Honour than those who had even forced Him to it like those malignant and damned Spirits who upbraid unhappy Souls with those Crimes and ruines to which they themselves have tempted and betrayed them But the heaviest Censor was Himself for he never left bewailing His Compliance or rather Connivence with this Murder till the issue of his Blood dried up those of His Tears By the other Bill He had as some censured renounced His Crown and granted it to those men who at present exercised so Arbitrary a Power that they wanted nothing but length of time to be reputed Kings and this they now had gotten But the more Speculative concluded it an act of especial Prudence for the King made that an evidence of His sincere intention to oblige His people and overcome the Malice of His Enemies with Benefits which the Faction would have usurped and by the boldness of the attempt ingaged the People to them as the only Patrons of their Liberty And they were furnished with an Example for it by their Confederates in Scotland who indicted an Assembly without the King's leave and continued it against His pleasure and as all imitations of Crimes exceed their first pattern it was conceived these men whose furies were more unjust and so would be more fierce intended to improve that Precedent to the extreamest guilt The Bill was no sooner signed but they hastened the Execution and so much the more eagerly because the King desired in a most passionate Letter delivered by the Prince to the Lords that the Excellent Soul which found so much Injustice on Earth might have the more time to fit it self for the Mercy of Heaven But this favour which became Christians to grant agreed not with the Religion of his Adversaries and therefore the second day after he was brought to the Scaffold on Tower-Hill in his Passage thither he had a sight of the Archbishop of Canterbury whose Prayers and Blessing he with a low Obeisance begged and the most pious Prelate bestowed them with Tears where with a greater presence of mind than he had looked his Enemies in the face did he encounter Death and submitted his neck to the stroke of the Executioner He was a person of a generous Spirit fitted for the noblest enterprises and the most difficult parts of Empire His Counsels were bold yet just and he had a Vigour proper for the Execution of them Of an Eloquence next to that of his Master's masculine and most excellent He was no less affectionate to the Church than to the State and not contented while living to defend the Government and Patrimony of it he commended it also to his Son when he was about to die and charged his abhorrency of Sacriledge His Enemies called the Majesty of his Miene in his Lieutenancy Pride and the undaunted execution of his Office on the contumacious the insolency of his Fortune He was censured for committing that fatal Errour of following the King to London and to the Parliament after the Pacification with the Scots at York and it was thought that if he had gone over to his charge in Ireland he might have secured both himself and that Kingdom for his Majesty's Service But some attributed this Counsel to a necessity of Fate whose first stroke is at the brain of those whom it designs to ruine and brought him to feel the effects of Popular Rage which himself in former Parliaments had used against Government and to find the Experience of his own advices against the Duke of Buckingham Providence teaching us to abhor over-fine Counsels by the mischiefs they bring upon their Authors The Fall of this Great Man so terrified the other Officers of State that the Lord High Treasurer resigned his Staff to the Hands from whence he received it the Lord Cottington forsook the Mastership of the Court of Wards and the Guardian of the Prince returned Him to the King These Lords parting with their Offices like those that scatter their Treasure and Jewels in the way that they might delude the violence of their greedy pursuers But the King was left naked of their faithful Ministery and exposed to the Infusions and Informations of those who were either Complices or Mercenaries to the Faction to whom they discovered his most private Counsels When the Earl of Strafford was dead then did the Parliament begin to think of sending away the Scots who hitherto had much impoverished the Northern Counties and increased the charges of the Nation but now they were voted to receive 300000 l. under the notion of a Brotherly assistance but in truth designed by the Faction as a reward for their Clamours for the Earl's Blood yet were they kept so long till the King had passed away more of His Prerogative in signing the Bills to take away the High-Commission and the Star-Chamber After which spoils of Majesty they disband the English and the Scotch Armies August 6. and on the 10th of that Month the King follows them into Scotland to settle if it were possible that Kingdom But the King still found them as before when he satisfied their greedy appetites then would they offer Him their Lives and Fortunes but when gain or advantage appeared from His Enemies they appeared in their proper nature ungrateful changeable and perfidious whom no favours could oblige nor any thing but Ruine was to be expected by building upon their Love While the King was in Scotland labouring to settle that Nation by granting all that the Covetousness and Ambition of their Leaders pretended was for the Publick good and so aimed at no less than a Miracle by His Benefits to reduce Faith which like Life when it is once departed doth never naturally return into those perfidious breasts the Parliament adjourns and leaves a standing Committee of such as were the Leaders or the Servants of the Faction These prepared new Toils for His Majesties return and by them was the Grand Remonstrance formed in it were reckoned for Grievances all the Complaints of Men that were impatient of Laws and Government the Offences of Courtiers the unpleasing Resolves of Judges the Neglects or Rigours of the Ministers of Justice the undigested Sermons of some Preachers yea the Positions of some Divines in the Schools were all exaggerated to defame the present Government both in Church and State and to magnifie the skill of these State-Physicians that offered Prescripts for all these Distempers Beside more easily to abuse the Vulgar who reckon Misfortunes as Crimes unpleasing accidents were represented as designs of Tyranny and those things which had been reformed were yet mentioned as continued burthens From which the People were assured there could be no deliverance but by the Wisdom and Magnanimity of the Remonstrants To prepare the way for this the most opprobrious parts of it were first whispered among the Populacy that by this seeming suppression men impatient of Secrets might more eagerly divulge them and the danger appear greater by an affected silence Then prodigious Calumnies
Authority of Parliament N. 26. Commissions granted in Parliament to keep the Sea Rot. Parl. 1 H. 6. N. 61. Chancellor Treasurer and Privy Seal appointed by Parliament N. 24. Protector and Defensor Regni appointed by Parliament N. 26. Privy Councellors 2 H. 6. N. 15. Counsels named by Parliament 4 H. 6. N. 19. The Duke by common consent in Parliament appoints a Deputy to keep Berwick Castle 14 H. 6. N. 10. The keeping of the Town of Calice is committed to the Duke of Gloucester by Indenture between him and the King and confirmed in Parliament 31 H. 6. N. 41. Rich. Earl of Salisbury and others are appointed by Parliament to keep the Seas Tunnage and Poundage appointed to them for three years 33 H. 6. N. 27. Discharged 39 H. 6. N. 32. The Duke of York made by Parliament General Stat. 21 Jac. cap. 34. Treasurers and a Council of War appointed by Parliament and an Oath directed to be by them taken The Earl of Essex made Lord Lieutenant of the County of York and Sir Jo. Conyers Lieut. of the Tower upon the desire of the Lords and Commons this Parliament With very many more Precedents which to avoid prolixity are purposely omitted In His Message of April 12. His Message of May 5. Message of May 19. Mr. Alexander Hampden Dan. Kniveton * He. As in the case of the late Earl of Manchester Lord Privy-Seal Mr. Gamul * Bound Mr. Pym. M. Yeomans M. Bourchier of Bristol M. Tompkins M. Chaloner at London and divers others Published in Latine English French See these Messages in the Appendix n. 1. and 2. In the Appendix In the Appendix Together with this inclosed in a Letter from Prince Rupert to the Earl of Essex His Majesty sent a safe Conduct for their Commissioners and their Retinue Prince Rupert's Letter His Majesty's Propositions All their Commissioners were not then come to Vxbridge * The Papers intended are the Propositions concerning Religion which were not then delivered It was on Thursday being Market-day and the first day of the Meeting * The Paper intended is that before of 30. Jan. num 13. The Propositions here intended are those before mentioned on their part sent by the Earl of Denbigh and others to Oxford And the Bill for abolishing Episcopacy is in the Appendix n. 3. * Meaning the next present Paper * This joynt Declaration is already printed But the Articles being not Printed are in the Appendix n. 4. * See before num 31. * The Directory which was delivered in is of great length and the Covenant delivered with it both now Printed and obvious are therefore forborn to be inserted here or in the Appendix * See them in the Appendix n. 5. and 6. * The Alterations intended here and in the third Proposition are according to the Articles of the Treaty at Edenburgh which see in the Appendix n. 4. and the joynt Declaration of both Kingdoms which are That whereas by the Bill the Bishops Lands are mentioned to be given to the King and other Church-Lands for other uses by those Articles and Declarations they may be taken away and imployed to payment and recompence of the Scots and for paying the publick Debts and repairing of particular Losses * That was by Conference See num 59. * These words are in the preamble of the Bill presented by them for abolishing Episcopacy See before in the margin to the Paper num 44. * See that Clause in the Bill in the Appendix n 3. at this mark †* Num. 52. * None were made * None at all were delivered in * See these Papers after n 170. 192 and 193. * The Paper intended is the King's Commissioners Reply to their first Answer 13. Feb. n. 61. * See the Paper 20. Feb. after n. 196 being delivered upon another occasion * See before num 56. * See num 84. * See num 86. 88. * See the Paper intended n. 91. * The precedent Paper * The next precedent Paper * The Paper after n. 128 was delivered with this * See before n. 16. * See the printed Act. * See n. 107. and 109. and n. 105. * See the Papers intended n. 92. 106 * Nu. 111. * See before n. 111 The Admiralty is an office of Inheritance in Scotland and setled by Act of Parliament * Num. 84. * n. 361. * Copies of the Letters and Advices were accordingly delivered In the Appendix See the late Statute concerning the Adventures for Irish Lands * See the Letters and Advices in the Appendix num 9. See all these in the Appendix * Demand * Which were the the two next precedent Papers * The two Papers following n. 171 172. were delivered in before this Paper and the reference is to them others formerly delivered on that Subject * See the Paper 20. Feb. n. 192. touching His Majesties return to Westminster * of * given * It is the sixth of His Majesties Propositions See His Majesties Propositions n. 8. and the Letter from the Earl of Essex n. 9. that their Commissioners should have Instructions to Treat upon them * See their Paper before 11. Feb. num 184. * See their Paper num 63. referring to this * See their last Paper * Manner * protest See them in the Narrative num 136 177 178. * See it in the Narrative num 136. See the Narrative n. 77. num 78. num 80. num 81. num 105. 107. num 106 107 112. num 109. num 110. num 111. num 113. 115. num 116. num 117. num 118. num 119. * These are their words but seem to be mistaken for Our Commissioners always insisted We should name some of them See Our Commissioners Paper touching Our Return to the two Houses after Disbanding of Armies num 191. num 130. Num. 131. See num 132. Num. 130. Num. 136. See these in the Narrative nnm 177 178. Presented Jul. 24. These Propositions are for the most part the same with those at Vxbridge Representation of the Army Jun. 14. 1647. The Propositions being the same with those at Newcastle we have only repeated the heads as we found them This is part of the third in the Propositions 14. To null all Honours conferred since 1642. by the old Seal These Propositions being generally the same with those at Vxbridge Newcastle and Hampton-Court it was thought fit to represent only the Heads Acts xiv 23. Acts vi 6. 1 Cor. xvi 1. 1 Cor. xiv 1 Cor. v. 3. iii Joh. 9 10. 1 Tim. v. 22. Tit. i. 5. Rev. ii iii. 1 Tim. v. 19. Tit. iii. 10. Tit. i. 5 7. Acts xx 17 18. 1 Pet. v. 1 2. * by * Exercit. 8. in Ignat. c. 3. a Act. xvii 14. b 15. c i Thes iii. 1 2. d Act. xviii 5. e Act. xix 22. f Act. xx 4. g ver 5 6. h ver 17. h i Tim. i. 3. i Heb. xiii 23. * Phil. i. 1. Philem. ver 1. Col. i. 1. Heb. xiii 23. ii Tim. iv 6 10. 11 12 16. k Gal. i. 2. l Tit. iii. 12. m ii Cor. ii 12. n ii Cor. v. 6. o ii Cor. viii 6. p ii Tim. iv 10. 1. Reply Sect. 1 2 2. Reply Sect. 3. 4 5. 3. Reply Sect. 6. 4. Reply Sect. 7. 5. Reply Sect. 8. 6. Reply Sect. 9. 7. Reply Sect. 10. 15. 8. Reply 16. 9. Reply 17 18. 10. Reply 19 28. 11. Reply 23 27. 12. Reply 19 c.
the Supplies of Money being scanty and slow the Fleet could not go forth till Octob. 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 Souldiers and Seamen where small Pay caused less Discipline and a Contempt of their General the Lord Wimbleton rendred the 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 Feb. 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 quarrelled 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 Feb. 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 Cook and Dr Turner with so much bitterness inveighed against 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 Lords 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 thought 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. An. 1626. and the Bill for the Subsidies never passed An. 1626 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 Merchants 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 The next Year the King An. 1627 quickened by the 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 Rhe 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 Soldier And when it was 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 that 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 hazard and loss of some particulars This Expedition being so unhappy and the Miseries of Rochel making them importunate for the King's Assistance His Compassionate Soul was desirous to remove their Dangers but was restrained by that necessitous condition the Faction had concluded Him under To free Himself from which that He might deliver the oppressed he doth pawn His own Lands for 120000 Pounds to the City and borrows 30000 l. 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 An. 1628 and both Interests contended to oblige that they might be obliged The Parliament granted the King 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 Oct. 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
Patience was not overcome nor his nature changed by the Reproaches of his Accusers answers with so brave a Presence of Spirit such firm Reasons and so clear an Eloquence that he whom the mercenary Tongues of their Lawyers had rendred as a Monster of men could not be found guilty of Treason either in the particulars or the whole So that his Enemies were filled with madness that their Charge of Crimes appeared no other then a Libel of Slanders and the dis-interessed Hearers were besides the pleasure they received to find so great Endowments polluted with no hainous Crimes sensible of the unhappiness of those who are Ministers of State among a Factious people where their prosperous Counsels are not rewarded and unsuccessfull though prudent are severely accused when they erre every one condemns them and their wise Advices few praise for those that are benefitted envy and such as are disappointed hate those that gave them And such seemed the Fate of this Excellent Counsellour whom nothing else but his great Parts his Master's Love and Trust had exposed to this Danger The Faction being obstructed this way by the Earl's Innocency and Abilities from taking away his Life move the House to proceed by a Bill of Attainder to the making a Law after the Fact whereby they Vote him guilty of High Treason yet adde a Caution that it should not be drawn into a Precedent seeking to secure themselves from a return of that Injustice upon themselves which they acted on him intending to prosecute what they falsly charged him with the Alteration of Government Which yet passed not without a long debate and contention for many that had none but honest hopes disdained to administer to the Interest of the Faction in the blood of so much Innocent Gallantry and those that were prudent saw how such an Example opened the avenues to ruine of the best Persons when once exposed to publick hatred Therefore they earnestly disswaded such a proceed And fifty nine of the most eminent openly dissented when it came to the Vote whose Names were afterwards posted and marked for the fury of the Rabble that for the future they might not oppose the designs of the Factious unless they desired to be torn in pieces In two dayes the Lower House past the Bill so swift were the Demagogues to shed blood but the Lords House was a little more deliberative the King having amongst them declared His sense of the Earl's Innocency of whose slow Resolves the Faction being impatient there came a seditious rabble of about 5 or 6000 of the dreggs of the people armed with Staves and Cudgels and other Instruments of Outrage instigated by the more unquiet Members both of the House of Commons and the City to the Parliament doors clamouring Justice Justice and the next day to raise their Fury there was a report spred among them of some endeavours to prepare an Escape for the Lieutenant of Ireland therefore with more fierceness they raised their clamours some objecting Treason to him others their Decay of Trade and each one either as he was instructed for some of the House of Commons would be among them to direct their Fury and to give some order to their Tumult that it might appear more terrible or the sense of his own necessities and lusts led him urged his different motives for Justice and at last heated by their own motion and noise they guard the doors of the House of Peers offer insolencies to the Lords especially the Bishops as they went in and threaten them if their Votes disagree from their clamours And when they had thus made an assault on the Liberty of the Parliament which yet was pretended to be so Sacred they afterward set upon the neighbouring Abbey-Church where forcing open the doors they brake down the Organs spoiled all the Vestments and Ornaments of the Worship from thence they fly to Court and disturb the Peace of it with their undecent and barbarous clamours and at last were raised to that impudency as to upbraid the King who from a Scaffold perswaded them as they passed by to a modest care of their own private affairs with an unfitness to reign When some Justices of the Peace according to the Law endeavoured to suppress those Tumults by imprisoning the most forward and bold Leaders they themselves were imprisoned by the Command of the Commons upon pretext of an injury offered to the Liberties of the Subject of which one was as they then dictated That every one might safely petition the Parliament yet when the Kentish men came to petition for something contrary to the Gust of the Faction they caused the City Gates to be shut upon them and when other Counties were meditating Addresses for Peace by threatnings they deterred them from such honest undertakings And when some prudent Persons minded the Demagogues how dishonourable it was for the Parliament not to suppress such Mutinies they replied that their friends ought rather to be thanked and caressed By these and other Arts having wholly overthrown the freedom of that Council and many withdrawing themselves from such Outrages when scarce the third part of the Peers were present the Faction of that House likewise passed the Bill the Dissenters being out-voted only by seven Voices Yet all this could not prevail upon the King though the Tumults were still high without and within He was daily sollicited by the Lords of his Palace who now looked upon the Earl as the Herd doth on an hurt Deer and they hoped his Blood would be the Lustration of the Court to leave the Earl as a Sacrifice to the Vulgar rage Nor did the King any ways yield till the Judges who were now obsequious to the pleasures of the Parliament declared he might do it by Law and the Earl by his own Letters devoted himself as a Victime for the publick Peace and His Majesty's safety and then overcome with Importunities on all hands and being abused by bad dealing of the Judges as Himself complained to the Bishop of London who answered That if the King in Conscience found him not guilty He ought not to pass the Bill but for matter of Law what was Treason he referred Him to the Judges who according to their Oath ought to carry themselves indifferently betwixt Him and His Subjects but the other four Bishops that were then consulted Durham Lincoln Carlisle and the Archbishop of Armagh were not so free as the Bishop of London was and therefore the King observed a special blessing of God upon him He at last with much reluctancy signed a Commission to some Lords to pass that Bill of Attainder and another for Continuation of the Parliament during the pleasure of the Two Houses The passing of these two Bills as some thought wounded the King's Greatness more than any thing He ever did The first because it cut off a most exquisite Instrument of Empire and a most faithful Servant and none did more make use of this to pollute His
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 sollicitous 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 aenigmatically 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 Astrologie 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 of Men of the long Robe and Alterations of States These were done to temper the minds of Men by a 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 terrours 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 Pretious 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 dreggs 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 inveighed 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 here the same anger of God the same madness of men raised up another Tempest in Ireland For the Popish Lords and Priests 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 Priviledges to an imitation which the present Jealousies 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 Eight Thousand which had been listed for the Scotish Expedition were unseasonably disbanded and the King in foresight they might cause some mischief in their own Countrey had therefore promised Four Thousand 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 Sr James Stuart to the Lords of the Privie 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 Fortune 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 Commonwealths Besides that it yielded fresh matter of reproach to His Majesty to whose Councils
the eighteenth day of June in the eighteenth year of Our Reign 1642. Votes of the Lower House for raising an Army against the KING Die Martis 12 Julii 1642. Resolved upon the Question THAT an Army shall be forthwith raised for the Safety of the King's Person defence of both Houses of Parliament and of those who have obeyed their Orders and Commands and preserving of the true Religion the Laws Liberty and Peace of the Kingdom Resolved upon the Question That the Earl of Essex shall be the General Resolved upon the Question That this House doth declare that in this Cause for the Safety of the King's Person defence of both Houses of Parliament and of those who have obeyed their Orders and Commands and preserving of the true Religion the Laws Liberty and Peace of the Kingdom they will live and die with the Earl of Essex whom they have nominated General in this Cause MDCXLII Aug. 8. A Declaration of the Lords and Commons for raising of Forces against the KING Together with His MAJESTY'S Declaration in Answer to the same A Declaration of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament for the raising of all Power and Force as well Trained Bands as others in several Counties of this Kingdom to lead against all Traitors and their Adherents and them to Arrest and Imprison and to Fight with Kill and Slay all such as shall oppose any of His Majesty's loving Subjects that shall be imployed in this Service by either or both Houses of Parliament WHereas certain Information is given from several parts of the Kingdom That divers Troops of Horse are imployed in sundry Counties of the Kingdom and that others have Commission to raise both Horse and Foot to compel His Majesty's Subjects to submit to the Illegal commission of Array out of a Traiterous intent to subvert the Liberty of the Subject and the Law of the Kingdom and for the better strengthening themselves in this wicked attempt do joyn with the Popish and Jesuitical Faction to put the Kingdom into a Combustion and Civil War by levying Forces against the Parliament and by these Forces to alter the Religion and the Antient Government and lawful Liberty of the Kingdom and to introduce Popery and Idolatry together with an Arbitrary Form of Government and in pursuance thereof have Traitorously and Rebelliously levied War against the King and by force robb'd spoil'd and slain divers of His Majesty's good Subjects travelling about their lawful and necessary occasions in the King's Protection according to Law and namely that for the end and purpose aforesaid the Earl of Northampton the Lord Dunsmore Lord Willoughby of Eresby Son to the Earl of Lindsey Henry Hastings Esquire and divers other unknown persons in the Counties of Lincoln Nottingham Leicester Warwick Oxford and other places the Marquess of Hartford the Lord Paulet Lord Seymour Sir John Stawel Sir Ralph Hopton John Digby Esquire and other their Accomplices have gotten together great Forces in the County of Somerset The Lords and Commons in Parliament duly considering the great Dangers which may ensue upon such their wicked and traitorous Designs and if by this means the Power of the Sword should come into the hands of Papists and their Adherents nothing can be expected but the miserable ruine and desolation of the Kingdom and the bloody massacre of the Protestants they do Declare and Ordain That it is and shall be lawful for all His Majesty's loving Subjects by force of Arms to resist the said several Parties and their Accomplices and all other that shall raise or conduct any other Forces for the ends aforesaid and that the Earl of Essex Lord General with all his Forces raised by the Authority of Parliament as likewise the Lord Say Lieutenant of Oxfordshire Earl of Peterborough Lieutenant of Northamptonshire Lord Wharton Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire Earl of Stamford Lieutenant of Leicestershire Earl of Pembroke Lieutenant of Wiltshire and Hampshire Earl of Bedford Lieutenant of Somersetshire and Devon Lord Brook Lieutenant of Warwickshire the Lord Cranborne Lieutenant of Dorsetshire the Lord Willoughby of Parham Lieutenant of Lincolnshire and all those who are or shall be appointed by Ordinance of both Houses to perform the place of Deputy-Lieutenants and their Deputy-Lieutenants respectively Denzil Hollis Esquire Lieutenant of the City and County of Bristol and the Mayors and Sheriffs of the City and Deputy-Lieutenants there and all other Lieutenants of Counties Sheriffs Mayors Deputy-Lieutenants shall raise all their Power and Forces of their several Counties as well Trained Bands as others and shall have power to conduct and lead the said Forces of the said Counties against the said Traitors and their Adherents and with them to fight kill and slay all such as by force shall oppose them and the Persons of the said Traitors and their Adherents and Accomplices to Arrest and Imprison and them to bring up to the Parliament to answer these their Traiterous and Rebellious Attempts according to Law and the same or any other Forces to transport and conduct from one County to another in aid and assistance one of another and of all others that shall joyn with the Lords and Commons in Parliament for the defence of the Religion of Almighty God and of the Liberties and Peace of the Kingdom and in pursuit of those wicked and Rebellious Traitors the Conspirators Aiders and Abettors and Adherents requiring all Lieutenants of Counties Sheriffs Mayors Justices of Peace and other His Majesty's Officers and loving Subjects to be aiding and assisting to one another in the Execution hereof And for so doing all the parties above-mentioned and all others that shall joyn with them shall be justified defended and secured by the Power and Authority of Parliament Die Lunae Aug. 8. 1642. Ordered that this Declaration be forthwith Printed and Published Hen. Elsinge Cler. Parl. D. Com. His MAJESTY's Declaration in Answer to a Declaration of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament for the raising of all Power and Force as well Trained Bands c. AS much experience as We have had of the inveterate Rancour and high Insolence of the Malignant Party against Us We never yet saw any expression come from them so evidently declaring it as the Declaration entituled A Declaration of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament for the raising of all Power and Force as well Trained Bands as others in several Counties of this Kingdom to lead against all Traitors and their Adherents c. In which that Faction hath as it were distilled and contracted all their Falshood Insolence and Malice there being in it not one period which is not either Slanderous or Treasonable And nothing can more grieve Us than that by their infinite Arts and Subtilty employed by their perpetual and indefatigable Industry and by that Rabble of Brownists and other Schismaticks declaredly ready to appear at their Call they should have been able so to draw away some and drive away others of Our good Subjects from Our
from His Majesty's Loyal Subjects assembled in the Parliaments of both His Kingdoms are mentioned to be sent to His Majesty from the Lords and Commons of Parliament assembled at Westminster and upon His Majesty's Answers Messages and Propositions to them and their Returns to His Majesty that a Treaty is to begin and wherein we also observe you have no Power thereby to Treat upon the Propositions sent to His Majesty from His humble and Loyal Subjects assembled in the Parliaments of both Kingdoms and the Answers Messages and Propositions sent from His Majesty to the Lords and Commons assembled in the Parliament of England at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland then at London and their Returns to His Majesty We desire those defects may be cleared and speedily amended The King's Commissioners Answer 31. January VVE conceive our Power being to Treat upon the Propositions brought by the Earl of Denbigh and others and those Propositions being sent from the Parliaments of both Kingdoms there need no mention of the Parliaments of both Kingdoms in that place but that our Power is ample to Treat with your Lordships upon the whole both by express words and by other general words in the Commission which give power to Treat upon those Propositions or any other which general words are not observed by your Lordships in your Paper and our Power is to Treat with the Lords and others authorized for the Estates of the Parliament of Scotland by name yet since you insist upon it it shall be altered by Tuesday next And in the mean time if your Lordships please we desire the Papers promised yesterday in the Paper delivered by the Earl of Northumberland may be delivered unto us that there may be as little loss of time as may be Their Reply 31. January IN Answer to your Lordships Paper concerning your power to Treat we are content to proceed in the Treaty with your Lordships in expectation that the Defects mentioned by us in our Paper shall be supplied by Tuesday next On Munday the third of February the King's Commissioners did deliver their Commission renewed as followeth CHARLES R. VVHereas certain Propositions were sent unto Us from the Lords and Commons assembled in the Parliament of England at Westminster and from the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland which were brought unto Us at Oxford in November last by the Earl of Denbigh and others and upon Our Answers c. as followeth verbatim in His Majesty's former Commission Touching the Manner of the Treaty The King's Commissioners Paper 31. January WE desire to the end there may be a greater freedom in debate which we conceive will much conduce to the happy conclusion of this Treaty that nothing may be understood to be concluded on either side but what is delivered in writing according as your Lordships have begun And we declare That what shall be delivered in writing upon any Proposition or upon any part of a Proposition is not to be binding or prejudicial to either Party if the Treaty break off upon any other Proposition or part of any other Proposition Their Answer 31. Jan. WE shall deliver our demands and Answers in writing and desire your Lordships to do the like The King's Commissioners Reply 1. February WE desire a full Answer of our Paper that nothing shall be taken as agreed upon but what is put in writing and your Concurrence in declaring That what shall be delivered in writing upon any Proposition or upon any part of a Proposition shall not be binding or prejudicial to either Party if the Treaty break off Their further Answer 1. February ACcording to our former Paper we shall deliver our Demands and Answers in writing and we desire your Lordships to do the like and nothing shall be taken as agreed upon but what is put in writing And we shall acquaint the Houses of Parliament that you have declared what shall be delivered in writing upon any Proposition or upon any part of a Proposition is not to be binding or prejudicial to either Party if the Treaty break off 3. February IN Answer to Your Lordships Paper formerly delivered we do declare that what shall be delivered in writing upon any Proposition or upon any part of a Proposition is not to be binding or prejudicial to either Party if the Treaty break off upon any other Propositions or part of any Proposition Touching the Seditious Sermon The King's Commissioners Paper 31. January WE have certain Information from divers Persons present in Vxbridge Church yesterday that there was then a Sermon preached by one Mr. Love in which were many passages very Scandalous to His Majesty's Person and derogatory to His Honour stirring up the People against this Treaty and incensing them against us telling them That we come with hearts full of Blood and that there is as great distance between this Treaty and Peace as between Heaven and Hell or words to that effect with divers other Seditious passages both against His Majesty and this Treaty We know His Majesty's hearty desire of a happy and well-grounded Peace such as may be for Gods Honour and the good of all His Subjects as well as Himself and we that are entrusted by His Commission come with clear Intentions to serve Him in it according to our Consciences and the best of our Judgments And this being preached in your Quarters where we are now under safe Conduct we desire your Lordships to consider how much this may reflect upon our Safety how much it may prejudice and blast the blessed hopes of this Treaty and how just offence and distrust it may beget in His Majesty And therefore we desire Justice against the Man that he may have exemplary Punishment Their Answer 31. Jan. TO the Paper delivered in by your Lordships this day concerning the Information received of several Scandalous passages preached in a Sermon in Vxbridge Church by one Master Love we do return this Answer That the said Master Love is none of our Retinue nor came hither by any privity of ours That we conceive it most reasonable and agreeable to the business we are now upon that all just occasions of Offence on either part be avoided and as it hath been our desire so it shall be our endeavour to take the best care we can to prevent all prejudices upon the present Treaty which may blast the blessed hopes thereof or may beget any just offence and distrust in His Majesty and shall be as tender of the Safety of your Lordships Persons according to the safe Conduct as of our own We shall represent your Lordships Paper concerning this business if your Lordships so desire unto the Lords and Commons assembled in the Parliament of England who will proceed therein according to Justice The King's Commissioners Reply 1. February VVE insist upon our former desire concerning the Sermon preached by Mr. Love and must refer the way of doing Justice to your Lordships and if
Martyrdom Jan. 30. 1648 9. p. 206 APPENDIX Concerning Church-Government Of the Differences between His Majesty and the two Houses in point of Church-Government See Icon Basil XVII p. 687 The Papers which passed betwixt His Majesty and Henderson concerning the Change of Church-Government 1646. p. 75 The Papers which passed betwixt His Majesty and the Divines attending the Commissioners of both Houses at Newport 1648. Append. p. 612 seqq THE END The Duke of Lenox the Earl of Arran in Scotland Some Writers who since have been convinced of their misinformation have named amongst those seven Lords the Lord Bruce Earl of Elgin but his Lordship upon the first notice of this report did to several Persons of Quality and Honour he conversed with and since hath affirmed to me that he was not then present and that his heart could never consent to the shedding of the blood of that excellent Prelate * A full Answer †The Regal Apology His Majestie 's Religion His Justice His Clemency His Fortitude His Patience His Humility His Choice of Ministers of State His Affection to His People His Obliging Converse His Fidelity His Chastity His Temperance His Frugality His Intellectual Abilities His Skill in all Arts. His Eloquence His Political Prudence The Censure of His Fortune A Presage of His Fall and the future State of the Royal Family His Recreations The Features of His Body His Children Acts 14. 23. Acts 6. 6. 1 Cor. 16. 1. 1 Cor. 14. 1 Cor. 5. 5. 3 Joh. 9 10. 1 Tim. 5. 22. Tit. 1. 5. Revel 2. 3. 1 Tim. 5. 19. Tit. 3. 10. * 5 15 26 29. of Decemb. 84 15. of Jan. 1645. * Jan. 23. 2 Feb. Passed by the Fag-end of the House of Commons Jan. 4. having been cast out by the Lords Jan. 2. Hereabout I was stopt and not suffered to speak any more concerning Reasons * defiance * Answer * four for it seems some came in after Here a Lady interposed saying Not half the People but was silenced with threats Upon the Earl of Strafford Pointing to the Bishop Turning to some Gentlemen that wrote Pointing to the Bishop These words were spoken upon occasion of private Discourse between His Majesty and the Bishop concerning the several Stages of man's life and his course through them in allusion to Posts and Stages in a Race * Cook 7. Report Calvin's Case Mr. Stroud Mr. Pym. Sir John Biron Lord Say His Majesty's gracious Message to both Houses of Parliament sent from Nottingham Aug. 25. 1642. by the Earls of Southampton and Dorset Sr. John Culpeper Chancellor of the Exchequer and Sr. William Vdal The Answer of the Lords and Commons to His Majesty's Message the 25. of Aug. 1642. His Majesty's Reply to an Answer sent by the two Houses of Parliament to His Majesty's Message of the 25 of August concerning a Treaty of Accommodation The humble Answer and Petition of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament unto the Kings last Message The humble Answer of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament unto His Majesty's last Message Message of Feb. 20. * to the Votes of both Houses and to their desire of a safe Conâ—uct His Majesty's Message of Apr. 12. at the end of the Treaty Inserted before pag. 353. * were presently His Majesty's Message replying to this Paper is inserted before p. 250. In His Message of April 12. pag. 353. Pag. 353. April 5. * The fourth of Edward the Third Artic. 1. against Roger Mortimer The King had put to him four Bishops four Earls and four Barons without whose consent or of four of them no great business was to be transacted Rot. Parliam 13 E. 3. N. 15 16. The whole Navy disposed of by Parliament N. 13 14. Admirals appointed and Instructions given to them N. 32. Instructions for the defence of Jersey and a Deputy-Governour appointed in Parliament N. 35. Souldiers of York Nottingham c. to go at the cost of the Countrey and what they are to do N. 36. A Clark appointed for payment of their wages by the oversight of the Lord Percy and Nevil N. 38. Sir Walter Creak appointed Keeper of Berwick N. 39. Sir Tho. de Wake appointed to set forth the Array of Soldiers for the County of York and N. 40 41 42 43. others for other Counties 14 E. 3. N. 36. The Parliament agreeth that in the Kings absence the Duke of Cornwal shall be Keeper of England N. 35. They appoint the Archbishop of Canterbury the Earls of Lancaster Warren and Huntington Councellors to the Duke with power to call such others as they shall think fit N. 19. Certain appointed to keep the Islands and Sea-coasts N. 42. The Lord of Mowbray appointed Keeper of Berwick N. 48. Commission to the Lord Mowbray of the Justices of Lentham N. 53 54 c. Commissions of Array to the Earl of Angois and others 15 E. 3. N. 15. That the Chancellors chief Justices Treasurers Chancellors and Barons of the Exchequer c. may be chosen in open Parliament and there openly sworn to observe the Laws Answer thus That as they sall by death or otherwise it shall be so done in the choice of a new with your assents c. 50 E. 3. N. 10 11. Ordered in Parliament That the King should have at the least ten or twelve Counsellors without whom no weighty matters should pass c. N. 15. A Commission to the L. Percy and others to appoint able persons for the defence of the Marches of the East-Riding 1. R. 2. N. 18 19. The Parliament wholly disposeth of the Education of the King and of the Officers c. N. 51. Officers for Gascoign Ireland and Artois Keepers of the Ports Castles c. 2. R. 2. Rot. Parl. par 2. artic 39. The Admiralty N. 37. In a Schedule is contained the order of the E. of Northumb. and others for the defence of the North Sea-coasts and confirmed in Parliament 6 R. 2. N. 11. The Proffer of the Bishop of Norwich to keep the Sca-coasts and accepted in Parliament 8 R. 2. 11 16. The names of the chief Officers of the Kingdom to be known to the Parliament and not to be removed without just cause 11 R. 2. N. 23. No persons to be about the King or intermeddle with the Affairs of the Realm other than such as be appointed by Parliament 15 R. 2. N. 15. The Commons name the person to treat of a Peace with the Kings enemies Rot. Parl. 1 H. 4. N. 106. That the King will appoint able Captains in England and Wales Stat. 4. H. 4. cap. 31 32 33. printed The Welch-men shall bear Office 5 H. 4. N. 16. The King at the request of the Commons removed his Confessor and three other Men from about him N. 37. At the request of the Commons nameth divers Privy-Councellors 7 and 8 H. 4 26. Power given to the Merchants to name two persons to be Admirals 7 and 8 H. 4. N. 31. Councellors appointed by
consent to abolish the Episcopal Government Octob. 2. 1648. p. 612 II. The Answer of the Divines to His Majesty's Reason Octob. 3. ibid. III. His Majesty's Reply to their Paper Octob. 6. 616 IV. The Rejoynder of the Divines to His Majesty's Reply Octob. 17. 621 V. His Majesty's final Answer concerning Episcopacy Nov. 1. 1648. 634 ΕΙΚΩΠΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΗ I. UPon His Majesty's calling this last Parliament page 647 II. Upon the Earl of Strafford's Death 648 III. Upon His Majesty's going to the House of Commons 650 IV. Upon the Insolency of the Tumults 651 V. Upon His Majesty's passing the Bill for Triennial Parliaments And after setling this during the pleasure of the Two Houses 654 VI. Upon His Majesty's Retirement from Westminster 656 VII Upon the Queens departure and absence out of England 658 VIII Upon His Majesty's Repulse at Hull And the Fates of the Hothams 659 IX Upon the Listing and Raising Armies against the King 661 X. Upon their seising the King's Magazines Forts Navy and Militia 665 XI Upon the Nineteen Propositions first sent to the King And more afterwards 667 XII Upon the Rebellion and Troubles in Ireland 671 XIII Upon the calling in of the Scots and their coming 674 XIV Upon the Covenant 677 XV. Upon the many Jealousies raised and Scandals cast upon the King to stir up the People against Him 680 XVI Upon the Ordinance against the Common Prayer-Book 684 XVII Of the Differences between the King and the Two Houses in point of Church-Government 687 XVIII Upon Vxbridge Treaty and other Officers made by the King 692 XIX Upon the various Events of the War Victories and Defeats 694 XX. Upon the Reformation of the Times 696 XXI Vpon His Malesty's Letters taken and divulged 699 XXII Upon His Majesty's leaving Oxford and going to the Scots 701 XXIII Upon the Scots delivering the King to the English and His Captivity at Holdenby 702 XXIV Upon their denying His Majesty the Attendance of His Chaplains 703 XXV Penitential Meditations and Vows in the King's Solitude at Holdenby 707 XXVI Upon the Armies Surprisal of the King at Holdenby and the ensuing Distractions in the Two Houses the Army and the City 708 XXVII To the Prince of Wales 710 XXVIII Meditations upon Death after the Votes of Non-Addresses and His Majesty's closer Imprisonment in Carisbrook-Castle 716 THE LIFE OF CHARLES I. CHARLES I. King of Great Britain France and Ireland was the Son of James VI. King of Scots and Anne his Wife a Daughter of Denmark By His Father descended to Him all the Rights together with their blood of all our Ancicient both Saxon and Norman Kings to this Empire For the Lady Margaret Sister and sole Heir of Edgar Atheling the last surviving Prince of the English Saxons being married to Malcolme Conmor King of Scots conveyed to his Line the Saxon and Margaret Daughter of Henry VII married to James IV. did bring the Norman titles and blood From this Imperial Extract He received not more Honour than He gave to it For the blood that was derived to Him elaborated through so many Royal Veins He delivered to Posterity more maturated for Glory and by a constant practice of Goodness more habituated for Vertue He was born at Dunfermeling one of the principal Towns of Fife in Scotland on Nov. 19th An. 1600. An. 1600 in so much weakness that his Baptism was hastened without the usual Ceremonies wherewith such Royal Infants are admitted into the Church Providence seeming to consecrate Him to Sufferings from the Womb and to accustome Him to the exchange of the strictures of Greatness for clouds of Tears There was no Observation nor Augury made at His Birth concerning the Sequel of His Life or course of Fortune which are usually related of such whose lives have different occurrences from those in others of the same state Either the fear of His Death made those about Him less observant of any Circumstances which curious minds would have formed into a Prediction He appearing like a Star that rises so near the Point of his Setting that it was thought there would be no time for Calculation Or He being at distance by his Birth from the Succession to the Crown Prince Henry then having the first hopes made men less sollicitous to enquire of His future state on whom being born to a private Condition the Fate of the Kingdom did not depend But in the third Year of His age when King James was preparing himself to remove to the English Throne a certain Laird of the Highlands though of very great age came to the Court to take his leave of him whom he found accompanied with all his Children After his address full of affectionate and sage Advice to which his gray hairs gave authority to the King An. 1602 his next application was to Duke CHARLES for in the Second year of his Age he was created Duke of Albany Marquess of Ormond Earl of Rosse and Baron of Ardmanock whose hands he kiss'd with so great an ardency of affection that he seem'd forgetful of a separation The King to correct his supposed mistake advised him to a more present observance of Prince Henry as the Heir of his Crown of whom he had taken little notice The old Laird answered that he knew well enough what he did and that It was this Child who was then in His Nurses arms who should convey his name and memory to the succeeding ages This then was conceived dotage but the event gave it the credit of a Prophecy and confirmed that Opinion That some long-experienced souls in the World before their dislodging arrive to the height of prophetick Spirits When he was three years old He was committed to the Care and Governance of Sir Cary's Lady An. 1603 as a reward for being the first Messenger of Queen Elizabeth's death whose long life had worn the expectation of the Scotish Nobility into a suspicion that the Lords of England would never acknowledge her to be dead as long as there was any old Woman of that Nation that could wear good cloaths and personate the Majesty of a Queen In the fourth Year An. 1604 after he had wrestled with a Feaver He was brought in October to the English Court at Windsor where on the Jan. 6. following having the day before been made Knight of the Bath He was invested with the Title of Duke of York An. 1606 and in the sixth Year was committed to the Pedagogie of Mr Thomas Murray a Person well qualified to that Office though a favourer of Presbytery Under this Tutor and confined to a retiredness by the present weakness of his Body He was so diligent and studious that He far advanced in all that kind of Learning which is necessary for a Prince without which even their natural Endowments seem rough and unpleasant in despight of the splendour of their Fortune His proficiency in Letters was so eminent that Prince Henry taking notice of it to put a Jest upon Him one day put the Cap
and the other hated his Vertues Some censured him of too much Heat and a Zeal for Discipline above the Patience of the Times But his greatest unhappiness was that he lived in a Factious Age and Corrupt State and under such a Prince whose Vertues not admitting an immediate approach for Accusations was to be wounded in those whom He did Caress But when Faction and Malice are worn out by time Posterity shall ingrave him in the Albe of the most Excellent Prelates the most indulgent Fathers of the Church and the most injured Martyrs His blood was accompanied with some tears that fell from those Eyes which expected a pleasure at his Death and it had been followed with a more general mourning had not the Publick Miseries and present fears of Ruine exacted all the Stock of Grief for other objects About this time the Faction clove into two Sects the Presbyterian and Independent which hitherto had been united under one name of Patriots or Godly had joyntly conspired War and disturbed the Peace and by various arts had acted all their lusts under the name and Authority of Parliament For they would either early in the morning before the House was full or late at night when those whose cares were most for the Publick were absent being assured of the Speaker propose and vote what served for their Design IF any thing contrary to it was about to be resolved in a full Assembly they by multitude of Scruples would so disturb the Debates that the determination was deferr'd to a desired Opportunity But if these failed then would they surprise the House with another Vote that should weaken and hinder the Execution of the former When the most consciencious were too numerous for them then would they make necessities to send the less pliant to their wills into the Country Thus the Lesser but more industrious Party did circumvent the Greater that were not so wary nor diligent While they thus joyntly contrive the Publick Ruine they had gotten themselves into the most considerable and profitable Offices of the Kingdom But the Presbyterians having the advantage in Number and Power and the dissension in their Opinions growing still higher by the Animosities of the inferiour and obscurer parts of their Sects there was neither Faith nor Love among them but what Fear and Necessity did force them unto The Independents who comprehended all the several herds of Hereticks Anabaptists Seekers Millenaries c. though they were the Disciples of the other yet excelled their Masters in Art and Industry had their private Junto's and Meetings apart to mould their Projects and assign to each of their Confidents their several Scenes and Methods and by proper Applications to mens several humours had exceedingly encreased their strength in the multitude only they wanted the Power of the Sword and the most useful Offices to perfect their Empire This they effected by those very practices they had learned from the Presbyterians and by procuring the Ordinance of Self-denial as they called it they turned out Essex whom they had before secretly caused to be suspected and who had neither glory in his War nor security or quiet in his Peace from his Generalship and with him also the other Leaders that were favourers of the Presbytery under pretence that it was not fit that any Members of Parliament should be encouraged to a continuance of the War by enjoying the profitable and powerful Offices in the Army to which they would now give a new Module Having by this artifice displaced those whose power they feared they brought in as many Candidates of their own Sect as they could to be Colonels and Sir Thomas Fairfax was appointed General This man both Parties did the more easily consent in because he was known to be of sufficient Personal Valour and of no private Designs obstinate by a natural Melancholy rather than pertinacious in any Interest and rather free from Baseness than ambitious of Vain-glory by all these Qualities they supposed he would be obedient to the Resolves of his Masters But the Independents that were better informed of his ductile Spirit and how easily he might be imposed upon by a Species of Religion got the great Patron of all the wildest and most unreasonable Sectaries Oliver Cromwell at first to be admitted into his Counsels and afterwards to be the Director of all his actions under the Title of Lieutenant General For although he likewise by the Self-denying Ordinance was made incapable of any Office in the Army being a Member of the Parliament yet those Troops of Fanaticks whom he had amassed and formerly lead under the Command of the Lord Grey of Wark and the Earl of Manchester both which he had cast off were instructed to refuse the Conduct of any one but him He was therefore permitted by the Parliament as the General desired for a time to continue in the Army but he never left it till he had changed that ruined the Parliament and turned out the General that thus was the Author of his unlawful Power For this Man having a long time been poor and necessitous the Patrimony that was left him being profusely spent and nothing remaining but the Instruments of his Crimes a bloody and fierce Nature a greedy Soul full of bold and unjust hopes yet able to conceal them with a profession of Modesty a contempt of Religion and Friendship yet highly pretending to both till he had smote under the fifth rib those credulous hearts that trusted him he was fitted for the most impious Enterprises for vexed by a pressing and tedious Poverty he resolved to indeavour the utmost distance from such a Condition though by the greatest wickedness therefore used the Power he had now gotten to overthrow the whole State and establish himself in an absolute and unsupportable Tyranny which is the common issue of assaulting a Just and Lawful Prince with Arms. With these Tragedies and Changes was the Winter spent at London while the King at Oxford waits for the Issue of the Treaty at Vxbridge which as all other Consultations for Peace was vain and fruitless For the Faction would alwaies obstruct those endeavours by their proper Methods If the Condition of their Affairs were prosperous then would they make their Demands like Impositions on conquered Slaves detesting to supplicate that the acquisitions of their Swords and Blood should be confirmed by a worsted Enemy In a more humble fortune they would deprecate their drooping Party not then to think of a Reconciliation which their unprosperous Arms must necessarily render harder than their hopes and that it was not for the Honour of a Parliament to seem to yield to any thing by fear or compulsion Besides these devices many fictitious Letters were composed false Rumours divulged and witnesses suborned to make Men suspect that many dangerous Plots and portentous Designs were disguised in these Overtures of Accord Therefore the Commissioners of Parliament were instructed to offer no Expedient for an Accommodation nor hearken
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 Yorkshire Wales and at last in Surrey 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 nor 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 Reer 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 overthrows 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 Royalists 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 the whole Kingdom to Peace But yet they endeavoured to frustrate the labours of their more sincere 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 ministry 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 ruined with more Dishonour So that considering both the inviolable Integrity of His Majesty and the implacable Malice of His Enemies they despaired of any happy Issue But beyond the Faith of these men and the Hopes of the other the King 's incredible Prudence had found Temperaments for their most harsh Propositions And by a present Judgment and commanding Eloquence did so urge His own and refel their Arguments that He forced an Admiration of Himself
took no notice of it although it was so weighty an Occurrence to have His prime Minister cut off in the busie Preparations for a great Design till He had finished His Addresses to Heaven and His Spirit was dismissed from the Throne of Grace to attend the Cares of that on Earth This was so clear an Evidence of a most fixed Devotion that those who built their Hopes upon His Reproaches slanderously imputed it to a secret Pleasure in the fall of him whose Greatness was now terrible to the Family that raised it which both His Majesties care of the Duke's Children afterwards as also the Consideration of His Condition did evince to be false and that the King neither hated him nor needed to fear him whom He could have ruined with a Frown and have obliged the People by permitting their Fury to pass upon him Besides His Majestie 's constant Diligence in those Duties did demonstrate that nothing but a principle of Holiness which is alwaies uniform both moved and assisted Him in those sacred Performances to which He was observed to go with an exceeding Alacrity as to a ravishing pleasure from which no lesser Pleasures nor Business were strong enough for a Diversion In the morning before He went to Hunting His beloved Sport the Chaplains were before Day call'd to their Ministry and when He was at Brainford among the Noise of Arms and near the Assaults of His Enemies He caused the Divine that then waited to perform his accustomed Service before He provided for Safety or attempted at Victory and would first gain upon the Love of Heaven and then afterwards repel the Malice of Men. Those that were appointed by the Parliament to attend Him in His Restraints wondred at His constant Devotions in His Closet and no Artifice of the Army was so likely to abuse Him to a Credulity of their good Intentions as the Permission of the Ministery of His Chaplains in the Worship of God a Mercy He valued to some of His Servants above that of enjoying Wife and Children At Sermons He carried Himself with such a Reverence and Attention that His Enemies which hated yet did even admire Him in it as if He were expecting new Instructions for Government from that God whose Deputy He was or a new Charter for a larger Empire and He was so careful not to neglect any of those Exercises that if on Tuesday Mornings on which Dayes there used to be Sermons at Court He were at any distance from thence He would ride hard to be present at the beginnings of them When the State of His Soul required He was as ready to perform those more severe parts of Religion which seem most distastful to Flesh and Blood And He never refused to take to Himself the shame of those Acts wherein He had transgressed that He might give Glory to His God For after the Army had forced Him from Holmeby and in their several removes had brought Him to Latmas an house of the Earl of Devonshire on Aug. 1. being Sunday in the Morning before Sermon He led forth with Him into the Garden the Reverend Dr Sheldon who then attended on Him and whom He was pleased to use as His Confessour and drawing out of His Pocket a Paper commanded him to read it transcribe it and so to deliver it to Him again This Paper contained several Vows which He had obliged His Soul unto for the Glory of His Maker the advance of true Piety and the emolument of the Church And among them this was one that He would do Publick Penance for the Injustice He had suffered to be done to the Earl of Strafford His consent to those Injuries that were done to the Church of England though at that time He had yielded to no more than the taking away of the High Commission and the Bishops power to Vote in Parliament and to the Church of Scotland and adjured the Dr that if ever he saw Him in a Condition to observe that or any of those Vows he should solicitously mind Him of the Obligations as he dreaded the guilt of the breach should ly upon His own Soul This voluntary submission to the Laws of Christianity exceeded that so memorable humiliation of the good Emperour Theodosius for he never bewailed the Blood of those seven thousand Men which in three hours space he caused to be spilt at Thessalonica till the resolution of St Ambrose made him sensible of the Crime But the Piety of King Charles anticipated the severity of a Confessor for those Offences to which He had been precipitated by the Violence of others This Zeal and Piety proceeded from the Dedication of His whole Soul to the Honour of His God for Religion was as Imperial in the Intellectual as in the Affectionate Faculties of it This Profession of the Church of England was His not so much by Education as Choice and He so well understood the Grounds of it that He valued them above all other Pretensions to Truth and was able to maintain it against all its Adversaries His Discourse with Henderson shews how just a Reverence He had for the Authority of the Catholick Church against the Pride and Ignorance of Schismaticks yet not to prostitute His Faith to the Adulterations of the Roman Infallibility and Traditions Nevertheless the most violent Slanders the Faction laboured to pollute Him with were those that rendred Him inclinable to Popery From which He was so averse that He could not forbear in His indearments to the Queen when He committed a secret to Her Breast which He would not trust to any other and when He admired and applauded Her affectionate Cares for His Honour and Safety in a Letter which He thought no Eye but Hers should have perused to let Her know that He still differ'd from Her in Religion for He says It is the only thing of Difference in Opinion betwixt Vs. Malice made the Slanderers blind and they published this Letter to the World than which there could not be a greater Evidence imaginable of the King 's most secret thoughts and Inward Sincerity nor a more shameful Conviction of their Impudence and damnable Falshood Nor did He only tell the Queen so but He made Her see it in His Actions For as soon as His Children were born it was His first Care to prevent the satisfaction of their Mother in baptizing them after the Rites of Her own Church When He was to Die a time most seasonable to speak Truth especially by Him who all His Life knew not how to Dissemble He declares His Profession in Religion to be the same with that which He found left by His Father King James How little the Papists credited what the Faction would have the World believe was too evident by the Conspiracies of their Fathers against His Life and Honour which the Discovery of Habernefield to whose relations the following practices against Him and the Church of England gained a belief brought to light They were mingled likewise
of Horse Foot and Artillery His plenty of Ammunition which some men lately might conceive He wanted is so well known and understood that it must be confessed that nothing but the Tenderness and Love to His people and those Christian Impressions which always have and He hopes always shall dwell in His heart could move Him once more to hazard a refusal And he requires them as they will answer to God to Himself and all the World that they will no longer suffer their fellow-Subjects to welter in each others bloud that they will remember by whose Authority and to what end they met in that Council and send such an Answer to His Majesty as may open a door to let in a firm Peace and Security to the whole Kingdom If His Majesty shall again be disappointed of His intentions herein the Bloud Rapine and Distraction which must follow in England and Ireland will be cast upon the account of those who are deaf to the motion of Peace and Accommodation IX From OXFORD Mar. 3. MDCXLIII IV. For a Treaty To the Lords and Commons of Parliament Assembled at Westminster C. R. OUT of Our most tender and pious sense of the sad and bleeding condition of this Our Kingdom and Our unwearied desires to apply all remedies which by the blessing of Almighry God may recover it from an utter Ruine by the Advice of the Lords and Commons of Parliament assembled at Oxford We do propound and desire That a convenient number of fit Persons may be appointed and authorized by you to meet with all convenient speed at such Place as you shall nominate with an equal number of fit Persons whom We shall appoint and authorize to Treat of the ways and means to settle the present Distractions of this Our Kingdom and to procure a happy Peace And particularly how all the Members of both Houses may securely meet in a full and free Convention of Parliament there to Treat Consult and Agree upon such things as may conduce to the maintenance and defence of the true Reformed Protestant Religion with due consideration to all just and reasonable ease of tender Consciences to the settling and maintaining of Our just Rights and Priviledges of the Rights and Priviledges of Parliament the Laws of the Land the Liberty and Property of the Subject and all other Expedients that may conduce to that blessed end of a firm and lasting Peace both in Church and State and a perfect understanding betwixt Us and Our People wherein no endeavour or concurrency of Ours shall be wanting And God direct your hearts in the ways of Peace Given at Our Court at Oxford the third day of March 1643. X. From EVESHOLME July 4. MDCXLIV After the Defeat of Waller at Cropredy Bridge To the Lords and Commons of Parliament Assembled at Westminster C. R. WE being deeply sensible of the Miseries and Calamities of this Our Kingdom and of the grievous Sufferings of Our poor Subjects do most earnestly desire that some Expedient may be found out which by the blessing of God may prevent the further effusion of blood and restore the Nation to Peace from the earnest and constant endeavouring of which as no discouragement given Us on the Contrary part shall make Us cease so no success on Ours shall ever divert Us. For the effecting whereof We are most ready and willing to condescend to all that shall be for the good of Us and Our People whether by way of confirmation of what We have already granted or of such further concession as shall be requisite to the giving a full assurance of the performance of all Our most real professions concerning the maintenance of the true Reformed Protestant Religion established in this Kingdom with due regard to the ease of tender Consciences the just Priviledges of Parliament and the Liberty and Propriety of the Subject according to the Laws of the Land as also by granting a general Pardon without or with exceptions as shall be thought fit In order to which blessed Peace We do desire and propound to the Lords and Commons of Parliament assembled at Westminster That they appoint such and so many persons as they shall think fit sufficiently authorized by them to attend Us at Our Army upon safe conduct to come and return which We do hereby grant and conclude with Us how the Premisses and all other things in question betwixt Us and them may be fully settled whereby all unhappy mistakings betwixt Us and Our People being removed there may be a present Cessation of Arms and as soon as may be a total disbanding of all Armies the Subject have his due and We be restored to Our Rights Wherein if this Our offer shall be accepted there shall be nothing wanting on Our part which may make Our People secure and happy Given at our Court at Evesholm the fourth of July 1644. XI From TAVESTOCK Sept. 8. MDCXLIV After the Defeat of the Earl of ESSEX in Cornwal To the Lords and Commons of Parliament Assembled at Westminster CHARLES R. IT having pleased God in so eminent a manner lately to bless Our Armies in these parts with success We do not so much joy in that blessing for any other consideration as for the hopes We have that it may be a means to make others lay to heart as We do the miseries brought and continued upon Our Kingdom by this unnatural War and that it may open your ears and dispose your minds to embrace those offers of Peace and Reconciliation which have been so often and so earnestly made unto you by Us and from the constant and fervent endeavours of which We are resolved never to desist In pursuance whereof We do upon this occasion conjure you to take into consideration Our too-long-neglected Message of the fourth of July from Evesholm which We again renew unto you and that you will speedily send Us such an Answer thereunto as may shew unto Our poor Subjects some light of a deliverance from their present Calamities by a happy Accommodation toward which We do here engage the word of a King to make good all those things which We have therein promised and really to endeavour a happy conclusion of this Treaty And so God direct you in the ways of Peace Given at our Court at Tavestock the eighth of September 1644. From OXFORD Dec. 13. MDCXLIV For a Treaty by Commissioners By the Duke of Richmond and Earl of Southampton HIS Majesty hath seriously considered your Propositions and finds it very difficult in respect they import so great an alteration in Government both in Church and State to return a particular and positive Answer before a full debate wherein those Propositions and all necessary Explanations and Reasons for assenting dissenting or qualifying and all inconveniences and mischiefs which may ensue and cannot otherwise be so well foreseen may be discussed and weighed His Majesty therefore proposeth and desireth as the best expedient for Peace That you will appoint such a number of Persons
as you shall think fit to Treat with the like number of Persons to be appointed by His Majesty upon the said Propositions and such other things as shall be proposed by His Majesty for the preservation and defence of the Protestant Religion with due regard to the ease of tender Consciences as His Majesty hath often offered the Rights of the Crown the Liberty and Property of the Subject and the Priviledges of Parliament and upon the whole matter to conclude a happy and blessed Peace XIII From OXFORD Dec. 5. MDC XLV For a safe Conduct for certain Persons of Honour to be sent with Propositions of Peace For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore CHARLES R. HIS Majesty being still deeply sensible of the continuation of this bloody and unnatural War cannot think Himself discharg'd of the duty He ows to God or the affection and regard He hath to the preservation of His People without the constant application of His earnest endeavours to find some Expedient for the speedy ending of these unhappy Distractions if that may be doth therefore desire That a safe Conduct may be forthwith sent for the Duke of Richmond the Earl of Southampton John Ashburnham and Jeffry Palmer Esquires and their attendants with Coaches Horses and other accommodations for their journey to Westminster during their stay there and return when they shall think fit whom His Majesty intends to send to the Lords and Commons assembled in the Parliament of England at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland furnished with such Propositions as His Majesty is confident will be the foundation of a happy and well-grounded Peace Given at our Court at Oxford 5. December 1645. XIV From OXFORD Dec. 15. MDCXLV In pursuance of the former For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore CHARLES R. HIS Majesty cannot but extremely wonder that after so many expressions on your part of a deep and seeming sense of the Miseries of this afflicted Kingdom and of the dangers incident to His Person during the continuance of this unnatural War your many great and so often repeated Protestations that the raising of these Arms hath been only for the necessary defence of God's true Religion His Majesty's Honour Safety and Prosperity the Peace Comfort and Security of His People you should delay a safe Conduct to the persons mentioned in His Majesty's Message of the fifth of this instant December which are to be sent unto you with Propositions for a well-grounded Peace A thing so far from having been denied at any time by His Majesty whensoever you have desired the same that He believes it hath been seldom if ever practised among the most avowed and professed Enemies much less from Subjects to their King But His Majesty is resolved that no discouragements whatsoever shall make Him fail on His part in doing His uttermost endeavours to put an end to these Calamities which if not in time prevented must prove the ruine of this unhappy Nation and therefore doth once again desire that a safe Conduct may be forthwith sent for those Persons expressed in His former Message and doth therefore conjure you as you will answer to Almighty God in that day when He shall make inquisition for all the blood that hath and may yet be spilt in this unnatural War as you tender the preservation and establishment of the true Religion by all the bonds of Duty and Allegiance to your King or compassion to your bleeding and unhappy Countrey and of charity to your selves that you dispose your hearts to a true sense and imploy all your faculties in a more serious endeavour together with His Majesty to set a speedy end to these wasting Divisions and then He shall not doubt but that God will yet again give the blessing of Peace to this distracted Kingdom Given at our Court at Oxford the 15. of Decemb. 1645. XV. From OXFORD Dec. 26. MDCXLV For a Personal Treaty For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster and to the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland CHARLES R. NOtwithstanding the strange and unexpected delays which can be precedented by no former times to His Majesties two former Messages His Majesty will lay aside all expostulations as rather serving to lose time than to contribute any remedy to the evils which for the present do afflict this distracted Kingdom Therefore without further preamble His Majesty thinks it most necessary to send these Propositions this way which He intended to do by the Persons mentioned in His former Messages though He well knows the great disadvantage which overtures of this kind have by the want of being accompanied by well-instructed Messengers His Majesty conceiving that the former Treaties have hitherto proved ineffectual chiefly for want of Power in those Persons that Treated as likewise because those from whom their Power was derived not possibly having the particular informations of every several debate could not give so clear a Judgment as was requisite in so important a business If therefore His Majesty may have the engagement of the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland the Mayor Aldermen Common-Council and Militia of London of the chief Commanders in Sir Thomas Fairfax his Army as also those in the Scots Army for His Majesties free and safe coming to and abode in London or Westminster with such of His Servants now attending Him and their followers not exceeding in all the number of three hundred for the space of forty days and after the said time for His free and safe repair to any of His Garrisons of Oxford Worcester or Newark which His Majesty shall nominate at any time before His going from London or Westminster His Majesty propounds to have a Personal Treaty with the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland upon all matters which may conduce to the restoring of Peace and happiness to these miserable distracted Kingdoms and to begin with the three Heads which were Treated on at Vxbridge And for the better clearing of His Majesties earnest and sincere intentions of putting an end to these unnatural Distractions knowing that point of security may prove the greatest obstacle to this most blessed work His Majesty therefore declares That He is willing to commit the great trust of the Militia of this Kingdom for such time and with such powers as are exprest in the Paper delivered by His Majesties Commissioners at Vxbridge the sixth of February last to these persons following viz. the Lord Privy Seal the Duke of Richmond the Marquess of Hertford the Marquess of Dorchester the Earl of Dorset Lord Chamberlain the Earl of Northumberland the Earl of Essex Earl of Southampton Earl of Pembroke Earl of Salisbury Earl of Manchester Earl of Warwick Earl of Denbigh Earl of Chichester Lord Say Lord Seymour Lord Lucas Lord
to let every one know that no distresses of Fortune whatsoever shall make Me by the grace of God in any thing recede from those grounds I laid down to you who were My Commissioners at Vxbridge and which I thank them the Rebels have published in print And though I could have wished their pains had been spared yet I will neither deny that those things are Mine which they have set out in My Name only some words here and there are mistaken and some Comma's misplaced but not much material nor as a good Protestant or honest man blush for any of those Papers Indeed as a discreet man I will not justifie My self and yet I would fain know him who would be willing that the freedom of all his private Letters were publickly seen as Mine have now been However so that one clause be rightly understood I care not much though the rest take their fortune It is concerning the Mungrel Parliament The truth is that Sussex's factiousness at that time put Me somewhat out of patience which made Me freely vent My displeasure against those of his party to My Wife and the intention of that phrase was that his Faction did what they could to make it come to that by their raising and fomenting of base Propositions This is clearly evidenced by My following excuse to Her for suffering those people to trouble Her the reason being to eschew those greater inconveniences which they had and were more likely to cause here than there I am now going to supper and so I rest Your most assured Friend C. R. XL. For My Son the PRINCE Charles THis is rather to tell you where I am and that I am well than at this time to direct you any thing I having wrote fully to your Mother what I would have you to do whom I command you to obey in every thing except in Religion concerning which I am confident She will not trouble you and see that you go not any whither without Her or My particular directions Let Me hear often from you and so God bless you Your loving Father CHARLES R. Newcastle June 2. 1646. If Jack Ashburnham come where you are command him to wait upon you as he was wont until I shall send for him if your Mother and you be together if not he must wait on Her XLI To the Duke of YORK CAVERSHAM July 4. MDCXLVII C. R. JAmes I am in hope that you may be permitted with your Brother and Sister to come to some place betwixt this and London where I may see you To this end therefore I command you to ask leave of the two Houses to make a journey if it may be for a night or two But rather than not to see you I will be content that ye come to some convenient place to dine and go back at night And foreseeing the fear of your being brought within the power of the Army as I am may be objected to hinder this My desire I have full assurance from Sir Thomas Fairfax and the Chief Officers that there will be no interruption or impediment made by them for your return how and when you please So God bless you Your loving Father CHARLES R. Casam July 4. 1647. POSTSCRIPT Send Me word as soon as you can of the time and place where I shall have the contentment of seeing you your Brother and Sister XLII To Colonel WHALEY HAMPTON-COURT Nov. 11. MDCXLVII COlonel Whaley I have been so civilly used by you and Major Huntington that I cannot but by this parting farewell acknowledge it under My Hand as also to desire the continuance of your courtesie by your protecting of My Houshold-stuff and Moveables of all sorts which I leave behind Me in this House that they be neither spoiled nor imbezeled Only there are three Pictures here which are not Mine that I desire you to restore to wit my Wife's Picture in blew sitting in a Chair you must send to Mrs Kirke My Eldest Daughters Picture copied by Belcam to the Countess of Anglesey and My Lady Stanhop's Picture to Carey Raleigh There is a fourth which I had almost forgot it is the original of My Eldest Daughter it hangs in this Chamber over the Board next the Chimney which you must send to My Lady Aubigney So being confident that you wish My preservation and restitution I rest Your Friend CHARLES R. I assure you it was not the Letter you shewed Me yesterday that made Me take this resolution nor any advertisement of that kind But I confess that I am loth to be made a close Prisoner under pretence of securing My life I had almost forgot to desire you to send the black Grew-Bitch to the D. of Richmond XLIII To the Lord MOUNTAGUE HAMPTON-COURT Nov. 11. MDCXLVII Montague FIRST I do hereby give you and the rest of your fellows thanks for the civilities and good conversation that I have had from you Next I command you to send this My Message which you will find upon this Table to the two Houses of Parliament and likewise to give a Copy of it to Colonel Whaley to be sent to the General Likewise I desire you to send all My Saddle-Horses to My Son the Duke of York As for what concerns the resolution that I have taken My Declaratory Message saies so much that I refer you to it and so I rest Your assured Friend CHARLES R. XLIV For Sir THOMAS FAIRFAX General C. R. HAving left order at Our remove from Hampton-Court that a Copy should be given you of what We had then written to both Houses of Parliament touching the causes of Our withdrawing and the continuance of Our resolutions to improve every occasion of the satisfaction of all chief Interests that so a happy Peace may be setled in Our Dominions in pursuance whereof We have lately sent a Message to both Houses from this place and a Copy of it to you and being desirous in order to that blessed work to give you Our present sense upon the condition of affairs as they now stand We have thought fit to appoint Sir John Barkley to repair unto you and to communicate the same to you And We shall be glad by him to receive a mutual communication of your sense also upon this subject not doubting but you easily perceive by the late disorders into what a depth of confusion the Army and the Nation will fall if timely and effectual preventions be not used And therefore We have now again proposed as the only expedient a Personal Treaty for the composing of all differences and fulfilling the desires of all Interests To which if you will employ your credit as you cannot but expect the blessings of God upon your endeavours therein so may you justly look for the best return that ever Our condition shall be able to make you Given at Carisbrook-Castle Novemb. 26. 1647. XLV For Sir THOMAS FAIRFAX General C. R. THE free liberty which you willingly afforded Us to have the use of Our
place I must let you know that I desire nothing more than to be rightly understood of My People and to that end I have of My self resolved to call a Parliament having already given order to My Lord Keeper to issue out the Writs instantly so that the Parliament may be assembled by the third of November next Whither if My Subjects bring the like good affections as I do it shall not fail on My part to make it a happy Meeting In the mean time there are two points to be considered wherein I shall desire your Advice which indeed is the chief cause of your Meeting First What Answer to give to the Petition of the Rebels and in what manner to treat with them Of which that you may give a sure judgement I have ordered that your Lordships shall be clearly and truly informed of the state of the whole business and upon what reasons the Advices that My Privy Counsel unanimously gave Me were grounded Secondly How My Army shall be kept on foot and maintained till the supplies of a Parliament may be had For so long as the Scots Army remains in England I think no man will counsel Me to disband Mine for that would be an unspeakable loss to all this part of the Kingdom by subjecting them to the greedy appetite of the Rebels beside the unspeakable dishonour that would thereby fall upon this Nation XXII To the Lords and Commons at the Opening of His Fifth Parliament at WESTMINSTER November 3. MDCXL MY Lords The knowledge that I had of the Designs of My Scotish Subjects was the cause of My calling the last Assembly of Parliament wherein had I been believed I sincerely think that things had not fallen out as now we see But it is no wonder that men are so slow to believe that so great a Sedition should be raised on so little ground But now My Lords and Gentlemen the Honour and Safety of this Kingdom lying so nearly at stake I am resolved to put My self freely and clearly on the love and affections of My English Subjects as those of My Lords that did wait on Me at York very well remember I there declared Therefore My Lords I shall not mention Mine own Interest or that Support I might justly expect from you till the Common Safety be secured Though I must tell you I am not ashamed to say those charges I have been at have been meerly for the securing and good of this Kingdom though the success hath not been answerable to My desires Therefore I shall only desire you to consider the best way both for the safety and security of this Kingdom wherein are two things chiefly considerable First the chasing out of the Rebels and secondly that other in satisfying your just Grievances wherein I shall promise you to concur so heartily and clearly with you that all the world may see My intentions have ever been and shall be to make this a glorious and flourishing Kingdom There are only Two things more that I shall mention to you The one is to tell you that the lone of Money which I lately had from the City of London wherein the Lords that waited on Me at York assisted Me will only maintain My Army for two months from the beginning of that time it was granted Now My Lords and Gentlemen I leave it to your considerations what dishonour and mischief it might be in case for want of Money My Army be disbanded before the Rebels be put out of this Kingdom Secondly the securing the Calamities the Northern People endure at this time and so long as the Treaty is on foot And in this I may say not only they but all this Kingdom will suffer the harm Therefore I leave this also to your Consideration For the ordering of these Great Affairs whereof you are to treat at this time I am so confident of your love to Me and that your care is such for the Honour and Safety of the Kingdom that I shall freely and willingly leave to you where to begin Only this that you may the better know the state of all the Affairs I have commanded My Lord Keeper to give you a short and free account of those things that have happened in this interim with this Protestation that if his account be not satisfactory as it ought to be I shall whensoever you desire it give you a full and perfect account of every particular One thing more I desire of you as one of the greatest means to make this an happy Parliament That you on your parts as I on Mine lay aside all suspicion one of another As I promised My Lords at York it shall not be My fault if this be not a happy and good Parliament XXIII To the House of Lords at WESTMINSTER Nov. 5. MDCXL MY Lords I do expect that you will hastily make Relation to the House of Commons of those Great Affairs for which I have called you hither at this time and of the trust I have reposed in them and how freely I put My self on their love and affections at this time And that you may know the better how to do so I shall explain My self concerning one thing I spake the last day I told you the Rebels must be put out of this Kingdom 'T is true I must needs call them so so long as they have an Army that does invade us although I am under Treaty with them and under My Great Seal do call them Subjects and so they are too But the state of My Affairs in short is this It 's true I did expect when I did will My Lords and Great ones to be at York to have given a gracious Answer to all their Grievances for I was in good hope by their Wisdoms and Assistances to have made an end of that business but I must tell you that My Subjects of Scotland did so delay them that it was not possible to end there Therefore I can no ways blame My Lords that were at Rippon that the Treaty was not ended but must thank them for their pains and industry And certainly had they as much power as affections I should by this time have brought these distempers to a happy period So that now the Treaty is transported from Rippon to London where I shall conclude nothing without your knowledge and I doubt not but by your approbation for I do not desire to have this great Work done in a corner for I shall lay open all the steps of this Misunderstanding and the causes of the great Differences between Me and My Subjects of Scotland And I doubt not but by your assistance to make them know their Duty and also by your assistance to make them return whether they will or no. XXIV To the Lords and Commons at the Banquetting-House in WHITE-HALL Jan. 25. MDCXL XLI MY Lords and you the Knights Citizens and Burgesses The principal cause of My coming here at this time is by reason of the slow proceedings in Parliament
was informed it related not to the Date but the Execution of the Warrant His Majesty said It might have been better expressed then and that it was a high thing to tax a King with breach of Promise As for this Declaration I could not have believed the Parliament would have sent Me such an one if I had not seen it brought by such persons of Honour I am sorry for the Parliament but glad I have it For by that I doubt not to satisfie My People though I am confident the greater part is so already Ye speak of ill Counsels but I am confident the Parliament hath had worse Informations than I have had Counsels His Majesty asking what he had denied the Parliament the Earl of Holland instanced that of the Militia His Majesty replyed That was no Bill The Earl then said It was a necessary request at this time His Majesty also replied He had not denied it What passed next day when His Majesty delivered His Answer The Earl of Holland having read His Majesty's Answer to the rest of the Committee endeavoured to perswade His Majesty to come near the Parliament To which His Majesty answered I would you had given Me cause but I am sure this Declaration is not the way to it and in all Aristotle's Rhetoricks there is no such Argument of Perswasion The Earl of Pembrook thereupon telling His Majesty that the Parliament had humbly besought His Majesty to come near them as aforesaid His Majesty replyed He had learnt by their Declaration that words were not sufficient The Earl again moving His Majesty to express what He would have His Majesty said He would whip a Boy in Westminster School that could not tell that by His Answer And That they were much mistaken if they thought His Answer of that a Denial The Earl of Pembrook then asking whether the Militia might not be granted as was desired by the Parliament for a time His Majesty answered Not for an hour You have ask'd that of Me in this was never ask'd of a King and with which I will not trust My Wife and Children His Majesty also said The business of Ireland will never be done in the way that you are in Four hundred will never do that work it must be put into the hands of One. If I were trusted with it I will pawn My Head to end that work And though I am a Begger My self yet speaking with a strong asseveration I can find Money for that XXXIX To the Gentry of Yorkshire when they presented their Petition April 5. MDCXLII MAster Sheriff and Gentlemen I believe you expect not a present and particular answer to your Petition because it is new to Me. Only in general I must tell you that I see by it that I am not deceived in the Confidence I have in the affections of this County to my Person and State And I assure you that I will not deceive your Confidence which at this time you have declared in your Petition to have in Me and I am glad to see that it is not upon mistaken grounds as other Petitions have been to Me since I came to this place Concerning which let Me observe unto you that my Answers were to clear those mistakings for I never did go about to punish or discourage them from Petitioning to Me in an humble way though the subject did not agree with My sense albeit within the memory of man people have been discouraged and threatned to be punished for Petitions I observe that your Petition is so modest that it doth not mention any particular for your own good which indeed I expected as knowing that in some particulars you have great reason to do it And therefore that you may not fare the worse for your Modesty I will put you in mind of three particulars which I conceive to be for the good of this Country The first is concerning your trained Bands to reduce them to a lesser number for which I confess to stand ingaged by promise to you which I had performed long since if I had been put in mind of it And now I tell you shew Me but the way and when you shall think fit I shall instantly reduce them to that number which I promised you two years ago The second is that which is owing to this Countrey for Billet-money The truth is that for the present I cannot repay it Only I will say this that if all the water had gone to the right Mill upon My word you had been long ago satisfied in this particular And so I leave to your discretions which way you will advise and assist Me to comply with the engagements to you in this point The third is that for which I was petitioned as I came up the last year both by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of this City and likewise by divers others of this County as I went Southward and that is concerning the Court of York And first let me tell you that as yet I know no legal Dissolution of it for hitherto formally there is nothing come to me either directly or indirectly for the taking of it away therefore I may say it is rather shaken in pieces than dissolved Now my desire is in compliance to what I answered the last year unto the several Petitions delivered to me upon this subject that you would consult and agree among your selves in what manner you would have the Court established most to your own contentments and to the good of all these Northern parts in such a Legal way as that it may not justly be excepted against and I assure you in the word of an honest man that you shall not blame me if you have not full satisfaction in it Within a day or two ye shall have a particular Answer to your Petition which shall be such an one as I am confident will give you good satisfaction and put you into such away as I hope may produce good effects to the good of all this Kingdom XL. To the Gentry of Yorkshire at YORK May 12. MDCXLII GEntlemen I have cause of adding not altering what I meant to say when I gave out the summons for this daies appearance I little thought of these Messengers or of such a Message as they brought The which because it confirms me in what I intend to speak and that I desire you should be truly informed of all Passages between me and the Parliament you shall hear read first my Answer to the Declaration of both Houses concerning Hull the Answer of the Parliament to my two Messages concerning Hull together with my reply to the same and my Message to both Houses declaring the Reasons why I refused to pass the Bill concerning the Militia All which being read His Majesty proceeded I will make no Paraphrases upon what ye have heard it is more befitting a Lawyer than a King Only this observation Since Treason is countenanced so near me it is time to look to my Safety I avow
Esq Edmond Wilde Esquire James Chaloner Esquire Josias Barners Esquire Dennis Bond Esq Humphry Edwards Esquire Gregory Clement Esquire John Fry Esquire Thomas Wogan Esq Sir Gregory Norton Serjeant John Bradshaw Colonel Edmund Harvey John Dove Esq Colonel John Venne John Foulk Alderman Thomas Scot Esquire Thomas Andrews Alderman William Cawley Esquire Abraham Burrell Esquire Colonel Anthony Stapely Roger Gratwicke Esquire John Downes Esquire Colonel Thomas Horton Colonel Thomas Hammond Colonel George Fenwick Serjeant Robert Nichols Robert Reynolds Esquire John Liste Esquire Nicholas Love Esquire Vincent Potter Sir Gilbert Pickering John Weaver Esquire John Lenthal Esquire Sir Edward Baynton John Corbet Esquire Thomas Blunt Esquire Thomas Boone Esquire Augustine Garland Esquire Augustine Skinner Esquire John Dixwel Esquire Colonel George Fleetwood Simon Maine Esquire Colonel James Temple Colonel Peter Temple Daniel Blagrave Esquire Sir Peter Temple Colonel Thomas Waite John Brown Esquire John Lowry Esquire shall be and are hereby appointed Commissioners and Judges for the hearing Trying and Judging of the said Charles Stuart And the said Commissioners or any twenty or more of them shall be and are hereby Authorized and constituted an High Court of Justice to meet at such convenient times and places as by the said Commissioners or the major part or twenty or more of them under their hands and seals shall be appointed and notified by publick Proclamation in the great Hall or Palace-yard of Westminster and to adjourn from time to time and from place to place as the said High Court or the major part thereof meeting shall hold fit and to take order for the charging of him the said Charles Stuart with the Crimes above mentioned and for the receiving His Personal Answer thereunto and for examination of Witnesses upon Oath if need be concerning the same and thereupon or in default of such Answer to proceed to final Sentence according to Justice and the merit of the Cause to be executed speedily and impartially And the said Court is hereby Authorized and required to chuse and appoint all such Officers Attendanrs and other circumstances as they or the major part of them shall in any sort judge necessary or useful for the orderly and good managing of the premisses and Thomas Lord Fairfax the General with all Officers of Justice and other well-affected persons are hereby Authorized and required to be aiding and assisting unto the said Commissioners in the due execution of the Trust hereby committed unto them Provided that this Ordinance and the Authority hereby granted do continue for the space of one Month from the Date of the making hereof and no longer After the reading of this the several Names of the Commissioners were called over every one who was present rising up and answering to his call The King having again placed Himself in the Chair with His face towards the Commissioners Silence was again ordered and Bradshaw with Impudence befitting his person and his place stood up and said CHARLES STUART King of England The Commons of England assembled in Parliament being deeply sensible of the Calamities that have been brought upon this Nation which is fixed upon you as the principal Author of it have resolved to make inquisition for Blood and according to that Debt and Duty they owe to Justice to God the Kingdom and themselves and according to the Fundamental Power that rests in themselves they have resolved to bring you to Trial and Judgment and for that purpose have constituted this High Court of Justice before which you are brought Then their Solicitor John Cook standing within a Bar on the right hand began 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 Misdemeanures and I do in the name of the Commons of England desire the Charge may be read unto him As he was speaking the King held up his Staffe and laying it on his shoulders two or three times bid him Hold a little But Bradshaw ordered him to go on and the Charge being delivered to their Clerk Bradshaw told the King Sir the Court Commands the Charge to be read If you have any thing to say afterwards you may be heard Then the Clerk being ordered to read began The Charge of the Commons of England against CHARLES STUART King of England of High Treason and other High Crimes exhibited to the High Court of Justice THat the said CHARLES STUART being admitted King of England and therein trusted with a limited Power to govern by and according to the Laws of the 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 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 Power of frequent and successive Parliaments or National Meetings in Council he the said Charles Stuart for accomplishment of such his Designs and for the protecting himself and his Adherents in his and their wicked practices to the same Ends hath traiterously and maliciously levied War against the present Parliament and the People therein Represented Particularly upon or about the thirtieth day of June in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred forty and two at Beverly in the County of York and upon or about the thirtieth day of July in the year aforesaid in the County of the City of York and upon or about the twenty fourth day of August in the same year at the County of the Town of Nottingham when and where he set up his Standard of War and upon or about the twenty third day of October in the same year at Edge-Hill and Kineton field in the County of Warwick and upon or about the thirtieth day of November in the same year at Brainford in the County of Middlesex and upon or about the thirtieth day of August in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred forty and three at Cavesham Bridge near Reading in the County of Berks and upon or about the thirtieth day of October in the year last mentioned at or near the City of Gloucester and upon or about the thirtieth day of November in the year last mentioned at Newbury in the County of Berks and upon or about the one and thirtieth day of July in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred forty and four at Croperdy Bridge in the County of Oxon and upon or about the thirtieth day of September in the year last mentioned at Bodmin and other places near adjacent in the County of Cornwall and
and Innovations as might make them apt to joyn with England in that great Change which was intended Whereupon new Canons and a new Liturgy were prest upon them and when they refused to admit of them an Army was raised to force them to it towards which the Clergy and the Papists were very forward in their Contribution The Scots likewise raised an Army for their defence and when both Armies were come together and ready for a bloody encounter His Majesties own Gracious Disposition and the Counsel of the English Nobility and Dutiful submission of the Scots did so far prevail against the evil Counsel of others that a Pacification was made and His Majesty returned with Peace and much Honour to London The unexpected Reconciliation was most acceptable to all the Kingdom except to the malignant party whereof the Archbishop and the Earl of Strafford being heads they and their faction begun to inveigh against the Peace and to aggravate the proceeding of the States which so incensed His Majesty that He forthwith prepared again for War And such was their confidence that having corrupted and distempered the whole frame and Government of the Kingdom they did now hope to corrupt that which was the only means to restore all to a right frame and temper again To which end they perswaded His Majesty to call a Parliament not to seek counsel and advice of them but to draw countenance and Supply from them and engage the whole Kingdom in their Quarrel and in the mean time continued all their unjust Levies of Money resolving either to make the Parliament pliant to their Will and to establish mischief by a Law or else to brake it and with more colour to go on by violence to take what they could not obtain by consent The ground alledged for the justification of this War was this That the undutiful Demands of the Parliaments of Scotland was a sufficient reason for His Majesty to take Arms against them without hearing the Reason of those Demands And thereupon a new Army was prepared against them their Ships were seized in all Ports both of England and Ireland and at Sea their Petitions rejected their Commissioners refused Audience this whole Kingdom most miserably distempered with Levies of Men and Money and Imprisonments of those who denied to submit to those Levies The Earl of Strafford past into Ireland caused the Parliament there to declare against the Scots to give four Subsidies towards that War and to ingage themselves their Lives and Fortunes for the prosecution of it and gave directions for an Army of eight thousand foot and one thousand horse to be levied there which were for the most part Papists The Parliament met upon the thirteenth of April one thousand six hundred and forty The Earl of Strafford and Archbishop of Canterbury with their Party so prevailed with His Majesty that the House of Commons was prest to yield to a Supply for maintenance of the War with Scotland before they had provided any relief for the great and pressing Grievances of the people which being against the fundamental Privilege and proceeding of Parliament was yet in humble respect to His Majesty so far admitted as that they agreed to take the matter of Supply into consideration and two several days it was debated Twelve Subsidies were demanded for the release of Ship-money alone A third day was appointed for conclusion when the Heads of that Party begun to fear the people might close with the King in satisfying his desire of money but that withal they were like to blast their malicious designs against Scotland finding them very much indisposed to give any countenance to that War Thereupon they wickedly advised the King to break off the Parliament and to return to the ways of Confusion in which their own evil intentions were most like to prosper and succeed After the Parliament ended the fifth of May 1640. this Party grew so bold as to counsel the King to supply Himself out of his Subjects states by His own Power at His own will without their consent The very next day some Members of both Houses had their studies and cabinets yea their pockets searched another of them not long after was committed close prisoner for not delivering some Petitions which he received by authority of that House And if harsher courses were intended as was reported it is very probable that the sickness of the Earl of Strafford and the tumultuous rising in Southwark and about Lambeth were the causes that such violent intentions were not brought to execution A false and scandalous Declaration against the House of Commons was published in his Majesties Name which yet wrought little effect with the people but only to manifest the impudence of those who were Authors of it A forced Loan of money was attempted in the City of London The Lord Mayor and Aldermen in their several Wards enjoyned to bring in a list of the names of such persons as they judged fit to lend and of the summ they should lend And such Aldermen as refused so to do were committed to prison The Archbishop and the other Bishops and Clergy continued the Convocation and by a new Commission turned it to a Provincial Synod in which by an unheard of presumption they made Canons that contain in them many matters contrary to the Kings Prerogative to the fundamental Laws and Statutes of the Realm to the Right of Parliaments to the Property and Liberty of the Subject and matters tending to Sedition and of dangerous consequence thereby establishing their own Usurpations justifying their Altar-worship and those other superstitious Innovations which they formerly introduced without warrant of Law They imposed a new Oath upon divers of his Majesties Subjects both Ecclesiastical and Lay for maintenance of their own Tyranny and laid a great tax upon the Clergy for supply of his Majesty and generally they shewed themselves very affectionate to the War with Scotland which was by some of them styled Bellum Episcopale and a Prayer composed and enjoyned to be read in all Churches calling the Scots Rebels to put the two Nations into blood and make them irreconcilable All those pretended Canons and Constitutions were armed with the several Censures of Suspension Excommunication Deprivation by which they would have thrust out all the good Ministers and most of the well affected people of the Kingdom and left an easie passage to their own design of reconciliation with Rome The Popish party enjoyned such exemptions from the Penal Laws as amounted to a Toleration besides many other encouragements and Court-favours They had a Secretary of State Sir Francis Windebank a powerful Agent for the speeding of all their desires a Pope's Nuntio residing here to act and govern them according to such influences as he received from Rome and to intercede for them with the most powerful concurrence of the foreign Princes of that Religion By his authority the Papists of all sorts Nobility Gentry and Clergy were convocated after the
the advice of private men or by any unknown or unsworn Counsellors but that such matters as concern the publick and are proper for the High Court of Parliament which is Your Majesties great and supreme Council may be debated resolved and transacted only in Parliament and not elsewhere and such as shall presume to do any thing to the contrary shall be reserved to the censure and judgment of Parliament And such other matters of State as are proper for Your Majesties Privy Council shall be debated and concluded by such of the Nobility and others as shall from time to time be chosen for that place by approbation of both Houses of Parliament And that no publick Act concerning the Affairs of the Kingdom which are proper for Your Privy Council may be esteemed of any validity as proceeding from the Royal Authority unless it be done by the advice and consent of the major part of Your Council attested under their hands And that Your Council my be limited to a certain number not exceeding twenty five nor under fifteen And if any Counsellors place happen to be void in the Intervals of Parliament it shall not be supplied without the assent of the major part of the Council which choice shall be confirmed at the next sitting of the Parliament or else to be void III. That the Lord High Steward of England Lord High Constable Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal Lord Treasure Lord Privy Seal Earl Marshal Lord Admiral Warden of the Cinque-Ports chief Governor of Ireland Chancellor of the Exchequer Master of the Wards Secretaries of State two Chief Justices and Chief Baron may always be chosen with the approbation of both Houses of Parliament and in the Intervals of Parliament by assent of the major part of the Council in such manner as is before exprest in the choice of Counsellors IV. That he or they unto whom the government and education of the King's Children shall be committed shall be approved of by both Houses of Parliament and in the Intervals of Parliaments by the assent of the major part of the Council in such manner as is before exprest in the choice of Counsellours And that all such Servants as are now about Them against whom both Houses shall have any just exception shall be removed V. That no Marriage shall be concluded or treated for any of the King's Children with any foreign Prince or other person whatsoever abroad or at home without the consent of Parliament under the penalty of a Praemunire unto such as shall so conclude or treat any Marriage as aforesaid and that the said Penalty shall not be pardoned or dispensed with but by the consent of both Houses of Parliament VI. That the Laws in force against Jesuites Priests and Popish Recusants be strictly put in execution without any toleration or dispensation to the contrary and some more effectual course may be enacted by authority of Parliament to disable them from making any disturbance in the State or eluding the Law by trusts or otherwise VII That the Votes of Popish Lords in the House of Peers may be taken away so long as they continue Papists And that His Majesty would consent to such a Bill as shall be drawn for the Education of the Children of Papists by Protestants in the Protestant Religion VIII That Your Majesty will be pleased to consent that such a Reformation be made in the Church-Government and Liturgy as both Houses of Parliament shall advise wherein they intend to have consultations with Divines as is expressed in their Declaration to that purpose And that your Majesty will contribute Your best assistance to them for the raising of a sufficient maintenance for Preaching Ministers through the Kingdom And that Your Majesty will be pleased to give Your consent to Laws for the taking away of Innovations and Superstition and of Pluralities and against Scandalous Ministers IX That Your Majesty will be pleased to rest satisfied with that course that the Lords and Commons have appointed for ordering the Militia until the same shall be further setled by a Bill And that Your Majesty will recall Your Declarations and Proclamations against the Ordinance made by the Lords and Commons concerning it X. That such Members of either House of Parliament as have during this present Parliament been put out of any Place and Office may either be restored to that Place and Office or otherwise have satisfaction for the same upon the Petition of that House whereof he or they are Members XI That all Privy-Counsellours and Judges may take an Oath the form whereof to be agreed on and setled by Act of Parliament for the maintaining of the Petition of Right and of certain Statutes made by this Parliament which shall be mentioned by both Houses of Parliament And that an inquiry of all the breaches and violations of these Laws may be given in charge by the Justices of the King's Bench every Term and by the Judges of Assize in their Circuits and Justices of Peace at the Sessions to be presented and punished according to Law XII That all the Judges and all Officers placed by approbation of both Houses of Parliament may hold their places Quam diu bene se gesserint XIII That the Justice of Parliament may pass upon all Delinquents whether they be within the Kingdom or fled out of it And that all persons cited by either House of Parliament may appear and abide the censure of Parliament XIV That the General Pardon offered by Your Majesty may be granted with such Exceptions as shall be advised by both Houses of Parliament XV. That the Forts and Castles of this Kingdom may be put under the Command and Custody of such persons as Your Majesty shall appoint with the approbation of Your Parliament and in the Intervals of Parliament with the approbation of the major part of the Council in such manner as is before expressed in the choice of Counsellours XVI That the extraordinary Guards and Military Forces now attending Your Majesty may be removed and discharged And that for the future You will raise no such Guards or extraordinary Forces but according to Law in case of actual Rebellion or Invasion XVII That Your Majesty will be pleased to enter into a more strict Alliance with the States of the United Provinces and other neighbour-Princes and States of the Protestant Religion for the defence and maintenance thereof against all designs and attempts of the Pope and his adherents to subvert and suppress it whereby Your Majesty will obtain a great access of strength and reputation and Your Subjects be much encouraged and enabled in a Parliamentary way for Your aid and assistance in restoring Your Royal Sister and the Princely Issue to those Dignities and Dominions which belong unto them and relieving the other distressed Protestant Princes who have suffered in the same Cause XVIII That Your Majesty will be pleased by Act of Parliament to clear the Lord Kimbolton and the
from which We could never have been secured by declaring That no Member of either House upon any Accusation of Treason could have his Person seized without the Consent of that House of which he is a Member though the known Law be That Privilege of Parliament extends not to Treason and if it did any Member the House being for a short time adjourned and so their Consent not being so had how treasonable soever his Intentions were how clearly soever known and how suddenly soever to be executed must have fair leave given him to go on and pursue them no way how Legal soever after the passing such a Clause being left to prevent it To conclude We conjure you and all men to rest satisfied with the Truth of Our Professions and the Reality of Our Intentions not to ask such things as deny themselves that you declare against Tumults and punish the Authors that you allow Us Our Propriety in Our Towns Arms and Goods and Our share in the Legislative Power which would be counted in Us not only breach of Privilege but Tyranny and Subversion of Parliaments to deny to you And when you shall have given Us satisfaction upon those Persons who have taken away the one and recalled those Declarations particularly that of the 26. of May and those in the point of the Militia Our just Rights wherein We will no more part with then with Our Crown lest We enable others by them to take that from Us which would take away the other and declined the beginnings of a War against Us under pretence of Our Intention of making one against you as We have never opposed the first part of the Thirteenth Demand so We shall be ready to concurre with you in the latter And being then confident that the Credit of those men who desire a general Combustion will be so weakned with you that they will not be able to do this Kingdom any more harm We shall be willing to grant Our general Pardon with such Exceptions as shall be thought fit and shall receive much more joy in the hope of a full and constant Happiness of Our People in the True Religion and under the Protection of the Law by a blessed Union between Us and Our Parliament so much desired by Us then in any such increase of Our own Revenue how much soever beyond former Grants as when Our Subjects were wealthiest Our Parliament could have settled upon Us. His MAJESTIES Declaration made the 13 of June 1642. to the Lords attending his Majesty at York and to others of His Majesties Privy Council there Together with their Promise thereupon subscribed by them Charles R. WE do declare That We will not require nor exact any Obedience from you but what shall be warranted by the known Law of the Land as We do expect that you shall not yield to any Commands not legally grounded or imposed by any other And We do further declare That We will defend every one of you and all such as shall refuse any such Commands whether they proceed from Votes and Orders of both Houses or any other way from all dangers and hazards whatsoever And We do further declare That We will defend the true Protestant Religion established by the Law of the Land the lawful Liberties of the Subjects of England and just Privileges of all the three Estates of Parliament and shall require no further Obedience from you then as accordingly We shall perform the same And We do declare That we will not as is falsly pretended engage you or any of you in any War against the Parliament except it be for Our necessary defence and safety against such as do insolently invade or attempt against Us or such as shall adhere to Us. York 13. Junii 1642. The Promise of the said Lords and others WE do engage our selves not to obey any Orders or Commands whatsoever not warranted by the known Laws of the Land We do engage our selves to defend Your MAJESTIES Person Crown and Dignity together with Your Majesties Just and Legal Prerogative against all persons and power whatsoever We will defend the true Protestant Religion established by the Law of the Land the lawful Liberties of the Subject of England and just Priviledges of Your Majesty and both Your Houses of Parliament And lastly we engage our selves not to obey any Rule Order or Ordinance whatsoever concerning any Militia that hath not the Royal Assent York 13. Junii 1642. Subscribed by Lord Keeper L. D. of Richmond L. Marquess Hartford E. of Lindsey E. of Cumberland E. of Huntington E. of Bath E. of Southampton E. of Dorset E. of Salisbury E. of Northampton E. of Devonshire E. of Cambridge E. of Bristol E. of Westmorland E. of Berkshire E. of Monmouth E. of Rivers E. of Newcastle E. of Dover E. of Carnarvon E. of Newport L. Mowbray and Maltravers L. Willoughby of Eresby L. Rich. L. Ch. Howard of Charleton L. Newark L. Paget L. Chandos L. Falconbridge L. Paulet L. Lovelace L. Savile L. Coventry L. Mohun L. Dunsmore L. Seymour L. Grey of Ruthen L. Capell L. Falkland Mr. Comptroller Mr. Secretary Nicholas Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer L. Chief Justice Banks His MAJESTY's Declaration to all His loving Subjects occasioned by a false and scandalous Imputation laid upon His Majesty of an intention of Raising or Levying War against His Parliament and of having raised Force to that end Published at His Court at York the 16 day of June THough We have these last seven months met with so many several Encounters of strange and unusual Declarations under the names of both Our Houses of Parliament that we should not be amazed at any new Prodigy of that kind and though their last of the six and twentieth of May gave Us a fair warning that the Contrivers of it having spent all their stock of bitter and reproachful Language upon Us We were to expect they should now break out into some bold and disloyal Actions against Us and having by that Declaration as far as in them lies divested Us of that Preeminence and Authority which God the Law the Custom and Consent of this Nation had placed in Us and assumed it to themselves that they should likewise with expedition put forth the fruits of that supreme Power for the violating and suppressing that Power they despised an effect of which Resolution of their wild Declaration against Our Proclamation concerning the pretended Ordinance for the Militia and the punishing of the Proclaimers appears to be yet We must confess in their last Attempt We speak of the last We know they may probably since or at this present have outdone that too they have outdone what We conceive was their present intention and whosoever hears of Propositions and Orders for bringing in of Money or Plate to maintain Horse Horsemen and Arms for the preservation of the publick Peace or for the Defence of the King and both Houses of Parliament such is their Declaration or what else
Our Court at York this 15. of June 1642. The Declaration and Profession of the Lords now at York and others of His Majesty's most Honourable Privy Council disavowing that they see any apparence of Preparations or Intentions in His Majesty to levy War against the Parliament WE whose names are under-written in Obedience to His Majesty's Desire and out of the Duty which we owe to His Majesty's Honour and to Truth being here upon the place and witnesses of His Majesty's frequent and earnest Declarations and Professions of His abhorring all Designs of making War upon His Parliament and not seeing any colour of Preparations or Counsels that might reasonably beget the belief of any such Design do profess before God and testifie to all the World that we are fully perswaded that His Majesty hath no such Intentions but that all His Endeavours tend to the firm and constant settlement of the true Protestant Religion the just Privileges of Parliament the Liberty of the Subject the Law Peace and Prosperity of this Kingdom York June 15. 1642. Subscribed by Lord Keeper L. D. of Richmond L. Marquess Hartford L. Great Chamberlain E. of Cumberland E. of Bath E. of Southampton E. of Dorset E. of Salisbury E. of Northampton E. of Devon E. of Cambridge E. of Bristol E. of Clare E. of Westmorland E. of Berkshire E. of Monmouth E. of Rivers E. of Dover E. of Carnarven E. of Newport L. Mowbray Maltravers L. Willoughby L. Grey of Ruthen L. C. Howard Andover L. Lovelace L. Paget L. Falconberge L. Rich. L. Paulet L. Newark L. Coventry L. Savile L. Mohun L. Dunsmore L. Seymour L. Capel L. Falkland Mr. Comptroller Mr. Secretary Nicholas Mr. Chancel of the Exchequer L. Chief Justice Banks MDCXLII June 8. By the King A Proclamation forbidding all Levies of Forces without his MAJESTY's express Pleasure signified under His Great Seal and all Contributions or Assistance to any such Levies WHereas under pretence that We intend to make War against the Parliament the contrary whereof is notoriously known to all that are here and as We hope by this time apparent to all other Our Subjects as well by Our Declaration of the sixteenth of June as by the Testimony of all Our Nobility and Council who are here upon the place and by colour of the Authority of both Houses of Parliament a major part whereof are now absent from London by the contrivance of some few evil persons disguising and colouring their pernicious Designs and hostile Preparations under the plausible names of the preservation of publick Peace and defence of Vs and both Houses of Parliament from Force and violence it hath been endeavoured to raise Troops of Horse and other Forces And for that purpose they have prevailed not only to prohibit Our own Moneys to be paid to Us or to Our use but by the Name and Authority of Parliament to excite Our Subjects to contribute their Assistance to them by bringing in Moneys Plate or under-writing to furnish and maintain Horses Horsemen and Arms and to that purpose certain Propositions or Orders as they are styled by them have been printed whereby they have endeavoured to engage the Power and Authority of Parliament as if the two Houses without Us had that Power and Authority to save harmless all those that shall so contribute from all Prejudice and Inconvenience that may befall them by occasion thereof And although We well hope that these Malignant persons whose Actions do now sufficiently declare their former Intentions will be able to prevail with few of Our good People to contribute their Power or Assistance unto them Yet lest any of Our Subjects taking upon trust what those men affirm without weighing the grounds of it or the danger to Us themselves and the Commonwealth which would ensue thereupon should indeed believe what these persons would insinuate and have them to believe that such their Contribution and Assistance would tend to the preservation of the publick Peace and the Defence of Us and both Houses of Parliament and that thereby they should not incur any danger We that We might not be wanting as much as in Us lyeth to foreshew and to prevent the danger which may fall thereupon have hereby thought good to declare and publish unto all Our loving Subjects That by the Laws of the Land the power of raising of Forces or Arms or levying of War for the defence of the Kingdom or otherwise hath always belonged to Us and to Us only and that by no Power of either or both Houses of Parliament or otherwise contrary to Our personal Commands any Forces can be raised or any War levied And therefore by the Statute of the seventh year of Our famous Progenitor King Edward the First whereas there had been then some variances betwixt Him and some great Lords of the Realm and upon Treaty thereupon it was agreed that in the next Parliament after provision should be made that in all Parliaments and all other Assemblies which should be in the Kingdom for ever every man should come without Force and Armour well and peaceably yet at the next Parliament when they met together to take advice of this Business though it concerned the Parliament it self the Lords and Commons would not take it upon them but answered That it belonged to the King to defend force of Armour and all other force against the Peace at all times when it pleased Him and to punish them which should do contrary according to the Laws and Usages of the Realm and that they were bound to aid Him as their Sovereign Lord at all seasons when need should be And accordingly in Parliament in after-times the King alone did issue His Proclamations prohibiting bearing of Arms by any person in or near the City where the Parliament was excepting such of the Kings Servants as He should depute or should be deputed by His Commandment and also excepting the Kings Ministers And by the Statute of Northampton made in the second year of King Edward the Third it is enacted That no man of what condition soever he be except the Kings Servants in His presence and His Ministers in executing the Kings Precepts or of their Office and such as be in their company assisting them go nor ride armed by night or day in Fairs Markets nor in the presence of the Justices or other Ministers nor in no part elsewhere And this power of raising Forces to be solely in the King is so known and inseparable a Right to the Crown that when in the Reign of King Henry the Eighth there being a sudden Rebellion the Earl of Shrewsbury without Warrant from the King did raise Arms for the suppression thereof and happily suppressed it yet was he forced to obtain his Pardon And whereas the Duke of Gloucester and other great Lords in the eleventh year of King Richard the Second upon pretence of the good of the King and Kingdom the King being then not of age and led away as
to Our Assistance and that this wicked Charge of intending to introduce Propery Idolatry and Arbitrary Government laid by Implication upon Us because We defend Our Selves and would recover Our own will be so far from being a Motive against Us that this intolerable Indignity and damnable Scandal so daily and visibly confuted by all Our Professions and Actions will encrease Our good Subjects zeal towards Us and their Indignation against the Contrivers and they will esteem themselves obliged by the Religion of Almighty God to oppose this War so impiously so treasonably and so groundlesly made upon Us their King and His Anointed We therefore require all Our Commissioners of Array Sheriffs and all Our other Officers and Ministers to raise all the Power and Forces of their several Counties to assist the Marquess of Hartford the Earl of Northampton the Lord Willoughby of Eresby the Lord Dunsmore the Lord Paulet the Lord Seymour Henry Hastings Esquire Sir John Stawell Sir Ralph Hopton John Digby Esquire and all other in the legal and necessary Execution of Our Commissions of Array and in the raising and conducting of such Horse and Foot as shall be raised by Our Commission and by force of Arms to oppose the Earl of Essex the Lord Say and all other that shall raise or conduct any Forces raised by pretence of Authority of both Houses and the Persons of all such Traitors and their Adherents and Accomplices to Arrest and Imprison to the end they may be brought to a fair and legal Tryal by their Peers and according to the law And this We require from them as they tender the Defence of Our Person the true Religion the Law of the Land the Liberty and Property of the Subject and the true and just Privileges of Parliament And for so doing they shall be defended and secured by Us and by the Law with whom and with which We doubt not but Our Subjects will sooner chuse to live and dye than with the Earl of Essex and his Adherents MDCXLII August 9. By the King A Proclamation for the suppressing of the present Rebellion under the Command of Robert Earl of Essex And the gracious offer of His Majesty's free Pardon to him and all such of his Adherents as shall within six days after the date hereof lay down their Arms. WHereas now at the last those Seditious and Traitorous Counsels and Consultations which have been long in design and which long since We foresaw have produced such manifest and open effects of Treason and Rebellion against Us that there are already great numbers of Horse and Foot Raised Arraied Mustered and Trained under pretence of Authority of Our two Houses of Parliament without and against Our Consent in and about Our Cities of London and Westminster in a warlike manner and there are many more in Raising with speed and Robert Earl of Essex by the said pretended Authority without Our Consent hath been nominated to be Captain General of those Troops and Forces and forgetting the Duty and Allegiance which he oweth to Us his Sovereign hath taken upon him and accepted that Title and Command of Captain General and in that quality appeareth amongst the Souldiers animating and encouraging himself and them in these Traitorous and Rebellious Designs and as it is now notoriously known the said Earl and his Adherents intend speedily to march from thence towards the North where We now reside and in a warlike manner to assail and oppose Us and those who shall attend or assist Us under pretence of defending Our Person and the two Houses of Parliament and prepare traitorously to surprise or besiege Our Town of Portsmouth and to possess themselves thereof with force the same being a Town and Port of great importance in the Western parts of this Kingdom and also to surprise or by force to take and possess themselves of all other Castles Forts and places of strength within this Kingdom and all this to strengthen them and their Party in these their Traitorous and Rebellious Designs all which are not now taken up by Us upon Information of others and by Conjecture but do manifestly appear to the whole World by that insolent and prodigious Commission of Captain General over the whole Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales which in the name of the two Houses of Parliament is granted unto the said Earl but hath indeed been contrived by some few Malignant persons Members of either House whereby they have mentioned to conferr upon him and the said Earl under that colour hath assumed unto himself those Titles and begun to put in execution those Powers and Authorities which are inconsistable with Our Sovereignty all which is so done contrary to all Rules of Religion Laws Allegiance or common Honesty We do now therefore publish and declare by this Our Royal Proclamation That the said publick and notorious Acts and Actions of the said Earl are Acts and Actions of High Treason being a manifest levying of War against his natural Liege Lord and King expresly within the words and meaning of the Statute made in the twenty fifth year of King Edward the Third declaring the same of which in Law there neither is nor can be any doubt and that the said Earl of Essex is a Rebel and Traitour unto Us and to Our Crown and that he and all Colonels Captains and Officers which upon notice hereof shall not immediately quit their Commands under him or any others by the like unlawful and usurped power without and against Us are also guilty of High Treason within that Statute and ought to be adjudged and esteemed and proceeded against as Traitors and Rebels And yet out of Our Grace and Clemency towards such of Our Subjects as have been abused and misled by the said Earl and such others as joyn themselves with him in these desperate Courses and to preserve the Peace of this Kingdom if it be possible and to avoid the shedding of blood We abhorring the name of a Civil War if it can by any good means be avoided do by this Our Royal Proclamation admonish the said Earl and all Our Subjects whom it may concern which are now already joyned or shall joyn themselves to the said Earl in this act of Hostility that forthwith they lay down their Arms as well Horse as Foot and all other preparations for the War and instantly without delay return to their own homes and habitations and there quietly and peaceably imploy and bestow themselves in their proper Vocations and Callings and that hereafter they meddle not or interpose themselves in these or any the like Rebellious and Traitorous Undertakings or Actions Which if the◠do readily and really perform within six days after the date of these presents W◠do hereby promise and undertake in the Word of a King that We will freely extend 〈◊〉 Mercy unto them and grant unto them Our free and full Pardon for all that hath been or shall be committed before that time But if
if the Malice and Rage of these Persons be not instantly resisted And as We do and must rely on Almighty God the Protector and Defender of his Anointed to defend Us and Our good People against the Malice and pernicious Designs of these men tending to the utter Ruine of Our Person the true Protestant Religion the Laws established the Property and Liberty of the Subject and the very Being of Parliaments so We doubt not but Our good People will in this necessity contribute unto Us with all Alacrity and Chearfulness their assistance in their Persons Servants and Money for the suppression of the same Rebellion And therein We cannot but with much contentment of heart acknowledge the Love and Affection of Our Subjects of Our County of York and divers other Counties in their free and ready assistance of Us which We shall never forget and Our Posterity will as We hope ever remember for their good Nevertheless in this Our extreme necessity though We have been most unwilling We are now inforced for Our most just and necessary Defence again to call and invite them and all other Our Subjects of the true Protestant Religion residing on the North-side of Trent or within twenty miles Southward thereof whose hearts God Almighty shall touch with a true sense and apprehension of Our Sufferings and of the ill use which the Contrivers and Fomenters of this Rebellion have made of Our Clemency and desire of Peace That according to their Allegiance and as they tender the Safety of Our Person the Property of their Estates their just Liberties the true Protestant Religion and Privileges of Parliament and indeed the very Being of Parliaments they attend Our Person upon Monday the two and twentieth day of this instant August at Our Town of Nottingham where and when We intend to erect Our Standard-Royal in Our just and necessary Defence and whence We resolve to advance forward for the suppression of the said Rebellion and the Protection of Our good Subjects amongst them from the burthen of the Slavery and Insolence under which they cannot but groan till they be relieved by Us. And We likewise call and invite all Our Subjects of the true Protestant Religion in the remoter parts of this Our Kingdom to whom notice of this Our Proclamation cannot so soon arrive That with all speed possible as they tender the forenamed Considerations they attend Our Person in such place as We shall then happen to encamp And such of Our said Subjects as shall come unto Us either to Our said Town of Nottingham or to any other place where We shall happen to encamp Armed and Arrayed with Horse Pistols Muskets Pikes Corslets Horses for Dragoons or other fitting Arms and Furniture We shall take them into Our pay such of them excepted who shall be willing as Voluntiers to serve Us in this Our necessity without pay And whosoever shall in this Our Danger and necessity supply Us either by Gift or Loan of Money or Plate for this Our necessary Defence wherein they also are so nearly concerned We shall as soon as God shall enable Us repay whatsoever is so lent and upon all occasions remember and reward those Our good Subjects according to the measure of their Love and Affections to Us and their Country Given at Our Court at York the twelfth day of August in the eighteenth year of Our Reign 1642. His MAJESTY's Declaration to all His Loving Subjects of the 12 of Aug. 1642. 'T IS more than time now after so many Injuries and Indignities offered to Our Royal Person so many Affronts and Scorns put upon Our Kingly Office so many Scandalous Seditious and Traitorous Pamphlets against Our Self and Our Government to vindicate Our Self from those wicked and damnable Combinations and Conspiracies which the implacable Malice and insatiable Ambition of some Persons have contrived against Us and to let all Our loving Subjects know how much they are concerned in Our Sufferings and how much their Peace and Security is shaken in the Assaults which are made and the Wounds which are given to Our Honour and Authority and how specious soever their pretences are of Religion and Liberty that in truth their end is nothing but Anarchy and Confusion in either In the relation and consideration whereof though We take no delight in the sharpness and bitterness of expressions 't is no wonder if being compelled to take notice of Actions of an high and injurious nature and to consider and answer words impetuously directed against Majesty it self We be likewise enforced to use a Dialect rougher and different from what We have used to treat in 't is a weapon We blush to find Our Self put to exercise and We call the Almighty God to witness That though We were extremely sensible of the violent and unjustifiable Imposition upon Our Royal Office and Authority of the apparent Hazard and Danger which threatened Our own Person and Safety yet not so much the particular consideration of Our Self hath engaged Us in the resolution We have now taken as the publick Care of the true Protestant Religion the Preservation of the Law and the Liberty of the Subject and the upholding the whole Frame and Constitution of this Kingdom so admirably founded and continued by the Blessing of God and the wisdom of Our Ancestours to the wonder and envy of all the neighbouring Kingdoms which the Faction and Ambition of a few discontented spirits with their counterfeit shews of Religion and pretences of Liberty endeavour to shake and rend asunder and to bring Our Self and all the Subjects of this Kingdom into perpetual Subjection unto their vast unlimited Arbitrary Seditious Jurisdiction We shall begin Our discourse from the beginning of this Parliament for of the unhappy Dissolution of the last by the mis-information and advice of some persons looked upon now under another Character We shall forbear to speak being resolved that no disregard or undutifulness of other men towards Us shall ever prevail with Us to do what We think unsuteable to the Honour and Reputation of a Just Prince and of a good and loving Master When We resolved to summon this Parliament which We did out of Our own earnest and affectionate desire to beget a good and right intelligence between Us and Our People and before the meeting of Our great Council at York and uncompelled by any violence but of Our love to Peace We presented to Our Self the unhappy Condition wherein the state of this Kingdom then stood considered the nature of the Pressures then more freely represented to Us which in themselves were grievous to Our good Subjects and in the Consequences of them might appear more terrible We took a full and clear prospect of the Inconveniences and mischiefs which had grown by the long intermission of Parliaments and by the parting too much from the known Rule of the Law to an Arbitrary power and upon the whole resolved without puting any Gloss upon Our own former Commands or
Parliament being resolved that it should not be Our fault if all those particulars were not speedily provided for which seemed then to be the grounds of their desire Let all the World now judge what greater Obligations of Justice Favour Affection and Trust can a Prince lay upon His Subjects than We did upon both Our Houses of Parliament by these Acts and whether We did not in Our free Grace and Favour grant much more than had been asked of Us by that Petition presented to Us by some Lords at York in which was then thought to be contracted all that was grievous to Our People and all that was just and gracious for Us to do for them And in all the time in which these Acts were framing and passing though Our own personal Wants were notoriously known and unkindly unprovided for and themselves had asked leave to look into and settle Our Revenue which We consented to and therefore We might have expected some fruit of that pretended Care We never pressed them or made the least overture to them for Our own supply only desired them and 't was almost the only thing We did desire of them that they would use all possible expedition in the business of the Treaty that the two Armies might be speedily disbanded and Our Subjects eased of that heavy burthen which in time would grow insupportable and waste the whole stock of the Kingdom But We found the Faction We feared in the beginning grew still stronger and nothing converted or reconciled by all those Acts of Ours which would have made any Nation happy That whilst We were busie in providing for the publick they were contriving particular Advantages of Offices and Places for themselves made use under-hand of the former Grievances of the Subject in things concerning Religion and Law to change the Religion and Law of this Kingdom labouring that neither any thing the Subject had suffered from the Crown might be forgotten nor any satisfaction from the Crown to the Subject might be remembred And therefore in stead of acknowledging Our great Justice and singular Favour in passing those Acts they infused into Our People that We passed them unwillingly whereas We never made the least pause upon any of them but one that for the High-Commission Court and whether that was penned with that wariness and animadversion that there be not more determined by it than the major part of both Houses intended at the passing of it let themselves judge and that We meant not to observe them and grew so much confounded with the full measure of Our Favour that they would allow themselves no security of enjoying what We had freely given but by taking away any power from Us of giving more they must have a through alteration both in Church and State or else they should never enjoy the benefit of the Reformation We had willingly made Hereupon they oppose the disbanding of the Armies and give all delays to the Scots Treaty though the Commissioners for that Nation very earnestly pressed the hastning of it and in plain English declare That they cannot yet spare them that the sons of Zerviah were too strong for them And finding more haste to be made in the asserting the Civil Interests than they desired having a design to ingage this Kingdom into so vast a Debt that there might be no way of paying it but by the Lands of the Church and lest Our good Subjects might be too soon satisfied they hastned on to their design upon the Church which they at first disguised with a purpose only of removing the Bishops from their Votes in the Lords House This Bill passed the House of Commons in the House of Peers it endured several long free debates and in the end upon great and solemn deliberation was by the consent of very much the major part of that House absolutely rejected This was no sooner done but that Faction glad of the miscarriage of their former Bill the passing whereof they knew would have satisfied many of those whom they hoped now further to seduce produced a Bill to be tendred in the House of Commons for the abolition of Bishops out of the Church of England Root and Branch according to their first resolution as Mr. Pym told a Member of the Lords House by way of reproof That it was not enough to be against the Persons of the Bishops if he were not against the Function and for extirpation of all Deans and Chapters and reducing that admirable Frame of Government and support of Learning into a Chaos of Confusion that out of it they might mold an Vtopia no six of them had nor We believe yet have agreed on further than to destroy the present and out of the goodly Revenue which the pious Bounty and Devotion of former Ages had been so long in raising for the encouragement and advancement of Learning and Religion and which God hath blessed with so many eminent Men whose Learning and Lives have advanced the Doctrine of the Protestant Religion and many of them given their Bodies to the Fire as a Sacrifice to that Truth and Religion to erect Stipends to their own Clergy and to raise estates to repair their own broken fortunes And for the free passing of this Bill which to this hour they could never tell what to make of two Armies must be kept in the bowels of the Kingdom at 80000 pound a Month charge to the Commonwealth For about this Bill the House of Commons was so wholly taken up that in ten weeks none or very little other business could be thought of About this time or a little before after several Intimations of Treasons Plots and Conspiracies by the Papists of great Provisions of Arms by them and training Men under ground and many other false reports created spread and countenanced by themselves upon some general apprehensions of Designs against them a Protestation is made in the House of Commons for some union and consent amongst themselves to perform those Duties which if they had meant no more than they expressed had been sufficiently provided for by the Oaths they had already taken and what their former Duties obliged them to Hereupon a Protestation is framed and being put into such words as no honest Man could believe himself obliged by it to any unlawful Action was voluntarily taken by all the Members of the House of Commons and presently recommended to the House of Lords where it received the same countenance that is was looked upon as containing nothing in it self unlawful though some Members of that House refused to take it being voluntary and not imposed by any Lawful Authority Then 't is recommended to the City of London and over all the Kingdom by order from the House of Commons a strange and unheard-of Usurpation to be taken by all persons But in very few days upon conference amongst themselves and with those Clergy-men who daily solicite their unlawful and unwarrantable designs with the People they find
therefore We applied Our self only to the Law hoping that the Insolence and Licentiousness of the People might by Our help be curbed by that Rule The Tumults grew so notorious and so dangerous that they Threatned and Assaulted the Members of both Houses whereupon the House of Peers which it seems the Lords present at the passing of one of their late Declarations wherein they deny there have been any Tumults had forgot at a Conference with the House of Commons twice very earnestly desired that they would for the dignity of Parliaments joyn with them in a Declaration for the suppressing such Tumults But the prevalency of that Faction was so great that though complaint was made by Members in the House of Commons that they had been assaulted and evil-intreated by those people even at the door of their House in stead of joyning with the Lords for the suppressing or punishing them several Speeches were made in justification of them and commending their Affections saying They must not discourage their friends this being a time they must make use of all their friends and Master Pym saying God forbid that the House of Commons should proceed in any way to dishearten people to obtain their just desires in such away which he had good reason to say himself and those other persons whom We afterwards accused of High Treason having by great sollicitation and encouragement caused those multitudes to come down in that manner The Lords having in vain tried this way appoint upon the advice of the Judges that a Writ be directed to the Sheriff and Justices upon divers Statutes which issued accordingly to suppress and hinder all tumultuous resort in obedience to which the Justices and other Ministers appoint the Constables to attend about Westminster to hinder that unlawful Conflux of People This was no sooner done but the Constables and Justices of the Peace were sent for by the House of Commons the setting such a Watch Voted to be a breach of Priviledgâ— and before any Conference with the Lords by whose direction that legal Writ issued out the Watch discharged and one of the Justices for doing his Duty according to that Writ sent to the Tower About the same time there was a Tumultuous Assembly of Brownists Anabaptists and other Sectaries called together by the Sound of a Bell into a place in Southwark where the Arms and Magazine for that Burrough were kept The Constable knowing such Meetings to be unlawful and the Consequences of them especially in such places to be very dangerous came amongst them He was no sooner come but he was reproached with words beaten and dragged in a barbarous manner insomuch as he hardly escaped from them with his life Complaint was made by him to the next Justices and Oath made of the truth of that complaint whereupon a Writ was sent to the Sheriff to impannel a Jury according to the Law for the examination and finding of this Riot This was complained of too and the meeting in how tumultuous and disorderly a manner soever pretended to be only for the drawing of a Petition against Bishops and that the Constable was a friend to Bishops and came to cross them and to hinder Men from subscribing that Petition Hereupon an Order was made in the House of Commons and the under-Sheriff of Surrey by it enjoyned that he should not suffer any proceedings to be made upon any inquisition that might concern any persons who met together to subscribe a Petition to be preferred to that House What Authority the House of Commons had or have to send any such Injunctions We cannot conceive yet by this any disorderly persons let their Intentions and demeanour be never so Seditious are above the reach of the Law and Justice if they please to say they meet to prepare any Petition to the House of Commons And 't is no wonder if after all this care taken to remove all those Obstacles the Law had put in the way to such Tumults all people took upon them to visit Our Parliament in such manner as they thought fit and thereupon great multitudes of mutinous people every day resorted to Westminster threatned to pull down the Lodgings where divers of the Bishops lay assaulted some in their Coaches chased others with Boats by water laid violent hands on the Archbishop of York in his passing to the House and had he not been rescued by force it is probable they had murthered him crying through the Streets Westminster-Hall and between the two Houses No Bishops No Bishops No Popish Lords and misused the several Members of either House who they were informed favoured not their desperate and Seditious ends proclaiming the names of several of the Peers as Evil and Rotten-Hearted Lords attempting the defacing the Abby at Westminster with great Violence and in their return from thence made a Stand before Our Gate at White-Hall said They would have no more Porters-Lodge but would speak with the King when they pleased and used such desperate Rebellious discourse that We had great reason to believe Our own Person Our Royal Consort and Our Children to be in evident Danger of Violence and therefore were compelled at Our great charge to entertain a Guard for securing Us from that Danger And yet all this Danger is so slighted that We are told in the last Declaration after We have so often urged it That it is a Suggestion as false as the Father of Lies can invent These Licentious and unpunished Tumults gave occasion to the Bishops who could not repair to the House without Danger of their Lives to make that their Protestation for the which they were forthwith accused of High Treason by the House of Commons and committed to the Tower by the House of Peers where they continued for the space of four Months at the least That small Guard We had taken for Our necessary Safety and the resort of some Officers who attended both Our Houses of Parliament for Mony due to them by Act of Parliament and upon the publick Faith to Our Court for Our Defence against those Tumults was objected against Us and divers counterfeit Letters were written and sensless Fears infused into the Citizens of London that We had a design of actual Violence upon that City and thereupon they were drawn into Arms and put upon their Guard against Us. So that there was not only no provision made for the suppressing of Tumults but that provision the Law had made against them discountenanced and taken away and We Our Self censured for taking so much strength about Us as might for some time oppose such Force as was like to be offered to Our own Gates What should We do We very well knew the Contrivers of all these Mischiefs who had by their exceeding Industry and Malice wrought this Distraction throughout the Kingdom such a defection of Allegiance in the Common people such a damp of Trade in the City and so horrid a Confusion in the Church and all this to
satisfie their own private Ends and Ambition for themselves know what overtures have been made by them and with what importunity for Offices and Preferments what great Services should have been done for Us and what other undertakings were even to have saved the Life of the Earl of Strafford if We would confer such Offices upon them We were sure We could make such particular proofs against them of a solemn Combination entred into by them for altering the Government of the Church and State of their designing Offices to themselves and other Men of their solliciting and drawing down the Tumults to Westminster and of their bidding the People in the height of their rage and fury to go to White-Hall of their scornful and odious mention of Our Person and their design of getting Our Son the Prince into their hands of their treating with Foreign Power to assist them if they should fail in their enterprises Yet we saw too that their Interest and reputation was so great with many of both Houses of Parliament their Power so absolute with a multitude of Brownists Anabaptists and other Sectaries about London who were ready to appear in a body at their command that it would be a hard matter to proceed against them In this streight We resolved to do Our part in both to give Our People a clear satisfaction of Our upright Intentions to the publick whereby they should find their Happiness did not at all depend on such Instruments and to proceed against the Persons of the other in a legal way that all the world might see what Ambition Malice and Sedition had been had under the Vizour of Conscience and Religion Hereupon We prepared an Answer to the Remonstrance the House of Commons had before published to the People of the State of the Kingdom wherein without taking notice of the uncomely Language in and the Circumstances of that Remonstrance We declared with as gracious and full Expressions as We could make Our earnest Resolutions for the maintenance of the true Protestant Religion the Liberty and Property of the Subject and the Law of the Land and made no less gracious offers to consent to any Act that should be offered for the ease of tender Consciences in matters indifferent and very earnestly desired that the same might be provided and whatever else should be thought necessary for the Peace and Security of Our People And then that We might likewise manifest the Actions of that Malignant Party which had done so much mischief and intended so much more We resolved to accuse the Lord Kimbolton Master Hollis Master Pym Master Hampden and Master Stroud who had so maliciously contrived the Ruine of Our Self and the established Government of this Church and Kingdom and Sir Arthur Hesilrigge who had been made their Instrument to obey and execute their bold and wild designs of High Treason as We had great reason to do hoping that their Duty due to Us and the Obligations We had put upon Our People this Parliament would never suffer the Interest and reputation of these Men to be laid in the scale and to over-weigh Our Regal Authority and the Law of the Land but that We should have found a way open to a fair and Legal Trial of them which was all We desired How our proceeding was in that business and Our managery of it We have truly and at large set forth in Our Answer to the Declaration of both Houses of the nineteenth of May That what We did first in acquainting the House of Commons with Our Accusation by Our Serjeant at Arms was in Correspondence and out of regard to that House that We might rather have them delivered to the hands of Justice by them than apprehend them by an ordinary Minister of Justice which We were and are assured whatever Doctrine is preached to the contrary We might well have done in the case of Treason otherwise that Maxime in the Law acknowledged in a Petition of both Houses to Us in the beginning of Our Reign in the Case of the Earl of Arundel That in case of Treason Felony and breach of Peace Priviledge of Parliament doth not extend is of no signification The words are They find it an undoubted Right and constant Priviledge of Parliament That no Member of Parliament sitting the Parliament or within the usual times of Priviledge of Parliament is to be imprisoned or restrained without Sentence or Order of the House unless it be for Treason Felony or for refusing to give Sureties for the Peace In those Cases 't was then thought a Member of either House was not to be distinguished from another Subject and why We might not as well have expected that upon Our Articles not so general as a meer verbal Accusation of High Treason either House would have committed their several Members as they had done so many this Parliament and about that time Twelve together upon a confessed ground which every Man there who knew what Treason was knew that fact to be none meerly because they were accused and as the House of Peers had formerly done a Member of that House the Earl of Bristol accused in the same manner most of the good Lords being then Judges We neither could then nor can yet understand That Our own coming to the House was to prevent that shedding of blood which in all possibility was likely to follow that Order made the night before for resisting all such Officers who endeavoured upon how legal Warrant soever to arrest any Members of either House an Order much more unjustifiable by any Rule of Law and Justice by which Orders or Acts are to be examined than any thing We have done or any body by Our Authority That Our purpose was no other but to acquaint that House with the matter of Our Accusation to desire their Persons might be secured and without any thought of the least violation of their Priviledges This is that which We did Examine now their part and their progress since and then judge whose Priviledges have been invaded and with how good a mind to the Common-wealth they have proceeded We were no sooner gone but the House adjourned it self with some unusual expressions of offence and We were speedily informed that some Reports and Scandals were raised against Us in Our City of London That We had offered Violence to Our House of Commons come thither with force to murther several Members and used threatning Speeches there against Our Parliament and that this was but a Preface to an attempt We meant to make against and upon the City Whereupon We resolved the next day to go to the Guild-Hall and to shew the great Confidence We had in the affections of Our said City which We expected should have begot a proportionable Confidence from them in Us We went attended with very few of Our own Servants and then in the presence of the Lord Mayor the Aldermen and a very great assembly of the chief Citizens and others We made
had broke any Priviledge or that the casual breaking of Priviledge could have produced such prodigious Distempers But We were no sooner advertised where Our mistaking was but without recrimination or complaining of the Injuries against Our Self We sent to both Houses on the twelfth and fourteenth of January by Message That in Our proceeding against those Persons We had not the least Intention of violating their Priviledges which We would be willing to assert by any reasonable way We should be advised That We would wave Our former proceedings againsts them and when the minds of Men should be composed would proceed in an unquestionable way in the mean time desired all jealousies might be laid aside and application be made to the publick and pressing Affairs especially to those of Ireland which cried for the utmost of Our Assistance But it concerned those Persons by no means to suffer such a Composition if these Fears and Jealousies were not kept up and inflamed in the People and the Distractions heightned they knew they should not only be disappointed of the Places Offices Honours and Employments they had promised themselves but be exposed to the Justice of the Law and just Hatred of all good Men. Therefore the business of both Kingdoms was not considerable to the Interests of the Six Members who would be thought the Pillars both of Church and State They had now found a danger nearer hand than Ireland and an Army raised by Us in one night at Kingston upon Thames and upon some extravagant Information pretended to be given to a Committee though some of their pretended Witnesses publickly in the House disavowed any such Testimony they procured an Order to be framed and though before the publishing of it they had full and clear evidence to the contrary by Persons come immediately from the place and testifying it to be most quiet and peaceable they yet had power to procure that Order to be published on the thirteenth of January the next day after they had received so gracious a Message from Us declaring that the Lord Digby and Colonel Lunsford the former of which was in the Town only with a Coach and six Horses the other only attended by his Servant and hath been since earnestly pressed by the Serjeant of the House of Commons in whose custody he was to accuse the Lord Digby with promises that thereby himself should be discharged had gathered Troops of Horse and appeared in a warlike manner at Kingston upon Thames being within a Mile of Our Court to the terror and affrightment of Our good Subjects and to the disturbance of the publick weal of the Kingdom and therefore it was ordered That the Sheriff and Justices of the Peace should with the Assistance of the Train-Bands suppress such Assemblies c. And this way they found out to draw that County to affront Us and sent multitudes of mean people under pretence of petitioning Us to shew Us how unsecure Our Residence was like to be there too and so in a short time compelled Us Our Royal Consort and Our Children to remove to Our Castle at Windsor They proceed then by a Close Committee a thing scarce heard of till this Parliament and of dangerous consequence to the fame and reputation of all Men to examine such mean unknown persons as they had by Threats and Promises solicited to that purpose concerning the circumstances of Our coming to the House exhibiting bold and malicious Interrogatories and Questions concerning Our Self and upon such wild Informations of desperate persons contrary to the known truth and concealing other Examinations which they had taken and by which the contrary to what they would have the People believe would have appeared particularly that very full Examination of Captain Ashley wherein Our publick and peremptory Commands against all manner of Violence though provoked are sufficiently manifested they procured an infamous Declaration to be published by the House of Commons for the House of Peers could not be yet prevailed with to joyn in those Extravagancies on the seventeenth of January mentioning Our coming to the House and some rude expressions of some persons who if there were any such persons there We are most confident they were not of Our Train and would infer from some Mens calling for the Word at Our coming out of the House which is a form used in Our Court that those of Our Train who are before may know when and whither they are to go that We had a purpose to have fallen upon the House of Commons and to have cut all their Throats and do therefore declare That Our coming to the House was a traitorous Design against the King and Parliament That Our Proclamation issued out of the Apprehension of them was false scandalous and illegal That it was lawful for all Men to harbour them and that whosever did so should be under the Protection and Priviledge of Parliament with many other expressions of and aspersions upon Us which they hoped would render Us odious to Our good Subjects and force Us for Our safety to submit to such unreasonable Propositions which amongst themselves they had provided to be offered to Us or provoke Us to such Actions as might give them some advantage To keep the People in a continual Alarm and apprehension of Danger few days passed without some pretended Discovery by Sir Walter Earl or other quick-sighted Men of some Treason or Plot against the Parliament the City or the Kingdom and upon every light and impossible Information many of Our Subjects sent for out of several Counties who after chargeable attendance were dismissed without any reparation or reprehension One day the Tower of London is in danger to be taken and Information given That great Multitudes at least a hundred had that day resorted to visit a Priest then a Prisoner there by Order of the Lords and that at the time of the Information above fifty or threescore were then there and a Warder dispatched of purpose to give that notice upon enquiry but four Persons were then found to be there and but eight all that day who had visited that Priest Another day a Tailour in a Ditch in the open fields over-hears two Passengers to plot the death of Mr. Pym and of many other Members of both Houses then Libellous Letters found in the Streets without names probably contrived by themselves and by their Power published printed and entred in their Journals and Intimations given of the Papists training under ground and of notable provision of Ammunition in Houses where upon examination a single Sword and a Bow and Arrows are found a design of the Inhabitants of Covent-Garden to murther the City of London news from France Italy Spain and Denmark of Arms ready to come for England with infinite such ridiculous Discourses which are not only suffered and directed to be Printed but such countenance and credit given to them that thereupon Guards must be doubled Correspondencies and Letters interrupted and broken open even
Oath upon Our Subjects to execute all the Commands of both Houses They waste and consume the Mony given by Act of Parliament for the discharge of the great Debt of the Kingdom and for the relief of the bleeding Condition of Ireland imploy the Mony brought in by the Adventurers and those Men who are levied by Our Authority and Commission for the preservation of Our miserable Subjects there to serve them in a War against Us whereby all Men may see what reason We had not to consent to a Warrant dormant under pretence of Levies for Ireland which might have furnished them with Men to fight against Us as the same Pretence hath done with all the Arms We had in Our Magazines They commit such of Our Subjects to Prison whom they are pleased to suspect as the Earl of Portland and for no other reason but that they believe them loyal to Us censure and degrade nine Lords at a clap for obeying Our Summons and coming to Us when scarce that number concurred in the Judgment and declared two others Enemies to the Commonwealth taking their Votes from them without so much as summoning them to answer any Charge brought against them They presume to take Tonnage and Poundage by a pretended Ordinance without Our Consent though they have so often pressed it against Us that We took it without theirs and so now dispence with a Praemunire made this Parliament as they have formerly done with Treason Lastly to shew into what hands they intend the Government of this Kingdom shall be put they have reduced the business of the whole Kingdom from both Houses of Parliament into the hands of a few desperate persons who have the power committed to them to act this Tragedy without acquainting the Houses and so have gotten the Authority of King and both Houses of Parliament to destroy all Three make Orders to break up Houses take away Plate and Money because 't is possible the Owners wish it with Us at York send Troops of Horse to make War upon Us in what Counties they please and commit such unheard-of Acts of Oppression and Injustice as no Story can parallel where the least form of Government hath been left that all Our good Subjects may see by what Rules they shall live and what Right they are like to enjoy when these Men have gotten the Sway who in the infancy of their Power and when there is yet left some memory of and reverence to the Laws under which their Fathers lived so happily dare leap over all those known and confessed Principles of Government and Obedience and exercise a Tyranny both over Prince and People more insupportable than Confusion it self And for all this impudent Injustice odious to God and Man what is objected against Us That We will not be advised by Our Parliament In what what one Proposition that is evidently for the ease of Our Subjects have We denied That We have granted many is confessed We will not consent that the Ordinance of the Militia shall be executed and obeyed that is We will not allow that both Houses of Parliament shall make Laws and impose upon the Property and Liberty of Our Subjects Without Our Consent which if We should yield to upon the same pretences of Necessity a word fatal to this Kingdom and the publick good the House of Commons might as well and would quickly come to make Laws without the House of Peers and the common People without either nor are willing that those Men who have discovered all Malice to Our Person and dis-esteem and irreverence of Our Office shall be legally qualified to take up Arms against Us when they shall be thereunto provoked by their Malice or Ambition There can be no new thing said in this Argument We must refer Our good Subjects to Our several Answers Declarations and Proclamations in that point only it will be worth their considering that this extraordinary unheard-of extravagant Power was assumed in a case of peremptory Necessity for the prevention of imminent Danger in the beginning of March how long it was in design before is understood by Sir Arthur Hesilrigge his Bill long preceeding whether any such Danger hath been since discovered and whether unspeakable Calamities have not already and are not like to ensue from that Fountain We wish it were not too apparent And if those Fears and Jealousies which seem to make that Ordinance necessary were indeed real and honest that in truth nothing were desired but putting the Kingdom into a posture that is that all Our Loving Subjects might be provided with Arms and dexterous in the using them if any Invasion or Rebellion should be is not all this Care taken and all this Security provided for by the Commission of Array What honest end can that Ordinance have which is not obtained by the execution of and obedience to that Commission But 't is true the power is not in those hands nor like to be imployed to those uses 't is now intended Who hath not heard these Men say That the alteration they intend and is necessary both in Church and State must be made by blood Are not the Principles by which they live destructive to all Laws and Compacts Is not every thing Necessary they think so and every thing lawful that is in order to that Necessity Sure if Our good Subjects were throughly awake in this business they would think they had much more cause to thank Us for denying this Ordinance than for granting all that We have granted What is there else We do not think Sir John Hotham hath dealt well with Us in keeping Our Town from Us nor do take it kindly that We are robbed of Our Magazine and Munition but think of recovering both by Force because We cannot have them otherwise which will be an actual levying War against Our Parliament This Argument is sufficiently vexed too Our good Subjects will read the Messages Answers Votes and Declarations in this Case and We are sure upon the grounds laid to justifie this Treason no Subject in England hath a House of his own which may not to morrow be given to Sir John Hotham for as long a term as they think fit and he may be sent to morrow to murther Us and be no Traitor and they who shall shut the door against him shall be Delinquents Is there no more Yes We will not submit to those Nineteen dutiful and modest Propositions which have been lately thrown at Us as the necessary means of removing Jealousies and Differences and as the last Complement of all their Scorns and Injuries that Posterity may see to what a tameness We were brought when such things were asked of Us We will not be content that all Our Officers and Ministers of State be they never so faithful to Us so affectionate to their Country never so wise never so honest shall be immediately removed from Us and their places be disgraced and undone and in their rooms these Gentlemen who have
their Actions are declared Treasonable and their Persons Traitors and thereupon Your Majesty hath set up Your Standard against them whereby You have put the two Houses of Parliament and in them this whole Kingdom out of Your Protection so that until Your Majesty shall recall those Proclamations and Declarations whereby the Earl of Essex and both Houses of Parliament and their Adherents and Assistants and such as have obeyed and executed their Commands and Directions according to their Duties are declared Traitors or otherwise Delinquents and untill the Standard set up in pursuance of the said Proclamations be taken down Your Majesty hath put us into such a condition that whilest we so remain we cannot by the fundamental Priviledges of Parliament the publick Trust reposed in us or with the general good and safety of this Kingdom give Your Majesty any other Answer to this Message Joh. Brown Cler. Parliament H. Elsinge Cler. Parl. D. Com. This strange Answer might well have discouraged Us from any thought of proceeding further this way and informed Us sufficiently what spirit still governed amongst those few who continued still in both Houses otherwise after so many bitter and invective Messages and Declarations sent to Us and published against Us We should not have been reproached with Our Proclamations and Declarations set forth by Us as the effect of such evil Counsel as was unparallel'd by any former Examples We believe indeed such Proclamations and Declarations have never been before set forth but were former times ever acquainted with such intolerable Provocations Were there ever before these twelve months Declarations published in the name of eitheir or both Houses of Parliament to make their King odious to the People Have either or both Houses ever before assumed or pretended to a Power to raise Armes or levy War in any Cause or can both Houses together exercise such a Power Are those Actions which the Law hath defined literally and expresly to be Treasonable or such Persons to be Traitors not so because they are done by Members of either House or their appointment And must not We declare such who March with Arms and Force to destroy Us to be Traitors because the Earl of Essex is their General Those whom We have or do accuse We have named together with their Crimes notorious by the known Law of the Land a favour not granted to Our Evil Counsellors and appeal to that known Law to judge between Us And now that by this We should have put the whole Kingdom out of Our Protection in whose behalf We do all that We have done is a corrupt Gloss upon such a Text as cannot be perverted but by the cunning practices of such who wish not well to King or People Yet that no weak persons might be misled by that Imputation upon Us we sent a Reply to that Answer in these words WE will not repeat what means We have used to prevent the dangerous and distracted estate of the Kingdom nor how those means have been interpreted because being desirous to avoid effusion of blood We are willing to decline all memory of former bitterness that might make Our offer of a Treaty less readily accepted We never did declare nor ever intended to declare both Our Houses of Parliament Traitors or set up Our Standard against them and much less to put them and this Kingdom out of Our Protection We utterly profess against it before God and the World And further to remove all possible Scruples which may hinder the Treaty so much desired by Vs We hereby promise so that a day be appointed by you for the revoking of your Declarations against all Persons as Traitors or otherways for assisting of Vs We shall with all chearfulness upon the same day recall Our Proclamations and Declarations and take down Our Standard In which Treaty We shall be read to grant any thing that shall be really for the good of Our Subjects Conjuring you to consider the bleeding condition of Ireland and the dangerous condition of England in as high a degree as by these Our Offers We have declared Our Self to do and assuring you that Our chief desire in this World is to beget a good understanding and mutual confidence betwixt Vs and Our two Houses of Parliament This Message produced an Answer little differing from the former like Men who had no other measure of the justice of their Cause than their Power to oppress Us forgetting their own Duties they sharply inform Us of Ours in these words May it please Your Majesty IF we the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled should repeat all the ways we have taken the endeavours we have used and the expressions we have made unto Your Majesty to prevent those Distractions and Dangers Your Majesty speaks of likely to fall upon this Kingdom we should too much enlarge this Reply Therefore as we humbly so shall we only let your Majesty know that we cannot recede from our former Answer for the reasons therein expressed for that Your Majesty hath not taken down Your Standard recalled Your Proclamations and Declarations whereby You have declared the Actions of both Houses of Parliament to be Treasonable and their Persons Traitors And You have published the same since Your Message of the 25th of August by Your late Instructions sent to Your Commissioners of Array Which Standard being taking down and the Declarations Proclamations and Instructions recalled if Your Majesty shall then upon this our humble Petition leaving Your Forces return unto Your Parliament and receive their faithful Advice Your Majesty will find such expressions of our Fidelities and Duties as shall assure You that Your Safety Honour and Greatness can only be found in the affections of Your People and the sincere Counsels of Your Parliament whose constant and undiscouraged Endeavours and Consultations have passed through Difficulties unheard-of only to secure Your Kingdoms from the violent Mischiefs and Dangers now ready to fall upon them and every part of them who deserve better of Your Majesty and can never allow themselves representing likewise Your whole Kingdom to be balanced with those Persons whose desperate Dispositions and Counsels prevail still so to interrupt all our endeavours for the relieving of bleeding Ireland as we may fear our labours and vast expences will be fruitless to that distressed Kingdom As Your Presence is thus humbly desired by us so is it in our hopes Your Majesty will in your reason believe there is no other way than this to make Your Self happy and Your Kingdom safe John Brown Cler. Parliament Without any bitterness or reprehension of their neglect of Us and the publick Peace to express Our deep sense of the Calamities at hand We yet once more hoping to awake them to a Christian tenderness towards the whole Kingdom sent to them in these words WHo have taken most ways used most endeavours and made most real expressions to prevent the present Distractions and Dangers let all the World
Miseries and the general Calamities of this Kingdom which must if this War continue speedily overwhelm this whole Nation take no Advantage of it But if you shall really pursue what you presented to Us at Colebrook We shall make good all that We then gave you in Answer to it whereby the hearts of Our distressed Subjects may be raised with the Hopes of Peace without which Religion the Laws and Liberties can no ways be settled and secured Touching the late and sad Accident you mention if you thereby intend that of Brainceford We desire you once to deal ingenuously with the People and to let them see Our last Message to you and Our Declaration to them concerning the same both which We sent to Our Press at London but were taken away from Our Messenger and not suffered to be published and then We doubt not but they will be soon undeceived and easily find out those Counsels which do rather perswade a desperate Division than a good Agreement betwixt Us Our two Houses and People MDCXLII III. The Proceedings in the late Treaty of Peace Together with several Letters of His MAJESTY to the Queen and of Prince Rupert to the Earl of Northampton which were intercepted and brought up to the Parliament With a Declaration of the Lords and Commons upon those Proceedings and Letters The humble Desires and Propositions of the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled tendred unto His Majesty Feb. 1. 1642. WE Your Majesty's most humble and faithful Subjects the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled having in our thoughts the Glory of God Your Majesty's Honour and the Prosperity of Your People and being most grievously afflicted with the pressing Miseries and Calamities which have overwhelmed Your two Kingdoms of England and Ireland since Your Majesty hath by the perswasion of evil Counsellors withdrawn Your Self from the Parliament raised an Army against it and by force thereof protected Delinquents from the Justice of it constraining us to take Armes for the defence of our Religion Laws Liberties Privileges of Parliament and for the sitting of the Parliament in safety which Fears and Dangers are continued and increased by the raising drawing together and arming of great numbers of Papists under the command of the Earl of Newcastle likewise by making the Lord Herbert of Ragland and other known Papists Commanders of great Forces whereby many grievous Oppressions Rapines and Cruelties have been and are daily exercised upon the persons and estates of Your People much innocent blood hath been spilt and the Papists have attained means of attempting and hopes of effecting their mischievous Design of rooting out the Reformed Religion and destroying the professors thereof in the tender sense and compassion of these evils under which Your People and Kingdom lie according to the duty which we owe to God Your Majesty and the Kingdom for which we are intrusted do most earnestly desire that an end may be put to these great Distempers and Distractions for the preventing of that Desolation which doth threaten all Your Majesties Dominions And as we have rendred and still are ready to render to Your Majesty that Subjection Obedience and Service which we owe unto You so we most humbly beseech Your Majesty to remove the Cause of this War and to vouchsafe us that Peace and Protection which we and our Ancestors have formerly enjoyed under Your Majesty and Your Royal Predecessors and graciously to accept and grant these most humble Desires and Propositions I. That Your Majesty will be pleased to disband Your Armies as we likewise shall be ready to disband all those Forces which we have raised and that You will be pleased to return to your Parliament II. That You will leave Delinquents to a Legal Trial and Judgement of Parliament III. That the Papists may not only be disbanded but disarmed according to Law IV. That Your Majesty will be pleased to give Your Royal Assent unto the Bill for taking away Superstitious Innovations to the Bill for the utter abolishing and taking away of all Archbishops Bishops their Chancellors and Commissaries Deans Subdeans Deans and Chapters Archdeacons Canons and Prebendaries and all Chanters Chancellors Treasurers Subtreasurers Succentors and Sacrists and all Vicars Choral and Choristers old Vicars and new Vicars of any Cathedral or Collegiate Church and all other their under-Officers out of the Church of England to the Bill against Scandalous Ministers to the Bill against Pluralities and to the Bill for Consultation to be had with godly religious and learned Divines That Your Majesty will be pleased to promise to pass such other good Bills for settling of Church-Government as upon consultation with the Assembly of the said Divines shall be resolved on by both Houses of Parliament and by them be presented to your Majesty V. That Your Majesty having exprest in Your Answer to the Nineteen Propositions of both Houses of Parliament a hearty affection and Intentions for the rooting out of Popery out of this Kingdom and that if both the Houses of Parliament can yet find a more effectual course to disable Jesuits Priests and Popish Recusants from disturbing the State or eluding the Laws that You would willingly give Your Consent unto it That You would be graciously pleased for the better discovery and speedier conviction of Recusants that an Oath may be established by Act of Parliament to be administred in such manner as by both Houses shall be agreed on wherein they shall abjure and renounce the Popes Supremacy the doctrine of Transubstantiation Purgatory worshipping of the consecrated Hoast Crucifixes and Images and the refusing the said Oath being tendred in such manner as shall be appointed by Act of Parliament shall be a sufficient Conviction in Law of Recusancy And that Your Majesty will be graciously pleased to give Your Royal Assent unto a Bill for the Education of the Children of Papists by Protestants in the Protestant Religion That for the more effectual execution of the Laws against Popish Recusants Your Majesty would be pleased to consent to a Bill for the true levying of the Penalties against them and that the same Penalty may be levyed and disposed of in such manner as both Houses of Parliament shall agree on so as Your Majesty be at no loss and likewise to a Bill whereby the practice of Papists against the State may be prevented and the Laws against them duly executed VI. That the Earl of Bristol may be removed from Your Majesty's Counsels and that both he and the Lord Herbert eldest Son to the Earl of Worcester may likewise be restrained from coming within the verge of the Court and that they may not bear any Office or have any imployments concerning the State or Commonwealth VII That Your Majesty will be graciously pleased by Act of Parliament to settle the Militia both by Sea and Land and for the Forts and Ports of the Kingdom in such a manner as shall be agreed on by both Houses VIII That Your Majesty will be pleased
by Your Letters Patents to make Sir John Brampston Chief Justice of Your Court of Kings Bench William Lenthal Esquire the now Speaker of the Commons House Master of the Rolls and to continue the Lord Chief Justice Banks Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas and likewise to make Master Serjeant Wilde Chief Baron of Your Court of Exchequer and that Master Justice Bacon may be continued and Master Serjeant Rolls and Master Serjeant Atkins made Justices of the Kings Bench that Master Justice Reeves and Master Justice Foster may be continued and Master Serjeant Phesant made one of Your Justices of Your Court of Common Pleas that Master Serjeant Creswel Master Samuel Brown and Master John Puleston may be Barons of the Exchequer and that all these and all the Judges of the same Courts for the time to come may hold their places by Letters Patents under the great great Seal quamdiu se bene gesserint and that the several persons not before named that do hold any of these places before mentioned may be removed IX That all such persons as have been put out of the Commissions of Peace or Oyer and Terminer or from being Custodes Rotulorum since the first day of April 1642. other than such as were put out by desire of both or either of the Houses of Parliament may again be put into those Commissions and Offices and such that persons may be put out of those Commissions and Offices as shall be excepted against by both Houses of Parliament X. That Your Majesty will be pleased to pass the Bill now presented to Your Majesty to vindicate and secure the Privileges of Parliament from the ill consequence of the late Precedent in the Charge and Proceeding against the Lord Kimbolton now Earl of Manchester and the five Members of the House of Commons XI That Your Majesty's Royal Assent may be given unto such Acts as shall be advised by both Houses of Parliament for the satisfying and paying the Debts and Damages wherein the two Houses of Parliament have ingaged the Publick Faith of the Kingdom XII That Your Majesty will be pleased according to a Gracious Answer heretofore received from You to enter into a more strict Alliance with the States of the United Provinces and other Neighbour Princes and States of the Protestant Religion for the defence and maintenance thereof against all designs and attempts of the Popish and Jesuitical Faction to subvert and suppress it whereby Your Subjects may hope to be free from the mischiefs which this Kingdom hath endured through the power which some of that Party have had in Your Counsels and will be much encouraged in a Parliamentary way for Your Aid and Assistance in restoring Your Royal Sister and the Prince Elector to those Dignities and Dominions which belong unto them and relieving the other distressed Protestant Princes who have suffered in the same Cause XIII That in the General Pardon which Your Majesty hath been pleased to offer to Your Subjects all Offences and Misdemeanours committed before the tenth of January 1641. which have been or shall be questioned or proceeded against in Parliament upon complaint in the House of Commons before the tenth of January 1643. shall be excepted which offences and misdemeanours shall never the less be taken and adjudged to be fully discharged against all other inferiour Courts That likewise there shall be an exception of all Offences committed by any person or Persons which hath or have had any hand or practice in the Rebellion of Ireland which hath or have given any counsel assistance or encouragement to the Rebels there for the maintenance of that Rebellion as likewise an exception of William Earl of Newcastle and George Lord Digby XIV That Your Majesty will be pleased to restore such Members of either House of Parliament to their several places of Services and Imployment out of which they have been put since the beginning of this Parliament that they may receive satisfaction and reparation for those places and for the profits which they have lost by such removals upon the Petition of both Houses of Parliament and that all others may be restored to their Offices and Imployments who have been put out of the same upon any displeasure conceived against them for any Assistance given to both Houses of Parliament or obeying their Commands or forbearing to leave their Attendance upon the Parliament without licence or for any other occasion arising from these unhappy Differences betwixt Your Majesty and both Houses of Parliament upon the like Petition of both Houses These things being granted and performed as it hath always been our hearty Prayer so shall we be enabled to make it our hopeful Endeavour That Your Majesty and Your People may enjoy the blessings of Peace Truth and Justice the Royalty and Greatness of Your Throne may be supported by the Loyal and bountiful Affections of Your People their Liberties and Privileges maintained by Your Majesty's Protection and Justice and this publick Honour and Happiness of Your Majesty and all Your Dominions communicated to other Churches and States of Your Alliance and derived to Your Royal Posterity and the future Generations in this Kingdom for ever H. Elsinge Cler. Parl. D. Com. His MAJESTY'S Answer to the Desires and Propositions of both Houses February the third 1642. Received at a Conference with the Lords February the sixth 1642. IF His Majesty had not given up all the faculties of His Soul to an earnest endeavour of a Peace and Reconciliation with His People or if He would suffer Himself by any Provocation to be drawn to a sharpness of Language at a time when there seems somewhat like an Overture of Accommodation He could not but resent the heavy charges upon Him in the Preamble of these Propositions and would not suffer Himself to be reproached with protecting of Delinquents by force from Justice His Majesty's desire having always been that all Men should be tryed by the known Law and having been refused it with raising an Army against His Parliament and to be told that Arms have been taken up against Him for the defence of Religion Laws Liberties Privileges of Parliament and for the sitting of the Parliament in safety with many other Particulars in that Preamble so often and so fully answered by His Majesty without remembring the world of the time and circumstances of raising those Arms against Him when His Majesty was so far from being in a condition to invade other mens Rights that He was not able to maintain and defend His own from violence and without telling His good Subjects that their Religion the true Protestant Religion in which His Majesty was born hath faithfully lived and to which He will die a willing Sacrifice their Laws Liberties Priviledges and safety of Parliament were so amply settled and established or offered to be so by His Majesty before any Army was raised against Him and long before any raised by Him for His defence that if nothing had
Cessation so limited and qualified they may forthwith proceed to treat upon the Propositions and because the time is so far elapsed in these preparations they desire the Cessation may begin the five and twentieth of this instant March or sooner if it may be and in the mean time notice to be given to all the Forces in the several and remote parts and the Commanders Officers Souldiers are enjoyned to observe this Cessation accordingly to which they hope and pray that God will give such a blessing that thereupon Peace Safety and Happiness may be produced and confirmed to His Majesty and all His People H. Elsinge Cler. Parl. Dom. Com. INSTRUCTIONS agreed on by the Lords and Commons in Parliament for Algernon Earl of Northumberland William Lord Viscount Say and Seal William Pierrepont Esq Sir William Armyne Bar. Sir John Holland Bar. and Bulstrode Whitelocke Esq Committees appointed to attend His MAJESTY upon the Propositions made by His Majesty to the Parliament and likewise upon the other Propositions humbly presented from them to His Majesty I. YOU shall present to His Majesty the Articles agreed on for the Cessation of Arms humbly desiring His Majesty to ratifie and confirm the same under the Great Seal which being obtained you are to send it up to the Parliament with all possible speed and shall likewise beseech the King to dispatch away Messengers to the Generals Commanders and Soldiers of all His Armies and Forces with a strict Command Injunction that they observe those Articles of Cessation according as they are agreed upon as the two Houses likewise intend to give the like direction to the Lord General of the Armies raised for their Defence II. After His Majesty hath declared and ratified the Cessation you shall then proceed to the Treaty beginning with the first Proposition on His Majesty's behalf concerning His Majesty's own Revenue his Magazines Towns Forts and Ships and thereunto make this Answer You shall declare That the two Houses of Parliament have not made use of His Majesty's own Revenue but in a very small proportion which for a good part hath been employed in the maintenance of His Majesty's Children according to the allowance established by Himself and they will satisfie what shall remain due to His Majesty of those Sums received out of His Majesty's own Revenues and shall leave the same to His Majesty for the time to come And you likewise shall propound to His Majesty that He will restore what hath been taken for His use upon any of the Bills assigned to other purposes by several Acts of Parliament or out of the provision made for the War of Ireland That they will remove the Garrisons out of all Towns and Forts in their hands wherein there were no Garrisons before these Troubles and slight all Fortifications made since that time which Towns and Forts it is to be agreed on both parts shall continue in the same condition they were in before and that those Garrisons shall not be renewed nor the Fortifications repaired without Consent of His Majesty and both Houses of Parliament That for those Towns and Forts which are within the Jurisdiction of the Cinque Ports they shall be delivered up into the hands of such a Noble person as His Majesty shall appoint to be Warden of the Cinque-Ports being such a one as they shall confide in That the Town of Portsmouth shall be reduced to the number of the Garrison as was at the time when the Lords and Commons undertook the custody thereof and such other Forts Castles and Towns as were formerly kept by Garrisons as have been taken by them into their care and custody since the beginning of these Troubles shall be reduced to such proportion of Garrison as they had in the year 1636 and shall be so continued and that all the said Towns Forts and Castles shall be delivered up into the hands of such persons of Quality and Trust to be likewise nominated by His Majesty as the two Houses shall confide in That the Warden of the Cinque-Ports and all Governours and Commanders of Towns Castles and Forts shall keep the same Towns Castles and Forts respectively for the Service of His Majesty and the Safety of the Kingdom and that they shall not admit into any of them any Forein Forces raised without His Majesty's Authority and Consent of the two Houses of Parliament and they shall use their uttermost endeavours to suppress all Forces whatsoever raised without such Authority and Consent and they shall seise all Arms and Ammunition provided for any such Forces That the Ships shall be delivered into the Charge of such a Noble person as His Majesty shall nominate to be Lord High-Admiral of England and the two Houses of Parliament confide in who shall receive the same Office by Letters Patent quamdiu bene se gesserit and shall have power to nominate and appoint all subordinate Commanders and Officers and have all other powers appertaining to the Office of High-Admiral which Ships he shall employ for the defence of the Kingdom against all Forein Forces whatsoever and for the safeguard of Merchants securing of Trade and the guarding of Ireland and the intercepting of all Supplies to be carried to the Rebels and shall use his uttermost endeavour to suppress all Forces which shall be raised by any person without His Majesty's Authority and Consent of the Lords and Commons in Parliament and shall seise all Arms and Ammunition provided for supply of any such Forces That all the Arms and Ammunition taken out of His Majesty's Magazines which shall remain in their hands shall be delivered into His Stores and whatsoever shall be wanting they will in convenient time supply in kind according to the proportions which they have received and that the Persons to whose charge those publick Magazines shall be committed being nominated by His Majesty shall be such as the Lords and Commons shall confide in And you shall propound to His Majesty that He will restore all such Arms and Ammunition as have been taken for His use from the several Counties Cities and Towns To the Proposition made by the two Houses concerning the disbanding of the Armies you shall humbly desire His Majesties speedy and positive Answer unto which if He shall be pleased to give His Assent you shall then beseech His Majesty in the name of both Houses that a near day may be agreed upon for the disbanding of all the Forces in the remote parts of Yorkshire and the other Northern Counties as also in Lancashire Cheshire and in the Domiion of Wales and in Cornwal and Devon and they being fully disbanded another day may be agreed on for the disbanding of all Forces in Lincolnshire Nottinghamshire Leicestershire and all other places except at Oxford and the Quarters thereunto belonging and Windsor and the Quarters thereunto belonging and that last of all a speedy day be appointed for the disbanding those two Armies at Oxford and Windsor and all the Forces
effecting whereof their most earnest Prayers and uttermost endeavours shall ever be faithfully and constantly employed in hope that God will give a blessing thereunto Hen. Elsinge Cler. Parl. D. Com. Additional Instructions concerning the Cessation March 29. IN case we shall obtain Your Majesty's Assent to the Articles of Cessation as they were last presented to Your Majesty within two days after the day of the receit of the Reasons this day presented to Your Majesty from both Houses for their not assenting to those Alterations and Additions to the Articles of Cessation offered by Your Majesty we are authorised by our Instructions this day received in the name of both Houses of Parliament to agree and conclude upon the Cessation to continue to the end of twenty days to be reckoned from the 25. of this instant March and upon a day certain as soon as may be when the same shall first begin and be of force within which time notice is to be given as well by His Majesty as by the Lords and Commons to the several Generals Commanders and Souldiers respectively to observe the same Cessation as it is qualified and limited in those Articles last presented to Your Majesty Northumberland John Holland B. Whitelocke Will. Pierrepont Will. Armyne The KING's Question concerning Removal of Quarters March 13. 1643. WHether by denying the Communication of Quarters you intend to restrain the Quarters of either Army from each other as that the Forces at Abbingdon may not remove to Banbury or the Forces at Henly may not remove to Ailesbury or to any other places within the Quarter of each Army respectively Falkland The Committees Answer concerning Removal of Quarters Mar. 31. 1643. IN Answer to Your Majesty's Question upon the third Article of the Cessation We humbly conceive That it is not intended to restrain the Quarters of their Army respectively from each other so as they come not nearer the Quarters of the other Army but that the Forces at Abbingdon may remove to Banbury or the Forces at Henly may remove to Ailesbury or to any other place within the Quarters of each Army respectively so as the Forces of either Army respectively come not nearer the Quarters of the other Army than they shall be upon the day agreed on for the Cessation to begin Northumberland John Holland B. Whitelocke Will. Pierrepont Will. Armyne The KING's Question concerning the Cessation March 31. 1643. HIS Majesty desires to be resolved by the Committee of Lords and Commons whether the Forces of Oxford may not as well go to Reading as the Forces of Henley may to Ailesbury Whether His Majesty's Forces belonging to the Army at Oxford may not go to Shrewsbury or any other place backwards from London so that in their march they approach no nearer to any Quarters of any of the contrary Armies than some of His Majesties Forces shall quarter upon the day agreed upon for the Cessation to begin Falkland The Committees Answer concerning the Cessation March 31. 1643. WE humbly conceive that by our Instructions we are not enabled to give any Resolution upon Your Majesty's Questions concerning the Removal of Quarters other than we have already given Northumberland John Holland B. Whitelocke Will. Pierrepont Will. Armyne A Letter from the Earl of Manchester April 4. My Lord I Am commanded by the Lords in Parliament to send unto your Lordship these inclosed Votes for the giving your Lordship and the Committee longer time to treat of the first Propositions This is all I have in command as Your Lordships most humble Servant Manchester Speaker of the House pro tempore April 2. Votes of both Houses for four days longer to Treat April 4. Die Lunae Aprilis 3. 1643. Resolved upon the Question by the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled THat further time shall be given to the Committee at Oxon to treat upon the two first Propositions viz. the first Proposition of His Majesty's and the first Proposition of both Houses Resolved c. That the time prescribed for the Treaty upon the two first Propositions shall be until Friday next Resolved c. That Friday in this last question shall be taken inclusive Joh. Brown Cler. Parliamentorum April 4. His Majesty's Message concerning the Cessation CHARLES R. HOW His Majesty hath spent His time since the Committee from His two Houses of Parliament came hither how willing He hath been during the four days allowed to them to expedite the Treaty it self by the free and diligent disquisition of the particulars comprized in those two first Articles and how intent He hath been upon the Cessation which He thinks so necessary and so much desires since the last Message concerning the same came to Him the Committee themselves cannot but observe And though no conclusion could be made within the two days a time limited with much strictness in a business of so great moment where all words and expressions must be carefully and exactly weighed His Majesty cannot doubt but both Houses will be willing to give and receive satisfaction in any particulars which are necessarily to be considered in concluding the same though the two days are expired And if His Majesty enlarges Himself in His Replys more than may seem necessary to the Propositions and Differences in debate it must be remembred by what unnecessary and unwarrantable expressions in this last Message from His two Houses He is not only invited but compelled thereunto which He could heartily have wished might upon this occasion have been forborn I. For the Freedom of Trade His Majesty hath great reason to require and the two Houses to admit that Freedom to His good Subjects He desired For what concerns the supply of the Army with Arms Ammunition Money Bullion and Victuals He consented to the very terms proposed by the two Houses and that they may be observed is contented that searches may be made which being but the trouble of particular persons is not considerable in respect of the Publick benefit and advantage But why all other liberty of Traffick and Commerce should not be granted to His good Subjects He cannot understand for that His Majesty's Army should receive much Advantage thereby and the contrary Army none is in no degree confessed For besides the restraint is to places where no part of His Majesty's Army is and indeed the whole Trade of the Kingdom interrupted 't is as great a support if not a greater to the contrary Army to maintain and keep up the Trade of London from whence that receives its supply and relief as to His Majesty's Army to continue the Trade of Oxford or any other place where His Forces reside and to stop and seize the Cloth Kersies and other Western Commodities which his Majesty can daily do from Reading would be as great disturbance to the Trade of London as the seizing of any Commodities which may be done by the Earl of Essex from Windsor or Wickham can be to the Trade of Oxford And therefore His Majesty
is intended may be so exprest and understood that no mistakes may arise so that His Majesty may not be understood to consent to any imposing upon levying distraining or imprisoning His good Subjects to force them to contribute or assist against Him which He shall always continue to inhibit requiring all men to resist those Illegal acts of Injustice and Violence against which He doth absolutely protest and so that there may not be a liberty for any Rapine Plundering or seizing upon His Subjects by any of the Soldiers of that Army for not submitting to such Illegal Impositions as aforesaid For otherwise they may during this Cessation besides what is already imposed impose new Taxes not only to the Nineteenth part but if they please for their pleasure is all their bound to the half of or all their Estates upon His good Subjects in His City of London and all Counties within their reach and their Army would then be at leisure to be employed as Collectors as well of the old Impositions which in most places without their Army they cannot levy as of any such new one and vast summs would and might by this means be raised to the destruction of His Subjects extraordinary advantage to them and great disadvantage to His Majesty who can neither obtain His own Consent to take the like courses nor in case He could is He so quartered as to have within the power of His Army without breach of the Cessation by drawing nearer to their Forces any such City or so many so rich and so fresh Counties as they have to retire into to that purpose So that as nothing is more just in it self and for His People than such a limitation so nothing can be more unequal to His Majesty or more advantagious to them than the admission of or connivance to any such practices upon His People This Cessation to begin on the 9. of April and to continue to the end of 20. days from the 25. of March. And His Majesty desires that the Treaty may proceed upon the Propositions in order upon which His Majesty hath an earnest desire that a firm and stable Peace may be agreed on and both Armies speedily disbanded otherwise if during this Cessation in the Articles of which His Majesty in order to Peace hath yielded to things manifestly unreasonable and prejudicial to His Army the Treaty be not dispatched His Majesty cannot without manifest ruine to His Army principally that of the North be able to contain Himself beyond this time now limited for the Cessation in the Quarters in which He hath so long been and now is and which will hardly be able to hold out so long but must be forced to remove as He shall find agreeable for His Occasions And in case any delay be made in consenting to these His Majesty's limitations or that the Houses shall reject this His offer of Cessation His Majesty as He hath lately desired by a Proposition to both Houses delivered to their Committee to which He hath yet received no Answer so He doth earnestly continue to desire that the Treaty it self may not be delayed or interrupted by it but that their Committee may be enabled to proceed upon it in the mean while Jo. Brown Cler. Parliamentorum Copia vera Addition of four days longer to Treat April 4. 1643. WE humbly acquaint Your Majesty that we received this morning the resolution of both Houses of Parliament whereby farther time is given to us to Treat upon the two first Propositions viz. the first Proposition of Your Majesty and the first Proposition of both Houses and that the time prescribed for the Treaty upon the two first Propositions shall be until Friday night Northumberland John Holland B. Whitelocke Will. Pierrepont Will. Armyne A Letter from both Houses received April 8. 1643. WE are commanded to send these inclosed Instructions to you from both Houses of Parliament by which the resolutions of the Houses will appear unto you This is all we have in command and rest Westminster the 7. of April 1643. Your humble Servants Manchester Speaker pro tempore William Lenthall Speaker of the Commons House Instructions concerning the Cessation received April 8. 1643. A farther Addition of Instructions agreed upon by the Lords and Commons in Parliament for Algernon Earl of Northumberland William Pierrepont Esq Sir William Armyne Baronet Sir John Holland Baronet and Bulstrode Whitelocke Esquire Committees of both Houses of Parliament attending His Majesty at Oxon. YOU are hereby to take notice That the two Houses have considered His Majesty's Answer to their Reasons concerning the Cessation wherein there are divers expressions which reflect much upon the Honour and Justice of the Houses and might occasion particular Replies yet at this time they desire to decline all Contestation their wishes and endeavours being earnestly bent upon the obtaining a speedy Peace For which cause they do not think good to consume any more of that time allowed for the Treaty in any farther debates upon the Cessation concerning which they find His Majesty's expressions so doubtful that it cannot be suddenly or easily resolved and the remainder of the time for the whole Treaty being but seven days if the Cessation were presently agreed it would not yield any considerable advantage to the Kingdom Wherefore you shall desire His Majesty that He will be pleased to give a speedy and positive Answer to their first Proposition concerning the Disbanding that so the People may not have only a Shadow of Peace in a short time of Cessation but the Substance of it in such manner as may be a perpetual Blessing to them by freeing the Kingdom from those miserable effects of War the effusion of English blood and Desolation of many parts of the Land For the obtaining of which Happiness the Lords and Commons have resolved to enlarge your Power That if you shall not have fully agreed upon the two first Propositions before Friday night you may notwithstanding any former restraint proceed to treat upon them according to the Instructions formerly given you although the Articles of the Cessation are not agreed upon And those two first Propositions being concluded the two Houses will thereupon give you further Instructions to proceed to the other Propositions that so the whole Treaty may be determined within the twenty days formerly limited to be reckoned from the 25 of March last which can admit no alteration or enlargement without manifold Prejudice and Danger to the whole Kingdom Joh. Brown Cler. Parliamentorum The KING's Reply touching Cessation and His desire to enable the Committee to treat upon the Propositions in the mean time and touching His coming to the Parliament C. R. IF the Committee according to His Majesty's desire had had but power to agree in the wording of Expressions in the Articles of Cessation His Majesty's which are as clear as the matter would bear and as He could make them had not appeared so doubtful to any but that the Cessation
might have been suddenly and speedily resolved and that long before this time And if the expressions of both Houses in their Reasons had not necessitated His Majesty in His own defence to give such Answers as could not upon those points deliver Truth without some shew of Sharpness no Expression of that kind in His Majesty's Answer had given any pretence for the rejection of or refusing so much as to treat upon this Cessation which though it were at present for no long time yet was from the day named by themselves the 25 of March whereas His Majesty first moved for a Cessation and Treaty without any limitation at all in the time of either and His Majesty was most ready to have enlarged the time so that in the mean while the point of Quarters might be so settled as that His Armies might subsist and which might have been if they had pleased a very good and promising earnest and fore-runner of that great blessing of Peace for the obtaining of which the wishes and endeavours of all good men being earnestly bent a farther debate in order to so great a Benefit did not deserve to be styled a consumption of time And His Majesty cannot but conceive Himself to be in a strange condition if the doubtfulness of Expressions which must always be whilst the Treaty is at such a distance and power is denied to those upon the place to help to clear and explain or His necessary Replying to charges laid upon Him that He might not seem to acknowledge what was so charged or the limitation of the time of seven days for the Treaty which was not limited by His Majesty who ever desired to have avoided that and other limitations which have given great interruptions to it should be as well believed to be the grounds as they are made the arguments of the rejection of that which next to Peace it self His Majesty above all things most desires to see agreed and settled and which His Majesty hopes if it may be yet agreed on will give His People such a taste of such a Blessing that after a short time of consideration and comparing of their several conditions in War and Peace and what should move them to suffer so much by a Change they will not think those their friends that shall force them to it or be themselves ready to contribute to the renewing of their former Miseries without some greater evidence of Necessity than can appear to them when they shall have seen as they shall see if this Treaty be suffered to proceed that His Majesty neither asks nor denies any thing but what not only according to Law He may but what in Honour and care of His People he is obliged to ask or deny And this alone which a very short Cessation would produce His Majesty esteems a very considerable advantage to the Kingdom and therefore cannot but press again and again that whatever is thought doubtful in the expressions of the Articles may as in an hour it may well be done be expounded and whatsoever is excepted at may be debated and concluded and that Power and Instructions may be given to the Committee to that end that the miserable effects of War the effusion of English blood and desolation of England until they can be totally taken away may by this means be stayed and interrupted His Majesty supposes that when the Committee was last required to desire His Majesty to give a speedy and positive Answer to the first proposition concerning Disbanding His Answers in that point to which no Reply hath been made and which He hopes by this time have given satisfaction were not transmitted and received but wonders the Houses should press His Majesty for a speedy and positive Answer to the first part of their first Proposition concerning Disbanding when to the second part of the very same Proposition concerning His Return to both Houses of Parliament they had not given any Power or Instructions to the Committee so much as to treat with His Majesty and when His Majesty if His desire of Peace and of speeding the Treaty in order to that had not been prevalent with Him might with all manner of Justice have delayed to begin to treat upon one part until they had been enabled to treat upon the other In which point and for want of which power from them the only stop now remains His Majesty's Answers to both parts of their first Proposition being given in transmitted and yet remaining unanswered To which until the Houses shall be at leisure to make Answer that as little delay in this Treaty as is possible may be caused by it His Majesty desires likewise that the Committee may be enabled to treat upon the following Propositions in their several orders A Letter from both Houses April 8. WE have sent unto you by this Gentleman Sir Peter Killegrew some additional Instructions by which your Lordship and the rest of the Committee will perceive the Resolutions which the Houses have taken upon the Papers which they received this day from you This is all we have in command and remain Your Lordship 's humble Servants Manchester Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore Will. Lenthall Speaker of the Commons House in Parliament Westminster this 8 of April 1643. Instructions concerning the Insisting received April 9. 1643. Additional Instructions for Algernon Earl of Northumberland William Lord Viscount Say and Seal William Pierrepont Esquire Sir William Armyne and Sir John Holland Baronets Bulstrode Whitelocke Esquire Committees from both Houses attending His Majesty at Oxford Magazines and enlarging the time THE two Houses of Parliament are unsatisfied with His Majesty's Answer to that Clause of the first Proposition which concerns the Magazines Wherefore you are to desire His Majesty to make a further Answer in such manner as is exprest in the Instructions formerly given you and you shall let His Majesty know That the Lords and Commons do not think fit to enlarge the time of the Treaty beyond the twenty days formerly limited Cinque-Ports Towns Forts and Castles They likewise remain unsatisfied with His Majesty's Answer concerning the Cinque-Ports Towns Forts and Castles being in the most material points an express Denial Wherefore you are to insist upon their desire for another Answer according to your Instructions Ships They observe in His Majesty's Answer concerning the Ships not only a Denial to all the desires of both Houses but likewise a Censure upon their proceedings However you are to insist upon their desires expressed in your Instructions Disbanding They further conceive that His Majesty's Answer to their first Proposition concerning the Disbanding is in effect a Denial unless they desert all those cautions and limitations which they have desired in their Answer to His Majesty's first Proposition Wherefore you are to proceed insisting upon that part of their first Proposition concerning the Disbanding according to your Instructions KING's Return to the Parliament You shall declare to His Majesty
Son the Prince that when it was desired that a Declaration might be made against such Tumults instead of consenting thereunto the Tumults themselves were justified and when a Legal course was prescribed by the Lords and taken by the proper Ministers of Justice to suppress and prevent such Tumults and Riots that Legal course was superseded by those who were then present of the House of Commons and the Ministers of Justice punished and imprisoned for executing the Law when they remember that several Members of either House have been threatned and assaulted in those Tumults and their own Names proscribed as Persons disaffected because they freely used to speak their Consciences in both Houses that the House of Peers have been so far threatned and menaced that the Names of those have been with Threats demanded by the House of Commons at the Bar of the Lords House who refused to consent to this or that Proposition which hath been in debate before them and Tumultuous Petitions countenanced which have been presented to that same purpose that the Members of both Houses have been imprisoned and forbid to be present at those Councils for no Reason but because their Opinions have not been liked that Our Negative Voice Our greatest and most soveraign Privilege is boldly denied that a presumptuous Attempt hath been made by the major part of the remaining part of the House of Commons to make Our Great Seal of England the making of which by the express Letter of the Law is High-Treason and would subvert the ancient and fundamental Administration of Justice that at this time We and the major part of both Houses are kept by a strong and Rebellious Army from being present at that Council and that those who are present are by the same Army awed and forced to take unlawful and Treasonable Protestations to engage their Votes and that such Resolutions and Directions which concern the Property and Liberty of the Subject are transacted and concluded by a few Persons under the Name of a Close Committee consisting of the Earl of Manchester the Lord Say Master Pym Master Hampden Master Stroud Master Martin and others the whole number not exceeding seventeen Persons without reporting the same to the Houses or having the same confirmed by the Houses contrary to the express Law and Customs of Parliament All which for the matter of Fact We are ready to make proof of and desire nothing but to bring the Contrivers of all the aforesaid Mischiefs to their Tryal by Law and till that be submitted to We must pursue them by Arms or any other way in which all our good Subjects ought to give Us assistance to that purpose The imagining the Death of Us Our Royal Consort or Our Eldest Son the Levying War against Us in Our Realm or adhering to Our Enemies in Our Realm giving to them Aid or Comfort the counterfeiting Our Great Seal or Money being by the express Words of the Statute of the 25 Year of King Edward the J. Chap. 2. High Treason And how applicable this is to those who have actually born Arms against Us and to those who have consented that such Arms be born to those who have promised to live and die with the Earl of Essex and those who every day consent to some Act for the support and encrease of that Army We shall leave to all the World to judge and hope that this gracious Warning and Information now given by Us will make that impression in the Hearts of Our People that they will no longer suffer themselves to be mis-led from their Duty and Allegiance upon any pretences whatsoever And We do declare That We shall proceed with all severity against all Persons whatsoever who shall henceforward assist vote or concur in any kind toward the maintaining or countenancing such Actions and Resolutions which by the known and express Laws of the Land are High Treason and against all those who shall adhere to them who are in Rebellion against Us as against Rebels and Traitors in such manner as by the Laws and Statutes of the Realm is directed and appointed And since by the Power of Seditious Persons We and both Houses are kept from being secured against Tumultuous Assemblies and both Houses from Adjournment to some place of Safety which being done might quickly make an end of these miserable Distractions whereby We are debarred from the benefit and advice We expected from that Our great Council the Members thereof being scattered into several places therefore that the whole Kingdom may see that We are willing to receive Advice from those who are trusted by them though We cannot receive the same in the place to which they were called for the Reasons aforesaid nor intend to receive Advice from them elsewhere in the capacity of Houses of Parliament We do hereby declare that such of the Members of both Houses as well those who have been by the Faction of the Malignant Party expelled for performing their Duties to Us and into whose Rooms no Persons have been since chosen by their Countries as the rest who shall desire Our Protection shall be welcome to Us at Our City of Oxford until by the Adjournment of the Houses to some fit and free place or otherwise due course be taken for the full and free Convention in Parliament of Us and all the Members of both Houses And for their better encouragement to resort to Us We do hereby Will and Command all the Officers and Souldiers of our Army to suffer all such Persons who are Members of either House with their Attendants and Servants to come to Us to this Our City of Oxford And that none of Our good Subjects may believe that by this Our necessary Declaration against the Freedom and Liberty of that present Assembly We may have the least intention to violate or avoid any Act or Acts passed by Us for the good and benefit of Our People this Parliament we do hereby declare to all the World That We shall as We have often promised as inviolably observe all those Acts as if no such unhappy Interruption had happened of the Freedom and Liberty in that Council and desire nothing more than to have such a free Convention in Parliament that we may add such further Acts of Grace as shall be thought necessary for the Advancement of the true Protestant Religion for the maintenance of the Liberty and Property of the Subject and the preservation of the Liberty Freedom and Privileges of Parliament And that all the World may see how willing and desirous We are to forget all the Injuries and Indignities offered to Us by such who have been misled through Weakness or Fear or who have not been the principal Contrivers of the present Miseries We do offer a free and general Pardon to all the Members of either House except Robert Earl of Essex Robert Earl of Warwick Edward Earl of Manchester Henry Earl of Stamford William Viscount Say and Seal Sir John Hotham Knight
by His Majesty or us in order to Peace here being so great a Condescending from a King to Subjects all indifferent Advantages left to them both for time and place of Treaty and choice of Persons to Treat But what their Intentions to Peace are will appear by their Letter enclosed in one from their General to the Earl of Forth both which are as followeth My Lord I Am commanded by both Houses of Parliament to send a Trumpeter with the inclosed Letter to His Majesty which I desire your Lordship may be most humbly presented to His Majesty I rest Essex-House March 9. 1643. Your Lordships humble Servant Essex May it please Your MAJESTY WE the Lords and Commons assembled in the Parliament of England taking into our Consideration a Letter sent from Your Majesty dated the third of March instant and directed to the Lords and Commons of Parliament assembled at Westminster which by the Contents of a Letter from the Earl of Forth unto the Lord General the Earl of Essex we conceive was intended to our selves have resolved with the concurrent advice and consent of the Commissioners of the Kingdom of Scotland to represent to Your Majesty in all humility and plainness as followeth That as we have used all means for a just and safe Peace so will we never be wanting to do our utmost for the procuring thereof But when we consider the Expressions in that Letter of Your Majesty's we have more sad and dispairing thoughts of attaining the same than ever because thereby those Persons now assembled at Oxford who contrary to their Duty have deserted Your Parliament are put into an equal Condition with it and this present Parliament convened according to the known and Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom the continuance whereof is established by a Law consented unto by Your Majesty is in effect denied to be a Parliament The Scope and Intention of that Letter being to make provision how all the Members as is pretended of both Houses may securely meet in a full and free Convention of Parliament Whereof no other conclusion can be made but that this present Parliament is not a full nor free Convention and that to make it a full and free Convention of Parliament the presence of those is necessary who notwithstanding that they have deserted that great Trust and do levy War against the Parliament are pretended to be Members of the two Houses of Parliament And hereupon we think our selves bound to let Your Majesty know That seeing the Continuance of this Parliament is settled by a Law which as all other Laws of Your Kingdoms Your Majesty hath sworn to maintain as we are sworn to our Allegiance to Your Majesty these obligations being reciprocal we must in duty and accordingly are resolved with our Lives and Fortunes to defend and preserve the Just Rights and full Power of this Parliament And do beseech Your Majesty to be assured that Your Majesty's Royal and hearty Concurrence with us herein will be the most effectual and ready means of procuring a firm and lasting Peace in all Your Majesty's Dominions and of begetting a perfect understanding between Your Majesty and Your People without which Your Majesty's most earnest Professions and our most real Intentions concerning the same must necessarily be frustrated And in case Your Majesty's three Kingdoms should by reason thereof remain in this sad and bleeding Condition tending by the continuance of this unnatural War to their Ruine Your Majesty cannot be the least nor the last Sufferer God in his goodness incline Your Royal Breast out of pity and compassion to those deep Sufferings of Your Innocent People to put a speedy and happy issue to these desperate Evils by the joynt Advice of both Your Kingdoms now happily united in this Cause by their late solemn League and Covenant Which as it will prove the surest Remedy so is it the earnest prayer of Your Majesty's Loyal Subjects the Lords and Commons assembled in the Parliament of England Westminster the 9 of March 1643. Gray of Wark Speaker of the House of Peers in Parliament pro tempore William Lenthall Speaker of the Commons House in Parliament Whosoever considers that this should be a Letter from Subjects might well think it very unbeseeming Language in them to call His Majesty's earnest endeavours for Peace but Professions and their own feigned pretence most real Intentions but much more menacing Language that is Majesty cannot be the least or last Sufferer which expressions from Subjects in Arms to their Soveraign what dangerous Construction they may admit we are unwilling to mention But we need not wonder at the manner of their expressions when we see in this Letter the Parliament it self as far as in them lies destroyed and those who here style themselves the Lords and Commons assembled in the Parliament of England not to resolve upon their Answer to their King without the concurrent advice and consent of the Commissioners as they call them of the Kingdom of Scotland If they had only taken the Advice of the Scotish Commissioners they had broken the Fundamental Constitution of Parliament the very Writs of Summons the Foundation of all Power in Parliament being in express terms for the Lords to treat and advise with the King and the Peers of the Kingdom of England and for the Commons to do and consent to those things which by that Common-Council of England should be ordained thereby excluding all others But their League it seems is gone further the Scots must consent as well as advise so that they have gotten a negative voice and they who in the former Letter would be the Kings only Council are now become no Council without the Scotish Commissioners The truth is they have besides the solemn League and Covenant with the Scots which their Letter mentions a strange and traitourous presumption for Subjects to make a Covenant and League with Subjects of another Kingdom without their Prince made private bargains with the Scots touching our Estates and a private agreement not to treat without their consent as some of themselves being afraid of a Treaty openly declared to the Common-Council of London And therefore 't is no wonder that being touched to the quick with the apprehension that they are not nor can be in this condition a full and free Convention of Parliament they charge us with deserting our Trust and would have us to be no Members of the Parliament They may remember it was our want of freedom within and the seditious Tumults without their many multiplied Treasons there and imposing traitourous Oaths which inforced our absence But concerning that and the want of freedom in Parliament we shall say no more here that being the Subject of another Declaration only we wish them to consider by what Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom which they have lately wrested to serve all turns they can exclude us from our Votes in Parliament who were duely summoned chosen and returned Members of Parliament and
what business soever without leave from the Earl of Essex in pursuance of which Order though the same passed only the Commons a sworn Messenger of His Majesty's hath been barbarously put to death for carrying a Legal Writ to London we thought any address for Peace would most successfully pass through His hands and that when we had considered how unhappily he had been made an Instrument of so much Blood and Devastation he would with great chearfulness have interposed in a business of Reconciliation and at least have met us half way in so blessed a Work and therefore with His Majesty's leave which He most readily and graciously gave us and for which we doubt not He shall receive the Thanks and Prayers of all His good Subjects we direct a Letter to that purpose to him signed under our hands Whosoever reads that Letter and we hope it will be read by all men will bear us witness and it will be a Witness against those who have rejected it that we have done our parts In stead of vouchsafing us any Answer or proposing us any other way towards Peace if that which we proposed was not thought convenient he writes a short Letter to the Earl of Forth General of His Majesty's Army acknowledging the receipt of ours but saying that it neither having Address to the two Houses of Parliament nor therein there being any acknowledgement of them he could not Communicate it to them whereas the Address was in the way prescribed prescribed under pain of Death no Address being allowed as aforesaid but by the Earl of Essex and he being desired to represent to and promove with those by whom he is trusted our most sincere and earnest desire of a Treaty so that if there had been the least inclination to or enduring of an Overture of Peace he might have as easily communicated it to all those by whom he is instrusted as to a Committee by whose Advice 't is well known his Answer was sent and with it and as part of it a Paper intituled The Declaration of the Kingdom of Scotland and A Declaration of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland and another A solemn League and Covenant the Declarations and Covenant being against the King of both Kingdoms without the consent of and against the major part of the Nobility and we are confident the Gentry and Commonalty of This. And if his Lordship would make good his own Letter and spend his Blood or but use his endeavour for the maintenance of the Parliament of England being indeed the foundation whereupon all Our Laws and Liberties are supported we should not Treat at this distance at least a Treaty would not have been rejected We suffered not Our Selves to be discouraged with this refusal but a safe Conduct was desired for two Gentlemen against whom there neither was nor could be the least exception to go to Westminster to present such Propositions as might best conduce to the Peace of the Kingdom conceiving that by such means our meaning and intentions might best appear and all formalities and unnecessary insisting and mistakes upon words might be removed This safe Conduct which hath never been denied by His Majesty or His Generals to any person who hath desired to have admittance to Him was likewise absolutely refused by the Earl of Essex yet with some expressions That if any Propositions should be sent to those by whom he was intrusted he would use his utmost endeavours to advance the Peace which though it seem'd nothing agreeable to his former Answers obtained yet so much credit with us that we besought His Majesty once more in His own Royal Name to press and desire a Treaty and to direct His Message under such a Title that they who call themselves the two Houses of Parliament could not take any Exception but should be compelled to return some Answer or other And an Answer it hath drawn from them but such an one as will sufficiently inform the World if there could yet have remained any doubt of it how much they are Enemies to Peace Those Answers Declarations and that Covenant are likewise publick to all men God and the World must judge between us In the mean time we must without bitterness or sharpness of Language to which neither example or provocation shall transport us tell these men That most of us are too well known even to themselves to be suspected to incline to be either Papists or Slaves or that we can possibly be made Instruments to advance either Popery or Tyranny And since the defence of the Religion Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom seems to be and in truth is on our part the Argument of this bloody Contention and that we are endeavouring all ways to destroy one another in the behalf of that we all do or all pretend to desire we think our selves obliged to Truth to the present Age and to Posterity to let the World know That as we are much more tender of the Religion Laws and Liberty of the Kingdom than of our Lives and Fortunes so the uneasie Condition wherein we are and the heavy Judgments and Proscriptions imposed on us by our Equals have proceeded and been caused from that Conscience Loyalty and Duty in which we have been Born and Bred and from which we could not swerve without the manifest breach of our Allegiance and those civil Oaths we are obliged by As we hope will appear to all men by this our ensuing Declaration We shall pass over only acknowledging His Majesty's abundant care and favour to His People those excellent Laws made this Parliament for the vindication and removal of those Mischiefs and Inconveniences which seemed to threaten our Rights and Liberty to all which there are very few amongst us who concurred not fully however we are now traduced with the negligence of both and that most gracious Offer of His Majesty to consent to an Act for the ease of tender Consciences in matters indifferent which if it had been accepted would have prevented many of the Miseries have since besallen this poor Kingdom And because the Name and Privilege of Parliament is pretended in defence of those Actions which are done contrary to the known Laws by which only Right and Wrong can be measured and determined and by that venerable Name many of our Companions and Friends have been led into unwarrantable Actions before we come to consider the state and condition of the Religion Laws and Liberty of the Kingdom by these Distractions we shall let the World know how much the inherent and essential Privileges of Parliament have been violated how we being called by His Majesty and trusted by our Country with their Suffrages in that Council hath been driven and are now kept from the place whither we were first called by His Majesty and where some Members still sit and lastly how far this miserable and to say no more this unjustifiable Civil War and this desperate and odious Invasion of a
the present Rebellion raised in this Kingdom against His Majesty and that all His Majesty's Subjects are bound by their natural Allegiance and the Oaths lawfully taken by them to the utmost of their power to resist and repress the same and particularly the Army now under the Command of the Earl of Essex and all other Armies raised or to be raised without His Majesty's Consent under pretence of the two Houses of Parliament And we do disclaim all Votes Orders and Declarations in countenance or maintenance of the said Armies and Declare That no Oath or Covenant voluntarily taken or inforced doth or can bind or dispense with the breach of those other Oaths formerly and lawfully taken to His Majesty and that all those who aid assist or abett this horrid and odious Rebellion are and ought to be accounted and pursued as Traitors by the known Laws of the Land That we utterly detest and disclaim the Invitation which hath been made to His Majesty's Subjects of Scotland to enter this Kingdom with an Army the same being as much against the Desires as against the Duty of the Lords and Commons of England and all true-hearted English-Men And we do Declare and publish to the World That as any such Invasion or Hostile entry into the Kingdom by the Rebellious Subjects of Scotland is a direct and peremptory breach of the late Act of Pacification between the two Kingdoms so that we and all the Subjects of this Kingdom are bound by our Allegiance and by that very Act to resist and repress such Invasion And whosoever is or shall be abetting aiding or assisting to those of Scotland in their Hostile Invasion of this Kingdom ought to be looked upon as betrayers of their Country and are guilty of High Treason by the known Laws of the Kingdom And that our weak misled and seduced Country-men may no longer pay an implicite regard and reverence to the abused name of Parliament which these guilty Persons usurp to themselves and so submit to those Actions and Commands which two Houses of Parliament never so legally and regularly constituted have not Authority to require or enjoyn and since these Men will not suffer their poor Country to be restored by a Treaty to the benefit of a Parliament which would with Gods blessing easily remove these Miseries and prevent the like for the time to come we must and do declare to the Whole Kingdom That as at no time either or both Houses of Parliament can by any Orders or Ordinances impose upon the People without the Kings Consent so by reason of the want of Freedom and Security for all the Members of Parliament to meet at Westminster and there to Sit Speak and Vote with Freedom and Safety all the Actions Votes Orders Declarations and pretended Ordinances made by those Members who remain still at Westminster are void and of none effect and that as many of the Lords and Commons assembled at Westminster as have at any time consented to the raising of Forces under the Command of the Earl of Essex or to the making and using of the new Great Seal or to the present coming of the Scots into England in a warlike manner have therein broken the Trust reposed in them by their Country and are to be proceeded against as Traitors And yet we are far from dissolving or attempting the dissolution of this Parliament or the violation of any Act made and confirmed by His Majesty's Royal Assent this Parliament which we shall always maintain and defend Acts of Parliament are only in danger to be destroyed by those who undervalue and despise the Authority and Power of Acts of Parliament who therefore deny the Kings Negative Voice and neglect His Concurrence that their own Resolutions may be reputed as Acts of Parliament to the Ruine and Confusion of all Laws and Interest It is our grief in the behalf of the whole Kingdom that since the Parliament is not dissolved the Power thereof should by the Treason and Violence of these Men be so far suspended that the Kingdom should be without the fruit and benefit of a Parliament which cannot be reduced to any Action or Authority till the Freedom and Liberty due to the Members be restored and admitted and they who oppose this must be only looked upon as the Enemies to Parliament In the mean time we neither have nor shall attempt any thing for the Adjourning Dissolving or Proroguing thereof otherwise than as it may stand with the Act in that case provided Lastly we Declare That our endeavours actions and resolutions tend and are directed and shall always be directed to the maintenance of God's true Religion established by Law within this Kingdom to the defence of His Majesty's Sacred Person His Honour and just Rights to the preservation of the Liberty and Property of the Subject settled and evident by the Laws Statutes and Customs of the Realm and the just Freedom Liberty and Privilege of Parliament and that what we shall do for the defence and maintenance of all these proceeds from the Conscience of our Duty to God our King and Country without any private and sinister ends of our own and out of our sincere love to Truth and Peace the which as we have so we shall always labour to procure as the only blessed End of all our Labours And we do therefore conjure all our Country-Men and fellow-Subjects by all those precious obligations of Religion to God Almighty of Loyalty towards their Soveraign of Affection towards one another and of Charity and Compassion towards their bleeding Country to assist and joyn with us in the suppressing those Enemies to Peace who are so much delighted with the Ruine and Confusion they have made that they will not so much as vouchsafe to Treat with us that all specious Pretences might be taken away and the grounds of this bloody Contention clearly stated to the World If these Men with a true sence and remorse of the ill they have done shall yet return to their Duty and Loyalty they shall God willing find us of another temper towards them than they have been towards us And if the Conscience of their Duty shall not draw all our fellow-Subjects and Country-Men to joyn with us in assisting His Majesty we hope that the prudent consideration That 't is impossible to Reason for our miserable Country ever to be restored to Peace and Happiness but by restoring all just and legally-due Power and Authority into His Majesty's hands again will direct them what is fit to be done by them And if any yet shall be so unskilful and to say no worse vulgar-spirited to hope by a Neutrality and odious Indifferency to rest secure in this Storm though we shall not follow the examples of other Men in telling them that their Estates shall be forfeited and taken from them as pernicious and publick Enemies God be thanked the Law is not so supprest but that it proceeds in Attainders and Forfeitures and all Men
the composing and ending of those unhappy Differences and Distractions about which so much blood hath been already spilt which Treaty may by the blessing of God who is the disposer of all mens hearts and of all events be a means to produce a Peace and whereas it is the Duty and hath been the practice of Christians under Affliction to set apart some time for publick and solemn Humiliation and Prayer for removing of God's Judgments and particularly for a Blessing and good Success to the means conducing to their Deliverance We do therefore by this Our Praclamation appoint and streightly charge and command that on Wednesday being the 5. of February next ensuing a solemn Fast be kept in all places within Our Dominions whither the notice of this Our Proclamation shall or may come before that time that both Prince and People may then joyn together in a true Humiliation and Devout and earnest Prayers to God that He would be pleased so to bless and prosper this intended Treaty that it may produce a happy Peace in all Our Dominions such as may be for his Honour and the good of His Church and of Us and all Our Subjects And We do hereby charge and require all Our Subjects of what degree or condition soever they be which shall have notice of this Our Proclamation That they do religiously prepare and apply themselves to a due observation of the same by Fasting Humiliation and Prayer on that day and in hearing of God's Word as they will answer to God their neglect of this Christian Duty and as will Answer to Us their neglect of this Our just and necessary Command And for the better and more orderly observation of this Fast We do hereby appoint that the Form of Prayer and Service of God set forth in the Book heretofore published for the Monthly Fast with such Alterations and Additions as shall be prepared and fitted for this present purpose and published in Print before the said day shall be used in all Churches and Chapels where this Fast shall be kept Given at Our Court at Oxford this 27. day of January in the Twentieth year of Our Reign 1644. God Save the KING HIS Majesty having received an Account from His Commissioners of their proceedings in the late Treaty at Vxbridge to the end that all His People may be fully satisfied of His earnest and constant endeavours to procure the publick Peace whereby to put an end to these present Miseries hath commanded this full and plain Narrative of all the Passages concerning that Treaty to be made and published AFter His Majesty's Message from Evesham of the 4. of July last desiring and propounding a Treaty for Peace and His second Message from Tavestock of the 8. of September last renewing that desire at length on the 23. day of November last past the Earl of Denbigh and others repaired to His Majesty at Oxford with Propositions in these words following VVE Your Majesty's Loyal Subjects assembled in the Parliaments of both Your Kingdoms from the sense of that Duty we owe unto Your Majesty and of the deep Sufferings and many Miseries under which Your People of all Your Kingdoms lie bleeding in this unnatural War after long and serious consultation about the best ways and means of their Preservation and for settling Your Majesty's Throne and Your Subjects in Peace and Security have with common consent resolved upon these Propositions which we do humbly tender unto Your Majesty The humble Desires and Propositions for a safe and well-grounded Peace agreed upon by the mutual Advice and Consent of the Parliaments of both Kingdoms united by solemn League and Covenant to be presented to His Majesty I. That by Act of Parliament in each Kingdom respectively all Oaths Declarations and Proclamations against both or either of the Houses of the Parliament of England and the late Convention of Estates in Scotland or Committees flowing from the Parliament or Convention in Scotland or their Ordinances and Proceedings or against any for adhering unto them and all Indictments Outlawries and Attainders against any for the said Causes be declared Null suppressed and forbidden and that this be publickly intimated in all Parish-Churches within His Majesty's Dominions and all other places needful II. That His Majesty according to the laudable Example of His Royal Father of happy memory may be pleased to swear and sign the late solemn League and Covenant and that an Act of Parliament be passed in both Kingdoms respectively for enjoyning the taking thereof by all the Subjects of the three Kingdoms and the Ordinances concerning the manner of taking the same in both Kingdoms be confirmed by Acts of Parliaments respectively with such Penalties as by mutual Advice of both Kingdoms shall be agreed upon III. That the Bill be passed for the utter abolishing and taking away of all Archbishops Bishops their Chancellours and Commissaries Deans and Sub-deans Deans and Chapters Arch-deacons Canons and Prebendaries and all Chaunters Chancellours Treasurers Sub-treasurers Succentors and Sacrists and all Vicars Choral and Choristers old Vicars and new Vicars of any Cathedral or Collegiate Church and all other their under-Officers out of the Church of England and Dominion of Wales and out of the Church of Ireland with such Alterations concerning the Estates of Prelates as shall agree with the Articles of the late Treaty of the Date at Edenborough 29 of Novemb. 1643. and joint Declaration of both Kingdoms IV. That the Ordinance concerning the Calling and sitting of the Assembly of Divines be confirmed by Act of Parliament V. That Reformation of Religion according to the Covenant be settled by Act of Parliament in such manner as both Houses shall agree upon after Consultation had with the Assembly of Divines And for as much as both Kingdoms are mutually obliged by the same Covenant to endeavour the nearest Conjunction and Uniforminy in matters of Religion that such Unity and Uniformity in Religion according to the Covenant as after Consultation had with the Divines of both Kingdoms now assembled shall be joyntly agreed upon by both Houses of the Parliament of England and by the Church and Kingdom of Scotland be confirmed by Acts of Parliament of both Kingdoms respectively VI. That for the more effectual disabling Jesuits Priests Papists and Popish Recusants from disturbing the State and deluding the Laws and for the better discovering and speedy conviction of Recusants an Oath be established by Act of Parliament to be administred to them wherein they shall abjure and renounce the Popes Supremacy the Doctrine of Transubstantiation Purgatory worshipping of the consecrated Host Crucifixes and Images and all other Popish Superstitions and Errors and refusing the said Oath being tendred in such manner as shall be appointed by the said Act to be sufficient conviction in Law of Recusancy VII An Act of Parliament for Education of the Children of Papists by Protestants in the Protestant Religion VIII An Act for the true levying of the Penalties against them
considered your Propositions and finds it very difficult in respect they import so great an Alteration in Government both in Church and State to return a particular and positive Answer before a full debate wherein those Propositions and all the necessary Explanations and Reasons for assenting dissenting or qualifying and all inconveniences and mischiefs which may ensue and cannot otherwise be so well foreseen may be discussed and weighed His Majesty therefore proposeth and desireth as the best Expedient for Peace That you will appoint such a number of Persons as you shall think fit to Treat with the like number of Persons to be appointed by His Majesty upon the said Propositions and such other things as shall be proposed by His Majesty for the preservation and defence of the Protestant Religion with due regard to the ease of tender Consciences as His Majesty hath often offered the Rights of the Crown the Liberty and Property of the Subjects and the Privileges of Parliament and upon the whole matter to conclude a happy and blessed Peace Unto which Message this Answer of the 27. of December was returned to His Majesty May it please Your most Excellent Majesty VVE Your Majesty's humble and Loyal Subjects of both Kingdoms have considered of Your Majesty's Message of the 13. of December 1644. sent by the Duke of Richmond and the Earl of Southampton directed to the Lords and Commons assembled in the Parliament of England at Westminster and to the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland now at London and do in all humbleness return this Answer That we do consent there be a Treaty for a safe and well-grounded Peace but find that it will require some time to resolve concerning the Instructions and manner of that Treaty and therefore that Your Majesty might not be held in suspence touching our readiness to make use of any opportunity for attaining such a blessed and happy Peace in all Your Majesty's Dominions we would not stay Your Majesty's Messengers till we did resolve upon all those particulars which we will take into our serious consideration and present our humble desires to Your Majesty with all convenient speed Westminster the 20. of December 1644. Signed in the name and by warrant of the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland Lowdon Gray of Wark Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore William Lenthal Speaker of the Commons House assembled in Parliament And afterwards upon the 18th of January following Sir Peter Killegrew brought this farther Answer to His Majesty May it please Your most Excellent Majesty VVE Your Majesty's humble and Loyal Subjects the Lords and Commons assembled in the Parliament of England at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland do make our further Answer to Your Majesty's Message of the 13 th of December last 1644. concerning a Treaty for Peace as followeth We do consent that there be a Treaty for a safe and well-grounded Peace between Your Majesty and Your humble and Loyal Subjects assembled in the Parliament of both Kingdoms and for the present have appointed Algernon Earl of Northumberland Philip Earl of Pembrook and Montgomery William Earl of Salisbury Basil Earl of Denbigh Thomas Lord Viscount Wenman Denzill Hollis William Pierrepont Sir Henry Vane junior Oliver St. John Bulstrode Whitelock John Crew Edmund Prideaux for the Lords and Commons assembled in the Parliament of England at Westminster and John Earl of Lowdon Lord Chancellor of Scotland Archibald Marquefs of Argyle John Lord Maitland John Lord Balmerino Sir Archibald Johnston Sir Charles Erskin George Dundas Sir John Smith Master Hugh Kennedy and Master Robert Barclay for the Estates of the Parliament of Scotland together with Master Alexander Henderson upon the Propositions concerning Religion Who or any Ten of them there being always some of the Parliaments of both Kingdoms are appointed and authorized to meet at Vxbridge on what day Your Majesty shall be pleased to set down before the last day of this present January with such persons as Your Majesty shall appoint under Your Sign Manual for that purpose and the number of the persons to Treat not to exceed Seventeen on either part unless the persons named for the Estates of the Parliament of Scotland now not here or any of them shall come and then Your Majesty may have the like number if You please there to Treat upon the Matters contained in the Propositions we lately sent unto Your Majesty according to such Instructions as shall be given unto them and the Propositions for Religion the Militia and for Ireland to be first Treated on and agreed and the time for the Treaty upon the said Propositions for Religion the Militia and for Ireland not to exceed Twenty days And for the things mentioned in Your Message to be propounded by Your Majesty when the Persons sent by Your Majesty shall communicate the same to the Committees appointed by us as aforesaid we have directed them to send the same to us that they may receive our Instructions what to do therein And to the end that the Persons that are to be sent from Your Majesty and from us with their Retinue not exceeding the number of one hundred and eight on either part may repair to Vxbridge stay there and return at their pleasure without interruption that mutual safe Conducts be granted to the said Persons according to the several Lists of their Names Signed by Order of the Lords and Commons assembled in the Parliament of England at Westminster Signed in the name and by warrant of the Commissioners of the Kingdom of Scotland Lowdon Grey of Wark Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore William Lenthall Speaker of the Commons House in the Parliament of England Whereunto His MAJESTY returned an Answer inclosed in a Letter from Prince Rupert to the Earl of Essex dated the 21 of January which Letter and Answer were as followeth The Letter My Lord I Am commanded by His Majesty to return this His Answer to the Message lately sent Him from the Lords and Commons assembled in the Parliament of England at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland by Sir Peter Killegrew I have likewise sent your Lordship His Majesty's safe Conduct for the persons desired and also a List of the names of those His Majesty hath appointed to Treat for whom together with their Retinue His Majesty hath desired a safe Conduct The Answer inclosed HIS Majesty having received a Message by Sir Peter Killegrew from the Lords and Commons assembled in the Parliament of England at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland concerning a Treaty returns this Answer That His Majesty doth very willing consent that there be a Treaty upon the Matters contained in the Propositions lately sent unto Him in such manner as is proposed and at the place appointed in the said Message and to that purpose His Majesty will send the Duke of Richmond the Marquess of Hartford the Earl of
Southampton the Earl of Kingston the Earl of Chichester the Lord Capell the Lord Seymour the Lord Hatton the Lord Culpeper Secretary Nicholas Master Chancellor of the Exchequer the Lord Chief Baron Lane Sir Orlando Bridgeman Sir Thomas Gardiner M. John Ashburnham M. Jeffrey Palmer together with Dr. Steward Clerk of His Majesty's Closet upon the Propositions concerning Religion to meet with the persons mentioned in the said Message at Vxbridge on Wednesday night the 29 th of this instant January the Treaty to begin the next day which persons or any Ten of them shall be sufficiently authorized by His Majesty to Treat and conclude on His Majesty's part And to the end that the persons aforesaid and their Retinue may repair to Vxbridge stay there and return at their pleasure without interruption or go or send during their abode there to His Majesty as often as occasion shall require His Majesty desires that a safe Conduct may accordingly be sent for the said persons and their Retinue according to a List of their names herewith sent And then also inclosed in a Letter from Prince Rupert to the Earl of Essex His Majesty sent Propositions to be Treated upon on His Majesty's part which Letter and Propositions follow My Lord I Am commanded by His Majesty to send these enclosed Propositions to your Lordship to be presented to the Lords and Commons assembled in the Parliament of England at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland to the end that there may be as little loss of time as is possible but that the same may be treated on as soon as may be thought convenient after the entry upon the Treaty His MAJESTY'S Propositions to the Lords and Commons assembled in the Parliament of England at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland for a safe and well-grounded Peace I. THAT His Majesty's own Revenue Magazines Towns Forts and Ships which have been taken or kept from Him by force be forthwith restored unto Him II. That whatsoever hath been done or published contrary to the known Laws of the Land or derogatory to His Majesty's Legal and known Power and Rights be renounced and recalled that no seed may remain for the like to spring out of for the future III. That whatsoever illegal Power hath been claimed or exercised by or over His Subjects as Imprisoning or putting to Death their Persons without Law stopping their Corpus's and imposing upon their Estates without Act of Parliament c. either by both or either House or any Committee of both or either or by any Persons appointed by any of them be disclaimed and all such persons so committed forthwith discharged IV. That as His Majesty hath always professed His readiness to that purpose so He will most chearfully consent to any good Acts to be made for the suppression of Popery and for the firmer settling of the Protestant Religion established by Law as also that a good Bill may be framed for the better preserving of the Book of Common-Prayer from scorn and violence and that another Bill may be framed for the ease of tender Consciences in such particulars as shall be agreed upon For all which His Majesty conceives the best expedient to be that a National Synod be legally called with all convenient speed V. That all such persons as upon the Treaty shall be excepted and agreed upon on either side out of the General Pardon shall be tried per Pares according to the usual course and known Law of the Land and that it be left to that either to acquit or condemn them VI. And to the intent this Treaty may not suffer interruption by any intervening Accidents that a Cessation of Arms and free Trade for all His Majesty's Subjects may be agreed upon with all possible speed Given at the Court at Oxford the 21th day of Jan. 1644. The Earl of Essex upon receipt hereof returned to Prince Rupert together with a safe Conduct this Letter of the 25. of January Sir I AM commanded by both Houses of the Parliament of England and desired by the Commissioners of the Kingdom of Scotland to desire Your Highness to let His Majesty know That they do agree that their Committees do begin the Treaty at Vxbridge on Thursday the 30 th of this January with the Persons appointed by His Majesty on the matters contained in the Propositions lately sent unto His Majesty in such manner as was proposed And their Committees shall have Instructions concerning the Propositions sent from His Majesty in your Highness Letter And you will herewith receive a safe Conduct from the Lords and Commons assembled in the Parliament of England for the Persons that are appointed by His Majesty to come to Vxbridge to Treat on the Propositions for a safe and well-grounded Peace with their Retinue in a List hereunto annexed Sir I am Your Highness humble Servant Essex Westminster 25. Jan. 1644. Thursday the 30th of January all the Commissioners named by His Majesty and Commissioners named by the two Houses of Parliament in England and the Estates of the Parliament in Scotland did meet at Uxbridge where their Commissions were mutually delivered in and read and are as followeth His MAJESTY'S Commission CHARLES R. VVHereas after several Messages sent by Us to the Lords and Commons of Parliament assembled at Westminster expressing Our desires of Peace certain Propositions were sent from them and brought unto Us at Oxford in November last by the Earl of Denbigh and others and upon our Answers Messages and Propositions to them and their Returns to Us it is now agreed That there shall be a Treaty for a safe and well grounded Peace to begin at Vxbridge on Thursday the 30 th of this instant January as by the said Propositions Answers Messages and Returns in writing may more fully appear We do therefore hereby appoint assign and constitute James Duke of Richmond and Lenox William Marquess of Hartford Thomas Earl of Southampton Henry Earl of Kingston Francis Earl of Chichester Francis Lord Seymour Arthur Lord Capell Christopher Lord Hatton John Lord Culpeper Sir Edward Nicholas Knight one of Our principal Secretaries of State Sir Edward Hyde Knight Chancellour and Under-Treasurer of Our Exchequer Sir Richard Lane chief Baron of Our said Exchequer Sir Thomas Gardiner Sir Orlando Bridgeman Mr. John Ashburnham and Mr. Jeffrey Palmer together with Doctor Richard Steward upon these Propositions concerning Religion to be Our Commissioners touching the premises and do hereby give unto them and to any Ten or more of them full power and authority to meet and on Our part to Treat with Algernon Earl of Northumberland Philip Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery William Earl of Salisbury Bafil Earl of Denbigh Thomas Lord Viscount Wenman Denzil Hollis William Pierrepont Esquires Sir Henry Vane the younger Knight Oliver St. John Bulstrode Whitelock John Crew and Edmund Prideaux Esquires for the Lords and Commons assembled in the Parliament of England at Westminster and
John Earl of Lowdon Lord Chancellour of Scotland Archibald Marquess of Argyle John Lord Maitland John Lord Balmerino Sir Archibald Johnston Sir Charles Erskin George Dundas Sir John Smith Mr. Hugh Kennedy and Mr. Robert Barclay for the Estates of the Parliament of Scotland together with Master Alexander Henderson upon the Propositions concerning Religion or with any Ten or more of them upon and touching the matters contained in the said Propositions Answers and Messages or any other according to the manner and agreement therein specified or otherwise as they or any Ten or more of them shall think fit and to take all the premises into their serious considerations and to compose conclude and end all differences arising thereupon or otherwise as they or any Ten or more of them in their wisdoms shall think fit and upon the whole matter to conclude a safe and well-grounded Peace if they can And whatsoever they or any Ten or more of them shall do in the premises We do by these presents ratifie and confirm the same Given at Our Court at Oxford the eight and twentieth day of January in the Twentieth year of Our Reign 1644. Their Commission to the English Commissioners Die Martis 28. January 1644. BE it Ordained by the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament that Algernon Earl of Northumberland Philip Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery William Earl of Salisbury Basil Earl of Denbigh Thomas Lord Viscount Wenman Denzil Hollis William Pierrepont Sir Henry Vane junior Oliver St. John Bulstrode Whitelock John Crew and Edmund Prideaux shall have power and authority and are hereby authorized to joyn with the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland together with Alexander Henderson upon the Propositions concerning Religion only to Treat with the Lord Duke of Richmond the Marquess of Hartford the Earl of Southampton the Earl of Kingston the Lord Dunsmore Lord Capel Lord Seymour Sir Christopher Hatton Sir John Culpeper Sir Edward Nicholas Sir Edward Hyde Sir Richard Lane Sir Orlando Bridgeman Sir Thomas Gardiner Master John Ashburnham and Master Jeffrey Palmer or any Ten of them upon the Propositions formerly sent to His Majesty for a safe and well-grounded Peace from His Majesty's humble and Loyal Subjects assembled in the Parliaments of both Kingdoms together with Doctor Steward upon the Propositions concerning Religion only and upon His Majesty's Propositions according to such Instructions as have been given to them or as they from time to time shall receive from both Houses of Parliament Jo. Browne Cler. Parliam Their Commission to the Scots Commissioners AT Edenburgh the saxteÃnt day of Julii the Èeir of God M. Vj c fourty four Èeires The Estaites of Parliament presentlie conveined be vertew of the last act of the last Parliament haldin by His Majesty and thrie Estaites in Anno 1641. considdering that this Kingdome efter all uther meanes of supplicationnes Remonstrances and sending of Commissionaris to His Majesty have bein used without successe did enter into a solemne League and Covenant with the Kingdom and Parliament of England for Reformationne and defence of Religionne the Honor and Happines of the King the Peace and Safety of the thrie Kingdoms of Scotland England and Ireland and ane Treattie aggried upon and ane Armie and Forces raised and sent out of yis Kingdom for these endis Quhairupone the Conventionne of Estaites of this Kingdome the nynt of Jannuary last being desirous to use all good and lawful meanes that Treuth and Peace might be established in all His Majesty's Dominions with such a blessed Pacificationne betwixt His Majesty and His Subjectis as might serve most for His Majesty's trew Honor and the Safety and Happines of His People granted Commissione to Johne Erle of Lowdonne Heigh Chancellor of Scotland Johne Lord Maitland than and Èit in England Sir Archibald Johnestounne of Wariestounne ane of the Lordis of Sessionne and Maister Robert Barclay now in England to repaire to England with powar to thame or any twa of yame to endeavoure the effectuating of ye foirsaides endis conforme to the Commissione and Instructiones than givin to thame as the Commissione of the dait foirsaid proportis Lyke as the saides Johne Lord of Maitland Sir Archibald Johnestounne and Maister Robert Barclay have evir sinceattendit in England in the discharge of the foirsaid Commissione qunhil lately that Sir Archibald Johnestounne returned with some Propositiones prepaired by the Committie of both Kingdomes to be presented to the Estaites of Scotland and to both Howss of the Parliament of England and by thame to be revised and considderit and than by mutual advyse of both Kingdomes to be presented for ane safe and weill-grounded Peace Qwhilkies Propositiones ar revised and considderit and advysed be the Estaites of Parliament now conveined and their sense and resultis drawin up yrupone Whiche Commissione is to endure while the comming of the Commissionaris underwrittin And heirewith also considderin that the endis for the whilk the samen was granted ar not Èit effectuate and that the Propositiones with ye Estaites thair resultis yrupone ar to be returned toye Parliament of England thairfore the Estaites of Parliament be thir presentis gives full powar and Commissione to the said Johne Erle of Lowdonne Lord heigh Chancellor of yis Kingdome Archibald Marqueis of Arg yle and Johne Lord Balmerino for the Nobility Sir Archibald Johnestounne of Wariestounne Sir Charles Erskyne of Cambuskenneth and Maister George Dundas of Maner for the Barrones Sir Johne Smyth of Grottel Proveist of Edenburgh Hew Kennedy Burges of Air and Master Robert Barclay for the Burrowes the thrie Estaites of yis Kingdom and to Johne Lord Maitland supernumerarie in this Commissione or to any thrie or mae of the haill number thair being ane of ilk Estaite as Commissionaris from the Estaites of Parliament of this Kingdome to repaire to the Kingdome of England sick of them as ar not thair already and with powar to thameor any thrie or mae of the whole number thair being ane of ilk Estaite to endeavour the effectuating of ye foirsaides endis the concluding of the Propositions with the Estaites th aire results thairupon and all such uyr materis concerning the good of bothe Kingdomes as ar or sall be from time to time committed unto thame be the Estaites of yis Kingdome or Committies thairof according to the Instructiones givin or to be givin to the Commissionaris abovenameit or thair quorums And for this effect the Estaites Ordeanes Johne Erle of Lowdonne Chancellor Johne Lord Balmerino Sir Archibald Johnestounne of Wariestounne Sir Charles Erskyne of Cambuskenneth and Hew Kennedy repaire with all diligence to the Kingdome of England to the essect before rehearsit conforme to this Commissione and Instructiones As also the Estaites Ordeanes ye saides Archibald Marqueis of Argyle Maister George Dundas of Maner and Sir Johne Smyth Proveist of Edenburgh to repaire to ye Kingdome of England with all sick conveniencie as the occasione of
ye businesse shall require or as they sall be commandit ather be the Committie from the Parliament heir they being in Scotland or be the Committie with the Army they being in England And Ordeanes thame to joyne with the remanent Commissionaris to the effect above-mentionat conforme to the Commissione and Instructiones givin or to be givin to the Commissionaris or thair quorums thairanent be the Estaites of this Kingdom or Committies yrof And the Estaites of Parliament be thir presentis haldis and sall halde firme and stable all and what summe ever thinges the Commissionaris abovenamit or any thrie or mae of thame sall do conforme to this Commissionne and to the Instructionnes givin or to be givin to thame Estractit furthe of the buikes of Parliament be me Sir Alexander Gibsonne of Dunrie Kynt Clerk of His Majesty's Registers and Rollis under my signe and subscriptione Manuel Alexander Gibsonne Cler. Regist After the Commissions read their Commissioners delivered to His Majesty's Commissioners this Paper January the 30. VVE are directed by our Instructions to Treat with your Lordships upon the Propositions concerning Religion the Militia and Ireland three days apiece alternis vicibus during the space of twenty days from the 30 of January beginning first with the Propositions of Religion and accordingly we shall deliver unto your Lordships a Paper to morrow morning upon those Propositions Accordingly the Treaty did proceed upon those Subjects three days apiece alternis vicibus beginning with that of Religion upon Friday the last of January and so continuing Saturday the first and Monday the third of February which was after resumed Tuesday the 11. Wednesday the 12 and Thursday the 13. of February and again the two last days of the 20. And the like course was held touching the Militia and Ireland But because the Passages concerning each Subject severally will be more clearly understood being collected and disposed together under their several heads therefore all those which concern Religion the Militia and Ireland are put together And in like manner the Passages preparatory to the Treaty concerning the Commissions the Manner of the Treaty and a Seditious Sermon made the first day appointed for the Treaty and such as hapned in the Treaty touching His Majesty's Propositions the demands of farther time to Treat and other emergent Passages which have no relation to those of Religion the Militia and Ireland are in like manner digested under their several heads with their particular dates And first those which concern the Commissions Friday the last of January His Majesty's Commissioners delivered unto their Commissioners this Paper Ult. January VVE having perused the Power granted to your Lordships in the Paper delivered by the Earl of Northumberland and finding the same to relate to Instructions we desire to see those Instructions that thereby we may know what Power is granted to you and we ask this the rather because by the Powers we have seen we do not find that your Lordships in the absence of any one of your number have power to Treat Their Answer 31. January BY our Instructions we or any Ten of us whereof some of either House of the Parliament of England and some of the Commissioners of the Kingdom of Scotland to be present have power to Treat with your Lordships Their farther Answer ult Jan. VVHereas your Lordships have expressed unto us a desire of seeing our Instructions to know what Power is granted us and this the rather because you say you find not by what you have seen that in the absence of any one of our number we have power to Treat to this we return in Answer That since the Paper already delivered in by us declaring that by our Instructions any Ten of us whereof some of either House of Parliament of England and some of the Commissioners of the Kingdom of Scotland to be present had power to Treat with your Lordships hath not given you satisfaction in the particular of the Quorum we shall send unto the two Houses of Parliament to have the Quorum inserted in the Commission and do expect the return of it so amended within two or three days when we shall present it unto your Lordships But as for your desire in general to see our Instructions it is that for which we have no Warrant nor is it as we conceive at all necessary or proper for us so to do for that the Propositions upon which we now Treat have been already presented from the Parliaments of both Kingdoms unto His Majesty and whatsoever is propounded by us in order unto them is sufficiently warranted by what both Parliaments have done in the passing and sended of those Propositions and by the Commissions authorizing us to Treat upon them already shewn unto your Lordships so as there can be no need to shew any other Power Accordingly on Saturday the first of February they did deliver their Commission for the English Commissioners renewed as followeth Die Sabbati primo Febr. BE it Ordained by the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament that Algernon Earl of Northumberland Philip Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery William Earl of Salisbury Basil Earl of Denbigh Thomas Lord Viscount Wenman Denzil Hollis William Pierrepont Sir Henry Vane junior Oliver St. John Bulstrode Whitelock John Crew and Edmund Prideaux shall have power and authority and are hereby authorized to joyn with the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland together with Alexander Henderson upon the Propositions concerning Religion only or any Ten of them whereof some of either House of the Parliament of England and some of the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland are to be present to Treat with the Lord Duke of Richmond the Marquess of Hartford the Earl of Southampton the Earl of Kingston the Lord Dunsmore Lord Capel Lord Seymour Sir Christopher Hatton Sir John Culpeper Sir Edward Nicholas Sir Edward Hyde Sir Richard Lane Sir Orlando Bridgeman Sir Thomas Gardner Master John Ashburnham and Master Jeffrey Palmer or any Ten of them upon the Propositions formerly sent to His Majesty for a safe and well-grounded Peace from His Majesty's humble and Loyal Subjects assembled in the Parliaments of both Kingdoms together with Doctor Steward upon the Propositions concerning Religion only and upon His Majesty's Propositions according to such Instructions as have been given to them or as they from time to time shall receive from both Houses of Parliament Jo. Browne Cler. Parliam The same last of January their Commissioners delivered to His Majesty's Commissioners this Paper January 31. HAving considered your Commission and Power from His Majesty given in last night by your Lordships we find that you are authorized to Treat only upon certain Propositions sent to His Majesty from the Lords and Commons of Parliament assembled at Westminster and upon His Majesty's Answers Messages and Propositions to them and their Returns to His Majesty wherein we observe that the Propositions sent to His Majesty
great proportions of all necessary Supplies unto the Protestants there whereby they have subsisted and have very lately sent thither and have already provided to be speedily sent after in Money Victuals Cloaths Ammunition and other Necessaries to the value of sevenscore thousand Pounds and they have not desired any other Provision from His Majesty but what He was well able to afford herein only His assistance and Consent in joyning with His two Houses of Parliament for the better enabling them in the prosecution of that War And we are so far from apprehending any impossibility of reducing that Kingdom during the unhappy distractions here that although many of the Forces provided by the two Houses for that end were diverted and imployed against the Parliament to the increasing of our Distractions yet the Protestants in Ireland have subsisted and do still subsist and we have just cause to believe that if this Cessation had not been obtained by the Rebels and that in the time of their greatest Wants and that these Forces had not been withdrawn they might in probability have subdued those bloody Rebels and finished the War in that Kingdom For the pretended Necessities offered as grounds of this Cessation we have already given your Lordships we hope clear information For the Persons whose Advice His Majesty followed therein your Lordships have not thought fit to make them known unto us and we cannot conceive their Interest in that Kingdom to be of such consideration as is by your Lordships supposed But we know very well that many Persons of all sorts have forsaken that Kingdom rather then they would submit unto this Cessation and great numbers of considerable Persons and other Protestants yet remaining there have opposed and still do oppose that Cessation as the visible means of their Destruction The two Houses sent their Committees into Ireland for the better supplying and encouraging of the Armies there and to take an account of the state of the War to be represented hither that what should be found defective might be supplied What Warrants they issued we are ignorant of but are well assured that what they did was in pursuance of their Duty and for advancement of the publick Service and suppressing of that horrid Rebellion and we cannot but still affirm they were discountenanced and commanded from the Council there where the prosecution of that War was to be managed and that it was declared from His Majesty that he disapproved of the Subscriptions of the Officers of the Army by means whereof that course was diverted Concerning the Moneys raised for Ireland we have in our former Papers given your Lordships a full and just Answer and we are sorry the same cannot receive credit Those Moneys raised upon charitable Collections we do positively affirm were only imployed to those ends for which they were given and we cannot but wonder the contrary should be suggested We are confident the Commission desired by the two Houses for the Lord Wharton and which your Lordships acknowledged was denied was only such as they conceived most necessary for advancement of that Service and the denial thereof proved very prejudicial thereunto And we must again inform your Lordships that it was well known at the time when the Goods were seized by His Majesties Forces as your Lordships allege near Coventry that the same were then carrying for the supply of the Protestants in Ireland and some other Provisions made and sent for the same purpose were likewise seized and taken away by some of His Majesties Forces as we have been credibly informed not without His Majesties own knowledge and direction Your Lordships may believe that those who signed the Letters mentioned in your Papers have done nothing but what they may well justifie and if the same be well done they need not fear to give an Account thereof nor your Lordships to suppose that if they come within our Quarters they shall be otherwise dealt withal then shall be agreeable to Justice Upon the whole matter notwithstanding the Allegations Pretences and Excuses offered by your Lordships for the Cessation made with the Rebels in Ireland we are clearly satisfied that the same was altogether unjust unlawful and destructive to His Majesties good Subjects and of advantage to none but the Popish bloody Rebels in that Kingdom And therefore we still earnestly insist as we conceive our selves in Conscience and Duty obliged upon our former Demands concerning Ireland which we conceive most Just and Honourable for his Majesty to consent unto We know no other ways to propound more probable for the reducing of the Rebels there but these being granted we shall chearfully proceed in the managing of that War and doubt not by God's blessing we shall speedily settle that Kingdom in their due Obedience to His Majesty Their other Paper 20. Feb. VVE cannot understand how out of any of the Papers Articles and Ordinances delivered by us unto your Lordships there should be a ground for your Opinion that upon any Differences between the Committees or Commanders imployed about the War of Ireland the War should stand still or be dissolved nor do we find that the Ordinance of the 11. of April can produce any such inconvenience as your Lordships do imagine nor doth the making of the Earl of Leven Commander in chief of the Scotish and British Forces and the settling of the prosecution of the War of Ireland in the two Houses of the Parliament of England to be managed by the joynt Advice of both Kingdoms take away the relation to His Majesties Authority or of the two Houses of Parliament or of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland For in the first place His Majesties Consent is humbly desired and the whole Power is derived from him only the Execution of it is put into such a way and the General is to carry on the War according to the Orders he shall receive from the Committee of both Kingdoms and in case of Disagreement in the Committee the two Houses of Parliament are to prosecute that War as is expressed in our Answer to your Lordships second Paper of the 19. of February And when there shall be a Lieutenant of Ireland and that he shall joyn with the Commander in chief of the Scotish Army the said Commander is to receive Instructions from him according to the Orders of the Commissioners of both Kingdoms as we have said in our Answer to your Lordships second Paper of this day Nor doth the naming of the Earl of Leven to be General any more take away the Power of the two Houses then if he were a Native of this Kingdom or is there any part of the Kingdom of Ireland delivered over into the hands of his Majesties Subjects of the Kingdom of Scotland who do only joyn with their Councils and Forces for carrying on the War and reducing that Kingdom to his Majesties Obedience And we conceive it most conducing for the good of his Majesties Service and of that Kingdom that
by Acts of Parliament for that War have been formerly diverted to other uses of which Money 100000 l. at one time was issued out for the payment of the Forces under the Earl of Essex And as to diverting the Forces provided for the reducing of Ireland though we conceived it ought not to be objected to His Majesty considering the Forces under the Command of the Lord Wharton raised for Ireland had been formerly diverted and imployd against Him in the War here in England yet it is evident they were not brought over till after the Cessation when they could no longer subsist there and that there was no present use for them and before those Forces brought over there was an attempt to bring the Scotish Forces in Ireland as likewise divers of the English Officers there into this Kingdom and since the Earl of Leven their General and divers Scotch Forces were actually brought over To the Allegations that many Persons of all sorts have forsaken the Kingdom rather than they would submit to that Cessation we know of none but it is manifest that divers who had left that Kingdom because they would have been famished if they had continued there since that Cessation have returned Touching the Committee sent into Ireland we have already answered they were not discountenanced by His Majesty in what they lawfully might do although they went without His Privity but conceive your Lordships will not insist that they should sit with the Privy-Council there and assume to themselves to advise and interpose as Privy-Councellors And we again deny the Subscriptions of the Officers of the Army was diverted by His Majesty and it is well known that some Officers apprehending upon some speeches that the drift in requiring Subscriptions was to engage the Army against His Majesty in detestation thereof upon those speeches rent the Book of Subscription in pieces For the diversion of the Moneys raised for that War if they had been since repaid the contrary whereof is credibly informed to His Majesty yet that present Diversion might be and we believe was a great means of the future Wants of that Kingdom which induced the Cessation As to the Lord Wharton's Commission we conceive we have already fully satisfied your Lordships the just Reasons thereof For the Letters whereof your Lordships had Copies we conceive that you being thereby satisfied of the Contents and that they came from the Lords Justices and Council there your Lordships need not doubt of the truth of the matter and for the Names of the single Persons subscribing we cannot conceive it is desired for any other purpose than to be made use of against such of them as should come into your Quarters you having not granted though desired that it shall not turn to their Prejudice if we should give in their Names Upon what hath been said it appears that His Majesties English Protestant Subjects in Ireland could not subsist without a Cessation and that the War there cannot be maintained or prosecuted to the subduing of the Rebels there during the continuance of this unnatural War here is evident to any man that shall consider that this Kingdom labouring in a War which imploys all the Force and Wealth at home cannot nor will spare considerable Supplies to send abroad or if it could yet whiles there are mutual Jealousies that there cannot be that concurrence in joynt Advices betwixt the King and the two Houses as will be necessary if that War be prosecuted and that His Majesty cannot condescend or your Lordships in reason expect His Majesty should by His Consent to Acts of Parliament for the managing of that War and raising moneys to that purpose put so great a Power into their hands who during these Troubles may if they will turn that Power against Him and it is apparent that the continuance of the War here must inevitably cause the continuance of the Miseries there and endanger the rending of that Kingdom from this Crown The Kings Commissioners other Paper 20. Feb. VVE do very much wonder that it doth not clearly appear to your Lordships that upon any difference between the Committees of both Kingdoms in the managing the War of Ireland in the manner proposed by your Lordships the War there must stand still or be dissolved for if the Ordinance of the 11th of April be by His Majesties Royal Assent made an Act of Parliament as your Lordships desire all the Forces of that Kingdom both British and Scotish are put under the absolute Command of the Earl of Leven the Scotish General and the managing the War committed wholly to the Committee of both Kingdoms without any reference to the two Houses of the Parliament of England by themselves so that whatsoever your Lordships say of your intentions that the the two Houses of Parliament here shall upon such difference manage the War which yet you say must be observing the Treaty of the 6th of August and the said Ordinance of the 11th of April it is very evident if that Ordinance should be made a Law the War must stand still or be dissolved upon difference of opinion between the Committee of both Kingdoms or else the Earl of Leven must carry on the War according to his discretion for he is in no degree bound to observe the Orders or Directions of the Houses of Parliament in England by themselves Neither doth the asking His Majesties Consent at all alter the Case from what we stated it to your Lordships in our Paper of the 20. of this Instant for we said then and we say still that if His Majesty should consent to what you propose He would devest himself of all his Royal Power in that Kingdom and reserve no Power or Authority in Himself over that War which is most necessary for His Kingly Office to do For your Lordships Expression when there shall be a Lieutenant of Ireland we presume your Lordships cannot but be informed that His Majesty hath made and we doubt not but you acknowledge he hath power to make the Lord Marquess of Ormond His Lieutenant of that Kingdom and who is very well able to manage and carry on that War in such manner as shall be thought necessary for the good of that Kingdom and there is no question but that the naming the Earl of Leven to be General to receive Orders only from the joynt Committee of both Kingdoms doth more take away the Power of the two Houses here than if he were a Native of this Kingdom and to obey the Orders of the two Houses And we conceive it evident that the giving the absolute Command of all Forces both British and Scotish to the Earl of Leven General of the Scotish Forces who is to manage the War according to the Directions of the joynt Committee of both Kingdoms doth not amount to less than to deliver the whole Kingdom of Ireland over into the hands of His Majesties Subjects of the Kingdom of Scotland and therefore we must ask
unto the Kingdom of England by the Kingdom of Scotland upon the first Monthly allowance which shall grow due to the Scotish Army from the time they shall make their first entrance into the Kingdom of England 7. That the Kingdom of Scotland to manifest their willingness to their utmost ability to be helpful to their Brethren of England in this common Cause will give the Publick Faith of the Kingdom of Scotland to be joyntly made use of with the Publick Faith of the Kingdom of England for the present taking up of Two hundred thousand Pounds sterling in the Kingdom of England or elsewhere for the speedy procuring of the said Hundred thousand Pounds sterling as aforesaid as also a considerable sum for the satisfying in good proportion the Arrears of the Scotish Army in Ireland 8. That no Cessation nor any Pacification or Agreement for Peace whatsoever shall be made by either Kingdom or the Armies of either Kingdom without the mutual Advice and Consent of both Kingdoms or their Committees in that behalf appointed who are to have full Power for the same in case the Houses of the Parliament of England or the Parliament or Convention of Estates of Scotland shall not sit 9. That the Publick Faith of the Kingdom of Scotland shall be given to their Brethren of England that neither their entrance into nor their continuance in the Kingdom of England shall be made use of to any other ends then are expressed in the Covenant and in the Articles of this Treaty and that all matters of difference that shall happen to arise between the Subjects of the two Nations shall be resolved and determined by the mutual Advice and Consent of both Kingdoms or by such Committees as for this purpose shall be by them appointed with the same Power as in the precedent Article 10. That in the same manner and upon the same conditions as the Kingdom of Scotland is now willing to aid and assist their Brethren of England the Kingdom of England doth oblige themselves to aid and assist the Kingdom of Scotland in the same or like cases of streights and extremities 11. Lastly it is agreed and concluded that during the time that the Scotish Army shall be imployed as aforesaid for the defence of the Kingdom of England there shall be fitted out as Men of War eight Ships whereof six shall be of Burthen betwixt One hundred and Twenty and two hundred Tun the other between three and four hundred Tun whereof two shall be in lieu of the two Ships appointed by the Irish Treaty all which shall be maintained at the charge of the Kingdom of England to be imployed for the defence of the Coast of Scotland under such Commanders as the Earl of Warwick for the time of his being Admiral shall nominate with the approbation of the Committees of both Kingdoms which Commanders shall receive from the said Earl general Instructions that they do from time to time observe the Directions of the Committees of both Kingdoms The Ordinance for calling the Assembly of Divines An Ordinance of the Lords and Commons in Parliament for the calling of an Assembly of Learned and Godly Divines and others to be consulted with by the Parliament for the settling of the Government and Liturgy of the Church of England and for vindicating and clearing of the Doctrine of the said Church from false Aspersions and Interpretations WHereas amongst the infinite Blessings of Almighty God upon this Nation none is or can be more dear unto us than the purity of our Religion and for that as yet many things remain in the Liturgy Discipline and Government of the Church which do necessarily require a further and more perfect Reformation than as yet hath been attained and whereas it hath been declared and resolved by the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament that the present Church-government by Arch-bishops Bishops their Chancellours Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-deacons and other Ecclesiastical Officers depending upon the Hierarchy is evil and justly offensive and burthensom to the Kingdom a great impediment to Reformation and growth of Religion and very prejudicial to the State and Government of this Kingdom and that therefore they are resolved that the same shall be taken away and that such a Government shall be settled in the Church as may be most agreeable to Gods Holy Word and most apt to procure and preserve the Peace of the Church at home and nearer agreement with the Church of Scotland and other reformed Churches abroad and for the better effecting hereof and for the vindicating and clearing of the Doctrine of the Church of England from all false Calumnies and Aspersions it is thought fit and necessary to call an Assembly of Learned Godly and Judicious Divines who together with some Members of both the Houses of Parliament are to consult and advise of such matters and things touching the Premisses as shall be proposed unto them by both or either of the Houses of Parliament and to give their Advice and Counsel therein to both or either of the said Houses when and as often as they shall be thereunto required Be it therefore ordained by the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament assembled That all and every the Persons hereafter in this present Ordinance named that is to say Algernon Earl of Northumberland William Earl of Bedford Philip Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery William Earl of Salisbury Henry Earl of Holland Edward Earl of Manchester William Lord Viscount Say and Seal Edward Lord Viscount Conway Philip Lord VVharton Edward Lord Howard of Escr John Selden Esquire Francis Rous Esquire Edmund Prideaux Esquire Sir Henry Vane Knight senior John Glyn Esquire Recorder of London John VVhite Esquire Bulstrode VVhitelock Esquire Humphry Salway Esquire Mr. Serjeant VVild Oliver Saint-John Esquire His Majesties Sollicitor Sir Benjamin Rudyard Knight John Pym Esquire Sir John Clotworthy Knight John Maynard Esquire Sir Henry Vane Knight junior VVilliam Pierrepont Esquire William VVheeler Esquire Sir Thomas Barrington Knight VValter Young Esquire Sir John Evelin Knight Herbert Palmer of Ashwel Batchelor in Divinity Oliver Bowles of Sutton Batchelor in Divinity Henry VVilkinson of VVaddesdon Batchelor in Divinity Thomas Valentine of Chalfont-Giles Batchelor in Divinity Doctor VVilliam Twisse of Newbury VVilliam Raynor of Egham Master Hannibal Gammon of Maugan Mr. Jasper Hicks of Lawrick D. Joshua Hoyle late of Dublin in Ireland VVilliam Bridges of Yarmouth Thomas VVincop of Ellesworth Doctor in Divinity Thomas Goodwin of London Batchelor in Divinity John Ley of Budworth in Cheshire Thomas Case of London John Pyne of Bereferrers Master VVhidden of Mooreton D. Richard Love of Ekington D. VVilliam Gouge of Blackfriers London D. Ralph Brownrigge Bishop of Exceter D. Samuel Ward Master of Sidney Colledge John White of Dorchester Edward Peal of Compton Stephen Marshall of Finchingfield Batchelor in Divinity Obadiah Sedgewick of Cogshall Batchelor in Divinity M. Carter Peter Clark of Carnaby William Mew of Estington Batchelor in Divinity
propose conditions of Peace though the VVar otherwise might justly be pursued And surely as a Cessation in Ireland may be some advantage to the Rebels as all Cessations in their nature are to both parts they having thereby time and liberty to procure Arms and Ammunition to be brought to them so it is not only for the advantage but necessary preservation of Our good Subjects there whose bleeding Dangers call for Our bowels of Charity and Compassion by suspending the rage of the Adversary by this Cessation till means may be found to turn their hearts or to disable their Malice from pursuing their Cruelty to the utter Ruin of that Remainder of Our good Subjects there it being more acceptable to God and Man to preserve a few good men from destruction than to destroy a multitude though in the way of Justice and perhaps a Cessation may bring some of those Rebels to reflect upon their Offences and to return to their Duty all are not in the same degree of guilt all were not Authors of nor consenting to the Cruelties committed some were inforced to comply with or not resist their proceedings some were seduced upon a belief the Nation was designed to be eradicated and the VVar not against the Rebellion only but their Religion The VVar destroys all alike without distinction even innocent Children have suffered not by the Rebels only and all are not Tigers or Wolves there may be grounds of Mercy to some though no severity be excessive towards others However We cannot desire the destruction even of the worst of those Irish Rebels so much as We do the preservation of the poor English remaining there but should make choice rather to save the Rebels for preserving the lives of those poor Protestants than destroy them to ruine the Rebels And therefore exceeding strange it is to Us and We are sorry to find that any English men who have seen this their Native Country heretofore even in Our time flourishing beyond most of the Kingdoms and Churches in the world and now most hideous and deformed weltring in the blood of her own Children and if this VVar continue like to be a perpetual spectacle of Desolation should express that they desire War in Ireland as much as they do Peace here no more valuing the sparing of English blood here than they do the effusion of the blood of the Rebels in Ireland They say indeed they are willing to lay out their Estates and Lives both for the War in Ireland and Peace in this Kingdom but withal they say they have made Propositions for both if Our Commissioners would agree to them These are the Conditions they offer neither Peace is to be had here without agreeing to their Propositions nor that VVar in Ireland to be managed but according to those Propositions such Propositions as apparently tend to the ruine of the Church to the subversion of all Our Power to the setting up a new frame of popular Government to the destructioo of Our Loyal and true-hearted Subjects Propositions which associate Our Subjects of Scotland in their Counsels and Power and invest them in a great share of the Government and VVealth of this Kingdom and render both the VVealth and Power of Ireland to be at their command These Propositions they insist upon and for the obtaining these they are resolved to engage the Lives and Estates of Our poor People in this unnatural Rebellion But VVe trust God Almighty will open the Eyes and the Hearts of Our People not to assist them any longer against Us in the shedding innocent blood in this VVar. And VVe cast Our selves on Him waiting His good time for the restoring the Peace of Our Kingdoms and Our deliverance from these Troubles which at length VVe are assured He will give unto Us. MESSAGES PROPOSITIONS AND TREATIES FOR PEACE WITH DIVERS RESOLUTIONS AND DECLARATIONS THEREUPON MDCXLV VI. VII VIII His MAJESTIES Message to both Houses from Oxford December 5. 1645. For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore CHARLES R. HIS Majesty being deeply sensible of the continuation of this bloody and unnatural War cannot think himself discharged of the Duty He owes to God or the Affection and regard He hath to the preservation of His People without the constant application of His earnest Endeavours to find some Expedient for the speedy ending of these unhappy Distractions if that may be doth therefore desire That a Safe-Conduct may be forthwith sent for the Duke of Richmond the Earl of Southampton John Ashburnham and Jeffrey Palmer Esquires and their Attendants with Coaches Horses and other Accommodations for their Journey to Westminster during their stay there and return when they shall think fit whom His Majesty intends to send to the Lords and Commons assembled in the Parliament of England at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland furnished with such Propositions as His Majesty is confident will be the foundation of a happy and well-grounded Peace Given at the Court at Oxford the fifth of December 1645. The Letter of the two Speakers For Sir Thomas Glemham Governour of Oxford SIR VVE have received your Letter of the 5 th of this instant December with His Majesties inclosed and have sent back your Trumpet by command of both Houses who will with all convenient speed return an Answer to His Majesty and rest Your Loving Friends Grey of VVark Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore VVilliam Lenthal Speaker of the House of Commons His MAJESTIES Message to both Houses in pursuance of the former From Oxford Dec. 15. 1645. For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore CHARLES R. HIS Majesty cannot but extreamly wonder that after so many expressions on your part of a deep and seeming sense of the Miseries of this afflicted Kingdom and of the Dangers incident to His Person during the continuance of this unnatural War your many great and so often repeated Protestations that the raising these Arms hath been only for the necessary defence of God's true Religion His Majesties Honour Safety and Prosperity the Peace Comfort and Security of His People you should delay a safe Conduct to the Persons mentioned in His Majesties Message of the fifth of this instant December which are to be sent unto you with Propositions for a well-grounded Peace a thing so far from having been at any time denied by His Majesty whensoever you have desired the same that He believes it hath been seldom if ever practised among the most avowed and professed Enemies much less from Subjects to their King But His Majesty is resolved that no Discouragements whatsoever shall make Him fail of His part in doing his uttermost endeavours to put an end to these Calamities which if not in time prevented must prove the ruin of this unhappy Nation and therefore doth once again desire that a safe Conduct may be forthwith sent for those Persons expressed in His former Message and doth therefore conjure you as you
Obedience to Our Commands We doubt not of your care in this wherein Our Service and the good of Our Protestant Subjects in Ireland is so much concerned From Newcastle June 11. 1646. The Propositions of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament for a safe and well-grounded Peace Sent to His Majesty at Newcastle by the Right Honourable the Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery the Earl of Suffolk Members of the House of Peers and Sir VValter Earle Sir John Hippesly Knights Robert Goodwyn Luke Robinson Esquires Members of the House of Commons Die Sabbathi 11. Julii 1646. The Propositions of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament for a safe and well-grounded Peace May it please your Majesty WE the Lords and Commons assembled in the Parliament of England in the name and on the behalf of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland in the name and on the behalf of the Kingdom of Scotland do humbly present unto Your Majesty the humble Desires and Propositions for a safe and well-grounded Peace agreed upon by the Parliaments of both Kingdoms respectively unto which we do pray Your Majesties Assent and that they and all such Bills as shall be tendred to Your Majesty in pursuance of them or any of them may be Established and Enacted for Statutes and Acts of Parliament by Your Majesties Royal Assent in the Parliaments of both Kingdoms respectively I. WHereas both Houses of the Parliament of England have been necessitated to undertake a War in their just and lawful defence and afterwards both Kingdoms of England and Scotland joyned in solemn League and Covenant were engaged to prosecute the same That by Act of Parliament in each Kingdom respectively all Oaths Declarations and Proclamations heretofore had or hereafter to be had against both or either of the Houses of the Parliament of England the Parliament of the Kingdom of Scotland and the late Convention of Estates in Scotland or Committees flowing from the Parliament or Convention in Scotland or their Ordinances and Proceedings or against any for adhering unto them or for doing or executing any Office Place or Charge by any Authority derived from them and all Judgments Indictments Outlawries Attainders and Inquisitions in any the said Causes and all Grants thereupon made or had or to be made or had be declared null suppressed and forbidden And that this be publickly intimated in all Parish-Churches within His Majesties Dominions and all other places needful II. That His Majesty according to the laudable Example of His Royal Father of happy memory may be pleased to swear and sign the late solemn League and Covenant and that an Act of Parliament be passed in both Kingdoms respectively for enjoyning the taking thereof by all the Subjects of the Three Kingdoms and the Ordinances concerning the manner of taking the same in both Kingdoms be confirmed by Acts of Parliament respectively with such Penalties as by mutual advice of both Kingdoms shall be agreed upon III. That a Bill be passed for the utter abolishing and taking away of all Archbishops Bishops their Chancellors and Commissaries Deans and Sub-deans Deans and Chapters Archdeacons Canons and Prebendaries and all Chaunters Chancellors Treasurers Subtreasurers Succentors and Sacrists and all Vicars Choral and Choristers old Vicars and new Vicars of any Cathedral or Collegiate Church and all other their under Officers out of the Church of England and Dominion of Wales and out of the Church of Ireland with such Alterations concerning the Estates of Prelates as shall agree with the Articles of the late Treaty of the Date at Edenburg 29. November 1643. and joynt Declaration of both Kingdoms IV. That the Ordinances concerning the Calling and sitting of the Assembly of Divines be confirmed by Act of Parliament V. That Reformation of Religion according to the Covenant be settled by Act of Parliament in such manner as both Houses have agreed or shall agree upon after Consultation had with the Assembly of Divines VI. Forasmuch as both Kingdoms are mutually obliged by the same Covenant to endeavour the nearest Conjunction and Uniformity in matters of Religion that such Unity and Uniformity in Religion according to the Covenant as after Consultation had with the Divines of both Kingdoms now assembled is or shall be joyntly agreed upon by both Houses of Parliament of England and by the Church and Kingdom of Scotland be confirmed by Acts of Parliament of both Kingdoms respectively VII That for the more effectual disabling Jesuits Priests Papists and Popish Recusants from disturbing the State and deluding the Laws and for the better discovering and speedy conviction of Recusants an Oath be established by Act of Parliament to be administred to them wherein they shall abjure and renounce the Popes Supremacy the Doctrine of Transubstantiation Purgatory Worshipping of the Consecrated Host Crucifixes and Images and all other Popish Superstitions and Errors and refusing the said Oath being tendred in such manner as shall be appointed by the said Act to be a sufficient Conviction of Recusancy VIII An Act of Parliament for Education of the Children of Papists by Protestants in the Protestant Religion IX An Act for the true levy of the Penalties against them which Penalties to be levied and disposed in such manner as both Houses shall agree on wherein to be provided that His Majesty shall have no loss X. That an Act be passed in Parliament whereby the practices of Papists against the State may be prevented and the Laws against them duely executed and a stricter course taken to prevent the saying or hearing of Mass in the Court or any other part of this Kingdom XI The like for the Kingdom of Scotland concerning the four last preceding Propositions in such manner as the Estates of the Parliament there shall think fit XII That the King do give His Royal Assent to an Act for the due Observation of the Lords Day And to the Bill for the suppression of Innovations in Churches and Chappels in and about the Worship of God c. And for the better advancement of the Preaching of God's holy Word in all parts of this Kingdom And to the Bill against the enjoying of Pluralities of Benefices by Spiritual Persons and Non-Residency And to an Act to be framed and agreed upon by both Houses of Parliament for the reforming and regulating of both Universities of the Colledges of Westminster Winchester and Eaton And to such Act or Acts for raising of Moneys for the payment and satisfying of the Publick Debts and Damages of the Kingdom and other Publick uses as shall hereafter be agreed on by both Houses of Parliament and that if the King do not give His Assent thereunto then it being done by both Houses of Parliament the same shall be as valid to all Intents and Purposes as if the Royal Assent had been given thereunto The like for the Kingdom of Scotland And that His Majesty give assurance of His consenting in the
will bear IV. That according to the seventh Head in the said Declaration an effectual course may be taken that the Kingdom may be righted and satisfied in point of Accounts for the vast sums that have been levied V. That provision may be made for payment of Arrears to the Army and the rest of the Soldiers of the Kingdom who have concurred with the Army in the late Desires and Proceedings thereof and in the next place for payment of the Publick Debts and Damages of the Kingdom and that to be performed first to such persons whose Debts or Damages upon the Publick Account are great and their Estates small so as they are thereby reduced to a difficulty of subsistence In order to all which and to the fourth particular last preceding we shall speedily offer some farther particulars in the nature of Rules which we hope will be of good use towards publick satisfaction August 1. 1647. Signed by the appointment of his Excellency Sir Thomas Fairfax and the Council of War Jo. Rushworth Secret Propositions presented to His MAJESTY at Hampton-Court upon Tuesday the seventh of September 1647. by the Earls of Pembroke and Lauderdale Sir Charles Erskin Sir John Holland Sir John Cooke Sir James Harrington Mr. Richard Browne Mr. Hugh Kenedy and Mr. Robert Berkley in the names of the Parliament of England and in behalf of the Kingdom of Scotland May it please your Majesty WE the Lords and Commons assembled in the Parliament of England in the name and on the behalf of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland in the name and on the behalf of the Kingdom of Scotland do humbly present unto Your Majesty the humble Desires and Propositions for a safe and well grounded Peace agreed upon by the Parliaments of both Kingdoms respectively unto which We do pray Your Majesties Assent and that they and all such Bills as shall be tendred to Your Majesty in pursuance of them or any of them may be established and Enacted for Statutes and Acts of Parliament by Your Majesties Royal Assent in the Parliaments of both Kingdoms respectively Heads of the Propositions presented to the King's Majesty for a safe and well-grounded Peace 1. His Majesty to call in his Declarations and Proclamations against the Parliaments of both Kingdoms 2. His Majesty to sign the Covenant 3. To pass a Bill for abolishing Bishops 4. To pass a Bill for Sale of Bishops Lands 5. To confirm the sitting of the Assembly 6. Religion to be reformed as the Houses agree 7. Such Vniformity of Religion to be passed in an Act. 8. An Act passed against Popish Recusants 9. For Education of the Children of Papists 10. For laying Penalties upon Papists 11. An Act for prevention of Popish practices And the like for the Kingdom of Scotland 12. For the Royal Assent to Acts for the Lords day for preaching against Innovations regulating Colledges and for publick Debts and Damages The like for Scotland 13. to pass the settling of the Militia and Navy 14. To null the old Great Seal 15. For settling of Conservators for the Peace of the Kingdoms 16. The joynt Declarations and the Qualifications against Malignants 17. An Act to be passed to declare and make void the Cessation of Ireland and all Treaties and Conclusions of Peace with the Irish Rebels 18. The settling of the Militia of the City of London 19. The Great Seal with the Commissioners of Parliament and all Acts by it to be made good His MAJESTIES Answer to the Propositions of both Houses Hampton-Court Sept. 9. 1647. For the Speaker of the Lords House pro tempore to be communicated to both Houses of the Parliament of England and the Commissioners of the Kingdom of Scotland CHARLES R. HIS Majesty cannot chuse but be passionately sensible as he believes all his good Subjects are of the late great Distractions and still languishing and unsetled State of this Kingdom and he calls God to Witness and is willing to give testimony to all the World of his readiness to contribute his utmost Endeavours for restoring it to a happy and flourishing Condition His Majesty having perused the Propositions now brought to him finds them the same in effect which were offered to him at Newcastle To some of which as he could not then consent without violation of his Conscience and Honour so neither can he agree to others now conceiving them in many respects more disagreeable to the present condition of Affairs then when they were formerly presented unto him as being destructive to the main principal Interests of the Army and of all those whose Affections concur with them And his Majesty having seen the Proposals of the Army to the Commissioners from his two Houses residing with them and with them to be Treated on in order to the clearing and securing the Rights and Liberties of the Kingdom and the setling of a just and lasting Peace to which Proposals as he conceives his two Houses not to be strangers so he believes they will think with him that they much more conduce to the satisfaction of all Interests and may be a fitter foundation for a lasting Peace than the Propositions which at this time are tendered unto him He therefore propounds as the best way in his Judgment in order to a Peace that his two Houses would instantly take into consideration those Proposals upon which there may be a Personal Treaty with his Majesty and upon such other Propositions as his Majesty shall make hoping that the said Proposals may be so moderated in the said Treaty as to render them the more capable of his Majesties full Concession wherein he resolves to give full satisfaction unto his People for whatsoever shall concern the setling of the Protestant Profession with Liberty to tender Consciences and the securing of the Laws Liberties and Properties of all his Subjects and the just Priviledges of Parliament for the future And likewise by his present deportment in this Treaty he will make the World clearly judge of his Intentions in matter of future Government In which Treaty his Majesty will be well pleased if it be thought fit that Commissioners from the Army whose the Proposals are may likewise be admitted His Majesty therefore conjures his two Houses of Parliament by the Duty they owe to God and his Majesty their King and by the bowels of Compassion they have to their fellow-Subjects both for the relief of their present Sufferings and to prevent future Miseries that they will forthwith accept of this his Majesties Offer whereby the joyful news of Peace may be restored to this distressed Kingdom And for what concerns the Kingdom of Scotland mentioned in the Propositions His Majesty will very willingly Treat upon those particulars with the Scotch Commissioners and doubts not but to give reasonable satisfaction to that his Kingdom Given at Hampton-Court the ninth of September 1647. His MAJESTIES Message to both Houses left by Him on His
passed for abolishing Bishops and all Appendants to them 10. That the Ordinances for disposing of Bishops Lands be confirmed by Act. 11. That an Act be passed for the sale of Church-Lands 12. That Delinquents be proceeded against and their Estates disposed of according to the several Qualifications 13. Than an Act be passed for discharge of Publick Debts 14. That Acts be passed for settling the Presbyterian Government and Directory Fourteen of the Thirty nine Articles revised by the Assembly of Divines Rules and Directions concerning Suspension from the Lords Supper 15. That the chief Governour and Officers in Ireland and the great Officers in England be nominated by both Houses 16. That an Act be passed for conviction of Popish Recusants 17. That an Act be passed for the Education of the Children of Papists by Protestants 18. That an Act be passed for levying the Penalties against Popish Recusants 19. That an Act be passed for preventing the Practices of Papists against the State and hearing Mass 20. That an Act be passed for Observation of the Lords day 21. And a Bill for suppressing Innovations 22. And for advancement of Preaching 23. And against Pluralities and Non-residency They have also commanded us to desire That Your Majesty give Your Royal Assent to these Bills by Your Letters-Patents under the Great Seal of England and signed by Your Hand and Declared and Notified to the Lords and Commons assembled together in the House of Peers according to the Law declared in that behalf it appearing unto them upon mature deliberation that it stands not with the Safety and Security of the Kingdom and Parliament to have Your Majesties Assent at this time given otherwise They desire therefore that Your Majesty be pleased to grant Your Warrant for the draught of a Bill for such Your Letters Patents to be presented to Your Majesty and then a Warrant to Edward Earl of Manchester and William Lenthal Esquire Speaker of the House of Commons who have now the Custody of the Great Seal of England to put the same of Your Majesties Letters-Patents signed as aforesaid thereby authorizing Algernon Earl of Northumberland Henry Earl of Kent John Earl of Rutland Philip Earl of Pembroke William Earl of Salisbury Robert Earl of Warwick and Edmond Earl of Moulgrave or any three of them to give Your Majesties Royal Assent unto the said Bills according to the Law in that behalf declared And for the other particulars contained in the aforementioned Propositions the two Houses of Parliament will after such Your Majesties Assent given to the said Bills send a Committee of both Houses to Treat with Your Majesty in the Isle of Wight thereupon The Paper of the Scots Commissioners delivered to His MAJESTY when the Four Bills and Propositions were presented THere is nothing which we have more constantly endeavoured and do more earnestly desire than a good Agreement and happy Peace between Your Majesty and Your Parliaments of both Kingdoms neither have we left any means unassayed that by united Counsels with the Houses of the Parliament of England and by making joynt Applications to Your Majesty there might be a composure of all Differences But the new Propositions communicated to us by the Houses and the Bills therewith presented to Your Majesty are so prejudicial to Religion the Crown and the Union and Interest of the Kingdoms and so far different from the former proceedings and engagements betwixt the Kingdoms as we cannot concur therein Therefore we do in the Name of the Kingdom of Scotland dissent from these Propositions and Bills now tendred to Your Majesty London Lauderdale Char. Erskin Hu. Kennedy Ro. Berclay His MAJESTIES Answer to the Four Bills and Propositions Dec. 28. 1647. For the Speaker of the Lords House pro tempore to be communicated to the Lords and Commons in the Parliament of England at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland CHARLES R. THE necessity of complying with all engaged Interests in these great Distempers for a perfect settlement of Peace His Majesty finds to be none of the least Difficulties He hath met with since the time of His Afflictions Which is too visible when at the same time that the two Houses of the English Parliament do present to his Majesty several Bills and Propositions for his Consent the Commissioners for Scotland do openly protest against them So that were there nothing in the case but the consideration of that difference his Majesty cannot imagine how to give such an Answer to what is now proposed as thereby to promise himself his great End A Perfect Peace And when his Majesty farther considers how impossible it is in the condition he now stands to fulfil the desires of his two Houses since the only ancient and known ways of passing Laws are either by his Majesties Personal Assent in the House of Peers or by Commission under his Great Seal of England he cannot but wonder at such failings in the manner of Address which is now made unto him unless his two Houses intend that his Majesty shall allow of a Great Seal made without his Authority before there be any consideration had thereupon in a Treaty which as it may hereafter hazard the Security it self so for the present it seems very unreasonable to his Majesty And though his Majesty is willing to believe that the intention of very many in both Houses in sending these Bills before a Treaty was only to obtain a Trust from him and not to take any advantage by passing them to force other things from him which are either against his Conscience or Honour yet his Majesty believes it clear to all understandings that these Bills contain as they are now penned not only the devesting himself of all Sovereignty and that without possibility of recovering it either to him or his Successors except by repeal of those Bills but also the making his Concessions guilty of the greatest pressures that can be made upon the Subject as in other particulars so by giving an Arbitrary and unlimited Power to the two Houses for ever to raise and levy Forces for Land or Sea-service of what persons without distinction or quality and to what numbers they please and likewise for the payment of them to levy what moneys in such sort and by such ways and means and consequently upon the Estates of whatsoever persons as they shall think fit and appoint which is utterly inconsistent with the Liberty and Property of the Subject and his Majesties Trust in protecting them So that if the major part of both Houses shall think it necessary to put the rest of the Propositions into Bills his Majesty leaves all the world to judge how unsafe it would be for him to consent thereunto and if not what a strange condition after the passing of these Four Bills his Majesty and all his Subjects would be cast into And here his Majesty thinks it not unfit to wish his two Houses to consider well the manner of their proceeding
to his Majesty in the Isle of Wight Die Jovis 3. Aug. 1648. Instruction from both Houses of the Parliament of England for James Earl of Middlesex Sir John Hippesley Knight and John Bulkeley Esquire Committees of Parliament I. YOu or any two of you whereof one to be a Lord shall with all speed repair unto his Majesty at the Castle of Carisbook in the Isle of Wight II. You or any two of you whereof one to be a Lord shall present unto his Majesty the Resolutions of both Houses of Parliament concerning a Personal Treaty to be had with his Majesty in the Isle of Wight III. You or any two of you whereof one to be a Lord shall desire his Majesties speedy Answer to the said Resolutions IV. You or any two of you whereof one to be a Lord are to acquaint his Majesty that you are only allotted ten days from Friday next for your Going Stay and Return V. You or any two of you whereof one to be a Lord shall have power in case his Majesty desires to see the Propositions which were presented to him at Hampton-Court to present him a Copy of them His MAJESTIES Message in Answer to the Votes Carisbrooke 10. Aug. 1648. For the Speaker of the Lords House pro tempore to be communicated to the Lords and Commons in the Parliament of England at Westminster CHARLES R. IF the Peace of my Dominions were not much dearer to me than any particular Interest whatsoever I had too much reason to take notice of the several Votes which passed against me and the sad Condition I have been in now above these seven Months But since you my two Houses of Parliament have opened as it seems to me a fair beginning to a happy Peace I shall heartily apply my self thereunto and to that end I will as clearly and shortly as I may set you down those things which I conceive necessary to this blessed Work so that we together may remove all impediments that may hinder a happy conclusion of this Treaty which with all chearfulness I do embrace And to this wished End your selves have laid most excellent grounds For what can I reasonably expect more then to Treat with Honour Freedom and Safety upon such Propositions as you have or shall present unto me and such as I shall make to you But withal remember that it is the definition not names of things which make them rightly known and that without means to perform no Propositions can take effect And truly my present Condition is such that I can no more Treat then a blind man judge of colours or one run a race who hath both his feet fast tied together Wherefore my first necessary Demand is That you will recal all such Votes and Orders by which people are frighted from coming writing or speaking freely to me Next that such men of all Professions whom I shall send for as of necessary use to me in this Treaty may be admitted to wait upon me In a word that I may be in the same state of Freedom I was in when I was last at Hampton-Court And indeed less cannot in any reasonable measure make good those Offers which you have made me by your Votes For how can I Treat with Honour so long as people are terrified with Votes and Orders against coming to speak or write to me and am I honourably treated so long as there is none about me except a Barber who came now with the Commissioners that ever I named to wait upon me or with Freedom until I may call such unto me of whose services I shall have use in so great and difficult a Work And for Safety I speak not of my Person having no apprehension that way how can I judge to make a safe and well grounded Peace until I may know without disguise the true present state of all my Dominions and particularly of all those whose Interests are necessarily concerned in the Peace of these Kingdoms Which leads me naturally to the last necessary Demand I shall make for the bringing this Treaty to an happy end which is That you alone or you and I joyntly do invite the Scots to send some persons authorized by them to Treat upon such Propositions as they shall make For certainly the publick and necessary Interests they have in this great Settlement is so clearly plain to all the World that I believe no body will deny the necessity of their concurrence in this Treaty in order to a durable Peace Wherefore I will only say that as I am King of both Nations so I will yield to none in either Kingdom for being truly and zealously affected for the good and honour of both my Resolution being never to be partial for either to the prejudice of the other Now as to the Place because I conceive it to be rather a circumstantial than real part of this Treaty I shall not much insist upon it I name Newport in this Isle yet the fervent zeal I have that a speedy end be put to these unhappy Distractions doth force me earnestly to desire you to consider what a great loss of time it will be to Treat so far from the body of my two Houses when every small debate of which doubtless there will be many must be transmitted to Westminster before it be concluded And really I think though to some it may seem a Paradox that peoples minds will be much more apt to settle seeing me Treat in or near London than in this Isle because so long as I am here it will never be believed by many that I am really so free as before this Treaty begin I expect to be And so I leave and recommend this point to your serious consideration And thus I have not only fully accepted of the Treaty which you have proposed to me by your Votes of the third of this Month but also given it all the furtherance that lies in me by demanding the necessary means for the effectual performance thereof All which are so necessarily implied by though not particularly mentioned in your Votes as I can no ways doubt of your ready compliance with me herein I have now no more to say but to conjure you by all that is dear to Christians honest men or good Patriots that ye will make all the Expedition possible to begin this happy Work by hastning down your Commissioners fully authorized and well instructed and by enabling me as I have shewed you to Treat praying the God of Peace so to bless our endeavours that all my Dominions may speedily enjoy a safe and well-grounded Peace CHARLES R. Carisbrook Aug. 10. 1648. A Letter from the Speaker of both Houses to His Majesty Aug. 25. 1648. With Votes in order to a Treaty May it please Your Majesty WE are commanded by Your Majesties loyal Subjects the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled to present unto Your Majesty these Resolutions inclosed which are the results of the said Lords and Commons upon
suffering thy Will in either Life or Death As I believe Thou hast forgiven all the Errors of my Life so I hope Thou wilt save Me from the Terrors of my Death Make Me content to leave the Worlds Nothing that I may come really to enjoy All in Thee who hast made Christ unto Me in Life Gain nnd in Death Advantage Tho my Destroyers forget their Duty to Thee and Me yet do not Thou O Lord forget to be merciful to them For what profit is there in my Blood or in their gaining my Kingdoms if they lose their own Souls Such as have not only resisted my just Power but wholly usurped and turned it against My self tho they may deserve yet let them not receive to themselves Damnation Thou madest thy Son a Saviour to many that crucified Him while at once He suffered violently by them and yet willingly for them O let the voice of his Blood be heard for my Murtherers louder than the Cry of Mine against them Prepare them for thy Mercy by due Convictions of their Sin and let them not at once deceive and damn their own Souls by fallacious pretensions of Justice in destroying Me while the conscience of their unjust Vsurpation of power against Me chiefly tempts them to use all extremities against Me. O Lord Thou knowest I have found their Mercies to Me as very false so very cruel who pretending to preserve Me have meditated nothing but my Ruine O deal not with them as blood-thirsty and deceitful men but overcome their Cruelty with Thy Compassion and My Charity And when Thou makest inquisition for my Blood O sprinkle their polluted yet penitent Souls with the Blood of thy Son that thy destroying Angel may pass over them Tho they think my Kingdoms on Earth too little to entertain at once both them and Me yet let the capacious Kingdom of thy infinite Mercy at last receive both Me and my Enemies When being reconciled to Thee in the Blood of the same Redeemer we shall live far above these Ambitious desires which beget such mortal Enmities When their hands shall be heaviest and cruellest upon Me O let Me fall into the arms of thy tender and eternal Mercies That what is cut off of my Life in this miserable moment may be repayed in thy ever-blessed Eternity Lord let thy Servant depart in Peace for my eyes have seen thy Salvation Vota dabunt quae bella negârunt FINIS An Historical TABLE of both PARTS That the Reader may the more easily discern the Order of those Historical Papers which are digested under their several Heads in the First Part and more readily conjoyn them in their proper Places with the Second it is thought fit to represent both together in this Table according to their Dates and Dependencies MDCXXV HIS Majesties Speech at the Opening of His First Parliament June 18. 1625. page 159 160 His Speech to both Houses at Oxford Aug. 4. 1625. ibid. MDCXXV VI. His Speech to the Speaker of the Lower House of His Second Parliament 1625 6. p. 160 His Speech to both Houses at White-Hall March 29. 1626. p. 161 His Speech to the House of Lords at Westminster May 11. 1626. ibid. A Declaration concerning His Two First Parliaments p. 217 MDCXXVII VIII His Majesties Speech at the Opening of His Third Parliament March 17. 1627 8. p. 162 His Speech to both Houses at White-Hall April 4. 1628. ibid. His Speech to the Speaker and House of Commons April 14. 1628. p. 163 His Speeches to both Houses in Answer to their Petition Jun. 2. 7. 1628. ibid. His Speech to the Lower House at the Reading their Remonstrance June 11. 1628. ibid. His Speech to both Houses at the Prorogation Jun. 26. 1628. p. 164 MDCXXVIII IX His Speech to both Houses Jan. 24. 31. 1828 9. p. 164 165 His Speech to the Lower-House concerning Tonnage and Poundage Feb. 3. 1628 9. p. 165 A Declaration concerning His Third Parliament p. 222 A Proclamation for suppressing false Rumours touching Parliaments Mar. 27. 1629. p. 230 MDCXXXVI VII His Majesties Letter to the Judges concerning Ship-money Feb. 2. 1636 7. With their Answer p. 231 232 MDCXL His Majesty's Speech to the Speaker of the Lower House of His Fourth Parliament 1640. p. 166 A Declaration concerning His Fourth Parliament p. 233 His Speech to the Great Council of the Lords at York Septemb. 24. 1640. p. 167 MDCXL XLI Of His Calling His Fifth Parliament See Icon Basil I. p. 647 His Speech at the Opening of His Fifth Parliament Nov. 3. 1640. p. 168 Six Speeches to both Houses Nov. 5. 1640. Jan. 25. Feb. 3. 10. 15. 1640 4. 1. Apr. 28. 1641. p. 168 seqq MDCXLI His Speech to the Lords concerning the Earl of Strafford May 1. 1641. p. 172 His Letter to the Lords May. 11. p. 138 See also Icon Basil II. V. p. 648 654 Two Speeches to both Houses Jun. 22. Jul. 5. 1641. p. 172 173 His Speech to the Scotish Parliament at Edinburgh Aug. 19. 1641. p. 173 Two Speeches to both Houses after His Return out of Scotland Dec. 2. 14. 1641. p. 174 A Petition of the Lower House With a Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom Dec. 1. 1641. p. 241 243 His Majesty's Answer to the Petition p. 254 His Declaration in Answer to the Remonstrance p. 255 The Petition and Protestation of the Bishops Dec. 28. 1641. p. 258 MDCXLI II. Articles of High Treason against the Five Members Jan. 3. 1641 2. p. 259 His Majesties Speech to the Lower House concerning them Jan. 4. 1641 2. p. 175 His Speech to the Londoners at Guild-Hall Jan. 5. 1641 2. p. 175 See also Icon Bafil III. IV. VI. VII p. 650 651 656 658 His Message for Peace from Canterbury Jan. 20. 1641 2. p. 97 His Speeches to the Committees of both Houses at Theobalds Mar. 1. at Newmarket Mar. 9. 1641 2. p. 175 His Message from Huntingdon Mar. 15. 1641 2. p. 97 MDCXLII Two Speeches to the Gentry of Yorkshire April 5. May 12. 1642. p. 177 Of His Majesty's Repulse at Hull See Icon Basil VIII p. 659 The Nineteen Propositions Jun. 2. 1642 p. 260 His Majesty's Answer p. 262 See also Icon Basil XI p. 659 His Majesty's Declaration to the Lords at York Jun. 13. 1642. p. 271 With their promise thereupon p. 272 His Declaration concerning the Scandalous Imputation of His Raising War Jan. 1642. p. 273 With the Declaration and Profession of the Lords p. 276 Of the many Jealousies and Scandals cast upon His Majesty See Icon Basil XV. p. 680 A Proclamation forbidding Levies of Forces Jun. 18. 1642. p. 277 See also Icon Basil IX X. p. 661 665 His Majesty's Speeches to the Inhabitants of Nottinghamshire Jul. 4. of Lincolnshire Jul. 15. of Leicester Jul. 20. and the Gentry of Yorkshire Aug. 4. 1642. p. 178 179 180 Votes for Raising an Army against the King Jul. 12. 1642. p. 279 A Declaration of both Houses for Raising Forces Aug. 8. 1642. p. 280 His Majesty's
DIEU ET MON DROIT AETERNITATI SACRUM ΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΑ THE WORKS of CHARLES I. with his LIFE and MARTYRDOME Aly diutius Imperium tenucrunt nemo tam Fortiter reliquit Tacit. Hist. Lib. i. ΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΑ THE WORKS OF King Charles THE MARTYR With a COLLECTION of DECLARATIONS TREATIES and other PAPERS concerning the Differences BETWIXT His said Majesty AND HIS TWO HOUSES of PARLIAMENT With the History of His LIFE as also of His TRYAL and MARTYRDOME The Second Edition LONDON Printed for Ric. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXVII In the first PART from p. 1. to p. 212. inclusively are contained THE LIFE of CHARLES I. p. 1 PAPERS concerning CHURCH-GOVERNMENT V. p. 75 PRAYERS used by His MAJESTY VII p. 93 MESSAGES for Peace XXXVIII p. 97 DECLARATIONS III. p. 130 LETTERS XLII p. 138 SPEECHES LIX p. 159 With the History of His TRYAL and DEATH p. 189 c. In the Second PART from p. 213. to the end inclusively are contained I. HIS MAJESTY's Declarations concerning His proceedings in His Four first PARLIAMENTS p. 217 II. Declarations and Papers concerning the Differences betwixt His MAJESTY and His Fifth PARLIAMENT p. 241 III. Declarations and Papers concerning the Treaty of Peace at Oxford MDCXLII III. p. 325. IV. A Declaration concerning the Cessation in Ireland Also Declarations and Passages of the Parliament at Oxford p. 401 V. Papers and Passages concerning the Treaty of Peace at Uxbridge p. 437 VI. Messages Propositions and Treaties for Peace With divers Resolutions and Declarations thereupon MDCXLV VI. VII VIII p. 547 VII An Appendix containing the Papers which passed betwixt His MAJESTY and the DIVINES which attended the Commissioners of the Two Houses at the Treaty at Newport concerning Church-Government p. 611 VIII ΕΙΚΩΠΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΗ p. 647 THE MORE PARTICULAR CONTENTS OF THE FIRST PART Omitting the LIFE THE Papers which passed betwixt His Majesty and Mr Alexander Henderson concerning the change of Church-Government Page 75 His Majesty 's Quaere concerning Easter 91 His Majesty's first Paper concerning Episcopacy ibid. Prayers used by King CHARLES in the time of His Troubles and Restraint I. A Prayer used at His Entrance into Excester after the Defeat of Essex in Cornwall 93 II. A Prayer for a Blessing on the Treaty at Vxbridge ibid. III. A Prayer for a Blessing on the Treaty at Newport ibid. IV. A Prayer for Pardon of Sin 94 V. A Prayer in times of Affliction ibid. VI. A Prayer in time of Captivity ibid. VII A Prayer in time of imminent danger 95 King CHARLES His Messages for Peace XXXVIII 1. His Message from Canterbury January 20. 1641 2. For the Composing of all Differences 97 2. His Message from Huntingdon March 15. 1641 2. In pursuance of the former ibid. 3. His Message from Nottingham August 25. 1642. When he set up His Standard 98 4. His Message from Sept. 5. 1642. In pursuance of the former 99 5. His Message from Sept. 11. 1642. In Reply to the Answer of both Houses to the former ibid. 6. His Message from Brainford Nov. 12. 1642. After the Defeat of the Rebels there 100 7. His Message from Oxford April 12. 1643. For the Disbanding of all Forces and His Return to the Houses ibid. 8. His Message from Oxford May 19. 1642. In pursuance of the former 101 9. His Message from Oxford March 3. 1643 4. For a Treaty 102 10. His Message from Evesholme July 4. 1644. After the Defeat of Waller at Cropredy Bridge ibid. 11. His Message from Tavestock Septemb. 8. 1644. After the Defeat of Essex in Cornwall 103 12. His Message from Oxford Decem. 13. 1644. For a Treaty by Commissioners ibid. 13. His Message from Oxford Decem. 5. 1645. For a safe Conduct for Persons to be sent with Propositions 104 14. His Message from Oxford Decem. 15. 1645. In pursuance of the former ibid. 15. His Message from Oxford Decem. 26. 1645. For a Personal Treaty 105 16. His Message from Oxford Decem. 29. 1645. In pursuance of the former 106 17. His Message from Oxford Jan. 15. 1645 6. In pursuance of the former ibid. 18. His Message from Oxford Jan. 17 1645 6. For an Answer to His former Messages 107 19. His Message from Oxford Jan. 24. 1645 6. In further Reply to their Answer 108 20. His Message from Oxford Jan. 29. 1645 6. Concerning Ireland 109 21. His Message from Oxford Febr. 26. 1645 6. For an Answer to the former 111 22. His Message from Oxford March 23. 1645 6. Concerning his Return to the Houses ibid. 23. His Message from Southwell May 18. 1646. After His departure to the Scots 112 24. His Message from Newcastle June 10. 1646. For Propositions for Peace and a Personal Treaty 113 25. His Message from Newcastle Aug. 1. 1646. For a Personal Treaty upon their Propositions 114 26. His Message from Newcastle Dec. 20. 1646. For a personal Treaty at or near London ibid. 27. His Message from Holdenby Feb. 17. 1646 7. For the Attendance of some of His Chaplains 115 28. His Message from Holdenby March 6. 1646 7. In pursuance of the former 116 29. His Message from Holdenby May 12. 1647. In answer to their Propositions ibid. 30. His Message from Hampton-Court Sept. 9. 1647. In Answer to the Propositions presented to Him there 118 31. His Message left at Hampton-Court Nov. 11. 1647. At His departure from thence 119 32. His Message from the Isle of Wight Nov 17. 1647. For a Treaty With His Propositions 120 33. His Message from Carisbrook Decem. 6. 1647. For an Answer to the former 122 34. His Message from Carisbrook Decem. 28. 1647. In Answer to the four Bills and Propositions 123 35. His Message from Carisbroâ—k Aug. 10. 1648. In Answer to the Votes for a Treaty 124 36. His Letter to the Speakers from Carisbrook Aug. 28. 1648. With the Names of those He desired to attend him at the Treaty 125 37. His Letter to the Speakers From Carisbrook Sept. 7. Concerning the Treaty 126 38. His Message from Newport Sept. 29. 1648. With His Propositions ibid. His MAJESTY's Declarations 1. His Majesty's Declaration after the Votes for No further Address Jan. 18. 1647 8. 130 2. His Majesty's Answer to their Reasons for the Votes for No further Address 132 3. His Majesty's Declaration concerning the Treaty at Newport and the Armies Proceedings 136 4. Quaeries propounded by His Majesty concerning the intended Tryal of His Majesty 137 His MAJESTY's Letters XL. To the Queen XXI p. 138 139 140 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154. The Queen to the King VII 140 141 142 145 146. To the Prince II. 156 158. The Prince to the King 158 To the House of Peers 138 To the Duke of York 156 To the Prince Elector 142 To Prince Rupert 155 To the Duke of Richmond 144 To the Marquess of Ormond IV. 142 144 148 149. To the Earl of Essex 141 To the Lord Mountague 156 To the Lord Jermin 153 To Secretary Nicholas 155 To
Sr Thomas Fairfax II. 157 To Colonel Whaley 156 To the Scots 157 His MAJESTY's Speeches LIX 1. To both Houses at the Opening of His first Parliament at Westminster June 18. 1625. p. 159 2. To both Houses in Christ-Church Hall at Oxford Aug. 4. 1625. ibid. Another Copy of the two former Speeches 160 3. To the Speaker of the Lower House of His Second Parliament 1625 6. ibid. 4. To both Houses at White-Hall Mar. 29. 1626. 161 5. To the House of Lords at Westminster May 11. 1626. ibid. 6. To the French Servants of the Queen at Somerset House July 1. 1626. 162 7. To both Houses at the Opening of His Third Parliament Mar. 17. 1627 8. ibid. 8. To both Houses at White-Hall Ap. 4. 1628. ibid. 9. To the Speaker and House of Commons Apr. 14. 1628. 163 10. To both Houses in Answer to their Petition June 2. 1628. ibid. 11. To both Houses in further Answer June 7. 1628. ibid. 12. To the Lower House at the Reading their Remonstrance at White-Hall Jun. 11. 1628. ibid. 13. To both Houses at the Prorogation June 26. 1628. 164 14. To both Houses at White-Hall Jan. 24. 1628 9. ibid. 15. To both Houses in Answer to their Petition for a Fast Jan. 31. 1628 9. 165 16. To the Lower House concerning Tonnage and Poundage Feb. 3. 1628 9. ibid. 17. To the House of Lords at their Dissolution Mar. 10. 1628 9. 166 18. To the Speaker of the Lower House 1640. ibid. 19. To the House of Lords at Westminster Apr. 24. 1640. ibid. 20. To both Houses at the Dissolution May 5. 1640. 167 21. To the Great Council of Lords at York Sept. 24. 1640. ibid. 22. To both Houses at the Opening His Fifth Parliament Nov. 3. 1640. 168. 23. To the House of Lords at Westminster Nov. 5. 1640. ibid. 24. To both Houses at White-Hall Jan. 25. 1640 41. 169 25. To both Houses in Answer to their Remonstrance concerning Papists February 3. 1640 41. 170 26. To the House of Lords at Westminster Feb. 10. 1640 41. ibid. 27. To both Houses at His passing the Bill for Triennial Parliaments Feb. 15. 1640 41. 171 28. To both Houses about Disbanding the Armies Apr. 28. 1641. ibid. 29. To the House of Lords concerning the Earl of Strafford May 1. 1641. 172 30. To both Houses at His passing the Bill for Tonnage and Poundage June 22. 1641. ib. 31. To both Houses at His passing the Bills for taking away the High Commission and Star-Chamber and Regulating the Council-Table July 5. 1641. 173 32. To the Scottish Parliament at Edinburgh Aug. 18. 1641. ibid. 33. To both Houses after His Return from Scotland Dec. 2. 1641. 174 34. To both Houses concerning Ireland Dec. 14. 1641. ibid. 35. To the Lower House about the Five Members Jan. 4. 1641 2. 175 36. To the Citizens of London at Guild-Hall Jan. 5. 1641 2. ibid. 37. To the Committee of both Houses at Theobald's March 1. 1641 2. ibid. 38. To the Committee of both Houses at New-Market Mar. 9. 1641 2. ibid. 39. To the Gentry of Yorkshire Apr. 5. 1642. 177 40. To the Gentry of Yorkshire May 12. 1642. ibid. 41. To the Inhabitants of Notting hamshire at Newark July 4. 1642. 178 42. To the Inhabitants of Lincolnshire at Lincoln July 15. 1642. ibid. 43. To the Inhabitants of Leicester July 20. 1642. 179 44. To the Gentry of Yorkshire Aug. 4. 1642. 180 45. To His Army at the Reading His Orders Sept. 19. 1642. 181 46. To the Inhabitants of Denbigh and Flint at Wrexham Sept. 27. 1642. ibid. 47. To the Inhabitants of Shropshire at Shrewsbury Sept. 28. 1642. 183 48. To the Inhabitants of Oxfordshire at Oxford Novem. 2. 1642. ibid. 49. To the Lords and Commons at Oxford Jan. 22. 1643 4. 184 50. To the Primate of Ireland at Christ-Church 1643 4. 185 51. To the Lords and Commons at Oxford Feb. 7. 1643 4. ibid. 52. To the Lords and Commons at Oxford at their Recess Apr. 16. 1644. ibid. 53. To the Inhabitants of Somerset at Kingsmore July 23. 1644. 186 54. To the Committee of both Houses at Carisbrook Aug. 7. 1648. 187 55. To the Commissioners of both Houses at Newport Novem. 4. 1648. 188 56. To the Lords Commissioners at their taking leave at Newport Nov. 1648. ibid. 57. His Majesty's Speeches to the Pretended High Court of Justice with the History of His Tryal Jan. 1648 9. 189 58. His Majesty's Speeches to His Children Jan. 29. 1648 9. 205 59. His Majesty's Speech upon the Scaffold with the Manner of His Martyrdome Jan. 30. 1648 9. 206 THE MORE PARTICULAR CONTENTS OF THE SECOND PART I. His Majesty's Declarations concerning His Proceedings in His four first Parliaments 1. A Declaration concerning His two first Parliaments 1625 1626. 217 2. A Declaration concerning His Third Parliament 1628 9. 222 3. A Proclamation for suppressing false Rumours touching Parliaments March 27. 1629. 230 4. His Majesty's Letter to the Judges concerning Ship-money Feb. 2. 1636 7. With their Answer 231 232. 5. A Declaration concerning His Fourth Parliament 1640. 233 II. Declarations and Papers concerning the Differences betwixt His Majesty and His Fifth Parliament 1. A Petition of the House of Commons 241. With a Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom Dec. 1. 1641. 243 2. His Majesty's Answer to the Petition 254 3. His Declaration in Answer to the Remonstrance 255 4. The Petition and Protestation of the Bishops Dec. 28. 1641. 258 5. Articles of High Treason against the Five Members Jan. 3. 1641 2. 259 6. The Nineteen Propositions June 2. 1642. 260 7. His Majesty's Answer 262 8. His Majesty's Declaration to the Lords at York June 13. 1642. 271 With their Promise thereupon 272 9. His Majesty's Declaration concerning the scandalous Imputation of His raising War June 16. 1642. 273. With the Declaration and Profession of the Lords 276 10. A Proclamation forbidding Levies of Forces June 18. 1642. 277 11. Votes for raising an Army against the King July 12. 1642. 279 12. A Declaration of both Houses for raising Forces Aug. 8. 1642. 280 13. His Majesty's Declaration in Answer 281 14. A Proclamation against the Earl of Essex Aug. 9. 1642. 283 15. His Majesty's Proclamation for the setting up His Standard Aug. 12. 1642. 285 16. His Majesty's Declaration of Aug. 12. 1642. 286 17. His Majesty's Declaration concerning His Messages for Peace 315 18. His Declaration after the Battel at Edge-Hill 323 III. Declarations and Papers concerning the Treaty of Peace at Oxford MDCXLII III. 1. His Majesty's Declaration concerning His Advance to Brainceford 325 2. The Answer of both Houses to His Message of Nov 12. 1642. 327 3. His Majesty's Reply 328 4. The Petition of both Houses Nov. 24. 1642. 329 5. His Majesty's Answer ibid. 6. The Proceedings in the Treaty at Oxford 330. With a Declaration of both Houses thereupon 372 7. His Majesty's Declaration in Answer Jun. 3. 1643. 380 8. His Proclamation against the Votes Orders and pretended Ordinances of
them and to forbid Our own Money to be paid to Us or to Our use under colour that We will imploy it ill to beat Us and starve Us for Our own good and by Our own Power and Authority which must in short time make the greatest Court and the greatest Person cheap and of no estimation Who those sensible men are of the publick Calamities of the Violations of the Privileges of Parliament and the Common Liberty of the Subject who have been baffled and injured by Malignant men and Cavaliers about Us We cannot imagine And if those Cavaliers are so much without the fear of God and Man and so ready to commit all manner of Outrage and Violence as is pretended Our Government ought to be the more esteemed which hath kept them from doing so insomuch as We believe no Person hath cause to complain of any injury or of any damage in the least degree by any man about or who hath offered his service to Us. All which being duly considered if the Contrivers of these Propositions and Orders had been truly sensible of the Obligation which lies upon them in Honour Conscience and Duty according to the high Trust reposed in them by Us and Our People they would not have published such a sense and apprehension of imminent Danger when themselves in their Consciences know that the greatest and indeed only Danger which threatens this Church and State the blessed Religion and Liberty of Our People is in their own desperate and seditious Designs and would not endeavour upon such weak and groundless Reasons to seduce Our good Subjects from their Affection and Loyalty to Us to run themselves into Actions unwarrantable and destructive to the Peace and Foundation of the Commonwealth And that all Our loving Subjects may see how causless and groundless this scandalous Rumour and Imputation of Our raising War upon Our Parliament is We have with this Our Declaration caused to be printed the Testimony of those Lords and other Persons of Our Counsel who are here with Us who being upon the place could not but discover such Our Intentions and Preparations and cannot be suspected for their Honours and their Interests to combine in such mischievous and horrid Resolutions And therefore We streightly charge and command all Our loving Subjects upon their Allegiance and as they will answer the contrary at their peril That they yield no Obedience or Consent to the said Propositions and Orders and that they presume not under any such Pretences or by colour of any such Orders to Raise or Levy any Horse or Men or to bring in any Money or Plate to such purpose But if notwithstanding this clear Declaration and Evidence of Our Intentions these men whose Design is to compell Us to raise War upon Our Parliament which all their Skill and Malice shall never be able to effect shall think fit by these Alarms to awaken Us to a more necessary care of the defence of Our Self and Our People and shall themselves under colour of Defence in so unheard-of a manner provide and seduce others to do so too to offend Us having given Us so lively testimony of their Affections what they are willing to do when they have once made themselves able all Our good Subjects will think it necessary to look to Our Self and We do then excite all Our well-Affected people according to their Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and according to their solemn Vow and Protestation whereby they are obliged to defend Our Person Honour and Estate to contribute their best Assistance to the Preparations necessary for the opposing and suppressing of the Traitorous Attempts of such wicked and Malignant persons who would destroy Our Person Honour and Estate and ingage the whole Kingdom in a Civil War to satisfie their own lawless Fury and Ambition and so rob Our good Subjects of the blessed fruit of this present Parliament which they already in some degree have and might still reap to the abundant satisfaction and joy of the whole Kingdom if such wicked hands were not ready to ruine all their possession and frustrate all their hopes We do therefore declare That whosoever of what degree or quality soever shall then upon so urgent and visible necessity of Ours and such an apparent Distraction of the Kingdom caused and begotten by the Malice and Contrivance of this Malignant Party bring in to Us and to Our use ready Money or Plate or shall underwrite to furnish any number of Horse Horsemen and Arms for the preservation of the publick Peace the defence of Our Person and the vindication of the Privilege and Freedom of Parliament We shall receive it as a most acceptable Service and as a testimony of his singular Affection to the Protestant Religion the Laws Liberties and Peace of the Kingdom and shall no longer desire the continuance of that Affection than We shall be ready to justifie and maintain those with the hazard of Our Life And We do farther declare That whosoever shall then bring in any sums of Money or Plate to assist Us in this great Extremity shall receive consideration after the rate of eight pounds per cent for all such Moneys as he shall furnish Us withall and shall upon the payment of such Money to such persons whom We shall appoint to receive the same receive Security for the same by good lawful Assurance of such of Our Lands Forests Parks and Houses as shall be sufficient for the same and more real Security than the name of Publick Faith given without Us and against Us as if We were no part of the Publick and besides We shall always look upon it as a service most affectionately and seasonably performed for the preservation of Us and the Kingdom But We shall be much gladder that their submission to those Our Commands and their desisting from any such attempts of raising Horse or Men may ease all Our good subjects of that trouble charge and vexation His MAJESTY's Declaration and Profession disavowing any Preparations or Intentions in Him to Levy War against His Houses of Parliament By the KING THere having been many Rumours spread and Informations given which may have induced many to believe that We intend to make War against Our Parliament We profess before God and declare to all the World that We always have and do abhorr all such Designs and desire all Our Nobility and Council who are here upon the place to declare whether they have not been witnesses of Our frequent and earnest Declarations and Professions to this purpose whether they see any colour of Preparations or Counsels that might reasonably beget a belief of any such Design and whether they be not fully perswaded that We have no such Intention but that all Our Endeavours according to Our many Professions tend to the firm and constant settlement of the true Protestant Religion the just Privileges of Parliament the Liberty of the Subject the Law Peace and Prosperity of this Kingdom Given at
Officers to keep them from it seems to imply and the assertion that the two Houses of Parliament had ever disliked and forbidden it declares plainly to be their only meaning but particularly the Violence and Plundering used to His Subjects by forcibly taking away their goods for not submitting to Impositions and Taxes required from them by Orders or Ordinances of one or both Houses of Parliament which are contrary to the known Laws of the Land VI. Besides that there is no consent given to those Alterations and Additions offered by His Majesty whatsoever is pretended so where an absolute Consent may be supposed because the very words of His Majesties Article are wholly preserved yet by reason of the Relation to somewhat going before that is varied by them the sense of those words is wholy varied too as in the Fourth Article that part of the Third Article to which that did refer being wholly left out So that upon the matter all the Propositions made by His Majesty which did not in Terms agree with those presented to Him are utterly rejected For these Reasons and that this Entrance towards a blessed Peace and Accommodation which hath already filled the hearts of the Kingdom with Joy and Hope may be improved to the wished end His Majesty desires that the Committee now sent may speedily have liberty to treat debate and agree upon the Articles of Cessation in which they and all the World shall find that His Majesty is less sollicitous for His own Dignity and Greatness than for His Subjects Ease and Liberty And He doubts not upon such a Debate all differences concerning the Cessation will be easily and speedily agreed upon and the benefit of a Cessation be continued and confirmed to His People by a speedy disbanding of both Armies and a sudden and firm Peace which His Majesty above all things desires If this so reasonable equal and just Desire of His Majesty shall not be yielded unto but the same Articles still insisted upon though His Majesty next to Peace desires a Cessation yet that the not-agreeing upon the one may not destroy the hopes of nor so much as delay the other He is willing however to Treat even without a Cessation if that be not granted upon the Propositions themselves in that order as is agreed upon and desires the Committee here may be enabled to that effect In which Treaty He shall give all His Subjects that satisfaction that if any security to enjoy all the Rights Privileges and Liberties due to them by the Law or that Happiness in Church and State which the best times have seen with such farther acts of Grace as may agree with His Honour Justice and Duty to His Crown and as may not render Him less able to protect His Subjects according to His Oath will satisfie them He is confident in the Mercy of God that no more precious blood of this Nation will be thus miserably spent My Lord and Gentlemen WHereas by your former Instructions you are tied up to a circumstance of Time and are not to proceed unto the Treaty upon the Propositions until the Cessation of Arms be first agreed upon you are now authorized and required as you may perceive by the Votes of both Houses which you shall herewith receive to Treat and debate with His Majesty upon the two first Propositions according to those Instructions for four days after the day of the receit hereof notwithstanding that the Cessation be not agreed upon Your Lordships most humble Servant Manchester Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore March 24. 1642. Received March 25. Die Veneris 24. Martii 1642. Resolved upon the Question by the Lords and Commons in Parliament THat the Committee at Oxon shall have power to Treat and debate with His Majesty upon the two first Propositions according to their Instructions for four days after the day of the receit of this Message notwithstanding that the Cessation is not yet agreed upon Resolved c. That The Committee formerly appointed to prepare the Articles of Cessation and Instructions for the Committee at Oxon shall consider of an Answer to be made to His Majesties Message this day received and likewise prepare Reasons to be sent to the Committee for them to press in the Treaty and debate upon the former Articles of Cessation and to shew His Majesty the grounds why the Houses cannot depart from those former Articles Joh. Brown Cler. Parliamentorum The Votes of both Houses and the Copy of the Answer to His MAJESTY received Martii 25. 1642. May it please Your Majesty WE Your Loyal Subjects the Lords and Commons in Parliament having received a Message from Your Majesty in which You are pleased to express Your Self not to be satisfied with the Articles of Cessation presented unto You by our Committee now attending You at Oxford and yet a signification of Your Majesties willingness to Treat upon the Propositions themselves even without a Cessation do with all humbleness give our consent that our Committee shall have power to treat and debate with Your Majesty upon the two first Propositions according to their Instructions for four days after the day of the receit of this Message notwithstanding that the Cessation be not yet agreed upon that as much as in us lies here may be no delay in the proceedings for the obtaining of a blessed Peace and the healing up the miserable Breaches of this distracted Kingdom and do purpose to represent very speedily unto Your Majesty those just Reasons and grounds upon which we have found it necessary to desire of Your Majesty a Cessation so qualified as that is whereby we hope You will receive such satisfaction as that You will be pleased to assent unto it and being obtained we assure our selves it will be most effectual to the Safety of the Kingdom and that Peace which with so much zeal and loyal affection to Your Royal Person and in a deep sense of the bleeding condition of this poor Kingdom we humbly beg of Your Majesty's Justice and Goodness Joh. Brown Cler. Parl. A Letter from the E. of Manchester to the E. of Northumberland Received Mar. 29. MY Lord I am commanded by the Peers in Parliament to send unto your Lordship the Reasons which both Houses think fit to offer unto His Majesty in pursuit of their adhering to their former Resolutions concerning the Articles of the Cessation of Arms. My Lord you shall likewise receive additional Instructions from both Houses and a Vote which I send you here inclosed My Lord this is all I have in command as Your Lordships most humble Servant Manchester Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore Mar. 27. Die Lunae 27 Martii 1643. Resolved upon the Question by the Lords in Parliament THat the Earl of Northumberland their Committee at Oxford is hereby authorized to acquaint His Majesty with all their Instructions upon the two first Propositions Jo. Brown Cler. Parl. Additional Instructions March 29. Additional Instructions
agreed upon by the Lords and Commons in Parliament for Algernon Earl of Northumberland William Viscount Say and Seal William Pierrepont Esque Sir William Armyne Bar. Sir John Holland Bar. and Bulstrode Whitelocke Esq Committees attending His Majesty upon the Cessation and Treaty YOu shall alter the words mentioned in his Majesty's third Article in this manner leaving out the words The Army raised by the Parliament and putting in these words The Army raised by both Houses of Parliament You shall humbly present to His Majesty the Reasons herewithal sent from both Houses for their not assenting to those Alterations and Additions to the Articles of Cessation offered by His Majesty You shall press the force of those Reasons or any other as there shall be occasion in the best manner you may to procure His Majesties assent to those Articles of Cessation which if you shall obtain within two days after the day of the receit hereof you shall in the name of both Houses of Parliament agree and conclude upon the Cessation to continue to the end of twenty days to be reckoned from the twenty fifth of March and upon a day certain as soon as may be when the same shall first begin and be of force within which time notice is to be given as well by His Majesty as by the Lords and Commons to the several Generals Commanders and Souldiers respectively to observe the same Cessation as it is qualified and limited in those Articles And after such conclusion made you shall take care that those Articles be past under the Great Seal in a fitting and effectual manner and speedily sent up to the Lords and Commons in Parliament with four Duplicates of the same at least If His Majesty shall please to agree upon the two Propositions concerning His own Revenues Towns Forts Magazines and Ships and the disbanding of the Armies you are then authorized fully to agree and conclude upon those Propositions according to your Instructions and you shall desire His Majesty that the same may be forthwith put in execution according to the Instructions formerly given in that behalf and the two Houses will be ready to put in execution what is to be performed on their part of which you have hereby power to assure His Majesty And if His Majesty shall not be pleased to agree upon those two Propositions within the time of four days you shall then speedily give advertisement to the two Houses of Parliament that thereupon they may give such further direction as to them shall seem fit Josh Brown Cler. Parliamentorum Reasons for the Committee Martii 27. 1643. To the Kings most Excellent Majesty THe Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled do with all humble thankfulness acknowledge Your Majesty's Favour in the speedy admission of their Committee to Your Royal Presence and the expedition of Your Exceptions to their Articles that so they might more speedily endeavour to give Your Majesty satisfaction and although they were ready to agree to the Articles of Cessation in such manner as they exprest in their Preface they cannot agree to the Alteration and Addition offered by Your Majesty without great prejudice to the Cause and danger to the Kingdom whose Cause it is The reasons whereof will plainly appear in the Answer to the particulars prest by Your Majesty I. They do deny that they have restrained any Trade but to some few of those places where Your Majesty's Forces are inquartered and even now in the heat of War do permit the Carriers to go into all the parts of the Kingdom with all sorts of Commodities for the use of the Subjects except Arms Ammunition Mony and Bullion But if they should grant such a free Trade as Your Majesty desired to Oxford and other places where Your Forces remain it would be very difficult if not impossible to keep Arms Ammunition Mony and Bullion from passing into Your Majesty's Army without very strict and frequent Searches which would make it so troublesome chargeable and dangerous to the Subjects that the question being but for twenty days for so few places the Mischiefs and Inconveniences to the whole Kingdom would be far greater than any Advantage which that small number of Your Subjects whom it concerns can have by it The case then is much otherwise than is exprest by Your Majesty's Answer for whereas they are charged not to give the least admission of this liberty and freedom of Trade during the Cessation the truth is that they do grant it as fully to the benefit of the Subject even in time of War and that Your Majesty in pressing this for the Peoples good doth therein desire that which will be very little beneficial to the Subjects but exceeding advantagious to Your Majesty in supplying Your Army with many necessaries and making Your Quarters a staple for such Commodities as may be vented in the adjacent Counties and so draw Mony thither whereby the Inhabitants will be better enabled by Loans and Contributions to support Your Majesty's Army And as Your Majesty's Army may receive much Advantage and the other Army much Danger if such freedom should be granted to those places so there is no probability that the Army raised by the Lords and Commons shall have any return of Commodities and other Supplies from thence which may be useful for them And they conceive that in a Treaty for a Cessation those demands cannot be thought reasonable which are not indifferent that is equally advantagious to both parties As they have given no interruption to the Trade of the Kingdom but in relation to the supply of the contrary Army which the reason of War requires so they beseech Your Majesty to consider whether Your Souldiers have not robbed the Carriers in several parts where there hath been no such reason and Your Ships taken many Ships to the great damage not only of particular Merchants but of the whole Kingdom and whether Your Majesty have not declared Your own purpose and endeavoured by Your Ministers of State to embarque the Merchants goods in Forein parts which hath been in some measure executed upon the East-land Merchants in Denmark and is a course which will much diminish the Wealth of the Kingdom violate the Law of Nations make other Princes Arbiters of the Differences betwixt Your Majesty and Your People break off the intercourse betwixt this and other States and like to bring us into quarrels and dissentions with all the neighbour-Nations II. To demand the approving of the Commanders of the Ships is to desire the strength of one party to the other before the difference be ended and against all Rules of Treaty To make a Cessation at Sea would leave the Kingdom naked to those Forein Forces which they have great cause to believe have been sollicited against them and the Ports open for such supplies of Arms and Ammunition as shall be brought from beyond the Seas But for conveying any number of Forces by those means from one part to another they
most affectionate humble Servants Ed. Littleton C. S. L. Cottington D. Richmond M. Hartford M. Newcastle E. Huntington E. Bathon E. Southampton E. Dorset E. Northampton E. Devonshire E. Bristol E. Berkshire E. Cleveland E. Marlburgh E. Rivers E. Lindsey E. Dover E. Peterburgh E. Kingston E. Newport E. Portland E. Carbury V. Conway V. Falconbridge V. Wilmot V. Savile L. Mowbray and Maltravers L. Darcy and Coniers L. Wentworth L. Cromwell L. Rich. L. Paget L. Digby L. Howard of Charleton L. Deincourt L. Lovelace L. Pawlet L. Mohun L. Dunsmore L. Seymour L. Herbert L. Cobham L. Capell L. Percy L. Leigh L. Hatton L. Hopton L. Jermyn L. Loughborough L. Byron L. Widderington MDCXLIII IV. Votes of the Commons at Oxford Die Veneris Januar. 26. 1643. Resolved upon the Question Nemine contradicente THat all such Subjects of Scotland as have consented to the Declaration intituled the Declaration of the Kingdom of Scotland and concerning the present Expedition into England according to the Commission and Order of the Convention of Estates from their meeting at Edinburgh August 1643. have thereby denounced War against the Kingdom of England and broke the Act of Pacification Resolved upon the Question Nemine contradicente That all such of the Subjects of Scotland as have in a Hostile manner entred into the Town of Berwick upon Twede have thereby broke the Act of Pacification Resolved upon the Question Nemine contradicente That all His Majesty's Subjects of the Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales are both by their Allegiance and the Act of Pacification bound to resist and repress all such of the Subjects of Scotland as have in a Hostile manner already entred or shall hereafter enter into the Town of Barwick upon Twede or any other part of His Majesty's Realm of England or Dominion of Wales as Traytors and Enemies to the State Resolved upon the Question Nemine contradicente That shall such of His Majesty's Subjects of the Realm of England or Dominion of Wales that shall be abetting aiding and assisting to the Subjects of Scotland in their Hostile Invasion of any part of His Majesty's Realm of England or Dominion of Wales shall be deemed and taken as Traitors and Enemies to the State Resolved upon the Question Nemine contradicente That all His Majesty's Subjects of Scotland are bound by the Act of Pacification to resist and repress all of that Kindom that already haveraised Arms or shall rise in Arms to invade this Kingdom of England or Dominion of Wales Votes of the Commons at Oxford March 12. 1643. Resolved upon the Question Nemine contradicente THat the Lords and Commons now remaining at Westminster that have given their Votes or consent to the raising of Forces under the Command of the Earl of Essex or have been abetting aiding or assisting thereunto have levied and made War against the King and are therein guilty of High Treason Resolved upon the Question Nemine contradicente That the Lords and Commons now remaining at Westminster that have given their Votes and consents for the making and using of a new Great Seal have thereby counterfeited the Kings Great Seal and therein committed High Treason Resolved upon the Question Nemine contradicente That the said Lords and Commons now remaining at Westminster that have given their consents or have been abetting aiding or assisting to the present coming in of the Scots into England in a Warlike manner have therein committed High Treason Resolved upon the Question Nemine contradicente That the Lords and Commons now remaining at Westminster who have committed the Crimes mentioned in the three former Votes have therein broken the Trust in them reposed by their Country and ought to be proceeded against as Traitors to the King and Kingdom Resolved upon the Question Nemine contradicente That all the Endeavours and Offers of Peace and Treaty made by His Majesty by the advice of the Lords and Commons of Parliament assembled at Oxford have been refused and rejected by the Lords and Commons remaining at Westminster MDCXLIII IV. A Declaration of the Lords and Commons of Parliament assembled at Oxford of their Proceedings touching a Treaty for Peace and the Refusal thereof with the several Letters and Answers that passed therein IF our most earnest Desires and Endeavours could have prevailed for a Treaty our Proceedings therein without this Declaration would have manifested to all the World the clearness of our Intentions for the restoring the Peace of this Kingdom But seeing all the means used by Us for that purpose have been rendred fruitless we hold our selves bound to let our Countries know what in discharge of our Duty to God and to them we on our parts have done since our coming to Oxford to prevent the further effusion of Christian blood and the Desolation of this Kingdom His Majesty having by His Proclamation upon occasion of the Invasion from Scotland and other weighty reasons commanded our attendance at Oxford upon the 22. of January last there to advise Him for the preservation of the Religion Laws and Safety of the Kingdom and to restore it to its former Peace and Security these Motives with the true sense of our Countries Miseries quickned our duty to give ready obedience to those His Royal Commands hoping by God's blessing to have become happy Instruments for such good Ends. And upon our coming hither we applyed our selves with all diligence to advise of such means as might most probably settle the Peace of this Kingdom the thing most desired by His Majesty and our selves And because we found many gracious offers of Treaty for Peace by His Majesty had been rejected by the Lords and Commons remaining at Westminster we deemed it fit to write in our own names and thereby make tryal whether that might produce any better effect for accomplishing our desires and our Countries Happiness And they having under pain of Death prohibited the address of any Letters or Message to Westminster but by their General and we conceiving him a Person who by reason of their trust reposed in him had a great influence into and Power over their Proceedings resolved to recommend it to his Care and to engage him in that Pious Work with our earnest desire to him to represent it to those that trusted him to prevent all exceptions and delay And thereupon the 27. of the same January dispatched a Letter away under the hands of the Prince His Highness the Duke of York and of 43. Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts and Barons of the House of Peers and 118. Members of the House of Commons there present many others of us by reason of distance of place sickness and imployments in His Majesty's Service and for want of timely notice of the Proclamation of Summons not being then come hither which Letter we caused to be inclosed in a Letter from the Earl of Forth the Kings General A true Copy of which Letter from us to the Earl of Essex hereafter followeth viz. My Lord HIS
Majesty having by His Proclamation of the 22. of December upon the occasion of the Invasion threatned and in part begun by some of His Subjects of Scotland summoned all the Members of both Houses of Parliament to attend him here at Oxford we whose Names are under-written are here met and Assembled in obedience to those His Majesty's Commands His Majesty was pleased to invite us in the said Proclamation by these gracious expressions That His Subjects should see how willing He was to receive Advice for the preservation of the Religion Laws and Safety of the Kingdom and as far as in Him lay to restore it to its former Peace and Security His chief and only end from those whom they had trusted though He could not receive it in the Place where He appointed This most gracious Invitation hath not only been made good unto us but seconded and heightned by such unquestionable Demonstrations of the deep and Princely sense which possesses His Royal Heart of the Miseries and Calamities of His poor Subjects in this unnatural War and of His most entire and passionate Affections to redeem them from that sad and deplorable condition by all ways possible consistent either with His Honour or with the future Safety of the Kingdom that as it were Impiety to question the Sincerity of them so were it great want of Duty and Faithfulness in us His Majesty having vouchsafed to declare that He did call us to be Witnesses of His Actions and privy to His Intentions should we not testifie and witness to all the World the assurance we have of the Piety and sincerity of both We being most entirely satisfied of this truth we cannot but confess that amidst our highest afflictions in the deep and piercing sense of the present Miseries and Desolations of our Country and those farther Dangers threatned from Scotland we are at length erected to some chearful and comfortable thoughts that possibly we may yet by God's Mercy if his Justice have not determined this Nation for its Sins to total Ruine and Desolation hope to be happy Instruments of our Countries Redemption from the Miseries of War and restitution to the Blessings of Peace And we being desirous to believe your Lordship howsoever ingaged a person likely to be sensibly touched with these considerations have thought fit to invite you to that part in this blessed Work which is only capable to repair all our misfortunes and to buoy up the Kingdom from Ruine that is by conjuring you by all the Obligations that have Power upon Honour Conscience or publick Piety that laying to heart as we do the inwardly-bleeding condition of your Country and the outward more menacing Destruction by a Foreign Nation upon the very point of invading it you will co-operate with us to its Preservation by truly representing to and faithfully and industriously promoving with those by whom you are trusted this following most sincere and most earnest desire of ours That they joyning with us in a right sense of the past present and more threatning Calamities of this deplorable Kingdom some persons be appointed on either part and a place agreed on to treat of such a Peace as may yet redeem it from the brink of Desolation This Address we should not have made but that His Majesty's Summons by which we are met most graciously proclaiming Pardon to all without exception is evidence enough that His Mercy and Clemency can transcend all former Provocations and that He hath not only made us witnesses of His Princely Intentions but honoured us also with the name of being Security for them God Almighty direct your Lordship and those to whom you shall present these our most real desires in such a course as may produce that happy Peace and Settlement of the present Distractions which is so heartily desired and prayed for by us and which may make us Your c. From Oxford the 27. of Jan. 1643. We are not ashamed of that earnest meek and Christian request we made in that Letter though it was cryed through London Streets in scorn as the Petition of the Prince and Duke of York for Peace and we thought it would have prevailed to have procured a Treaty for so blessed a thing as Peace and for such an end as redeeming the Kingdom from Desolation the only desire of that our Letter But instead of a compliance with us in this Christian work of Treaty and Accommodation we received a mere frivolous Answer or rather a paper of Scorn in form of a Letter directed to the Earl of Forth wherein was inclosed a Printed paper called A National Covenant of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland and two other Papers in writing one called A Declaration of both those Kingdoms and the other A Declaration of the Kingdom of Scotland Pamphlets full of Treason Sedition and Disloyalty which being publick and needless here to be inserted the Copy of the Letter hereafter followeth My Lord I Received this day a Letter of the nine and twentieth of this instant from your Lordship and a Parchment subscribed by the Prince Duke of York and divers other Lords and Gentlemen but it neither having Address to the two Houses of Parliament nor therein there being any acknowledgment of them I could not communicate it to them My Lord the maintenance of the Parliament of England and of the Privileges thereof is that for which we are all resolved to spend our blood as being the foundation whereupon all our Laws and Liberties are built I send your Lordship herewith a National Covenant solemnly entred into by both the Kingdoms of England and Scotland and a Declaration passed by them both together with another Declaration of the Kingdom of Scotland I rest Your Lordships humble Servant Essex Essex-House Jan. 30. 1643. Whosoever considers this Letter will easily find it was fully understood to whom ours was desired to be communicated under the expression of those by whom their General was trusted And although it be pretended because there was no Address to the two Houses of Parliament nor ackuowledgment of them it could not be communicated to them it is notoriously known he did so far impart it that a Committee of theirs advised the Answer and it appears by the penning they all concurred in the resolution therein mentioned whereby it is evident that this was but an excuse framed to avoid a Treaty And what could that printed Covenant and two Declarations enclosed signifie but to let us know that before we come to any Treaty we must also joyn in that Covenant with them for the absolute extirpation of Church-Government here without nay though against the Kings Consent submit the Lives Liberties and Estates of us and all those who according to their Allegiance have assisted His Majesty to their Mercy and admit and justifie the Invasion from Scotland according to the plain sense of their Declaration which all indifferent Men will think strange Preparatives to a Treaty for Peace and after such