afflicted and needy deliver the poor and needy and rid them out of the hands of the wicked And your Petitioners shall ever pray c. Now judge O Heavens and give your verdict O ye sons of men where the Treason is in this Petition for which M. Wildman and I as the chief prosecuters thereof deserved seven months imprisonment as Traitors therefore or rather doth it not declare that Cromwel and the rest of his fellow-hinderers of the promotion and accomplishment of the just things therein contained the establishing of which would have in the eye of reason prevented all the late Wars and all the desperate hazards that were run thereby are as grand enemies to the Liberties and Freedoms of England as any of those ever were whom they have destroyed and as grand Traitors to their trust as ever piss'd against a wall meerly soly and only seeking themselves and their own tyrannicall domination by all their actions their pretences being but meer stalking-horses thereto as most cleerly appears by CROMVVEL'S own Majors Impeachment of him to the Parliament the copy of which thus follows Sundry REASONS inducing Major ROBERT HUNTINGTON to lay down his Commission Humbly presented to the Honourable Houses of PARLIAMENT 2 August 1648. HAving taken up Arms in defence of the Authority and Power of King and Parliament under the command of the Lord Grey of Warke and the Earl of Manchester during their severall imployments with the Forces of the Eastern Association and at the modelling of this Army under the present Lord General having been appointed by the honourable Houses of Parliament Major to the now Regiment of Lieutenant General Cromwel in each of which imployments I have served constantly and faithfully answerable to the trust reposed in me And having lately quit the said imployment and laid down my Commission I hold my self tied both in duty and conscience to render the true reason thereof which in the generall is briefly this Because the Principles Designes and Actions of those Officers which have a great influence upon the Army are as I conceive very repugnant and destructive to the honour and safety of Parliament and Kingdom from whom they derive their Authority The particulars whereof being a Breviate of my sad Observations will appear by the following Narrative First That upon the Orders of Parliament for disbanding this Army Li. Gen. Cromwel and Commissary General Ireton were sent Commissioners to Walden to reduce the Army to their obedience but more especially in Order to the present supply of forces for the service of Ireland But they contrary to the trust reposed in them very much hindred that service not only by discountenancing those that were obedient and willing but also by giving incouragement to the unwilling and disobedient declaring that there had been much cruelty and injustice in the Parliaments proceedings against them meaning the Army and Commissary Generall Ireton in further pursuance thereof FRAMED THOSE PAPERS AND WRITINGS THEN SENT FROM THE ARMY TO THE PARLIAMENT AND KINGDOM saying also to the Agitators that it was lawfull and fit for us to deny disbanding till we had received equall and just satisfaction for our past service Lieutenant-Generall Cromwell further adding That we were in a double capacity as Souldiers and as Commoners and having our pay as Souldiers we have something else to stand upon as Commoners And when upon the Rendezvouz at TRIPPLE-HEATH the Commissioners of Parliament according to their Orders acquainted every Regiment with what the Parliament had already done and would further do in Order to the desires of the Army the Souldiery being before prepared and notwithstanding any thing could be said or offered to them by the Commissioners they still cryed out for Justice Justice And for the effecting of their further purposes advice was given by Lieutenant Generall Cromwel and Commissary Generall Ireton to remove the Kings Person from Holdenby or to secure him there by other Guards then those appointed by the Commissioners of Parliament which was thought most fit to be carryed on by the private souldiery of the Army and promoted by the Agitators of each Regiment whose first businesse was to secure the Garrison of Oxon with the Guns and Ammunition there from thence to march to Holdenby in prosecution of the former advice which was accordingly acted by Cornet Joyce who when he had done the businesse sent a Letter to the Generall then at Kyton acquainting his Excellency that the King was on his march towards Newmarket The Generall being troubled thereat told Commissary Generall Ireton that he did not like it demanding withall who gave those Orders He replyed that he gave Orders only for securing the King there and not for taking him away from thence Lieutenant-Generall Cromwel coming then from London said that if this had not been done the King would have been 〈◊〉 away by the Order of the Parliament or els Colonel Graves by the advice of the Commissioners would have caryed him to London throwing themselves upon the favour of Parliament for that Service The same day Cornet Joyce being told that the General was displeased with him for bringing the King from Holdenby he answered that Lieut. Gen. Cromwel had given him Orders at London [a] [a] And I John Lilburn have heard from very good hands I will not now say from the Cornets own month that it was delivered to to him in Cromwels own Garden in Drury-lane Colonel Charles Fleetwood being by to do what he had done both there and at Oxford The person of the King b] b] And yet see the Generals Letter from Cambridge of 6 June 1647 of the Kings providential or accidentall coming to them without the privity of him or any of his Officers Armies book of Declarat p. 22. being now in the power of the Army the businesse of Lieutenan-Generall Cromwel was to court his Majesty both by Members of the Army and several Gentlemen formerly in the Kings Service into a good opinion and belief of the proceedings of the Army as
pray That Lieutenant Colonel Lilburn and Master Iohn Wildman may be forthwith enlarged our selves secured and with the test of our Countrymen encouraged in a peaceable manner to make their addresses to this Honorable House and to render fruitlesse the practises of all such as under any coate shall seek to sow discord between you and yours And your Petitioners shall pray c. Iames Worts Roger Sawyer Henry Giding Tho. Chapman Valent. Elsign Dennis Liddall George Brown Edward Pardo Tho. Goddad Tho. Culles Tho. VVilliams Iohn Merihust Mich. Reeve Iohn North. Iohn VVells Ed. Floyd Rob. Bagesse Iohn Sowden Rob. Levite Andrew Dedman This Petition thus subscribed was as I remember delivered to the House of Commons the very same week Master Wildman and my self was first imprisoned as Traytors in reference to the foresaid Petition but this Petition was to no purpose nor took no effect which rightly weighed is a clear demonstration we were not imprisoned for miscarriage in mannaging the Petition but meerly and barely out of malice and hatred at us for promoting zealously a Petition that tended effectually to the ease of the People of their grievances and make us really Free-men and therfore from hence c. And let all unbiased people judge whether Cromwel and his Associates or my selfe and those he hath nicknamed Levellers be the real Traytors disturbers of the peace and the malicious and wicked hinderers of the Settlers of their Freedoms but to fill up this sheet and so to conclude I shall because I often use it here insert the Charge against the King which thus followeth The CHARGE of the Commons of England against CHARLES STVART King of England Of high Treasâ—n and other high Crimes exhibited to the High Court of Justice Saturday the 20 of January 1648. The Court being sate and the prisoner at the Barr M. Cook Solicitor General spake thus My Lord In behalf of the Commons of England and of all the people thereof I do accuse Charles Stuart here present of High Treason and high Misdemeanors And I do in the name of the Commons of England desire the Charge may be read unto Him Which the Clerk then read as followeth THat the said CHARLS STUART being * * Then his induction is better then theirs that come in by absolute conquest and now govern us by the sword as slaves admitted King of England and therein trusted with a limited Power to govern by and according to the Laws of the ††But H. Peters saith there is now no Law but the sword and the wil and pleasure of those that now rule by it See his discourse with mee 25. May 1649. p. 4. 5. Land and not otherwise And by his Trust Oath and Office being obliged to use the power committed to him for the good and benefit of the People and for the preservation of their Rights and Liberties Yet nevertheless out of a wicked Design to erect and uphold in himself an unlimited and tyrannical power to rule according to his ‖ ‖ Cromwels and the rest of the great Sword-mens constant practice will and to overthrow the Rights and Liberties of the People Yea to take away and make void the foundations thereof and of all redress and remedy of mis government which by the fundamental Constitutions of this Kingdom were reserved on the peoples behalf in the right and power of frequent and successive Parliaments or National meetings in Councel He the said Charles Stuart for accomplishing such his Designs and for the protecting of himself and his adherents in His and Their wicked practices to the same Ends hath trayterously and maliciously levied VVar against the present Parliament and the People therein * * And so hath Cromwel and Ireton c. which I will prove upon my life and therefore as traitors ought to dy much more then the King who till now hath by Parliaments c. themselves been often declared not to be subject to the penall part of the Law Represented Particularly upon or about the 13 day of June in the yeer of our Lord 1642 at Beverly in the County of York And upon or about the 30 day of July in the yeer abovesaid in the County of the City of York And upon or about the 24 day of Aug. in the same yeer at the County of the Town of Nottingham when and where he set up his Standard of war And also on or about the 23 day of October in the same yeer at Edg-Hill and Keinton-field in the County of Warwick And upon or about the 13 day of Novemb. in the same yeer at Brainford in the County of Middlesex And upon or about the 30 day of Aug. in the yeer of our Lord 1643 at Cavesham-Bridg neer Reading in the County of Berks And upon or about the 13 day of October in the yeer last mentioned at or neer the City of Glocester And upon or about the 13 day of Novemb. in the yeer last mentioned at Newbery in the County of Berks And upon or about the 31 day of July in the yeer of our Lord 1644 at Cropredy-Bridg in the County of Oxon And upon or about the 30 of Septemb. in the yeer last mentioned at Bodmin and other places neer adjacent in the County of Cornwal And upon or about the 30 day of Novemb. in the yeer last mentioned at Newbery aforesaid And upon or about the 8 day of June in the yeer of our Lord 1645 at the Town of Leicester And also upon the 14 day of the same month in the same yeer at Nasâ—â—y-field in the County of Northampton At which several times and places or most of them and at many other places in this Land at several other times within the yeers aforementioned and in the yeer of our Lord 1646 He the said Charls Stuart hath caused and procured many thousands of the free people of the Nation to be slain and by Divisions Parties and Insurrections within this Land by invasions from forrain parts endeavoured and procured by Him and by many other evill wayes and meanes He the said CHARLES STUART hath not only maintained and carryed on the said War both by Land and Sea curing the yeeres before mentioned but also hath renewed or â—â—used to be renewed the said War against the Parliament and good People of this Nation in this present (*) (*) Of which years war Cromwel Ireton by their cheating jugling hindering the setling the liberties of the Nation are were mâ—re guilty of by thousands of degres then the King or any of his party and if they had been but honest to their primitive engagements the wars had never been upon whose heads alone principally all the blood shed in those wars lyes say I Iohn Lilburn year 1648. in the Counties of Kent Essex Surrey Sussex Middlesex and many other Counties and places in England and Wales and also by Sea And particularly He the said Charles Stuart hath for that purpose Given Commissions to his son the Prince and others whereby besides multitudes of other persons many such as were by the Parliament intrusted and imployed for the safety of the Nation being by him or His Agents corrupted to the betraying of their Trust revolting from the Parliament have had intertainment and Commission for the continuing and renewing of war and hostility against the said Parliament and People as aforesaid By which Cruel and Unnaturall wars by him the said Charles Stuart levyed continued and renewed as aforesaid much Innocent blood of the (*) (*) But I am sure the chief prosecutors of this charge have made us now perfect slaves and are most superlatively 〈◊〉 of all that in the next words followeth Free-People of this Nation hath been spilt many Families have been undone the Publick Treasury wasted exhausted Trade obstructed and miserably decayed vast expence and damage to the Nation incurred and many parts of the Land spoyled some of them even to desolation And for further prosecution of His said Evill designs He the said Charles Stuart doth still continue His Commissions to the said Prince and other Rebels and Revolters both English and Forrainers and to the Earl of Ormond and to the Irish Rebels and Revolters associated with him from whom further Invasions upon this Land are threatned upon the procurement and on the behalf of the said Charles Stuart All which wicked designs Wars and evill practises of him the said Charles Stuart have been and are carryed on * * mark this well for the advancing and upholding of the personall interest of Will and Power and pretended Prerogative to Himself and His Family against the Publick Interest Common Right Liberty Iustice and Peace of the People of this Nation by and for whom he was entrusted as aforesaid By all which it appeareth that He the said Charles Stuart hath been and is the Occasioner Author and Contriver of the said Unnaturall Cruel and Bloody Wars and therein guilty of all the Treasons Murthers Rapines Burnings Spoiles Desolations Damage and Mischief to this Nation acted or committed in the said wars or occassoned thereby And the said Iohn Cook by Protestation saving on the behalf of the (*) (*) Which as they carry their businesse they judge to be no more but Cromwel Ireton Bradshaw Haslerig all the rest being really their slalves in several degrees People of England the liberty of Exhibiting at any time hereafter any other Charge against the said CHARLES STUART and also of replying to the Answers which the said CHARLES STUART shall make to the Premises or any of them or any other Charge that shall be so exhibited doth for the said Treasons and Crimes on the behalf of the said People of England Impeach the said Charles Stuart as a Tyrant Traytor Murtherer and a publick Implacable Enemy to the Common wealth of England And pray That the said CAARLS STUART King of England may be put to answer all and every the Premises That such Proceedings Examinations Tryals Sentence and Judgment may be thereupon had as shall be agreeable to Justice FINIS
with them for though Mr Speaker this House voted to this effect That the King seduced by evil councel had made War against the Parliament and people and that they are traitors that assisted * 1 part Book Decl. pag. 259 260 508 509 576 722 914. him And further declared That he had set up his Standard against the Parliament and people and hereby put the whole Kingdom out of his protection contrary to the trust reposed in him contrary to his oath dissolving Government thereby and that he in his own person marched up in the head of an Army by force of Arms to destroy the Parliament and in them the whole Kingdom their Laws and ‖ 1 part Book Decl. pag. 580 584 587 617 639 690. Liberties And yet Mr Speaker with the same breath declared The King is the fountain of justice and that he can do no †1 part pag. 199 304. wrong and forc'd the people to take Oaths and Covenants to preserve his person and yet at the same time gave the Earl of Essex and all those under him Commission To fight with kill and slay all that opposed them and declared the King in his own period marched in the head of an Army to oppose and destroy them and yet gave them a Commission to fight for King and Parliament So that Mr Speaker here is riddle upon riddle and mysterie upon mysterie which doth even confound and amaze the people and put them into Woods and Wildernesses that they could not see or know where they are or what to think of themselves or of the Parliament or of the King only this they very well know that their burthens are greater now then ever they were before and that they have been made fools in pretendingly fighting for liberty which hath brought them into bondage And that though it was formerly declared the King had no Negative voyce or Legislative power but is bound by his Oath to passe all such Laws as the people folk or Commons shall * 1 part Book Decl. pag. 205 â—06 208 268 269 270 705 706 707 708 710 713 714. chuse Yet now the Parliament send unto him again and again for his concurrence to their acts as though the giving of life soul and power to their actings were indiâ—putably and inseparably inherent in him and as though now their consciences told them they must crave pardon of him for all the actions they have done without him and against him O riddles and unfathomable mysteries sufficiently able to make the people desirous to be ignorant of their liberties and freedoms and never to hear of them more especially considering they have paid so dear pretendedly for the injoyment of them and yet after five years fighting for them know not where to find one of them But Mr Speaker they were told that in this petition the people had clearly held out unto them and that upon the undeniable principles of reason and justice the Kings Rights the Parliaments and their own and that the two former were and of right alwaies ought to be subservient to the good of the latter and they were told it was not so much persons as things that they doted upon and therfore undoubtedly those that should really hold out justice and righteousnesse unto the people was those that they would be in love with and therfore in mercy to our selves and in love and compassion to our native Country it was pressed that every man that desired to fulfill his end in coming into the World and to be like unto his Master in doing good should vigorously promote and further this just and gallant Petition as the principall means to procure safety peace justice and prosperity to the Land of our Nativity and knit the hearts and spirits of our divided Country-men in love again each unto other and in love unto us which they could not chuse but afford when they should visibly see we endeavoured their good as well and as much as our own there being all the principall foundations of freedom and justice that our hearts could desire or long after in this very petition And if our greatest end were not accomplished in our prosecuting of this petition viz. the Parliaments establishing the things therein desired yet the promoting of it would beget understanding and knowledge in the people when they should hear it and read it and discourse upon it and if nothing but that were effected our labour would not be totally lost for nothing did more instate Tyrants in the secure promotion of tyrannie then ignorance and blindnesse in the people And therfore for the begetting of knowledge it was requisite it should be promoted as also for healing of the divisions amongst the people and knitting them together in love that so their minds might be diverted from studying the destruction each of other to study the destruction of Tyrants that would in time destroy them all And Mr Speaker there was one in the company that made a motion to this effect That he did conceive it was more requisite at present speedily to second the Armies Declaration with a petition to encourage this House vigorously to go on to prosecute their late gallant Votes of Non-Addresses for so they were called to which was answered That in this petition was contained more then was in all all their Votes for it struck at the very root of all that Tyrannie that had enslaved and would enslave us viz. the Negative voyce in King and Lords both which the Votes did not and it was impossible that there could be an active Member in the House of Commons but knew that this petition was promoting all over the Kingdom which did abundantly declare greater encouragement to all those Members of the House that really intended good unto the Commonwealth then possible could be in a single complementall petition signed with 4 or 5000 hands such a petition being rather fit to puff them up then upon reall grounds to strengthen and encourage them fully to mind the peoples good and there was never a Member of the House whose design in the largest extent was no more then the pulling down of the King that so he might be a King himself but of necessitie he must receive more satisfaction and encouragement from the knowledge of the promoting this gallant unparallel'd petition which is a clear demonstration to the Parliament that those that promote it clearly understand that the King and the Lords Tyrannie and their liberties are inconsistent then he could do from a bare complementary petition which would also be dangerous to our selves in quashing the vigorous prosecuting of this that contained the ultimate of our desires and the sum of all those things that in this World we desired to make us happy But Mr Speaker it was again objected That seeing this petition struck so much at the House of Lords as it did who lately it was said had concurred with this House in their gallant Votes against the