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A54409 The life and death of King Charles the first written by Dr. R. Perinchief: together with Eikon basilike. Representing His Sacred Majesty in his solitudes and sufferings. And a vindication of the same King Charles the martyr. Proving him to be the author of the said Eikon basilike, against a memorandum of the late earl of Anglesey, and against the groundless exceptons of Dr. Walker and others.; The royal martyr: or, the life and death of King Charles I. Perrinchief, Richard, 1623?-1673.; White, Robert, 1600-1690, engraver. 1697 (1697) Wing P1596; ESTC R219403 131,825 310

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Justice and the reciprocal motions of the Popular heat that the very same Parliament that first stirr'd up this way of tumultuary Petitions against the King now complained that the Honour and Safety of Parliaments was indangered by Petitions But all their Tyranny upon the complaining Nation prevailed nothing but to provoke them to a higher Indignation and more frequent Petitions And when they perceived they dealt with men obstinate to their own Interests which were not to be gained but by the Publick ruine they fly from Prayers to Arms and intitle their just War For the Liberty of King and People And in several places as in Kent Essex Suffolk Norfolk Cornwall York-shire Wales and at last in Surry multitudes take Arms for this Righteous Cause The Navy also fall off and setting Rainsbrough their levelling Admiral on Shore seventeen Ships deliver themselves up to the Prince of Wales The Scots likewise by an Order of their own Parliament send into England to recover the Liberty and Majesty of the King an Army under Hamilton But all was in vain God had decreed other Triumphs for His Majesty and to translate Him to another Kingdom For the English being but tumultuarily raised having no train of Artillery or Ammunition considerable were soon supprest by a veterane Army provided with all necessaries The Scots either through weakness or wickedness of their Commanders who made so disorderly a march that their Van and Rear were forty miles asunder were easily worsted by Cromwell who surprised their main Body and Hamilton was taken Prisoner Cromwell follows the scattered Parties into Scotland where they were likewise assaulted by Argyle a domestick Enemy and forced to submit those Arms the Parliament had put into their hands to the Faction of that false Earl who calls another Parliament from which all were excluded that in the former Voted for the King's Delivery and all the Orders of that Convention made void Cromwell had the Publick Thanks and the private Faith of Argyle to endeavour as opportunity permitted the extirpation of Monarchy out of Scotland The Navy also deserts the Prince being corrupted by the Earl of Warwick who was appointed for this Service and when he had ingloriously bought off their Faith to their lawful Prince himself was ignominiously cashiered by the Conspirators These great disappointments and overthrws of just Enterprises men variously attributed to different Causes Some to the Perfidiousness others to the Weakness of those that managed them as also to the Treachery of some Presbyterians who in hatred to the Army first incouraged and then in Jealousie of the Royallists basely deserted them For the Rabbies of the Kirk cursed Hamilton in the beginning of his Enterprise Another sort thought them unhappy because the greatest part of the Undertakers were such that formerly had either fought against the King or else had betrayed Him and God would not now bless their unexpiated Arms. And some to the Fate of the Kingdom which God had decreed to give over to numerous and impious Tyrants because of their unthankfulness and impatience under so Incomparable a Prince But while these things were managed by the Army that were now at a distance and Cromwell's Terrors were greater in Scotland than here the less guilty Parliament-men seriously considering how impatient the People who in London and other places had gotten innumerable Subscriptions to a Petition for a Personal Treaty now were of those Injuries that were done to their Sovereign how hateful themselves grew because they had betrayed and inslaved their own Privileges together with the Liberties of the Subject to an insatiable and Phanatick Army and how an evident Ruine attended even their Conquests of Him whom it was unlawful to assault did at last though too late contrary to the clamours of their Factious and Democratick Members Repeal those Votes which they had formerly made of No more Addresses to the King This being passed in both Houses they afterwards with a strong Consent Vote a Treaty with the King in Honour Freedom and Safety The Factious Party in the Parliament found themselves too few and weak to oppose this impetuous tendency of the Two Houses and whole Kingdom to Peace But yet they endeavoured to frustrate the labours of their more since Members and to baffle the People's just desires of it by imposing many unequal Conditions and obstructive restrictions For they procured that the Treaty should be in the Isle of Wight and not at London that it should be by Commissioners and not immediately with the two Houses as was Petitioned The Propositions that were sent to be Treated were the same which had before been offered to the King at Hampton-Court and were then rejected by Him and also condemned by the Army it self as too unjust The Commissioners were so streightned in Power that it was not lawful for them to soften any one of the Conditions of Peace not to alter the Preface or change the Order of the Propositions nor to debate a Subsequent till the Precedent were agreed on They could conclude nothing they were only to propose the Demands urge Reasons for the Royal Assent receive the King's Answer and refer all in writing to the Parliament whose slow Resolves and the delays of sending were supposed would consume that narrow measure of time which was appointed to debate so many and so different things for they were limited to forty days The Commissioners they sent were Five of the Lord's House and Twelve of the Commoners and with them some of their Presbyterian Ministers who were to press importunately for their Church Government to elude the King's Arguments for Episcopacy and only to impose not to dispute their own With all these upon so many several and different Propositions some relating to the Law of the Land others to Reason of State and some to the practice of the Apostolical Primitive Churches the King was to deal without publick assistance For though He was permitted the Ministery of some Officers of State Counsellours and Divines yet were they but of private advice and to stand behind the Curtain He only Himself was to speak in the Debate and singly to manage matters of Policy with their most exercised Statists and the points of Divinity with their best-studied Divines The Vulgar to whom the Arts of these men were not so obvious were much pleased with the Name of a Treaty and now hoped to exchange their Servitude under so many importunate Tyrants for the moderate and easie Government of one Lawful King Others that had a clearer insight and observed with what difficulties it was burthened hoped for no benefit from it Because that if His Majesty should not Consent as they believed He would not then He would be the object of the popular impatience And if He should Consent He that now was thought to be most injuriously dealt with would then be conceived not to deserve the Pity even of His Friends nor could He gain any other thing by His Concessions than to be
For the supplies of Money being scanty and slow the Fleet could not go out till October 8. an unseasonable time in the British Seas and their first contest was with Winds and Tempests which destroying some scattered all the Ships When they met a more dangerous storm fell among the Soldiers and Seamen where small Pay caused less Discipline and a contempt of their General the Lord Wimbleton rendred th attempt upon Cades vain and fruitless This was followed by a Contagion to which some conceive discontented minds make the bodies of men more obnoxious in the Navy which forced it home more empty of Men and less of Reputation The Infection decreasing at London the King performed the Solemnities of His Coronation February 2. with some alterations from those of His Predecessors for in the Civil He omitted the usual Parade of Riding from the Tower through the City to White-Hall to save the Expences that Pomp required for more noble undertakings In the Spiritual there was restored a Clause in the Prayers which had been pretermitted since Henry VI. and was this Let Him obtain favour for this People like Aaron in the Tabernacle Elisha in the Waters Zacharias in the Temple give Him Peter 's Key of Discipline Paul 's Doctrine Which though more agreeing to the Principles of Protestantism which acknowledgeth the Power of Princes in their Churches and was therefore omitted in the times of Popery yet was quarreled at by the Factious party who take advantages of Calumny and Sedition from good as well as bad circumstances and condemned as a new invention of Bishop Laud and made use of to defame both the King and him After this He began a second Parliament February 2. wherein the Commons voted Him Four Subsidies but the Demagogues intended them as the price of the Duke of Buckingham's blood whom Mr. Cooke and Dr. Turner with so much bitterness inveighed agianst as passing the modesty of their former dissimulation they taxed the King's Government Sir Dudley Digges Sir John Elliot and others carried up Articles against him to the Lord's House in which to make the Faction more sport the Duke and the Earl of Bristol did mutually impeach each other By these contrasts the Parliament were so highly heated that the Faction though it fit time to put a Remonstrance in the forge which according to their manner was to be a publick Invective against the Government But the King having notice of it dissolves the Parliament June 18. Anno 1626. and the Bill for the Subsidies never passed This misunderstanding at home produced another War abroad For the King of France taking advantage of these our Domestick embroilments begins a War upon us and seiseth upon the English Merchant Ships in the River of Bourdeaux His pretence was because the King had sent back all the French Servants of the Queen whose insolencies had been intolerable But the world saw the vanity of this pretext in the Example of Lewis himself who had in the like manner dimitted the Spanish attendants of his own Queen and that truly the unhappy Counsels in Parliament had exposed this Just Prince to foreign injuries Which He magnanimously endeavoured to revenge and to recover the goods of His abused Subjects and therefore sent the Fleet designed for Justice upon Spain to seek it first in France But the want of Money made the Preparations slow and therefore the Navy putting out late in the year was by Storms forced to desist the enterprize So that what was the effect only of the malice of His Enemies was imputed by some to a secret Decree of Heaven which obstructed His just undertakings for Glory Anno 1627. The next year the King quickened by he Petitions of the Rochellers who now sued for His Protection as well as by the Justice of His own Cause more early prosecuted His Counsels and sent the Duke of Buckingham to attach the Isle of Rhee which though alarmed to a greater strength by the last year's vain attempt yet had now submitted to the English Valour had not the Duke managed that War more with the Gayeties of a Courtier than the Arts of a Souldier And when it wa wisdom to forsake those attempts which former neglects had made impossible being too greedy of Honour and to avoid the imputation of fear in a safe retreat he loaded his overthrow with a new Ignominy and an heavier loss of men the common fate of those Who seek for glory in the parcels lose it in the gross Which was contrary to the temper of his Master who was so tender of humane blood 〈◊〉 therefore He raised no Wars but found them● and thought it an opprobrious bargain to purchase the fruitless Laurels or the empty name of Honour with the lives of men but where the Publick Safety required the hazzard and loss of some particulars This Expedition beging so unhappy and the Miseries of Rochel making them importunate for the King's Assistance His Compassionate Soul was desirous to emove their Dangers but was restrained by that necessitous condition the Faction had concluded Him under To free Himself from which but He might deliver the oppressed He doth pawn His own Lands for 100000 pounds to the City and borrows 30000 pounds more of the East-India Company but this was yet too narrow a Foundation to support the charges of the Fleet and no way so natural to get adequate supplies as by a Parliament which He therefore summons to meet March 17. intending to use all Methods of Complacency to unite the Subjects Affections to Himself Which in the beginning proved successful for the modesty of the Subjects strove with the Piety of the King and both Interests contended to oblige that they might be obliged The Parliament granted the King Anno 1628. five Subsidies and He freely granted their Petition of Right the greatest Condescension that ever any King made wherein He seemed to submit the Royal Scepter to the Popular Fasces and to have given Satisfaction even to Supererogation These auspicious beginnings though full of Joy both to Prince and People were matter of envy to the Faction and therefore to form new Discontents and Jealousies the Demagogues perswaded the Houses that the King 's Grant of their Petition extended beyond their own Hopes and the Limits themselves had set and what he had expresly mentioned and cautioned even to the taking away His Right to Tonnage and Poundage Besides this they were again hammering a Remonstrance to reproach Him and His Ministers of male-administration Which Ingratitude He being not able to endure on June 26. adjourns the Parliament till Octob. 20. and afterward by Proclamation till Jan. 20. following In the interim the King hastens to send succours to Rochel and though the General the Duke of Buckingham was at Portsmouth Assassinated by Felton armed as he professed with the publick hatred yet the Preparations were not slackned the King by His personal industry doing more to the necessary furnishing of the Fleet in ten or twelve
affected silence Then prodigious Calumnies which none but souls prone to any wickedness could believe of so Great a man were formed of the King and such suspicions raised of Him and His Friends as might force them to some Injuries which hitherto they forbore and by securing themselves increase the Publick fears For Slanders do rather provoke most men than amend them and the provoked think more of their safety than to adjust their actions against their malicious Slanderers And when the minds of men were made thus solicitous concerning Dangers from the King to make them more pliable and ductile there was represented to them an inevitable anger of Heaven against the present state of things both in Church and State testified by many Prodigies that were related and portentuous Presages of Ruine Certain Prophecies for a credulity to which the English Vulgar are infamous from unknown Oracles are divulged which enigmatically describe the King as a Monster and from such a Prince must proceed a change of Government Some vain persons also that gave themselves up to the Imposture of Astrology were hired to terrifie the people with the unsignificant Conjunctions of Stars and from them to foretel ruines to the better part of the World and an imminent destruction on men of the Long Robe and Alterations of States These were done to temper the minds of men by superstition for a guidance of their Ministers who being conceived to be the Ambassadours of Heaven were supposed to have it in their Commission to declare the Conditions of War and Peace and these either through the same weakness capable of the like terrors with the Vulgar or which is more to be abhorred corrupted as some were by the Caresses and gainful hopes that the Faction baited them with did justifie their fears and increase them by applying some obscure Prophecies in Scripture to the present Times and People compared the pretended Corruptions of our Church with the Idolatries of Israel and whatsoever was condemned in the Holy Records was parallel'd with the things they disliked here and all the Curses that God poured upon His irreconcileable and obdurate enemies were denounced against such as differ'd from them or would not joyn with the Faction To make these Harangues more efficacious the Authors of them received the Reverence of the Demagogues who despising questioning and exposing to Affronts such sober Divines as would have cured the madness of the People appropriated to such Teachers the Titles of Saints Faithful Ministers Precious men and they on the other side made a return of Epithets to their Masters of the Servants of the Most High such as were to do the Work of the Lord That by their Counsels men were to expect new Heavens and a new Earth that they were men that should prepare the Kingdom for Jesus Christ and lay the Foundations of the Empire of the Saints which was to last a Thousand years To make the Cry yet louder they permitted all Sects and Heresies a Licence of publick profession which hitherto Discipline the Care of the Common Peace and Religion had confined to secret corners and permitted the Office of Teaching to every bold and ignorant undertaker so that at last the dregs of the People usurped that Dignity and Women who had parted with the natural modesty of their Sex would not only speak but also rule in the Church All these in gratitude for their Licentiousness still perswaded to their hearers the admiration of the Authors of it and bitterly inveighted against those whom the Care both of the Souls and Fortunes of men would excite to repress them in many of their Raptures denouncing Wo and Judgment to the lawful Governours in Church and State While all these Methods of Ruine were preparing her the same anger of God the same madness of men raised up another Tempest in Ireland For the Popish Lords and Priest of Ireland who were the prime composers of the Tragedies there were incouraged by the Success of the Scots who by a prosperous Rebellion as the Historian of those Troubles writes had procured for themselves such large Privileges to an imitation which the present Jealonsies in England where mutual Contrasts would employ all their force upon one another promised to be secure And they had an happy opportunity by the Vacancy in Government through the slaughter of the Earl of Strafford with whom the Irish Lords while they prosecuted him in England had removed all those other inferiour Magistrates that were most skilful in the affairs of that Kingdom by accusing to the Faction some of them of Treason and others of an inclination to the Earl and had got preferred to their charges such as were either altogether unacquainted with the Genius of that People or favourers of the Conspiracy A strength they had also ready for those 8000 which had been listed for the Scotish Expedition were unseasonably disbanded and the King in foresight they might cause some mischief in their own Country and therefore promised 4000 of them to the King of Spain yet would not the Parliament consent to their departure because as the Irish Lords suggested it would displease the King of France and when the King promised to send as many to the French Camp that likewise was not relished The Common Souldiers of that Army being thus made useless and therefore like men of their employment most fierce when they were to be dismissed from the dangers of War were easily drawn into the Rebellion although very few of their Officers were polluted with the Crime The Irish Lords and Priests being allured by these our Vices and these several opportunities began their Rebellion Octob. 23. The Irish throughout that whole Kingdom on a sudden invading the unprovided English that were scattered among them despoiling them of their Estates Goods and many thousands of their Lives without any respect of Sex Age Kindred or Friendship and made them as so many Sacrifices to their bloody Superstition They missed but a little to have surprised Dublin But their Conspiracy being detected there and in some few other places the English name and interest was preserved in that Kingdom till they could receive Succours from hence The King had the first intelligence of it in its very beginnings in Scotland and thereupon sent Sir James Stuart to the Lords of the Privy Council in Ireland to acquaint them with His Knowledge and Instructions and to carry all that Money that His present Stores could supply Besides He moves the Parliament of Scotland as being nearest to a speedy help who decline their Aids because Ireland was dependent upon the Crown of England At the same time also He sends post to the Parliament of England who less regard it the Faction applauding their forturne that new Troubles were arisen to molest the King and that the Royal Power being thus assaulted in all three Nations there must shortly arise so many new Common-wealths Besides that it yielded fresh matter of reproach to His Majesty
and was drawn from His peaceful Contemplations and Prospect of Heaven to behold and converse with men set on Fire of Hell These to tempt Him to a Confidence in their integrity that they might the more easily to His disgrace ruine Him and murder Him by His own Concessions if He would be deluded by them highly pretend to a Compassionate Sense of His Sufferings and complain of the Parliaments Barbarous Imprisoning Him in His own Palaces wondering they had no more Reverence for Majesty and to beget a belief of this they profess which they would have to be conceived with them was more sacred than any Oaths that they will never part with their Arms till they have made His way to His Throne and rendred the Condition of His Party more tolerable Besides these Promises and Compassions they permit Him the Ministry of His Chaplains in the Worship of God which it is said He took with so great a Joy that He almost believed Himself free and safe it being His most heavy burthen while He was the Parliaments Captive the Commerce of Letters with the Queen the Visits of His own Party and the Service of His Courtiers some of whom they also admitted to their Council of War mould Propositions which they will urge in His behalf and alter them to the King's Gust and at His Advice In their publick Remonstrances against the Covetousness Ambition Injustice Cruelty and Selfmindedness of the Parliament they do sometimes obliquely sometimes plainly profess that the King Queen and the Royal Family must be restored to all their Rights or else no hope of a solid Peace but then they would intermix such Conditions as argued they sought Reserves for a perfidious escape For Cromwell did among his Confidents boast of his fine Arts and that by these Indulgences was intended nothing but His Destruction By all these Impostures they prevailed nothing upon the Hopes or Fears of the King nor did He commit any thing unworthy His former Fortune and the Greatness of His Integrity and Wisdom or which any of the Disagreeing Factions could use to His reproach But they found another kind of Success upon the Parliament for they sacrificed to the Commands of their Stipendiaries eleven Members of the House of Commons and seven of the Peers causing them to forbear sitting among them because they had been accused by the Army in a very frivolous Charge All men wondering at the inequality of those mens Spirits who had so furiously rejected the Articles of their lawful Sovereign against five or six of their Body and yet did now so tamely yield to the slight Cavils and dislike of their Mercenaries above thrice that Number They therefore concluded that neither Religion Justice or the Love of Liberty which are always uniform but unworthy Interests and corrupt Souls which vary with fears and hopes had been the Principles and first Movers of their attempts Besides this they were so prone to Slavery that they had gone on to Vote all the lusts of the Army had not a Tumult their Arts being now turned upon their own heads from London stopp'd them in their violent speed and kept the Speaker in his Chair till they had voted more generously that it was neither for their Honour nor Interest to satisfie the demands of the Souldiers and that the King should come to London to treat These contrary desires of the divided Faction which had joyntly oppressed their Sovereign shewed that Ill men will more easily conspire together in War than consent in Peace and that Combinations in Crimes will conclude in Jealousies each Party thinking the advantages of the other too great and that Power is never thought faithfull which is accounted excessive Therefore both prepare for War With the 140 Members that sate in Parliament were joyned the City and the cashiered Souldiers and Officers that had served in their pay With the Army were the Speakers of both Houses who had fled to them with about fifty of their Members that projected the Change of Government being either for an Oligarchy or Democracie yet left some of the same judgment behind to betray and disturb the Counsels at London To these did adhere the Neighbouring Counties who were cajoled by the splendid Promises of the Army of Restoring the King which they much boasted Dissolving the Parliament and Establishing Peace and Government and they more wilingly credited these because they had conceived an hatred of the Parliament and City both for beginning the War and now obstructing Peace The Army intitle their attempts for King and People Their Adversaries for bringing the King to His Parliament The Commanders were greedy of that War which promised an easie Victory and made the poor Souldiers hope for the Plunder of the City For the advantage was clear on the Army's side which consisted of veterane Souldiers united among themselves by a long Converse and known Commanders but the force of the other was made up of a tumultuary Multitude gathered under new Leaders and so had no mutual confidence their meetings were full of doubts and fears none could determine in private nor in publick Consult because they dared not trust one another and it was observed that those who were most treacherous talk'd most boldly against the Enemy Therefore in the very beginnings the Parliament and City desert their Enterprise Treat with and open their Gates to the Army who march in Triumph through London bringing the Speakers and their Fellow-Travellers to their Chairs seize upon the Tower dismantle the Fortifications pull down all the Chains and Posts of the City send the Lord Mayor and the Chief Citizens to the Tower and reduce all the Power of the Nation in Obedience to the Commanders For Fairfax is made General of all the Forces both in England and Ireland and Rainsbrough a Leveller and a violent Head of the Democraticks High Admiral The impeached Presbyterians fled beyond Sea others of that Sect drooping complyed with the Fortune of the Conquerours and that which greived good Men most was a Publick Thanksgiving which is not to be observed but for the happy endeavours of a Nation in their vertuous and glorious undertakings for Liberty and Safety but now was prophaned for our Slavery and Misery to God was appointed for the Army and they were entertained now at a Feast whom before the City would have forced from their Walls While these things were in Motion the King consults Heaven for Direction and his Party modestly abstain from either side thought both to be abhorred and knew that Party would be the worst which should overcome The Army having now the greatest strengths of the Nation the Parliament and City at their obedience make no mention of their former promises to the King only the Adjutators were fierce for breaking that Parliament and calling another as they call'd it more equal Representative But both their Synagogue and the Council of War being now delivered from fear of the Presbyterians began to contrive the destruction